Dream Thief (35 page)

A new sound reached his ears—the sobbing of a young woman. He looked up and saw Ari standing on the far side of the brink. Her tears fell in liquid gems and sparkled on her cheeks. She was crying and lifting up her arms to him. Her long yellow hair was white in the moonlight and it drifted like moondust.

“Ari!” Spence cried and heard the name repeated again and again far below him.

He raised his foot and put it down and felt himself step into the air. His foot failed to touch wood and he fell, plunging headlong down into the gorge, spinning helplessly down and down. He screamed in terror and anger and saw the form of his love turn into that of a wizened old man who peered over the edge and laughed at him. The rocks rang with laughter, and he shut his eyes and screamed to keep out the hideous sound.

Then he was on his knees in a dirty, stinking street, narrow between the crumbling facades of buildings. The moon shone between the buildings from above and he could see far down the canyon-street to where it ended at a broad gray river.

He began walking toward the river and felt a pang of terror clutch at his heart. He looked behind him and saw nothing, though he heard the rush of muffled feet.

He started to run.

The feet ran with him and he saw on either side of him dark shapes flitting by to become lost in shadow. He peered over his shoulder and saw a churning black mass sweeping ever nearer to him.

He came to a courtyard bounded on all sides by a high wall. He stood in the center of the yard on crumbling stone, one hand pressed to his side, breathing hard and feeling the burning stab of pain in his side. All at once he heard them, his pursuers, coming down the narrow street behind him. He turned and saw hundreds of narrow yellow eyes and the curved white slivers of bared teeth. He heard an enormous slavering growl tearing up out of a hundred throats as the dogs sprang on him, their jaws snapping, hackles raised, ears flattened to their angular heads.

The dogs leapt as one and he felt himself sinking. The stone was cool against his cheek and he heard the ripping of his clothing and flesh as the beasts lunged for him. He felt their teeth in him and the white-hot searing pain …

“SPENCER, HEAR ME NOW.
This is Adjani. If you can hear me, say 'yes.'”

“Yes.”

“You are dreaming, Spence. It is only a dream. Do you understand?”

“A dream.”

“Don't fight the dream, let it come. In a moment you will awaken and remember your dream. I want you to remember it.”

“Remember.” The word was soft and mushy. Spence was deep in his dream.

Adjani knelt close beside him, his lips to his ear. He spoke slowly and with authority, as a hypnotist would speak to his subject.

“Spence, I want you to wake up now. I'm going to count to three, and when I reach that number I want you to wake up. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Adjani counted off the numbers and Spence awakened to see his friend standing over him.

“Adjani!” Fear and relief mingled in his voice. “I was dreaming!”

“Yes, I know. I heard you cry out in your sleep.”

“You woke me up—”

Adjani nodded.

“It was terrible. Horrible. Oh!” Spence made to rise up, but Adjani placed a hand on his chest and held him down.

“Tell me about it. Quickly, before you forget.”

“I won't forget this one.” He proceeded to tell his dream in vivid detail.

“Yes, very frightening,” murmured Adjani when he had finished.

“Very. I remembered, Adjani. I remembered everything. I've never been able to do that before.”

“I gave you a hypnotic suggestion. I thought it might help us.”

All at once the significance of what Adjani was saying broke in on Spence's sleep-dulled brain. “The Dream Thief!”

Adjani nodded slowly.

“They know I'm alive. They're trying to get to me again.”

“Was there anything in your dream that might give a clue to who they are or what they might want from you?”

“I don't know—it all seems rather bizarre. Dogs and castles and bridges … it doesn't mean a thing to me.” He shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the flashing, slashing teeth tearing into him and heard again the sickening crunch of his own bones. “But is was so real! I've had lucid dreams before, but they were nothing like this. It was really happening.”

“Maybe I shouldn't have awakened you so soon.”

“I'm glad you did! They would have killed me!”

Adjani glanced at him sharply.

“Hold it!” Spence protested. “You don't think they actually could—no, it's impossible! You can't kill someone with a dream. Can you?”

T
HE SNUB-NOSED TASER GUN
seemed very natural in Tickler's hand. He held it steadily and surely; there was no hint of nervousness or jitters. It occurred to Spence that he had handled the weapon before under similar circumstances.

Spence had been waiting in Adjani's room for Adjani to return. “I'll fetch Ari and be back in a few minutes and we'll go over our plans for the trip down tomorrow,” he had said and slipped out.

When he heard the signal Spence answered the door and found, not Ari and Adjani, but Kurt and Tickler, wearing the read and black jumpsuits and caps of the GM security force.

“You!”

“You have led us a merry chase, Reston.” Tickler smiled a thin, snaky smile. “But now you're coming with us.”

“I'm doing no such thing,” said Spence. Then Tickler had drawn the taser—a mean little gadget which expelled a tiny electrified dart, instantly rendering its victim paralyzed and unconscious for two or three minutes.

Generally speaking there was no escaping a man armed with a taser.

“You will do as
I
say from now on, Reston.” Tickler mouthed the words with special relish. It was clear he enjoyed his role as tough guy.

“Put that thing away. Tickler. Are you crazy?”

“Not crazy, doctor. Concerned. We've been very worried about you. When you didn't return from Mars we thought we'd lost you. It turns out that we were wrong. Happily so. Now that you're back we mean to hold onto you for a while.”

“What is this all about? What do you want with me?” Spence hoped to keep them occupied until Adjani returned. It was his only hope.

“You
are
inquisitive, aren't you. But we have no time for questions now. There's someone waiting to meet you.”

“Where are you taking me? I demand to know!” Spence shouted shrilly.

“Your demands mean nothing. Keep your voice down or we'll carry you out of here. Come on—” The taser waved him ahead. “Get moving.”

“Just a minute. I need my shoes.” Spence indicated his stockinged feet.

“Get his shoes for him,” said Tickler. “Only you won't really be needing them once we get where we're going.”

Spence took the shoes and sat down at Adjani's desk. He placed both shoes deliberately on top of the computer keyboard. He took the first shoe and put it on. When he picked up the second shoe he deftly tapped the ComCen key; the monitor flashed on across the room. Neither of the intruders noticed; their backs were to the screen.

Spence stood and said, “So, you're taking me down to the docking bay, huh? Then where? Not back to Mars, I hope.” As he spoke he pushed the DICTATE key and hoped that Adjani had the machine programmed the same way he did.

“No place as far as all that,” answered Tickler. “You'll find the trip anything but boring, I assure you.” He jeered the nose of the gun toward the door. “Now, get going. And I warn you, Reston—don't try anything or I will make you very uncomfortable. We have a vehicle waiting outside.”

“Nothing but the best for the condemned man,” said Spence. He hoped the machine had picked up their conversation.

“You're taking this very well,” said Tickler. “I hope you have abandoned any notions of escape. I will not hesitate to use this on you. I've used it before.”

“I bet you have.”

Millen led the way into the corridor and took the driver's seat of a small electric car. Tickler and Spence sat facing one another in the back as the open vehicle moved noiselessly away with its red light flashing to warn oncoming pedestrians to stand aside.

“HE'S GONE,” SAID ADJANI
as soon as he entered the room. “Something's happened.”

Ari looked stricken. “You mean they've taken him?”

“Right. But maybe we can still catch them.”

“Look!” Ari pointed to the ComCen screen on the wall.

“Bravo! He left us a message.” Adjani leapt to the computer console and tapped in instructions for an audio replay.

This is what they heard:

“… far as all that. You'll find the trip anything but boring, I assure you. Now get going. And I warn you, Reston—don't try anything or I will make you very uncomfortable. We have a vehicle waiting outside.”

Then they heard, “Nothing but the best for the condemned man.”

There was a rustle and the faraway sound of people moving in the room. The first voice, faded and indistinct as the party left the room, said, “You're taking this very well. I hope you have abandoned …” The rest was lost as the portal slid shut.

Ari turned wide, horror-filled eyes upon Adjani. But her voice was calm and steady. “Do they mean to kill him?”

“I don't think so. Not yet, anyway. His reference to the condemned man was to let us know that he was under armed guard, I think.”

“Where will they take him?”

“They mean to leave the station, I would guess—back to Earth somewhere.”

Adjani bent over the computer keyboard and closed his eyes, his fingers poised above the keys. Then he smiled, and his hands began moving over the keys in swift, precise movements.

“Come on!” he shouted, jumping away from the desk. “Let's hope that will hold them until we get there.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don't know yet. Come on!”

KURT NOSED THE SECURITY
car into a recharging berth just outside the entrance to the docking bay. Tickler took the opportunity to warn his prisoner once more. “We are leaving Gotham, Dr. Reston. Do not attempt to attract attention. Security has already been advised that we are transporting a seriously disturbed prisoner.”

“You think of everything.”

“Shut up!” snapped Tickler. “Move! And remember, I'm right behind you.”

Kurt picked up a long bundle from the driver's seat of the car and led the way into the air lock. Red lights warned them that the outer doors were open. Spence was shoved forward to the long line of pressure suits hanging in their racks. He squirmed into one under Tickler's watchful eye and wondered whether the suit might stop a taser dart. He decided that it probably would not but that if the right opportunity presented itself he might chance it.

While Tickler donned his suit, the cadet held the taser on him.

“This will go down on your achievement report, you know,” he quipped. The young man spit on the floor. “Not much for achievement, I guess. Oh, well there's always computer maintenance.”

“Shut up!” Kurt growled. “You've caused us enough trouble as it is. I don't have to listen to your smart mouth.”

“It's all part of being a kidnapper. Occupational hazard.”

“Shut up, I said! So help me I'll let you have it!”

Spence said no more, figuring he had pushed his luck about as far as it would stretch for the moment. Tickler rejoined them, looking like a deflated snowman in his suit.

“What's the matter, Tickler? Didn't they have one your size?”

“Put your helmet on,” he ordered, and pushed the bleed switch.

He was still fumbling with the helmet when he heard the whoosh of escaping air. His ears popped and his nose trickled a thin pink thread of foaming blood before he got the helmet secured. Tickler had popped the valve at once rather than wait for the air to bleed off slowly. It was a dirty trick.

“Ready?” Tickler leveled the taser on him again and shoved him forward.

They walked out of the air lock and into the cavernous docking bay. Ahead of them, across a wide, empty expanse of gleaming duralum, two ships waited. One, the transport
Gyrfalcon,
dwarfed the smaller six-passenger shuttle—the one used by the director for his trips back and forth to board meetings and other special occasions. Between them and the ships waiting at the end of the tether ramps only a few roboskids moved about on their programmed errands; there was nothing to offer an escape.

They've thought of everything. They even picked a time when the maintenance crew is away and the outer doors open.
That meant, of course, that anyone entering the docking bay would have to don a pressure suit and thus be slowed down considerably. Most likely any attempt to save Spence would come too late—he was not even sure if there
was
an attempt being made to save him.

Tickler pushed him across the floor toward the small shuttle. Halfway to the vehicle Spence saw a large figure emerge from the
Gyrfalcon
and come toward them. He thought the huge, hulking form vaguely familiar.