Freeman deeper into the bushes. The man exchanged glances with Swenson, men went down the path and disappeared, headed toward me back fence.
Swenson went to Kracowski and put her arms around him. 'They're just a means to an end,' Swenson said. 'We know it's about the search for truth. We're using them more than they're using us.'
'They don't understand the implications,' Kracowski said. 'This is bigger than governments and politics and little boys with big toys. It's about the wall between life and death; between this world and me world beyond. It's about breaking down the ultimate barriers of the mind.'
'But we need more evidence.'
'I don't want the Trust to know too much. I've been careful to keep different parts of the research in different places. It would take McDonald's best hackers years to track down everything.'
'You don't trust anyone, do you, Richard?' She hugged him more tightly.
'Trust. The one quality that Synaptic Synergy Therapy can't impart.'
'What do we do now?'
'More research. More work. More patients.'
'Do you really mink you're close to the answer?'
Kracowski nodded at the surface of the lake. 'Ask him.'
He headed back toward Wendover. After a moment, Swenson followed.
When they were gone, Vicky relaxed her stomach muscles. 'What's going on?' she whispered.
Freeman shook his head. 'Clint in Absolute Power. Double cover-ups.'
Behind them, a twig snapped.
TWENTY-ONE
'You guys shouldn't be down here,' Starlene said.
'It's okay, we've got our clothes on,' Vicky said. Freeman swiped the air in front of Vicky as if feigning a slap.
Starlene wanted to ask them about Kracowski and Swenson, whom she'd passed on the trail, but she didn't think spying and gossiping, and probably mind reading, were proper Christian behaviors. Instead, she said, 'You guys come looking for the old man?'
'You mean the one you don't believe in?' Freeman said.
'I didn't say that. And I didn't say your experience yesterday wasn't real.'
'You just think I thought it happened, like a dream or something.'
'We all make our own realities.'
'Especially the people in the basement.'
Starlene looked to Vicky for help. The girl lowered her eyes. She was allied with Freeman.
'There's no one in the basement, Freeman,' Starlene said.
Vicky grew animated, her knotty elbows and hands moving as she spoke. 'How do you know? You ever been down there?'
Starlene shook her head. 'No, but the door's kept locked. Same with the stairwell entrances.'
'You wouldn't believe all the stuff down there. Lots of high-tech equipment, tanks and tubes and generators and wiring. And some creepy old cells.'
'What are you talking about?'
'Come on, I'll show you.' She scrambled out of the rhododendron and led them up the trail. 'I was there last night.'
By the time they reached the open lawn, the bell sounded and the children gathered to go inside. Starlene waved to Randy. He'd be rotating off duty tonight. If Starlene wasn't so hardheaded, she would be off, too, and maybe they could have caught a movie together. Maybe Randy would kiss her without trying to ram his tongue all the way down her throat. Maybe he'd even talk with her about what was going on at Wendover.
But tonight, she needed to be here. Not only for the kids, but for herself as well. The old man wasn't just a figment of her imagination, others had seen him. Could mis place be the site of a miracle? Did visions come to those in the modern day? Did God still send messages to the people He loved?
Starlene saw Bondurant watching them from his office window as they approached the building. He didn't wave.
'Time to go inside,' Starlene said to Freeman and Vicky.
'First things first' Vicky ducked under the stair landing and went down the steps leading to the basement. Starlene watched from the top of the steps as Vicky pulled and pushed on the door, then banged her shoulder into it.
'Dang,' Vicky said. 'I swear it was open last night.' She pointed to a large, gleaming lock and hasp. 'That's new.'
'Come on up,' Starlene said.
'You don't believe her,' Freeman said.
'Are you reading my mind or is that just your opinion?'
'Just because you're a shrink doesn't mean you know everything.' Freeman brushed past her and went down to Vicky. They talked for a moment in hushed voices. Then they ascended the stairs together.
'I'm sorry,' Vicky said. 'I made the whole thing up.'
'Yeah,' Freeman said. 'We didn't see an old man walking on water and I didn't get inside the heads of people who live in the basement. But it's okay for us to be wrong. After all, we're troubled, right? We're society's mistakes.'
The second bell sounded, meaning they were late for lunch. 'Look,' Starlene said. 'You guys don't have to hate me. It's hard for me to stay clinical and detached but that's what I'm supposed to do.'
'Trust,' Freeman said, as if spitting. 'Isn't that one of your special little words?'
Freeman and Vicky went up the landing and entered the building. Starlene started after them, then hesitated. She hurried down the stairs to the basement. The lock did look new, not a scratch or speck of rust on it. Sawdust, steel shavings, and crumbled masonry lay in small piles on the ground. The hardware had been recently installed.
'Is that to keep us out, or to keep them in?' Bondurant smiled down at her from the top of the stairs. Without waiting for an answer, he said, 'You've seen them, haven't you?'
'Them?'
'The ones who live in the walls.' Bondurant took a staggering step down. His face was bright red, his eyes wild. He slapped the stone foundation of the building. 'The ones that God wouldn't let into heaven.'
'I–I'd better get going. I have a group session after lunch.'
Bondurant fumbled in his pocket and came two steps nearer. He brought out a key. 'Don't you want to look?'
He lost his footing, and Starlene thought for a moment he was going to tumble down the steps. But he grabbed the handrail and regained what he could of his balance. The smell of whiskey filled the cramped alcove beneath the landing. Wendover's director was as drunk as a lord.
'Mr. Bondurant, you look like you're under the weather. I think you ought to go lie down.'
'I'm afraid I'll go to sleep if I do that.' He was nearly all the way down the stairs now, and Starlene considered bolting past him. She'd never quite trusted him, even though he knew some Bible verses and professed faith in Jesus. But this man could crush her career with one negative reference. Though he looked out-of-his-mind insane- purple welts under his eyes, hair oily and mussed hands trembling-he still carried a lot of influence with the state's behavioral health care system.
'And, please, call me Francis,' he said, mushing his sibilants. He'd dropped his careful manner of speech. She moved aside as he tried unsuccessfully to slide his key in the lock. 'Damned red tape.'
He gave her a bloodshot look, and his gaze crawled down her body like a spilled basket of snakes. 'It's bad enough to get regulated by the state. Now the federal government says 'Do this and mat.' And all this talk about children's rights, like we 're the bad guys.'
