From up on high, with hateful maations

  He felt his Self drift away into some powerless er of the world, and he knew his Spirit was in trol again. It was like stepping into a cool, still room after sprinting and stumbling through the Texas heat. The electric feeling of potential power that defien the Otherworld returo him, but it was diffused, as if its peaks and valleys had been fttened out. Like a butaorpared to bursts of muzzle fsh.

  The door came to him easily, popping ie the edge of the roof, a dead thing pared to the diven by the Allworld. When he could sense Michael and the rest of the team oher side of the door with his dream knowledge, he ope.

  They stood around in a circle on an invisible floor, with the metroplex floating half a mile below. He looked down as he walked over to them and his stomach fluttered.

  “You’re te,” Philip said. “Get lost in a sewer again?”

  “It wasn’t a sewer,” Celeste hissed. Gradie felt the color swell in his fad wished for his mirror mask. Their trip through the dreamworlds had felt so personal he hadn’t even sidered anyone else would ever know about it.

  “How am I te?” he snapped. “No oold me about a meeting. We just had one like six ho.”

  “I fot to tell him,” EP said, before Philip could form whatever dig he was w on. Gradie met her eyes but she looked away like he was the most b side of a brick wall and stared out at the skyline. He wao say something about her ag too ued, but his words caught in his throat. He didn’t wao move. Her blue-grey eyes reflected the city lights, her soft mouth was held in a slightly ptuous pout, her pale skin was exposed by the almost plunging nee of her bck ce dress—

  “Wait, are we ba the Otherworld?” He noticed the rest of the team was also in their Otherworld meeting clothes, and the way they stood around him in a circle reminded him of Lucy’s Astrarium. He gnced down at his own clothes and realized he was wearing the same pants and shirt he had slept in.

  “This is my Dream realm,” Michael said. “You ’t return to the Otherworld without leaving your Self behind. We use the dreamworlds for secure unication, especially in the case of emergencies or when other forms of tact are impossible.”

  “And to train any bat skills we might need during the day,” said Philip. “Which is why dream trol is so important to a Hardworlder. So why didn’t you induce a lucid dream like you were traio do?”

  “I did.”

  “Oh yeah? Then why did Kra have to snatch you out of yht terrors?”

  Gradie thought about the dark figure and the strange anger returned, stoked on by Philips grilling. Michael must have seen the gre in his eye and interjected.

  “Enough. He’ll get the hang of it.”

  Philip must have seen the fsh of aoo, from the way he smiled.

  “So I’ve been told.”

  He stepped to the ter of the circle and motioned down past his feet.

  “Alright, here’s the pn.”

  The nd below them shifted and the sun started to rise like a time-psed video. Downtown stopped below them. Cars and people moved like ants. Gradie found if he tried to focus on one individually it shuttered and popped out of his focus.

  “Here’s the jail.” Philip pointed and a ser shot out of his index finger and painted a wide red circle on the roof of the tall brick building.

  “After we bail him out, Celeste is gonna pick him up and take him down Henderson.” He highlighted a road that went out of downtown and across the river. It ran alongside a massive stru area where a bridge was being built over train tracks, and past a sheet metal roof that when seen from above had the shape of a step pyramid that Gradie ko be a flea market.

  “Bail him out?” Is that gonna work?” Gradie said. Philip didn’t even look at him.

  “Above your pay grade, kid. Save your burning questions till the end.”

  “Why not gh downtown a on the highway?” Lindsey motioned with her hand and a spotlight traced a path through the towers and out to one of the freeways that snaked around the edges of downtown.

  “Too much colteral,” Philip said, disappointedly.

  “You’re expeg them to attack us on the road?” Lindsey asked.

  “Yeah. From the chatter, it looks like at least two distinct teams. One’s LE and the other one looks like a mix of dummies and hardheads.”

  “Dummy?” Gradie said.

  “Crash test dummies,” Philip said. “New blood. Addicts usually. Dropped in via trap doors. Used to brute force a job with numbers. The ohat tried to snatch uy on four-wheelers, that type of shit. Hardheads just means guys with experience.” Gradie vaguely recalled the twins saying something like that.

  “The LE team is probably watg the same els we are and know these bliss heads are gonna jump off the momeake the guy dowreet,” Philip said. “They’ll be watg for it, probably look to take Cooper bato custody if anyone eves off a rouo him.”

  Gradie had figured out that LE probably meant w enfort, so he asked one of the other six questions boung around his head.

  “How do we know? Don’t the other teams use encrypted calls and shit like we do?”

  “Oh no, I’ve spoiled him,” EP said, still not looking at him.

  “Not every team is lucky enough to have the skills we do,” Philip said. “Think about that ime you act like you’re owed something here.”

  “The dummies think burner phones are encryption,” EP said. “The LE team is smart enough not to talk about anything suspicious on police els, but their movements give them away.”

  “The dummies know if we get him on the highway, there’s a good ce they never y hands on him,” Philip tinued. “They don’t have the scope of the LE team, but what they do have is manpower and firepower, and they’ll want to use it the only way they know how. Directly. They’ll probably jump them the momee gets him out.”

  “Almost sounds like you’re actively trying to bait them,” Lindsey said.

  “Im saying all these guys have are hammers, and the route I’ve picked is gonna make Celeste and the dude look a lot like nails.”

  “So you are—”

  “No, if we get them to the safe house without i, so be it. But I want you all to be prepared. Anyway, a shootout may have some upside to it.”

  “How?” Lindsey drew the word out long and slow. Gradie got the feeling she had just started to believe Philip wasn’t just a bullet jug for a firefight, and was now angry at herself for being so na?ve.

  “We’ll let the mad dogs get up to the gss, let Cooper see their teeth, then smack them away and expin his options. He’ll be more likely to give up the location.”

  “So, the pn is to get in another shootout to scare the guy into plying? Wasn’t the one gunfight enough?” She said, squinting at him.

  “No, because he was face down for most of it, ae wasn’t there by his side w him over the eime.”

  Gradie saw Celeste off to the side talking to Luke. She pointed down to something and gave it a glowing, smiling review. Luke nodded and pointed somewhere else, then outlined a massive pte in his hands. Gradie’s gaze drifted over to Sam. He was directly across from her and had been trying to catch her eyes since he ehe circle, but she had been studying the city ily the whole time. Now she met his eyes for a moment, then looked back dow absolutely no information from the look, but it kicked up his heartbeat anyway.

  “What about taking him through here?” Lindsey said. “Looks like less risk of colteral.” She highlighted a road that went down the ter of a peninsu formed by a curve in the river. It looked like a bombed-out ruin from above. Empty t regles that were either old parking lots or the remaining foundations of demolished buildings or a bination of both, as well as an abandoned baseball field. The only things active on it were the renovated drive-in, a few wreg lots, and a brewery

  “Because it’s not the quickest route to his apartment.”

  “She’s taking him to his house?”

  “No, but we want the LE team to think so. They’ll think the ’s there somewhere and everybody missed it. That way when the dummies hit us, the LE team will have to split up and cover Cooper and his house.”

  Lindsey gred at the city below as if it was spiring with Philip. He tinued.

  “So, Celeste pulls him out, keeps in under trol. Sam, Luke, and Gradie will follow behind, out of sight in the SUV. Lindsey will be on the bike pying safety. Mike and I’ll be in the area to fill in any gaps. Here are the soints so far.”

  Fshing dots sprouted up on the map.

  “Soints?” Gradie said.

  “You drop your brain in Sam’s coud fet all that time I wasted training you? Soints. Vehicle ss. Since I’m goin’ over day one shit again, remember to coordinate all ss with EP so she make sure there are no birds watg while you do it.”

  Gradie stared for a bit.

  “Birds meaning police choppers,” EP said, sounding tired.

  “And look out for cameras and looky lous, and park out of sight of the new ride when you do it, ok?” Philip said with mock gentleness.

  “Aight,” Gradie said ftly. Luke ughed at the side of Philip's head.

  “Alright, then,” Michael said. “Everyone clear?”

  Everyone made general motions of affirmation.

  “Alright, see you all in the m.”

  The team started disappearing and Gradie got deja-vu. He had no idea where he was going.

  “Uh, so do I wake up?”

  “No. What the fuck did I say earlier?” said Philip. “Use your dreamworlds to Train.”

  Gradie stared at him. Philip ughed and shook his head.

  “I gotta spell it out for you? Thought you were Mr. gung ho? Think of your dreamworlds like that vault you use, but your Self is along for the ride. Run through whatever applicable skills you were able to prime, dig up the memories and py them out. This is your ce to patch up whatever deficies slipped through when you dropped in.”

  The fear and ay from the dreams before slipped away as Gradie realized hilip was talking about, aarted nodding along and boung on his heels as a big smile spread across his face.

  “Yeah, I got it. Ok.” He was itg to step out the door and run his Self through a lucid dream boot camp. Philip ughed at him again, but he let something slip through the fake derision. It was something Gradie had picked up on te in his training in the clubhouse. Whenever Gradie would get a cept, not just blow through it but really uand why something was done, and what it could be used for in the Hardworld, the feeling of power, that feeling of unlog some secret part of these words of endless possibility, would rise out of his chest, and Philip would notice.

  At those times, Philip's smile would soften, his eyes would lose their edge, and Gradie khat Philip had one love in this world, Hardworlding, and his love was reserved for those who loved it as much as he did, just as his hate was marked for those who disregarded it. It made it hard to hate him, because Gradie felt the same way.

  “All right, enjoy your wet dreams,” Philip said. He turned and a big metal door opened behind him onto a fire escape stairwell. Somewhere in the world beyond, police sirens screamed. He stopped and looked back.

  “Oh, and from now on assume we have a meeting every night. And be on time.”

  “How do I know what time it is?”

  Philip fshed his wrist and a proje of red digital numbers about the size of a die shot out of it. 12:25. Just like telling time iherworld. Philip stepped through the metal door and it smmed shut and was gone.

  “While you’re in the dreamworlds,” Michael said suddenly. Gradie had fotten he was there and jumped. “There will be a kind of time dition, due to how the Spirit reacts when the Self is pletely unscious outside REM sleep. Just don’t get too ed about it.”

  Gradie nodded and Michael summoned a door with a flick of his wrist, but the door was o Gradie.

  “This will take you back to your dreamworld,” Michael said. “Try not to slip out again. It’s never guarahat Kra will be able to catch you.”

  Gradie tried to shake the horrifying sarios that statement brought on out of his head, a back to the excitement of using his dreams as an assassin's pyground as he stepped through the door.

  He came out the other side right where he started half a mile above downtown. Only now Michael was gone, and the city shifted under him, as if its framework had been pulled out from the inside.

  He reached out for memory and his Self answered. In an instant, he was dropped down to the street below, into the driver's seat of his Self’s Tes. He had summoned his X95 and maed a few gunmen peeking out of the cars ahead of him, whearted to feel that strange sensation ility, like all of reality was built on shattered pieces stacked together, and colpse was only a matter of time.

  His Spirit was about to make its daily tact with the Real.

  Though he k would take no time, and his Spirit and his new Self would quickly smooth over it, a part of him wished he could be free of it forever. As he slipped away, w if that desire made him a monster, he thought he saw a figure in his peripherals, watg.

  the Spirit ever quer the Self? the Real every be escaped? ime, Gradie gets a start on the day, and tries tet his real life. episode, Awakening.