Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(69)

The new code Alice had memorized worked like a charm, letting her bypass the keypad on her way to Dr. Brenner’s office. There was a disturbance up the hall that went to Kali’s room—shouting voices and Brenner’s commanding tone. Terry looked, expecting to see people and instead found a wall of flames that looked real but couldn’t be. There was no heat.

Kali was making an illusion for her distraction.

Terry hurried forward. They must have security cameras everywhere. Her only hope was that they didn’t review the footage as aggressively as they should. She let herself into Brenner’s office and took one moment for a deep victory breath.

Not victorious yet.

“Right,” she murmured. She set her bag on a chair, pulled out the tidy black and gray camera, and placed it on Dr. Brenner’s desk. Wait a second.

The photographs needed context.

She circled the desk to take a picture of the nameplate. DR. MARTIN BRENNER. Mentally she added: evil genius. The camera whirred and spat the photo out the front.

In this silent room, the noise echoed…she prayed it was only in her head, the acid talking. She placed the picture on the desk, starting a stack. Only seven left until she ran out of film.

She placed the camera on Brenner’s desk and went to the file cabinet. I should’ve looked at a clock so I’d know how long I’ve been gone.

Followed by: Too late now.

Yanking open a drawer, she paged through in search of the children’s folders. The ones with PROJECT INDIGO typed at the top.

Bingo.

She shuffled through until she found what must be Kali’s. 008. Five years old. She skimmed the contents, a narrative of experiments and findings: Child shows gifts that require isolation from those who might weaken her…Constantly asks for family and to be called by given name…Has stopped asking for her mother…Sustained a believable illusion of an ocean for five minutes, but without exercising control. Potential growing by the day…

Terry selected two pages and photographed them, one after the other, with more echoing whirs. She confirmed the files ended with 010, not 011. Then she took another photograph of the row of documents, in case she could convince a reporter to look into this.

But what about their experiment?

She tried another drawer and saw PROJECT MKULTRA along the tops of these folders. Was this it? Flipping a file open, she realized it was hers.

You need Alice’s.

She dropped hers back in and flicked through the rest. Alice Johnson…There was one sheet that just recorded acid and electroshock dosages and dates. A narrative from Dr. Parks that started with: It’s impossible to say if the electroshock yields results or traumatizes the patient…

Brenner had initialed a handwritten note that said: Increasing the wattage should clarify…

Terry photographed that page. She checked the next one and it was a memorandum setting out a proposal for the MKULTRA experiment subjects to reside at the lab. A stamp on it said PENDING. NEEDS FURTHER STUDY.

That can’t happen.

Too much time had passed. She had to go.

She tucked the Polaroids into her purse, and the camera, too. She hung the strap over her shoulder and practiced the stoned lie she would tell about following Dr. Brenner into the hallway and then wondering if he might be in his office.

The disruption in the hallway was gone, all quiet there.

She made it all the way back to her room unnoticed. Or uninterrupted, at least.

She didn’t feel as strong anymore, but still better than she had been. Should she go to Kali’s room? She should. The girl might be in trouble. That Brenner hadn’t come back couldn’t mean anything good.

Terry couldn’t allow anything to happen to her because of this. So she stepped back out into the hallway, shadows at the edge of her vision as she got more paranoid. But, again, no one stopped her. She saw not a soul on the way.

When she reached Kali’s room, Dr. Brenner stood outside it, waiting. “I’ve seen you now,” he said. “There’s no point in turning around, Miss Ives. You want to check on her. I’m sure she’d love to see you.”

Terry didn’t understand what was happening. But she opened the door to Kali’s room anyway, needing to see her.

Kali reclined on the top bunk, crying as she fisted her hands in the sheets. She was bathed in sweat. Even from here, Terry could see it had soaked through her gown.

“Kali, are you okay?” Terry asked.

“Will you get in the bottom bunk?” the girl asked, coughing a sob.

Terry nervously looked to Dr. Brenner, who’d followed her inside. He raised his eyebrows. “It’s fine with me.”

This was the opposite of anything she should do. She should run. She’d gotten evidence. But abandoning Kali before ensuring she’d be all right wasn’t an option.

She climbed onto the bunk and stared up at the bottom of the mattress above her, the wood beams holding it in place. Desperately she wished for the void, to be able to have a hidden conversation with the little girl.

“I told him,” Kali said, “that we talked.”

Too late for privacy then. Terry wanted to look at Brenner, gauge his reaction. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

But when he moved, off to the side, she turned her head and got out of the bunk. Afraid…of what? She didn’t know.

He’d only leaned back against the wall.