The Dream Keeper Read online

  “Dr. Spence’s office. This is Lisa speaking. How can I help you?”

  “Hi, Lisa, could you put my father on the line please?” Daniel said with a fake sweet voice.

  “Just one second, Mr. Spence. He is finishing up with a patient. Would you like to wait or leave a message?”

  “I’ll wait, thanks.”

  Daniel was put on hold. He switched to the left lane and went faster. The radio was playing “The Show Must Go On” by Queen when a deep voice answered the phone.

  “Dr. Spence speaking.”

  “Hey, Dad.” He lowered the volume of the radio.

  “Hey, Daniel. How did the interview go?”

  “It went…well, I guess. Dr. Cooper is definitely a strange man.”

  “Did you receive an offer?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then that’s all that matters. When are you starting?”

  He assumes I’m accepting the offer just like that?

  “Not sure yet. We haven’t defined that. Probably sometime in mid-May…Dad, how long have you known Dr. Cooper?”

  “I used to help him with research in the seventies. I must say I’m surprised he offered you this opportunity. I’m glad you’ll get some work experience that is not in my office for a change.”

  “Yeah, it will be nice to learn from someone as influential as him for a change.” Daniel wanted to remain silent and savor his comeback, but there were pressing questions, so he continued. “What do you think of him?”

  “What do I think? I think you should not be judging the man who’s giving you a job, Daniel.”

  “I’m not judging,” Daniel said. “I just wanted to know what you think of him.”

  “He is a brilliant man, very smart, very charismatic. You’ll learn a lot from this opportunity.”

  “All right, good to know.” He pressed down on the gas, gaining speed rapidly. “Dad, you didn’t ask him to give me a job, did you?”

  A couple of seconds went by, and then his dad responded. “Not this time. For once you have achieved something on your own. Considering the mistakes you have made, I’m surprised you still get job offers. So don’t screw this up, and don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

  I bet you can’t reach the bottom.

  Daniel pushed the thought away, took a deep breath, and tried to control his voice. “Thanks, Dad, I’ll talk to you later.”

  His dad hung up without responding.

  He is such an asshole.

  Daniel turned up the music as Freddy Mercury was hitting a high note and put his foot on the gas.

  I’ll show the fucker what I’m made of.

  Chapter 3

  The doors closed behind Daniel, cutting off the warm air of summer, as he went into the lobby. He expected to see the attractive secretary again but was disappointed when he found an old lady, probably in her sixties, instead.

  “Good afternoon. I’m Daniel Spence, the new intern.”

  The woman looked up and smiled kindly. “Mr. Spence, welcome. Dr. Cooper notified me of your arrival. Please follow me.” She buzzed the door, and Daniel walked in, transitioning from the spacious lobby into the narrow hallway, and again a claustrophobic feeling tickled his spine, like he was entering a tunnel to another world. The old woman took a closer look at him, and then his bag. Her brown eyes seemed twice as big as they really were behind her thick, square glasses.

  “Oh please, leave your bag next to my door, dear. The staff will take it to your room.”

  “All right, thank you.”

  They went down the hallway, passing Dr. Cooper’s office, and took a left. The secretary knocked on a white door and peeked inside. “Sorry for the interruption, Dr. Cooper. Mr. Spence is here.”

  “Excellent. Let him in. Thank you, Nancy,” Dr. Cooper said from inside.

  She turned around, smiling, and opened the door for Daniel. He thanked her and walked in. Dr. Cooper stood in front of a blackboard with a bunch of annotations, like a professor giving a lecture. Daniel recognized Kelly, who was sitting next to two other guys around an oval table. They all wore lab coats and seemed to be taking notes.

  “Welcome back, Mr. Spence. You are right on time.” The old man approached him and they shook hands.

  “Pleasure to see you again, Dr. Cooper.”

  Dr. Cooper smiled and turned toward the others. “Everyone, this is the newest addition to our team as I mentioned earlier, Mr. Daniel Spence.”

  The three of them stood up and greeted him as Dr. Cooper introduced Daniel to everyone around the table. He first met a man with strong features and dark hair, probably in his mid-forties. He had a scar that went from the left side of his forehead down to his chin that would’ve given him an intimidating look if it wasn’t for his glasses, which gave him a more intellectual feel.

  “This is Dr. Viktor Cowen. He has been with me for…what is it now? Nine years, Viktor?”

  “Ten as of last month, Dr. Cooper,” he said with a smile. He extended his arm toward Daniel and squeezed his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “The pleasure is all mine.”

  Dr. Cooper proceeded to introduce a man who was at least six foot tall, with messy blond hair and a surfer look, which contrasted with his lab coat and formal attire.

  “This is Dr. Jerry Shoop. He has been with me for five years. He will be your manager throughout your stay here. So you are in good hands.”

  “Welcome to the team, Mr. Spence. Looking forward to working with you,” he said with a smile as they shook hands.

  “Thank you. Likewise.” Daniel returned his best PR smile.

  Dr. Cooper turned and gestured to Kelly. “I believe you met Mrs. Marshall. She received the Olivia Sponsorship las year and has been with us almost ten months.”

  They shook hands across the table. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Marshall,” he said with a smile, looking at her prominent hazel eyes.

  “Welcome back, Mr. Spence.”

  Dr. Cooper took out his silver pocket watch and glanced at it. “All right, thank you, everyone. You can get back to work now. It is already past six thirty, so we can finish our discussion tomorrow. Dr. Shoop, I’ll meet you in a second.” He turned to Daniel. “Mr. Spence, Dr. Cowen will now give you a small tour of our facility, but before you go, I have something for you.”

  Kelly and Dr. Shoop left the room, and Dr. Cowen stood next to Daniel. Dr. Cooper reached inside one of his lab coat pockets and took out a small book with a pen.

  “This is your dream journal, Mr. Spence. It is imperative that you get in the habit of recording your dreams. There is also a poem on the first page that you should read before going to sleep and right after waking up.”

  Daniel was a bit thrown off by this. “Of course, consider it done.” His puzzled expression must have given him away.

  “This is part of our particular methods—in fact, everyone at the institute has one. Don’t worry. Everything will make sense in due time. For now, I ask for your trust.”

  Daniel wanted to ask more, but Dr. Cooper continued. “Are you ready, Dr. Cowen?” he said, looking over Daniel’s shoulder.

  The man stood near the door with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

  “Yes,” he said, glancing at Daniel and then looking back at Dr. Cooper. “I can meet you around midnight tonight.”

  “That should work,” Dr. Cooper replied. He shifted back to Daniel, who put the small journal and pen in his front pocket of his jacket.

  “After dinner you’ll meet with Dr. Shoop here and go over your first set of duties. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Cooper.”

  They shook hands, and the old man left the room.

  Daniel followed Dr. Cowen out and down the hallway.

  “The room we just left is the meeting room,” Dr. Cowen said. “It is connected to the computer lab, which you can also access through this door.” He pointed to a second white door to his left.

  “Interesting. What type of computers do you guys us
e?” Daniel asked as he walked behind him.

  “Mackintosh II’s,” responded Dr. Cowen without looking back.

  “Oh nice. Do you guys spend a lot of time there, working together?”

  “A good amount.”

  Daniel expected a follow-up question, but it never came. They passed the cafeteria, a large space with skylights that was open 24/7. It could probably hold one hundred people or even more.

  “How many people work at the institute?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t know the exact number,” Dr. Cowen replied, appearing a bit irritated as he rushed toward the elevator. “The institute used to be packed back in the seventies, running at full capacity, but those were the golden days.”

  Daniel wondered what happened after that, but before he could ask, Dr. Cowen spoke again.

  “So, the next thing you need to learn is our color coding.”

  The elevator opened and they walked in. Dr. Cowen pushed the button for Level 2 and to Daniel’s surprise, the elevator started going downwards. He had the strange feeling of going into a deep burrow.

  “Every experimental room has a light indicator that lights up with a different color depending on the activity of the room.”

  The elevator stopped, and they stepped out. Dr. Cowen pointed to the right. Around twenty-five feet away, Daniel could see three different doors, one on each side. They all had red lights on above them.

  “The green color means you can access that door, the yellow color means there is an ongoing experiment, and the red color mean it’s a restricted area.”

  “I see.” Daniel turned around and noticed the hallway was shorter on that end, with two doors on each side. One was a gate with metal bars which had a green light, and the other one was a small door with a blue light.

  “So, we have green, yellow, and red lights, but what about that blue one? An even higher level of security? Nuclear experimentation?” said Daniel, smiling. He wanted to break the ice.

  “That’s the janitor’s closet,” Dr. Cowen responded, annoyance in his voice.

  “Oh, of course,” Daniel said quietly.

  “Now, the one next to it, though, is the library. That’s where we keep records from all our experiments, as well as any books or support Dr. Cooper might think fits our research.” He grabbed a key card from his pocket and gave it to Daniel.

  “That is your key card. I assume you know how to use one.”

  Daniel remained silent and felt his ears getting hot.

  His guide swiped them in and turned the lights on. The library went forty feet in each direction, with higher ceilings than the one on the stretch hallway. All this helped Daniel to not feel like a rodent anymore. The room had bookshelves from floor to ceiling all the way across.

  “Each unit has five shelves. Usually the records of an experiment can take two to three shelves, depending on its complexity and duration.” Dr. Cowen sounded proud, as if he were talking about a trophy or a diploma he’d earned.

  “That is a lot of information,” Daniel said in awe.

  Dr. Cowen turned to look at Daniel for the first time since the tour started. “Indeed, we used to have a supervisor for all of this. Not anymore. Now you can see that each level on each stack is closed and properly labeled. You can use your card to open the one you need. But your access will be limited to the information that is relevant to you.”

  Dr. Cowen pointed to the far left of the library, where there was a counter and a door.

  “That one there is our resource room. If you need anything specific for an experiment, they will probably have it. If they don’t, they can order it for you. They’re pretty helpful.”

  “Very efficient,” Daniel said as Dr. Cowen left the room.

  He stood there for a couple of seconds, feeling a heavy weight in the air. It was as if all the memories of The Cooper Institute were cluttered there in the stacks, to be forgotten.

  “Mr. Spence?” His tour guide waited by the door with a slightly annoyed expression, ready to turn off the light. Daniel turned around and followed him.

  “How many of those experiments have you worked on, Dr. Cowen?” he asked as they stepped out and went toward the elevator.

  “A good few,” he replied, a bit of nostalgia in his voice. “I like to think I’ve left a positive footprint there so far. It has been quite the journey.”

  “What do the experiments consist of mostly? I could not tell from my interview. I mean, I understood where we are going, our goal, but not how we would get there.” Daniel knew that asking Mr. Grumpy all of this would be a long shot, but after seeing all the information, he could not resist.

  Dr. Cowen’s response was quick and sharp. “You will learn that in good time…or not. Dr. Cooper decides how much information is filtered into each researcher. But he always has the bigger picture in his head. I’ve seen interns who only do paperwork and interns who have helped us directly in our experiments. So you just have got to prove your worth.”

  Daniel wanted to respond, but Dr. Cowen continued. “We’ll go to your room now. The rest of this floor consists of experiment rooms. Same thing with Level Three, as you can see, toward the other side of the hallway. But that’s not part of our little tour.”

  He called the elevator, and the doors opened instantly. Dr. Cowen pressed the button for the fourth floor. Daniel looked down the hallway and saw the red indicator light on top of each door.

  “Are you coming in?”

  “Oh yes, sorry about that.” Daniel went in and noticed there were nine floors.

  “You’ll get to know the different types of experiments when or if you get assigned to them,” Dr. Cowen said. “I’ve been here for ten years and still don’t know what’s behind some of those doors.”

  But Daniel’s mind had wandered off. He felt a certain discomfort as the elevator descended. Like a child who’s told not to go into a room, all he wanted was to go in that room, whatever monster may be waiting on the other side of the door. Except in his case he was in a house full of those rooms.

  “Doesn’t that bother you?” The words escaped his mouth before he could hold them back.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Sorry, I was thinking out loud. I’m just very curious to know what’s happening here. After all, this is The Cooper Institute. Every door can open on to a new discovery.” His voice was cautious.

  Dr. Cowen cleared his throat. “Well, of course some of those rooms are not in use anymore—most of them, actually.” The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out. “Anyway, I don’t have to explain to you how or why things work here the way they do,” he snapped as they walked faster and stopped in front of a Room 271.

  “Your card key is also your room key, so don’t lose it, or you will be sleeping outside. It is”—he checked his watch—“seven fifteen right now. Our meal starts at seven thirty. Dr. Shoop will meet you at the computer lab around eight. Any last questions?”

  “I think that’s all. Thanks you for your time, Dr. Cowen,” Daniel said, grinning.

  “Of course,” Dr. Cowen replied with a bored expression on his face. He walked away.

  Cocky idiot.

  Daniel went into his new room. He dropped his backpack to the floor and lay on the bed, faceup, staring at the fluorescent lamps. He looked around the simple, college dorm–like room and wasn’t impressed. It had no windows, an old wooden closet, and a slight smell that he’d never smelled before—the smell of something that had been locked in there for a while maybe. He assumed he would get used to it.

  Daniel used this time to collect his thoughts. He had accepted a job at one of the most renowned institutes in United States and the world; he did this to prove to (his father) himself that he could and would make an impact on his own. It was clear to him that The Cooper Institute had seen better days. He deduced that from the size of the team versus the capacity of the building.

  Now, neither Dr. Cooper nor Dr. Cowen had told him the details or even the main objective of the overall research
, but based on his interview with Dr. Cooper, he knew it was related to the mind and that the government was involved. But what did that even mean? How can you test the mind? And more importantly, what was the use of it? Why was the government interested in something so—let’s say—philosophical?

  All these questions flew around his head for a moment. After analyzing all the information he learned on the tour and during his interview—which was not much, really—he came to the conclusion that he was still in the dark. He’d need to go through his first experiment before he could figure out anything else. Disappointed, he decided to take a quick shower. As he took his jacket off, he felt the small journal Dr. Cooper gave him upon his arrival earlier, another piece of this puzzle. His curiosity and hopes spiked again. He took it out of his pocket and inspected it. It was made out of smooth black leather. Daniel opened it and read the poem on the first page.

  “A Dream within a Dream,”

  a poem by Edgar Allan Poe

  Take this kiss upon the brow!

  And, in parting from you now,

  Thus much let me avow—

  You are not wrong, who deem

  That my days have been a dream;

  Yet if hope has flown away

  In a night, or in a day,

  In a vision, or in none,

  Is it therefore the less gone?

  All that we see or seem

  Is but a dream within a dream.

  I stand amid the roar

  Of a surf-tormented shore,

  And I hold within my hand

  Grains of the golden sand—

  How few! yet how they creep

  Through my fingers to the deep,

  While I weep—while I weep!

  O God! can I not grasp

  Them with a tighter clasp?

  O God! can I not save

  One from the pitiless wave?

  Is all that we see or seem

  But a dream within a dream?