Hunters in the Night (16 page)

“Newton
will fill you in on the updates while we move,” Dominique said. There was a
slim metal door that connected the rear of the van to the driver’s area. She
banged the door three times and the vehicle started moving.

“Ah
yes, Newton,” I said. “The master of disguise.”

Newton
smiled. “Cool make-up, wasn’t it? Itched like hell though.”

“Was
all that really necessary?” I asked.

“It
worked, didn’t it?”

“You
sure about that?” I asked. “If you hadn’t been so busy putting your Halloween
costume on, you might have been able to figure out more about what really
happened out there. There had to be a bunch of nightcrafters out there watching
me and we didn’t nab a single one of them.”

Newton
frowned comically and put a hand on his heart. “I’m hurt. You think I was just
having fun out there while you were cold, scared, and out on the streets?”

“Weren’t
you?”

Newton
smiled. “Well, yeah. I was. But that’s not
all
I was doing. I did quite a lot of work, you ungrateful bastard. You’re going to
be apologizing to me in a few minutes.”

Newton
turned to his keyboard and typed in a few commands. The screens in front of me
came alive with a varied display of video, graphs, and animations.

“Two
minutes after your call came in,” Newton said, “we pinpointed your location and
started prepping a field team. We’d been working on some things based on the
data we got back from that operation in Long Branch, so we were much better
prepared. We saturated the place with equipment to get a full view of what was
going on before we approached you.
That’s
why it took so long to pick you up.”

I
crossed my arms and said, “Go on.”

“At
first,” Newton continued, “the instruments didn’t pick up anything special, and
we really weren’t sure if you were even being watched at all. But then you went
to the McDonald’s, and something interesting happened.”
    

Newton
clicked a few things on his computer and a screen to my left displayed a scene
with roughly human-shaped blobs moving about inside various buildings in Times
Square. The blobs were all orange, red, and blue.

“Look
here,” Newton said as he pointed to an area on the screen. A few seconds later,
a pair of red and orange blobs disappeared from the image.

“This
is data from our infrared sensors,” Newton said. “I figured it would be useful
to get as much info as possible, so we were reading heat signatures in addition
to everything else. And these two people just disappeared when you moved a
couple of blocks south from where they dropped you off. Then, about five
seconds after they vanished, we got this.” Newton pulled up another infrared
camera feed from a different location, and it looked just about the same as the
previous one, until two blue blobs appeared and rapidly shifted to orange
again.

“Those
two guys appear out of nowhere,” Newton said. He switched the screen to regular
video view, and the windows of the building in question were dark. Newton
toggled back to the infrared view and the blobs reappeared. “The building they
were in had no lights on. The heat readings from these guys show that their
surface temps start out really cold when they first appear, then they gradually
heat back up. That by itself is odd, but it could be explained away. Maybe they
stepped in front of an air conditioning flow or something. The truly weird
thing here is that the heat signatures are disappearing and reappearing for
some reason. At first it seemed like the sensors just stopped recording data,
or those people had stepped in front of something that blocked the heat. But
further investigation showed that neither hypothesis was true. The equipment was
fine, and there were no obstructions. We even scouted the rooms later to make
sure. The heat signatures just disappeared, then shortly reappeared someplace
else. And every time they reappeared they were closer to your position. These
people were following you, without following you.”

“And
what does that mean?” I asked.

“I
have a theory,” Newton said. “This theory also explains why that group of
nightcrafters back in Europe just disappeared. I think the nightcrafters
figured out a way to go—”

“Into
the Rift,” I said.

The
excited expression on Newton’s face melted away. “How did you know?”

“Because
I was there,” I said. “They put me over to the other side. Kept me there for
days.”

Dominique
and Newton exchanged awed looks, then Dominique said, “We really need to have a
proper debriefing.”

“Later,”
I said. “Newton’s little video is interesting. These nightcrafters are crossing
big distances pretty fast.”

“Yeah,”
Newton said. “My hypothesis is that these guys are phasing.”

“Phasing?”
I asked.

“Yes.
Phasing between two different . . . well . . . let’s just call them dimensions
for lack of a better word. They’re creating a phase shift in various
electromagnetic and gravitational waves to—“

“Give
me the dummy version,” I said.

Newton
shrugged. “These nightcrafters slip into a different dimension, travel, and
then slip back into ours.”

“And
what dimension would they be phasing into?” I asked.

“The
Rift, of course.”

“So
now you’re calling the Rift a different dimension?”

“That’s
the best way I can think of it,” Newton said. “The math supports the theory,
and so does the observable evidence. Think about it this way. Imagine you lived
in a two-dimensional world. You can only see what’s in front of you, behind
you, and to your sides. You can’t look up or down, and you can’t move up or
down either. If that were how the universe worked, adding that third dimension,
up and down, would change everything.

“A
person who could go up and down in a side-to-side world would be able to do
things totally outside the comprehension of everyone else. Somebody who could
enter the third dimension would, from your perspective, just disappear. But
that person could travel in ways that were unencumbered by the things you would
experience in your 2D world. It’s just like how helicopter travel is faster
because it can skip right over all the cars and buildings and trees and
everything else that gets in our way on the ground. There’s nothing in the Rift
that slows these nightcrafters down. They can move freely through empty space
over there, then come back here exactly where they need to be. It’s magic to
the untrained eye, but in reality it’s just some next-level science.”

“I
get it,” I said. “But the nightcrafters couldn’t do this before. That’s what
confuses me. Everybody who ever tried to transport themselves over to the Rift
ended up dead. It just wasn’t possible.”

“Correction,”
Newton said with a finger pointed at me. “It wasn’t possible back when you were
Kellar’s student. But I imagine that the practice of nightcrafting isn’t
static. It must evolve and advance just like our technology, and it would seem
that someone has made a breakthrough roughly equivalent to manned flight. Once
humankind figured out how to build airplanes, everything changed. We mastered a
whole new dimension.”

I
paused for a moment and reflected on what Newton was saying. It all made sense.
As usual, Newton managed to find a way to make advanced topics seems like
child’s play, but in this case he was describing a major advancement that could
put the nightcrafters even further ahead in the game. “If what you’re saying is
true,” I said, “we’ve got a massive problem on our hands.”

“I’d
agree,” Dominique said. “If the nightcrafters can go into the Rift, and take
other people with them, that makes them an exponentially more dangerous threat
than we thought. We will need to expedite our plans to close the Rift.”

“Have
you guys figured out how you’re going to do that?” I asked.

Dominique
shook her head. “Still working on it.”

“Let’s
put that at the top of our priority list,” I said. “But right now I need to get
some sleep. I spent a few days in a different dimension apparently, and I need
to get my head right. Preferably while in someplace comfortable.”

“You
can’t go back to your apartment,” Dominique said. “The nightcrafters will
obviously be looking for you there.”

“You’re
right, of course,” I said. “Maybe I can go someplace else safe. Like my . . .”
I stopped in mid-sentence. A chilling thought occurred to me. “My parents,” I
said in nearly a whisper. “The nightcrafters know who I am. Kellar knows
everything about my past. They can get to my mom and dad.”

“Calm
down,” Dominique said with a firm hand on my shoulder. “I’ve already had them
placed under protective custody.”

A
wave of relief washed over me. For a second, I was terrified that Kellar might
have gotten to my family. “Thank you. How are they?”

“They’re
safe and comfortable,” she said. “I sent a field team to pose as FBI agents to
go get them, and we fabricated a convincing cover story about a former business
partner of your mother being a confirmed serial killer and we had reason to
believe she might be next on his list. We made it clear that it was in their
best interests to lie low for their own safety. They’re being kept in a secure
and secret location.”

“Where?”
I asked.

“Did
you miss the part where I said secret?”

The
relief I’d felt was quickly replaced with a prickly suspicion. “They’re my
parents,” I said. “I have a right to know where the hell they are.”

“It’s
best for their safety to keep that information strictly secret,” Dominique
said. “I have quite a bit more experience in this kind of thing than you do, so
it’s in your best interests to let me handle this.”

“Uh
huh,” I said. “So when did you give the order to have my folks rounded up?”

“Early
enough to ensure the nightcrafters didn’t get to them first.”

“But
you didn’t know it was the nightcrafters that took me.”

“It
wasn’t hard to guess,” Dominique said.

“So
you just went and grabbed my mom and dad as soon as I disappeared?”

“It
wasn’t immediately after, but I did act quickly. Do you have a point you’re
driving at?”

“You
didn’t grab my parents to protect them from the nightcrafters,” I said. “You
did it to cover your ass in case I switched sides.”

She
paused for a long moment, and stared at me with cold eyes. “We have an
operation to protect,” she said.

“I
don’t give a damn about your operation,” I said. “This is my family we’re
talking about.”

“We
all have families,” Dominique said. “This isn’t about you, me, or any individual
here. Listen closely to what I’m about to say, because I cannot stress it
enough. If anybody outside of our team learns about our involvement with you,
it’s over. The nightcrafters have their hooks into everything. Police,
government, corporations . . . it’s all compromised. Once they know it was this
department that interfered with them, they’ll shut us down, and a few weeks
later we’ll all suffer some unfortunate accidents or mysterious disappearances.
We’ve all got skin in this game, Kal. We’re all dead if any of us makes a
mistake.”

“I
know that better than anybody,” I said.

“Then
grow up and realize this isn’t about you and your feelings,” Dominique said.
“When you turned up missing I damn near had a heart attack. Getting your
parents to a safe and controlled location was the only option I had. If the
nightcrafters hadn’t freed you when they did, I don’t know what else we would
have been forced to do.”

Dominique
didn’t give me a chance to respond. She stood up, opened the slender door that
led to the driver’s cabin, and slammed it behind her. Conversation over.

Newton
reached over and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “It will all be okay,” he
said, his voice sweet and genuine. “When this is over, your parents will be
returned to their home safe and sound.”

I
put my head in my hands and said, “You assume this will ever be over.”

I
ended up sleeping in my office for a while. It was the only safe place we could
think of. Newton found a pretty comfortable cot and a few fluffy pillows to
make things easier. There was a shower set up in his chemistry lab, and I used
that to keep myself clean. The shower was meant for washing off dangerous
chemicals in emergencies, but it worked just as well for washing off a day’s
worth of sweat and frustration.

On
the third day, I started to go a little crazy. I hadn’t been home, I hadn’t
gotten decent sleep in forever, and I hadn’t even dipped into the Rift for fear
of attracting attention. I was lost in a limbo worse than the world beyond the
Rift. At least there I felt powerful. Here, in this bland captivity, I felt
powerless.

To
ease my nerves, I started taking long walks around the complex during peak
hours. In the morning I woke up around eight and blended in with the hordes of
government workers showing up for yet another day of the old grind. In the
evening I fed off the eagerness of those same people quickly heading home to
familiarity and family. I lost track of how long I did this. I was getting
pretty used to the routine, until one day Newton rushed up to me with a very
concerned look on his face.

“Have
you been nightcrafting in the west wing?” he asked.

“No.
I haven’t even been to that part of the building in about a week. Why?”

“I’ve
been running the scanners in various parts of the building to test their
range,” Newton said. “I’m pretty sure the effective range of these scanners is
fifty yards, but I’ve been getting a strong, moving signal at the Rift
frequency far away from you.”

I
shrugged. “Maybe it is just me. I’ve been trying to stay out of the Rift since
the last incident. But maybe I’m doing something subconsciously.”