over, and she kissed him first on the cheek, then on the corner of his mouth. Her lips were salty. Luke didn’t mind.
As he opened the door, she said, “It should have been me. Or George. Not Nicky. He was the one who never gave in to their bullshit. The one who never gave up.” She raised her voice. “Are you there? Are you listening? I hope you are, because I hate you and I want you to know it! I HATE YOU!”
She fell back on her bed and began to sob. Luke thought about going back to her, but didn’t. He had given all the comfort he could, and he was hurting himself, not just about Nicky but in the places where Dr. Richardson had stuck him. It didn’t matter if the woman with the dark hair had taken tissue samples, or put something into his body (trackers made no sense, but he supposed it could have been some sort of experimental enzyme or vaccine), because none of their tests and injections seemed to make sense. He thought again of the concentration camps, and the horrible, nonsensical experiments that had been conducted there. Freezing people, burning people, giving them diseases.
He went back to his room, considered taking one or even two of the Oxy pills, didn’t.
Thought about using Mr. Griffin to go to the Star Tribune, and didn’t do that, either.
He thought about Nicky, the heartthrob of all the girls. Nicky, who had first put Harry Cross in his place and then made friends with him, which was far bolder than beating him up. Nicky, who had fought their tests, and fought the men from Back Half when they came to get him, the one who never gave up.
27
The next day Joe and Hadad took Luke and George Iles down to C-11, where they were left alone for awhile. When the two caretakers came back, now equipped with cups of coffee, Zeke was with them. He looked red-eyed and hungover. He fitted the two boys with rubber electrode caps, cinching the straps tight under their chins. After Zeke checked the readouts, the two boys took turns in a driving simulator. Dr. Evans came in and stood by with his trusty clipboard, making notes as Zeke called out various numbers that might (or might not) have had to do with reaction time. Luke drove through several traffic signals and caused a fair amount of carnage before he got the hang of it, but after that, the test was actually sort of fun—an Institute first.
When it was over, Dr. Richardson joined Dr. Evans. Today she was dressed in a three-piece skirt suit and heels. She looked ready for a high-powered business meeting. “On a scale of one to ten, how is your pain this morning, Luke?”
“A two,” he said. “On a scale of one to ten, my desire to get the hell out of here is an eleven.”
She chuckled as if he had made a mild joke, said goodbye to Dr. Evans (calling him Jim), and then left.
“So who won?” George asked Dr. Evans.
He smiled indulgently. “It’s not that kind of test, George.”
“Yeah, but who won?”
“You were both quite fast, once you got used to the simulator, which is what we expect with TKs. No more tests today, boys, isn’t that nice? Hadad, Joe, please take these young men upstairs.”
On the way to the elevator, George said, “I ran over I think six pedestrians before I got the knack. How many did you run over?”
“Only three, but I hit a schoolbus. There might have been casualties there.”
“You wank. I totally missed the bus.” The elevator came, and the four of them stepped on. “Actually, I hit seven pedestrians. The last one was on purpose. I was pretending it was Zeke.”
Joe and Hadad looked at each other and laughed. Luke liked them a little for that. He didn’t want to, but he did.
When the two caretakers got back into the elevator, presumably headed down to the break room, Luke said, “After the dots, they tried you on the cards. A telepathy test.”
“Right, I told you that.”
“Have they ever tested you for TK? Asked you to turn on a lamp or maybe knock over a line of dominoes?”
George scratched his head. “Now that you mention it, no. But why would they, when they already know I can do stuff like that? On a good day, at least. What about you?”
“Nope. And I hear what you’re saying, but it’s still funny that they don’t