Deep Six (Dirk Pitt 7)

"In the end," Brogan said grimly, it may well come to that."

LUGOVOY TUIRNED FROM HIS NOTFs and stared at his staff neurologist, who sat at the console monitoring the telemetric signals.

"Condition?"

"Subject has entered a relaxed state. Brain rhythms indicate normal sleep patterns." The neurologist looked up and

smiled. "He doesn't know it, but he's snoring."

'I imagine his wife knows it."

"My guess is she sleeps in another bedroom. They haven't had sex since he returned."

"Body functions?"

"All reading normal."

Lugovoy yawned and read the time. "Twelve minutes after one A.M."

"You should get some sleep, Doctor. The President's internal clock wakes him between six and six-fifteen every morning."

"This is not an easy project," Lugovoy groused. "The President requires two hours' less sleep than I do. I detest early risers." He paused and scanned the polysomnography screen that monitored the President's physiological parameters accompanying his sleep.

"It appears he's dreaming."

"Be interesting to see what the President of the United States dreams about."

"We'll get a rough idea as soon as his brain cell activity goes from coordinated thought patterns to disjointed abstractions."

"Are you into dream interpretations, Doctor?"

"I leave that to the Freudians," Lugovoy replied. "I am one of the few who believe dreams are meaningless. It's merely a situation where the brain, freed from the discipline of daytime thinking, goes on holinay. Like a city dog who lives in an apartment and is unleashed in the country, running in no particular direction, enjoying the new and different smells."

"There are many who would disagree."

"Dreams are not my specialty, so I cannot argue from a purely scientific base. However, I put it to you that if they do have a message, why are most of the senses usually missing?"

"You're referring to the absence of smell and taste?"

Lugovoy nodded. "Sounds are also seldom recorded. The same with touch and pain. Dreams are primarily visual sensations. So my own opinion, backed up by little personal research, is that a dream about a one-eyed goat who spits fire is simply that: a dream about a one-eyed goat who spits fire."

"Dream theory is the cornerstone of all psychoanalytic behavior.

With your esteemed reputation, you'd shatter quite a few established icons with your goat opinion. Think how many of our psychiatrist comrades would be out of a job if it became known that dreams are meaningless."

"Uncontrolled dreams are quickly forgotten," Lugovoy continued.

"But the demands and instructions we transmit to the President's brain cells while he is asleep will not be received as dreams. They are injected thoughts that can be recalled and acted upon by outside stimuli."

"When should I begin programming his implant unit?"

" Transmit the instructions shortly before he wakes up, and repeat them when he sits down at his desk." Lugovoy yawned again.

"I'm going to bed. Ring my room if there is a sudden change."

The neurologist nodded. "Rest well."

Lugovoy stared briefly at the monitoring system before he left the room. "I wonder what his mind is envisioning?"