“I’ve got absolutely no idea.” The streets a few hundred yards below seemed surprisingly clear of traffic. There were hundreds of police cars, fire trucks, and military vehicles around the phenomenon, but beyond that, the vehicles I saw seemed to be heading away from the disturbance. In the distance was a continuous chain of barely moving headlights that could only be I-15. Mosh’s memories had been spot-on. The city was being evacuated.

Mosh…I had to reach him. The host’s physical body had been there with him and Holly. I spotted the Taj, the casino that had been holding Dr. Blish. I was unsure how much time had passed since Mosh had been cut off, but it was after sundown here. It felt like we’d only been in the nightmare world for maybe an hour, but time must pass slower there than in the real world.

Skippy picked a clear area. Then, grumbling and fighting the stick, he brought us down. There were soldiers and rescue workers running toward where we were about to set down. Hopefully there would be someone with a clue nearby that could get me to the host. Stricken was a conniving dirtbag, but theoretically we could be on the same team at least enough to defeat this monster. Stricken didn’t want too much collateral damage either. But after that, I was going to snap his neck. If I was really lucky Agent Franks would be back from his secret weapon-supply run.

The ground was a hundred feet away and coming up fast, but despite the chopper’s damage, it didn’t look like it would be too much harder than a normal landing. Skip was just that good. Julie had moved on to focusing on what we needed to do next. There would be time to dwell on my mistakes later. “What do we need to do now?”

“The monster is in two halves. My brother was in that casino right there with the half I need to get to. I think I know how to stop—”

ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAR!

The sound was louder than our helicopter.

We had been followed.

Far above us, the nightmare dragon erupted through the barrier like a bullet through glass. The pillar of smoke split open around it. The walls of reality unfurled and the nightmare world came pouring into ours. The shadow of the dragon streaked across the sky. Despite its incredible speed, it was so long that it blocked the moon for several seconds, and then cut it in half for another second just with the length of its tail. I hadn’t gotten the best look, but it was huge. It was like standing under one of the MCB C-130s coming in for a landing. Briefly visible out the opposite window now, wings spread wide, the dragon banked, turning over the city, coming back around toward us.

“Punch it, Skip!” Julie shouted.