DreamLand by Matthew J. Pallamary & Ken Reeth

Author:Matthew J. Pallamary & Ken Reeth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, horror, computer generated dreaming, thriller
Publisher: Matthew J. Pallamary
Published: 2016-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Bitch!” Eddie slammed down the phone and flopped into a chair at the animation lab work station beside Lorenzo. “Ugly-ass humorless-bitch!” He shook his head.

Lorenzo looked up from the slow motion Pied Piper sequence unfolding on the screen in front of him. “What’s your problem?”

Eddie fiddled with the touchpad, a further sign that something irritated him. “Somebody should slip that uptight old bitch a big stiff cob.”

“Who the hell are you talking about?”

Eddie nodded toward the phone. “Cheryl. She’s nuts.” He tapped his temple with an index finger. “Nasty bitch. No humanity, no compassion, no sense of humor. She just threatened to get me shit-canned.”

Lorenzo’s dark brow furrowed. “Jesus, Eddie, what kind of garbage did you stir up now?”

“All I did was play a little trick on her.”

“Stay the hell out of her way with your damned tricks,” Lorenzo snapped. “I told you not to screw with Cheryl. You know how focused she is when she’s working on something.”

“Yeah, she’s focused all right. If Morpheus had a dick...”

Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed. “You will get yourself canned with an attitude like that, only I’ll be the one to do it. I take a lot of crap from Hodge about giving you too much freedom. Why can’t you be cool and stop drawing attention to yourself? How many times do I have to tell you to keep a low profile?”

Eddie stared at the floor.

“Keep acting up,” Lorenzo said, jabbing his finger at Eddie. “Cheryl’s going to start investigating you. If she finds out about that damned virus collection you’ve been keeping, Hodge’ll have both of our asses.”

“That’s my personal business. None of hers.”

“Then where do you get off mucking around in hers?” Lorenzo shot back.

Eddie opened his mouth, then stopped. “You’re right.” He shrugged. “To hell with her. She ain’t worth my attention.” He nodded toward Lorenzo’s display. “What’s up with the Piper?”

Lorenzo bit his lower lip. “One of the girl Greeters said she was bitten by a dream rat.”

“Bitten?” Eddie raised his eyebrows and whistled. “No shit?”

“Hodge is a nervous wreck. Kid swears it was an ugly vicious rat.”

“She’s nuts!”

“Hodge pulled me off Genesis to investigate. I was creating Eve.” He smiled. “Gave her Rita’s eyes.”

“Never mind Rita’s eyes, give her Denise’s ass.” Eddie grinned. His fingers danced across the keyboard and tapped the touchpad, stepping it through a series of screens until the Pied Piper sequence on Lorenzo’s monitor appeared on his own. “You looked at this frame by frame?”

“Frame by frame, stop motion, slo-mo, reverse video. Four times so far.”

“Nothing out of whack? No drooling rats with big sharp teeth?” Eddie’s keyboard clicked and the video froze. Zooming in on a rat’s fuzzy little head, he enlarged it until it filled the screen. With a flurry of motion, the rat’s big, soft brown eyes shrank, turning red, feral and beaded. Its tiny nostrils widened, and its pink mouth blurred into a gaping black maw, studded with jagged fangs, slimy and wet with shimmering strings of saliva.

Lorenzo let out an exasperated sigh.

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