Chapter 39

"And dat's all I know," Alexei said, after running through it again for Gloria in the hospital's conference room.

"It doesn't sound any more believable than it did yesterday," she said. "But nothing else makes any sense."

"Dere is a girl whose gift is finding people with her mind. Joyce is getting her to help us."

"You're saying we're relying on a psychic?"

"Ve don't have a better plan, Gloria." He waited a moment. "How is Darren?"

"He'll live. Beyond that, I don't know. We had to take out part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain."

"I'm so sorry."

"Why are you okay?"

"Vat?"

"Harrington's got multiple broken bones and a concussion, and he would have been killed if he didn't have a seatbelt on. Rosario's recovering, but she would have died if your wife hadn't shown up. My husband was beaten within an inch of his life. Why are you sitting there without a scratch on you?" Her voice was starting to rise.

"I don't know."

They sat in silence for a moment. "There's one more thing," Gloria said. "After they found Darren, Chief Hopper asked me to sit with a sketch artist and tell them about the man Tish saw. They had me go through a directory of city employees, with pictures. For comparisons, you know? That man's hairline, that man's eyebrows, that man's nose. And I found him."

"Vat do you mean?"

"On the public works page. A young man working in the water plant. It was him." She shook her head. "Which could be absolutely meaningless. All we know is he scared her."

"Dat's more dan ve knew before."

"I just hope they're together. Can you imagine if they're alone-" Her voice faltered. Alexei hugged her and tried to think of something comforting, but nothing came.

A nurse knocked on the conference room door. "Excuse me, Dr. Jackson, Chief Hopper and his partner are here for you."

Gloria quickly wiped her eyes. "Send them in."

Hopper and Tanya quickly took a seat. "You need all the help you can get," Tanya said.

"So we've got four missing kids, three parents in the hospital, a creep in public works we're searching for, some shoe prints and tire tracks," Hopper said. "If he's still in Hawkins, we should be able to find this guy. But if he's not the one-"

"He is," Alexei said.

"You don't know that, Smirnoff."

"No, listen. Dese – gifts – come from moms taking drugs vile pregnant, yes? Joyce vasn't high. I don't dink Gloria and Rosario vere either. Maybe Steve's girlfriend." Hopper shrugged – Jessica had been a notorious wild child before she took off. "So how did dis happen?" He grabbed a marker and started drawing on the white board. "Put de drugs in de vater. De moms take a small, steady dose for nine monds. If you vanted to create more special kids-"

"Why would this guy want to do that?" Tanya asked. "You think he's Brenner's deputy?"

"Too young," Hopper said. "He couldn't have been more than fourteen when Brenner disappeared."

"A kid," Alexei said. He looked at Hopper, and he could see the chief got it at the same time.

"One of Brenner's kids, making himself little brothers and sisters," Hopper said.

"You're saying he drugged a whole town, kidnapped four kids and almost killed three parents to get himself a family?" Gloria said incredulously.

"To get himself an army," Tanya said. Everyone looked at her. "My old employer would choose orphanage kids for certain types of work. No older than seven or eight. They had special homes, special schools. Start them young, you can make them into anything. And if there's no one they're attached to, it's that much easier. No one to tell them something's wrong or to make them think twice about anything." She looked away, as if she'd revealed more than she meant to.

"The parents weren't just collateral damage. Killing them was part of the plan," Hopper said. "He's just not very good at it." He looked over at Alexei. "I wouldn't go home, if I were you."

The nurse knocked again. "Chief, there's a lady and a girl looking for you." Hopper motioned Joyce and El in.

Alexei embraced Joyce and shook hands with El. "Dank you so much," he said.

"I need some white noise," she said, and pulled out a blindfold.

00000000

The bad man pulled Lily down a sterile-looking corridor and pushed her through a door like all the others. An awful static buzzed in El's head, and looking at the grimace on the man's face, he heard it too.

"Shut that kid up before I have to do it," he said.

Conner was sitting on the floor, holding his short legs and rocking frantically. As he rocked harder, the static intensified. Lily covered her ears, but it didn't help. She looked around for anything to distract Conner from his panic, and settled on some little metal figures on a shelf with books with funny-looking letters.

"Look Conner, toys!" she said, and began playing out a scene with the figures. Conner gradually stopped rocking and took one of the toys. The static ceased as he calmed down.

00000000

"They're underground," El said, and relayed what she saw.

"I know exactly vere dey are," Alexei said, and drew a map of the underground fortress. He circled a spot. "Dat's my old room."

"Please tell me that's near the elevator," Hopper said.

"As far as you can get from it."

"That's typical."

"So we get some guns and go rescue our kids," Joyce said. She sounded strangely calm – but of course she'd done this before.

"Except dis time de monsters vill be in our heads," Alexei said.

The nurse knocked again. "More people," she said.

Mike, Jonathan, Nancy, Lucas, Dustin, Max, Robin, Will and even his friend Evan walked in. "Thought you all might need some back-up," Mike said. "So, what's the plan?"