Broken Dreams (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 5) Read Free

people inside those receptacles are in danger. Set aside everything I said about them living a second life, in a dream realm. Look at this like a scientist. You said the occupants’ fight-or-flight responses have never happened before. Right?”
    The doctor nodded.
    “What else has never happened before?” Mara asked.
    “I’m not sure I’m following.”
    “People from other realms—new variables—have been introduced to the system. Ping, Sam and Abby each come from distinct realms. At the least you have to eliminate them as the cause of the problems. Isn’t that what a scientist would do?”
    Dr. Canfield looked unconvinced. “I don’t see how having them in the receptacles could affect—” Her face went pale.
    Mara sensed the doctor had received an update. “Is something happening in the repository?”
    The doctor stood up and went to the door. “Some occupants are going critical. Stay here until I come back. We’re not done talking about this.” She left, closing the door behind her.
    Damn. It looked like she was coming around .
     

CHAPTER 3
     
     
    A little more than an hour later, Mara still sat in Dr. Canfield’s office, staring at the poster on the wall. Getting antsy, she paced in the small space between the desk and the door, wondering if it were possible to disconnect Abby’s receptacle in a way that left her in stasis but prevented her from harming other occupants. Mara didn’t want to remove Abby altogether because she would be exposed to the dissoluendo virus, not to mention she might wreak havoc in this realm once again. There must be a way to isolate her from the other occupants .
    Mara wished she’d spent more time grilling the attendant giving them the tour and an overview of the repository’s systems before Ping was placed in his receptacle. If only she had access to technical specifications, maybe she could do something …
    Disable the synching protocols and disconnect the receptacle’s signal matrix to prevent Abby from sending or receiving any signals. If the occupants are communicating and sharing some kind of dream realm, this would be the only possible way, at least technically.
    What? Where did that come from?
    Mara cocked her head and distractedly bumped into the desk. Instead of turning around and pacing back toward the door, she sat on the edge of the desk and stared toward the ceiling, not really seeing it. She focused on the repository system schematics that scrolled through her mind like an endless animated presentation. Mara gasped, awestruck, as she realized what was happening.
    She found no direct connection between the receptacles—leaving the signals used to sync the synthetic and biological bodies. Oddly the receptacles broadcasted and received signals on an open spectrum of rolling frequencies. Like a big, wide-open network with no passwords, no security and no filtering. All data sent had an attached address—a personal identifier or receptacle code—used to route the information. However, nothing prevented someone—inside or outside a receptacle—from appending whatever address they wished. Nothing prevented receptacle occupants from communicating with each other, assuming they had the means to send signals at will. That is the big question. Can they send signals?
    Mara, come to the monitoring lab immediately .
    Speaking of signals, that one was from Dr. Canfield.
    As she pushed off the edge of the desk and headed to the door, Mara got the impression something was wrong, even though the telepathic signals these people exchanged lacked the emotional timbres of a human voice. In some manner Mara had yet to discern, the doctor had conveyed a sense of panic and urgency.
    * * *
    When Mara entered the monitoring lab, Dr. Canfield was in the middle of a video conference with eight doctors at other repositories, their faces displayed in two rows of four boxes on one of the large screens at the front of the room. Half a dozen attendants hunched over the control