“What do you mean, a third Dreamer?” Agent Percy asked.

  Chris pointed at his bare legs. “This isn’t a fashion choice. One,” he said, holding up a single finger. “The raptors? Two,” he said, and added a second finger. “Now fish? That’s three very distinct and separate dreams,” he explained, his third finger joining the other two.

  Percy scowled at the woman in front of him, but lowered his hand without striking her, while Chris’s team joined him at the intersection of hallways. “You’re saying we have three Dreamers in one building, in one night?”

  “Looks that way,” Chris said.

  “Uh…boss?” Winston said from behind him.

  “What is it, Winston?” Chris asked without turning away from Percy. If the man so much as twitched towards his Waking Dreamer, policy be damned, Chris would…

  “You need to take a look at this. Now,” Winston said, clear urgency in his voice.

  Chris ground his teeth, one last glare at Percy, then spun to see what had gotten Winston’s attention. The agent, bare ass and all, stood looking out the window at the corner of the building.

  Outside?

  “Did the fish get out?” Chris asked, and joined the junior agent.

  “Way worse,” Winston said and pointed.

  The man needn’t have bothered. It was pretty obvious what he was looking at.

  “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Jake said beside Chris. “Though, I don’t think they actually got that big.”

  As if hearing him, the massive lizard, easily five stories tall, turned in their direction and roared, rattling the glass in front of them. It took a step, flattening a half-tonne beneath its three-toed foot, and swung its tail, lamp posts snapping like twigs.

  “Chris?” Jake asked.

  Chris shook his head again. Sure, Jake could handle that, but what would the collateral damage be?

  “Fastest way to stop that is to find the Dreamers,” Chris said. “Double time! Kick in the doors if you have to. And watch out for any more raptors.”

  Chris’s team spread down the hall where they’d come from, following his instructions and bashing their way into the apartments where needed. Procedure during manifestation events was to leave doors unlocked for the containment teams to get in and do their jobs. Pity that most people ignored that.

  “What he said,” Percy said to his team, his eyes going back to the woman still kneeling on the floor. “Don’t just sit there!” he shouted at her, and moved a finger to the watch on his left wrist.

  The woman braced herself, but got to her feet.

  “See, Hero, it took a while to break this one in, but she’s getting it now. Just like a good dog should,” Percy said, a sadistic smile spreading across his face. “Though, not quite fast enough,” he said, his finger sliding ever so slightly on the interface of his smart watch.

  The woman tensed as the metal collar around her neck released a taser-like charge, seizing her muscles and snapping her jaw shut. “That’s for making me wait, Dog,” Percy said, one long second stretching into two, three, four, as the woman’s body shook.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Chris said. Simple human compassion wouldn’t work on Percy. No point even trying. Another crash from outside, followed by a titanic roar emphasized his point.

  “You’re lucky,” Percy said to the woman, and slid his fingers back down on the watch, cutting off the flow of electricity emanating from the woman’s collar. “We’ll pick this back up later,” he said with a wink.

  “Found one!” Rodriguez’s voice shouted from one of the open apartments behind Chris, and he turned away from Percy before he walked over and punched the man.

  “What are you waiting for, wake them up,” Chris shouted back to Rodriguez as he got to the door leading into the apartment. Frame was still intact, which meant the door had been unlocked. Did somebody actually leave their door open like they were supposed to when the fire alarm went off? But, if that was the case, why would they leave somebody sleeping inside?

  Chris left the question for later and strode into the apartment, Jake on his heels, while the others continued the search for the other two Dreamers. A short entryway, a kitchen on his right, and a living room straight ahead where Rodriguez stood.

  “Shaking didn’t work,” Rodriguez said.

  If the blaring fire alarm didn’t wake the person up, it made sense a shake might not work either. “Drugs?” Chris asked, then doubled back to the kitchen.

  “None I can see,” Rodriguez answered while Chris opened the cupboards until he found the glasses. He filled one with cold water then joined the other agent in the living room.

  “Where’d Jake go?” Chris asked.

  Rodriguez make a face then thumbed towards another hallway leading off the living room.

  Hrm. What was the kid looking for?

  Chris shrugged to himself then turned his attention to the man sleeping on the couch. Couldn’t be more than his early-twenties, and the spread books and notes on the coffee table suggested he was a university student. The empty tequila bottle explained why he was sleeping on the couch.

  “Late night studying?” Chris asked Rodriguez, who gave a half-hearted nod. “Sorry about this,” Chris muttered to the sleeper, then threw the glass of water on the man’s face.

  He didn’t even twitch.

  “That…usually works…” Chris said, then leaned forward and pried open one of the sleeper’s eyelids. The eye behind twitched and rolled so fast it almost looked like a slot machine. Chris checked the other eye. Same thing.

  “Still deep in REM sleep,” Chris said.

  “Found the other Dreamers,” Jake said from the hallway off the living room. “There are three more in the bedrooms down here.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Three more? You’re saying there are four Dreamers? In one apartment?” Chris asked. That couldn’t be possible. One Dreamer was the usual. Having two in one apartment building was already unbelievable. Three seemed impossible. But to have four in one apartment? What the hell?

  “Yup,” Jake answered, his usual wistful smile noticeably absent. “Can’t wake them, either.”

  “What did you try?” Chris asked.

  “The usual,” Jake said. “Nothing worked.”

  “All in REM?”

  “Yup.”

  “Did I hear D-3059 right?” Percy said, coming into the apartment.

  “Jake has a name,” Chris said.

  “It does. D-3059. Did either of you think to check it wasn’t lying to you?” Percy continued, then turned down the hall Jake had come from.

  “Ignore him,” Chris said to Jake, his mind trying to balance the shock of there being four Dreamers they couldn’t wake up against his natural disgust at Percy’s words.

  “Percy has a point,” Rodriguez said without looking away from the Dreamer. “If Bill WD-56 passes, they won’t even be considered people anymore.”

  “It won’t pass,” Chris said. “How can anybody vote to make Waking Dreamers things in the eyes of the law? It’s bringing back slavery.”

  Rodriguez half-turned from the Dreamer to eye Jake. “They are too dangerous. That’s why we collar them. Can’t trust them.”

  “Enough, okay?” Chris said. “Focus on figuring out a way to wake this guy up so we can stop that T-Rex outside.”

  “What if we can’t?” Rodriguez asked. “What if we have to…”

  BANG BANG

  Gunshots echoed from down the hall, and Chris barely had time to turn before BANG BANG, two more rang out.

  Away went his EMPistol in a practiced motion, and out came his 9mm. Looters?

  “Agent Percy?” Chris called, leveling his weapon and stalking towards the hallway.

  “Will just be a minute,” Percy called out and crossed the hallway ahead of Chris from one room to the other.

  BANG BANG

  …he didn’t…

  Percy came out of the room he’d just entered and raised an eyebrow at Chris’s gun pointed in his direction. “Shouldn’t you be using that for something else?” Percy asked.

  “Did you…?” Chris started.

  “Invoke clause 22.1? Yes, I did,” Percy answered. “And I’m about to go invoke it one more time,” he continued, gesturing over Chris’s shoulder to the Dreamer on the couch.

  “We could’ve figured something else out,” Chris said, but lowered his weapon. “22.1 is supposed to be a last resort. There are other things we could’ve tried.”

  “You saw what was outside. It might still be there. When did you go soft, Hero? Weren’t you the first one who invoked 22.1? Or, did you make up all that Nightscape stuff to get a medal pinned on your chest?”

  “This isn’t the same,” Chris argued. But, wasn’t it? That dinosaur outside proved the dream figments had escaped the confines of the building. A few ‘Cepts around, and the whole thing could blow out of proportion. Still, to kill the Dreamers without really trying to wake them…

  “If you’re not going to do your job, I will,” Percy said, and shouldered his way past Chris to join Rodriguez beside the couch.

  “We can…” Chris started.

  BANG BANG

  Percy put two rounds in the Dreamer’s head without missing a beat, blood and bits of skull exploding out to splatter across the wall.

  The weight of their job settled on Chris’s shoulders, and he holstered his 9mm. Clause 22.1, the right to kill a Dreamer when all other recourse to wake them had failed. How often had it been used since he’d been forced to all those years ago? Barely a handful of times, and here they were, four times in one apartment.

  His eyes lifted and met Percy’s, a sadistic glee dancing there. The same glee he’d shown when activating the collar on his Waking Dreamer.

  Chris shook his head and turned towards the door. They still needed to check the rest of the apartments to make sure there wasn’t a fifth Dreamer somewhere in the building.

  “Boss?” Winston asked from the just out in the hall. “What happened?”

  “We found the…” Chris started.

  “You got a problem with what I did?” Percy’s shout came from behind Chris. “You think you can judge me?”

  Chris turned as Percy stalked across the room and put the barrel of his gun against Jake’s forehead, the kid’s eyes narrowed at the other agent.

  “There are better ways you could’ve done that. Ways that would’ve let his family see him at the funeral,” Jake said, his voice dangerously low.

  “Better ways?” Percy asked, pressing the recently-fired barrel so that it sizzled against the skin of Jake’s forehead. “Let me tell you something, D-3059, the best way to deal with a Dreamer, any Dreamer, is two to the head,” Percy said, and leaned in close so that his nose was almost touching Jake’s beneath the gun.

  “Agent Percy,” Chris barked, but moved slowly. Even with Rodriguez in the room, it would be his word against Percy’s if the volatile agent decided to pull the trigger.

  “Remember, two to the head,” Percy told Jake. “Bang, bang.” Then he stepped back and smiled. “Any Dreamer.”

  Turning, Percy looked right at Chris. “Keep your dog on his leash, or somebody will have to put him down,” he said, then sauntered towards the door.

  Chris took a breath to calm his nerves. If that had…wait, he flared his nostrils, sucking in the air. The scent of salt water? His head snapped in Jake’s direction, at the kid’s glazed over eyes, and more importantly, at the bubbles trailing his fingers, like he was dragging them along the surface of the ocean.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Chris’s hand snapped to his wrist, and the touchpad for the uppers. Please be in time. He flicked the switch, and it wasn’t his imagination when he heard the slight pop of the needle in Jake’s collar puncturing the kid’s skin. One heartbeat, then two, and Jake’s eyes widened, the pupils dilating, and full wakefulness returned.

  But the smell of the salt water hadn’t completely faded, and Chris took two steps over to the window and swung it open. The cool night air flowed over him just as Percy called from the doorway.

  “What’s that smell?” Percy asked, his gun still in his hand.

  “I was feeling a little claustrophobic,” Chris said, one eye on Rodriguez to gauge if the other man had noticed. When he didn’t say anything about it, Chris turned his attention back to Percy.

  “Whatever, Hero, just be careful not to fall out. It would be such a shame if the force lost one of its…veterans,” Percy said, finally disappearing into the hallway.

  “Boss?” Winston asked from the door, his head swiveling between Percy and Chris.

  “Finish the circuit of the building. This floor and the one above. You have pants again, thank God, but that doesn’t mean there might not be another Dreamer. Be thorough,” Chris ordered, his shoulders heavy.

  “Yessir,” Winston said. “Do you need…?”

  “No, go,” Chris answered sharply, then immediately shook his head. “I’ll be along in a minute,” he continued more gently. It wasn’t Winston he was angry with. No reason to take it out on him.

  Winston nodded and vanished into the hallway.

  “I don’t know why you protect him like you do,” Rodriguez said, his voice just loud enough for Chris to hear, but his eyes were on Jake. “He’s dangerous. If you hadn’t…”

  “How many times has he saved our lives? Your life?” Chris asked.

  Rodriguez finally turned and met Chris’s eyes. “And that’s the only reason I didn’t say something. But, let me be straight with you. If you hadn’t stopped him, I would have.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Rodriguez. Is there anything else you wanted to say, or are you ready for new orders?” Chris asked, the tone of his voice flat despite the emotions roiling in his gut. When there wasn’t a response, Chris went on. “Check on Miranda. That raptor was out of her weight class, and I don’t want her losing her edge because of it. Take her right out of the building if you have any reservations about her ability to handle another figment today.”

  “You think she might lose her abilities as a Skeptic?” Rodriguez asked.

  “She wouldn’t be the first,” Chris said. “Her powers literally come from her disbelief in dreams. But, a few run-ins with dreams that almost rip your throat out can really turn you into a believer. I’ll expect your observations in the morning.”

  Rodriguez looked from Chris to Jake, then back to Chris like he might add something after all. “Understood,” he said instead, and quick-stepped out of the room.

  “You okay, kid?” Chris asked Jake when Rodriguez was gone.

  Jake gently touched his forehead where the gun barrel had burned a circle, but finally nodded. “I think so. Sorry, and…thank you. Rodriguez is right. I almost did something…”

  “Almost,” Chris interrupted quickly. “Almost. But you didn’t.”

  “Only because you stopped me. I was ready to pull Percy into the deepest, darkest place I could,” Jake said. “If you hadn’t brought me back…”

  “I’m your Tether,” Chris said. “That’s my job.”

  Jake nodded stiffly. It wasn’t that simple, not for either of them, but they wouldn’t say any more.

  “Let’s get going, kid,” Chris finally said as the awkward seconds of silence stretched. “We still need to clear the rest of the building, call this in, and figure out what the hell just happened.”