“How would you know what you’re here for?” Dave asked.
“Because I’m not stupid, that’s why.”
“You want to keep your mouth shut, Luke,” Dave said. “I like you, but that doesn’t mean I want to listen to you run your mouth.”
“Whatever the dots are for, it doesn’t have anything to do with finding out if I can go both ways, TP as well as TK. What are you guys doing? Do you even kn—”
Dave slapped him, a big roundhouse that knocked Luke off his feet. Water puddled on the tile floor soaked into the seat of his jeans. “I’m not here to answer your questions.” He bent toward Luke. “We know what we’re doing, smartass! We know exactly what we’re doing!” And, as he hauled Luke up: “We had a kid here last year who lasted three and a half minutes. He was a pain in the ass, but at least he had balls!”
12
Avery came to his room, concerned, and Luke told him to go away, he needed to be alone for awhile.
“It was bad, wasn’t it?” Avery asked. “The tank. I’m sorry, Luke.”
“Thanks. Now go away. We’ll talk later.”
“Okay.”
Avery went, considerately closing the door behind him. Luke lay on his back, trying not to relive those endless minutes submerged in the tank and doing it anyway. He kept waiting for the lights to come back, bobbing and racing through his field of vision, turning circles and making dizzy whirlpools. When they didn’t, he began to calm. One thought trumped all others, even his fear that the dots might come back . . . and stay this time.
Get out. I have to get out. And if I can’t do that, I have to die before they take me to Back Half and take the rest of me.
13
The worst of the bugs had departed with June, so Dr. Hendricks met with Zeke Ionidis in front of the administration building, where there was a bench under a shady oak tree. Nearby was a flagpole, with the stars and stripes flapping lazily in a light summer breeze. Dr. Hendricks held Luke’s folder on his lap.
“You’re sure,” he said to Zeke.
“Positive. I dunked the little bastard five or six times, I guess, each one fifteen seconds longer, just like you said. If he could read minds, he would have done it, and you can take that to the bank. A Navy SEAL couldn’t stand up to that shit, let alone a kid not old enough to have more than six hairs on his balls.”
Hendricks seemed ready to push it, then sighed and shook his head. “All right. I can live with that. We’ve got plenty of pinks right now, and more due in. An embarrassment of riches. But it’s still a disappointment. I had hopes for that boy.”
He opened the file with its little pink dot in the upper righthand corner. He took a pen from his pocket and drew a diagonal line across the first page. “At least he’s healthy. Evans gave him a clean bill. That idiot girl—Benson—didn’t pass her chicken pox on to him.”
“He wasn’t vaccinated against that?” Zeke asked.
“He was, but she took pains to swap spit with him. And she had quite a serious case. Couldn’t risk it. Nope. Better safe than sorry.”
“So when does he go to Back Half?”
Hendricks smiled a little. “Can’t wait to get rid of him, can you?”
“Actually, no,” Zeke said. “The Benson girl might not have infected him with chicken pox, but Wilholm passed on his fuck-you germ.”
“He goes as soon as I get a green light from Heckle and Jeckle.”
Zeke pretended to shiver. “Those two. Brrr. Creepy.”
Hendricks advanced no opinion on the Back Half doctors. “You’re sure he’s flat as far as telepathy goes?”
Zeke patted him on the shoulder. “Absolutely, Doc. Take it to the bank.”
14
While Hendricks and Zeke were discussing his future, Luke was on his way to lunch. As well as terrorizing him, the immersion tank had left him ravenously hungry. When Stevie Whipple asked where he’d been and what was wrong, Luke just shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about the tank. Not now, not ever. He supposed it was like being in a war. You got drafted, you went, but you didn’t want to talk about what you’d seen, or what had happened to you there.
Full of the caff’s version of fettuccini alfredo, he took a nap and awoke feeling marginally better. He went looking for Maureen and spied her in the formerly deserted East Wing. It