Chapter One
The First Dream: Repossession
Dakota stood outside the front of the imposing mirrored-glass skyscraper and shivered a little bit, perhaps not entirely from the cold. A glance at the top was a bit dizzying even for a veteran New Yorker like Dakota, and she estimated that the 42nd floor must be near or at the top.
I’m supposed to be here, she thought, but why? She knew she had an appointment, and she knew it was extremely important. She had dressed nicely, in a knee-length black skirt and a short-sleeved off-white top that fit her form attractively, with black thigh-high hose. She had her long black hair tied simply back in a ponytail over respectable little gold earrings, but that’s how she usually had it.
For the life of her, she could not say what she was here for. But somehow, she knew, it was trouble.
Why did everyone seem to look at her like that as she walked in the door? As a pretty young woman of 26, Dakota was not unaccustomed to men checking her out. But there was something especially upsetting about the way the people walking in and out of the building ogled her, like they knew something about her that she didn’t.
She approached the security desk.
“I’m here to see the Creditor’s Protection Bureau,” she said, though where that came from she didn’t know.
One of the three guards, a plump African-American woman, smirked at the other two guards, who were Latino men. They smiled and nodded back to her with a chuckle.
“That would be floor 42,ma’am,” she said, with a mocking turn on the last word, like you might say to a very young child. “You just goright on up there. The express elevator to the top is the last on your right.”
Dakota ignored the chuckles behind her as she went to the elevator and waited. There was one other woman waiting there, a long-legged young blonde perhaps a few years younger than Dakota. Dakota wanted to ask her if she was going to the same place, and if she knew why they were going there, but when their eyes met, a blush came over the other girl and she looked at the ground, crossing her arms in front of her as if trying to protect something she had already lost.
The elevator went quickly to the top, ending with that slightly weightless feeling high-speed elevators give you. The door opened to a short white hall, with hardwood floors. At the end of the hall stood a modernist reception desk, with a glass top and a swooping curved metal front, like the command center of a starship.
Ahead of Dakota, the young woman’s shoes clacked slightly on the floor as they walked down the hall. The blonde seemed to know where to go, turning to the left, but Dakota advanced to the desk, and tried to engage the attention of the bored-looking receptionist behind it.
The receptionist, a gum-chewing middle-aged woman with glasses, was looking at a computer screen with boredom, clicking away with her mouse. Dakota thought she saw a game of computer solitaire reflected in her glasses. After Dakota stood for a moment and got no attention, she cleared her throat, then spoke.
“Excuse me, my name is Dakota England, and I have an appointment but I’m not sure...”
Finally, the receptionist turned her annoyed gaze to Dakota, giving her a look that made her feel about two feet tall.
“You’re supposed to stand over
