art by Greg Smallwood
Patricio Brown-Eagle, murderer of Lincoln's long-estranged father Fischer Ayers (now possessing the body of fellow Dream Thief and prison inmate Ray Ray Benson) and would-have-been murderer of John himself, is the son of Ayers' former partner Nathan Brown-Eagle, yet another Dream Thief. Their partnership, glimpsed in a flashback to Boca Raton in 1985, is an unpleasant and foreboding peek at John's future. Fischer and Nathan speak as themselves, no voice of a dead victim, though the memories of a young pawn in a drug empire echo through their actions. They've been possessed by so many ghosts that neither man knows just how many, just a concatenation of memories and skills. But they act like assassins themselves: hunting, surveilling, and attacking with cold precision. Though Nathan seems to take some pleasure in their predestined task, itching to pawn their target's Chopard watch for "a helluva night at the Clermont Lounge" (Dream Thief: Escape #1: 7), for Fischer Ayers it seems much more of a burden. He stares longingly at a picture of his family during their stakeout, and his final decline of Brown-Eagle's offer—"I just wanna get home" (7)—is heavy with his inborn responsibility.
And Lincoln's getting better at it as well, more comfortable with and adept at using his newly and supernaturally acquired expertise, especially with his best friend Reggie to help cover for his absences. But it's John's visit to see his father, or more accurately Ray Ray Benson, that truly ignites Escape's mysteries. Though he's currently awaiting trial for multiple murders, Patricio Brown-Eagle's reasons for killing Ayers and attempting to kill Lincoln remain unknown. Unfortunately for him, Lincoln is now tasked with breaking both Benson (re: his father) and Brown-Eagle out of prison.
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