Shades

17

"And you changed into a bird?"

Isabel stared at Michael. "An owl," she corrected him. She sat on his couch in his house, feeling a little lightheaded from all the exertion of doing the dreamwalking.

"Same difference," Michael said with a shrug.

"When you put it like that," Maria said, "the whole dreamwalk loses some of the coolness effect."

Michael looked at Maria. "Turning into a bird is cool?"

"Not just any bird," Isabel said again. "An owl. And yes, it was cool."

"Good for you," Michael said. "How does that help us?"

Isabel stood with Max's help. "River Dog showed me his cave. And where the… travelers… took him."

"They captured him?" Valenti asked.

"In a way," Isabel said. Her legs grew more steady. "His body is where he left it, but they have his mind. Actually they only think they have River Dog's mind. They don't know he was talking to me. Come on. I'll explain on the way."

Max rode shotgun in Valenti's SUV, staring into the lights of oncoming cars and feeling his eyes burn as if they were being microwaved. Anxiety thrummed within him.

Valenti drove a sedate five miles over the speed limit, handling the vehicle effortlessly. So far they'd passed two state police cars, a truck from the sheriff's department, and five Hummers filled with National Guardsmen. The radio and the scanner mounted under the dash continued to report poltergeist activity in and around Roswell. Law enforcement and military teams were responding.

"The area of effect is getting larger," Valenti commented.

Max nodded. Reports were coming in from the other side of Roswell now. At the rate of progression, the ghosts would be haunting other cities besides Roswell by morning.

"Is Isabel back with us yet?"

Turning, Max gazed into the backseat. Maria, Isabel, and Liz were sandwiched into the rear seat. Michael and Kyle sat hunkered on the rear deck.

Isabel sat between the two other girls. She was asleep, dreamwalking again, getting more information from River Dog that they would need to confront the travelers.

"No," Max answered. Before he could stop himself, he gazed out the window, looking for owls flying through the dark night sky. It was silly, he supposed. Maybe Isabel dreamed that she was an owl when she was with River Dog in the dreamwalk, but she didn't actually turn into one.

The car's greenish instrument lights painted Valenti's face in hard lines. "Do you believe she's really talking to River Dog? Or do you think those… things… the travelers are setting us up? Passing themselves off as River Dog to her?"

Max only thought about the question for a moment. "She's talking to River Dog. Isabel would know if she wasn't."

"I'm not so sure," Valenti said. "Today I saw the ghost of a woman I never thought I'd see again. Most people around here don't even remember her murder. If the travelers can find that out, maybe they do a pretty good River Dog imitation, too."

"No," Max said. "Isabel would know."

"We could be headed into a trap."

Max nodded. "We're headed into their stronghold. Trap or no trap, I don't think it gets any worse than that."

Valenti was silent for a moment. "The scary part is, you're probably right."

"But we don't have a choice," Max said. "If we don't try to stop this, events in the Mesaliko village and Roswell are going to get worse." He paused. "This situation has already attracted the attention of the government agencies. They may get interested in setting up an operation in Roswell again." The last one had almost caught them all, and would have if Nacedo hadn't stepped in.

"Max," Valenti said softly, "I don't think the government agencies ever got uninterested."

Max looked at him.

"It's nothing I've heard or seen," Valenti said. "But I've been around government agencies a lot lately. Got a really close look only a few months ago. Maybe not as close a look as you did."

Max silently agreed with that. He would never forget the things he had been subjected to in the white room where he'd been held.

"Government people like that," Valenti said, "never really give up. They just go away for a while. Till they find a new angle to use. Then they start all over again, digging and prying and pulling till something busts free."

"That's kind of downbeat, don't you think?" Maria commented from the backseat.

Valenti sighed. "Maybe it's the way things have been going on, or maybe it's just me. Kyle's been trying to tell me that I'm carrying around too much negative energy these days."

Max gazed at the front windshield. The instrument illumination created a reflection in the glass. He stared at Liz's image as she looked through one of the side windows.

"Maybe it would be better if a government agency or the military handled this," Maria suggested. "We could tip them off."

"No," Valenti said. "You've seen the government at work. Whatever these… travelers… are, a federal agency's first impulse is going to be to learn how to control them. To see if they can use the travelers. I don't know whether to be more concerned about them being able to control these things or not being able to control them."

"He's right," Max said. "We'll do this ourselves." If we can. If Isabel and River Dog can come up with enough information for us to act on.

Just knowing the location of the travelers wasn't going to be enough. That might only be enough to get them killed.

On owl's wings again, Isabel glided over the desert landscape. She had an owl's eyesight as well, and her vision turned the night into a confluence of light and dark that she could see through as easily as if it were bright as day.

She rode the dying thermals instinctively now, surprised at how quickly she learned the basics of winged flight. Of course, this was a dreamwalk. Pretty much anything she imagined in a dreamwalk was possible. Kyle had found that out when they'd experimented with a Playboy Playmate from an issue of the magazine. However Kyle hadn't found out as much as he'd wanted to about wish fulfillment.

Isabel's keen eyesight picked out River Dog sitting atop a ridge near where his physical body lay in a coma. Yet, he was miles away from the place where the travelers thought they had him trapped. If she had time to think too much about the situation, Isabel knew she could get confused.

On the ridge below, River Dog raised his hand in salutation.

Dropping a wing, Isabel lost altitude, stopping short of an actual plummet. The approach she had to take to reach River Dog was different from the one she'd used in the other dreamwalks she'd undertaken. Usually in those, all she'd had to do was link her mind with the person's she sought. But to get to River Dog, she'd had to journey.

Almost on top of River Dog, Isabel stretched out a wing to his outstretched right hand. Her feathers brushed his hand, but by the time her feet touched the ground, her feathers were fingers. He helped her step down from the air.

"Thank you," Isabel said.

River Dog inclined his head. "You have returned."

"Yes."

"The way was not difficult?"

"No. I had to look for you, though. That's not something I usually have to do."

River Dog let out a long breath, and the chill filling the desert night turned his breath misty gray. "You have brought the others?"

"They're on their way," Isabel assured him. "We're on our way."

"You told them the danger was grave?"

"Yes."

"Many would not take on such a dangerous undertaking."

"We didn't feel we had a choice," Isabel said. "I think you felt the same way. That was why you came up into the mountains looking for the travelers."

"Perhaps," River Dog agreed.

"We don't have much time," Isabel said. "What have you found out?" During their last conversation, River Dog had let her know that the part of him held by the travelers was learning things from the travelers that they weren't aware of. And, in turn, when his other self knew about the travelers, the part of him that he kept involved in the vision quest knew about them as well. However his conversation with Isabel was kept separate from the part of him that the travelers kept captive.

"The travelers came here a long time ago," River Dog. "In the before time, when even the Chinese had not begun marking the days. The travelers were on their way back from a battle that spanned incredible distances across space when their ship failed. Until that failure, the travelers were able to jump from star to star."

Isabel committed the story to memory, knowing she would have to tell Max and the others.

"The travelers were supposed to hold their position," River Dog went on, "until help arrived and the ship could be repaired or abandoned. Whichever became necessary. They were not allowed to remain there because their enemy, a ferocious band of warriors, didn't allow them to. They fled, making a final jump with their faulty star engine. When they reappeared in what they considered normal space, their ship was crippled worse than before. First they were trapped by the pull of the moon, then as they came around the moon, the earth caught them and pulled them in. They slammed into the desert here, arriving as a flaming comet. Gradually the sands of the desert pulled the wreckage down into the earth where I showed you."

"How are you talking to them?" Isabel asked, amazed at the wealth of information that the old man had accumulated.

"By the same means they are talking to me," River Dog answered. "It is all part of the vision quest. Perhaps the Mesaliko who first encountered the travelers learned it from them. Or perhaps the Mesaliko taught the vision quest to the travelers."

"How many travelers are there?" Isabel asked.

River Dog shook his head. "I don't know. I have asked them about this, but the answer is confusing. I know there are many, but they say there is only one. The drones are questioning me at the moment."

"The drones?" Isabel asked. "The little metal bugs? Like the one the corpse in Leroy Wilkins's basement had in the bag around his neck?"

"Yes," River Dog replied. "There are thousands of them. Like ants in an anthill. I've seen them. But since the four travelers came for me in the cave, I haven't seen any more of them. They are content to let the drones deal with me and the problems I present."

"You never said how they found you."

River Dog hesitated for a moment. "I think it was the vision quest. And once they found me, they didn't want to let me go. They still don't."

Without warning River Dog's image flickered into and out of existence in rapid syncopation. Concern darkened his features as he turned away from Isabel. "You need to go," he whispered hoarsely, and his voice carried scratchy white noise. "They have found you, Isabel. The drones have found you. If they are able, they will destroy you and your friends."

"I'll be back," Isabel promised. "We're on our way." Then she let herself be pulled from the dreamwalk and back into her body.

In the dark reflection against the windshield, Max saw Isabel stir and come awake. She pushed herself forward, staring down the highway.

"They're coming," she said.

"Who?" Valenti snapped.

"The drones," Isabel answered.

"What drones?" Valenti asked.

"The insect-things," Isabel said.

"Like the spider-thing I saw in the hospital," Kyle said.

"And like I saw when I dreamwalked Leroy Wilkins," Isabel said.

Max peered at the road, wondering if he'd even be able to see the small creatures. "What are the drones?"

"Tiny robots," Isabel replied. "The travelers have been using them to spy on the Mesaliko and Roswell."

"Spy gear," Michael said.

"And weapons," Isabel said. "River Dog says the ship is filled with drones. They were responsible for repairing the ship."

"So have you seen the travelers?" Maria asked.

Isabel shook her head. "River Dog said four of them entered the cave and captured him."

"I thought you said River Dog was in a prayer cave or something," Liz said.

Max saw his sisters brow furrow in frustration.

"River Dog is in the cave," Isabel said. "He thought they took him too. But it was all an illusion. They became forceful with him, trying to find more weaknesses and superstitions to use against the Mesaliko and the people in Roswell, and he found he was still in the vision quest." She pointed. "There's a road up there. Off to the right. It's a dirt road. You'll need to take it."

"They captured River Dog in his vision quest?" Maria asked.

"Yes," Isabel said.

"A psychic captive," Kyle said.

"More or less," Isabel agreed.

"Then River Dog hasn't even been to this downed alien ship," Valenti said.

"I've seen it," Isabel said.

Valenti glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "I don't mean to insult you, Isabel, but you've only seen what you thought was an alien spacecraft… the travelers' spacecraft… while you were dreamwalking River Dog."

"It's the only plan we have," Max stated quietly.

"If the travelers have River Dog captive, how did he get away?" Valenti asked. He pulled onto the dirt road when Isabel pointed again. At the speed he was traveling, the tires slid through the dirt for just a moment, then grabbed traction again and hurtled them down the road.

"When I dreamwalk, the things I see are real. You know that. That's how we found Laurie Dupree in Frazier Woods."

Nobody, Max noticed, said anything about that. Laurie Dupree's salvation had come at a cost to all of them in the long run.

"How can River Dog be in three different places at the same time?" Maria asked.

"When I leave my body on a dreamwalk," Isabel said, "part of my mind stays with my body, keeps the autonomous system going."

Maria looked over the seat at Michael. "The autonomous system keeps the heart and lungs functioning while you're sleeping," she said. "And other things."

Michael gave her a sour look. "I knew that."

"Maybe," Isabel said, "in time I could learn to do what River Dog has done and split off another part of my conscious mind so I can be in two places at one time."

"A doppelganger," Kyle said. "Another self. Some of the out-of-body-experience people talk about that."

"A psychic clone," Michael suggested.

"A master-slave system the way computers are set up," Maria said.

"Doesn't matter," Valenti said. "We'll have to accept that River Dog is in more than two places. However he's doing it."

Max stared into the darkness ahead. Off-road now, Valenti's SUV sped across the dirt road, raising a giant fog of dust that trailed after them like a predatory beast. Metal glimmered in the night, turning dusky gold from the SUV's headlights and occasional silver from the moon.

"There," he said, pointing.

Valenti looked at the tiny shimmering bits of silver and gold. "Could be dust picked up by the headlights."

Then the cloud of spots shifted directions, whipping around and heading on an interception course with the SUV

"Or not," Michael said.

The eeriness of the attack, Max decided, was the absolute quiet. The shimmering things closed rapidly, changing direction as if gravity had no effect on them. Hugging the terrain, they sped for the SUV without hesitation.

"How did they find us?" Valenti asked.

"I don't know," Isabel answered.

"How did River Dog know?"

"There wasn't time to ask."

"Doesn't matter," Michael said. "Just keep the speed up. What are those tiny things going to do? Shatter against the truck? They're stupid."

"They don't think," Isabel said. "They were designed to react."

Tensely, Max watched as the drones unerringly closed in on the SUV The cloud of attackers was broken up into patches, like formations. In the next instant the lead formation smashed into the truck.

The drones sounded like grit in a sandstorm peppering the SUV's body. Metallic pings echoed hollowly inside the truck, sounding virtually inoffensive. Then Max spotted the tears in the sheet metal of the hood just before the first of the drones smacked into the windshield.

More drones struck the windshield, penetrating into the glass. Spiderwebbed fractures ran across the glass instantly. As the safety glass broke into cubes the way it was designed to do, some of them blasted over Max and Valenti. The glass cubes weren't harmful, but they served to let Max know that the windshield wasn't going to stand up to the battering. If the attack kept up, the drones were going to tear through the glass and rip like arrows into the flesh-and-blood targets on the other side.

"Max," Isabel called, maintaining control with effort.

Understanding, Max threw up his hand. Energy and blue-white light pulsed from his hand, creating the force field he'd used before. He started with a surface on the other side of the windshield, watching as the drones struck the shield and burst into brief, sparking wisps that died almost at once and sounded like popcorn popping.

Valenti cursed, not at all happy with how close the attack had come. One of the SUV's headlights burst in a muffled explosion.

Max kept the shield in place, straining himself and making the protective surface bigger, bending it until it became a bubble that protected them all the way around.

Keeping the shield intact while aboard a moving vehicle made it even harder.

The SUV slowed slightly.

"Drive," Max said.

"People," Valenti groaned. "There are people ahead."

Gazing ahead, trying to keep focused enough to maintain the force field, Max saw figures suddenly lurch and stumble from the shadows. The single cone of light that remained from the SUV's headlights played over the swaying figures of men and women. Blood covered their faces. Some of them were missing arms and legs, and others dragged their broken bodies with their hands.