In one swift move, the breeder grabbed him and closed the portal around him, sucking him into the DreamWars.
My whole body went numb as fear and shock threatened to make me passout.
Maxine was the first to act, shaking me by the shoulders. “Open it backup!”
Her words jarred something in me, and I scrambled to calm my mind.‘Open, open, open,’I thought frantically, but to noavail.
Master Aki moved into my line of sight and placed a hand on either side of my head. “Nothing good can come from panic,” he said, in his normal Zen-liketone.
He was right, of course. I forced my heart to slow its frantic pumping. The edges of my vision were blurry with adrenaline but I breathed through it, trying not to think if Damien was already dead ornot.
The sound of the crashing waves out on the docks, helped to try and switch my body from fight or flight mode, to a more serenestate.
“Now try,” my mentor said. The rest of the gang was standing behind me, gunsdrawn.
I felt for those edges, that heaviness, first with my fingers and then with my mind. I let go of everything but the here and now. In that moment, I was going to open the portal; what happened next, I didn’t need to thinkabout.
Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep calmingbreath.
‘Open.’I imagined a huge hole opening between the two dimensions, giving us access toDamien.
“Let’s move out. No man left behind,” Brisk’s clipped military tone rang out, and my eyes snapped open. I’d opened the gateway and smoke was billowing into this world. I couldn’t see beyond the wreckage, and there was no sign of Damiennearby.
“What happens if we go in there?” Maxine’s voice sounded slightly high-pitched andterrified.
“I imagine we can’t wake up from this. Kit will have to let us back out,” Master Akistated.
Whoa. I hadn’t even wrapped my mind aroundthat.
“Freeze, hands in the air!” someone shouted behindme.
My eyes went wide as I slowly spun around. An entire SWAT team was pointing laser-scope guns at my chest. With them were a few of the FBI agents who had raided Damien’s house in BeverlyHills.
“Close the portal around us,” Maxine whispered, trying not to move her lips. The rest of our team had stepped inside, leaving just Maxine, Master Aki and me standing two feet outside of the Dream Wars, on the docks ofBoston.
“I can’t,” Ireplied.
I figured she meantmovethe portal until it was around us andthenclose it, and that shit was way too complicated. I was having a hard enough time keeping it open with thestress.
“Plan B, then,” she mumbled, and then there was a streak of red hair in my face as she crashed into me like a linebacker, and took both me and Master Aki down, knocking us backward into the Dream Wars. The second I hit the ground, with her weight on top of me and half my weight on Master Aki, I lost concentration and the openingclosed.
Maxine was crazy! They could’ve blasted us full of holes, but it’d worked. That was good enough forme.
“Damien!” I shouted and stood. I wasn’t outfitted for the Dream Wars. I had my Kevlar jumpsuit on, but only my samurai blades and one gun. No plasma cuff or RPG launchers or evenfood.
Standing, I unsheathed the blades and started to run, maneuvering my way around the fire explosion as I scanned my surroundings. There was gunfire over by the building where I’d stolen the water and snacks, and I started running double time in thatdirection.
My legs pumped faster and faster as panic washed overme.
Please let Damien bealive.
I heard Master Aki and Maxine running behind me, and I hoped that Brisk, Nox and Santiago, along with his men, were able to helpDamien.
Coming up behind the back of the building and seeing nothing, I curved to the right and made my way around thefront.
Shit!Damien was underneath the breeder, holding her up by the neck as her teeth chomped in the air. She was riddled with bullets and yet still going strong. There were three sentries and half a dozen ghouls, and everyone was engaged in some kind of battle. Stupidly, none of us had worn our plasma cuffs, so we were back to the good old days, and these bastards werehungry.
Master Aki jumped in front of me, his samurai swords drawn, and started to cut down a path to Damien. He was a sight to behold with such fluid and perfect movements; I could study the swords for fifty more years and never look half as graceful ashim.
