Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(89)

Sirens had started up almost immediately and people sprang into action, but they were amassing behind Ken. Not in front of him.

He drove around the side of the building to a sub-level entrance that Alice had seen in her visionary explorations, and screeched to a stop. Gloria burst through the door and stopped, holding it ajar.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Coming,” she said, propping something against the door to keep it open. “Right behind me, I hope! I’m headed down. Shouldn’t be long.”

As the first men with guns showed up, Ken hoped so, too.





6.


Brenner perked up when a person’s shadow approached his office door. An alarm echoed at a sanity-destroying volume throughout the building. It was about time she made it up here. “Why, Miss Ives, what a sur—” he started, but dropped off when he saw the new security officer instead. “What is it?”

“We, ah, have a situation, sir,” the man said, speaking loud to be heard over the alarm.

“Which is…” Brenner got up, taking his jacket off the arm of his chair and putting it on.

“We’ve got a fire alarm and a threat outside the building.”

Ken had come after all.

“Shut down the alarm, neutralize the threat.”

“He’s a civilian, sir,” the guard continued. “But the most worrisome thing is Miss Ives—she was on her way to your office, like you said she would be, but she, ah, saw something. She saw something and stopped. She’s in Alice Johnson’s room. I—you better come. She’s upset. It’s, ah, Dr. Parks is upset, too. And subject Eight.”

Brenner had been prepared to gloat at how they’d known and foiled Terry’s plans. He wanted her upset, but he didn’t want her in Alice Johnson’s room. Something had gone very wrong indeed for her to abandon her plan.

He followed the security officer.

There was nothing Brenner hated more than surprises.

Nothing except losing.





7.


Terry took a step closer to Alice, holding off Dr. Parks. Alice was slumped on the floor beside the electroshock machine in her exam room. Not moving. Not breathing.

Kali cried beside her, as she had every time Terry had seen her do an illusion. “She’s not moving!” the child wailed, and Terry watched as she wiped a stream of blood from one side of her nose. Her upset was real, but so far, her illusion was simple and it held. Good girl.

“Alice,” Terry said. “No, not Alice!”

Electrodes were still fixed to Alice’s temples where she lay, the dial on the machine cranked way up…Terry had changed back into her street clothes, which had allowed her to stash a kitchen knife she’d smuggled in from home in her pocket. She would wait until it was needed.

Terry had figured the illusion had to be significant, but nothing that Brenner would see coming. Or that would be so big he’d realize they intended to fool him. He didn’t believe that Kali was capable of control, but Terry knew that no one understood their capabilities until they had to. Especially not a child. It was a small thing for her, so much smaller than the flames. But it wouldn’t last forever.

Alice had to disappear. If this worked, she would. Because Brenner would believe she was dead…until he didn’t need to anymore.

This had to work. Terry knew he’d never let any of them go otherwise.

“You have to let us take care of her,” Dr. Parks said.

“I said leave her alone,” Terry commanded. She stood over Alice and gently brushed her hair behind her ear. The illusion maintained. “She’s dead.”

When she caught Kali’s eye, the girl sobbed harder. By all appearances, genuine. Oh, Kali, I’ll come back for you.

If Terry hadn’t known that what she was seeing was fake, she’d have gone out of her mind. When she’d passed Alice’s room, then doubled back, the view was tragic. Dr. Parks was crying, too, and trying to pry Kali away from Alice’s form.

“What is this?” Dr. Brenner said as he walked in, but even he stopped short.

“She changed the setting on the machine,” Dr. Parks said quietly. “It was too much.”

“You did this!” Terry stood and leveled a finger at Dr. Brenner, and put every accusation she had against him into her voice. “You’re the reason Alice is dead. You killed her.”

“Calm down,” Brenner said. “Maybe she can be revived.”

He didn’t believe it. She could tell.

“She’s dead! She’s not coming back, and—and we’re not staying here. We’re not doing this anymore.”

Alice stayed where she was, playing dead and limp.

“Why?” Dr. Brenner asked. “Why not just have a nice sedative?”

“I planned to take files from your office, but I think Alice”—she choked on a sob—“is all I need to make sure you never hurt my child or my friends again. I’ll talk to her family. They’ll keep it quiet, as long as you leave us all be. You can try to keep us here, but we’ll know the truth. I won’t rest until I escape this place—and I will make sure the world knows you killed her, knows everything you’ve done here. We’ll make sure of it.”

“Terry, be careful. Think of your child.”