‘No worries, son.’ Charlie waved Kyle through to the elevator and went back to his newspaper, shaking his head and smiling with amusement. ‘Oh, to be twenty again.’
The elevator doors opened on level ten and Kyle stuck his head out to glance around before proceeding. All was as usual for this time of night — no soul was about. But when he moved out into the corridor, he was startled by a harsh whisper.
‘What are you doing here?’ Zoe came rushing from the darkened shadows up the hall and she sounded rather perturbed.
Kyle, knowing of the impending danger, was not pleased to see her. ‘I’d ask you the same question. You don’t need any more trouble with your uncle. I’ll help Matt.’ He turned Zoe to face the elevator and pressed the down button. ‘You, go home.’ Not waiting for an argument he strode off up the corridor.
Although Zoe wondered how Kyle even knew what Matt was up to, she was more perturbed about being ordered about. ‘You didn’t seem to care so much for my wellbeing when you were getting me into all that trouble with my uncle … I’ve quit, you know?’
Kyle halted, realising how blunt his address must have sounded just now, so he turned back to apologise. ‘Aw, Zoe, I was so completely wrong about you.’ He walked back towards her, suspecting that Zoe’s memory might be jogged by a recollection of their dream. ‘I got you in trouble and I’m sorry for that.’ Kyle, noting Zoe’s wonderstruck expression, smiled. ‘Then you say —’
‘It doesn’t matter now,’ Zoe whispered along with him, awed by the fact they were having this conversation.
Kyle’s smile broadened upon realising that she did indeed remember. ‘And then you kissed me.’
‘I never,’ she insisted, unable to wipe the curious smile from her face.
‘You wanted to.’ Kyle pushed his luck.
Zoe chose to ignore the comment, although deep inside she knew it was the truth. ‘How could you know my dream?’
‘It was my dream too,’ he claimed playfully. He loved this man of mystery guise that he now held in her eyes. ‘It came to me while I was meditating.’
Zoe caught her breath at the comment.
‘Now please,’ Kyle became more serious, ‘go home.’ He turned and kept going.
Zoe was stunned beyond rational thought as she watched Kyle disappear into the Nivok offices. ‘No, it’s not possible.’ Could they have had the same dream? While he was meditating? Kyle certainly hadn’t struck Zoe as the kind of guy who meditated. She both hated and loved that she couldn’t wipe the silly smirk off her face. ‘This can’t be happening.’ Her whisper held far less resistance to the idea of their attraction.
The elevator doors opened in front of her.
Nivok’s office would have been in darkness, if not for the moonlight streaming in through the windows and one small light source at the far end of the room.
‘Matt?’ Kyle entered cautiously.
Startled from his rummaging through cabinets, Matt dropped the files in his hands and shone his torch onto Kyle, who squinted as the harsh light annoyed his eyes. ‘Jesus, Kyle … you scared the shit out of me! Where have you been?’
Kyle reached out and encouraged Matt to lower the torch. ‘Are you crazy bringing Zoe back here? Why didn’t you tell me what you were up to? I’ve been at home reading a book since you left me. All you had —’
‘You didn’t answer the phone.’ Matt was confused. ‘I called and called. I even went round and nearly bashed your door down. But you never answered, and I figured you weren’t there.’
Now Kyle was dumbfounded.
‘Hold on.’ Matt backtracked a little. ‘Did you say you were reading a book? You?’ He placed a hand to Kyle’s forehead. ‘Have you caught something?’
‘Stop it.’ Kyle slapped Matt’s hand away. ‘This is serious shit, so be swift. I’ll keep watch for Nivok.’
Matt knelt down and collected the files he’d dropped. ‘How did you even know I was here?’ He was suddenly concerned that he’d not been cautious enough with his investigation.
‘Does this matter right now?’ Kyle stressed, heading off towards the door, but his pace slowed as he thought to give Matt his due. ‘You’re right about Nivok being up to something. He’s got plans for Zoe’s piece of land that are not in the land’s best interest, I’ll warrant.’
Matt smiled, thinking that was the closest thing to praise he’d ever got from Kyle. ‘Nivok’s been a lot more anxious about things since a tremor hit that other resort of his which is close by Zoe’s land.’ He returned to his rummaging.
‘When? What tremor?’ Kyle had a scary feeling that his little tantrum whilst in the realm of demons hadn’t only shaken the otherworld. Could my ill will be so strong?
Matt looked back at Kyle, surprised. ‘A couple of days ago. Jesus, Kyle, where have you been? Don’t you ever watch the news?’
What manifests here, just one stage behind your own world, will surely manifest there too, Book had cautioned.
Nah. Kyle decided he must be misinterpreting the information and opened his mouth to comment, when Zoe came charging into the room.
‘He’s coming!’ She was clearly flustered as she closed and locked the door. ‘Should I try and stall him?’
‘No. Better that he doesn’t see you if possible.’ Kyle spotted the remote control sitting on the moonlit coffee table. ‘The bar.’ He grabbed the control and they made haste in the direction of the revolving bar.
Matt didn’t bother replacing the files he held. He just closed the filing cabinet and ran for the bar emerging from its hiding place in the wall.
Zoe snatched Matt’s camera from her uncle’s desk and joined the lads as the bar revolved back into its hiding place.
The door unlocked and opened. The office light was heard to switch on and the door closed.
Matt turned on the bar light and handed Zoe the files in exchange for his camera.
‘I’d rather not take any chances,’ Nivok informed his company.
The sound of a lighter was heard and Kyle guessed Nivok was lighting a cigar; the magnate had an expensive box of them sitting on his desk.
‘If they’re releasing him tomorrow, then we may have to arrange a little accident,’ Nivok concluded.
Zoe gasped, but Kyle clamped a hand over her mouth in time to smother the sound. He looked at Matt, who patted his camera and smiled to assure him that he was recording.
‘No worries, Mr Nivok,’ came the reply. ‘Just like before?’
Zoe’s eyes opened even wider.
‘Just,’ Nivok confirmed. ‘I’ll drink to that.’
Before they had fully realised what had been said, the bar was swinging around into the bright light of the office. Nivok was close by them, so Kyle grabbed a full bottle of grog and cracked the tycoon over the head with it. This sent the cigar in Nivok’s hand flying into a nearby rubbish bin full of paper as he hit the floor.
Upon witnessing her uncle’s unconscious form on the floor, Zoe felt a twinge of doubt and remorse. Ivan, the bodyguard, moved to block their path to the door; he’d seen Zoe and Kyle together before and she knew he would advise her uncle of her involvement in this affair. She had never seriously considered how a falling out with her uncle could affect her future, but considering the side of her uncle that had surfaced of late, the prospect scared her.
Ivan was reaching inside his jacket when Matt, on impulse, went charging at him and cracked the muscle-bound fellow in the temple with his camera. The heavyweight was knocked unconscious.
‘My poor baby, are you all right?’ Matt hugged his camera, immediately remorseful.
‘He’s just using you to get to the land.’ Kyle grabbed Zoe’s arm and dragged her towards the door to make good their escape, but the sound of a gunshot brought both of them to a grinding halt short of the door. Kyle looked at Matt and was relieved to find that he had not been the target.
James Nivok kept the gun in his hand aimed at them as he slid up the wall to his feet, using his free hand to mop at the gash
on his head with a handkerchief. Angered by the sight of his own blood, Nivok glared at Kyle. ‘I remember you.’ He then looked at Zoe. ‘Have you lost your mind? I could have you arrested, along with your mates, for tonight’s little piece of work.’ He pointed to the files she held. ‘I’ll take those, if you don’t mind.’
The voice of her guardian compelled Zoe to follow his order and yet her intuition demanded the opposite. ‘And if I refuse?’
‘Why would you wish to refuse?’ he appealed. ‘What on earth have these boys been telling you?’
‘Nothing that isn’t fairly obvious to me now,’ she replied.
Nivok’s expression cooled somewhat. ‘Careful, princess. I want to do right by you, but I wouldn’t try my patience.’
Zoe was flabbergasted. Was that a threat?
Kyle eased himself sideways to stand between Zoe and her uncle’s gun. ‘That’s a fine way to speak to the woman who owns two-thirds of your company.’
‘Only if I’m alive,’ Zoe stated accusingly from behind Kyle. ‘If I die, he inherits …’ She nearly choked on the realisation.
‘This is true,’ her uncle conceded cheerily.
Kyle’s blood chilled at the implication. Kyle glanced around to see Matt raise his camera onto his shoulder in order to draw Nivok’s fire. This was the vision from Kyle’s whale dreaming and, just as foreseen, the world seemed to slip into slow motion.
The smoke from the fire in the rubbish bin triggered the alarm and water started to spurt from the jets in the roof.
Kyle dropped his bag to dive at Nivok and as they collided the gun fired.
The falling water hit the unconscious Ivan’s face and when he showed signs of coming to, Zoe grabbed a large vase and dropped it on his head.
Kyle managed to knock the gun from Nivok’s hand and it went flying off in Matt’s direction. James Nivok packed a hell of a punch for a pretty-boy businessman, Kyle decided as he copped a couple of jabs in the jaw.
Matt was preoccupied, shoving his camera in Kyle’s bag to save it from the water, so Zoe grabbed a huge decanter from the bar. As the heavy crystal bottle met with her uncle’s head, he relinquished his conscious state.
Kyle was very grateful to see the bastard fall. There was blood all over Nivok and himself. He’d felt the gun go off between them and raising his shirt he discovered a long bloodied wound on his left side. ‘Bummer.’ His knees gave beneath him and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
‘God, no!’ Zoe fell down beside him. She began ripping fabric from her skirt to place over the wound, and applying a little pressure, she tried to ease the bleeding.
‘We have to get him out of here … give me a hand,’ she implored Matt. He threw the bag strap over his shoulder and took hold of Kyle under one arm, motioning Zoe to do the same.
‘Aw!’ Kyle regained consciousness as they lifted him, pained by his wound. He rolled his head round to rest on Zoe’s shoulder. ‘You look great, all wet like that.’
Zoe smiled at him affectionately, unable to believe he could find humour in this moment. ‘I think he’s delirious,’ she commented to Matt, as she gently wiped the wet hair from Kyle’s face.
Zoe, as friendly as she’d been to Matt, had never bestowed on him the ardent gaze with which she now regarded Kyle. ‘What’s your excuse then?’ Matt posed to Zoe.
The look of disappointment on Matt’s face was heartbreaking. Zoe immediately removed her hand from Kyle’s face, and knowing they had no time to discuss this unexpected development in their relationship, Matt headed them all towards the door.
This late in the evening there weren’t many people in the foyer, although a couple of fire officers were supervising the search for the emergency. The alarms had been shut off, and Charlie was chatting to the fireman in charge when the doors of one of the elevators opened.
Matt, carrying the bag, bounded out through the foyer, waving to Charlie on his way past. ‘See ya, Charlie. I’ve got a big story to shoot, no time, got to run.’
‘Did you see anything of this fire on your rounds?’ Charlie’s question pulled Matt up mid-flight.
‘Are you kidding?’ Matt responded. ‘I thought it was another false alarm.’ He looked perplexed. ‘Otherwise I’d still be up there shooting it for the evening news. Is there a fire?’ he asked eagerly, whereupon the fireman nearby signalled Charlie to let the lad go and tell him nothing.
‘No story here.’ Charlie dismissed Matt, who bounded off on his merry way.
Charlie looked back to the elevators as the second set of doors opened and Kyle and Zoe stepped out.
Zoe had her arm wrapped around Kyle’s waist, and her jacket was hung over her arm to hide the wound in his side. Kyle had his arm over her shoulder for support and they made it appear as if they were engrossed in intimate conversation. As Zoe spied Charlie approaching she kissed Kyle, and then whispered, loud enough for the security man to hear, ‘We could go to my place … get out of these wet clothes?’
As Kyle smiled broadly at the suggestion and Zoe’s unexpected defence tactic, he glanced past her to see Charlie change his course and head back to the fireman.
‘Should we question them?’ Charlie inquired of the fireman, who smiled and shook his head.
‘They might be aware of a fire,’ the chief commented, ‘but it ain’t the kind we’re looking for.’
‘G’night Charlie,’ Kyle yelled across to his friend and gave him a wave with his free hand.
‘You kids okay?’ Charlie asked now that he had their attention.
‘Just a little wet, that’s all,’ Kyle assured him.
‘No kidding.’ Charlie chuckled and returned the wave.
‘I think that fire alarm is faulty, hey? You should have it looked at,’ Kyle suggested. ‘That’s the second false alarm this week.’
‘Yeah, we know.’ Charlie sounded exasperated. ‘Will do.’
Kyle was feeling considerably woozy as they exited onto the front steps. ‘You stayed?’
Zoe smiled at him to hide her concern for his wellbeing, as he was getting heavy and difficult for her to support. ‘I rarely do as I’m told.’
‘Then we have something in common,’ Kyle said softly, his large brown eyes seeking her affection. ‘Nice kiss, by the way,’ he ventured to say, figuring that she was hardly going to hit him in his present condition.
‘That wasn’t a kiss,’ she scoffed, pretending not to have been deeply moved by the experience. ‘This is a kiss.’
Her lips touched his so tenderly, and with such heartfelt longing, Kyle’s senses went into overdrive.
‘Extraordinary,’ he mumbled, smiling deliriously in the wake of her attention. ‘How can something so wonderful leave me so cold?’ Kyle’s smile fell from his face as his sight blurred. ‘It’s so cold.’
Just then, Matt came rushing up the stairs to help his mate to Zoe’s waiting car. Kyle’s eyes rolled back into his head. ‘Kyle!’
Far off in the distance, Kyle heard his name being called, but he could not shake the cold darkness now besieging his body.
A hospital was out of the question. If Nivok reported the night’s events, Kyle would end up in the slammer; or there was the possibility that Nivok wouldn’t report the incident to the police and opt to let his own security force take care of the matter. Either way, Kyle would be a sitting duck in a hospital room.
‘I’ll take him to my Uncle Max. He’s a GP.’ Matt informed Zoe of his intended destination, as he drove through the quiet city streets.
‘A GP!’ Zoe panicked. ‘Matt, I think Kyle needs a surgeon. There’s blood everywhere back here. We have to get him to a hospital.’
‘If we do, then we may as well take him straight to jail.’ Matt tried not to sound frustrated with her argument. ‘And believe me, Kyle would rather die than be institutionalised again.’ He knew that much for certain.
Zoe gasped as the full realisation of their tragic circumstances hit home. ‘This is all my fault,’ she mumbled, dissolving into tears. ‘How could
I have been so blind —?’
‘Hey,’ Matt cautioned her gently, ‘let’s just focus on one drama at a time. Okay? I really need you with me on this one.’
With a deep inhalation, Zoe swallowed her grief and nodded in agreement.
‘Besides, if anyone is to blame it’s me.’ The car skidded as Matt turned a sharp bend in the road. ‘My big story could cost me my best mate’s life!’
‘No, it won’t,’ Zoe insisted, realising that Matt was more distressed by Kyle’s injury than she was and that it was up to her to keep him focused and positive. ‘It’s a good plan, Matt. How long until we get there?’
The turning of the car into the driveway of a covered gatehouse answered her question. In the headlights of the car a large set of double gates blocked their passage to the house.
Matt wound down his window to speak into the intercom.
‘Surgery is closed,’ a sleepy male voice advised them through a speaker in the wall of the gatehouse on the driver’s side. ‘I will be available for consultation from nine o’clock Tuesday morning,’ he yawned, before saying, ‘This is a recording.’
Matt slammed a finger down on the intercom button. ‘Uncle Max! It’s me, Matthew. I know it’s late, but I’ve just come from covering a big story. One of my workmates has been injured pretty badly and I was kind of hopin’ you might patch him up for me?’ Matt paused and took his finger off the button to give his uncle a chance to respond. When silence followed, Matt pressed the button once more. ‘Uncle Max, please! I know you’re there.’ Matt held his breath, praying his uncle was still there and that he wasn’t wasting time pleading with a recording.
‘Matty, it’s like this …’
Matthew breathed easy again, when he heard his uncle’s voice.
‘ … I have a beautiful woman in my bed and we’re leaving to go away for the weekend in less than two hours … a hospital is what you need, my lad, and there’s a perfectly good one just around the corner.’