Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(52)

A school in California had tried to recruit her as part of their effort to cherry-pick students of color with excellent GPAs in the sciences. Even though she had no intention of going anywhere, it felt like a safe way to get a feel for his reach. She already felt confident that Dr. Brenner was no Professor Xavier to mentor anyone, but was he the full-on villain she suspected?

“You know that school on the West Coast that’s been sniffing around? I’ve been thinking about asking for more information on what a transfer would look like.” Gloria just said it. She had to give her parents a heads-up, because at a minimum someone in the office would know one or both of her parents and they’d end up getting a phone call.

Her mother frowned. “But don’t you have that laboratory credit over in Hawkins again this semester? Why would you want to transfer?”

“I’m not sure I do. That lab’s not what I thought it would be.” She hurried over that, not wanting to explain. “I’m just looking at my options.”

“Okay,” her mother said, after a long pause. “If it’s what you decide you have to do, baby girl, to make your mark, then it’s what you have to do.” She nodded to Gloria. “I can help you with getting started on the paperwork later. If I know my daughter, you’ve already got it at home, don’t you?”

Gloria nodded. It had come in the dorm’s mail the day before.

“Now, go on and get your funny book.”

“Thanks, Mama.” Gloria touched her hand and went off next door to see her dad. Her mother would fill him in, soften him up on the idea if he had any protests. And she wasn’t really going anywhere…

Not that there wasn’t a small piece of Gloria that found the prospect exciting, of moving out to California to one of the schools pushing the envelope to allow women, and in particular African American women, into the sciences on a more equitable level.

But.

She didn’t want to have to leave her home to make her mark on the world. And she shouldn’t have to. That was part of her fight, too.

This was her private form of reconnaissance. Men like Dr. Martin Brenner got you in their clutches and didn’t let you go, especially if you made enemies of them. They could fight him, and they would, but they might lose. She wanted to know how hard he’d work to keep them under his thumb.

She’d never expected her comic books to be training for life, but then she’d never expected to have a friend who wanted to share visions via a homemade electroshock machine. It turned out the comic books had one thing right. Having powers put you in danger. Even being near people that had powers put you in danger. And being discovered by people who wanted to control those powers put you in even more.

Of that she was certain.





6.


Terry eased her foot onto the brake to slow down. She’d volunteered to drive, figuring her car was the least noticeable. No one who saw it parked at the edge of the woods would question the thought it had quit and been left there while the owner went for help or a tow truck.

“That looks like a decent spot.” Jittery Alice pointed out the front windshield to a wide gravel spot at the shoulder of the road. Beyond it, trees and darkness. But beyond that?

Chain link. Security lights.

Hawkins National Laboratory.

Once Terry parked, they got out as quickly as possible, Ken and Gloria piling out of the back. They shut the doors softly.

Terry unlocked the trunk. Before she could ask how best to carry the equipment, Alice had scooped it up. The irregular shape of her machine was covered by a patchwork quilt.

The machine that would—literally—shock Alice.

“Flashlights?” Alice asked.

“All for one and one for all,” Ken said, and picked them out from inside the trunk. Everyone but Alice got a light.

“Notebook?” Terry asked.

“And my favorite pencil,” Gloria said.

Ken flicked his light on. “I can lead,” he said, the beam cutting a path through the woods ahead. “Alice, go in front of me and I’ll light your way.”

“I could carry a flashlight in my teeth,” she said. “Saw that in a movie once.”

“I’ll shine the light for you.” Ken didn’t put a question in it. Alice gave in and they started forward.

“Nervous?” Terry asked Gloria as they followed, turning on their flashlights only when they got past the first line of trees. The branches brushed against the arms of her winter coat. Her breath fogged in the cold air.

“Beyond,” Gloria said.

“Me too.” Terry felt lit up by electricity herself, like she’d been struck by lightning and it coursed through her veins.

Terry peered ahead past the beam of her light, and saw two forms waiting. They reached Ken, and a few steps past, Alice.

“How far are we going?” Ken asked.

“You don’t know?” Terry joked, but didn’t give him a chance to get snippy. “I’d say another ten feet or so.” She nodded up to the canopies of the trees. “There’s already a glow from the perimeter lights in the sky. We’re close.”

They trekked on, the foolhardiest of fools. Terry couldn’t help, as her sleeve caught on another branch and she had to pry it free, thinking of the Old Forest and the evil willow tree that had nearly killed the hobbits (Andrew had been right about skipping the Bombadil/Goldberry section, if only she’d listened). Leading her fellowship into danger didn’t seem exactly right, but where else did fellowships go but toward it?