Rosewood and ebony furniture, green pigmented curtains, antiques of value and lithographies on the carpeted walls.
In the airy and warm atmosphere of the past centuries, Cathelyn is standing, pouring some tea from high into cups.
"I am highly impressed with the work and building you have done here, your University is by far the most advanced architectural technology I have never seen."
The woman seems very pleased with the comment while handing the cup.
"It took.. a lot of procedures and resources."
"I am sure you are still well connected. But why that office? Nostalgic from digging ruins?"
Cathelyn strikes a burst of laughter.
"What you meant nostalgic?"
"Is this a reproduction of Persistence of Memories from Salvator Dali?"
Cathelyn nodded in sitting on her desk facing the paint.
"From 1931, you picked my favorite. You knew I was a fervent follower of Dali surrealism."
"I did not. Why?"
"Well, at that same period Albert Einstein was introducing the relativity with the distortion of space and time, which was arguably a part of Dali's inspiration in his earlier paintings."
Cathelyn approaches the paint closer.
"As you can see, the paint integrates three elements: melting clocks, ants and sets."
"Time, death and memories.." murmured Klein.
"Exactly. At that period, Dali admired the psychoanalysis pioneered by Sigmund Freud, especially his studies on the unconscious and dreams. Dali had perfected what he called the paranoiac-critical method, in which he self meditated to induce psychotic hallucinations."
"So what could you make of this work?" wonders Klein.
"Aside of some clear personal inserts like the anthropomorphic self-portrait in the middle, or the foreground shadow of Mount Pani and the Cape Creus coastal on the background representing his native Catalonia - my first attention was on the total number of its four clocks."
"Four clocks? I see only the three melting clocks.."
"Yes, those three may symbolize the time's continuum of past, present, and future. And the pocket watch lying face down undistorted is an interpretation of the 'objective time'.
"The one with the hour-glass shaped ants crawling on it?"
"The ants on the golden watch signify death, a parasitic relationship with time."
"And the denuded tree?"
"Probably an olive tree, a reminder of ancient wisdom. On its side in the distant shore lays an egg, a symbol of life and memory which persists among the breakdown of time. And finally, the mounts shadow, the distant ocean and the same suggest timelessness and eternity."
"The Sand of Time." added Klein.
Cathelyn delicately waved her hand over the paint, the digital canvas screen morphing into another paint.
" Then twenty years later, he painted its sequel 'The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory'". At that period, quantum physics was introduced and Dali said about that paint:'Today the exterior world - that of physics - as transcended the one of psychology'."
"Looks like a subatomic breakdown of his early work." Klein took a moment to parkour the canvas.
"It seems few elements have been changed and added isn't it?"
"Actually, the first time I had a look at that paint I was more questioned about what is missing."
"The Ants... The pocket watch and the egg?"
"The egg was removed on the foreground, just here aside of the pocket watch which is facing up now and underlying the bricked pieces of sand."
" So what does that mean?"
" While the time's continuum remains in motion, the 'objective time' which was earlier relayed over eternity is now undergoing the frame of space."
"Meaning our own reality is endangered by a timeless fabric?'
"Right on point. The dismiss of the ants were not only related to Dali's worry of humanity after the second World War - even if the fear of death is now represented in his art by broken pieces of the realm made out from missiles."
"So you think this artist was genuinely ahead of his time and our work by a couple of centuries?"
"Wasn't the case of many men and women in the past human history? Still, the egg is present in its memorial form lays above the doomed dimensions."
"Was Dali a pictorial version of Nostradamus?" taunted Klein.
Cathelyn laughs and continue.
"Probably, but one addition which always fascinates me is that of this second olive tree on which the timelessness fabric is hanging on now. Like if his nature and essence are still linked to our ancient wisdom and knowledge."
"You have always been the most intuitive and stubborn student I never had Cathelyn, that observing talent of yours - a pure delight."
Cathelyn giggled while seating back at her desk.
"I have heard you have been traveling extensively the past two years, working on a project?"
"I told you Cathelyn, I am 'retired'. I am just an old man enjoying the last quarter of his life visiting some forgotten gems of our world and time."
"Like your recent expedition in the West of the Amazon with over a dozen heads of physics following you?"
Klein gently set back the cup on its set and mark a pause.
"Are you 'watching' me Cathelyn?"
"Klein, you are the most valuable mind reminding in our era, your studies could have been a breakthrough if you could have shared it with.."
"Cathelyn, stop it." Klein doesn't seem bothered, rather exhausted. "You promised me."
"Klein, we found 'it'."
The glassy eyes of the old man suddenly sharpen under his thick eyebrows. His breath grows deep and sounds while is standing and leading back to the door.
"Alright Cathelyn, I have to go. It was a real pleasure to see you after so long, thank you so much for the artistry and I wish you all the very best in your ventures."
"Klein wait!" The old man glances back to his student over his shoulder. "We found 'him' too."
His stance freezes totally in time, his hand shaking over the handle of the door.
"It is impossible." grumbled Klein.
"Please, give me a chance to show you."
Klein turns back violently, his temper growing on the edge.
"There is nothing to be shown."
"Klein, Jarrod knew what.."
"Don't you ever mentioned his name again in front of me, how dare you! " Klein body is firmly enraged, his blood vessels are pumping hard on his staples.
"This mission was suicide! A heresy! My son died like a terrorist, a murderer, a fool blasted in thousand of soft pieces, and we let him do it!"
Brought to his knees, his body is fainting from a hard pain he can't process. Cathelyn quickly grabs him down by his elbow and gently set him back on the velvet chair.
After a little while, she delicately set a hand on his shoulder. Her green glance is watered by a vibrant feeling.
"I miss him deeply too Klein and there is nothing in our time we could have done to stop him from his convictions. I loved him so much and still, do, you know that more than everyone."
Cathelyn faces now to the South Wall of her squared office, in front of a fanciful depiction of Caesar crossing the Rubicon river during the start of the civil war with Pompey.
"Alea iacta est" says Cathelyn.
"Let the die cast" burbles Klein.
An electromagnetic wave emits from the wall, under the paint a panel slides backward and on its side showing a dark entrance.
"Follow me, Klein, I will explain you."