DRAUMRS - Dreamweavers - Book Two

10 - Dark Places

Jake Brun met Tom's medical evacuation plane at a planned stop in Istanbul as it was on-route to Zurich. He didn't need to hear any details from Tom directly to conclude exactly who was to blame for the physical attack. He considered the assault an outlandish breach of trust and a very personal declaration of war by the Red Clan. He couldn't know that the Red Clan agent had carried the means to murder Tom, but had been called off by Xana. That Tom wasn't dead seemed to him to be only due to his resilience and, perhaps, to good luck.

The in-person meeting was more to confirm that Tom wasn't permanently hurt and to advise him of how an aggressive intervention would proceed; it would continue without him, at least for a few days. Sitting next to Tom's stretcher in the medical suite of the executive jet, Jake asked the doctor and attendant to give them some privacy. Tom was now conscious and clearly on the road to recovery. He got up and sat in a chair close to his father.

The one-time dose of drugs was less serious than the local doctors had diagnosed; he was no addict and the apparent skin infections had already faded. He also had much more control of his physiology than local medical doctors would expect. Draumrs weren't superior beings, but they could use any rest period to speed up physical recovery. Each passing hour of sleep allowed him to clear more of the lingering effect of the medications from his system. He was still groggy, but was able to give Jake a full account of what he remembered, or more accurately, what he chose to discuss. The intimate details of his encounter with Xana were off the table.

"I can't definitely say who was behind the attack." He clearly remembered the tender dreamscape encounter with Xana. It was difficult to reconcile the vicious attack with her final words to him. However, she may not have been in control. The Red Clan cousins or Cherry himself were certainly nasty enough to have attempted the blatant assassination of anyone interfering with whatever scheme they had in play. And there was another possibility.

"How do we know that it wasn't the Blue Clan?" he questioned, not really accepting that possibility. "We were on their turf and the Red Clan is the closest thing they have to an ally in the Circles. Maybe, they were just trying to stop a proxy war in their territory. A well-planned disabling stroke with no real damaging consequences would fit their style." The questions were left hanging.

Tom did relate Xana's confession to prior involvement and her admission of specific details of her movement in Hong Kong. The local team had acted as quickly as they could, but was too late to apprehend her. A review of surveillance confirmed that she had done exactly what she had said she would do. Had Tom acted on that information immediately, rather than staying asleep, she could be in their physical custody right now. He felt that the mission failure was all on him due to his capitulation to exhaustion, rather than ensuring that Xana was intercepted.

In spite of the apparent contradiction provided by her confession and willing exposure, Jake wasn't convinced. Without saying so, he judged that Tom had fallen for her trap. In his mind, she had known all about the attack and had hoped that she could confuse them by creating a cover of ostensible innocence. He had already determined that she was guilty, even if only by association.

Tom knew his suggestions wouldn't change Jake's plan at this point. He dreaded where this 'now-personal' fight might end up. All he could hope for was some consideration for mercy.

"I don't want her hurt," he croaked out the request, choking on his dry throat, but also on his mixed emotions. He was fully aware of the potential for violent reaction from Jake and his network of agents. Even if Xana had made her escape good for now, if a 'dead or alive' warrant was put out, her safety was at risk. Jake's own band of hired killers would act first and only ask questions later. They were used to being the final solution for eliminating the vicious criminals, destructive war lords or murderous despots. Surrender usually wasn't desired.

Xana might be a lethal actor with deadly intent, but he was in love with her. In his heart, he believed that she had just wanted him out of the line-of-fire. And if it was her doing, she had executed that plan with precision and with due care for his eventual well-being. He wished that he could take her out of the action just as effectively and safely. If she continued to be involved in killing others, had she sealed her own fate? The warmth of his feelings and his hope for reconciliation of only a few hours ago were fading away to grim acceptance that there might be no easy finale to this play. It was out of his control.

Jake leaned in to speak quietly about his plan of attack.

"We're going to take the fight directly to Cherry. He has set the precedent with the attack on you; we're perfectly justified in closing down his home base and taking him into custody. Plus, we need to rescue Gloria Black, who we presume now has no ability to leave on her own. We believe that she has is concerned for her safety when she says that everything is fine. With a gun to her head, what else can she say? It seems like we made a mistake sending her in."

Tom was taken aback by the audacious plan. Executing an attack would take a significant force. Cherry was on his own turf, where he was surrounded by his own security system and where he most likely controlled both local police and the military. It sounded like a vengeful reaction rather than a considered next-step in controlling the course of the larger conflict.

"How is that even possible?" Tom asked, now somewhat fearful for his father's well-being. "Won't he be inside a fortified compound with lots of armed security?" A public fire-fight wasn't Draumr style, particularly not in the quiet Ukrainian countryside.

"We have been making preparations for a week. This isn't just a reaction to your attack, nor do we expect a lot of violence. If security needs to be removed it will be done quietly by experts already in place. However, with any luck at all, we'll catch most of them sleeping." Jake winked at Tom. He wasn't kidding about the sleeping part.

Responding to Tom's concern for Xana, he added, "We believe that Oksana really did stay in the Hong Kong area, so she is out of the action for now. But, if by some chance she is back home with Cherry, we'll do everything we can to bring her in safely as well. Neither will be hurt unnecessarily by our hands."

He made sure that he had Tom's full attention. "I know that she means something more to you. When the time comes, I will give her every chance to surrender peacefully."

Tom should have known Jake wouldn't head off half-cocked. He had probably been waiting for orders from the First Circle prior to the attack in Hong Kong. Whether he had them now didn't matter; he had put his own plan in motion and would see it through, as he always did.

"Just be careful, father. Even if Cherry is unlikely to be wielding his own cannon, we've seen that the Reds aren't afraid of creating casualties. There are forces at play here that none of us have dealt with in a long time. We have to assume that any dreamscape encounter has a deadly potential."

"All the more reason for me to drop in and resolve this face-to-face, wide-awake." Jake showed no emotion, but Tom knew that 'resolve' included a range of possibilities.

As Sun Tzu advised centuries ago, the best way to kill the snake, or to defeat an army, is to cut off its head. Tom knew that the ancient Blue Clan Draumr spoke and wrote from a time of vicious wars between different sorts of Clans. The advice never seemed more appropriate and timely.