“No, man, I’m a civilian. This guy hired me to fly him around because he lost his pilot in the Dream War.” The guy looked shaken and Damien and I shared a look.
You had to make gut calls sometimes, ones that later could get you killed if you were wrong. I nodded to Damien and he lowered the gun from the guy’s temple.
“Get us out of here now and we won’t hurt you,” Damien told the guy as the soldiers were only paces away.
With a jerking motion, the guy pulled up on the joystick and the helicopter leapt skyward. The guards on the ground looked flabbergasted.
Just wait until they played back the security footage in that room and realized I’d locked their boss in the Dream War.
Damien looked up where we were on his phone and barked directions on how to get back to our motel. While he was talking to the pilot, I quickly called my mom. I needed to warn her about the guys following her.
My mom picked up on the first ring. “Hey, sugar. What’s up?”
“Long story, Mom, but there’s a guy outside your house watching you. You and the ladies might be in danger. Can you stay at a friend’s for a bit?”
My mom was resilient. This wouldn’t freak her out like it would other parents.
“Do you know what he looks like? Me and the ladies can take him out.”
That was the last thing we needed, a murder investigation.
“No, Mom. Just grab your stuff and sneak out the back, okay?”
She paused.
“Alright, honey. Are you safe?”
I sighed. “For now, yeah. But…” I had to tell her. “The new ships that have come are scouts. They didn’t find anything so… they’re here to stay.”
I must have been on speakerphone because I heard Birdie drop the f-bomb.
“But I’m gonna fix it,” I mumbled, because giving false hope was the only Band-Aid I had.
My mom sounded worried. “Maybe we should come up to where you are?”
I shook my head. “No, Mom. It’s not safe. Please just lay low until I call you again, okay?”
Silence, but for the whirring of the helicopter blades.
“Okay.”
“I love you!” I shouted over the helicopter noise, which got louder the higher we went.
“I love you too, Kitty.”
When I hung up, I focused my attention on Damien’s conversation with the pilot.
“My girlfriend can create an opening into the Dream War and we can fly in and sleep there. Like real sleep, where you dream like the old days.”
The pilot looked at Damien in shock for a moment, but I was stuck on him calling me his girlfriend. The world was ending, and we were basically fugitives with a hostage, but a grin tugged at my lips.
Girlfriend.
I could get used to that.
“Would you be down to be our new pilot? I can pay you double what they were paying you and offer yourealsleep.” I’d forgotten Damien was a businessman until I saw him in action.
The pilot nodded. “I’ve got nothing to lose. No family to go home to. And I haven’t slept in three days. Nearly died the last time I went in.”
