by Gareth Otton
“That’s right,” she answered, reaching over to scratch behind his ear before opening the door and climbing out. Feeling under-appreciated at so little attention, Freckles barked. “Not right now. I’ll play with you after. Come on, the quicker we get started, the quicker I’ll be done.”
She held her door open as Freckles jumped from one seat to the next, scrambling down from the car without her help. Stella noticed the size of his paws as he stretched out and had a sudden vision of the giant dog he’d turn into. Looking at her Mini, she wondered if she would have to trade it in for something bigger. It had only been a week and she was already used to having him close. Strangely, the thought of giving up her beloved Mini just didn’t seem like that big of a deal anymore.
Locking the car behind them, Stella walked toward the entrance while Freckles went for a sniff around the carpark. As soon as she opened the door he reluctantly gave up and rushed after her, racing inside and bounding up the stairs before she’d even started in that direction. Stella followed him to the top floor and was about to head to the door that led toward her office when she noticed the puppy sniffing around outside the break room.
“Good thinking, Freckles. Let’s get coffee,” she said as she opened the door and let the dog inside.
Her sudden entrance made the lone occupant of the break room jump in surprise.
Chakikra Khatri, a nineteen-year-old girl of Indian heritage, was the newest dreamwalker on Stella’s team. She was hunched over her mug when Stella walked in, but quickly sat up with a wide eyed, almost panicked expression. Due to the nature of their work, Stella had the dreamwalkers dress in the same black t-shirts, trousers and boots as the tactical team. Unfortunately for Chakikra, this lack of more traditional office attire made her look every bit as young as she was. It was hard for Stella not to see a scared girl as she entered the break room.
“Hi Chakikra, everything alright?”
“Oh… uh… DT Martin… I mean… Uh… Hi. I was just having my lunch and... Uh…”
Stella smiled at the flustered girl who never seemed comfortable. Even now she played with her long, glossy black hair that had fallen free from where she’d tied it up.
“Relax, having lunch is allowed,” Stella said, trying for comforting.
“I know. It’s just that I only ever bump into you in here and I don’t want you thinking I do nothing,” she answered quickly, her accent putting Stella in mind of the youth of London. That made sense, being as that was where the girl called home. Being a dreamwalker, the commute wasn’t a problem.
“I don’t think that. I’m extremely pleased with the work you’ve been doing for us.”
“Oh… Okay,” the girl said with the slightest of nervous smiles. “I didn’t think—”
Freckles chose that moment to make himself known by jumping up her leg from under the table, causing the poor girl to yelp.
“Freckles,” Stella snapped, maybe the first time she’d yelled at the dog. “That’s not nice. Come back here. Not everyone wants to be your friend, you know.”
“That’s okay. I love dogs, he just frightened me.”
Chakikra leaned down to give him a fuss and Stella almost laughed as Freckles shot her what looked like a smug I told you so look. Stella left them to it as she made her coffee, but she continually glanced back at the young woman who smiled as she played with Freckles. Stella got that now familiar feeling that there was an untruth about the girl. It only took as long as it took to put the finishing touches on her coffee to realise what it was.
Her smile was only skin deep.
Something bothered her, and as Stella focused more strongly, she suspected it was something significant. She wanted to ask about it, but was already approaching the limits of her HR skills. A lack of friends and human interaction outside of a police environment had left her woefully under prepared for situations like this, and she had no idea how to broach the topic. It was tempting to have Denise look into it on Monday; however, she was determined to move on from the person she used to be. She walked to Chakikra’s table and took a seat.
“You mind if I join you?”
“What? Uh… No, of course not.”
“Push him away if he’s bothering you,” Stella said. “He’ll sit there all day otherwise.”
“He’s fine. I love dogs. I’ve got six of my own.”
Stella almost choked on her coffee. “Six?”
Chakikra laughed for the first time. “Yeah. My dad rescued our first dog when she was already pregnant, we just didn’t know it. When the pups came along, we couldn’t bear to give them up, so now we have six.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“It’s not so bad. So long as you walk them, feed them, and give them attention, they’re not really that much more trouble than one or two. I kind of wish people were more like dogs, it would make life easier.”
Stella smiled and affirmed that would indeed be the case, all the while studying the girl. That last statement tasted like truth to Stella, more truth than Chakikra intended, maybe.
“So how are you finding working here? You settled into the job yet?” Stella asked. “It’s a big change from the supermarket and must be a lot to take in.”
Chakikra laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck with the hand that wasn’t stroking Freckles.
“It’s definitely a change. Mostly good though,” she added almost a little too quickly.
“Are you sure? I’d hate to think you were unhappy and just didn’t want to speak up.”
“Really, I’m fine,” Chakikra said. “It’s just me being stupid.”
“There’s no such thing,” Stella tried. She was squirming in her seat, sure she sounded clunky as she tried to be a sympathetic ear. Where was Kimberly when she needed her? “You can tell me anything, I promise. The last thing I want is to have you bottling something up until I lose one of my dreamwalkers. I wasn’t kidding about how valuable a job you’ve been doing.”
“Well… Uh… Like I said. It isn’t a big thing, it’s just that… I guess I don’t feel like I fit in here.”
“Okay,” Stella said, forcing a smile to show she wanted to hear more.
The girl looked down, focusing on Freckles who was uncharacteristically still as he accepted his fuss, almost like he knew this wasn’t the right time for playing.
“Everyone here has a past. The tactical guys have served in the army, or have been on the job for years… you know. It’s the same with the detectives. Miles is okay, but he’s always so busy that I don’t want to bother him. Kimberly’s nice, but she’s not around much.”
“What about the other dreamwalkers?” Stella asked. “How are you getting on with them?”
“I’m getting on with everyone fine… I’m just… Well. I guess I’m just like an outsider. I like everyone, I just don’t fit anywhere. I have dreamwalking in common with the other dreamwalkers, but there’s only so much we can talk about that. Morris is nearly thirty and Gary is nearly fifty, so we don’t have much in common other than work, and that’s not enough if you know what I mean.”
As someone with a history of making work her whole world, Stella had no idea what she meant. However, she forced herself to fight the discomfort of telling a lie as she nodded in agreement.
“So you’d like some people here your own age?” Stella asked.
“No… Well, that would be nice. But that’s not what I meant. I think I just mean that… well, let’s put it this way. If I wasn’t a dreamwalker, is there any way I’d be sat here talking with you?” Stella didn’t need to verbalise the answer for the girl to guess the truth. “See, that’s what I mean. But for a fluke of nature I wouldn’t be here, and everyone knows it. It’s why the tactical guys barely look at me twice unless they need something on a mission, why the detectives only humour me, and why… you get the point. Sorry, I’m complaining about nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Stella said. “Look, you’re right. Things wouldn’t have worked out the sam
e had the Merging not happened and you weren’t a Proxy. But that doesn’t mean you don’t belong here. It sounds like you feel you have nothing to offer outside being a dreamwalker and want to be more useful to the team, to be more a part of it.”
“Well… Yeah. That’s about right.”
Stella smiled and let out a relieved breath, glad she’d got to the answer so quick. Kimberly would be proud.
“That’s easy to fix. Why don’t you have a think about where you see yourself in the team, or where you’d like to be. If you need to sit with people to find out more about their jobs so you can decide, tell me or Denise and we’ll make it happen. Once you know what you want to do, we’ll make sure you get training, maybe get you to go back to school one or two days a week, anything you need to help you progress quickly.”
“Really?”
“Of course. You just—”
Stella never finished her sentence as the break room door banged open and four members of the tactical unit walked in, Harry’s loud mouth proceeding them. He spoke so loudly that it put an instant end to Stella’s conversation. Rather than protest, Stella sat back to see how long it would take him to realise he and his men weren’t alone.
“I mean seriously, they’ve got to wake up sooner or later. She’s no good here,” Harry said as he strutted to the coffee machine. “If Trevors or… Hell, even if I was in charge, we’d have this nightmare thing wrapped up by now. She only got the job because she’s pretty and will open her legs for the Dreamwalker when he needs to scratch that itch. I’m telling you, it’s only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down. Those idiots in Westminster need to open their eyes and see what’s right in front of their faces.”
“Sounds like they’re not the only ones, hey Harry?” Stella said.
Harry jumped and spun, nearly dropping his mug as his wide eyes tracked right to her.
His teammates didn’t hide their shock any better, and for a moment Stella got the pleasure of seeing panic on their faces. These self proclaimed tough guys who thought themselves ready for anything looked like nothing more than the proverbial deer in the headlights.
Then the smell hit her.
It made Stella’s stomach twist hard enough she wanted to be sick. Beyond his panicked expression, Stella could smell guilt pouring off him. It was so thick she could almost choke on it.
She had been practicing with her new senses and was learning to spot not just lies, but the subtle tones which gave her clues about the truth. Harry’s guilt struck her strongly, but wasn’t all directed at her. A good portion was aimed at the girl sitting at the table with her. That was strange. Harry had to know he was in trouble for speaking about Stella, but the direction of his guilt towards the girl made Stella think there was more to what Chakikra told her than she let on. Was it just that she didn’t feel part of the team, or was it something more?
“Well? You made such eloquent points walking in, care to expand on them. You obviously have something you want to say to me. Now’s your chance.” When he didn’t immediately answer she smiled in a way that would only infuriate him. “Surely you’re not afraid to speak to little old me. After all, I only got here by opening my legs for the Dreamwalker, isn’t that how you put it?”
“I never meant—”
“Don’t even try to back pedal that one. Don’t worry, if those are genuine thoughts then I won’t hold them against you. I clearly haven’t been doing my job well if you think that. In fact, I must be bloody awful at it. However, before I go hand in my notice, maybe you could point out some examples of how I mis-stepped.”
The three men backing him up glanced at each other nervously. Harry, however, glared at Stella hatefully. He couldn’t attack her words without attacking his own, so the only course of action left was to do exactly as she requested.
“You don’t have to look any further than Pendine where you nearly got all of us killed.”
“Ah, I see,” Stella said. “You’re right, I should have sourced better information before rushing in. Again though, if I might request a small favour before I write my resignation letter, could you tell me what you would have done different?”
Going bright red like he was on the verge of exploding, he grumbled, “I would have driven there for a start, giving us time to brainstorm solutions.”
“But you’d have been an hour late, the vast majority of the town would have been destroyed and there would be no dreamwalker response to the casualties. The latest reports say we saved more than a hundred lives that night who would never have made it without Tad, Morris, Chakikra and Gary.”
Harry’s fingers curled into fists as he took a step forward. “Don’t start preaching about saved lives when you got two of us killed.”
“You can lay their deaths at my feet all you want, but the truth is I acted with the information I had at the time in the manner we had all agreed on. Need I remind you that Trevors worked closely with all of you to build those same procedures you acted against when you wanted to leave without a dreamwalker. So yes, those deaths are on me and I will regret them for as long as I live. However, we have already adapted to ensure it can never happen again. So while we payed the ultimate price because as a team we weren’t prepared for this, it doesn’t prove that I’m not good at my job.
“Come on, I thought you were supposed to tell me how I was a waste of time. You said if you were in charge you’d have solved the nightmares by now. Surely someone that brilliant would have an unending list of ways I have been wasting my time. Come on, let’s hear them.”
Shaking with fury, he said, “You’re just… You rely on… You’re…”
“What’s wrong, getting tongue tied?” she teased.
“Don’t you fucking mock me,” he snapped, stepping forward and towering over her. Not enjoying that feeling, Stella stood, meeting him straight on by stepping into his forward momentum rather than away. This startled him, but not enough to downplay his anger. He shook his finger in her face. “You got my men killed!”
“We already covered that,” she said, as calm as she could while her heart pounded in her chest. She could feel everyone watching and was amazed she could keep her composure. “You’re still not giving me anything, Harry. What have I done that’s so bad and why would you be a better leader?”
Not giving him chance to answer, she took another step forward so that, unless he took a step back, his finger would touch her face.
“You walk in here spouting off how awful I am without providing evidence. I’ve asked simple questions and you’re repeating answers like a broken record. How about we look at you? What level of blame do you carry for those deaths? If I’m so obviously incompetent, why follow my orders? Surely that makes you worse than me, right? I mean, I’m only an idiot who doesn’t know what she’s doing. You took your men there knowing they would die.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” he snapped, unable to keep from looking back to his friends to see how they took Stella’s words. He didn’t like what he saw and when he turned back his eyes were hard and it looked like he’d snapped.
Unable to respond verbally, he fell on primitive instincts and attacked her physically. She should have expected this because his might makes right mindset would always lead to such action. Stella had only two choices, fight or flight. She had no illusions about how she’d stand in a fight against this monster, but where could she run?
On instinct alone, she took another step forward before he’d finished cocking his fist, and she shoved his chest as hard as she could.
It turned out, she could shove pretty hard these days.
Harry flew.
His breath exploded from his lungs, his feet left the floor, and he covered the ten feet between Stella and the sink without touching the ground. He flailed helplessly before crashing through the cupboard door under the sink, breaking the cheap wood easily.
Silence fell over the room as the tactical men stared at Stella in astonishment. Chakikra struggled to pick her mouth up off th
e floor, and Stella stared at her hands like she was seeing them for the first time.
That’s new, she thought to herself, wondering about her decision to stop Tad looking into her changes.
She didn’t have long to dwell on that thought before the lump of a man who’d been thrown across the room by a woman half his size scrambled to his feet, angrier than ever. His face was red with pain and embarrassment, and this time he advanced with murder in his eyes.
“What’s going on?”
The cold voice cut through the tension with ease and every eye turned to the doorway to see who spoke. Every one of them, Stella included, was surprised to find Lizzie standing in the doorway with her camera out and filming the action. Behind her stood their technical expert, Miles Avon, looking as trendy as ever, but also slack jawed.
Neither of them had asked the simple question, and it was not because of them that everyone took an unconscious step back. It was instead the twelve-year-old girl standing in front of the duo, a hardness to her expression that was worrying even if she wasn’t a dreamwalker.
However, she was a dreamwalker, and in that moment everyone felt it.
It wasn’t how Tad could sense someone using dream, but how you can instinctively find the most dangerous person in a room. She was just a twelve-year-old girl, but right then every adult in that break room was terrified of her.
“Yeah, what’s going on?” Lizzie asked when no one answered. “I was going to run the puppies as my headline tonight, but this looks much more interesting.”
“Nothing’s happening,” Stella answered quickly. “Me and Harry were having a discussion about how he is going to take the rest of the weekend off, then turn up bright and early on Monday for a meeting with me and Trevors about acceptable behaviour in the workplace. Isn’t that right, Harry?”
The huge man glared at Stella, glanced at Lizzie, then looked away fast before he even had to meet Jen’s eyes. Finally, the fight left him and he turned away, storming toward the exit. Miles and Lizzie stepped aside, but Jen just frowned at him as though she was deciding whether to let him pass or blow him to pieces. She was undecided as he reached the doorway and Harry hesitated only a moment before stepping around her like she was a landmine waiting to explode.
