Compile:Quest

Chapter 34: The Memory of Dreams

Training Room, Lambent Laboratories, Cell 3,

Africa Dome

"Ah, you're early."

Peppermint hadn't heard Jasper approach and started at his voice. She'd been thinking about how long it would take Maple and Nick to realise there was a problem before living up to their word and charging in to save her. Swinging around, she returned Jasper's smile with a glare.

He took a step back from her expression, frowning. "Is everything—"

"Is that the same story you tell all the denizens you bring here?" she asked, injecting venom into her voice.

"I'm not sure—"

"A brain lesion?"

Jasper halted. He had the decency to look embarrassed, at least. "Peppermint, you must understand, this is a highly classified operation."

Jasper didn't maintain eye contact with her. She scowled at him as he began rubbing the back of his neck.

"Why didn't you just drug me the first time I arrived, huh? Then you could have kept me here and experimented on me as much as you wanted."

"Because then your friends might have worried."

Peppermint's mouth opened for a scathing reply, but then closed again.

"The last thing we want is for your friends to worry about you." He lifted his hands. "Is there anything else you need to get off your chest, or can we begin?"

She glanced around the testing room. "Where's Onyx?" She'd been working on a scathing harangue she couldn't wait to throw his way.

"He should be here any minute now." Jasper sighed. "Shall we begin in the meantime? He's generally not involved in the meditation exercises."

"Meditation? We're going to meditate?"

"Not us. You. Follow me." Jasper passed her, heading toward the far corner of the testing room.

Peppermint glanced around again. There wasn't much to see in the sparsely furnished room. It was large, about twenty meters in diameter, partitioned into quarters with waist-high screens of frosted glass. One of the quarters interested her in particular — it held a strange oblong contraption, constructed from a dull metal with an old-fashioned LED screen above a control panel.

Jasper led her into the south-east quarter, the closest to the door. A long-haired rug spread over the slick, pale tiles, and a few cushions lay in a tidy heap on the side. There was nothing else in the quadrant. The man seated himself on the rug and turned to look at her when she remained motionless.

He swept the air beside him. "Come in."

"Yeesh," she whispered under her breath and stepped gingerly onto the carpet. "Uh, is this... necessary?"

"Very much so."

She sat down on the carpet. Peppermint stared at the man with apprehension as she crossed her legs. He smiled amiably back at her and placed his hands with exaggerated care on his folded knees. She mirrored him, watching his face for the first sign that this was all somehow a very elaborate joke that would have her profile trending for the next month. He touched his thumb and middle finger together on each hand, raising his eyebrows until she mimicked him. Make that the next year.

"Listen Jasper, I still have no idea—" she began.

Jasper took a breath. His chest rose, and air whistled into his nose.