CHAPTER 17
Melanie woke up, shaken, bathed in sweat. She remained a few minutes staring into space in the muffled half-light of her room, trying to rearrange her ideas and to shake off the numbness and confusion that darkened her mind. It had been a dream. She was certain of this by now, but it was a dream different from the others, so strong and pervasive that it had seemed true ... absolutely true. The last visit to the laboratory, with those strange images of people walking and arguing, had upset her a lot, and in addition she didn't feel well. She had a fever, she touched her hot forehead trying to understand, trying to remember.
In the dream, she had walked through that computer scene again, touched those bizarre figures wrapped in their ancient costumes, wandered among the steps an
