I reeled back in shock. “Excuse me?” I crossed my arms indefiance.
If this guy had a way to stop this war, then we should get the military involved. I did my two years of civil protection duty, and went right into private protection because I didn’t like taking orders from other people, but the military had some good guys we could pull in on this. Guys Itrusted.
He glared at me patronizingly now. “Miss Steele. I had a meeting with the Department of Defense a year ago when my brother got the idea. I merely told them he had the idea and wanted to exploreit.”
I shrugged. “Good. What did theysay?”
He chuckled, his blue eyes arresting. I could even see a hidden dimple in his rightcheek.
“They offered us a billion dollars for the intellectual property once we developed it. When I asked them what they would do with it, they smiled and said that would beclassified.”
Understandable. He was a civilian, after all. “I’m sure they would’ve thoroughly tested it on their military before giving it to the generalpopulation.”
“Hah! Youarethat naive.” He looked me up and down as if I were achild.
This guy was going to get a throat punch pretty soon. I didn’t care how richorhot hewas.
“I had someone hack their network. Over the next month, all their chatter was about our idea and how much it would hurt gun sales and take away from the military budget if the war was over. How population would get out of control again. They would give the device to top military brass and the highest bidder, but not to the civilian population at large. Rich and powerfulfirst.”
Cold hard dread seeped into my bones. I couldn’t believe that, but before I could retort, a familiar voice shrilled behindme.
“Kitty!” Tatum squeaked. She was the only human alive I allowed to call me Kitty. Anyone else would get their kneecaps blown off. My conversation with Damien would have to be shelved for anothertime.
“Tate!” I spun around and embraced the twelve-year-old tightly. “Did you pass that algebratest?”
She pulled back and made a face. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Tatum’s idol was Princess Leia fromStar Wars, and she wore some sort ofStar Warsmemorabilia every day, along with her blonde hair in Leia’s signature buns. Today she had a Rebel Alliance pin on hersneakers.
They’d stopped making the movies in 2020 when the ghouls landed. Everything related to entertainment or fun had stopped, actually—except the Miss America pageant of course, because that was super important, apparently. It was all about survival now. All of our manpower went to making weapons and other things pertaining to surviving the DreamWars.
“Well, tonight while we sleep, you can study and Ronnie will go over the answers with you when we wake up.” Her mother homeschooled her so she could work this job for us, and I felt guilty every day that I was taking her childhood fromher.
“Fine,” she moaned. Her eyes fell on Damien then and she blushed. “The new client?” She raised aneyebrow.
Inodded.
“Hey. I’m Tatum.” She stuck out herhand.
All of his earlier fury was gone. He looked exhausted again, but something in him softened when he looked ather.
“Hello, Tatum. It’s a pleasure to have you here.” He shook her hand and she blushedharder.
“He reminds me of Anakin,” she told me, and I smiled. Tatum was prone to crushes and compared every crush to aStar Warscharacter, usually in the older movies. First Nox, then Brisk, nowDamien.
“Before or after he went dark?” I asked, and she laughed before walking into the room to meet thegroup.
“I’m tired.” Damien swayed a little on his feet, looking like he might collapse righthere.
I had to make a judgment call. The ghouls were attracted to him and his brother was a runner, but they might possibly be able to end the Dream Wars with myhelp.
“All right, let’s get the dream bands on and I’ll take us in.” I didn’t even want to talk about the admission that the ghouls were attracted to him. It didn’t matter at that point; I was all in, and the team was too. If his brother could make devices that warded off the ghouls, we had to help. Besides, I’d protected clients who were an attraction to the ghouls before. This was nothingnew.
He shook his head. “I’lltake us in. I have a knack for getting us away from ground zero. It’ll give us more time before the ghouls get tous.”
Hah!“Youcan’tbe that naive.” I spat his words back at him. His whole body tightened, eyes narrowing to glare at me. “You think I get paid a hundred grand a week to let others control the dream?” I asked as my laughterintensified.
He took a step closer to me and I put my free hand on the butt of my gun. This mofo was about to get pistol-whipped.
“You think I’ve kept my whole family alive this entire time by hiring people to protect us?” hespat.
