Welcome to the Dream (A Celeste Cross Book, #1) (24 page)

She nodded silently. Of
course she had questions, but she'd convinced herself that nobody
was going to answer them yet. What they would do to her depended
entirely on why the Yaoguai were afraid of her.

‘
Well I'm here to talk you
through your options.’ Jack sat up a little taller. As he did,
Celeste mirrored his move.

‘
You mean they know?’ She stopped
playing with her hair, her fingers locked in place as she
waited.

Jack looked uncomfortable.
‘Look, we still have no idea why there are afraid of you, and until
we do . . . ' he trailed off.

‘
You don't know whether to take
me down to the basement, put a bullet in my head, or strap me to
one of your helicopters and use me to chase away the Yaoguai?’ she
gave a soft but ironic chuckle.

Jack snorted with laughter.
It was an odd move considering how serious he'd been over the past
few weeks.

‘
We're not going to strap you to
a helicopter, Celeste, and neither are we going to shoot you,’ his
tone changed and tightened. ‘In fact, what happens, in a way,
depends on you.’

‘
Me?’

‘
You were instrumental in saving
us when we went in to rescue Peterson's team. If it hadn’t been for
you, McDougall and the rest of us would have died,’ he nodded her
way, finally pulling his hand up from the table as if he no longer
needed a distraction.

‘
Anyone would have done that,
Jack, it wasn't that special—’

‘
You're wrong, not just anyone
would have done that. You put your life on the line, and you used
it to save people . . . . And look, Celeste,
there's always the opportunity that you could do that
again.’

She looked at him, her cheek
twitching up as her brow twitched down. She was having trouble
following him, but maybe that was because she was deliberately
being thick. If Jack was asking her to join his team, she wanted
him to say it directly. She needed to hear it to believe
it.

‘
Look, Knight have a number of
operatives all over the world. We need a lot of manpower and a lot
of good people to contain this threat.’ He brought a hand up to his
jaw, running his fingers along the stubble on his chin. ‘What I'm
trying to say—’

‘
Is that you want me to join
Knight?’ she interrupted, voice quick and tight. ‘What exactly does
that entail? Would I have to give up my life, my family? Would I
have to move into this building, and never see a single one of my
friends again?’

He shook his head. ‘You don't
have to give up your current life, Celeste, I mean, look at me, I
see my family, I still have friends, and yet I work for
Knight.’

She didn't immediately
interrupt, even though she had a ton of questions; she wanted to
watch his expression just a little longer, and try to judge if she
could believe what he was saying.

‘
It's not the life for everyone
though. There's a lot of danger involved in this kind of job, and
you have the option to decline the offer.’

She shook her head. ‘Don't take
offence, Jack, but I don't believe you. You might be the kind of
guy to let me go and continue with my life, but I really don't
think Knight will. You can be honest with me. What are my real
options – joining Knight, and what else? What is Knight going to do
if I decline their offer?’

He made an uncomfortable noise
then brought his legs forward and flopped forward until his elbows
pressed onto his knees. ‘I wouldn't know what they'd do, Celeste,
I'll be honest with you. It's not as horrible as you're making out.
We are good people – you've got to believe that. What we're dealing
with is an enormous threat. We can't run the risk of—’

‘
What do you think I'm going to
do? Tell the police? Go to the press with this? No one is going to
believe me; they'd think I'm mad. Plus, I'm fully aware that you
guys would monitor my communications or whatever. To be honest, I'm
not sure of the sanity of telling everyone anyway. I don't know the
first thing about the Yaoguai, and I have no idea of the tactics
needed to fight one.’

Jack scratched at his neck. ‘We
don't think you're going to go to the press, but you have to
understand something: the Yaoguai threat is incredible, but we
aren't the only people working on it. You know that other group I
told you about, our competition? Shadow? Well there's always the
possibility . . . .’ He looked uncomfortable as
he shifted around in his chair.

A chill swept over her back.
‘Would they kidnap me?’ She shuddered, but hid it by brushing at
her arms quickly. She'd never thought of that
possibility.

It took a moment, but he nodded.
‘Yes, I'm afraid that's a possibility. Knight is a close-knit
community, and as far as I'm aware, we don't have any information
leaks, but if you were to go back to your normal existence, I
couldn't guarantee they'd never find out about you. Celeste,
understand that they wouldn't give you any options,’ he said
urgently, leaning in as he did. ‘They'd just—’

‘
Kidnap me and put me to work
scaring Yaoguai,’ she interrupted, reeling backwards onto her bed
until her back pressed up against the wall, giving her much-needed
support. ‘I hadn't even thought of that,’ she admitted
quietly.

He watched her, his expression
guilt-ridden but kind. ‘I'm really sorry,’ he said for the
thousandth time.

‘
It's not your fault, Jack;
you've done everything for me. The situation is simply out of our
control.’

Silence spread between them,
broken only when Jack gave a soft cough.

‘
So those are my options then?’
She found the courage to speak, stifling down on any fear that came
up at the thought of being kidnapped. ‘Join Knight or not join
Knight and see what happens?’

‘
Yes,’ Jack said
simply.

‘
I guess I have to join Knight
then,’ she replied, controlling her voice so it didn't stutter or
shake. ‘Is the pay any good?’

Jack gave a chuckle. ‘Actually,
I'll be honest, it's great. A lot of danger money,’ he grinned at
her. Though his heart didn't seem to be in it, Celeste latched onto
the moment of levity and returned the smile warmly.

‘
I guess I'll be able to afford
that private helicopter I've always wanted then.’

‘
Not that great, but it’s decent
enough.’

‘
I suppose I'm going to have to
make my millions elsewhere then.’ Celeste tried, but her humor was
drying up; there were only so many times she could push aside the
reality before her. ‘But seriously, what's involved?’ she asked,
voice peaking as a pang of nervousness shifted through her gut.
‘What would I do? How would I join them? Am I able to tell the rest
of my family? When would I be able to see them? Would I have to
move here, or to Gresham City? And what about the rest of your
team? They hate me.’

‘
I'm not sure I can remember all
your questions, but we'll start at the beginning. If you join
Knight, you will be deployed to a base, so you will have to move
somewhere, but presumably you'll be able to pick where that is. As
for seeing your family, there'll be no problem with that. You'll go
on missions, and Knight will decide where best to send you, but
when you are on holidays, you'll be able to see your folks whenever
you want to. Of course you won't be able to tell them anything
about what you really do, but Knight will come up with a good cover
story. You can have as many friends as you want, and when you are
not on duty, you can do whatever you want.’

She watched him carefully as
he spoke, noting the fixed look in his eyes and tight angle to his
jaw. If he was lying, he was doing a very good job of it. Anyway,
though it sounded innocent, Celeste couldn't bring herself to think
Jack could lie to her.

‘
But what kind of missions will
they send me on?’ her voice dipped low and started to shake a bit.
She still hadn't come to terms with the possibility of what they
would do with her. She hated that the Yaoguai were afraid of her,
but she realized how strategically important she could be for
Knight, and she could appreciate how much they would need her help;
the Yaoguai, after all, where an indomitable and ferocious
force.

‘
We don't know, but you will be
trained, whatever it is. To be honest, you'll probably do pretty
much what you did with McDougall. If there is a threat, we deploy
you on the ground, and use you wherever we need our forces
protected most. Then, if it came to it—’

‘
You would use me to corral them
like a sheepdog?’ she stated with a shrug. It was a pretty weird
image, but for a second Celeste imagined herself running around
after Yaoguais, yapping at them and biting at their
heels.

‘
It'll be something like that,
but honestly we don't know yet,’ Jack agreed.

‘
Well . . . I
guess that doesn't sound too bad,’ she admitted. Because it didn't
really sound that bad. If her options were staying with Knight or
being let out into the real world only to be kidnapped by some
ludicrous team of bad guys, then maybe staying around and helping
Squire was the best deal she was going to get, and hey, at least
that would keep her close to Jack, right?

Are you
serious, girl?
She
thought to herself suddenly.
You're about to lose your normal life, your job,
and nearly everything you've worked hard for, and all you're
thinking about is the possibility of hanging around Jack
West?

‘
It will be fine.’ Jack shifted
forward on his chair, and his expression became engaged, hopeful
even. ‘Celeste, you really could help us, and I don't need to tell
you how important that help could be. We face Yaoguai threats every
single day, all over the world, and we need a game changer. You
could be that.’

She made a face at the
phrase game changer. She didn't know what she was meant to feel
like. She wasn't particularly extraordinary, and she certainly
didn't have the kind of skills that had ever set her apart from the
crowd. Yet here she was in a position to change the tide in a
secret worldwide war.

That was a lot to take
in.

‘
You don't even know why they're
afraid of me yet. And for all we know, all those scientists are
going to decide there's something wrong with me, and I'm never
going to get out of here,’ she admitted, pressing a heavy sigh
through her teeth.

‘
That's not going to happen,
Celeste. I'll grant you, we don't know why they're afraid of you
yet, but nobody thinks you're a monster,’ his voice broke into a
chuckle on the last word. ‘Believe me, I see monsters every single
day, and you look nothing like them.’

She stared down at her
hands. She suddenly got the urge to ask Jack exactly what she
looked like to him, but maybe now wasn't quite the time.

‘
But it is important that you at
least know what your choices are now, so you can think about what
you want to do.’ Jack leaned back in his chair, but he still looked
engaged and hopeful.

‘
I don't think it's much of a
choice, Jack. Though I really don't think I'm the right person for
it – and I have to be honest with you, I'm probably going to be
frightfully uncoordinated in a battle – I'll join Knight. If my
choices are between being kidnapped and being useful, then I choose
the last one.’

‘
It has to be something you want
to do though, Celeste; we're not going to force you to do
anything.’

‘
Right,’ she agreed, but it was a
lie. Because they were definitely forcing her. This entire
situation was dictating what she did next. That, however, wasn't
Jack's fault. ‘When will I know whether I can join?’

Jack brought up a hand and
shrugged, leaning into his fist as he rested his elbow on the
table. ‘I honestly think they've done all the tests that they can
do, and I was instructed to have this conversation with
you.’

Celeste sat straight, her eyes
opening wider with keen interest. ‘You mean they might let me out
of this room sometime soon?’

He didn't look as if he wanted
to answer that question, and for a while he went back to playing
with the wood-grain. ‘I don't know about that, but I do know that
Knight must be considering putting you on as an operative if
they've asked me to talk to you about this. So there's nothing to
worry about.’

She couldn't exactly agree with
him on that, but she nodded anyway. ‘So it won't be too much
longer?’ She pressed the point.

‘
I guess not,’ he obviously
wasn't going to give her a straight yes or no.

Still, she could have jumped
to her feet and kissed him; this news gave her hope. It was nice to
be told there would be an end to her limbo. She could also push to
her feet and kiss him, because frankly, she just wanted to. She
really did have a crush on this guy, even though she hated that
word; having a crush on someone made you sound like you were in
high school. To put it more intellectually, she was interested in
him. Then again, she still didn't know whether he was single. He
probably didn't have time for a relationship anyway.

Really, you're
thinking about whether Jack West is single when you've just been
told you're pretty much going to join Knight and your life is going
to be turned upside down.
She admonished herself.