Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(91)

Alice would’ve made a great spy.

“Good.” Terry nodded to Ken. “Suitcase.”

He went back to the car and dragged out Terry’s big suitcase from the back seat. Gloria’d been wedged in beside it. Terry had packed it with the contents of the Disappearing Boxes, and left out a dress for Alice to change into. They were roughly the same size, so everything should fit. She pulled out the dress, in a see-through dry-cleaning bag. “Go change into this—no one will recognize you.”

“I wish you’d told me we were updating her wardrobe,” Gloria said.

Alice stuck her tongue out, but went into the depot.

“Do we really think he’ll leave us alone?” Gloria asked.

“Alice will be safe,” Ken said.

“Then that’s enough for tonight,” Terry said. Though she caught Ken’s frown. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure…”

“Then keep it to yourself.” Vague psychic pronouncements would not help Terry’s state of mind. Standing opposite Brenner, she’d been very aware that this could’ve ended another way.

“Probably best.” Ken shrugged.

Alice came out of the station with her coveralls over her arm, and ducked her head almost shyly. She had on a flowered dress, one of Terry’s—and Andrew’s—favorites, that stopped a few inches above the knee.

And her work boots.

“The shoes!” Terry said and reached into the trunk to find the pair of low black heels. “I almost forgot. You can carry your boots in the bag the dress came in.”

“You look great,” Gloria said.

Alice’s cheeks were flushed.

“From dead to dolled-up,” Terry said.

Alice took the shoes from Terry and walked over to the car to sit on the front passenger seat and change. “You don’t think I look silly? Like a little girl playing dress-up or something?”

“No,” Terry said, scoffing, “you’re beautiful.”

“I feel like Cinderella.”

“Good thing it’s nowhere close to midnight, then,” Ken said.

Terry hoped Alice did all right in Canada. It’s not forever. Hopefully.

There were hugs then and tearful farewells. The bus pulled into the station and it was time for the real goodbye. Terry walked Alice over to the bus with a lump in her throat. She carried the bag with Alice’s boots.

Alice lugged her suitcase and gave it to the porter to put under the bus. Alice watched him suspiciously and, after he finished, suggested they might want to adjust the bolt tightness on the door or it’d fall off at some point.

Terry waited a few feet from the bus door. “I guess this is it for now,” Terry said.

Alice hesitated, and Terry could see she was wrestling with herself.

“Out with it, Alice.”

“There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve seen happen to you. In the future. Gloria said I should give you a choice, to know or not.” Alice shifted on her heels. Her expression was completely somber. Whatever she’d seen, it wasn’t good.

“Tell me this—am I still fighting?” Terry asked. “Still trying to do what’s right?”

Alice answered immediately. “Yes.”

Good. “Then I don’t need to know.”

Alice started to protest, but Terry said, “I’ll let you know if I change my mind. Okay?”

This Alice accepted. “You’ll let me know immediately.”

“Okay.” And Terry folded her into a hug, and watched her friend board the bus. She would never ask anyone to tell her the future again. Maybe.

“All aboard!” Ken called to Gloria and Terry after the bus pulled out and Alice was on her way to Canada.

They piled back in the car. Terry was content to let Ken keep driving.

“I’m going to miss her,” Gloria said.

Ken and Terry spoke at the same time: “Me too.”





10.


Brenner couldn’t believe the Johnson girl had died before they could discover her secrets. And with that electroshock stunt she’d handed Terry Ives a way to make him look weak. Kali, upset, had gone straight to sleep, helped by the sedative he’d given her. But he would still win the day.

Dr. Parks would get over her fit of conscience. He’d given her the night off and a reminder of their confidentiality protocols. The body had apparently already been taken down to the morgue, so he assumed its secrets would be his.

Now he called Langley to get ahead of the news. “Director, I wanted to be the first to give you a heads-up on a situation we had here this evening,” Brenner said.

“I heard about some alarms,” the director said.

News traveled fast.

“False ones of a sort,” Brenner said. He related the details of Alice Johnson’s death—she’d increased the settings on an electroshock machine herself, triggering a heart attack—and told him that several of the other problem subjects had seen the body, and also set off the fire alarm and a gate code. The personnel were being debriefed and given a cover story about a drunk driver crashing through the fencing. By tomorrow, hardly anyone would know the truth, and soon enough everyone who did would forget it.

They had medications to help with that, if anyone had trouble.