“That’s right.” Titus looked at Landry. “Any chance we can do this down in the catacombs? There’s a fair amount of ambient psi in here, but the more the better for our purposes.”
Landry shrugged. He crossed the room and rezzed a hidden lock. A section of the wall opened up, revealing a flight of steep stone steps that led down into darkness.
Invisible waves of energy flowed up the steps into the room. They were, Titus knew, a sure sign that somewhere down below there was an opening into the catacombs.
“This way,” Landry said, picking up a flashlight. “Watch your head.”
He rezzed the flashlight and led the way down the steps. The blonde went next. Titus followed.
The staircase ended in a dank, heavily timbered basement that dated from the Colonial era. Landry played the beam of the flashlight on one wall, revealing a modern, mag-steel door secured with a sturdy lock.
Titus watched him rez the lock, wondering how many bodies had disappeared through the door and into the maze of catacombs over the years. There had always been rumors about that sort of thing, especially in the old days. Titus did not doubt the stories and legends associated with them. He was certain that at various times, all of the Guilds had found the endless, largely uncharted alien tunnels convenient dumping grounds. Once a body disappeared into an unexplored section of the ancient underground maze, it was unlikely ever to be found.
The heavy door swung open on near-silent hinges, revealing a scene illuminated in the acid-green glow of alien energy. Titus found himself looking through a jagged opening in a green quartz wall. Beyond was another staircase. The steps, like the endless maze of tunnels and chambers beyond, were constructed of green quartz. They had been designed for feet that were not quite human.
The green quartz that the aliens had used to build everything from urns and vases to the most ethereal aboveground spires and towers was virtually indestructible. Certainly no tool yet fashioned by humans was able to make a dent in the stuff.
The experts did not know what forces had been powerful enough to create the rips and tears in the tunnel walls, but there was no shortage of them beneath all of the Dead City ruins. Some researchers speculated that great earthquakes had, over the years, created the openings. Others suspected that the holes in the walls had been fashioned by the aliens themselves—possibly criminals, rebels, or others who had found the openings useful and who’d had access to the powerful tools that had been used to construct the catacombs.
Over the years the main entrances to the vast underground realm had been excavated by licensed, authorized explorers and researchers. The Guilds controlled access, because they were the only ones who could provide protection from the energy ghosts that drifted at random through the tunnels.
But ever since the arrival of the human colonists, uncharted holes in the walls had been exploited by a wide assortment of people who, for one reason or another, had a reason to go underground without professional protection. Licensed and unlicensed small-time antiquities collectors, entrepreneurs engaged in the manufacture and distribution of illegal substances, criminals fleeing the law, and risk-takers attracted to the adventure of unauthorized exploration all made use of the openings.
A short distance into the glowing green tunnel, Landry came to a halt and looked back at Titus.
“Will this do?” he asked.
“Yes,” Titus said. “This will do nicely.” He withdrew the ruby amber artifact from his pocket and smiled at Miss Stowe. “This is what I intend to demonstrate.”
She glanced at it without much interest. “It’s not made out of green quartz. It looks like red plastic.”
“Believe me when I tell you that this is no human-made plastic.”
He focused on her psi patterns, rezzing energy through the ruby amber. He possessed a great deal of natural talent, enough to read her psi waves and even exert a limited and very temporary influence over them. With the aid of the ruby amber, however, his own power was enhanced to an astonishing degree.
Working swiftly, he pulsed psi through the device, dampening and neutralizing the woman’s own paranormal wave pattern. Her eyes widened slightly in shock. She shook her head once and started to step back, as though to flee.
Then she froze, an expression of total blankness on her beautiful features. She stood, unmoving, staring blindly into the middle distance.
Landry frowned. “What the hell did you do to her?”
“I put her into an instant trance by temporarily neutralizing her psi rhythms.”
“Huh.”
Landry walked slowly around the blonde. He paused behind her and clapped his hands very suddenly. The woman did not flinch. He continued walking until he was back in front of her. He waved one hand before her eyes. She did not blink. There was no sign that she was aware of him.
“Okay, so you can put her into a trance,” he said. “What good is that?”
“This is not just any trance,” Titus said, assuming a lecturing tone. “With the aid of this relic I have placed her in what is essentially a blank dreamscape.”
“She’s dreaming?”
“Not yet. She is prepared to dream, however.”
“Explain,” Landry ordered.
“As you may or may not know, scientific research has confirmed that the dreaming state is the only state in which our psychic senses interact freely with our other five senses without distinction. When we dream, our natural ability to distinguish between the normal and the paranormal disappears.”
“So?”
“Most people have had the experience of going to bed with a problem on their minds and awakening the next morning with a solution or at least a new way of approaching the problem. They will tell you that the answer came to them in their dreams. They are correct. During the dreaming state the mind is free to work on the problem with both psi and normal senses in a unique and extremely creative manner that cannot be duplicated in the waking state.”
“Skip the academic crap. Get to the point.”
Titus suppressed a sigh. It was extremely irritating to be forced to work with an individual of such limited intellect and education, but he had no choice.
“As I said,” he continued, striving for patience, “the dream state provides a very creative environment, but there is a downside.”
“What’s that?”
“There is a reason why, in the waking state, our normal and paranormal senses are distinct and separate, so much so that many people unknowingly suppress their psychic side altogether.” He hurried now. It was obvious that Landry was losing patience. “That is because the dream state is extremely hazardous from a pragmatic point of view.”
“Got it.” Landry snapped his fingers. “If we went around in a dream state all the time, we wouldn’t know if the car coming at us in the intersection was real or just a dream construct.”
“Exactly.”
Landry was smarter than he appeared, Titus thought. It would be a good idea to keep that in mind.
Landry surveyed the blonde. “All right, you’ve got her in a waking dream state. Now what?”
“As I said, in this condition she is not able to distinguish between dream and reality. With the aid of this relic I can ensure that when I bring her out of the trance she will believe that everything that has happened during the past few minutes was nothing but a dream.”
“You mean she won’t remember our conversation?”
“No more than she would any other dream.” Titus spread his hands wide. “And what she does recall she will dismiss as only a dream.”
“This is getting interesting,” Landry said. “But I’m not sure I’ve got a lot of use for that device.”
Titus cleared his throat. “Perhaps I should mention another application.”
“What’s that?”
“In the dream state many of her natural defenses are down.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that if you ask her a question, she will give you a completely honest answer. This is all a dream to her. In the dream state one does not lie. Go ahead, ask her something you think she would likely conceal if she were awake.”
