The Vault of Dreamers (38 page)

“You told people today, remember?” he said. “You told all of your viewers, and you
know how many questions we received?”

“I don’t know. Hundreds?”

“Four,” he said. “Our viewers think your hallucinations are part of the show. They’re
fascinated. You’ve established yourself as a delusional, paranoid girl. In fact, I’ve
been fielding calls all day from psychiatric facilities that want to book you in.”

I darted my gaze toward the elevator, calculating my best way out of here. He’d kept
me talking too long, but I was sure I could still outrun him. I just wasn’t sure I
could do it with Gracie.

“I’ll still convince them somehow,” I said. “I won’t stop until the police investigate.
I’ll tell them you get bodies from St. Louis. They’ll talk to Huma Fallon.”

“Huma is going to be very interested to hear about this night,” he said. “Very interested.
I clearly have to move my dreamers to be on the safe side. It’s very inconvenient,
but it was time to relocate them anyway. We’re ready for a new phase.” An alert, listening
expression came to his features. He adjusted his earphone. “You’re sure?” he said.
His gaze focused back on me. “No, I didn’t. I suppose bring him here. Can you manage?”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

The dean frowned. “Your boyfriend’s arrived.”

35

DOLPHIN

“LINUS?” I SAID,
stunned. “But he left for St. Louis.”

“He must have changed his mind,” Dean Berg said. “Jerry just found him in the pit
of the clock tower, with a crowbar, no less. I always pegged him for chivalrous. I
half expected this.”

Linus had stayed to help me! My heart hitched with joy. He must have believed me,
at least a little.

“How did you block the pit?” I asked. “Does it have a false floor?”

“It’s normally closed,” Dean Berg said. “Jerry left it open after he burned some popcorn
a few nights ago. A bad mistake, there. He forgot to close it up again, or you never
would have found the vault.”

At that moment, Jerry appeared in the lobby, on the other side of the glass, carrying
Linus’s body awkwardly over his shoulder. Linus’s limbs were limp and his head sagged.

“Is he okay?” I asked. “Did you hurt him?” I lowered the girl back into her sleep
shell and dropped in her bear. “Did you drug him?”

“He’s fine,” Dean Berg said. “We just can’t have him seeing anything in here.”

Jerry carried Linus through the vault and into the operating room. I edged forward,
trying to keep my distance from Dean Berg and see Linus at the same time.

When Jerry laid Linus on the table, his head lolled to the side before he held still.

“Where’s Glyde?” Dean Berg called.

“She’s coming,” Jerry said, emerging from the operating room. He gave me a polite
nod.

I backed up a step, uneven with one shoe off. The dean circled behind me. I checked
anxiously toward the door, but I didn’t want to leave without Linus, either.

“You can’t hurt Linus,” I said. “He hasn’t done anything.”

“He should have left for St. Louis like he said,” Dean Berg said. “It’s going to be
a nuisance figuring out what to do with him.”

I wasn’t sure I could evade them both, but if I could get in the operating room and
lock the door, maybe I could find an earphone or something I could use to call up
to the surface.

The elevator doors opened in the lobby, and Dr. Ash charged into the vault. “What
is all this?” she demanded in a savage hush. “You can’t all be in here.”

“I know,” Dean Berg said. “We’re getting it under control. Check on Gracie, will you?”
Without looking away from me, he waved a hand to indicate the girl in her open sleep
shell.

I scrambled to turn on my video camera again and aimed it across the room at the doctor.
She bustled toward Gracie. I swept it around to include Jerry and Dean Berg with the
rows of dreamers.

“You don’t need that,” Dean Berg said to me. “You know we’ll just erase it.”

“You’re finished,” I said. “With or without footage, I’ll tell my story. Linus will
tell, too.”

“Linus hasn’t seen anything and we’ll make sure he doesn’t,” Dean Berg said. “And
you, you broke the rules, Rosie.” He gave a tight smile. “You’ve violated your contract.
You can disappear into my custody and no one can legally question where you’ve gone.”

“You can’t make me disappear,” I said.

“I hardly let myself hope,” he said quietly. “I thought maybe, sometime, but I never
dreamed I’d get you tonight. And now you know everything. You’re actually part of
the team now.”

A thud in the nearest sleep shell made me look down. A young man pressed his hand
to the glass of his lid. His face was expressionless and his eyes were still closed
under the gel, but the pads of his fingers splayed deliberately against the glass.

“They’re awake!” I said in hushed awe.

“They’re not,” the dean said, more softly than before. “It’s reflexes, but it speeds
up their metabolisms, which is very bad. We have to get you out of here.”

I backed up, bumping into another sleep shell, and a moan came from inside. I jumped
in alarm.

“Get her!” Dean Berg said.

I dodged sideways between the sleep shells, aiming for the operating room. Jerry lunged
for me, and I crashed around the corner of a sleep shell. The dean grabbed me from
behind. I spun and bashed my left elbow into his gut. Then I dove, scrambling between
two more sleep shells, but Jerry leapt to tackle my legs. I fell hard. I writhed and
kicked him in the face. Dean Berg crashed onto me. He jerked my right arm behind my
back and I screamed at the pain in my elbow. He pinned me down to the floor.

“You can’t do this!” I yelled.

I tried to roll and twist free, but both men had me now, and the dean twisted my arm
even more sharply up my back. I cried out again.

“Hold still,” said the dean’s voice beside my ear. “Be quiet.”

Dr. Ash’s neat shoes came into view. A syringe plunged into my neck, and then a biting
fire skimmed through my blood. It peaked as an agony of poison in every nerve ending,
and then subsided, leaving me gasping and limp. Dean Berg shifted his grip on my arm.
I struggled again, trying to break free, but my limbs went heavy and useless.

My mind, however, was as sharp as ever, and my heart beat hard.

Dr. Ash’s face came down into view and I stared at her, panting and full of rage.

“I don’t understand,” Dr. Ash said. “That should have put her out cold.” She touched
cool fingers to my neck. “You can hear me, can’t you?” she asked softly. “Sandy? This
is strange.”

I squinted. I wanted to shout at her, but my voice came out no louder than a whisper.
“You’re despicable.”

The doctor’s eyes lit up. “Very strange, indeed,” she said.

Unable to resist, I was turned and lifted by strong hands. I couldn’t keep my head
from lolling to the side. While my mind was fully awake, my body was fully asleep,
trapping me.

“Let’s take her back,” Dean Berg said. “I have an idea.”

He and Jerry carried me carefully to the operating room, and I had a brief glimpse
of Linus before they lowered me to the next table. The room smelled faintly of vinegar.
From the ceiling, an array of probes, pipettes, and surgical instruments hung, dazzling
in the light. Beside me, to my left, Dean Berg began working the touch screen of a
computer. A bright light came on above me.

“What is this? You’re not seriously thinking of mining her in this condition,” Dr.
Ash said.

“I just want to read her,” the dean said.

“She’s not even asleep,” she said.

“I know. But as you said yourself, she ought to be,” Dean Berg said.

They had a quick exchange about doses of medication while I lay there, watching with
my eyes but unable to move my head.

“It’s like the other night when she should have been out,” Dr. Ash said. “She must
have taken something else to counteract the sleep meds, some antidote, but I can’t
see how she could have had access to anything.”

“Could she have stolen something from the infirmary?” Jerry asked. He was taking off
my second shoe.

“No chance,” Dr. Ash said.

“Suppose we ask her,” Dean Berg said. “Look here.”

The dean, on my left, swiveled up a screen at an angle I couldn’t see, and on my right,
Dr. Ash leaned over me to take a look. Her concentrated expression didn’t change,
and she didn’t speak. I felt the soft weight of a blanket over my jeans.

“Blot her eyes for me, Glyde,” Dean Berg said.

“Why is she weeping?” Jerry asked. “Is she in pain?”

“No. It’s the drugs. She can’t help it,” Dr. Ash said. She shifted back and dabbed
at the corner of my eye with something soft. “You want the visa-gel?”

“No,” Dean Berg said. “Jerry, we need you back on the surface. Let me know if you
see anything unusual.”

“What about Linus?” Jerry asked.

“I’ll get to him,” Dean Berg said. “Can you put in a call to Amby? Ask him to report
that he dropped Linus in St. Louis, in case anyone inquires. That will buy me a little
time.”

“Will do.”

I felt Jerry give my foot a friendly squeeze on his way out. I still couldn’t move.
My tongue felt thick and stupid in my mouth.

Are you here with me?
I asked, and listened for a reply from my inner voice.

Instead of words, she sent a current of fear, followed by an image of wild animal
eyes hiding deep in the dark of an earthen hole.

A moment later, the dean spoke again. “You see this? Her serotonin levels? What’s
going on?”

“This isn’t a good idea,” Dr. Ash said.

“Would you just look? I’m not going to mine her unless it’s perfectly safe.”

“You said you were only going to read her,” Dr. Ash said.

“Yes, but look at this,” Dean Berg said.

At the edge of my vision, I saw him skim the surface of his touch screen. Dr. Ash
leaned into my field of view again. Her smooth dark hair was back in a neat black
headband. I blinked up at her. Despite what she said to caution him, her wide eyes
were oddly bright, and color tinged her cheeks. As she saw me watching her, she smiled.

“You’re all right,” Dr. Ash said to me and patted my hand.

“I’m going to ask her a couple questions,” Dean Berg said.

“Don’t hurt her.”

“I’m not going to hurt her if she answers,” he said. His voice came nearer. “Rosie,
I need you to answer a few simple questions. You can talk if you try. What’s your
name?”

I looked fearfully from him to Dr. Ash.

The dean touched his finger to my lips, and at the same time, a jolt of electricity
exploded in the depths of my brain.

“Your name?” he asked again.

I was tense with pain, sweating with fear that he would blast me again. I swallowed
thickly. “Rosie Sinclair,” I whispered.

“That’s right. Good. See, Glyde? She’s cooperating.” The dean leaned close and peered
into my eyes with a penlight. “And who’s your sister, Rosie? What’s her name?”

“Dubbs,” I said. I had to answer him. It frightened me how much I had to answer him,
like the words were being siphoned directly out of my core.

“That’s rather an unusual name,” Dean Berg said. “Is it a nickname?”

“Yes.”

He returned to his touch screen again, at the edge of my vision.

“For what?” he asked.

“For ‘W.’”

Dean Berg laughed. “Of course. And what does the W stand for?”

“Wanda,” I said.

“A lovely name,” he said. “Do the bracket for me, Glyde.”

“You know I wouldn’t object if I didn’t have serious reservations about this,” Dr.
Ash said. “At least wait until she’s fully out. Whatever she’s on has to wear off
eventually. Have some patience.”

“You’re such a coward. We may never get another opportunity like this. The bracket,
please,” Dean Berg said. He shifted nearer to me again, so I could see his pale eyebrows
and bright expression. “What did you take to stay awake tonight?” he asked. “You must
have taken something. I can tell if you lie, so don’t do that.”

“Burnham gave me some pills,” I said softly.

“Burnham?” Dean Berg said, clearly surprised. He and Dr. Ash exchanged a glance. “Have
the Fisters said anything to you?”

“No,” Dr. Ash said. “I would have told you immediately.”

He turned to me again. “Do you know what the pills were that Burnham gave you? What
drug?”

“No,” I said.

“You sure?”

“I don’t,” I said.

“Did you tell Burnham what you suspected about the dream mining? This is serious,
now,” Dean Berg said.

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

Another exploding burst of pain lit up the pit of my mind again, and I squeezed my
eyes shut against the hurt.

“She’s not lying, Sandy,” said Dr. Ash. “See for yourself. You’re tapped so deep,
I doubt she’ll even remember this conversation when she comes around.”

“She’ll remember it,” he said. “She’s conscious. She’s just sleeping, too.”

“That isn’t possible,” Dr. Ash said.

“Just look.”

I’m like a dolphin with a double-duty brain
, I thought, blinking my eyes open again. I wanted to laugh in despair and pain.

Where are you?
I asked.

But she wouldn’t answer. I could feel her burrowed deep, trying to hide.

The head of my examining table angled up slightly, and Dr. Ash passed a cagelike helmet
above me. Then she fit it carefully around my skull, and I heard the sound of a clamp
being screwed.

“You’re going to feel something in your ears, to set an axis, and then a prick behind
your ear,” the dean said. He lowered another light directly over my head. I had to
close my eyes against the bright dazzle, and I could feel the texture of the illumination
on my eyelids, as if microscopic tentacles were stroking my skin.

Two cool probes poked into my ears, but instead of muffling the sound, they seemed
to amplify it. A sharp sting shot under my left ear, just above the hinge of my jaw.