Chapter 27 #2
The problem was, without a connection it was difficult for Elliot to find a particular person’s dream.
He said it was like finding a specific grain of sand on a beach—nearly impossible.
Even a chance encounter could be enough to give him direction.
“It’s like sensing a vibration from them or a tune.
When I’m searching for their dreams I simply listen and allow myself to be drawn to it,” he’d explained.
So here they were, in Central controlled territory, about to risk their lives in a harebrained scheme to get him that connection.
As far as their superiors knew, the mission they’d planned was to find any information they could lay hands on the traditional way.
Elliot still wasn’t willing to tell them about his dreamwalking, and Sully didn’t blame him.
Imagine if they didn’t even let him rest at night because he could still be useful to them then too.
Sully grimaced at his reflection in a grimy mirror.
He didn’t look like himself. He was wearing a German officer’s uniform, for one.
The gray material was snug on his broad shoulders and biceps.
The high collar fit but made him uncomfortable.
He was scrubbed clean, shaven, hair elegantly styled away from his face and tucked up under an officer’s cap with a black brim. A grotesque version of himself.
Just wearing this get up made him feel dirty.
If it’d been an ordinary soldier’s uniform he might not mind as much since he understood them more.
They were following orders, awful orders, just like they were on the other side of the line.
They might kill each other, but he had more in common with the average soldier across the barbed wire than he did with the officers in back on either side, than the Generals who ordered men about like toy soldiers to be sacrificed on a whim.
The door creaked open, and Sully glanced back at the noise.
Elliot entered, dressed nearly identically.
Somehow looking a thousand times better, then again, he always did.
He tucked a shiny strand of blond hair back behind his ear.
Gray suited him; Sully had thought that on the night they met.
His pulse jumped as Elliot’s eyes darted down to take him in.
“Ready?” Sully asked, the slightest hint of nerves betraying him.
Elliot sent him a sure smile. “Ready.”
Brushing at lint that wasn’t there on his sleeve, Sully asked, “And you’re sure this is smart?”
Elliot’s smile went crooked, his eyes bright. “No, not at all. It’s risky and rash and slightly unhinged. However, as the only opportunity we have, we must take it. So long as you can hold up, we’ll be fine.”
“Piece of cake then. Long as no one asks me or Bell to talk. Not even sure how I’d go about convincing someone what I was saying is anything but gibberish.” Sully frowned, thinking. “Hmm. Maybe I could convince them they heard the proper answer without saying anything at all.”
Elliot reached out and gently squeezed Sully’s shoulder, slim hands warm even in gloves. Or maybe that was just how his touch made Sully feel. “Yes, well, let’s hope we won’t have to test that hypothesis.”
Distracting them both, Bell sauntered into the room.
Her dark hair pinned up in an elegant style, wearing a lavender dress that must have been expensive.
The bust glimmered, made from some kind of satiny material.
Layered gauzy fabric draped from her hips to ankle length hem.
Matching sleeves flowed loose and shimmery until they bunched around her wrists.
A slim gold ribbon in a neat bow accented her waist. The color set off her blue eyes.
She was as dainty as a fancy porcelain doll—and was that lipstick?
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not interrupting, am I? Because you’ve both gone silent and you’re looking at me oddly.”
“No,” Sully said, at a loss for words as his mind tried to reconcile this version of her with the tough woman in men’s clothing he’d grown used to. “It’s just…”
“I’m not quite sure I was prepared to see you in a dress,” Elliot announced, theatrically placing a palm over his heart.
“You might have stolen my affections.” Bell squinted further, irritation spiking.
If Sully were Elliot, he’d shut his mouth.
Elliot, however, remained blissfully unaware he was heading for trouble.
“In fact, I had no idea you cleaned up so nicel—” His breath whooshed out of him a second later when Bellona transported the distance of the room and jabbed him the gut hard enough to make him feel it.
Sully doubled over laughing, and she sent him a dirty glance too.
He held his hand up defensively, still struggling to control his outburst. “At him, not you,” he justified.
God, it felt good to laugh though. To know Elliot was the kind of person who would take that punch with his own choked laugh.
Delighted instead of spitting fire like most commanding officers Sully had known would be.
Bellona dusted her hands and rolled her eyes. “Now that that’s sorted, we ought to be on our way, hadn’t we?”
They arrived at the party late. Sully’s illusion greased their way through security, and they walked inside a tall stone building.
The room was extravagantly decorated and sweet-smelling with deliciously cooked food.
No sign here of the deprivation they knew was choking the German people.
Here it was glamor and polish and the thin veneer that existed only for the wealthy and powerful in hard times, giving them the self-fueled delusion they were untouchable.
It’s people like this who order people like me to die so they can preserve their pride and lard their coffers. Wouldn’t be surprised if some of these bastards have their hands in war businesses either.
In the background a band played a lively song, mingling with voices speaking a language Sully didn’t understand. Emotions swirled around him, drifting and twining in the air. He focused on locating their target.
A photograph wasn’t much to go on, and it took them half an hour milling among beautifully dressed, smiling, chattering people to spot their prey.
Brandt was standing with a small group of officers each with a glass of wine in their hand and a beautiful woman on their arm.
Sully bit down on the scorn that welled up in his chest at all these spoiled, arrogant, rich bastards holding this kind of party while the soldiers in their front lines practically withered away to nothing.
Making their way closer, all three of them effected a relaxed stroll in Brandt’s general direction.
The tension Sully picked up from Bell and Elliot was buried beneath a surface of calm enjoyment.
They smiled politely and nodded at people they passed by as if they belonged.
Sully ensured anyone they made gestures toward believed it was someone they recognized, so the gestures were returned.
As they closed in on their goal, Sully’s heart rate picked up nervously.
This was the moment it all came down to.
Surrounded by hundreds of men who were no doubt armed, in enemy territory, and they weren’t only trying to blend in and go unnoticed, but Elliot had to speak to their quarry. And Sully had to make it believable.
Closer now, almost there.
On cue, Bellona tripped over her heels and stumbled.
Elliot caught her just as she bumped into Brandt.
He faced them, black eyebrows raised over haughty piercing eyes.
Elliot said something in rapid German, words flying fast and apologetic as Bellona hung heavily on his arm and giggled.
If they survived this and either he or Elliot breathed a word of it, she’d kill them herself.
Brandt’s gaze swept over Elliot and Bellona, then found Sully behind them.
A chill swept up his back as cool eyes assessed him.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he almost panicked.
Almost grabbed Bellona and told her to get them out of here, so strong was the sensation that Brandt saw right through him.
As fast as it came on, the feeling evaporated.
Just nerves?
Brandt smiled briefly at Elliot, shook his hand, and said something in reply, his voice booming and jovial as he gestured at Bellona. Whatever it was made Elliot laugh and nod.
Had to be nerves. We’d be facing down Lugers now if he saw through me.
Elliot crooned something into Bellona’s ear, and she pouted as though she understood him, though Sully knew she hadn’t.
Focusing intently on Brandt’s emotional climate, Sully found it normal.
He frowned, and Elliot cocked an eyebrow.
Sully shook his head slightly, and with a final exchange between Brandt and Elliot, they slipped away.
Sully didn’t exhale a sigh of relief until they made it back to the abandoned house they were squatting in. They changed into the normal civilian clothes they wore on missions in Central occupied land and regrouped in the kitchen.
“I can’t say I quite expected that to go so smoothly,” Elliot said, uncapping a metal canteen of water. Sully tried not to watch his throat work as he swallowed a mouthful.
“Try not to count all our eggs before they hatch, if you please,” Bellona grumbled, unpinning her raven hair. “You’ve still got to get into the bastard’s dream tonight and we’ve got to get back tomorrow. Plenty of time left to cock it up if we aren’t careful.”