Page 130 of The Gathering
Bishop paused his aimless stroll. “You were already enroute?”
“Yes.”
How the hell.
“Who told you before that?” Bishop asked.
Morgue gave the first signs of his new settings with the single breath he took. “That’s something I needed to talk to you about.”
Bishop returned to his aimless stroll, much slower. “I’m listening.”
“So… I don’t remember having dreams before you reset things. But I had one last night.”
Bishop’s legs stopped again.
“In the dream… assuming this was a dream,” he added quietly. “You told meclearlythat you needed help and to send a jet. Then gave me the coordinates.”
Everything went numb as Bishop stood there.
“How did you do that?” Morgue wondered, quieter.
“Ididn’t,” Bishop said, not hiding his astonishment.
“You didn’t?”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t call you. Not in my head or in your dream.”
“Oh man,” Morgue said, sounding worried. “You think… something might be wrong with me?”
“Nah,” Bishop said, stomping on his fear. “Explain to me what happened.”
“I was sleeping and you walked into my dream, woke me up, told me you needed help, that your friend was hurt. Gave the coordinates—3.1129, negative 91.7138 and said bring a jet. Your voice signature is unique and strong in my database—it wasyou.”
The sharp edge in his voice registered as man-nearing-a-ledge. “Ionehundredpercent believe you,” Bishop said.
“You believing me isn’t the problem,” Morgue said, lower.
“Tell me what you thinkisthe problem.”
His breath shot out then held. “Are you… is this… are you testing me? Youreallywant me to paint the problem with that?”
“I do, yes,” Bishop said. “I want to hear how you’re perceiving it.”
A dead silence filled the line then a single chuckle with several breaths. “Like maybe I’m losing my brand-new mind,” he strained quietly.
“Seer would call this a vision,” Bishop said, going through options.
“That’s your friend, the one that got hurt?”
“Oui.”
“And now I wonder how I know that. Did you somehow patch me into your head?”
“No,” Bishop assured. “Absolutelyno.”
Morgue’s breaths shook. “Listen, I… I’ll never regret what you did for me, but I have to confess it’s been getting increasingly harder.”
Not a surprise, there. He’d moved too quick with him. Should’ve weighed shit more than he did, more than his obsession withgettingSinrik. “You’ve gone from following orders without question to thinking and feeling again. You’re gulping down alotof humanity, quickly. It’s not going to be easy, it shouldn’t be. But I should’ve taken more time before doing this, to prepare the environment more.”
