Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(5)

And then he did it. The astronaut in the bubble suit designed to protect him from another world’s atmosphere and strange germs set his feet on the barren and beautiful surface of the moon. Armstrong spoke again. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Dave jumped up and down, and then the entire room began to cheer. Andrew spun Terry in a circle, the moment a dazzle of celebration and wonder. Walter Cronkite seemed close to tears, and so did Terry. Her eyes stung.

They calmed down to watch as the astronauts planted an American flag, and as they glided back and forth across a heavenly body that hung in the sky outside, brought all the way there by an amazing machine built by men. They’d flown across the sky. They’d lived, and now they walked on the moon.

What a thing to be alive to see. What wasn’t possible now?

Terry had another beer and imagined meeting Stacey’s lab rat.





2.


The psych building wasn’t one Terry had ever visited for classes. She found it tucked away in the back corner of campus: three stories tall, shadowed by trees, the branches reflecting off the windows. The canopies swayed under a gray sky that promised rain.

A gleaming Mercedes-Benz and two large black vans were parked along the curb beside the building—despite there being plenty of open spots in the lot, given that there were fewer students on campus during the summer.

Murder vans, Terry thought. The irony. Maybe I am finally onto something.

In the light of day, she’d found the idea of some important experiment happening here seemed…less than likely. Here she was anyway. When she’d asked Stacey what she needed to know, she claimed Terry could just show up at the room upstairs. She’d also given Terry a comforting farewell: “It’s your electric Kool-Aid acid test funeral.”

Terry pulled the glass front door open and immediately encountered a woman in a lab coat with a clipboard waiting inside. She had chestnut curls, a large forehead, and a no-nonsense way about her.

“This building is closed today,” the woman said, “unless you’re on the list.”

Was she a doctor or a grad student? Terry had never met a female doctor, but she knew they existed.

“The list?” Terry asked.

Another person came in behind her and barreled right into her, almost knocking her over. Terry straightened and looked over her shoulder to see a girl in coveralls—make that greasy coveralls—who grinned at Terry’s appraisal.

“Sorry,” the girl said with a shrug. “I thought I was late.”

“It’s fine.” Terry couldn’t help but smile back. The two of them next to each other couldn’t be more different. Terry was in a neat skirt-and-blouse set, her hair set in loose rags the night before so it fell in soft waves now. The girl in the coveralls had grease under her fingernails, too, hair that could be described as combed at best, and freckles sprinkled on her cheeks. A tomboy. A few years ago she wouldn’t have even been allowed on campus in pants.

“Your names,” the woman with the clipboard said. “I have to check that you’re expected.”

“Alice Johnson,” the girl said, cutting right in front of Terry. “I don’t go here. I’m from town.”

The woman nodded. “You are on the list.”

That was a surprise. Terry definitely wasn’t. For all she knew, Stacey wasn’t either.

But the woman and Alice looked at Terry and suddenly it was her turn to prove she should be here. “And you?” the woman asked.

“Stacey Sullivan,” Terry lied, wondering if she was in the wrong place.

The woman glanced down at the list and then up again. Terry’s pulse drummed.

“Oh, here you are,” the woman said and made a check mark. “Perfect. You’ve been in this building before, correct? Go up to the third floor and check in with my colleagues there.”

“What is all this?” Terry hesitated. “I, uh, don’t remember it from last time.”

“This is a new recruitment process,” the woman said. “It’ll become clear upstairs.”

As they walked further inside, Alice said to Terry, “Good, because this is my first visit.”

Terry had to fight with herself not to ask Alice if she knew anything else about what was going on. She managed, barely. She paused next to the stairwell door. “You want to just walk up? The elevators in these old buildings can be so slow.”

“No!” Alice said, rejecting the idea. “I love riding in elevators.”

“Oh, okay,” Terry said. Because what else could she say?

Alice relaxed into a smile. They walked the short distance to the elevator bank and waited and waited until the car came, the doors sliding open by grudging inches.

“This is an old one,” Alice said, running a hand along a metal edge, sounding admiring and excited as she boarded.

Terry didn’t point out that an elevator’s old age made most people less enthused to get on. Alice was an odd bird. No wonder she’d turned up for a psych experiment. Still, Terry liked her.

“You said you’re from town?” Terry asked. “I grew up an hour or so away. Larrabee.”

“Family of stonies,” Alice said. “I work for my uncle’s garage. Specializes in local heavy equipment work.”