Prologue
You're waiting for train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure…
"What is the most resilient parasite known to man? A bacteria, a fungus?"
Quinn lowered her forkful of food, though she did not make any other sign she was paying the mind.
"An idea," Kurt said sliding his chair forward, "once an idea takes root it's impossible to remove, unless you're a skilled extractor."
"Quite so," Artie added from his end of the table. He hadn't touched his food, and throughout the course of the meal had been observing them keenly as if waiting for a sign to proceed. "In the dream state your thoughts are rather vulnerable to theft and those with the means can steal your deepest secrets."
"Ms. Fabray," Kurt said smoothly, "we can train your subconscious to avoid these extractors."
"And how can you guarantee that?"
"Because I am the most skilled extractor around," Kurt said brushing the silk scarf at his throat, "I know all the tricks to find your hidden thoughts, your secrets, your memories. I can train you, train your mind if you let me. Trust me. "
Quinn smirked as she dabbed her mouth, "the last time I let someone convince me with "trust me" it cost me a life." She rose to her feet, picking up her purse. "You might have to try a harder bargain next time boys, if there's a next time. Surely gifted people like yourself can spring for better than an outside cafe."
She turned to looked disdainfully at the small restaurant, with its humble garden wall and white wicker tables, and frowned. Did she take a cab or drive?
And on that note how did she get here in the first place?
Glasses shattered on the tables and Quinn whipped around but two men were gone, vanished into thin air. Before she even had time to asses how to get out of here, a shard of glass hit her directly in the chest.
Quinn woke in her train compartment, panting clutching at her chest expecting blood, but seeing none.
Staring at her clean fingertips she tried to grab on to the remnants of a half remembered dream lurking in the back of her mind before it slipped away. There were two men, they offered her a proposition, something about dreams, and what they can do with them...
Her hand closed into a fist as she sat up in her seat and pulled out her phone dialing a familiar number.
She had a deal to close.