Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page B

school. I’d gotten a doctorate in chemistry as well as medicine and I was specializing in sleep disorders because my father had been plagued by insomnia and night terrors most of the years of my childhood. I thought I could help him and other people like him.”
    “How?”
    “I’d developed a process to chemically induce the subject to immediately go to REM-4, the most psychologically active level of sleep. While in that state, it was also possible to give suggestions to encourage pleasant dreams instead of night terrors, even to rid the subject of insomnia. Sanborne was very excited and enthusiastic. He coaxed me to bypass the FDA and go to Amsterdam for tests. He wanted it kept top secret until we were sure they were as promising as we thought they’d be. He didn’t have to work very hard to persuade me into getting on the fast track. I knew the FDA took forever to approve anything and I had complete faith in the safety of the process. The tests were amazingly successful. People who’d been victims of terrors all their lives were free of them. They became happier, more productive people with no obvious side effects. I was over the moon.”
    “And?”
    “Sanborne said we had to slow down. He took the tests out of my hands and tried to persuade me to turn over the research I’d done for all the enhancements for REM-4. When I refused, he shut me out. I was angry and frustrated but I didn’t suspect anything criminal.” She paused. “But I wanted to know how the tests were going so I went to the lab and rifled through the files one night.” She drew a ragged breath. “You can guess what I found. They were using the vulnerability that the drug induced to develop mind control. There was correspondence between Sanborne and a General Boch about the advantage that such control could offer during wartime. I went to Sanborne and told him I was quitting, taking my research, and opting out. I could tell he was angry, but then he seemed to simmer down.
    “The next day I had two lawyers knocking on the door. They claimed since I was employed by Sanborne at the time, the research was legally his. I could either sign a release or go to court.” Her lips twisted. “You know what chance I would have had against Sanborne’s legal eagles. I didn’t want to pursue the research any further. It was clearly too potentially dangerous. But I didn’t want Sanborne to go forward with it in his direction either. I told him I’d go to the media and tell them what he was doing if he continued the mind-control experiments. He agreed. I thought I’d won. I got another job with a university hospital in Atlanta and tried to put it all behind me.”
    “Without proof Sanborne was complying?”
    “I had friends in the lab. There was an excellent chance that I’d be told if he wasn’t.”
    “A chance?”
    “All right, I was naive. I should have gone to the media right away. But I’d spent most of my adult life studying medicine and I didn’t want to blow it. Those lawyers would have made mincemeat of my career and my life.” She drew a deep breath. “And the experiments stopped. I checked periodically during the next six months and the project was shut down.”
    “And after the six months?”
    Her hands tightened on her cup. “After that, I didn’t have to worry about my life exploding in my face. It already had. I went fishing one day with my father and mother. Jock told you what happened. My father went crazy. One moment he was perfectly loving and sane and the next he’d killed the woman he’d loved for most of his life. He would have killed my son if I hadn’t gotten between them. The bullet still struck him but it went through me and was deflected. I woke up a day later in the hospital. I fell apart when I realized what had happened. It made no sense. Things like that couldn’t happen. I ended up in a mental hospital for a couple months.” She clenched her fists. “I was weak. I should have been there for Michael but