Clockwork Twist : Missing (5 page)

“No, I can’t. I have to do something.” There had to be a way to prove that Jonas was real. The whole world couldn’t have forgotten him. He’d always been so much more connected to people than Twist had. There must be someone else who still knew him.

“Then what do you suggest?” Aden asked on a sigh.

“Storm!” Twist said suddenly, looking up.

“What?” Aden asked, startled.

“Yes, Storm,” Twist said, his mind racing over the details of the thought. “His Sight shows him other people’s dreams, and he said that he dreamed of Jonas more than anyone else. Hell, he ran up and hugged him when they first met. And if he hadn’t had Jonas’s dreams, then he never would have tried to help us in the village. We never would have escaped and taken Storm with us to New York. His mother and he would still be there if it wasn’t for Jonas. But Storm isn’t in a village on a cloud over Utah, is he?” he asked, getting a bit giddy with all his rapid words. “He’s in Australia, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Aden said, watching Twist carefully, “Storm is in Australia with his mother, at one of my research and development sites.”

“Aha!” Twist yelled triumphantly.

“But he had
your
dreams,” Myra said softly.

“What?” Twist asked, looking to her quickly.

“He said he always has your dreams,” she said. “You’re his favorite.”

“That’s not bloody fair,” Twist hissed.

“I’m sorry,” Myra muttered, looking sheepishly away.

“No, I’m sorry,” Twist said, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “It’s not your fault.” She looked back to him gratefully. “But I just can’t believe that Storm would agree with you,” Twist continued. “Even if he has forgotten, he knew so much about Jonas that there must be some way to make him realize the truth. Of all the people in this world, there must be some small shred of Jonas still left in Storm’s mind.”

“Well, let’s find out, shall we?” Aden said, getting to his feet. “If you’ll follow me, I believe we might just be able to answer that question rather easily.”

Twist and Myra followed Aden up the wide, gilded staircase that led to the second floor, and down a long, door-lined hallway to its end. The hallways split off at right angles at this intersection, leading left and right to other doors, but Aden stopped before the door that stood facing the first hallway. He pulled out a golden key and swiftly opened the lock, inviting Twist and Myra inside.

The size and opulence of the hotel suite surprised Twist. They were met with a darling parlor, complete with a small, marble fireplace that was flanked with windows overlooking a park behind the hotel. Fashionable chairs of dark wood and embroidered silk—and a matching low table bearing a vase of fresh flowers—clustered before the now-cold fireplace, all seated on a lush Persian carpet of green, blue, and gold. Twist noticed pleasant paintings in golden frames hanging on the emerald flocked-wallpaper walls, as well as a number of opened doors that clearly led to a separate bedroom, what looked like a library and study, and a private bathroom as well.

“What a lovely apartment,” Myra mentioned.

“Thank you,” Aden said with a smile. “It does pay to be the boss sometimes. Let’s head in here,” he added, opening a previously closed door that led into pitch black.

Following Aden and Myra inside, Twist found that the four walls of this small room were all painted black, and there wasn’t a window in sight. The only decoration in the room was a single, large, gold-framed mirror that nearly filled the entire wall it hung on. Once Aden closed the door behind them, the only light in the room came from a pair of candles in tall, silver holders, which stood on either end of a long, thin table that sat before the mirror. A handful of simple wooden chairs were the only other items in the room.

“Please, have a seat,” Aden said, approaching the mirror. “This might take a moment.”

Twist and Myra took seats, watching as Aden pulled a silver watch out of his waistcoat pocket. He touched the winding knob with his thumb, and Twist suddenly saw a blush of brilliant, rich, blue light pour up out of the watch’s face, along with a gentle, rain-like sound.

Aden held the glowing watch up to his mouth. “Connect me with the Outback Research Station mirror room, please,” he said to the watch.

“
Right away, sir,
” the watch responded. The voice that issued from it was soft but clear, and only slightly tinny. Aden waited for a moment, staring at the glowing watch until it spoke once again. “
Connection ready, sir. Go ahead
.”

Aden thanked his watch and then held it up to the mirror, pressing the glowing blue face directly to the glass. It was only after this that Twist realized that he, Myra, and Aden were all failing to cast any reflection in the mirror. The two candles were reflected perfectly, as were the empty chairs and the surrounding darkness, but none of the people in the room appeared in the mirror at all.

Before Twist could mention this oddity, a man walked into the reflected room beyond the mirror. Twist turned away, looking for the man beside him, but found no one but Myra and Aden still in the room with him. The man in the mirror held up his own glowing blue watch against the glass. The instant he did, his eyes seemed to find Aden.

“Hello, sir,” the man in the mirror said pleasantly in a clear voice and a British accent. “How can I help you?”

“Good evening, Henry,” Aden replied, speaking to the image in the glass as if its existence were not at all surprising to him. “Is little Storm still awake? If he is, please tell him that Mr. Twist and I would like to speak to him.”

“I believe he’s still up,” Henry replied. “I’ll go and fetch him.” The image of Henry then took his watch off of the glass from the other side and walked to one side and out of view.

“Aden?” Twist asked, frowning now in his own confusion. “What’s going on?”

Aden smiled back at Twist. “This is a bit of technology that my Rooks have been using for years. We can use it to communicate to various points across the globe, and we even have some set up on a few of our airships. It comes in quite handy, as you might imagine. Of course, I’d appreciate it if you don’t tell too many people about it. We wouldn’t want everyone to know our secrets.”

While Twist struggled to imagine how something so fantastic might actually work, Henry reappeared in the mirror glass. A perfect reflection of Storm followed after him. The boy’s snowy-white hair and brilliant pink eyes were unmistakable after all. He wasn’t wearing the strange contraption that he’d claimed allowed him to see and hear Twist—thanks to some nonsense about magic—but Twist could see the boy carrying it in his hand. Henry pressed his glowing pocket watch to the glass once again, and almost instantly Storm seemed to spot Aden through the glass and smile. Aden smiled back.

“Hello, Storm,” Aden said to the boy. “Twist and I need to ask you something.”

“You
did
say Twist,” Storm said, sounding surprised. “Oh, hi, Myra!” Storm said, smiling to her and giving a wave. “Hang on,” he muttered, slipping the contraption on over his right eye and ear.

Once it was in place, Storm looked through the single lens and seemed to suddenly see Twist clearly now as well, sitting beside Myra. His young face washed over with delight, and he waved happily.

“Twist!” Storm exclaimed. “It’s good to see you. How are you?”

Aden turned to look at Twist expectantly.

“Can he hear me?” Twist asked Aden hesitantly.

“Sure I can,” Storm answered, nodding. “They said you wanted to ask me something?”

“Yes, I do,” Twist said, standing and stepping closer to the mirror.

Even though he could see the shine off of the glass in the low light, and the candles seemed to be reflected perfectly, it still felt very odd to not find his own reflection in the mirror. Twist did his best to push his wonder and confusion at the technology away and focus on the task at hand. He looked directly at the boy and took a breath. If anyone might still remember Jonas, it had to be Storm. If he didn’t…Twist forced this idea away in favor of struggling to come up with the best way to prove that the boy really did know Jonas.

“Storm,” Twist began, clinging to his courage, “Whose dreams are your favorite? Are they mine?”

Storm seemed confused by this. Twist’s dread grew like a black cloud over a fire.

“Twist,” Storm began, “I can never find you in the dream world. You know that. Jonas’s dreams are my favorite.”

Myra gasped, standing and coming closer to the glass. Aden stared back at the boy in alarm. Twist covered his own gaping mouth with a hand as all of his fear vanished into sparkling and heady vindication.

“What’s going on?” Storm asked, watching all of them in surprise.

“You know a man named Jonas?” Aden asked.

“Yes, of course,” Storm answered, looking at Aden in confusion. “He’s the reason I’m here in Australia and not being tortured by Cyphers.”

Twist nearly laughed in the heady relief of hearing the truth from anyone else. “You see?” he asked Aden and Myra. “I told you he’d still remember. I didn’t make all of this up!”

“Now, now,” Aden said gently, holding up a hand. “Storm sees dreams. He may still have picked up the notion of this person from you, Twist.”

Twist glared back at Aden.

“But I can’t see Twist’s dreams,” Storm said again, looking more alarmed now. “What is going on?”

“Jonas has disappeared,” Twist answered. “And since he did, no one else but you and I can even remember him.”

Storm’s amber face paled, and his pink eyes went wide with terror. “When did this happen?” he asked, his voice suddenly cold with dread.

“Yesterday,” Twist answered. As relieved as he was to suddenly have a comrade in all this madness, something in Storm’s reaction seemed odd to him.

Storm fell silent, his face a mask of concentration and worry, while his eyes flitted absently about, as if following his own thoughts. “This is bad.”

“Storm?” Aden asked gently. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”

“Humm?” Storm muttered, glancing up to Aden as if startled out of his own thoughts. “Oh. Well, honestly,” he added, suddenly putting on a somewhat fake-looking mask of worry. “Jonas is clearly in trouble, isn’t he? He’s been taken! We have to save him!” he finished, his mask now transitioned into honest-looking dread.

“There, there, Storm,” Aden soothed. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“How?” Twist asked. Storm looked to Aden desperately.

Aden took a silent moment to think. “I just don’t have enough information. I have no choice but to wait for my Rooks to come up with some possible explanation for all of this.”

“So we’re back to sitting and waiting,” Twist grumbled, crossing his arms. “I told you, I can’t do that.”

“Your impatience isn’t going to help anyone,” Aden said, his tone the same as the one he’d used to try to calm Storm.

“He needs rescue
now!
” Twist snapped back. “Even Storm can see that.”

Storm nodded quickly. Myra looked to Twist, silent but deeply worried.

“Twist, you should come here!” Storm said suddenly, staring at him through the mirror with brilliant but fragile hope. “There’s technology here that we could use to save him!”

“There is?” Aden asked, frowning. “What technology? We don’t even know what’s happened to this man, or if—“

Aden paused, looking to Twist anxiously. Twist instantly guessed that he meant to suggest, once again, that Jonas could just as easily be a figment of Twist’s imagination. Whether he said it or not, Twist glared back at Aden for the thought.

“Well, he’s vanished, hasn’t he?” Storm went on as if he were the adult himself now, speaking to a child. “That means he’s not where he was. He could be anywhere. Once we figure out where he is, we’ll need to be able to get to him quickly, and the transporter is almost ready.”

“Is it almost ready?” Aden asked Henry.

Standing beside Storm, Henry gave a shrug. “I’d give it another week, at least. But I suppose we could hurry it up, if you needed us to.”

“What’s a transporter?” Twist asked.

“It’s amazing!” Storm answered.

“It’s a top-secret device that no one outside of the Rooks is supposed to know about,” Aden cut in. “But…” He gave a sigh and shook his head. “But Storm is right. If this man needs saving, and could logically be anywhere, then the matter transporter might very well be the best thing to use. And it’s in Australia.”

“Where are you right now, Twist?” Storm asked. “Are you still in London?”

Twist paused, unsure how the boy knew where he was at all. But then, of course, he followed Jonas’s dreams closely. Being on the opposite side of the Earth—and in a different time zone—he might not yet have dreamed of Jonas’s kidnapping, but he could easily have known vaguely where they were from previous dreams.

“Yes,” Twist answered, nodding.

“But that’s the whole other side of the world…” Storm moaned pitifully.

“All right, how about this?” Aden asked, looking to Twist. “You insist that you can’t possibly stand still, and you may very well need to go to Australia in order to save your friend. If you allow my Rooks to help you to figure all of this out, and in so doing help us to learn a great deal about a possibly quite dangerous method of kidnapping, then I will help get you to Australia as swiftly as possible and then also aid you to save your friend in any way I can.”

Twist stared back at him, stunned. “Yes, of course, absolutely.”

“Wonderful,” Aden said, sounding relieved.

“I’m going to go get to sleep,” Storm announced. “Maybe I can learn something about all of this from Jonas's dreams.”

“Good idea,” Aden agreed. “Thank you, Storm.”

“Of course,” Storm answered. He then looked to Twist with more solid hope in his pink eyes. “I’ll see you soon, Twist. We’ll get him back.”

“I’m sure we will,” Twist said, smiling to the boy. Even if the words were spoken by a very strange child, they were still wonderful to hear.