[OLD] The Scorpion Mission (#2)

Eighteen

Tyler knew she was asleep the moment she saw Malcolm. He stood at the other side of parking lot she was dreaming, his back to her.

"You've been sleeping all day," Tyler said, hoping he couldn't tell she was nervous.

"And?" Malcolm turned around.

"I don't know. It's weird."

"I can get more done in my sleep than awake. They didn't exactly give me anything to do."

"It just seems like you'd have to be exhausted to sleep that long. It's not like you've been doing anything."

"Oh trust me, I've been getting quite a bit accomplished."

"Like what?"

Malcolm narrowed his eyes. "Never mind. It doesn't matter."

"Right," Tyler said, not daring to question him further. "What is it you need my help with?"

"I need you to help me... retrieve something," Malcolm said. "Unfortunately, it's in my dream, not yours."

"So let's go to your dream, then." The sooner they could get this done, the better.

"It's not that simple," Malcolm said. "I can go anywhere I want in the Dream Realm, but you can't. You're confined to the area around your mind, if that makes sense."

"It doesn't, but whatever. What do I have to do?"

"I'm too far away for you to access my dream. You'll need to be closer."

Tyler swallowed when she realized what he meant. "You need me to come down to the cell block."

"Yes."

"Dr. Newman banned us from going down there," Tyler said.

"Well, you'll have to figure something out."

Tyler folded her arms. "Why? You're locked up. You can't make me do anything."

"We had a deal," Malcolm said, narrowing his eyes.

"You're not exactly in a position to do anything about it," Tyler pointed out.

Malcolm's fingers twitched. Tyler's heart pounded as their surroundings shifted. Their surroundings changed to the white walls of Tyche Laboratories. Claudia appeared behind Malcolm, gun in hand.

" If you want to spend the rest of your life having nightmares every time you close your eyes, I can arrange that."

Claudia walked toward Tyler. It's just a dream. I'm in control. Tyler concentrated on making Claudia disappear. As she flickered away, another one of her appeared.

"You want to test my power?" Malcolm asked. "I can do this all night."

Tyler spun around as more copies of Claudia emerged from the walls. She turned back around to face Malcolm.

"I'll make you disappear, then," she said. She focused, but Malcolm stayed where he was.

Malcolm laughed. "You can't control me," he said. "Claudia's just a product of your dreaming mind, but I'm real."

Tyler clenched her fists. She had no choice. "Fine," she said. "I'll come."

The Claudias disappeared, and the white walls faded away. "Excellent," Malcolm said, as if he hadn't just threatened her with permanent nightmares.

Tyler sat up in her bed, gasping for air. Her room was shrouded in darkness, and a glance at the alarm clocked revealed it was nearly midnight.

She wondered, not for the first time, if getting rescued from the SCI facility was worth the deal with Malcolm. But there was no way they would have been able to get out by themselves. There were too many SCI agents.