Wild-born (32 page)

“Ali,” I breathed, “you know those dreams about Cindy?”

“Yes, Addy,”
said Alia. Her voice in my head was much quieter than usual, as if she was afraid her thoughts could be heard on the microphone.

“She’s really up there. She’s going to come get us.”

“I know.”

“We have to help her.”

“She can’t hear me.”

“I know, Ali,” I whispered. “We’re going to ask Mr. Koontz to help us talk to her. Can you speak to Mr. Koontz?”

Alia was silent for a moment, and then answered uneasily,
“I don’t know.”

Alia had never spoken to Mr. Koontz, or anyone aside from Dr. Kellogg for that matter.

“Alia, Cindy needs our help.”

“I’m scared, Addy.”

“I know you are, but I need you to be brave, Ali. You’re a big girl now, and I need you to be brave for Cindy.”

Silence. Alia didn’t open her eyes, but I could tell she was struggling with her emotions.

“Ali, will you talk to Mr. Koontz for me?” I asked in my near-silent voice.

Alia took a moment longer before answering,
“Okay, Addy.”

“Good. I want you to say hello to him. Can you do that?”

I felt incredibly restless but I knew we had to take this slowly. I couldn’t push Alia and I didn’t want Mr. Koontz to jump in surprise either. When I could no longer bear the tension, I asked, “Did you say hello to him?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now, I want you to tell him that I have a plan to help us escape. I want you to ask him if he will help us.”

“Okay.”

“Tell him that if he wants to help, he should...”

Should what? Wink at me? Put a thumb up? Every second of our lives was being recorded so I couldn’t risk any odd gestures, and I didn’t want him to reply in a dream just in case I accidentally blocked it again. There was no telling how much longer the Guardians would stay.

“Addy?”

I whispered, “Tell him that if he wants to help, he should ask when my birthday is the next time we meet.”

There was a pause, and then I heard her quiet voice in my head say,
“Okay, Addy. I told him.”

“Good girl, Ali. You’re very brave. We’re going to be rescued soon. Go to sleep now.”

Alia and I met Mr. Koontz the next evening, and we sat together in the lounge for an hour after dinner. I was beginning to think that either he hadn’t gotten Alia’s message or that he was unwilling to help, but as we stood up to go, he called back to me, “Oh yes, Adrian, I’ve been meaning to ask when your birthday is. It’d be nice to have a party now and then.”

I grinned and said, “It’s still a while away, in October.”

“What about Alia’s?”

“Already over.”

“Well, time doesn’t mean much down here anyway. Perhaps we’ll have a party soon and just pretend it’s your birthday!” Mr. Koontz laughed heartily.

From the look in his eyes, I instantly knew that he was game. I wanted to send our first message to Cindy that very night, but like most insane plans, things were much easier said than done.

First off, I wanted Mr. Koontz to send the dream to both Cindy and Ralph so that they would be sure it was a dreamweave and not just a normal one. I figured that since Cindy must have managed to get her dreamweaver to contact Alia and me by just describing us to him, the same would work on our end. However, although I had told Mr. Koontz a little about Cindy, I hadn’t described what she looked like or anything. And about Ralph, Mr. Koontz knew nothing.

There was another potential snag as well: Ralph’s Guardians would no doubt be inside Cindy’s hiding bubble. Could Mr. Koontz dreamweave to them when they were psionically hidden? I believed that he could, since the Guardian dreamweaver managed to reach us deep underground in exactly the kind of place a psionic gathering might be hidden. But there was no way to be sure.

That night, I once again pulled Alia up close to me. She was expecting it, so it probably looked more like she was trying to snuggle closer to me. I hoped it looked that way anyway, since I usually didn’t cuddle Alia like this and Central Control might get suspicious.

“Close your eyes. Pretend to be sleeping,” I said under my breath. I was still terrified that the microphone would pick up my words, and my heart was pounding louder than my voice. “Ali, I want you to tell Mr. Koontz about Cindy.”

“What should I say?”
Alia asked in her quietest telepathic voice.

“Tell him that her name is Cynthia Gifford. Tell him what she looks like. Tell him about her hair, and how she smells, and how she walks.”

I paused, trying to think what I might say if I were the telepath.

“Tell him how Cindy is quiet and nice and caring,” I whispered. “Tell him how much you love her.”

I waited until Alia said,
“Okay, Addy, I did.”

“Good, Ali. Now, next I want...”

I hesitated. I really did not want to put Alia through this, but I had no choice if this dream was going to go to Ralph as well.

“Alia, I want you to tell Mr. Koontz about Ralph.”

Just as I expected, Alia became extremely tense, and I feared Central Control might see that she wasn’t actually asleep. I held her gently, giving her some time to adjust to the idea, before whispering, “Ali?”

She didn’t answer.

“Alia, please tell Mr. Koontz about Ralph.”

“No, Addy,”
said Alia.

“Ali...” I pleaded, my voice becoming a little too loud for comfort.

“I don’t like Ralph.”

“I know, Alia. I don’t like him either.”

“Ralph is a bad man.”

“I know that, Ali.”

Holding Alia in my arms, I realized again the precariousness of this faint sliver of a plan that was entirely at the mercy of a frightened little girl. Without Alia, however, there was no plan.

“Alia, please,” I whispered. “I know you’re scared. But I need you to talk to Mr. Koontz. Ralph is a bad man, but you have to tell Mr. Koontz about him so Cindy can rescue us.”

Alia was silent for nearly a full minute before I heard her say nervously into my mind,
“Okay...”

I hugged Alia even more tightly as I told her what to say about Ralph P. Henderson. I had her describe his looks, his various powers, his personality and some of the things he had said. Ralph was a soldier, a killer. When Alia had finished talking to Mr. Koontz for me, I could tell she was near tears.

“Good job, Ali. I’m really proud of you. Now, I want you to ask Mr. Koontz if that’s enough information to send a dream to Cindy and Ralph. I want you to tell him that they are very close, but they are in a hiding bubble. Ask Mr. Koontz if he can dreamweave to them.”

I thought of another password, having Alia tell Mr. Koontz to say that I looked small for my age. The next evening, he did.

Our connection was complete, and I was finally ready to send my first message.

Later in bed that night, I had Alia ask Mr. Koontz to send a dream to Cindy and Ralph, telling them that we had gotten their message, we were well, and that we were ready to help in any way we could. Also, that Mr. Koontz was coming with us, and possibly Janice as well.

Mr. Koontz wouldn’t be able to send the message until Cindy and Ralph were asleep, and then they would have to respond through their dreamweaver, so there could be no return message until the next night. The following day was a day off for us, and I waited restlessly with Alia in our room. I didn’t want to meet with Mr. Koontz, fearing that we might accidentally say something that could give away our plan.

It took some time getting to sleep that night, partly because I hadn’t had any exercise, but mostly because I was so nervous. What if we had just missed them, and the Guardians had already given up and left us? Even assuming they were still camped up there, could Mr. Koontz really get through to Cindy and Ralph? Would they respond tonight? What would they say to me?

I remembered my desperately foolish plan back at Mark’s place to catch a random psionic for the minuscule possibility of getting information about Cat. Was our plan here any less hopelessly optimistic? Cindy was the optimist. I had nothing but doubts.

Alia was already sound asleep, and I heard her murmuring incoherently in my mind. Despite the clear advantage of dreamweaving in long-distance communication, I decided that I still preferred straightforward telepathy. The problem with dreams, I thought as I closed my eyes, was that there was no way to know you were in one until after you woke up. That, and the fact that they were so hard to remember...

Staring blankly at the wall made of small black stones, I wondered where Cindy and Ralph were. They weren’t sitting there this time. Suddenly the wall rose higher out of the ground, stretching up toward the murky sky until it was towering over me. The little stones started to move around until they formed a giant face on the wall.

It spoke.

“Greetings, Adrian Howell,” the face said in a booming voice. “My name is Derrick. Since you obviously know what these dreams are, I see no reason to continue pretending to be Cindy and Ralph for your sake. And in case you are wondering about this face,”—the stone face frowned—“I am the dreamweaver, this is my dream, and I will present myself to you in any which way I please.”

I took a step back from the wall, looking up at the massive face. It was so utterly absurd that suddenly, for the first time in my life, I actually realized that I was dreaming. Even as I stood there, gaping up at the face, I knew that my real body was still sleeping beside Alia. It was the strangest feeling, being in two places at once, but somehow I had woken up inside Derrick’s dreamweave.

“Your message has been received, and Ralph thanks you,” said the giant dream-face. “It is fortunate that you contacted us when you did. We had nearly given up on this attempt, but with your help, there may yet be a chance of getting you and Alia out.”

I was all ears now. I forced myself to stay calm, fearing that if I got too excited, I might physically wake up and exit the dream before it finished.

The face grinned manically once, and continued, “Ralph wants you to tell us as much as you can about the inside of this facility. Specifically, we want to know how deep you are, how many floors there are in between, and how strong the military presence here is. We want to know about the security systems, what kind of weapons the guards have, and the general floor plan of the installation. Ralph says that you should start acting your age and help us solve the mess you have made of things. Cindy asks that you assist Ralph only so long as it does not put you or Alia at risk. As much as she appreciates our need for information, she wants you to stay safe and remember your promise to protect Alia. She says that under no circumstance are you to risk your life gathering information for us. She adds that if it becomes too dangerous to continue sending dreams, you should immediately stop doing so and wait patiently for rescue. Message ends.”

The stone face grinned again, and then faded away.

I woke up, breathless. Not only had the message come through, but because I had been mentally awake when Derrick gave it to me, I remembered everything he had said. The plan had worked!

I thought back to my past life as a normal kid and the telephone game we used to play in elementary school, where we whispered a message from one ear to the next to see if we could get the message to the end of the line. Now we were playing that game with our lives. Me to Alia to Mr. Koontz to Cindy and Ralph to Derrick the Dreamweaver and back to me.

That day was a testing day for Alia, and since I was just the tagalong, I took the opportunity to ask Dr. Kellogg more about the facility. I didn’t want to arouse his suspicion, so I tried my best to keep my questions conversational. I asked about what kind of entertainment facilities were on the other floors. I pretended to be worried about what might happen if the power failed so deep underground. I asked what would happen if someone, such as the crazy pyroid, were to get loose in Level 10. Whenever I could, I deliberately let Dr. Denman overhear me asking these questions. I knew he could never resist an opportunity to get my hopes down by telling me how secure this place was.

I learned that there were primary and secondary power generators, in and below the facility. I learned that the guards worked in three shifts, and since I knew that the only place where guards were really needed was on Level 10, I could get a rough idea of their total strength by multiplying their usual number by three. I learned that the Central Control Room was not on Level 10, but up on Level 2, where it was too far away to be tampered with by psionics down below. Level 2 was where the military commander worked, and also where everything from the surveillance cameras to...

“...the nuclear auto-destruct system is operated from,” Dr. Denman said with his usual sneer. “You’re actually standing right over the bomb, which is on Level 11. You see, psionic, they may have given you a card to let you in the lounge, but no one gets out of this place alive. They’ll turn this place into hot metal soup before they let you escape.”

“So long as you’re by my side,” I retorted. I actually wanted to thank him. News of a nuclear bomb under our feet was not very encouraging, but at least now we knew about it.

I relayed what I learned that night, and the next night I was visited in my sleep by Derrick again, this time in the shape of a giant yellow walrus. Again, I gained consciousness inside the dreamweave. It was easier the second time, not just because of Derrick’s crazy disguise, but because I knew it was possible to wake up in a dream now, and I knew that I needed to hear Derrick clearly and remember his words. Derrick told me thanks from Ralph, and requested more information.

In the days that followed, I slowly gathered what I could.

Everything I did was being monitored, so I couldn’t exactly sneak into the offices and steal blueprints like a trench-coat-wearing secret agent. Still, I realized that I had two clear advantages. The first was, of course, that I had help from outside. Though they were considerably outnumbered, the Guardians above were powerful psionics who also had the element of surprise. My second advantage was that, in the eyes of the researchers here, I was still just a kid. Powerful... obnoxious, perhaps... but just a kid nevertheless. I doubted even Dr. Kellogg, who treated me like a near-equal, could truly believe that I might be up to the challenge of undermining their security and of plotting an elaborate escape only months into my stay.