Insomnia

16

"You're in position?" Oz asked.

"Mhmm."

Esme crouched in the alley opposite the data center, speaking through the communications unit embedded into her mask. The building was surrounded by a tall linked fence, with a single guard in a booth at the front. No mounds of desert sand had been allowed to accumulate here. Unlike the rest of the city, this place was regularly swept and well maintained.

Fantasian relied on its data repositories for online maintenance and analysis. Login data, IP addresses, local dream pings, most of the information she needed could be accessed from here.

"You said there's a back door in this place?" Esme asked.

"Back left corner. The guard will be leaving for a doctor's appointment in a few minutes minutes. That's your opportunity."

"How do you know that?"

"Hacked his emails."

"No replacement coming this way?"

"Nah. I don't think Fantasian cares that much about attacks in the real world. At least they don't really expect them."

"Shows what they know."

"I'll deactivate the perimeter cameras from here," said Oz, "but the ones on the inside are running on their own network."

"I can handle it."

"Be careful."

"Yeah. You too."

"Me? What do I have to be careful about? You're the one breaking and entering. I'm just sitting on your couch with a laptop and bag of chips."

"If anyone could get themselves hurt laying around like a lump..."

"Hey! I'm not that clumsy."

"I've seen you crash yourself into a stationary car. While walking."

"It snuck up on me."

"Uh huh."

A snort of laughter on the other end. Esme heard a door slam in the distance and noted that the guard had gotten into a self-driving car. It idled for a few seconds before tearing down the empty street.

"Alright," she said, "we're good."

"Okay. Cameras are down. Go ahead and hop the fence."

Esme walked forward nonchalantly, looking left and right for any witnesses. The streets were empty. She slammed her fingers through the loops of the fence and began to climb. Every time she latched onto a new handhold, the air rang out with shaking metal. Esme landed on the other side with a slight huff of air.

"Done," she said. "What's next?"

"Just make your way to the back corner. Get through the door. Watch out for cameras."

"Couldn't get a map of this place?"

"Not of the interior."

"You got one for the last place we hit."

"That was a backup center for old police files. Shit no one cares about. It's not my fault -"

"Relax," muttered Esme. "Just giving you a hard time."

She heard him mumble something incoherent, but paid it no attention. Esme jogged to the other side of the building. There as promised stood a nondescript metal door. She frowned at the key card reader on its right.

"Locked," Esme said, stepping up to try the handle. "Don't suppose you got the card for me or something?"

"Oh, um, no. I didn't know that was a thing."

"You got the schematics of this building, learned the door existed, figured out the guard would be leaving, and didn't bother looking into the place being - I don't know, locked?"
"Hey, sorry. You made this request kind of short notice."

She sighed.

"It's okay. I've got it."

"What are you -- "

"Just let me concentrate."

Esme sat down next to the door, her back pressed up against it as comfortably as she could manage. She didn't need calm to fall asleep - only focus. Thoughts coalesced into pictures within her mind. At first the images flickered every second as if skipping frames. But slowly, as her mind relaxed, they condensed into a single seamless vision. Esme could still feel her body in the real world - back against the door, knees faintly hunched - but only beneath a warm haze. Her sense of motion slipped away from this world, responding instead to the visions of her mind.

She opened her eyes and dreamed.

A few blue flowers poked up from the barren desert floor. The sky was a dull red instead of overcast grey. The building remained behind her and in the distance she could see the tall links of the fence swaying as if pressed by a tremendous gale.

Esme extended a thought probe towards the card reader.

Maintenance of digital systems was conducted via Somnus as there were rarely enough engineers close enough to do it in person. Fantasian employees with special privileges could access terminals in the dream that allowed them to interface with hardware in the real world. It was simply a matter of rerouting signals from the lunar servers to ones on Earth.

With practice, Esme had learned to distinguish this communication channel from all the others. And to use it for her own purposes.

She latched onto the signal. It burned at her touch. Esme felt her thoughts take on a binary, algorithmic bent. There was an output she wanted. And some input that would give it to her.

Feel the bitstream. Tell it to open.

Her first attempt was wrong. shift the thought. Try again.

Second was closer. She saw something in the system. A not good thing. It triggered alerts. Stay away.

Third time worked. She felt her probe extend through the lunar server. It whispered a command in 1's and 0's.

"Open," she thought/muttered.

There were cameras in the building too. Looking, searching. Transmitting. Remembering. Don't remember.

"Forget," she thought/whispered.

Esme shook the dream away and got back to her feet. The reader's light had turned from red to green. She pulled the handle down and stepped inside.