Free Burned by Dean Murray Page A

valuable your
dream time is."
    "Two
things. The first is easier than the second." Taggart passed me
a card with a phone number on it. I memorized it in less than a
second and passed it back to him. "That is my current phone
number. We'll need to talk if we're to coordinate the operation
you've got planned."
    "Okay,
I'll send you a text tomorrow so you've got my number. What was the
second thing?"
    Taggart was
silent for several seconds, as though he was having second thoughts
about what he'd been planning on saying.
    "I respect
your desire not to pull innocents into this war, Alec. What if there
was another way to wage it?"
    "I don't
know. It would depend on what you had in mind. I want the Coun'hij
gone as much as anyone."
    "It would
mean working together with Adri again, which I know isn't ideal for
either of you right now, but it's possible that we could bring the
Coun'hij down without ever having to face any of them in the real
world."
    I felt as
though I'd just been struck. If he was suggesting what I thought he
was suggesting, then I felt like a fool for not thinking of it
myself. The possibilities were endless.
    "I thought
you weren't able to kill someone inside of their own dreams."
    Taggart nodded.
"That's right, I can't. It's been pretty conclusively proved
though that Adri's gift works in a different way than mine does.
She's killed inside of her own dreams once before. The jury's still
out on whether she can do it inside of someone else's dreams, which
is one of many reasons that I've kept that aspect of her power quiet
up until now, but there is a possibility that between the three of us
we could take down each member of the Coun'hij one at a time while
they are sleeping."
    "How would
it go down?"
    "Adri's
getting better and better inside of the dream with every passing
month, but she's still no match for someone like Kaleb on her own.
When you get right down to it, I'm not even always a match for your
father. What I would propose is that Adri and I come here to your
dream again like we did tonight. Then she will pull our first target
in—that's another trick she has that I can't do.
    "Once we
have them here inside of your dream, you can use your ability on them
while Adri pins them here so they can't avoid death by escaping back
to their own dreams."
    I closed my
eyes, not wanting to admit to myself where this was headed, but I
nodded despite my unexpected reluctance.
    "That
makes sense. We'll have to test my ability and make sure that it
still works inside of my dreams—it's good that you'll be here
to serve as backup to the two of us—but if it does work, then
we can finish off this war without ever having to lose another of our
people."
    Taggart nodded.
"The only price for that miracle will be turning Adri into an
assassin—not just once, but dozens, possibly hundreds of times
as we work our way through the Coun'hij and then move on to
eliminating the known enforcers. It's funny, there was a time when I
was desperate to get her to do exactly this, but now the time has
arrived and I'm strangely reluctant to take this step."
    "I think I
understand at least part of what you're feeling, Taggart. Even after
having her basically rip my head off tonight, I still don't want to
see her turned into the kind of cold, inhuman tool that the Coun'hij
uses to do its dirty work, but you're right to have brought it up. If
we have a chance to end this without enduring a long, bloody civil
war, then we need to take it."
    I looked him in
the eyes and said what needed to be said—whether he knew it or
not. "We need to start with Kaleb."
    "No, Alec,
I wouldn't ask that of you. We'll start with someone else. Puppeteer
or Oblivion would both be better test cases. Puppeteer will be all
but defenseless inside of a dream. Once he's been separated from his
werewolves, he's no more dangerous than any other hybrid and less
probably than most. Killing him will do much more for the war effort
than killing your father—you said so