Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(37)

Ken.

He’d managed it. How about that? Alice had been coming up with plan Bs and Cs all during the drive here. Thinking those words made giant versions of the letters B and C float through her head as if drawn by skywriters. That was the drugs. No electricity yet today, which meant no monsters either. It had been two weeks; maybe the monsters were gone.

She closed her eyes and sank into the alarms. What a purposeful sound. Hard to ignore, loud and blaring, perfect for the job they’d been designed to do.

Alice appreciated the elegance.

Which meant she noticed immediately when they stopped. How long had passed? She didn’t know, but Dr. Parks returned with a sense of flustered distraction about her. What if Terry needed more time?

“I want to see Dr. Brenner,” Alice said, the Bs and Cs dancing in her head. “I have something to tell him.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” Dr. Parks frowned over her shoulder at the door. The orderly let himself in.

“Go get Dr. Brenner,” Alice told him. “I have something to do. I need the electricity.”

She’d forgotten to look at the clock. Terry had to have as much time as she needed.

Every object in the room with a dial or a display pulsed accusingly at Alice. “Get Brenner,” she demanded.

“Fine,” Dr. Parks said.

The orderly left.

Alice gestured toward the machine that featured in her nightmares. She’d always believed that machines were good, orderly, but had learned here something she should have known. Anything people made they’d figure out a way to inflict pain with.

“Hook it up,” she told Dr. Parks.

The doctor’s lips pursed and she shook her head. She muttered to herself, “Asking for electroshock therapy is not normal.”

Dr. Brenner entered, annoyance pinching his face. “What?”

“Give me the electricity and I’ll describe the monsters to you. I think…they’re real.”

Interest chased away the irritation on his face. Dr. Parks finished attaching the wires to Alice. There was sympathy in her eyes.

No, Alice thought, don’t feel sorry for me. I’m running you guys today.

She braced for the surge through her, a charge like a battery, and she narrated what she saw. The glimpse of a hazy wood she’d walked through with her cousins. Then, a pack of dogs on many paws. The half-wild, half-tame dogs she’d grown up with around the garage. Maybe there wouldn’t be any monsters…But then they weren’t dogs, just like dogs with four legs. Snarling, snapping monsters, rainbow lights playing in the air around them.

Alice opened her eyes to see if Dr. Brenner was still paying attention.

“She remains fascinating,” he said. He obviously didn’t think the monsters were real. And he could be right. She still didn’t know. “I have to get back to my subject. I’ll expect a full report on anything else of interest today.”

The effort it had taken to stay focused exhausted Alice. As Dr. Parks removed her connection to the machine, she dozed—or hoped she dozed, because she had pinwheel flashes of the electricity running through Terry instead of her. Electrodes on Terry’s temples, and a blurry figure Alice realized was Dr. Brenner standing by as Terry screamed and screamed and screamed.





6.


Gloria had come prepared to sneak out of her room and attempt to find a substantial stash of the lab’s drugs. But when she touched the doorknob and turned it, she found it locked. Even as the fire alarm screeched in panicked abandon.

It’s not a real fire, she told herself, and counted how long it took them to remember to come for her.

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes in which she sat in her exam room coiling tighter and tighter with unease. By the time the easily fooled Dr. Green arrived, she half expected them all to get marched into a line and…She didn’t know what.

He’d only informed her there was no actual fire. She hadn’t bothered to question the locked door.

And at least she hadn’t come out of the day entirely empty-handed. She’d already decided to keep her wits about her, and so she’d pocketed her dose of acid and faked the high. She felt paranoid enough as it was. Dr. Green had noticed nothing amiss and had put her through the recitation paces. He really thought he was making some grand progress in showing how interrogation under the influence of drugs could be effective.

So she had one dose to show for her efforts.

Of course, none of them could say anything on the drive. Conversation had to wait. But by silent agreement they lingered at their cars in the parking lot until the van drove off, then left them and reconvened under the thin glow of security lamps.

“First off, can we all give the man of the hour some applause?” Terry asked, keeping her tone light.

Ken took a half bow, folding at the waist, and they applauded but no one’s heart was in it. Gloria thought that they all wanted to know if it had been worth the risk.

“Well?” Alice rocked back and forth from her toes to her heels, vibrating with nerves. Gloria sympathized. “Did you find anything?”

“I did,” Terry said. “But I still don’t know what it means.”

“What was it?” Alice pressed.

“I think they’re working with children. More than just Kali. But I can’t tell what kind of experiments.”