Night's Deep Hush: Reveler Series 4 (11 page)

“We’ll risk it,” Jordan said, opening the apartment door for Vince. He didn’t seem like he was going to pass out, necessarily; in fact, there was an energy simmering within him that suggested he could just as easily become violent, as he had in the dream.

He said nothing while she hailed a cab, the last light of the day creating high-low contrasts of brightness and shadow as it cut through the skyline. The handsome features of his face had become hard slashes and planes, as if he’d been chiseled down to the bare minimum. His thick hair, once styled, fell in rough waves. Any pretty bulk he might’ve had to his muscle was now honed and rangy.

He opened the cab door for her, and she slid inside. When he joined her, Jordan spoke, “You believe me now?”

“Yes. I understand why you ran.”

Jordan nodded. “I can’t believe he has a daughter, though it makes total sense that she’s a monster, too.”

Vince’s breathing changed, and he looked down at his wide-open palms. “I— She—”

He’d attacked the woman. Jordan could now picture exactly how he’d killed the nightmare creature to escape the Scrape. While Jordan had used her ability to drown, a kind of dreamwater telekinetic push, to keep the nightmares away from her, Vince had used his bare hands.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Jordan said. Mirren’s eyes confirmed everything Jordan had told him about the fact that people existed who were part nightmare. Instinct urged her to pat Vince’s shoulder, but she didn’t dare touch him for fear of setting him off. “It’s better to concentrate on one task at a time. We’ve got to get Malcolm back first.”

The fact that Malcolm had found her, that she’d been able to see him, to feel him, was everything to her.

“Malcolm Rook is
your
task,” Vince said.

Um…
“All of us need him if we’re going to build the case against Lambert.”

“I don’t want to build a case against him anymore.”

“You don’t?” Just yesterday, Vince had wanted to expose him to the world.

“I want to kill him. And I’m going to.”

The cab driver looked into his rearview mirror. Jordan winked at him, as if to say, he’s not serious, and then she trained her gaze out the window until they got back to Paula’s apartment.

The phone was ringing when they opened the door. It cut off almost immediately, then after a pause, started ringing again. Jordan couldn’t locate the phone in the packing mess—
digging, digging
—within the four rings before it rolled over to voice mail again, but by the time the third set of rings started, she found it and answered.

“Don’t worry me like that again!” Maisie said.

Fawkes must’ve already been in touch with them and had found the telephone number to the apartment. Jordan’s relief was almost painful.

“It wasn’t my intention, I swear,” Jordan replied. “And I was worried about you, too! I wanted so badly to run to Maze City and get help, but I was worried because Vince had shown up out of nowhere, and I thought maybe Chimera or Lambert was following me. I couldn’t risk leading them to you or walking into trap if you guys had already been taken.”

“So you were going to save us all.”

Yeah.
“Maybe I was.”

“I heard you’ve moved in with Mr. Blandman. Never saw
that
coming. Bet Malcolm loves it.”

“
Loathe
is the word you’re looking for.” Jordan settled herself cross-legged on the floor. She wanted to gush about finding Malcolm Darkside, but that would have to wait until he was safe. “And anyway, Vince is not quite so bland these days.”

“Fawkes said he jumped that Mirren lady, Lambert’s nightmare spawn, in the Rêve you set up.”

“Never a dull moment.” Jordan glanced up, but Vince wasn’t around. He must’ve gone back into one of the other rooms. She lowered her voice, saying, “I half wish he’d been successful, except there’s a kid involved in all this. Mirren abducted Malcolm, so I’m pissed, but it’s a
kid
.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too. Generations of Lambert’s spawn… What’s the world to do?” Maisie sighed. “Of course, the kid thing made Steve go all silent and gloomy. Which made me think of
him
as a kid all alone Darkside.”

“He okay?”

“He will be.” Maisie sighed. “I’ll work on him.”

“Have you guys made any progress on how to find Malcolm?” Hopeful thinking.

“Not progress exactly,” Maisie said. “Fawkes has someone inside Chimera, won’t say who it is, but whoever it is must be high up because we have access to the secure Rêves, the top-secret ones that are even off-limits to Chimera without special permission.”

Jordan knew that various government agencies did training exercises in the secure Rêves. Some research companies had secure Rêves, too. As, undoubtedly, did Lambert. “Go on.”

“Well, Fawkes’s contact is going to go through the Rêves to see if Lambert is inside.”

Jordan wasn’t satisfied. “Lambert could be in the EU’s Complex, though, or the black market, or even in someone else’s dreamscape.”

Vince had come out of the room and was leaning in the doorway, listening to her half of the conversation.

“Well, we don’t have access to any of that shit,” Maisie said. “And apparently, Lambert has been working out of the Agora lately. Fawkes did his proxying thing the other night, so we know Lambert is playing there. Maybe he’s holding the kid there, too. If so, that’s where Malcolm will be headed.”

Okay, fine.
It was something at least. “So where and when do we meet?”

“We haven’t gotten that far yet. Fawkes just made a couple of calls. His contact is going to look into it, and you’re going to have to chill for a while.”

No way could she sit around waiting. “I can’t chill.”

“Yeah,
I know
.”

“So what do I do?”

“Practice.”

CHAPTER SIX

Rook squinted against the stinging grains of Scrape sand to the light in front of him. Where before the Agora had been an oasis in the storm, now the shining wall surrounding it looked like the fortification of a prison, one he had to get past without capture. The dust storm raged at him and Alec Murs, but though Mirren’s hair was whipped around, she seemed otherwise unaffected. Lucky her.

Rook put his hand to the wall to get a sense of what kind of dream was beyond it and discovered many revelers in a crush, which made him think,
Party
. He could use that to his advantage: it would take Chimera longer to get to them if people were in the way. He’d have thirty seconds at most to locate an Agora column’s interface and use its controls to access the secure Rêve where Murs thought Lambert was holding the boy.

“You’ll have to be ready with the codes for the Rêve,” Rook said to Murs. “We won’t have time.” They’d probably get caught. And if they didn’t, then any number of things could go wrong. For example, Lambert was probably in there with his grandson.

Which was most likely why Murs was helping Mirren.

It was probably a trap, but Rook couldn’t do anything about that now. He’d have to improvise when they got there.

Rook pushed against the energy that comprised the Agora wall, and the light went hazy, dimmer. First Murs crossed, then Mirren, and then finally Rook.

The party bounced around them—
oh God, some rich kid’s Sweet Sixteen
. The flashing lights were blinding, with fireworks exploding the night sky overhead with the name
KAILEY
appearing in gold sparkle script while a castle rose out of the ground, lifting some revelers up with the turrets and bulwarks. The air smelled like champagne and sugar. The birthday girl was astride a white unicorn, which Rook thought was supposed to symbolize innocence, but she had so much cleavage spilling out of her red bustier that he shook his head and got to work.

A wave of his hand and an Agora column suddenly speared up into the sky, dotting Kailey’s
i
. The columns meant safety for revelers, but they also acted as the hubs from which Chimera agents worked to search, control, and access Rêves. Rook found the control panel and tapped the screen to display a menu of active Rêves. “Which Rêve is it?”

Murs took his place at the column’s control. With a little too much familiarity, he brought up the search and entered David Lambert’s name.

Rook craned his neck to look for any pursuit. Two Chimera—Marshal Stacey Talbot and some other guy he didn’t recognize—were phasing in and out of the castle walls to get to them, but teenagers stalled their approach, patently ignoring the agents’ attempts to get them to move out of their way.

“Well?” Mirren was trying to hide behind a column so that they wouldn’t see her. Too late—Chimera could see everything.

“Done,” Murs said.

Rook glanced at the screen—as he expected, they were headed into a secure Rêve not even Chimera could reach. He didn’t like it, but there was no time to think or pull back. “Hands on.”

When all three of them were touching the column, he hit
EXECUTE
. The Sweet Sixteen Rêve evaporated immediately, and in its place, a serene child’s playroom sprang up. The only sound was the buzz of propellers from the small, retro airplane slowly circling a young child as he watched from below.

“
Maman
!” the boy cried, scrambling up. He was towheaded like his mother, with curls and a big sloppy smile. And then there were his eyes…predictably unnerving.

The plane took a nosedive toward the playroom’s mock field.
Crash!
No fire in this child’s dream.

Mirren picked up the boy and hugged him. “David!”

No one else was in the dream. No Lambert. No babysitter even. David had been unattended.

“We’ve got to go while we can, before Chimera gets the override from your father.” Or Lambert himself showed up. Rook looked at the column’s display again; there was no getting out into the Agora at this point. Chimera had already flagged the Rêve. “Waking up is our only option.”

Then it would come time for Mirren to make good on her promise and set him free. Chuck would argue against it, and he could be persuasive.

Mirren smiled at Rook, stars of happiness in her eyes. “Yes. Thank you.” She lifted David up a little higher to get his attention. “We have to wake up now, sweet boy. You follow Mama, okay?”

“You
could
wake,” Murs said to her, “but there’s an alternative.”

Mirren cut back. “You do whatever you want. My f
ather
—”

“—wants Malcolm Rook more than he does David,” Murs finished.

“What?” Mirren said, eyes wild. A frenzied feeling came off her in rough waves.

But Rook understood. That’s why Murs had cooperated so easily. Rook had thought he’d intended to return Mirren to her father, but instead it was so they could catch the opposition. “You promised to let me go, Mirren.”

Murs cocked his head and frowned, as if she should reconsider. “I know your father, darling, and while he’s taken an interest in little David, his current preoccupation happens to be Malcolm Rook and his associates. Give him Rook and I guarantee your father will leave you and David alone.”

She snorted. “My father will never leave us alone.”

And yet, the waters were full of truth. Murs believed Lambert would agree to that exchange. So, unfortunately, did Rook.

He tried to lift out of sleep, but dizzying vertigo blurred his vision. She was still keeping him under.

“You promised,” Rook said. “We have to go. Now.”

“Your father
will
leave you and the boy alone,” Murs said. “For a while, at least. Maybe even a long while. And do you know why? Because you are a god like he is, and it is inevitable that you will have to stand with him to survive.”

Rook shook his head. Not that he was surprised, but he had hoped for a moment that she’d keep her word. From almost the very beginning of this stupid escapade, when he’d first noticed her standing in the stretch of light behind Chuck in that studio apartment, he’d known he was caught by Lambert. There’d been a short delay was all.

“Why
Rook
?” she said. The kid was wiggling in her arms and jabbering in a foreign language.

“Because he opposes your father, and where there’s one there are others.”

Rook knew the others to whom Murs referred. Mirren had even encountered a couple of them today.

“Hold Rook here while I get your father,” Murs told her. “Don’t run.
Make a deal
. Make a deal to keep your son.”

“If I stay, my father will have me, too.”

“If you stay,” Murs said, “you negotiate the terms of your freedom.”

“Freedom doesn’t have terms,” Rook said.

She looked over at him. “Even you said to find a different way. I’ve been running, but I’m not getting anywhere. He’ll just keep after me.”

“He’s got you already,” Rook said. “Let me help.” Because worst case, Lambert would use him as bait for one of the others—Jordan, most likely. And with Jordan, he’d get Maisie, as he’d intended in the first place. Maisie, who had built a city Darkside. And then Coll, who would hold out a little longer because the nightmares in the Scrape wouldn’t want to eat him.