Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(31)

“I don’t mean Brenner and Parks and the rest of the staff. I’m talking about what I see in my sessions when he comes in and puts the shock on me. I get these flashes of monsters, and they’re ravenous and they won’t stop. It’s like looking through a hole in reality. It terrifies me.”

Alice had barely breathed as she let it all out, as much as she could stand.

“You’ve seen them more than once?” Terry asked.

“Yes,” Alice said, refusing to try to decode their expressions, grateful for the dark. Glad that Terry’s tone of voice was neutral. “It’s probably just the drugs but…”

“What do the monsters look like?” Ken put in.

“You’re psychic, shouldn’t you know?” Alice snapped and then felt bad. “Sorry.”

“You’re on edge. That’s not how it works for me,” he said.

“They look like nightmares, horror movie stuff. Tall and gangly. Muscular. Covered in hide and scales and not like people. Well, except one of them walks like a person. Almost. I don’t see them for long. But I keep seeing them.”

“When you say he shocks you…do you mean he’s using electroshock therapy on you?” Gloria’s voice was not neutral. It was angry.

“Yes, he called it ‘the electricity.’ I think it’s because I like machines—I shouldn’t have let them know anything about me.”

“I haven’t seen the monsters,” Terry said.

Alice felt her stomach begin to plummet. She shouldn’t have said anything.

Terry continued. “But I…I met a little girl at the lab. She calls Brenner ‘Papa.’?”

“When was this?” Ken asked.

Gloria said, “I knew there was something else the other day.”

“She wasn’t sure how to tell you,” Andrew said. “Babe, go on.”

Alice leaned forward. She wasn’t the only one with a secret?

“I—I was going to ask Brenner about calling the school and your family, but instead I found this child. Her name is Kali and she calls him Papa. She said she is a subject like we are—Andrew thinks maybe she’s sick or something.”

“Have you only seen her the once?” Gloria asked.

“He hasn’t left me alone again,” Terry said. “And she was in a wing with security—behind one of those keypads. It was luck that I got in there the first time.”

“And Brenner tried to get you to plant a bug for him.” Gloria gave a low whistle.

“He did what?” Alice demanded.

Terry explained the assignment given under supposed hypnosis, how she and Gloria had worked together to complete the task without Terry having to betray her trust.

“I can’t believe he asked you to do that,” Ken said.

“I can. What have we gotten involved in?” Gloria asked. “That’s the question.”

“I don’t know,” Terry said. “But I’m beginning to think…” She put her hands flat on the table, and seemed as sober as anything, as if she’d never had a drop to drink. “I’m beginning to think this entire thing is bad news. I couldn’t find a scrap on Brenner at the library. There has to be another way to get information…We need to find out as much as we can about what they’re doing.”

There was silence, and Alice waited to see what everyone would say.

“I knew it,” Ken said.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Sure you did.”

“I did.”

Gloria cut in. “No bickering. I told you what I love about science, and I wanted to learn more about how lab conditions work. I’ve already told Terry—nothing going on there is as it should be. Especially now that I know they’re electroshocking you, Alice. None of this should be going on. Maybe with all of us working together…we can get the answers Terry wants.”

Alice was in for that, but it wasn’t her major concern. “The monsters I see…I think…What if they’re real somehow? Brenner could…If he finds out, he could use them. Use me.”

Terry reached across and took Alice’s hands in her own. “That is not going to happen. I won’t let it.”

“She won’t, kid sister,” Andrew said. “I can promise you that.”

Alice didn’t believe that was something Terry or Andrew could promise. But she accepted it all the same.

“Do you think they’re real?” Ken asked.

“I don’t know.” That was the truth. It meant something that he’d even asked the question. Alice had begun to fear that they were, but she wasn’t certain. “So, if everyone’s in, what do we do?”

“That’s a good question,” Terry said. “I need to think.”





6.


Brenner held out his hand and took an oversized towel one of the lab assistants had produced. This was Eight’s first time in the sensory deprivation tank and he’d given her a specific prompt—to attempt to create a sunny day outside in the room.

Nothing had happened, and he could feel the relief in the restless movements around him. He’d hoped the tank would boost her gifts. The staffers present had probably been afraid of the same possibility.