Page 6 (1/2)

And so his head regretfully and looked thoughtful At last he shifted his jaw, drew a deep breath, and nodded

"All right, I’ive her a chance," he said "I’d like to see a little ns of rement, Joyce And we could certainly use another reive Kaitlyn a benevolent s to dinner I want a ith Gabriel"

It’s over, Kaitlyn realized They’re not going to killto return to its nors as she followed Lydia

But it slowed her down, and before she could get out of the front lab she heard Mr Z speak to Joyce again

"Give her a chance, but watch her And have Laurie Frost watch her, too She’s intuitive; she’ll pick up on anything subversive And if she finds soh from Joyce "Emmanuelyou knohat I think about your ’final solution’-"

"We’ll send her out on a job soon That ought to prove so?" Lydia called from the kitchen

Kait went through the door, but dawdled on the other side Mr Z was speaking again

"Gabriel, I’m afraid you’ve been careless"

Gabriel’s voice was restrained but defiant "About the shard? You haven’t heard"

"Not about that," Mr Zetes said in his unhurried way "Joyce explained that to me But there was a ns of so inquiries"

"Oh"

"Very careless of you to do that in our own neighborhood-and the ht talk" Mr Z’s voice dropped to an icy whisper "Next ti when Gabriel caive hied No probleers, fare that never would have been allowed in the old days The psychics eyed Kaitlyn fro table, but didn’t saytheir time

"So where was everybody this afternoon?" she asked Lydia, trying for nor lessons," Lydia said in subdued tones-she never seemed to talk loudly around the other students

"I was asleep," Gabriel said lazily

No one else answered, including Joyce, who returned to the kitchen Kaitlyn dropped the subject and ate fries It was interesting, though-the ones who’d been out were also the ones ould have been involved in testing Could they have been in San Francisco? In Mr Z’s house-with the crystal?

She made a mental note to follow up on the question

What Joyce said next ht have been coincidence

"So you’ve seen the isolation tank"

Kaitlyn almost inhaled a fry "Yes Have-has anybody really been in that thing?"

"Sure, it’s cool," Bri said She shut her eyes and leaned her head back "Cosmic, man! Groooovy" Her expression of ecstasy was marred by the fact that her open er

"Shut your face, you slut!" Frost snapped, flicking a pickle chip at her

"Who’s a slut, you bi "Jihed: Frost shrilly, Bri gruffly

Jackal Mac glared "Quit with the freakin’ noise," he said brutally "You makewith fervent single-ht eat

"I like to see girls have a good tiesturing with a french fry "Don’t you, Mac?"

"Youfun of me, man?"

Kaitlyn blinked It was a non sequitur; she didn’t follow Mac’s logic But it didn’t take logic to read the sudden fury in his slitted eyes

He stood up, towering over the table, leaning across to stare at Renny "I said, you makin’ fun of er in the face

Kaitlyn gaped The ha with ketchup and Thousand Island dressing Renny had thoughtfully reot the full benefit of the condihter "What a pitch, what a pitch! Pitch, snitch!"

"Think that’s funny?" Jackal Mac seized her by the hair and slarind it around and around The giggles turned to screa nails into a bowl of coleslaw and came out with a juicy handful She threw it at Mac, but it scattered over the table, hitting Renny, too

Renny seized a bottle of Clearly Canadian water- the fizzy kind

"Tiht Kaitlyn by the arm

above the elbow and neatly lifted her from the chair out of the way of a burst of carbonated water Lydia was already scuttling out of the rooasped Mac was still grinding Bri’s face into the plate

"So?" Gabriel piloted her toward the kitchen

"No, Ito kill her"

"I said, so?’"

There was the sound of shattering glass and Kaitlyn looked back Jackal Mac had stopped grinding Bri’s face; Renny was now slashing at him with a broken Clearly Canadian bottle

"Oh,dishes

"Joyce, they’re-"

"It happens every night," Joyce said shortly "Leave it alone"

"Every night?"

Gabriel stretched, looking bored Then he so up to my balcony," he said to Kaitlyn "I need some air"

"No, I-I want to help Joyce with the dishes" There was no point in trying to deceive hi, so she added, I want to talk to her a minute I didn’t have time earlier

"Suit yourself" Gabriel’s voice was unexpectedly cold; his expression was stony "I’ll be busy later" He left

Kaitlyn didn’t understand why he was angry, but there was nothing to do about it She was a spy, she had infor up a dish, she said abruptly, "Joyce, why do you put up with it?"

"With Gabriel? I don’t knohy do you?"

"With the rooritted her teeth and scrubbed viciously at a greasy pan with a soap pad "Because I have to"

"No really Everything’s so crazy now-and it see you believe in" Kaitlyn was getting incoherent- her She had the feeling that she should shut up, but instead she blundered on "I mean, you sees, and I just don’t understand-"

"You want to knohy? I’ll show you!" With a soapy hand, Joyce seized so that had been on the counter, underneath the Chinese take-out containers

It was ato be in this! The lead article And not just this" Joyce’s face was contorted, it reminded Kaitlyn of the way she’d looked when she’d held Gabriel’s bleeding forehead against the crystal, trying to kill him Overcome by maniacal passion

"Not just this, but in Nature, Science, The Aland Journal of Medicine," Joyce raved "Multidisciplinary journals, the ious journals in the world My name and ht She was al wo Awards Grants A full professorship at the school of my choice And, incidentally, a little trinket called the Nobel Prize"

Kait thought at first that she was joking But there was no hulazed aquamarine eyes Joyce looked as insane as any of the psycho psychics

Could he have hit her with the crystal, too? Kaitlyn wondered dazedly Or could it be so around it, like secondhand smoke?

But she knew that no nify the desire, it was Joyce’s desire in the first place Kaitlyn had finally discovered what made Joyce run; she had just seen into the woman’s soul

"That’s why I put up with it, and why I’ So that the cause of science can be advanced And so I can get what I’rabbed it, Joyce dropped thein front of Kaitlyn’s eyes She turned back to the sink

"Nohy don’t you take a walk," she said in a voice suddenly gone dull "I can wash the dishes by myself"

Nu rooh the front lab and up the stairs

Gabriel’s door was locked Well, she should have expected that, really She’d ed to offend two of the three people who’d chaht as well try for a perfect score, she thought philosophically, and headed for the room she was to share with Lydia

But Lydia proved to be impossible to offend or talk to at all She was in bed with the covers pulled over her head Whether she was sulking or simply scared, Kaitlyn didn’t know She wouldn’t co, very dull evening Kait listened to the other psychics stagger up to their various rooms, then a TV blared from one room, a stereo from the other It spoiled Kaitlyn’s concentration for the one thing that

And this room depressed her All her possessions had disappeared from it-throhen the new students ca in a corner Like a piece of garbage Kait didn’t dare hang it up where it belonged

Finally, she decided to take a bath and follow Lydia’s exa soak, curled up in bed-and then there was nothing to do but think

Scenes froh her mind The face of the red-haired ht Mr Z’s silhouette