Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1) - Gwenda Bond Page 0,35
worked together to complete the task without Terry having to betray her trust.
“I can’t believe he asked you to do that,” Ken said.
“I can. What have we gotten involved in?” Gloria asked. “That’s the question.”
“I don’t know,” Terry said. “But I’m beginning to think…” She put her hands flat on the table, and seemed as sober as anything, as if she’d never had a drop to drink. “I’m beginning to think this entire thing is bad news. I couldn’t find a scrap on Brenner at the library. There has to be another way to get information…We need to find out as much as we can about what they’re doing.”
There was silence, and Alice waited to see what everyone would say.
“I knew it,” Ken said.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Sure you did.”
“I did.”
Gloria cut in. “No bickering. I told you what I love about science, and I wanted to learn more about how lab conditions work. I’ve already told Terry—nothing going on there is as it should be. Especially now that I know they’re electroshocking you, Alice. None of this should be going on. Maybe with all of us working together…we can get the answers Terry wants.”
Alice was in for that, but it wasn’t her major concern. “The monsters I see…I think…What if they’re real somehow? Brenner could…If he finds out, he could use them. Use me.”
Terry reached across and took Alice’s hands in her own. “That is not going to happen. I won’t let it.”
“She won’t, kid sister,” Andrew said. “I can promise you that.”
Alice didn’t believe that was something Terry or Andrew could promise. But she accepted it all the same.
“Do you think they’re real?” Ken asked.
“I don’t know.” That was the truth. It meant something that he’d even asked the question. Alice had begun to fear that they were, but she wasn’t certain. “So, if everyone’s in, what do we do?”
“That’s a good question,” Terry said. “I need to think.”
6.
Brenner held out his hand and took an oversized towel one of the lab assistants had produced. This was Eight’s first time in the sensory deprivation tank and he’d given her a specific prompt—to attempt to create a sunny day outside in the room.
Nothing had happened, and he could feel the relief in the restless movements around him. He’d hoped the tank would boost her gifts. The staffers present had probably been afraid of the same possibility.
“Eight.” He leaned forward and spoke into a mic wired into her helmet. “You can stop trying now. We’ll get you out.”
She would understand the disappointment in his tone. He’d promised her a reward if she delivered. And he had carefully considered what he might give her if she accomplished a controlled illusion—without encouraging her to continue questioning him.
But there would be no reward for a lack of results.
At his nod, an assistant opened the tank’s hatch and helped Eight out. She tore off the helmet, thrusting it at the lab worker. “Papa, I didn’t like that!”
He saw the dark red line of blood from her nostril at the same moment the illusion began. Bright sunlight blinded him, and he squinted. He flinched back and so did the assistants.
He forced himself to look, and a tempest of crashing waves surrounded them, arcing high overhead. He heard a cry to his right, the clattering feet of someone running….He’d have to find out who it was later.
“Eight,” he said, soothing. Impressed.
He hadn’t realized she’d ever seen an ocean, but it made sense. She was born across one, after all. Brenner simply watched as the waves rolled over them. The water didn’t exist, but it looked and sounded utterly convincing. He could barely make out the patterns of the walls and outlines underneath it.
He stood, waiting in the maelstrom Eight created while she cried, harsh angry sobs.
“The cupcakes,” he barked when she’d managed the illusion for several minutes. He held out his other hand for the reward. A scrambling beside him and a tech returned, breathing hard as she placed the Hostess package in his hand. Eight’s favorite. Something to satisfy her, temporarily, since she’d only gotten more insistent in her request for friends. Any break from that was welcome.
The strength of her performance was an excellent revelation on which to end the week. Already he’d been encouraged by how swiftly Terry Ives had completed her assignment. She seemed none the wiser about his intention to rewire her brain, by suggestion, bit by bit, to prove it could be done.