The Dreamland explorers burst through the SCIP mirror and into the safety of the laboratory, bumping into each other and nearly falling down the ramp. Professor Cassell sat up abruptly in his swivel chair and almost fell over backward. Catching the desktop he exclaimed, “Oh thank goodness! I’m sorry! I’m very sorry!”
The two women ignored him.
“Oh, my guns. I wish I could have kept them.” Rogers lamented. “That was too close. They kicked in a space in the roll-up door just as we came through.”
The two women stood at the bottom of the ramp, inspecting themselves for injuries. Cassiopia looked at her watch. “Five hours!” She looked at her father. “How long were we gone?”
“All day, I’m afraid. There was an accident down the street. A power pole was knocked down. Power was out for seven hours and it took two more to reset the system. Are you both alright?”
“We’re fine. We waited around in the White House,” replied Cassiopia.
“Oh thank the Lord. I was so worried. There was…. You waited where?”
Rogers laughed. Cassiopia joined in. “The White House. We had strawberries in the President’s dining room. It was the best place to hold up away from the zombies.”
The Professor furrowed his brow. “Zombies? You mean the movie monsters? You should not joke with me this way. I’ve been a nervous wreck, afraid that something bad was happening to you and I could not get the system back up.”
“Relax. We’re fine, Father. No harm done.”
Rogers quipped, “Besides Professor, there are always at least some zombies in Washington, D.C.”
The two women laughed together and turned to head upstairs. The Professor shook his head and swiveled to begin shutting down. The Tel robot stood in its position by the cutoff levers, looking as though it was still trying to process the conversation that had just occurred.
When the pair had regrouped and taken time to console the Professor further, they sat in the study with pizza boxes stacked on the desk, talking between bites.
“Cassiopia have you noticed we make a great team?”
“How’s that?”
“Back when we were in Germany, you figured out the disguise that got us to the fountain. Then in Zombie land, you hot wired the door, and made that electromagnet to get us out.”
“You could say I was motivated.”
Rogers laughed. “Still, we make a great team. I’m the guns. You’re the brains.”
“I guess I did ask the right person for help, after all.”
“About that. There’s a problem. While we were in there, my office left a message on my cell. Things have gotten much worse on that case I told you about. I need to get back right away.”
“How much time do we have?”
“I need to be on a flight tomorrow night. It was booked for me. That’s how urgent it is.”
Cassiopia became worried. “Well, it’s time for the next step anyway. We could prepare tonight, and go back in tomorrow.”
The Professor groaned with pizza still in his mouth.
“What do you have in mind?”
“There’s a way to control the Dreamland environment, at least a little bit. But, you’d have to agree.”
“To what?”
“You take a mild hypnotic, in pill form. Then, using hypnosis, I implant a suggestion in your subconscious. When we go into Dreamland, that subconscious suggestion at least partially shapes where we end up. Scott is the only other person we’ve used this on, but it worked fairly well.”
“Where did you learn this stuff?”
“A postgraduate study group I was a part of. It was an interesting study of human behavior when the personality was limited to the same constraints as a robotic mind.”
“Wow! I’ll do it.”
“So we’ll do the procedure tonight before you sleep, and return to Dreamland tomorrow morning. I’ll implant a suggestion for you to create a Scott Markman environment, and we’ll hope your subconscious is somehow able to find him and bring us there.”
As Cassiopia finished speaking, the Beagle returned, bounding about the room, reassuring everyone that everything everywhere was just wonderful. It went to the robot and sat wagging its tail.
The robots visor brightened. “Professor, current Kimbler inventories are minimal.”
The Professor gestured in frustration. “Okay. I’ll order some.”
Rogers offered, “Can I give him some pizza?”
The robot droned, “No anthromorphic intake.”
“What?”
“I think he means no human food,” replied Cassiopia.
While they were speaking, the little door on the robot’s hip slowly opened. The TEL delicately withdrew a dog biscuit and held it out. Immediately, the dog sat up and stared hopefully. The robot dropped the treat to the floor and watched it disappeared. Satisfied, the dog curled up and went to sleep. The Professor stared at Cassiopia with a stolid look.
Later that evening, the process of post-hypnotic suggestion went smoothly. Rogers turned out to be a surprisingly good candidate. Cassiopia left her in what appeared to be a deep, restful sleep. On her way back to her room, she spotted her father, parting the curtain at the front window, and staring out into the night. She went to him and asked, “What are you looking at?”
He straightened up and let the curtain close. “Nothing. While you were away, on three separate occasions there was a black car parked out there with two men in it wearing dark sunglasses.”
“Is that so odd?”
“Well, yes. It was at night, and yet they continued to wear the dark glasses. I do not know why anyone would do that, but since you’ve been back I have not seen them, so it must just have been police or something doing what they do.”
“Well, let us hope that there are no power failures tomorrow, Father.”
“Yes, yes indeed. I will be a nervous wreck again the entire time.”
“Don’t worry. Ann is quite extraordinary at taking care of us.”
“I know that, but as any good parent often says; don’t make me come in there…”
Chapter 20