Fears and a dream

The director's smile froze, his facial expression turning a mixture of supposed fear and worry. He apparently tried to hide it but he couldn't. His mind was troubled. Control yourself, he thought, vigorously trying to make it effective. But it seemed the man at the other end cared not to notice his odd expression.

John's voice brought him back to his senses, "Tomorrow is the twenty-fifth, a Saturday. Schedule a board meeting for Monday and make sure you inform the members of the shareholding committee. It's very important they are informed."

"Yes, I will." The director said as he managed to compose himself. "And, president, there's going to be a compulsory day off tomorrow,"

"I know, and I presume every of the staff is aware of that, right?,"

"Yes, they are," Director Dickson nodded. "Is there anything else, President Ruben?"

"Ah, yes." John said. "I hope you don't mind but what actually transpired between you and my brother?"

Director Dickson sighed. He knew that question was coming sooner or later. But what he wasn't expecting was for it to be this soon. Luckily, he had prepared his mind for any possible outcomes.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think Mr Jacob should get himself involved in the company affairs when he holds no legal or shareholding power. Because I challenged him regarding the fact, it led to a supposed fallout between us,"

John's face showed attentiveness as he listened to the director's explanation. "And what affair was he getting himself involved in?"

"Uhm, it was the thing about the news you made mention of earlier. He directed the hacking team to proceed with breaking the code to the IP address of the account used in reporting the news. This was done without going through me, thereby foiling every protocols and I had no choice but to make an attempt to stop the process,"

"You did a good job,"

The director was in disbelief. "I did?"

"Yes. If you will excuse me, I have a call to make."

"No problem, sir. I'll be taking my leave now,"

Director Dickson stood up, leaving with an incomprehensible look being directed at him from behind.

"What do you make of it?"

"An obvious see-through."

.....

_________________

Ryan was at home, seated in his living room. He was looking rather angry and unhappy, his fists unconsciously folded in a clench as he had his gaze fixated on one place — the screen of the flat screen TV, which was projecting a live broadcast.

["I'll like to inform you today, citizens of the Border States, that our country has chosen to stand out amongst other countries of the world. The world is moving fast and so are we. And this fast pace has led to a breakthrough for us.

I stand here today, the twenty-sixth of March, to proudly say that the Border States has become the first country of the world to finalize the improvement of Artificial Intelligence. And from this day onwards, the sales will be made effected in the global market..."]

A round of applause from the audience below the man on the pulpit resounded from the TV with the man giving out a smile in return.

"What the hell is going on?"

Ryan gritted his teeth in anger. He took his hand up to his face to try control himself. He was in an incredulous state. After all the countless revolts and analysis done by top officials to dissuade the AI project, the government still went on to give an approval to it.

This is insane!, he yelled in his mind.

Unable to control his anger anymore, he smashed the remote he was holding on the floor.

_________________

KPAA!

The sound of something slamming onto the table forced him to raise his head instantly to prevent any sort of attack, standing up instinctively in the process. He was completely awake now and made sure to cast his eyes on the doer of the deed that put him up in a defensive mode.

"Why do you always have to be this insensitive?" He said while fuming and staring irritatedly at the spiky haired man grinning from ear to ear as he stood and held a file in front of him.

"Why wouldn't I?" Matthew said, "You literally slept in for the past one hour,"

Ryan rubbed on his temples to suppress the pain he was feeling within. "You mean I was asleep for an hour?"

"Is there any other meaning to my words?"

"Why didn't you just wake me up a long time ago?" Ryan accused as he sat back down.

Matthew shrugged. "Thought you didn't want to be disturbed. Besides, I read somewhere that it's not right to wake up a man who always has his as* worked up in his job,"

Ryan glared at him. "You d*mned idiot! Didn't you eventually do that?"

"Well, this was for a proper cause. And you ought to be thanking me not complaining."

"What time is it?" Ryan deviated the topic of discussion.

Matthew's eyes went to the watch on his left wrist. "Minutes after three, precisely five minutes."

Ryan looked around the wide room, confusion settling on his face. "Why aren't the others back from lunch yet?"

"Tomorrow is the twenty-fifth, remember? The management decided to give everyone an extra thirty minutes to lunch. And guess what? There's a special treat involved,"

"Tsk... why tell me to guess when you're supposedly planning to give an answer?" Ryan said as he stood up from the seat.

"So, what made you sleep at work today? Had a late night?"

Did I have a late night?, Ryan asked himself inwardly. No, he remembered sleeping a little early. Something around one, what his body clock was already used to. What then led to today's exhaustion? Stress? From what?

"No," he shook his head. "I guess I was just mentally exhausted, that's all." As he said that, his stomach let out a growl.

Matthew grinned and made way to his desk. He put down the file he was holding and went back to meet Ryan. "I presume you meant to say hungrily exhausted," He jested. "Lucky you, there's still over twenty minutes left to fill up your belly lest you go hungry until the closing hour," He began motioning as he led the way to the entrance. "Let's head to the cafeteria in time. I wouldn't want to miss the special treat for anything,"

Ryan trailed behind silently. He was worried about his health, thinking he had contacted a sickness or sort. If not, why would he fall asleep for over an hour in the office? Was he...

"Argh!"

He suddenly exclaimed and fell to his knees, drawing the attention of the man in front.

"Ryan, what's wrong with you?" Matthew had crouched down to his level and asked with a concerned tone.

His head was pounding. It felt like something was being forced into his head. His eyes began spinning uncontrollably even as he had them closed. Tears were threatening to fall out his eyes but he managed to hold them in.

"Argh!" He groaned in a suppressing tone as the pain began subsiding. And that was when he got the clear picture after. A vision became clear in his mind.

"Talk to me man. You okay?" Matthew asked with a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I think," He nodded affirmatively and put down a hand from his head, leaving the other to keep on massaging his temple upward.

Matthew helped him get up but still had that concerned look on his face.

"Was it a migraine?"

He shook his head. Although he wasn't certain what it was, he knew it definitely wasn't a migraine. And this wasn't the first time he was experiencing such. As sharp as the pain was, he felt there was something else to it.

"Are you sure it wasn't a migraine?" Matthew asked again as he noticed him still holding on to his head.

His eyes opened, having a bloodshot effect. "Your continuous inquires might eventually lead to one you know,"

Matthew sneered in contempt, not failing to hide his annoyance. "You idiot, I'm just trying to look out for you. Why must you always be an ingrate?" He walked away after and headed straight to the elevator.

Ryan stared in silence. He sighed after and muttered the words: "I was only joking,"

Wearily, he began dragging himself to the elevator. He contemplated on the memory. It was vaguely familiar. Where and when had it happened? Why couldn't he just remember? His memories seemed to be jumbled up these days.

But, wait, he calmed himself. That was from his dream. Yes, he could remember now. It all happened while he was asleep. But it felt real, even up till this moment.

He thought of the key facts he could recollect. What AI project was the president mumbling of in the memory? AI improvement? There was definitely no project about such in recent times then how did he come across such? The only he knows of was the upcoming one being planned by Titan Technology but the one he had in the dream meant it was something that had happened already.

His life had been made up of questions upon questions in the most recent days and he needed someone to answer them for him. But, who had the right intellectuals to do that?

He walked faster as he saw Matthew step into the opened elevator and walked right in just before the doors closed up.

"I'm sorry," He said apologetically as he turned to look at his annoyed friend. "To be sincere, I was only kidding,"

Matthew turned his face to the other side as he focused on the shiny wall of the elevator.

"Common Matthew, I already said I'm sorry. It was truly a joke, didn't mean it that way," He apologized again.

Matthew looked at him and this time, his expression had turned a complete 180. "I know you were joking," He smiled and raised his brows playfully.

Ryan left his mouth hanged, now regretting the fact that he had actually apologized to the jerk. He wanted to utter words of insult to the idiot but controlled himself and looked away.

He went back to thinking and by the time the elevator came to a halt at the second floor, he had made a decision regarding his situation.

It was time to visit the dream specialist again!