away. Terror, utter horror, can bring a man awake even when he knows he's onlydreaming.The last thing Jake saw before he surfaced was the beast: on its knees beside the cot, mad with frustrated rage, tearing the bedclothes to shreds. But of the baby Harry himself, nothingat all...And Jake gave a small glad cry and woke up. For somehow in the moment before waking he knew - he'd been given to know - where the infant had gone.Along the Mobius route to E-Branch, of course.Where else?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
PART THREE
The Start Of It
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Second Thoughts, And Others Less MundaneNoticing Jake's distress, Liz had scrambled from her gunner's seat into the narrow cargo area, crouched down beside him, and was now hauling on the lapels of his jacket, roughing him up a little. 'Jake! Jake, wake up!' Then - as his eyes snapped open, startling her, and lightning reflexes and hands worked in combination to slap her wrists aside, then grab them - 'You were shouting,' she explained. 'And now you're hurting!'He let go of her, dragged himself into an upright, seated position among the jumble of packs, and mumbled, 'What? Shouting?' Of course he had been shouting, because he'd been nightmaring. But what about? Already the waking world, in the shape of Liz, was obliterating his dreams, consigning them to innermost recesses of his subconscious mind. But realizing something of their importance, Jake was reluctant to let them go. 'What was I shouting about?' he demanded harshly, but too late. For even as his head cleared the nightmare was retreating, shrinking to nothing.
Then he looked about - at the piled packs, the chopper's interior, the faces of the men up front looking back at him - and remembered where he was. And as the fear went out of Jake's eyes it was replaced by a worried frown. His face was damp with sweat, despite that it wasn't any too warm in ... the aircraft? In the jet-copter, yes. His orientation was still a little off, making everything feel and sound unreal. Then it dawned on him that the hiss of the horizontal jets was absent, and the crisp chop! chop! chop! of rotors had taken over. They must be descending, into Alice Springs.'I don't know what you were shouting about/ Liz answered him. 'Most of what you said was pure babble, until just before you woke up.' She went back to her seat and buckled herself in. 'Then you mentioned Szwart, Malinari, and Vavara. But you were doing a lot of twitching, too. It was a nightmare, Jake. A killer of a nightmare, I'd say." A killer. Yes, she was right:A grotesque thing - Wamphyri! - its taloned hands reaching to snuff the life from an innocent baby boy. And:'Yulian Bodescu!' Jake gasped aloud, starting as if he'd been slapped in the face. 'Does anyone know who ... who Yulian Bodescu was?' But that final scene, too, was fading away, following the rest of the nightmare into limbo.In their seats up front, however, Ben Trask and lan Goodly exchanged secretive but mainly wondering glances and said nothing ... not until they were on the ground and they'd stretched their legs and made their way to the lounge and the airport's watering hole ...Jake and Lardis sat at the almost empty bar, chewing nuts and nursing large beers; Liz, Trask, and Goodly had a small table, smaller drinks, and ate from a plate of sandwiches. Huge overhead fans did their best to stir the sluggish air and keep the atmosphere bearable. But even the local Aussies were sweating. It was that kind of summer. El Nifio, drying everything to kindling.
Lardis smacked his lips in appreciation, sighed and told Jake: 'This has to be one of the few true benefits of your entire world.' And then, noticing how the bartender was giving him curious looks, he added, 'Er, of Australia, I mean. One of the true benefits of Australia. They certainly know how to brew a good beer, these Australians.'
The bartender looked Lardis up and down, and said, 'I saw that movie, too, me old mate, way back when I was a little kid. But it didn't influence me mode o' dress!'
'Eh?' said Lardis.'Crocodile bleedin' Dundee!' The other shook his head and moved off along the bar. 'Jesus, what is it with you tourists? Do yer think we all live in the bleedin' outback?'Lardis looked down at his