The Thought Readers (Mind Dimensions #1)(52)

There’s a guy standing with his back to us at a bend in the corridor, looking toward the door. Another is standing by the door, looking at the hallway. This means there’s no way for Mira to come out of the room, nor for us to turn the corner without one of these men raising an alarm. Not good.

“Okay,” Caleb says. “We’ll need to take these two guards out. Darren, Eugene, this one is yours,” he says, pointing at the guy with his back toward us.

“Ours?” Eugene appears confused.

“You need to overpower him,” Caleb explains with a sharp smile. “Silently, so the two guards with Mira don’t hear us coming.”

Caleb is enjoying this, I realize. Eugene must’ve acted arrogantly toward him in the past, or maybe Caleb is just a sadistic prick. Whatever the case, Caleb is clearly trying to shock the guy. Or is it my buttons he’s trying to push?

“I can turn the corner and quickly grab the guy. When he can’t move, you stab him,” I propose, looking at Eugene.

“Good plan,” Caleb says, glancing at me with approval. “I have some extra knives for you gentlemen.”

Eugene doesn’t seem as hesitant as I would expect at the prospect of stabbing someone. Have I misjudged him? After all, just because someone is a little geeky doesn’t mean he can’t be tough. Or score a hottie like Julia, I remind myself.

“What are you going to do?” Julia challenges Caleb.

“I’ll take care of that one,” Caleb responds, nodding toward the guy facing us.

“Wait—won’t he shoot you as soon as you turn this corner?” Eugene asks. I know he’s walking into some sort of smart-ass remark from Caleb.

Instead of answering, Caleb walks back into the hall leading to this turn. Then he pointedly turns the corner. In a blur of motion, the knife is in his hand; the next moment, after a lightning-fast throw, it’s in the second guy’s chest.

Show-off.

“Any more questions?” Caleb asks. No one responds. “In that case, Julia, see how fast and how quietly you can pick that lock.”

Julia takes out her tools and does her thing. It takes her about a minute.

“That won’t work,” Caleb says when she’s done. “But we’ll get back to that in a moment.”

Without waiting for an invitation, we all barge into the room.

The room still looks like I remember it. Or more accurately, how the now-dead Lenya—the gorilla—remembered it.

It was originally meant to be some kind of storage room. There are no windows, and the walls are painted a dull white color. In some places, the paint is chipping away.

Just like in the memory I obtained, there’s a guy with a gun near him, though now he seems to be playing with his phone. It’s a little odd, since his phone has a pink case. Just like before, there is Mira, tied to the chair, playing cards with another guard. Only unlike before, they’re all frozen in the midst of their activities.

I walk up to Mira and touch her forehead.

As soon as she phases in, her eyes look like they’re about to jump out of their sockets. She has an expression on her face I don’t recognize. Then I get it—I’ve never seen her this genuinely happy to see me before. Her eyes scan the room, and she sees Eugene. Her face lights up.

“You did it,” she says, turning toward me, and I hear the joy and disbelief in her voice. “You saved him. I don’t know how I can thank you.”

“I said I would,” I say, trying not to think of all the ways I’d want Mira to express her gratitude. For the first time in my life, I understand the motivations of those hero types. For a fleeting moment, I feel like I really did something important. Something impressive. It’s a great feeling.

“But what are you doing here?” she says, her expression changing as she fully registers the situation.

“What does it look like?” Caleb says. “We’re rescuing you.”

“In that case, why did you bring Eugene?” She looks at me like I’m an idiot, and all my heroic feelings deflate. Like I could’ve stopped a brother from trying to save his little sister?

“It’s too dangerous,” she says, turning toward Eugene. “You shouldn’t have come.” She looks from Caleb to Julia to me. Then at the corridor through the open door. “This is all of you?” she asks, her shoulders slumping.

“It’s going to be enough,” Caleb says.

She shakes her head. “This is going to be impossible.” She doesn’t wait for anyone to respond before she walks out of the room. She must not realize that we—well, Caleb—already took out the lion’s share of her captors.

“As friendly as ever,” Caleb says, giving me a wink. “Julia, go out and then lock and unlock this door again. Try to do it quicker and quieter this time.”

We stay in the room to judge Julia’s work. After the initial click of the lock, the rest of the stuff she does is pretty subtle, but still audible if you know what to listen for. She seems to finish faster this time.

Caleb waves at us to follow him and walks out of the room—to follow Mira, I presume.

“Do it ten more times,” he says to Julia on the way out.

The three of us try to find Mira. We walk a couple of floors up. Everything seems abandoned. We find Mira on the seventh floor, punching the wall in frustration.