Mindspeak (37 page)

“Come on,” Kyle whispered. Not
having much of a choice, I followed.

He tried the first door on the
right. Locked. As was the door across from it.

“No,” he protested. “Why are they
locked?” He tried them all.

Finally, the last door on the right
was unlocked. He pulled me in after him. I entered and turned immediately to
peer out the small window of the door to see the owners of the voices we had
heard. The room behind me was mostly dark. It smelled funny. Clinical. Sterile.

Kyle stood close to me. At my back.
“They’ll be looking for you.”

“Who? Cathy and Dr. Wellington?” I
asked. If Kyle was the person from my dreams—Smoking Man—then he had tried to
kill me. Was he leading me to my death now?

“They want the journals.”

I whipped around ready to protest
when I noticed we weren’t alone. I faced three occupied hospital beds. The room
extended beyond two other doors that had been locked. Dim lights above the beds
illuminated a small portion of the room. Machines were hooked up to two of the
people in the beds. The one I faced first was…

“Jack!” I ran to his side. I placed
my hand on his cheek. “Can you hear me? What happened to him?”

“He’s fine. Just sedated.”

“Sedated? Why?”

“To get him away from you, I
suppose.”

I ran at Kyle and punched him in
his chest. “So help me, Kyle, if you don’t stop talking in riddles and tell me
what is going on…”

“You’ll what?” He grabbed both of
my arms and easily lifted my body away from him. “You think you have this all
figured out, don’t you? You thought Jack would get you out of here, and then
you’d what? Change your name? Slip into a whole new life?”

“Why do you care? Why not let me
go, Kyle? We were friends.”

“We still are. Don’t you get it?
There is no escape from what we are.”

“You tried to kill me,” I said,
surprisingly calm.

His eyes widened. “Kill you? What
are you talking about?”

“I didn’t recognize you at first,
couldn’t make out your face. Your voice didn’t sound familiar. But this
morning, your eyes came into focus.” I paused. Kyle’s face was completely
unreadable. I looked at Jack out of the corner of my eye. He lay motionless. “When
I noticed Dani’s painting of your eyes, I knew you were the one inside her head
the other night, inside my head this morning, and you tried to drown me.”

Kyle’s eyes widened. “I looked for
you by getting inside Dani’s head. That is true. I also tried to show you this
place this morning.” He gestured around the room with his hand. “But Jack
showed up and woke you. I even got inside your dream the night you father was
killed. I tried to show you this place then and the fact that Jack knew about
it. But drown you? Why would I try to kill you?”

I thought back to the dream the
night of my father’s death. Jack’s hand in mine. He’d led me down the long,
white hallway. I looked up at Kyle. “You haven’t been trying to kill me?”

“Of course not,” Kyle said.

“If you’re telling me the truth, then
someone else is inside my head.” Another altered clone? Did I even believe
Kyle? I wanted to.

My mind raced through each occasion
when someone had been inside my head. It wasn’t always inside a dream.
Sometimes, I started out fully awake. I was awake when I dove into that pool. I
just didn’t have control of my own mind and body.

“
If
I’m telling the truth…
Lexi, you have to believe me. We’re in this together. I dragged you down here
for one purpose.”

“And what purpose would that be?” I
asked, defensively.

“I need you. We need each other.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “There are consequences to our powers. Sandra
has been working on ways to fix that.” Kyle glanced past me, over my shoulder.

“Consequences. To entering peoples’
dreams?” I couldn’t help but wonder if Kyle had another power. Did he know if
he did?

“I suffered temporary blindness
every time I got inside your dreams.”

“And every time you slip inside
Dani’s dreams?” I asked.

Kyle’s face softened. His cheeks
drooped at the mention of Dani. “I don’t always lose my sight when I’m with her.
I’m learning to understand my limits. I’m learning control.”

“Kyle, we have to find Dani. We can
all get out of here.”

“Don’t you get it? There is no
escape.” A distant look passed over him before his focus returned to me. “We
can only learn what The Program is meant to teach us. Besides, Dani isn’t in
trouble. She’s not one of us.”

Before I could respond, the door
opened behind me. I whipped around. It was Seth. His black bow tie hung loose,
untied around his neck. “Well, this is convenient.” He unbuttoned his sleeves
and, one-at-a-time, rolled them up to his elbows.

Kyle sat in a chair beside Jack.
Rubbed his hands across his face. He showed no surprise at Seth’s entrance.

I looked anxiously at Seth, then at
Jack.
Jack! Please wake up
.

“Well, it seems Kyle is one step
ahead of me. Did he show you around?”

I studied Seth. Was he here to help
me escape? Could I even run and leave my friends to this craziness? There was
no way I was leaving Jack like this. His eyelashes didn’t even twitch. Not a
single movement. Thankfully, I could see the rise and fall of his chest.

“No?” Seth answered his own
question. My palms were a sweaty mess. “Well, allow me. This is the new
location of The Program. This is where you will learn more about your
abilities.” Seth stepped closer to me. “Starting tonight.”

Tonight?

He gestured with his hand toward
the next bed. “Lexi, meet Addison. She’s like a sister to your beloved Jack. She’s
the reason he would never have left with you tonight. The fact that he feels
responsible for her predicament… well… just proves how soft he is.” Seth seemed
to think about that a second.

Addison lay lifeless like Jack.
Long, jet-black hair draped across her pillow. She had the most flawless skin I’d
ever seen. The machines beside her were lit up like Christmas trees, but
remained silent.

Seth continued past Addison to the
next bed. “And this is my beloved sister.” He leaned down and kissed the
infamous Dr. Sandra Whitmeyer on the forehead.

I stared at the third lifeless
body. I moved closer.
How was this possible?
I was finally seeing Sandra
with my own eyes, but I still couldn’t believe what I saw.

It was me, only thirty years into
the future. She was lying in a bed with a tube down her throat. “What’s wrong
with her?” I reached a shaky hand to the end of the bed, steadying myself.

“Coma,” Seth said.

“For how long?”

“Can we just get on with this?”
Kyle jumped up from his chair and crossed the room.

No reaction registered on Seth’s
face from Kyle’s outburst.

“Get on with what?”

“Lexi,” Seth began slowly. “I
promised Jack I would help you escape, but that was when my sister was still
safely at the UK Hospital. Cathy moved Addison and Sandra late this afternoon. I’m
afraid I need you here. You’re the only one who can help her.”

“Why did Cathy move them?”

Seth’s face darkened several shades
of red. “Because she could. Because she has control over her brother. And
because she wants complete control over me, Jack, and The Program.”

The thickness in my chest was back.
The crazed look in Seth’s eye had me digging the heel of my hand into the spot
over my heart. I glanced from Sandra to Addison to Jack, and then I counted the
number of steps to the door. I would never make it. Seth and Kyle were both
twice my size.

But I was fast. I could come back
for Jack.

And Danielle and the others.

“If you’re thinking about running,
let me assure you there are guards crawling all over this campus, and there is
no way you’re getting past the electric fence.”

I swayed on my feet, suddenly
lightheaded. “What do you want from me?” I asked, deflated.

Seth’s lips lifted. “That’s my
girl.” He walked over to stand by his sister, glancing over his shoulder at a dark,
glass window at the far side of the room. A one-way window, maybe? “Okay, I
want you to stand there.” He pointed to the opposite side of the bed.

I positioned myself between Sandra
and Addison. Kyle backed up against the opposite wall, watching while chewing
on a hangnail.

I stared down at the older version
of myself and swallowed hard against the urge to vomit. “You want me to heal
her,” I whispered.

Seth stared at me, but stayed
silent. Kyle shifted, appearing uneasy.

“I don’t even know what’s wrong
with her.”

“She tried to alter her genetic make-up
by injecting stem cells into her own brain.”

My mouth fell open.

“Something went wrong.” Seth stared
down at his sister’s face. I tried to imagine the emotion he felt for her.
Admiration, maybe. Or did he feel responsible for her? “I think you’ll be able
to see the damage to her brain.”

“Why would I heal her?”

Seth’s eyes lifted to meet mine. “Because
you have no choice.” He looked nervously at the dark window again. “And because
she has the knowledge to help all of you with the unintended consequences of
your powers.”

Did I care about that? I wasn’t all
that sure we should use these powers to begin with. Especially since I had a
super bad feeling about The Program and the intentions of Cathy DeWeese and Dr.
Wellington. Dad hadn’t mentioned Cathy’s involvement.

Just when I thought the situation
couldn’t get worse, the far door opened, and in walked Cathy and Dr. Wellington.
“What’s taking so long?” Cathy asked. She glided over to a wall of cabinets,
still dressed in a bright red suit.

“Well, Lexi, I guess you have a lot
of questions,” Dr. Wellington said.

I remained silent, not taking my
eyes from Cathy who pulled several items out of a cabinet. She proceeded to
place a needle on the end of a syringe, then tipped a small glass bottle upside
down. After sticking the needle into the bottle, she extracted the clear
liquid.

Dr. Wellington didn’t seem to care
that I ignored him. Cathy turned and walked toward me.

Don’t come any closer, Cathy.
I screamed inside my head. Then I thought to Jack.
Wake up!

Blood immediately began trickling
out of my nose. I leaned over and wiped it on Sandra’s bed sheet, leaving a
disgusting streak of dark red.

“Now, let’s see what you can do. We
don’t have any more time.”

What was that supposed to mean? “I
guess we’re going to skip over the formality of discussing why I no longer
think you have my best interests in mind,” I said. “You know. As the wife to my
legal guardian.”

Cathy’s lips slowly stretched
across her face in a smile that would chill sand in an African desert. “I guess
some personality traits did survive the cloning process. You have a smart mouth
just like Sandra.”

My eyes followed the syringe she
waved through the air. “Exactly what do you hope to accomplish tonight? I’m
obviously not going anywhere.” I gestured toward Dr. Wellington standing guard
by one door and Kyle standing at the other.

“Seth says you now understand your power.
Tonight, we all get to witness a miracle as you bring Sandra out of her coma.”

“I thought you hated Sandra. Why
would you have me do this?”

“Because before she slipped into
this state, she discovered a way to stop some of the side effects of your…
abilities.”

“So? What exactly is going on here?
What do you hope will come of our
abilities
?”

“You’re just as dramatic as Sandra.
Always needing to know every last fact before making one single decision.” She
took a step toward me. “We’re not bad people, Lexi. We just want to help you
use your gifts… for good.”

Somehow, I doubted that. Or maybe
Cathy’s and my definitions of “gifts” and “good” were different. “If The
Program is meant to help and you mean us no harm, then why all the added
security? And what’s in the syringe?”

Cathy’s smile grew. “All in good
time. You’ll learn everything you need to know, and you’ll see that we’re actually
the good guys.”

Are you freaking kidding me with
this?
I wanted to scream. Instead, I kept my face emotionless and my voice
even. “What if I fail?” Did I really want to know the answer to that?

Again, she smiled and a chill moved
through me. “Let’s not find out.” She waved the syringe at Kyle. “Now stand
next to her and let’s see what she can do.”

Kyle approached me with an apology
in his eyes.

“Why are you helping her?”

Kyle looked nervously at his uncle
and Cathy. “I have to. I have to know what Sandra created me to do. And I need
her to take away my blindness.”

He made a move.

I held up my hand to stop him. My
eyes drifted to where Jack lay, defenseless. “No, I’ll do it. Whatever you
want.” A small part of me died inside.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

I backed up so I could see all
three beds. Seth shifted on his feet. Anticipation flitted across his face. The
other three watched Sandra for the slightest change.

I closed my eyes and imagined
Sandra’s brain. I immediately saw neurotransmitters, neurons and receptors at
work. In biology class, we had discussed how the sleep aid Ambien works on our
brains—by binding to certain receptors and thereby altering how our brain
processes sleep. This had to be how any drug designed to make us sleep or alter
our brain activity worked, right?

Except in Sandra’s head, electrical
impulses fired from neuron to neuron through the chemical synapses. Her brain looked
like the Fourth of July. Something was wrong though. Fluid pooled in small
quantities in various areas of the brain. It was almost as if her brain
activity was no longer communicating with the rest of her body.