The Home

THIRTY-EIGHT

"Dr. Kracowski asked me to get him," Starlene said to Randy.

"I'm sorry, honey, I can't let you do that," Randy said "I can't release Freeman to anybody but the doctor himself."

"You can't keep him locked up all day."

"He's got some books. Besides, these brats keep themselves amused with their own little mind games."

"Randy." She looked into his eyes, but none of the former passion burned there. "Tell me what's going on. Please."

"You know more than I do. You're the one who keeps having visions."

"Don't be like that."

"Look, everything's gotten too complicated. I shouldn't have been interested in you in the first place."

She pretended to be hurt, and bit her lower lip while gazing past him to the door of the Blue Room. One keyed lock and one operated by an electronic combination. Randy wore a ring of keys on his belt, but how could she trick him into revealing the pad's combination?

"You know about Room Thirteen," she said.

"You lived through it, didn't you?" He looked down the hall toward Kracowski's labs, which were around the corner.

"Did Dr. Kracowski make you have a treatment?" She touched her head as if suffering a migraine.

"That's none of your business."

"Dr. Kracowski's hiding things from you. You can't trust him. Did you know about the ESP?"

"Now you're getting paranoid. Maybe you need to take a few days off."

"In case you haven't noticed Wendover has turned into a concentration camp. Barbed wire and armed guards."

"They're not armed."

"Not that you can see. But Kracowski does compare unfavorably closely with Josef Mengele, wouldn't you say?"

"Kracowski never hurt anybody. He heals the kids. Improves them. I've seen it with my own eyes, many times. This work is important, and it doesn't help that you're sticking your nose into everything."

"Sure, he healed me, all right, when I had the SST. Do you want to know what I saw?"

Randy swallowed hard. "I…"

"Or can you read my mind?"

"Wait a second. I said I never had a treatment."

"I almost believe you. How many treatments does it take before you can read minds outside of Thirteen? I could only do it for a few minutes, then the effect faded. But I saw a whole hell of a lot while the juice was running through me."

"I don't believe that stuff. Ghosts aren't real. God would never allow such a thing."

"Yet He allows people to read each other's minds?"

Someone was coming down the hall, the footsteps of hard shoes echoing in the next wing. A door opened and the steps trailed off up the stairs.

Starlene lowered her voice. "I never believed in ESP and I only believed in one sort of life after death. I didn't ask for any of this. All I wanted was to help the children."

"You can help Freeman by leaving him alone. Dr. Kracowski knows what's best. This is bigger than any of us."

"Are you sure you haven't been through some brainwashing? Whatever Dr. Kracowski's up to, I'd bet that turning you into a zombie would be child's play. Maybe ESP can be manipulated to work like a one-way street, put thoughts in there but not let them out."

Randy grabbed her arm. "I'm serving the Lord, too, the same as you. You spread His glory through love and understanding and I do it by helping our mission of improving the human soul."

"You were handpicked by Bondurant, no doubt. That's his brand of salvation."

"God made Jesus suffer."

"Oh, so you think you're God too? Or is Kracowski the real God and you're just one of the prophets?"

The small walkie-talkie on Randy's hip hissed. He pulled it from his belt and turned away from Starlene. He spoke in low tones, then took several steps down the hall so she couldn't overhear. Starlene took me opportunity to make a closer examination of the lock.

Randy put away the walkie-talkie and stuck his key in the Blue Room door. His hand flew over the electronic lock's keypad too quickly for Starlene to memorize me sequence. "You'd better go now," he said.

"I want to help."

"You can help by getting out of me way."

The door swung open, Randy's key still in the door. Freeman stood waiting. Behind him, me row of cots were neatly made. No one else was in me room.

"I'm ready," Freeman said to Randy. He glanced at Starlene. "You'd better stay out of the way, like he said."

"I only want to help," she said.

"I've been helped so much I'm sick and tired of it. I'm about helped to death. At least the people in the Trust are sincere about what they want."

"The Trust?"

"Be quiet," Randy said to Freeman.

"Oh? She doesn't know? I thought you guys were soul mates." Freeman gave a smile that was even more elusive and sardonic than usual.

"What's he talking about, Randy?"

"I thought having a psychology degree automatically made you a know-it-all," Freeman said to her. "Certainly worked for my Dad. He has three of them so he knows more than everyone."

Freeman pointed to Randy's walkie-talkie. "And that's a great way to keep a secret. Except from people who can read minds."

Randy stepped forward, mouth twisted in anger. Freeman scooted back into the room.

"Come here, you little smartass," Randy said. Freeman winked at Starlene and ran between the rows of cots. Randy yelled and gave chase. Starlene waited until they were at the far end of the room, checked me hall in both directions, men went inside and pulled the door nearly shut. Freeman was cornered now, and Randy climbed over a cot, watching the boy's eyes.

"Head him off that way," Randy shouted to Starlene. She closed in to trap Freeman. Randy lunged at Freeman, who tried to dodge, but Randy was too fast and strong. He wrestled the boy face-down onto the cot. His walkie-talkie fell from his belt and bounced to the floor as they struggled.

"My back pocket," Randy said to Starlene. "Restrain the little shit."

Starlene pulled the handcuffs from Randy's pocket. Freeman kicked and squirmed, the pillow pressed against his face so that his screams were muffled. Randy put a knee on the boy's back, then stuck one hand behind him, reaching for the cuffs.

"Here," he said. "Hurry."

Before Starlene could think, she snapped one of the cuffs on Randy's wrist. He turned toward her in surprise and, as he hesitated, Starlene closed the other cuff around the cot's metal frame.

"Damn you," Randy said, swinging his free hand at her. The blow caught her across the cheek and she fell onto the concrete floor. Randy fumbled at his belt where he'd kept his keys. When he realized he'd left the keys in the door, his face contorted into a mask of rage.

Freeman rolled off the cot while Randy tried to free himself. Freeman wiped blood from his lips and helped Starlene to her feet. She rubbed her face. Her skin hadn't split, but her pulse roared beneath her skin.

"I feel your pain," Freeman said.

"So do I," she said.

Randy jumped from the cot and clawed at them, tugging at the handcuff. The cot was bolted to the floor, though its frame rattled with his effort. "I'll kill you both."

"Great," Freeman said. "I can't wait to be a ghost so I can come back and haunt your ass."

Starlene took Freeman's hand. "Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" he said.

"I thought you could read my mind."

"Well, I figured you were trying to rescue me, but you don't have any kind of plan, do you?"

They reached the door. The hallway was still empty. Starlene looked back at Randy, who'd stopped pulling at the handcuff. He was busy unhooking the springs of the cot. He'd have to work his way down, removing one spring at a time, but soon he'd reach the end and be able to slide the cuff through a gap in the folded corner of the cot.

"Damn," she said. "Well, I guess our secret will be out soon."

"One thing about this place," Freeman said. "Secrets don't stay secret very long."

"So I've learned," Starlene said. She slammed the door closed, yanked the key back and forth until it broke off in the lock, then stuck the key ring in her pocket. "Hope that locks the jerk in. What now?"

"We need Vicky," Freeman said. "She's smart and she knows her way around Wendover."

"What about the other kids?"

Freeman looked at her with his piercing eyes. "You ought to know by now, you save the world a little at a time, not all at once. Even your old pal Jesus H. Christ figured that one out."

Starlene let the sarcasm pass. "To the Green Room?"

"She's not in the Green Room. She's in Thirteen."

"What's she doing there?"

"Dying," he said. "That's what we're all doing. Some of us faster than others."

As they ran down the corridor, Starlene wondered if Freeman could read her mind enough to know how terrified she was.