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  This one’s for Jesse—an excellent Pete and occasional traitor—JP.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Our Battle Continues

  Previously

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Collage

  Preview of The Last Thirteen: 4

  Sneak Peek

  About the Author

  Copyright

  PREVIOUSLY

  As the bomb threatens to explode, Solaris unexpectedly gives Sam back the Gears Mac stole from him. Sam manages to break free and flee the Denver site in an escape pod before blacking out.

  Sam has strange dreams he does not understand, until he is woken by the next Dreamer, Arianna. She rescues him from a Hypnos centre in Moscow, revealing she is a Nyx, and has had her dreams taken from her. Fleeing to the Kremlin to seek help, they are double-crossed and have to run from the Hypnos and Hans, who has stolen Arianna’s Gear.

  Alex and Shiva try to realize Tesla’s dream of tapping into the Dreamscape by reactivating his coils in a long-abandoned Dreamer warehouse in New York. Siphoning off power from City Hall, they succeed in bringing the coils online, only to have them explode spectacularly, knocking them both unconscious.

  Eva learns about a Dreamer contest called the Four Corners Competition at the Academy’s London campus. Cody arrives and she interrogates him about what happened in Denver. After Eva dreams of a thirteen-symbol zodiac, the Professor urges her to go with Dr. Dark to investigate its significance. However, when Dr. Kader comes aboard their plane to New York, Eva pulls a gun on him, knowing he has betrayed Sam.

  Sam and Arianna travel to Siberia by train, where Arianna and the Nyx are planning an assault on the Hypnos base there. But before they can attack, Hans kidnaps them both, drugging Sam to force him to dream.

  Alex comes to in a New York hospital, to be questioned by the same two cops he met there before. He does some fast-talking to get himself and Shiva released, returning to Shiva’s apartment to regroup. On their way back to the warehouse, they’re confronted by Stella and Matrix.

  Sam fights to control his dreams and to give nothing away to Hans. Awakening, he’s trapped in a cell with a fire breaking out all around him. There is no way to escape as the flames close in …

  01

  SAM

  Outside the room the fire raged.

  Sweat ran down Sam’s face. He started to hyperventilate.

  Stay calm.

  Smoke seeped under the door, filling the room with a black haze. Sam returned to the bed and tore off the bottom of the sheet. He ran to the small sink in the corner of the room and soaked the cloth, wrapping it around his mouth and nose and tying it behind his head. He kept low, frantically searching the bare room for anything that might help him escape.

  The bed?

  He checked the bed frame and the sturdy legs underneath.

  Metal. I could try to break it apart, use part of the metal frame as a crowbar to prise open the door …

  BANG!

  Sam looked at the door. Through the small window he could see a black mask staring at him through the billowing smoke.

  No!

  Sam paused.

  That’s not Solaris.

  He rushed to the mesh grill to look closer. The mask was a gas mask, with a large clear visor covering the eyes. Even with his mind cloudy, he knew those eyes.

  Arianna!

  She pointed at him and then made a shooing motion.

  Get away from the door—right!

  Sam quickly jumped back to the other side of the room.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Tiny explosives detonated in quick succession and the door was blown clear off its hinges, flying across the room and hitting the wall opposite, mere centimetres from where Sam stood.

  “Wow!” Sam said, impressed.

  Arianna rushed into the room and, without speaking, pulled a dart pistol from a holster strapped to her thigh and shot him in the arm. He looked down at the dart.

  What …? Why would she …?

  He felt a rush of adrenalin, and was immediately more awake than he could ever remember feeling.

  “Put this on!” Arianna yelled at Sam, taking another gas mask from her pack. “And stay close behind me!”

  Sam put on the mask and shadowed Arianna as they made their way down the hallway through clearing smoke.

  Is the fire out now?

  In a large office two doors away, Sam could see Hans lying on the ground, unconscious. Just then, a Hypnos soldier staggered toward them from within the wall of dense smoke ahead, gun in hand.

  Arianna reacted fast.

  Swiftly, looking just like the gymnast he knew her to be, Sam watched as she cartwheeled in a heartbeat, kicking the guy with her flying foot. He fell to the ground unconscious. Two more soldiers followed close behind, and she moved just as quickly. This time Sam was with her. Together they jumped—a twist, a kick, dart guns firing and it was all over.

  Arianna’s a gymnastic ninja! Glad she’s on my side.

  “We have to go!” Arianna said, her eyes anxious through her visor.

  “Wait!”

  Sam bent down to Hans and took the small case he still clutched in one hand. Flipping the lid, Sam could see the Gears, retrieved from Brazil and Cuba, and also Cody’s from the US. And there was one more—

  “That’s mine. Stolen from me, taken from my stolen dream. Now we take it back,” Arianna said defiantly.

  Sam nodded and smiled. He picked up the case, closing it carefully and tucking it under his arm. “Time to go.”

  We’re really back in the race now.

  02

  “How much can you remember about what happened?” Arianna asked him as the car bumped along the dirt road. Sam thought about the question and had a strange sense of déjà vu.

  “You gave me a shot in my arm, adrenalin, I think,” he said, still watching through his side window. “There was all that fire and smoke as we ran out from the building, just before a big explosion.”

  He sat next to Arianna in the back of a four-wheel drive, Boris at the wheel. They’d been driving for an hour, heading southeast to the closest border.

  “It wasn’t just adrenalin,” Arianna said. “It was also the antidote to the memory-blocker they gave you.”

  “Well, whatever it was,” Sam said, “I’m really awake now. One thing I’m sure I remember—you were trapped with me, right? Tied up like I was … what happened after I started dreaming? How did you …?”

  Arianna grinned. “There was one thing Hans was not expecting—we had a member of the Nyx working inside the compound. A secret weapon, you would say?”

  Sam nodded. “Yes, I would say! But you and Boris never mentioned having someone on the inside.”

  “I’m sorry, we had to trust no one to keep Oleg safe whi
le he pretended to be with the Hypnos. Only a handful of us even knew he was there,” Arianna said. “When we were captured, he was there to set me free and I came looking for you. I hoped to find you before you dreamed too long or forgot too much.”

  “And I’m very grateful, believe me. But my memories are still foggy.”

  “It will take up to twenty-four hours for the Hypnos’ drug to get out of your system,” Arianna explained. “It’ll help if you keep reading those notes,” she added.

  Sam nodded and read over the notes on the tablet screen—all kinds of collected data on the last 13.

  “Well,” Arianna said to Boris, “that rescue went better than I thought.”

  Boris nodded in agreement but his eyes did not leave the road.

  Sam looked to Arianna and then to Boris. “What did you think would happen? It seemed pretty full on to me.”

  “Well, not all the Hypnos sites across the country fell so easily,” Arianna said. “There were heavy casualties on both sides. But, as far as we know, all the sites have been destroyed by the Nyx.”

  “That sounds amazing.”

  Nyx are the good guys, Hypnos are the bad guys, Sam remembered. He looked down at the case holding the Gears.

  Like Hans. And … Stella, and Solaris. They all want these, we can’t let them get the Gears back. Hang on, who’s we …?

  “My friends! I need to return to the Academy,” Sam said urgently.

  “We know,” Boris replied in halting English. “We drive for airport.”

  Sam relaxed a little and nodded. He started to smile as a face came to mind—Eva. And there were others, part of the last 13, he was sure. He went back to reading, slotting together more missing memories, returning to him slowly piece by piece. He pulled up a new file on screen. It read: The Last 13 Update—The Professor of the Academy informed the Council that Sam continues to be the pivotal figure of the last 13; the only one who can dream of these 13 special Dreamers from anywhere around the world. To date, Sam has been instrumental in finding Dreamers in France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Cuba and the United States, and in uncovering Gears in each of these locations.

  Sam couldn’t clearly remember being in any of those places, but as the names and the faces of the other Dreamers followed, he started to recognize them. Other files, from reports of his time in Germany, showed a very different face to the one he saw in the reflection of the tablet computer’s screen.

  Was I in disguise in Germany?

  Sam touched the back of his head—it was shaved, but there was no scar.

  It was only a dream.

  “Thank you,” Sam said to Arianna. “For everything.”

  “You’re welcome,” Arianna replied. “You should get some rest.”

  Sam nodded. “Will I dream yet?” he said.

  Arianna paused. “Maybe … probably.”

  “Has—has destroying the Hypnos’ facilities changed everything?” he asked her. “Will you dream again? And remember your dreams?”

  Arianna smiled and Sam saw tears well in her eyes when she said, “Yes.”

  03

  SAM’S NIGHTMARE

  It is so bright that I feel like I’m looking into the sun. Voices shout out over the top of each other—some in English, others in a very different language. It’s Japanese, I think.

  “Issey—over here!”

  “Good luck, Issey!”

  “Smile!”

  I shield my eyes with a raised hand—the bright lights all around me are camera flashes.

  Dozens of them, like the paparazzi mobs I’ve seen on TV. They’re all pointing in my direction, the incessant flashes so close together it’s like a constant blinding blaze. Issey is behind me. I turn to look at him. Wow. He’s probably one of the coolest guys I’ve ever seen.

  Actually, no. Issey is by far and away the coolest guy I’ve ever seen.

  Looking around me at the neon-blazing signs towering in every direction, I take an educated guess—we are in the middle of Tokyo. Issey is walking down the red carpet rolled out in front of us, his black spiky hair perfectly styled. He wears skinny black jeans and a leather jacket that a racing driver would be proud of. It’s covered in logos and brand names, seemingly every major company in the world sponsoring him so they get to be part of his publicity machine. His shoes are bright blue high-tops and he’s wearing huge black sunglasses—he is a rock star.

  But he isn’t a musician or singer, and he’s not a famous actor either—think, Sam … what happened before in the dream?

  The memory comes back to me—Issey is a professional gamer.

  That’s it. I knew I’d seen his face somewhere before. All those guest spots in music videos.

  Someone yells out, “Issey, I love you!”

  I feel underdressed, self-conscious and geeky around him. We’re on the red carpet together with his full entourage, but I don’t belong in this world. I hang back as I look up at the hulking structure before us. As we head into the giant stadium through the wide open doors, Issey stops beneath a sign for final photographs and questions.

  “Issey, do you think you can win the tournament again?” a reporter yells out.

  “Well …” Issey smiles.

  “It’s been three years in a row now,” another reporter interrupts. “Has your luck run out?”

  “Ha! Luck? I’m going to smash them all—again!” Issey replies, raising his fist into the air, and the crowd goes wild with cheers. He strides away, confidence oozing from every pore.

  I jog to catch up to him and his group inside, trying to clear the ringing out of my ears. I see Lora shadowing me through the crowd, keeping a lookout.

  The games arena is in a sports centre. A huge crowd, maybe ten thousand people are seated around, all eyes on Issey as he makes his entrance. Giant screens show close-ups of the court below, ready to show all the action.

  In the centre of the court is a raised stage with two banks of computer equipment facing each other. A red team and a blue team. Video cameras and crews are everywhere.

  Issey is leading the red team.

  Looking up at the scoreboard, I see a girl named Psy is commanding the five-member blue team.

  “Ah, Issey,” I say, “what are you guys playing?”

  “Playing? No, we don’t play. This may be gaming, but it’s not playing—this is real, this is high stakes.”

  He points to a glass cube hanging above the winner’s podium.

  “Million bucks for the winner,” he says.

  “Wow.”

  “And that.”

  He points to an orange tricked-out super sports car.

  “Double wow,” I say. “Think you can really win this tournament?”

  “The Koreans,” Issey says to me, motioning with his head across the floor, “are our biggest threat. I’m not surprised they made it to the finals.”

  I look at the Korean team members in matching uniforms, sitting at their consoles. They don’t look like a threat—they look twelve, maybe thirteen years old at most. They all have crazy hairdos and sunglasses—they look more like a pop band.

  The announcer says something in Japanese, then repeats it in English, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, geeks and gamers, welcome to the annual Pan Pacific Gaming Smackdown!”

  The crowd goes crazy.

  “All this is for you?” I ask. “Really, for gamers?”

  “Yeah, it’s always like this.”

  “Unreal, I guess I didn’t get how big this was.”

  Issey looks at me, and then he turns to the audience members nearest to us and raises his fists into the air. The crowd’s cheering reaches fever-pitch, as if Issey really is the world’s greatest rock star.

  Must be his signature move.

  Just then, as I’m looking at Issey, the lights go out. All the power in the arena shuts down—screens, advertising signs, everything.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Each section of the stadium, one by one, goes dark.

  After a moment of s
ilence, an emergency generator kicks in, illuminating the exits with dim strip lighting.

  “Maybe all this tech gear overloaded the power—” I say, stopping abruptly, as screams begin to echo in the half-light. At first it comes from a few people at the back of the crowd. Then dozens, then hundreds of people. Terrified screams swirl around the stadium from all directions.

  Commotion and mayhem erupts as thousands of people begin rushing for the exits. Others are running in the opposite direction. They don’t look like they’re trying to get out, they look like they’re trying to get away—from something.

  I hear a howl.

  A strange sound that doesn’t seem real. It’s no animal that I recognize. It sounds like a monster or dinosaur from a bad movie …

  “Issey, we have to get out of here!” I say.

  Issey doesn’t answer. He’s frozen, transfixed by the scene around us. Many of the panicking crowd have switched on the lights in their phones, and the small pricks of light flash and dart around the gloom.

  Through the shifting light I realize the true horror of what is happening.

  “Lora!” I scream, searching through the tidal wave of people pushing past. Huge, unfamiliar shapes are moving randomly through the dark.

  What are they?

  Unbelievably, monstrous beasts are pouncing on people, dragging them down.

  I want to close my eyes and block it out, but there’s a new fear—the flash and heat of fire washing over me.

  “Sam …” that familiar voice says. “Do you like my … pets?” His booming laugh stabs into every part of my brain as everything is—

  Torn apart.

  04

  SAM

  “Argh!” Sam jumped awake suddenly. His body ached as he tried to move out of the awkward position he’d been contorted in on the back seat of the car. The sun streaming through the window was hot on his face and he was sweating through his clothes. The seatbelt had dug into his shoulder, leaving a red welt. The car was stationary, parked somewhere he didn’t recognize.

  I did dream again, he thought, relieved.

  It was just a bad dream, shake it off. Monsters don’t exist … it’s people I have to worry about.