Hidden in Dreams Read Free Page A

dream.”
    “What would you prefer that I call it, then? What word would you say best—”
    “A warning.”
    “Is this warning intended for you?”
    “For everybody. That’s what I feel. It’s either stand on the street corner and shout, or sit here and tell you. I figure, if I’m nuts, this is at least a way to keep it private.”
    Rachel did not speak.
    “Am I nuts?”
    “Nothing you have expressed to me indicates any abnormal symptoms,” she replied slowly. “Other than your evident stress.”
    His laugh was coppery with weakness. “You got that right.”
    The screen went blank.

 
     
     
    3

     
     
     
    E lena arrived in the president’s office at eight the next morning. She had woken in the middle of the night with a desperate need to speak with someone she trusted. The problem was, she knew almost no one in the entire state of Florida.
    The Atlantic Christian University campus was divided into two distinct components. The original low-slung buildings dated from the early seventies, when the university had been founded. Florida tended to age buildings with a harsh hand. Years could pass with little more than summer thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Then a hurricane could roar through. Locals said a hurricane aged a building ten years in one week. The past six years had been kind to the Space Coast, as this region was known. But in 2003 the coast had been hit by two category-three storms in the space of seventeen days. The following year, a storm landed on the opposite coast as a category one, then somehow managed to gather force as it crossed the state. It tore into Melbourne from the west, from the landward side, and then sat over the region for nineteen hours, spawning twenty-seven tornados and dumping two feet of rain in one day.This particular month, September, was the most active period for Atlantic hurricanes. Elena heard about storms everywhere she went.
    Four years earlier, the founder of a major Florida corporation bequeathed ACU a sum of fifty million dollars. Since then the university had gone on a building spree. The campus now boasted a new science complex, business school, gym, pool, and dorms. But the president’s office remained where it had been, on the ground floor of one of the original structures. The suite of offices was nice enough, though rather faded. Elena decided the place suited the man.
    Reed Thompson, president of Atlantic Christian, strode into the room. “Dr. Burroughs! Do we have an appointment?”
    “I phoned, your secretary said this was the only chance I’d have to see you today.”
    “This is excellent. I was hoping to stop by for a chat, but with the trustees meeting next week, I’ve been running flat out.” He accepted the secretary’s clutch of messages without breaking stride. “Come on in.”
    “I can come back later.”
    “There is no later.” He reached the door to his inner office, then asked his secretary, “How much time do I have?”
    “Fifteen minutes if you want to arrive five minutes late.”
    “Make it twenty. Coffee for me. Elena?”
    “No thank you.”
    “Have a seat. Give me two minutes.” He hung his jacket on the back of his chair, flipped through the notes, set them by his phone, and seated himself. “How are you settling in?”
    “Too early to tell.” She found herself slipping into the president’s terse mode of speech. “I think okay.”
    “Any problems?”
    “Not with my classes.”
    “Home working out okay? You’re renting, is that right?”
    “Bayside Condominiums. Yes, and it’s fine. Actually, it’s better than that.”
    “Great.” He smiled his thanks as his secretary set down his mug. “You’ve met Francine?”
    “Just now, yes.”
    His secretary said, “Gary is outside.”
    “I’ll see him in the conference.”
    “He says there’s a problem with the architect’s bid.”
    Reed Thompson sipped from his mug, then said to Elena, “If I take five minutes now, I can give you ten minutes more later.