Lair of Dreams

It was nearly dawn. Filthy and famished, Theta, Memphis, and Sam crowded around the long table, wolfing down the limp watercress sandwiches. Theta offered Henry half of hers. Jericho handed Ling a cup of broth.

“It’s not fancy, but it’s warm,” he said, and she thanked him with a nod. “Could I use your telephone, please?”

Jericho brought her the phone as well, and a moment later, he could hear Ling speaking Chinese in hushed tones to someone.

Across the room, Mabel poked the dying fire into flames to chase away the chill. Evie sprawled in a chair, nursing a cup of coffee. She looked rough. The remnants of the scuttled Diviners exhibit were still everywhere.

Theta took out a cigarette.

“There’s no smoking in the museum,” Jericho said.

Theta glared up at him as she struck a match. “There is now. Hand me that ashtray, will ya, Mabesie?”

“I thought I was the only one who called you Mabesie,” Evie said.

Theta shrugged and kept smoking. Mabel folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

Ling hung up the telephone and took a sip of her broth.

“Everything copacetic with your parents?” Sam asked.

“There was a protest. People surrounded the mayor’s office, and he gave the order to bring everyone back to Chinatown. But I wouldn’t say everything is copacetic. It’s only one battle.”

“Amen,” Memphis said, locking eyes with Ling, an unspoken understanding passing between them.

“As we’re all present and accounted for, I call this meeting to order.” Jericho paced the room, just as Will so often did. “It should be patently clear by now that something is going on in this country. First John Hobbes. Then this business with Wai-Mae and those wraiths in the tunnels. There are ghosts and demons among us. Every day, there are more reports. And it seems like we’re the only ones who can do something about it.”

“You mean we have to work together,” Mabel said coolly, looking from Evie to Jericho.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You trying to unionize us, Mabel?”

“No. Even the Wobblies are easier to organize,” she said.

Evie’s eyes were still closed. “I hate ghosts.”

“All these powers and we know bupkes about ’em,” Sam said. “It’s like having the keys to a brand-new roadster and not knowing how to drive it.”

For a moment, there was nothing but the steady percussion of the rain and the crackle of the fire. With a sigh, Evie sat up and opened her bloodshot eyes. “Sam, I think we should tell them about what we’ve found.”

“Nothing doing,” Sam said.

“Either you do it or I will.”

“This is twice you’ve done this to me. Remind me never to tell you a secret again.”

“It’s not your secret anymore.”

“Fine,” Sam grumbled. He placed a coded punch card on the table. It was a little worse for the wear, thanks to the evening’s activities, but it was still intact.

“What’s this?” Memphis asked, picking it up.

“Evie and I found these files in a basement office in the post office. Used to belong to the U.S. Department of Paranormal.”

“The what?” Ling asked.

“It was a secret government division started by President Roosevelt to investigate supernatural phenomena and recruit Diviners to aid in the interests of national security,” Jericho explained.

“Teddy Roosevelt? On the level?” Theta said, impressed.

“Hey. How’d you know that, Freddy?” Sam asked.

“It’s all here in Will’s letters to Cornelius Rathbone. Diviners have been around since the dawn of the country,” Jericho explained, gesturing to the useless Diviners exhibit. “You’d know that if you’d been around. Sam, Evie, Memphis, Ling, Henry—every one of you is a Diviner in some way.”

Mabel put a hand on Theta’s shoulder. “Some of us are just hideously ordinary, I suppose. Or does that make us extraordinary?” Mabel said, digging at Jericho just a bit.

Sam and Theta exchanged a furtive glance, but Evie caught it.

“What was that look about?” Evie asked.

“Nothing. Just stretching my eyes,” Sam said quickly. “So what now? Do we start a speakeasy? A ghosty quilting bee? Does everybody want a radio show?”

“We find out why,” Ling said. “Why do we all have these powers? Where do they come from? Why now? Why us?”

“It used to be that I could only get a few seconds’ worth of secrets,” Evie said. “And it was patchy—like watching a movie shown through a broken projector. But in the past six months, it’s grown much stronger.”

Memphis said, “I couldn’t heal since… for a long while. But now it’s coming back, and yes, it’s much stronger.”

“Same for me,” Sam said. “When I took that soldier down, he was really gone.”

“Ling and I—our powers were stronger when we were together,” Henry said.

“It seems that we’re all connected,” Ling agreed. “Like atoms coming together to make a new molecule.”