Authors: James Phelan
2
This one is for Kate Beasley. I hope that one day we are reading her books—JP.
Preview of
The Last Thirteen: 1
Sam is mourning the loss of Tobias when Eva is revealed as the eleventh Dreamer of the last 13. She has dreamed of her Gear in Australia. The last 13 regroup in London and assure Sam he will lead them to the Dream Gate.
Held captive by pirates, Alex outwits the night watch and the crew take back the ship. As they sail on to Christchurch, Alex dreams of Antarctica. Hans confesses that he believes the Dream Gate itself might be there.
Sam observes a stealth mission to capture Solaris at his deserted island hideout. He is horrified to see the mission go wrong when Solaris ambushes the soldiers and has to witness a terrible massacre of Guardians and Agents.
Eva and Sam leave for Australia, sneaking past the UN security cordon at the Academy. There, they change their plans to alter the future that Eva has dreamed. Eva travels to Uluru with Jabari, the leader of the Egyptian Guardians, while Sam heads north.
In Antarctica, Hans takes Alex on an underwater adventure in a submersible, discovering a wrecked submarine that holds a map. Hiking onward in the snow, Hans and the others fall down a crevasse, forcing Alex to cut the ropes and go on alone. Taking refuge in a thermal cave, Alex uncovers secrets about Antarctica.
Exploring an amazing underground facility beneath Uluru, Eva finds her Gear but is captured by Stella. She shows Eva that her friends, Lora and Xavier, who are trying to shut down a Tesla tower they suspect Stella is using at Chernobyl, have walked into a trap. She orders her men to open fire. Xavier and Lora are the only survivors, rescued by Dr. Dark.
Sam travels to the Wessel Islands where he meets a local Dreamer, Malcolm, who shows him another Dream Universe chamber. Sam’s dream there shows him Eva is still in grave danger so he heads to Uluru with his helicopter pilot, Henk.
After a hair-raising arrival, Sam manages to reach Eva, and together they overcome Stella. As they leave, Solaris appears, but Sam sets off a flood and they flee to safety in the desert. As Henk arrives with Jabari, they are gunned down in a hail of darts, knocking them unconscious …
ALEX’S NIGHTMARE
A cursor blinks on the dark screen, bright, flashing. My breath fogs in front of me and I shiver again in the darkness.
“What does it mean?” a voice asks.
I turn away from the computer screen.
Sam stands before me. He’s dressed in heavy snow gear, like he’s just come through a blizzard. There’s a shovel in his hands. He’s heaving in deep breaths, like he had to dig his way through endless thick snow to get here.
“Alex,” Sam says, “what are you doing? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Why?”
“The weather’s changing fast. There’s a superstorm coming in, some kind of polar vortex thing. We have to go—now.”
“But we haven’t got what we came for.”
“We’ll come back tomorrow,” Sam says. “We’re already a bit snowed in. We’re going to have to dig ourselves out. Come on, move!”