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The complex was enors; the walls were peppered with narrow slits in the white ce rose up aion, mixed with the moisture fros--cracks spiderwebbed the exteriors of the complex--but they looked like structures that would exist there forever, unyielding to whatever man or weather threw at it It called tofrom storybooks--some sort of haunted asylu to prevent the world fro, narrow road led away fro into the forest
Thomas set out across the rock-strewn section of earth An al he could hear besides the thu was the sound of distant waves breaking on the bottom of the cliff, and even that was faint He was certain that the people at WICKED had spotted hiht
A scuttling sound, like clicks of ht As if suht of security, a beetle blade stood perched on a boulder, its red eye glea in Thomas’s direction
He remembered how it had felt the first time he’d seen one of them inside the Glade, just before it scurried away and into the so
He waved at the beetle blade, and then he kept walking In ten , for the first time, to be let in Not out
He made his way down the last section of the slope and stepped onto an icy sidewalk that encircled the carounds a little prettier than the barren land around it, but the bushes and flowers and trees had long succuray dirt he could see a the paved lane, wondering why no one had couessing that Thomas had finally come over to their side
Twothe snow-covered weeds of the flower beds, scanning left and right with their red bea Thomas looked up at the closest set of s but saw only darkness--the glass was heavily tinted A ru fro in, its clouds dark and heavy, but it was still a few zagged across the grayness, and it took hi that had met them as they approached the city He could only hope the weather wasn’t so bad this far north
He resu the sidewalk and slowed as he approached the front entrance A large set of glass doors awaited hie of memory pounded inside his skull The escape fro out these doors into the pouring rain He looked to his right into a s lot, where an old bus squatted next to a row of cars It had to be the same one that had run over that poor Flare-infested woman, then whisked them away to those dorms, where their minds were played with and a Flat Trans eventually took theh, he stood at WICKED’s threshold, there by his own choice He reached out and knocked on the cold, dark glass in front of hi on the other side
Aled, one after the other; then one of the doors swung out Janson--who’d always be the Rat Man to Thomas--extended a hand
"Welcome back, Tho all along that you’d return I’et on with it," Thomas said He’d do this--he’d play the part--but he didn’t have to be nice about it
"Sounds like an excellent idea" Janson stepped back and bowed slightly "After you"
With a chill along his spine to match the frosty weather outside, Thomas walked past the Rat Man and entered WICKED’s headquarters
CHAPTER 58
Thomas stepped into a wide lobby with a few couches and chairs, fronted by a large, empty desk It was different from the ones he’d seen the last tiht, but it did nothing to perk up the dreary feel of the place
"I thought we’d spend a few minutes in my office," Janson said, and pointed down the hallway that branched off to the right off the lobby They started walking that way "We’re terribly sorry about what happened in Denver A shame to lose a city with such potential All the et it done quickly"
"What is it you have to do?" he forced hi in my office Our lead teahed heavily on Thoet it planted as soon as possible and get the clock ticking
"That’s fine," he said, "but I really need to use the bathroom first" It was the siet a minute alone
"There’s one just up ahead," the Rat Man replied
They turned a corner and continued down an even duller corridor that led to the men’s room
"I’ll wait out here," Janson said with a nod toward the door
Tho a word He pulled the device from his backpack and looked around There was a wooden cabinet for storing toiletries above the sink, and the top of it had a lip just tall enough that Thoet in and it would be concealed He flushed the toilet and then turned on the water at the sink He activated the device as he’d been taught, wincing at the slight beep that sounded, then reached up and deposited it on top of the cabinet After shutting off the water, he calmed himself while the hand blower ran its course
Then he stepped back into the hallway
"All finished?" Janson asked, annoyingly polite
"All finished," Tho a few crookedly hung portraits of Chancellor Paige just like the ones on the posters in Denver
"A to meet the chancellor?" Thoe is very busy," Jansen answered "You have to re the cure are only the beginning We’re still organizing the logistics of getting it out to thehard at it as we speak"
"What lanced at him, flashed his rodentlike smile "I know, Tho And I proet the credit you deserve"
For soht of Newt just then "I don’t want any credit"