Dreamscape Ch. 02

He heard a ding and his attention turned towards the elevator. The doors opened and Mr. Crowe, Marcy and Anthony appeared. The trio began walking towards him. As they approached the office, Sean swung his legs off the couch into a seated upright position. The door opened with a quiet "swish" of air.

Marcy approached him and held out her hand. It had three small white pills and a small glass of water in the other hand.

"Take these, it will help with the headache that I'm certain you have." She said politely.

Sean took the pills, put them in his mouth, and threw his head back without taking the water.

"Anthony is ex special forces," Crowe stated, "he's been on my payroll for five years now. I'm sorry about that knot on your head, but he was just doing what I pay him to do...watch my back."

Sean looked at the large black man standing in the doorway. His face held no emotion. The knot on the back of his head reminded him that he should not try and do anything unexpected like that again. Anthony was not to be trifled with.

"Anthony, Marcy...would you please excuse Sean and I for a few moments." Crowe said to his companions. They both exited the room. Marcy walked over and seated herself at a workstation and Anthony just shut the door, but continued to stand just outside of it as to keep an eye on the two men in the office.

"Sean, I really do want us to work together. I think we can make a great team! You are a brilliant scientist that has, at your fingertips, near unlimited resources to create and experiment with." Crowe paused and sat himself next to Sean on the black couch.

"You can't hurt me. You can't touch me. You can't take me down. The sooner you get those thoughts and ideas out of your mind, the sooner we can get down to changing the world together." Crowe said.

"Where are we?" Sean asked.

"We are in a private lab four stories below the house you slept in last night. Only the staff on hand knows that it is here." Crowe answered. "It has the latest in technological advancements. It's been fitted with the fastest computers in the world. It is tied to the Humanatech network so that you have access to every piece of crucial data that you will need to accomplish the task at hand."

Though Sean was angry he could not help but be impressed at the layout and the technology around him.

"This is a twenty five thousand square foot piece of scientist heaven, Doctor Mallory, and it's all yours. And if there's something you need that's not here...just tell Marcy, and it will be here within twenty four hours." Crowe explained.

"Sean, I know what I've done to you is less then ideal, but I had to cover my bases and ensure that you would do the work that needed to be done. I'm sincerely hopeful that one day you and I can be friends." Crowe stuck out his hand in a good-will gesture.

Sean stared at his hand in silence. He began to realize that this was not going to end today or tomorrow. He knew that Crowe would destroy him if he bucked his authority and power. He saw it in his face; he heard it in the tone of his voice...victory. It was checkmate for Sean. He had no move to make that would make a difference or change the outcome.

"I'm not certain we will ever be friends, Mr. Crowe." Sean said tersely not accepting Crowe's outstretched hand.

"Well...I'm hopeful, Sean. I think a few months now you will see I'm not the horrible monster that you know me to be right now." Crowe said sympathetically.

"So what are we doing here, Crowe?" Sean asked standing to his feet.

"This is your new home Sean. There are three levels to this facility. This is the lowest level and the most secure. This is where you will work with the best lab techs and researchers my money can buy. Your genius and creativity will be unleashed inside the walls of this lab. It's here that you will create something that will FOREVER change the world as we know it." Crowe said standing to his feet next Sean.

"The second level is a commons area. There's a small cafeteria there that's fully staffed to provide three meals a day, as well as a small media center, a game room, bla, bla, bla - you know, just stuff to do to get your mind off of what's happening down here. The first level is the dormitory area for everyone working on this project. You see, Sean, know one will be allowed to leave this place until we have finished what we've started. There are enough small apartments to house up to forty-eight people, plus a rather large four-thousand square foot bachelor pad for you." Crowe said slapping Sean on the back.

"So I'm a prisoner here? I can't leave?" Sean asked.

"Don't think of it like that Sean," Crowe said, "just think of it has home and this is your new job."

"A job I wasn't looking for." Sean quipped back.

"You will have need of nothing in this place Sean. Everything you could want or desire will be given to you. You won't need money down here, but when we are finished, and you deliver to me what I know you are capable of making...well, you can name a number and it will be in your bank account within the hour. You will never have to worry about money for the rest of your life." Crowe said enthusiastically.

Sean's will was broken. He knew that if he was going to get out of this and exact the revenge he desperately sought that it would come further down the road. He could either fight this and continue to live with knots on the back of his head, or he could give in to Crowe's demands for now and make his life that much easier until the day of reckoning presented itself.

Sean had made his decision.

"So tell me about this drug you want me to make for you." Sean said.

"That's my boy!" Crowe said enthusiastically.

Crowe motioned at Marcy through the glass and she hurried into the office. She was carrying a pad of paper and a pen. She handed it to Sean and then seated herself on the couch.

"Sean, dreams are what motivate people. Dreams are what drive people forward. Everyone has a dream of one day doing something that they aren't doing right now - being independently wealthy, fucking their favorite porn star, jumping out of an airplane, flying a rocket to the moon...who knows? But they fascinate us and control our basic impulses to strive forward and create and pursue a reality that currently doesn't exist." Crowe continued on, "I have a dream too Sean, it's a dream that would allow me the ability to control my dreams. The ability to mold and shape my dreams as I see fit; I could make myself anyone I wanted to be. I could live a thousand different lives. I could experience a thousand different lovers. I could make a billion dollars a thousand different ways...and I could do it anytime I wanted. Why live in this world when I can create my dream world exactly as I see fit." Crowe finished.

"So it's an escape drug?" Sean asked, "Escaping from the real reality into a dream."

"Yes, exactly, it's a...dreamscape." Crowe said.

"I'm not a dream expert, Mr. Crowe." Sean explained.

"You don't have to be, I'll bring them to you. I need you to work with the nano-tech that we have already created and find a way to use it to enhance the mental abilities of a person that would allow them this unique skill to create a virtual reality inside their own mind." Crowe answered.

"Sean," Crowe said in a focused and serious tone, "there are no rules and regulations down here, there is no FDA to report to, there is no government oversight committee...it's just you and the resources I give to you. Get this job done. I don't care what it costs, you have to make it happen."

"I'm going to need some things." Sean replied.

"Whatever you need, it's yours." Crowe said.

"I'll start making a list and get it to Marcy right away." Sean said.

Crowe moved forward suddenly and embraced Sean. Sean stood there awkwardly.

Crowe moved his mouth to Sean's ear and whispered into it, "We are going to make history together!" and then he released him and turned to exit.

"Marcy will get you a tag that will allow you to move freely about within these three lower levels. I hope that you will join me for dinner tonight before you get off to work tomorrow." Crowe said.

"Sure, why not." Sean answered rather nonchalantly.

With that Crowe turned with Anthony and made their way to the elevator. Marcy moved forward from the couch and produced a large syringe type instrument. She grabbed his right arm and put the syringe like instrument on his right forearm. He felt a sharp sting, and yanked his arm back.

"What the fuck was that?" Sean asked incredulously.

"I just inserted your tag Doctor Mallory," the petite assistant explained, "it has the latest RFID technology built into it. You don't need to swipe anything or unlock anything. As you near a door or elevator or anything you might need access to, the sensors will recognize you and unlock and open the doors for you. It will also allow us to track your movements should we ever need to locate you.

Sean laughed, "Where else would I be Marcy?" he asked motioning around his new home.

"I need a few things, Marcy" Sean replied.

"Not a problem, Doctor." She handed him the pad of paper and pen that she brought in with her. "Why don't you spend some time writing it all down? When you are finished you can make your way up to the other two levels and get a lay of the land. I'll send someone for you at six o'clock for dinner."

"Okay." Sean answered.

Marcy turned and walked out of the office and Anthony followed her to the elvevator. Sean sat down behind his desk and began writing.

**********

Sean put down his pencil and began looking over his list. It was three pages long. He figured that he would take advantage of the situation and exact some revenge on Crowe by spending as much of his money as he could. Most of the stuff on here would be meaningless to the average layperson, but to someone who holds a doctorate in molecular biology it would produce quite the intellectual erection. Microscopes of various powers, milli-Q water system, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, floor centrifuges, Cell Sorter, GenePix Microarray, Pulse Field Generator, Sonicator, Nanodrop...the thing that he needed most though could not be bought. It would have to be built, and he needed the right person to build it.

Sean's plan was beginning to take shape in his mind. He would have to help build this drug, but he would do it while working a separate side project that he hoped would bring him to the point where he could pay back Crowe for all of the abuse and extortion he was currently living through. To do that he would need at least one person in this lab that he could trust. At the top of Sean's list was a name: Doctor Samantha Prescott.

They had done their undergraduate work together at Stanford. He was quite jealous of her back then. She was at the top of the class and it never appeared that she had to work very hard to get there. Sean had a love/hate relationship with Samantha. She was the beautiful nerd that was smarter than everyone around her. He loved being around her. He loved spending time in labs together working on projects and odd experiments. He made advances toward her time after time, but they were always rebuffed. She only had a passion for one thing. Science. Boys, and fun, and pleasure were not even on her radar.

Samantha was the worlds leading expert on artificial intelligence, and for Sean's plan to come to fruition he would need Samantha's skills to help bring it about. Part of him feared bringing her into something like this, but his personal need to survive and escape over rid the anxiety he felt about possibly ruining someone else's life along with his.

He ripped out the pages from the notebook, folded them up and put them in his pocket. He stood and left the office and headed across the large lab. As he approached the elevator the doors opened automatically for him. He entered.

"Welcome, Doctor Mallory." Said a calming digital voice from the elevator speaker. There were four buttons. They were numbered one through four, with labels next to each one.

The button that had number one on it was labeled SECURITY and it had a lock on it that someone would need a key to be able to access that floor. The second button was labeled RESIDENTIAL. Sean figured that was where all of the rooms for the staff were. The third button was labeled COMMONS and the fourth button was labeled LAB. Sean reached out and pressed the second button. The elevator sprang to life and he felt a small lurch as it began rising upward. He heard a chime as it passed the third floor, and another chime as he reached the second floor.

The doors opened into a small receiving area. He could hear water running and splashing. The small waiting area looked very much like the small area that you see in hotels, as you would exit out onto your floor. There was some more erotic artwork hung on the walls. There was a planter box with some green plants in them. As he stepped out into the small waiting area he looked to the left and saw a wall that had a water feature built into it. Water was running down a stone-faced structure into a small pond. He took three steps over to it and looked down to see several koi fish swimming about. The floors were carpeted and clean. Everything smelled new. The same attention to detail that Sean noticed in Crowe's mansion above ground was not lost here in the underground. Everything looked, and felt, and smelt very rich.

He turned back to the right where the small waiting area met a hallway that went off to the right and left in either direction. He approached the hallway, and centered on the wall in front of him was a diagram with an overview of how this floor was laid out. The residential floor was formed in the shape of the letter "U". There were residential units attached to either side of the hallway all the way down on each side. It looked like there were about 4 units on each side of the hallway going off in each direction. Sean did the math in his head and counted sixteen units total on the bottom part of the "U". Each vertical leg of the "U" was equal in length with the same number of units for an additional thirty-two units. At the end of the right vertical leg there was a large rectangle square attached to the top of the vertical leg. He assumed that this was his apartment.

He turned to his right and made his way down the hallway. He took him about fifty steps to reach the end where there was a ninety-degree turn to the left. Another fifty steps and he approached a door that had a nametag attached to the front of the door. As he got within three feet of the door a green light lit up on the door handle and he heard something unlatch.

He reached out his hand and pushed the door handle down and he opened the door. He walked into what appeared to be a near identical replication of the guest suite that he had stayed in the night before. Everything looked exactly the same. The wall on the far side of the room where the windows would have been was covered in a large video wall. As he walked into his suite, the lights began to turn up autonomously. The video wall came to life and a live image of the manicured grounds appeared on the screen. He knew it was a video, but it appeared so real and life like. It was so clear and vibrant.

Everything in the room was exactly as the suite was. The bar full of alcohol, the kitchen area, the baby grand piano, it was all exactly as it was in the mansion. The lighting in the room was such that it appeared to be natural light. It did not have the sterile fluorescent lights from the lab. It felt like there was sunlight coming into the room.

He made his way to the bedroom. The large king-size four-poster bed was just as it had been. He walked over to the closet door and opened it. There was a giant walk-in closet that was completely full of clothes, suits, ties, and shoes.

He walked back out into the room. He heard a knock at his door. He made his way to the entrance and opened the door. Lydia stood before him, the young Latina beauty from the shower earlier this morning. A grey maids outfit hung tightly on her slender frame accenting her very large chest.

"Good morning, Señor. Mr. Crowe has asked me to personally see to your room, your cooking, your cleaning and anything else you should require of me." Said the brown skinned beauty in a thick Hispanic accent, being careful not to make any eye contact.

Sean opened the door to let her enter. She came in and stood just inside the door. There was an awkward moment of silence as Sean contemplated his next words.

"Lydia..."Sean said and then paused even longer, "I want to apologize to you for what happened earlier today."

He put his hand on the small of her back and led her to the seating area in front of them. He had her sit and then he moved to the couch on the opposite side of her.

The young Latina sat with her head down and eyes locked onto the floor below her. Her body language screamed fear and anxiety. She was tensed from head to toe.

"Lydia, look at me." Sean said gently. She slowly lifted her gaze until their eyes met.

Sean was taken back by how beautiful her face was. He had no remembrance of her beauty from the scene in the steam filled shower earlier. Her round dark chocolate brown eyes framed and cased by long black eyelashes. Her slim nose that drew ones eyes down to her pouty bee-stung lips. Her high cheekbones contrasted against her sharp, strong, yet feminine jaw line. Her long black hair flowed down around each of her shoulders. He estimated her to be around twenty-one years old.

"Lydia, I don't know what you've been told to do or how to act towards me, but I want you to know that when you are here in my residence...it is only my rules that apply. Do you understand me?" Sean asked.

She nodded in the affirmative.

"How old are you?" Sean asked.

"Twenty-two." Lydia responded.

"How is it you came to be employed by Mr. Crowe?" Sean pried further.

There was no response.

"Lydia, it's okay." Sean said trying to coax the young woman to open up.

She began to speak quietly and hesitantly.

"I started working for him three years ago. I met him in a strip club in Rio de Janeiro. I was dancing for him and a group of his friends. He went to the owner of the club and bought me from him." She answered.

"Wait...what?" Sean said in shocked voice. "He bought you?" Sean questioned.

"I was sold to the owner of the club when I was seventeen years old by my pimp. My mother sold me to the pimp when I was fourteen. I had outlived my usefulness to him. All of his clients preferred the younger girls. The strip club was one of the more respected establishments in Rio, but it was a private club. You could only come in if you were invited. I had danced and serviced Mr. Crowe several months before he came back and bought me." Lydia explained.

"Your English is very good, where did you learn to speak so well?" Sean asked.

"My pimps clients were upper class business men. He thought all of his girls should be able to talk to them and have a decent conversation. When we were not on a job he would hire a private tutor to come in and teach all of the girls how to speak, and read, and write." Lydia answered.

"So...Mr. Crowe...what? He owns you?" Sean asked, "You are his personal slave or something?"

"Yes, I belong to him." Lydia said sadly, "He takes good care of me, and I do anything he asks of me." Lydia responded.

"Christ, Lydia, do you know how fucked up that is?" Sean asked. "Do you want to be here Lydia? I mean, living here, being owned by him?" Sean asked.

"I want more than anything to be free, but I cannot leave. I'm not allowed out of the mansion. I learned long ago that if you just do what is asked of you without complaining or fighting...then men like Mr. Crowe will protect you and take care of you." Lydia answered.