by Nic Tatano
Roxanne gets up and shoves me aside. "Okay, my dear friend, watch and learn. This is Pissed Off 101. Pay attention, there will be a test later. First, you begin with the death stare." She narrows her dark eyes at Ryan and he backs up a step.
"Whoa," he says. "Remind me to never to get on your bad side."
"Trust me, I learned my lesson a long time ago," says Jake.
Roxanne pulls me by the shoulders so I'm in front of Ryan. "Now you try it."
I shrug as she moves behind Ryan to watch. "Okay." I close my eyes a bit as I stare at him.
"Now you look like a squinting chipmunk," says Rox. "This isn't gonna work. You're just too damn cute with those freckles."
I throw my hands up. "I give up. Maybe he needs to break up with me instead of the other way around. How about that? Then I can play hurt instead of angry."
Mom chimes in. "Sweetie, you're not getting in the right mood to play the role."
"What, you're Steven Spielberg now?"
"Don't think of being mad at Ryan, focus on things that make you angry. What pisses you off the most?"
"I'm not stacked like Roxanne."
Rox actually blushes at that comment.
"Be serious."
"Fine. Cruise pisses me off. My father pisses me off. What they're doing to me and all of us pisses me off."
"She's getting it," says Rox, studying my face. "Okay, Meryl Streep, let's see you sell it."
Mom nods. "Right, focus on your real anger. Look at Ryan, but pretend you're talking to them."
I try and it comes out better. Ryan tries to yell at me but isn't very convincing either as he looks like he'd rather kiss me than walk away.
Finally Rox tells us to stop. "This isn't gonna work with you two. But I have an idea that will work."
I have to admit Roxanne's plan is brilliant. And I know she can pull it off.
My only question is what happens if it works.
If Cruise stops manipulating my dreams, will my interest in Trip disappear? Will that "virus" she planted in my head be gone? And will the memories of my sexy dream vanish with it?
Inquiring minds wanna know.
The meeting hall is decorated with red, white and blue bunting and about two hundred students are in attendance for Cruise's visit. Having finished spewing her propaganda about the card while showing off a giant version on an easel, she wraps up her speech to polite applause. She walks away from the podium and is making her way through the crowd, shaking hands with administrators, teachers and students. The four of us have a small table in the back and are waiting until she gets a little closer.
"You ready?" asks Roxanne.
"Ready as I'll ever be," I say, my heart rate kicking up a notch. "But this still feels weird."
"Don't take anything personally," says Ryan. "Remember that nothing I say is true."
"I know. It's still hard even thinking you're mad at me."
"I feel the same way, Sparks. But I'll see you tonight, one way or the other."
Roxanne turns to him. "Ryan, you sure you know your lines?"
He nods. "I think we've rehearsed enough."
"Good." She turns to Jake. "Okay, little one, start making your way to Mrs. Robinson and lure her over."
"I'm just a piece of cougar bait to you." Jake looks a little nervous, as being the lure around a woman who's both a siren and a dream weaver is dangerous. Plus, he knows how close he came to being dragged into her lair and being tied up or hung from a trapeze or whatever. "Just make sure you remember to get me outta here before she gets her clutches into me. That cat has big claws."
"Not a problem," says Ryan. "I got your back."
Rox glares at the woman. "Normally I'd say I'd kick her ass."
"Too risky, Rox," says Jake. "My muse needs to stay safe."
She runs her hands through his hair and kisses him. "That's why I love you, little one."
Jake gets up and heads toward the long table that's filled with drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Cruise is still surrounded, busy chatting with supporters as she moves toward the center of the room. Jake stops at the back of the crowd, raises his hand and waves at her. She spots him and makes eye contact.
She perks up immediately and moves in his direction.
And toward us.
"Ready?" asks Rox.
"Get it over with," I say. "Rip the bandage off."
Roxanne and Ryan stand up and move toward each other as Cruise is about to reach Jake. "Look, you don't own her!" says Rox, raising her voice and jamming her finger in his chest as she invokes the Sicilian death stare and cranks up the Brooklyn accent. A few people look in our direction. "She is not your personal possession."
"Yeah, well I'm sick of her talking about other guys," says Ryan, glaring at Roxanne. "She's my girlfriend."
"What, you think 'cause you're her boyfriend you can put her in a box? I got your box right here. She's allowed to have male friends, you know. Or do you expect her to go through life only talking to women with blinders on?"
"What about love, honor and obey?"
Their voices are carrying and the murmur of the crowd dies down as this is now a full-fledged scene. Everyone is now looking at them. Cruise and Jake are a few feet apart, but both have stopped to watch the show.
"Obey? Obey? First of all, youse two aren't married." She waves her finger back and forth like a pissed off teacher. "No, no, no." She moves closer so that they're nose to nose. "Second, this aint nineteen fifty and she's not gonna rush to get your slippers when you get home. And if you two were to get married, which looks to be as much of a long shot as the Jets winnin' the Super Bowl, who the hell declared you lord and mastuh?"
(Speaking of master, Rox is a master at this. Or in her case, mastuh.)
He turns to me, hands on hips. "So, I suppose you agree with her?"
I try my best to look indignant as I stand and fold my arms because I'm shaking, ready to deliver my one line. My heart slams against my chest even though I know this isn't real. I stick my chin out. "Yeah. If I wanna have male friends, I have the right. And right now I want to keep my male friends."
Ryan glares at me and waves me away. "Fine, go spend time with some other guys. In fact, you'll have plenty of time because we're done!" He turns and storms off as Roxanne moves over to me and wraps an arm around my shoulders. I bury my head in her chest and pretend to cry as she strokes my hair. I'm actually shaking.
"You're better off, honey," she says, then turns to the crowd that is staring at us. "Hey, why doncha take a picture? It'll last longer!" They turn away and back to the special guest.
Roxanne escorts me out of the room. I look to the side and see two things.
Ryan grabbing Jake by the arm and pulling him outta there.
And Cruise smiling.
"Be there in two minutes. Wanted to give you a heads up." I hit the send button and the text is on its way.
Ryan replies almost immediately. "Make it one minute. Two is too long to wait."
I'm unable to contain a huge smile as I stretch out on my bed, close my eyes and focus on his dorm room.
And when I appear, for once I don't scare the hell out of him. I leap into his arms and hug him tight.
"Wow, I missed you too," he says. "What's it been, four hours?"
I kiss him and wrap my legs around his waist. "I'm so sorry, Ryan."
"About what?" He loops his arms underneath my hips to hold me up.
"You know. Our breakup."
"Uh, you do know that wasn't real. I would never break up with you."
"I know, but it felt real. It made me feel bad anyway. I don't ever want to be mad at you. Damn, I'd be a horrible lawyer if I'm that bad at confrontation. I was shaking really bad."
"Yeah, it felt strange to me too. But if this is the reaction I get, maybe we should break up more often."
"Smart ass."
"So, do you feel any different?"
"You're the one holding me, you tell me."
"I dunno…you might have gained a few pounds."
>
"Hey!"
"Kidding." He taps my head. "I meant do you feel any different up here?"
"Not really, but too early to tell. I'll let you know what I wake up."
"I'm sure you'll have pleasant dreams. By the way, I found it very interesting that you're taking the obey thing out of the wedding vows."
I lean back a bit. "Oh, so you think the woman should obey?"
"I was planning on obeying you. Will you be wanting your slippers as soon as you get home, or after dinner?"
He makes me smile like no one else. "Damn, I love you."
He shrugs. "Yeah, I know." He nods at his desk and a pizza box with steam coming out of it. "I got dinner. C'mon, it'll get cold."
"You have a girl wrapped around you like a snake and you wanna stop for dinner?"
"It's pizza. I'm a guy in college, pizza is my life."
"So, you'd rather eat pizza than make out with me?"
"The pizza will get cold. You obviously won't."
"Does this have anything to do with the fact that I can't eat as a projection?"
"Yeah. More for me."
"Well, okay. I wouldn't want you to starve." I drop out of his arms and sit on the side of the bed as he moves toward the pizza. "So, I talked to Rox, and so far Jake has no symptoms from being close to Cruise."
"Good, I'm glad we got him outta there in time." He grabs a slice from the box and takes a bite. "Listen, Sparks," he says through the pizza, "I got close enough to her for a few seconds to pick up some stuff."
"Really. Do tell."
"She was happy to see our argument. She totally bought it."
"Yeah, I got that from the look on her face."
"And she feels she can now move forward."
"With what?"
He shakes his head. “Don’t know. That’s all I got because we were rushing to get out of there. But the bottom line is that she feels invincible now.”
Chapter 14
Three weeks later I'm sleeping like a baby. No more bad dreams, no more dreams suitable for late night cable (that is now Mom's department), no more finding myself in someone else's dream, no more thinking I'm dreaming when I'm actually awake. Haven't even needed to check Carrielle's ring. So our fake breakup worked.
Meanwhile, Trip Logan now looks at me like he barely knows me and has become totally entranced with Aspen. Which is good news, of course. Obviously the dream weaver also stopped manipulating him when she realized he was no longer necessary. Whatever he might have felt for me, real or imagined, is out of his system.
As for getting Trip Logan out of my system, well, that's another story. If you're familiar with the term "carrying a torch," well, I'm hauling around an Olympic one. Much as I try to avoid him, the campus is small, and every time I see the guy my heart skips a beat.
The Summit confirms that the so-called "virus" put in my head by the dream weaver is gone as it isn't showing up in my brain waves. Everything is back to normal in that department. Unfortunately the memories resulting from said virus live on. And on. And on. Not a day goes by that I don't relive what happened in Trip's dream, even if it's for a few seconds. Or I daydream about him carrying me to the infirmary. Or making out with him at the dance. And there's still the longing I feel whenever I see him and Aspen together. She's such a sweet girl and yet when she talks about Trip I get jealous, even though I have a wonderful guy of my own. Thankfully, she's still hot for him, their relationship is a serious one and he doesn't seem the least bit interested in me even when I've made serious eye contact. (Just to check, of course. A girl has to keep on top of things. Of course I know it's the jealousy talking, and it's not really me.) Still, I wish the residual effects of the virus would disappear. Everyone at The Summit assures me they will.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Of course, I haven't told Ryan about the dream and never will. He's been through enough and has been an absolute saint through all this. The last thing he needs is a recap of how I ravished Trip in a dream and how the guy does things to me physically that he doesn't. Meanwhile, my relationship with him is strong, especially considering the fact that I'm beaming my alter ego over to his dorm room on a nightly basis. Sure, I miss going out to dinner with him, and when we want to see a movie I go with Roxanne and he goes with Jake, then we all meet up when the lights go down in the theater. And he wants the real Jillian in his bed, not the facsimile. Though the facsimile does enjoy her little sleepovers even though the minute I actually fall asleep I zip back to my real body. Just once I'd like to wake up in his arms instead of hugging a pillow. I keep telling myself it won't be forever, but I want to get back to a normal life.
And considering what happened this morning, it shouldn't be too long. One way or another.
Cruise's bill on the identity card sailed through Congress and was signed into law. I did a little research and found that every male member of the House and Senate voted for it, the only dissent coming from women. They oughta call her the singing Senator considering she got support from guys in the other party who should be her mortal enemy. Every time she makes a speech she hums a little as she steps to the microphone, and the men in the press corps become deer in the headlights lobbing softball questions. She's getting the project fast tracked in the hopes of getting the cards into the hands of the citizens in a matter of weeks.
Which means we'll be locking horns soon. So there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Then again, sometimes the light is a speeding train.
Thanks to his Men in Black friends in the federal government, Fuzzball has managed to score some of the prototype equipment that will put the identity card system into place and has hauled it over to The Summit so their band of merry geeks can figure out what it's going to do to people. Though I already have a pretty good idea. I'm betting that it's similar to what the cell phone did, but if it's part of that "phase two" of my father's original plan known as Babylon, it could be something worse. Mom keeps reminding me that not everyone had one of his cell phones, while every man, woman and child in the country will be issued an identity card.
And have to register in person using a fingerprint.
Sebastien is convinced that's the key as we all sit patiently while the geek squad works on the project. The cards are the size of a credit card, with a magnetic strip across the back and a space for a photo, signature and fingerprint on the front. To get the thing "registered" the card slides into a machine while you place your thumb on what looks like a track pad of a laptop. It's all hooked up to a computer much larger than the average desktop.
Probably because it's more than an average computer since, you know, the average computer doesn't access your brain waves and turn you into a pod person. According to Fuzzball's contacts, it's the most powerful digital device owned by the government. Once again, your tax dollars at work.
One of the middle-aged tech guys in a white lab coat who has been hovering over the system turns to Sebastien. "We should have results in a few moments."
Sebastien stops pacing and nods. "Very well."
"So, is this something we can crash like the cell phone?" I ask. "Upload a virus and be done with it?"
"Don't know," says Fuzzball. "But I would guess not since we've been down that road before and they're probably ready for it. I'll take the results back to my guy at Homeland Security and see what the deal is. They still have the virus we used last time, but the bad guys have surely learned from previous experience and might have adapted the system to make it virus proof and completely secure. We all know how fast technology can change and designers can adapt. And remember, Cruise is a member of the Senate now, so she has access to the same high tech government stuff I do. Probably more, since she's the brains behind this gizmo."
The computer beeps and a printer that is hooked up to the computer starts spitting out several sheets of paper. The techie grabs them, takes a look and hands it to Sebastien. "It's definitely here," says the techie, exhaling audibly as he runs his hand over his bald head.
He points to a spot on the paper with a pencil. "Right there. As you suspected."
"What's there?" I ask.
"Your father's memory engrams," says Sebastien, nodding as he studies the paper.
"His what?" asks Ryan.
"They're called engrams," says the tech guy. "Many think the concept is hypothetical, but it's not. In simple terms, some of your father's memories are stored in the master computer. Check that…not necessarily his memories, like things he did as a child, or specific experiences, but his basic beliefs. Right from wrong, love versus hate, that sort of thing. The basic concepts that form his personality. Instead of basic mathematical formulas the computer's decision making process is based on ethical beliefs."
"Wonderful," says Roxanne. "Just what we need. The whole country getting a new definition of right and wrong from your father. I'm guessing he comes down on the side of wrong."
"So that's why someone copied his brain," says Jake. "To basically put his agenda into everyone's head. This is Project Babylon."
"Yes, it appears so," says Sebastien, handing the printout back to the tech guy.
"I wonder how it would have tied in with the cell phone project?" asks Ryan.
"We may never know," says the techie. "My theory is that the cell phone was part of a mind control experiment, to see if it actually worked. This takes it to another level by using engrams, which are already present in the card before it is activated. Think of it as a basic operating system that's already installed in a computer when you buy it. Everything works in conjunction with the operating system. In this case, that system is an actual copy of a brain."
Sebastien nods as he gives me a serious look. "We had a feeling they were going to incorporate it into their next project when his brain was copied. Embedding your father's basic beliefs into every citizen will have a devastating effect."
"But there are little things as well," says the techie. "Things that are deeply embedded in the mind that may surface, things they don't intend to see. Memories that are physical, not mental."
"Not sure I understand," says Roxanne.
"For instance, if you burned your hand as a child, that hand might always flinch when someone touched it, even though it's now perfectly fine. You might not even notice that you do it. It's a muscle memory thing, and even though your hand doesn't have brain cells, it sort of remembers that it was hurt. That type of response can be carried in memory engrams in a very powerful way. How strong these engrams will be is anyone's guess, and I would surmise that it would affect different people in different ways."