Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(6)

“I wish I was mechanical,” Terry said.

Alice shrugged. “We’re all mechanical. Body’s just another kind of machine.”

Fair enough.

“No heart in there?” Terry asked, teasing a little.

“Sure, the heart’s the pump that keeps us going,” Alice said.

The doors began to open onto the third floor, taking as much sweet time as they had below.

Alice paused. “I could fix this, with the right parts, you know. It’s not broken, just a little bent from its original splendor.”

That would teach Terry to judge someone by the grease of their coveralls. The original splendor of a university elevator.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” she said.

Alice shot her a grin. “Hopefully.”

“So you said you haven’t been here before?” Terry blurted out the question.

“No,” Alice said. “My uncle saw a newspaper ad last week looking for college-age women with remarkable skills. I answered. Got a letter that said to show up here.”

A new recruitment process, the woman had said. How was Terry going to make it in? What counted as a “remarkable skill”?

They got off the elevator, Alice giving it one more gentle pat, and entered a bland hallway flanked by doors and flyers advertising experiments. Only a single door was open and so Terry figured that would be the place. The doorway was wide enough to accommodate her and Alice side by side, which was good because Alice refused to either go in front of or behind Terry. Like everything about odd Alice so far, it was charming.

Another lab-coated person waited here, this one a man with newscaster hair and thick-rimmed glasses. He handed them each a sheaf of papers and a pen. “Release forms,” he said. “Fill them out until you’re called back.”

Thanks for the pleasantries, man.

He motioned them to a de facto waiting area where chairs had been added. Six other women were already there, college-age (though if Alice was a tell, not all attending college), and one man their age, with long brown hair, a Jesus beard, and bell-bottoms. Terry and Alice had to separate because the only two chairs left were across from each other.

Alice sat beside a young black woman reading a large textbook who made Terry look sloppy by comparison, let alone Alice. She wore a trim purple suit, the latest style. Modest but fashionable.

“You from town, too?” Alice asked her.

The woman’s hair curled to accentuate a thoughtful and pretty face, which she turned on Alice. “I grew up here,” she said. “Gloria Flowers.”

“Those…” Alice said.

“Yes,” Gloria said, “those Flowers.”

Alice’s eyes widened and she stage-whispered across to Terry. “Her family runs a giant store and a florist’s. Flowers’ Flowers.”

“I’m sitting right here,” Gloria said. And added, “It’s Flowers’ Flowers and Gifts.”

“Did you see the ad in the paper, too?” Alice asked.

“No,” Gloria said. “I’m also a student here. Biology.”

“No offense meant,” Alice said, her cheeks going pink. “I mean it. My mouth gets ahead of me.”

“You should have heard her admiring the elevator,” Terry said.

Alice shot her a grateful look.

Terry leaned forward and offered Gloria her hand. Gloria hesitated a second then shook it, holding her textbook to her chest. Something fell out of it and onto the floor. A comic book.

Gloria’s eyes widened in mortification.

Terry reached down to pick it up. X-Men, the brightly colored cover proclaimed. “I used to love Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica,” she said, handing it back.

“This is a little different.” But Gloria smiled.

“Cool,” Terry said. “It’s nice to meet another student…” She hesitated, realizing she couldn’t give her real name. Not yet.

“I guess I’m just refuse then,” Alice said. “Don’t mind me.”

The man cocked his head to one side and nodded at Alice. “You’re the smartest one here,” he said, knowingly. “I’m Ken.”

“I thought they only wanted ladies?” Alice said, apparently not into flattery.

“I’m psychic,” he said, barely above a whisper.

“You are?” Terry asked.

He sat back. “Of course I am. That’s how I knew to show up.”

“Of course he is,” Alice echoed, and Terry had no clue if she meant it or was poking fun.

The women on either side of them were clearly attempting not to be appalled by everything going on around them. Terry found she was enjoying herself, and, exchanging looks with Alice and supposedly psychic Ken, then Gloria, thought they were also.

A man in a lab coat opened a door at the back of the suite.

“Gloria Flowers,” he said.

Gloria slipped her comic book back into her textbook with a wink, rose, and followed the man back into a hallway.

Terry really did like all three of them.



* * *



—

There were only the two of them left, Terry and Ken, and hours had gone by.

The release forms were intense and jargon-filled and gave Terry a queasiness in her stomach; she was right about this experiment being a big deal. The forms weren’t from the university. They were from the United States government. Something called the Office of Scientific Intelligence. It said there could be stiff penalties, up to and including imprisonment, for disclosure of any activities that took place involving the participant. That implied things were going to happen that needed to stay secret.