A Dream Of Stone And Shadow Part 3

Even softer, Agatha.

Aggie sucked in her breath, hearing her name reverberate across the future probabilities of the child in the picture. Her name, spoken not by the girl, but by the presence, the faceless shadow-man.

Future set, future promised. Aggie had no idea what it all meant, but it made her nervous. She rubbed her arms and gazed around her bedroom. Nothing bounced back at her as out of the ordinary. She looked at the computer screen and touched the little girl's face.

I'll find you. You're alive and I'll find you .

One child out of so many that needed to be saved. But Aggie, looking at Emma's picture, thought she could live with that. Slow but steady. One was not such a lonely number. One was everything when it came to saving lives. Roland was right. Despite the odds, that was nothing to get depressed about.

Aggie printed out Emma's picture. She laid it down on her desk, tasting the future. There was a ninety percent chance the girl would not be physically abused tonight, and there was no danger at all of her dying. Which did not ease the pressure, but it did mean Aggie could rest for an hour or two before continuing her research.

She stripped off her clothes and slipped into bed. Shut her eyes.

Sleep did not come easy, and when it did, a deeper darkness mirrored her thoughts and dreams, a bas.e.m.e.nt, a cave, a place of damp wet things and fear, so much fear.

Until, again, that warmth, that sunlight in shadow that reached down into her bones and blood, right through her heart into her soul-and with it a comfort that stripped away fear, the horror of loneliness. A presence that was solid in that most profound sense that had nothing to do with physicality, but home-heart home, soul home, all those homes that were not walls, but thoughts, feelings, pa.s.sion.

I am home , Aggie thought, curled up within that darkness. Wherever I am, I am home.

Warmth. She became aware of it slowly. Like a charm in her head, seeping through her body as a slow-moving river; sunlight, blinding. It was delicious.

But not right. Part of her, even unconscious, knew that. Recognized the heat.

Aggie opened her eyes.

Her bedroom was dark; through the window blinds, the streetlight outside cast a serrated glow on her ceiling. Nothing moved. She was alone.

"No," said a strange voice. "You're not."

A gasp escaped her-almost a scream-but Aggie clamped her mouth shut and reached for the gun on her nightstand. No one stopped her, but that was no consolation. Nor did she feel better with a weapon in her hand.

She recognized that strong low voice. Remembered it from the future. The heat lingered, oozing through her, and that, too, was familiar: a ghost from her afternoon, standing on that street with Quinn.

"I know you," she said, searching the shadows of her bedroom, trying to keep her voice steady as she found only walls and furniture and piles of laundry on the floor. "I know you."

"No." One word, so close she could almost feel the air tremble in front of her face. Aggie leaned backward, sweeping her hand through the spot. Heat collided with her skin.

"No, my a.s.s," Aggie said, trying not to shake. "You have something to do with a little girl I'm investigating. I heard you inside my head. I saw you with her." Never mind revealing her gift. This was already weird. The thing inside her room could not possibly be shocked by anything she could do.

"You might be surprised," he said, and then, quieter, "I need your help. I need you to help her."

"And I need you to show yourself. Right now."

For a moment she thought he would not do it-had to wonder, even, if the very male presence in her room was even capable of it-but just as she began to give it up as a lost cause, a shadow materialized; a figure darker than the air around her, gathering together to form the shape of a large man. He looked solid enough, but Aggie did not take that for granted. He did not have a face.

She tried to see his future, but her gift stalled. He said, "I don't think I have a future."

Aggie gritted her teeth. "You're a mind reader."

"Sometimes."

"Sometimes," she repeated. "My theory on mind readers is that you are or you aren't. It's like being pregnant."

"Then at the moment, I guess you could say I'm having triplets."

"Funny," she muttered, and really it was, though she was d.a.m.ned if she was going to crack a smile and encourage the source of that fine heady sound of irritation and sarcasm floating through her room.

You're forgetting that thing is a mind reader. Pretense is a waste of time .

The shadow grunted. "You can call me Charlie, Agatha. And yes, that really is my name, and no, I'm not a thing, which you should be ashamed of thinking."

"Anything else?" she asked, unnerved.

"Just that you're right. It is a waste of time to pretend with me. I do, however, completely understand your desire to try. Really."

"Gee, that's nice," Aggie said. "You're freaking the h.e.l.l out of me, but still, I appreciate the honesty. Maybe you can answer another question."

"I did not manipulate you," Charlie said, with a speed that Aggie found truly annoying. "Sorry. But that was what you were going to ask. I did not put that... that initial vision of Emma in your head. I've never seen that photograph."

"But you've been with her."

"I was called to her. She was afraid. Desperately afraid. I would have rescued her myself, but..." He held up his shadowy hands. "I'm not good with the physical at the moment."

"You're physical enough," she thought, recalling the heat, the warmth spreading through her body. "Maybe a little too touchy-feely."

Body language was all she had to read Charlie. It could have been difficult, but he made it easy. His shoulders slumped, straightened, twitched-an odd little dance of discomfort. This time Aggie did smile, though she doubted it was a particularly pleasant expression.

"It's not," he affirmed.

"Cry me a river," she said, but her annoyance began to fade. It was strange, having a conversation that required no artifice or b.u.mbling, but it was-if she could admit it-almost as fun as it was unnerving. She had a thought; Charlie answered. It was very efficient. She liked that. Except for the strong possibility he could hear and see all her most personal secrets. Yikes.

Don't think about that. Focus. Focus on the why and how. And remember Emma .

Remember Emma. Yes. She could do that with absolutely no effort at all. The girl was part of her now-lodged like a knife in her brain.

"So you need my help," Aggie said, "You, who are so obviously gifted in your own remarkable way. Forgive me if I call you a big fat stinkin' liar."

Charlie made a sound of disgust. "What you can do and what I can do are two very different things. But does it even matter? You know the girl is in trouble."

No denying that, but Aggie was not satisfied with easy answers-or attempts to deflect her from the truth. "Why me?" she asked, still trying to wrap her head around the situation, to decide whether or not this was some dangerous elaborate hallucinogenic hoax. "Of all the people in the world, why the h.e.l.l show up in my bedroom?"

"Because you're perfect," he said. "In your mind, your heart. I was there today when you went after that child molester. You were unstoppable, willing to do anything. Emma needs that."

Aggie remembered heat on her neck, heat spiraling into her body. "Emma needs the police, Charlie. Emma needs more than me."

"If the police were enough, I wouldn't be here. And if you... if you weren't enough, I wouldn't be here, either."

"Picky, aren't you?"

Aggie saw no eyes, but he tilted his head, and she had the distinct impression that he was giving her a Look.

"Emma's mother is dead," he said, and the change in his voice from soft to hard was chilling, dangerous.

"Her kidnappers shot the woman in the face. They're ruthless people. I needed someone who wouldn't care about the danger."

"And you think that's me." Anger curled through her gut-not at Charlie, but at Emma's captors. Aggie did not doubt the truth of what he told her; somewhere deep, she knew how bad those people were. She had looked into their eyes, and she knew.

"Yes," whispered Charlie. "It's as bad as you think."

Aggie thought of Rujul, the film studio, the bed, those men with their hard eyes and hard hands. Twelve years old and already he had lived through a nightmare.

"Emma is only ten," Charlie said. "And her nightmare is just beginning."

Aggie blew out her breath. "And you? What do you get out of this?"

"Nothing," he said. "Just my soul. And no, I don't mean that literally."

"I had to wonder," she said. "Seeing as how I can't take anything for granted, anymore."

"I'm sorry for that." His response was cryptic, but also, in a strange way, kind. He stepped toward her, graceful and weightless; he did not walk, but floated.

"What are you?" asked Aggie.

He stopped moving. "I'm me. Just... a man."

Bulls.h.i.+t , she thought.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said.

"But this isn't your real body."

"No. My physical self is... some distance away. This is just a projection."

A projection with a touch that made me hot .

Oh, bad wording, bad thought. Aggie's cheeks felt red. Charlie twitched, but instead of commenting, he said, "Will you help me? Will you help Emma?"

Aggie put down her gun. There no longer seemed to be any reason to hold it on him. "You already know the answer to that."

"I was trying to be polite."

Aggie briefly closed her eyes. "This is bizarre. I can't believe I'm not screaming yet."

"Neither can I," he agreed, and Aggie cracked another smile. Her smile disappeared when he said, "But you're already used to strange things, so maybe that helps. All your friends, the people you work with..." He stopped, looking at her, and Aggie wondered what her face must look like, what he was feeling from her heart, because he said, very softly, like a fireman trying to talk down a kitten, "I won't tell anyone."

"Maybe not," she said, "but it's not the kind of secret just anyone should know. A lot of lives depend on it."

"I understand," he said, and there was something in his voice that made Aggie believe him. She could not help herself. So much confusion, so much happening too fast-but she did know that a little girl named Emma needed help, and this apparition before her had gone to great lengths to find someone who could do the job. That in itself seemed genuine. No ruse. No trap.

Can you be sure of that ? You're no mind reader. You don't know his motives for certain.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Charlie said, and then, in a more distant voice, "One of your own was kidnapped. Several months ago, by a... a rival organization. And you wonder if this isn't too convenient. Just another lure. All of you have been warned to be careful."

"You really need to stop that," Aggie said.

"But you agree it is faster. And no, I'm not from any group. Though the world is such a large and varied place, I think it was a mistake for any of you to a.s.sume you were alone."

Aggie did not want to argue with that. She threw back her bedcovers and stood up. Charlie made a low noise; strangled, choked. She stared at him for a moment, and then realized the problem: she was naked.

"Don't look at me," she said, reaching for a blanket.

"I don't have a choice. In this form, I see everything. I don't have eyes to close."

"That's convenient."

"Well, yes," he said, and his tone was so sheepish, so unabashedly... boyish, that for a moment Aggie almost laughed out loud. She choked it down, though. Laughter would not do. Now was all business. Aggie had a little girl to save.

She wrapped the blanket tight around her body. "If the people who have Emma are as bad as you say, I want to have additional backup with me. No offense, but as you've pointed out, your mind is willing, but the body is weak. I want to call my partner. My boss, even."

"If you like," the shadow said, though there was something in his tone that made her think he was not terribly excited about the idea. She did not like that; it made her trust him less, and she had no reason to trust him at all.

Aggie held the blanket against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and picked up her phone. She speed-dialed Quinn, who answered on the third ring. Aggie heard a woman's voice in the background and winced.

"I'm sorry," Aggie said. "I didn't know you had company."

Quinn sighed. "What is it?"

Aggie opened her mouth to tell him, but something overcame her and she stopped. Take a break before you burn out, Roland had said, and Quinn was doing just that. Forgetting the pain, burying it. To drag him into another case where the best possible outcome would be just as horrific...

"It's nothing that can't wait," she said. "You... you have a nice night, Quinn. Just rest."

"Rest wasn't what I had in mind, Aggie."

She heard a giggle on the other end of the line, followed by a sucking sound.

"Right," she said quickly. "G'night."

She hung up the phone and stared at it. Thought about Roland. He might insist that she hand the case over to someone else. She was supposed to be resting, too.

"No backup?" Charlie asked.

"Try not to sound so happy."

"You don't trust me. I understand that. You don't have a reason to."

"All I have is faith and visions of a probable future in my head. In them, you aren't doing anything wrong."

"But all you see are glimpses."