The Professor’s laptop computer exploded midair, sending pieces of plastic and metal outwards in a rapidly expanding fireball that shattered the windows with an ear-splitting crash.
For what felt like a long minute, no-one moved or spoke. The shock swirled around the room.
‘Is everybody OK?’ Lora finally asked, getting to her feet.
Sam stood up slowly, turning to the others, who all seemed to be unhurt. Then he looked across at the smashed window panes. On the manicured grass below, the Professor’s laptop was little more than tiny pieces of plastic and metal shards and silicon chips, the charred remains scorched into the lawn.
Lucky there were no students out there.
‘That was a message from Matrix,’ Tobias said, as two Guardians stormed into the room with dart guns drawn. ‘He must have planted an explosive in your computer and activated it remotely.’
‘I believe that was meant to do more than just give me a message, Tobias,’ the Professor said, still in shock himself. ‘And I took that laptop with me on my trip to meet with the Council in Paris, so it could have been planted by anyone there. Stella has many more people than just Matrix working with her. The Egyptian Guardians have shown a liking for blowing things up too.’
Sam remembered back to that evening in New York, watching the Egyptian Guardians storming into the Museum of Natural History to blow up the Dream Stele.
‘Even I have underestimated just how cautious we all need to be—at all times,’ the Professor sighed.
‘We must search the entire campus in case there are any more explosives,’ Lora said, motioning over the two Guardians. She murmured urgent instructions to them. One quickly began relaying information via his handset while the other began sweeping the room with some kind of electronic device.
‘They’re scanning to see if there are any radio or remote waves,’ Lora explained. ‘And a full-scale search of the grounds is now underway.’
‘Do you think there could be more bombs?’ Eva asked. She was sitting down, pale, watching the Guardian check the room.
‘I could be wrong, but I don’t think so,’ Lora said. ‘That was very close. Compared to what happened at the Academy this attack seemed quite specifically directed at the Professor. Nevertheless I agree we all must take extra precautions.’
The Guardians declared the room all clear and left to join the sweep of the grounds.
‘Yes, indeed, I believe that was meant for me,’ the Professor said, looking out the window, sadness in his eyes. ‘Perhaps it was a back-up plan, after the Switzerland attack. In all my time … I never thought that it would come to this.’
‘Solaris, Stella, Hans and now Mac—they don’t play by the same rules as us,’ Tobias said.
Sam was lost in his thoughts for a moment, running everything over again in his head. ‘It could have been planted even further back than Paris,’ he suggested, ‘just waiting for the day when it was needed.’
The Professor nodded.
Sam looked to Eva and saw that she was really spooked. He walked over to her and gave her a reassuring hug.
‘Well,’ the Professor said, ‘we can’t let them scare us into submission, we must push onwards. Time is clearly very much of the essence. Sam, I heard you’d had your next dream?’
‘I’ve seen the place, but I’m not sure exactly where it is—or who the next Dreamer is,’ Sam said, before adding, ‘it’s in Brazil, that much I know. I met Pablo, the Councillor, there.’
‘Maybe the person who tried to help you out of the water was the next Dreamer?’ Eva said.
‘Maybe,’ Sam said. Lora and the Professor exchanged a knowing look as Sam recounted the rest of his dream, from being with Pablo on the ferry, to struggling in the torrents of the Amazon amid the fiery wreck of the boat. He explained how he saw Solaris watching, satisfied, from the shore. And the reaching hands of the blurry figure that tried to save him.
‘I see … Sam, I think you should leave on the next flight to Brazil,’ the Professor said. Lora was already on her phone making travel arrangements.
‘Even though I couldn’t see who the Dreamer was?’
The Professor nodded and said, ‘I have every faith that you will.’
‘Tobias,’ the Professor said, ‘please notify our colleagues at the Enterprise about our plans. We don’t want any further surprises or misunderstandings today.’
Sam shook his head a little. It still didn’t feel right to be talking about working with the Enterprise, and giving them information. Sam could tell the others in the room felt the same way about the uneasy but necessary alliance that had been forced upon both sides.
‘At least having them onside should even up the playing field a little,’ Tobias said grimly.
Maybe this really is our only way to win the race.
‘Jack has moved what’s left of the Enterprise operations to a new site in Amsterdam,’ Lora said, hanging up the phone. ‘I’ll liaise with them and organise how to move forward together.’
‘I’ll go with Sam to Brazil,’ Tobias announced. ‘We’ll meet up with Pablo, and try to find this next Dreamer.’
‘I’ll let Pablo know you’re on your way,’ the Professor said. ‘Jedi will set up the dream-reading computer package here as soon as he is able. He’s down at the boathouse setting up his new computer lab.’
‘Boathouse?’ Sam asked.
‘The rowing shed, down by the river,’ Lora explained, ‘just at the edge of the forest out there. Jedi has a lab set up there. He’s working to restore the back-up of all the Swiss Academy’s data.’
‘Sam, until the whole system is back online,’ the Professor said, ‘we will have to rely on all that you can remember from your dream.’
‘Well,’ Sam said, ‘I have remembered something else. The name of the ferry I was on, a bit of it, anyway. ‘I remember seeing part of a word—Roos—printed on a lifebuoy.’
‘Good work, Sam,’ the Professor said. ‘We will start looking into that here.’
‘I’ve got you, Tobias and Xavier on the first flight to Brazil in the morning,’ Lora said to Sam, after typing away furiously on her phone.
‘Xavier?’ Sam asked, puzzled.
He looked to the Professor who simply smiled and said, ‘Yes, it would seem he may have a part to play.’
‘We received a call from Pablo yesterday to say a package had arrived at his university,’ Lora added, ‘It’s addressed to Xavier Dark, Junior.’
‘We must trust in these coincidences that are not coincidences at all,’ the Professor said.
Sam nodded and said, ‘I understand. You can count on us.’
‘We’ll have Pablo meet us at the airport with all the Brazilian Guardians,’ Tobias said, standing. ‘Sam—let’s find Xavier, and get packed and ready.’
‘Wait, there’s something else,’ Sam said, standing and pausing by the door. ‘My backpack—it’s back in Monaco, with Hans.’
‘What was in there?’ Lora asked.
‘My phone. And on it, a copy of the maps that I found hidden in the Vatican library.’
‘So now Hans has a copy …’ Lora said, the revelation sitting heavy with her.
‘He would have found a way to get there anyway,’ the Professor said. ‘We just have to move faster. Are you sure you feel up to it, Sam?’
‘Going out into the field?’ Sam said. ‘Absolutely.’
‘Good,’ the Professor said. ‘We’ll see about steering your dreams back to the point where you woke up and see if you can see that next Dreamer.’
‘I can help with that,’ Tobias said.
‘Excellent.’ The Professor stood and looked at the damaged windows from the explosion. ‘Let’s meet again tonight, yes? Oh, and Sam, pop down to see Jedi if you have a moment before you leave, I think he has something for you.’