Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(48)

Terry didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Ken asked.

Gloria nodded.

Terry put her fork down. “You have an idea how to do it, don’t you?”

Here was the sticking point. Alice hooked a thumb in the belt loop of her coveralls. “I do, but I was hoping this one”—she looked at Ken—“might have a better idea. I don’t think you’ll like mine.”

Ken shook his head. “I’ve got nothing. That’s not how my gift works.”

“How does it work?” Alice demanded. She wanted to know that much, at least.

Ken responded with calm, and Alice admired him more. “I get feelings, sometimes fully formed thoughts, that I have a deep sense are true. Like how I felt moved to pick up a newspaper the day the ad ran about the experiment. Later I had an image of four people and the thought, ‘We’ll be important to each other.’ I can’t explain it any better than that. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Alice would have to tell them her plan, such as it was. This was important to her and she’d fight for it.

“Do you ever get thoughts and feelings you wish you didn’t?” Gloria asked Ken.

“Yes.”

“About any of us?” Terry asked, eyes laser-focused on him.

“Not yet.”

“Okay,” Terry said and waved at Alice. “Go on. Tell us your bad idea so we can shout it down.”

They really weren’t going to like this, but it was the best possibility she’d come up with. The only possibility. She understood machines, and could decode the ones at the lab, too; maybe she could create the effect she believed they needed to further unlock her mind.

But—if this even worked—it would require a big shock to the system. Hers.

Alice heaved out a breath. “It involves the electricity.”

“You’re right, I don’t like it,” Terry said. “Go on.”

“I don’t know if there’s something else to it, but I do know I only see the, well, visions, that’s how I’ve been thinking of them—I only see them when I’m given the medicine and the shock treatment.”

Alice studied the pie with its massive whipped peaks, half gone now. She was afraid if she looked at the others they’d see how ridiculous she felt. The word “visions” made her sound like she thought she was some all-important genie or something. She didn’t.

No one interrupted, so she continued. “If you could administer the shock, then I could do the rest. You’d be there to take notes.”

“No way,” Terry said. “Too risky to you. I’m not going to shock you.”

“This is something I can do,” Alice said. “I can’t just live with knowing these girls may be suffering when I might be able to confirm it. It’s no different than what’s happening to me every week. I want to do it.”

Gloria held up a hand when Terry started to argue. “How certain do you feel about this being worth it? There’s no way for us to base it on fact, so it’s all gut feelings.”

Some of the tension went out of Alice at the honesty of Gloria’s question. “I’d say roughly eighty-five percent.”

“I can do some research,” Gloria said, “find out what level of current is safe.”

Alice ignored that. She’d figure out how much current she needed.

“It puts Alice at risk,” Terry said.

Ken said it quietly: “She’s already at risk. We all are.”

“If it cuts down on the time we have to spend there, it’s worth it.” Alice pleaded with Terry. “You know I’m right. Remember what he did to Andrew.” And to you.

Terry gathered her hands in her lap. “We can’t risk doing this at the lab. Dr. Brenner can never find out what you can do…We know how he treats his subjects. He probably thinks your monsters are bad trips, or just enjoys making you suffer them. If he knew you’d seen him or the children, who knows what he’d do? The fact you see this stuff at all is something he would latch onto and not let go.”

“But the lab’s where the electroshock machine is,” Gloria pointed out.

Terry swept her eyes around them. “Alice, can you make a similar machine?”

“Can I?” Alice blinked and considered. She wished she’d already taken one apart. Part of her plan had been figuring out how to run the one they had. “I can make a better one. So you’re thinking we’d do this here? Where will we get the drugs?”

“I’ve still got the dose I palmed,” Gloria said.

Terry tugged on her lip. “It may matter where you are when you have your visions. We should do this in Hawkins.”

“But I thought you didn’t want to be there,” Gloria said.

“I looked at a map at the library when I couldn’t find anything on Brenner. It showed open forest around the lab. If we get as close as we can outside the fence…”

“If we’re going into the woods, I’ll have to make sure it works without a wired power source,” Alice said.

“Is that a problem?” Terry asked.

“It’s a challenge,” Alice said. “No, an opportunity—to show off.”