CHAPTER XIII
The friends looked at one another in silence. Each is still processing the previous events recounted to them by Eleven.
"You don't by any chance have Eddie's boxes, do you," asked Dustin. He broke the silence.
"In the back," answered Nancy. She tossed him the keys. "Why?"
He caught the keys and hurried to the back of the station wagon. "Using D&D as a reference for everything has steered us wrong yet. In fact, it always seems to help us."
"I only took out what was needed for the game," Robin included as Dustin climbed int to the back, pulling a box towards him as he sat down. He began looking through a book covered in posted notes.
Lucas, his focus on Dustin and the car, shouted. "What are you looking for, Dustin?"
Dustin shoved the box back in its previous location. He sat on the edge of the opened hatchback. Flicking quickly through the book. "Eddie's notes on Vecna."
With hands in his jacket pockets, Mike looked at the oil-stained asphalt and then up at Eleven. "This could mean anything. What it's Vecna playing with your head. It's what he does. You said you were connected El," he rushed out his words. He glanced at Will—Lucas, anyone to back up his suggestion. No one said anything.
Eleven looked at Mike. Will rubbed at his elbow. He avoided eye contact with Mike and Eleven. He knew this look from California. "Henry, his name is Henry."
"Mike…," Jonathan softly began to warn.
He bit his lip, removed a hand from a pocket, and ran it through his hair. "I'm not wrong. You know I'm not wrong," his voice cracked.
Nancy grabbed her brother's arm, shifting him slightly, giving him and Eleven a more comprehensive birth. "Mike, not now."
Mike pulled his arm from his sister. He looked at Nancy, briefly apologizing with his eyes. Mike constantly forgot how much larger he was than Nancy now. He looked back at the group and began to throw in again when.
"BOOM!"
Dustin rushed over to the group. Book open hand on section noted by a yellow posted note. "Back when we finished the Vecna Campaign … So intense …" He saw the faces of his friends shift. He held up a hand. "Sorry, sorry. When we left the school, Eddie started talking to me about how much he underestimated Lady Applejack. He had this whole thing planned out where Vecna would unleash this crazy spell, but then Lady Applejack had to go and Crit Roll." Dustin noticed he was losing his audience. "Soul Cage. Eddie wanted to use this spell called Soul Cage."
Nancy gripped at her elbow to keep from wringing at her fingers. "Read it then, the whole thing."
"You, sure, it's a lot," asked Dustin.
Steve stepped close to Nancy. "You heard her, man. Share with the class." The two friends instinctively began to protect the older Wheeler, with Robin slightly at Nancy's front.
Dustin cleared his throat as he watched his friends. Everyone's deminer was different. Nancy's the most concerning. "Soul Cage, it snatches the soul of a humanoid as it dies… fuck Nance…."
Nancy's feet began to fidget left-right-left. "Just read the whole thing, please."
He nodded and continued, "and traps it inside a tiny cage. A stolen soul remains inside the cage until the spell ends or until you destroy the cage, which ends the spell." He watches the others, his focus still on Nancy. Steve is practically touching Nancy's back. Nancy's hand gripping Robin's bicep. "While the soul is in the cage, it can be exploited up to six times. Once it's hit its sixth time, the soul gets released, and the spell ends. While a soul is trapped, the dead humanoid it came from can't be revived."
Nancy straightened herself. "Well, there you go. You said six times?" Dustin watched Nancy bewildered, a bit scared. "He forced me to see Barb, his lair. Vecna flaunted. Everything he did to his family. I saw the lab before he became," She looked at Eleven but continued, anyway, "Vecna. Then he showed me Hawkins on fire. And my mom, Holly, and Mike." Her grip on Robin tightened Robin's hand, curling over hers for comfort. "See, six times if I was in a Soul Cage. Vecna let me out. The spell was finished. Now we focus on Max. Please."
"You said if the Soul Cage gets destroyed, then the soul returns to the body it came from," asked Lucas. His attempt to shift the focus back to Max. "So, we find this cage, and we destroy it."
"It can't be that simple, Lucas, nothing you guys have done since last summer has ever been that simple," stated Erica, the only one to put Lucas back into reality.
"We find a way into the lab. Steve, just go ahead and get that job interview or whatever. Then we get what we need, go down in there, and get Max back," Mike spoke, attempting to take point.
"We were 'smart' before, and look what happened. Max is in the hospital. Eddie is dead. Six months ago, Steve was almost beaten to death. He and I were drugged by Russians, of all people. We got stuck in an elevator." Robin looked at the perplexed faces of Dustin, Will, Mike, and Lucas. "A thirty-foot flesh monster made from our classmates and neighbors chased us. If we do this, if we go back in there. We have to be smarter this time." She paused. "We have to be smarter."
Mike scrunched his face in frustration. "Okay, fine. What do you suggest, then? What can we do that's smarter than looking into the lab and down there."
"Dude," both Steve and Argyle said. "Slow down," finished Steve. "Let her get her idea out, man."
"It's ludicrous, as ideas go, completely nuts." Robin focused on Mike again. "As plans go, it's at least a G at best, maybe an M or an O," She removed Nancy's hand from her arm and began walking towards the parking lot entrance. Still facing her friends. "But, it's still better than waltzing into a government lab with guards with government issues weapons."
"Where are you going, Rob," asked Steve.
"I need to stop by my house," Robin answered, still walking.
"Then let me drive you. We can all go," added Nancy.
"It's no problem. My house like two streets that way and eight blocks down." Robin pointed in the direction of some residential streets. "Like a ten-fifteen-minute walk. No big deal."
Steve grabbed both her arms and began pulling her back to the group toward the Station Wagon. Everyone filed into their respective cars. Mike chose to go with Jonathan, Argyle, and Eleven.
The inside of the Buckley home is like any other home. Mundane boring the perfect staged small family home, that is, until Robin opens the door. She tossed her keys onto a side table, immediately breaking the staged illusion. In and out is Robin's goal. The less time spent inside her home, the better. Robin, like her mother, believed someone might be watching her house.
"This should only take a few minutes," she says.
The rest of the friends all file into the home. Steve, the last one in the, shuts the door. He watched Robin pull a long gold chain around her neck, revealing a key. Nancy noticed his face. It was in deep thought. The group of teenagers watched as Robin walked over to a hutch chest. She pulled the iron handle revealing a lock for a key.
A latch is heard unlinking from inside the chest with a quick turn. Robin opened the lid and lifted out a bulky phone.
"Is that a SATphone? Your mom has a satellite phone," spoke Dustin excitedly. He rushed over to Robin to see the phone's make and model.
Robin shut the lid and then set the phone on top of it. She pulled the key from the lock. "Be careful with that," rushed Robin. Her attention was now on the large bookshelf spread across the wall connected to the hallway. "It's not going to register a dial tone."
The group watched as Dustin hit the number pad. None of the number combinations he was hitting ever created a ring. Not even 9-1-1.
Steve dropped onto the couch. "Is this what Déjà vu feels like?"
"What," said Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike.
Steve watched Robin walk the length of the bookshelf. She was debating something. "Is this what Déjà vu is supposed to feel like?"
"Depends, what you do mean, exactly," asked Dustin. Everyone's attention is on Steve.
"Well, I'm pretty sure I watched someone do exactly what she just did. Only it was her mom. And Robin and I were supposed to be asleep on this couch. I was like this." Steve laid down his head at the left end of the couch. His feet never left the floor. "Robin was on the other side. I think her mom thought we were asleep."
"When was this, Steve? You're speaking out of your ass right now," said Lucas.
Erica was more interested in Robin's behavior.
Steve sat up. "I don't know, like a few hours after Robin and I were released from the hospital the same night of the Mind Flayer. Remember, we were taken to the hospital. They couldn't give us the proper tests or something." He ran a hand through his hair. "We were released, and instead of calling her house like she said she was, she just left. Said her house was home, and she would walk herself home. I wasn't going to let her do that. It was like one or two in the morning. So we walked ourselves here from the hospital.
Night of the Starcort' fire' sometime between one and two am:
Robin and Steve strolled up the driveway to her home's front door. Both were a bit drowsy adrenaline finally wearing off. Robin's hand is on the front door. She has the spare house key in hand. She is about to turn the lock when the door opens, revealing her mother. Her blonde hair is down, and she is in a simple pair of jeans and a striped button-down shirt. She looks at Robin, and Steve, radiating from her eyes. Her look soon turned into worry as she took in the state of the two teenagers.
"Where have you been? You know the rule. You need to call me after midnight."
Robin's eyes protrude in shock. What she wanted to do with Dustin's antenna was call her mom. "Sorry, it's been really hectic. We were at the mall."
"Robin!" Steve held his finger to his lips dramatically. He paused. "Shouldn't this crap be out of my body now?"
Robin looked over at him, a smile on her face. "I know! I was just thinking the same thing!"
She motioned for the teens to come inside the house. They did, and she shut the door. "Come here." She motioned to Robin. "Head up, let me see." She took hold of Robin's chin. She was not ruff as she looked over her daughter's current state. "Your eyes are dilated." She motioned for Steve to do the same and looked him over. "Yours too."
"They said it would be gone by now," Robin almost wined. "What good doctors they are." She shuffled herself to the couch and fell onto it. Steve did the same.
Robin's mother pulled the armchair from its designated spot. She sat face-to-face with the teens. "Look at me." They looked at her. "I want you to tell me everything that has happened since this evening, and don't lie. If you lie to me, I will know."
As if a light switch suddenly flipped on, Robin and Steve began regaling Robin's mother with everything that transpired with them in the last eight hours. "And, that's when Robin," interjected Steven, "had the genius idea to include Sinclaire's little sister in what the three of us were planning!" Steve dozed forward a bit. "It wasn't genius," added Robin. "She just happened to be small enough to fit in the vents."
"The vents at the mall that lead down into a secret Russian base here in Hawkins," asked Robin's mother, a bit perplexed.
"I know, so crazy, right," Robin agreed with her mother. "But, the Russians ended up the two of us," continued Steve. He waved a hand between him and Robin. "And, they hit me. They hit me a lot." He again waved his hand but over his face. "How am I going to get a date for next weekend now…" he trailed. Robin glowered at him. "But, they put the two of us together, tied them to separate chairs, and injected us with stuff. And, boom, heh, Dustin always says, boom, I totally get it now."
Robin's mother watched the two. "I take that back. I don't need to know everything, just the important details. How about that."
The teenagers nodded again. "So, then we were down in the food court totally convinced we were goners… then wham!" Robin flew her hand to the side, pushing it into Steve's face. His body fell to the side, his head contacting the sofa cushion.
He smiled. "Heh… soft."
Robin looked at Steve but made deep eye contact with her mother in a dramatic swing of her body. "A fourteen-year-old girl made the display car fly through the air, hitting all the Russin hitmen, making them unconscious."
Steve and Robin continued explaining the Mind Flayer in full detail, laughing maniacally at the mention of Dustin's singing. Not once did Robin's mother bat an eye at the word of Eleven's use of telekinesis.
Steve paused with Robin. They looked at each other. Hands-on their mouths. "Fuck, all of this is supposed to be a secret." They both laughed hysterically.
Robin's motioned over to her. She looked into her dilated pupils again. "You said you were injected, or did the Russians have you take something orally." She was running two fingers down each side of her neck. "It's important."
"They stuck a needle gun in us," Robin answered.
Steve observed Robin's mother, "Yeah, it was like neon blue or something."
"Neon blue?" She stopped her fingers she pulled Robin's neck closer to her. "It wasn't in your external jugular." She touches Robin's neck. "but this right here," she feels a small dot.
Robin jumps from a random sharp pain.
"This is your brachial plexus. The first bundle of nerves that jut out from your spinal cord." She leaned over with her other hand touching the same area of Steve's neck. He jumps slightly from the sudden pain. "Well, it's obvious you were dossed with some type of 'truth serum.' Of course, I need to see the bottle to know which one, but you two should be fine." She rose from the chair. "I'll be right back." She walked off into the hallway in the direction of her bedroom.
Steve looked at Robin. "How does your mom know all that stuff? I thought she worked at the Middle School. Is she like a scientist or something?"
Robin looked at Steve. Like before, she was suddenly compelled to reveal more secrets in the theater bathroom. "She worked for the military…."
"Oh shoot… Robin, that's not good. I just said all that to someone who works for the military."
"No, she used to work for the military. Then when she was discharged, she was recruited by the CIA, and then the group called D.V.A.S recruited her." Rubin suddenly slapped a hand over her mouth. "Shit, I just keep telling you all the secrets."
Robin's mother walked back into the room. She was holding two glasses of water and what looked like a bottle of eye drops. She sat down in the chair once again. "I heard, and no, I won't do anything. It sounds like Steve here. The same Steve you told me about, I'm guessing, is rather good at keeping secrets to himself. So, for now, there's nothing to worry about."
Robin let out a sigh of relief, as did Steve. Her mother took hold of her knees. "Eyes open. Look at the ceiling." Robin did as asked, and her mother placed two drops into each eye.
Robin's mother motioned to Steve and did the same for him.
"The water has a sleeping agent. It should help with other side effects until the drug leaves your system.
The teenagers nod, and both sit back against the couch. Steve suddenly sat forward, and he looked at Robin's mom. "How did you know we were…."
"Well, you said you were drugged and also included Russians. So, I put two and two together, but you responded early to the trigger words, which also helped." She rose from the chair again. "During the whole glass." She walked off into the kitchen.
Robin and Steve lay atop the sofa an hour later with separate blankets wrapped around them. Steve dosed in and out of consciousness. His vision was blurry, but he could make out Robin's mother as she walked over to a hutched chest. She had a key in hand and attached to it a gold chain. She lifted the lid and removed a bulky satellite phone from the inside.
Robin's mother pushed a series of numbers into the satellite phone. It began to ring. "This is B. I need you to route me over to Sam Owens right now. We need to talk."
"She drove Robin and me back to my car at the mall parking lot and hotwired the thing in five minutes. It was super hot," finished Steve.
"Is that really necessary," said Robin from her location at the bookshelf.
The boys, Jonathan, Nancy, Erica, and Argyle, looked at Steve, confused by the story he had just recounted. Eleven seemed oddly disinterested.
"That can't be real," states Mike, confusion in his voice. "If that's real, that would mean Robin's mom is a…."
"My mother is not a spy." Robin began running her hands along the books. She pushed into the spine of one located at eye level. The spine clipped open. Revealing another key lock. She put the key attached to the gold chain inside. It unlocked, revealing a small hidden compartment the length of two books. "Not here." She closed the secret compartment and ran her hands along another row of books. Doing what she had previously, with the same result. Repeatedly, with the same result. She looked at the highest shelf. "Of course, she would." Robin looked in the direction of her friends. She ignored Mike, again like she had been since his small rant at the hospital. She walked over to Nancy. "My band bag should be inside my room sitting on my bed, or maybe it's in my desk chair… You know what, I'm not sure, but it's definitely in there." She turned to the kitchen and disappeared. The sound of a door opening.
Nancy looked at the others and shrugged.
Robin's room was not much bigger than her own. It was colorful, something Nancy suspected. Why she had no clue, it just made sense that Robin Buckley's bedroom would be full of color. There were boxes filled with records next to a giant stereo system. Maybe that is why she was working at the mall over the summer. Nancy could only assume duplicates of the records in the boxes, where records and their cases were strategically and affectionately placed along a corkboard-covered wall. Two doors to two separate closets. One wide open revealing an old wooden bookshelf filled with VHS tapes in alphabetical order organized by genre. A television sat on top of her dresser. In the corner was her trumpet case, and next to it a guitar, surrounding the instruments with black sheet music and pages covered in pencil with handwritten notes.
Sitting in the first place, Robin thought. Her band duffle bag. Green with yellow straps. Nancy took hold of it, revealing an acceptance letter for September of 1986 to Juilliard.
Robin stood on a tall stool. She unlocked the last secret compartment, the fifth compartment, in the bookshelf. "Yes!" The sound of paper at metal sliding across wood could be heard. She jumped from the stool.
"All of that for…," asked Erica, the appropriate amount of skepticism.
Nancy walked back into the main living space. Green Hawkins High bag in hand. She watched as Robin made her way back to the hutched chest. She took hold of the phone. Finger to her lips, she began to dial the number on the discarded sheet of paper.
"Code," said a voice from the receiver. It was not loud but still easy to hear.
"RBBKB1968," spoke Robin.
There was a second of silence. A hushed set of voices and a noticeably clear, elegant voice could be heard. "I will speak to her. I spoke to her mother earlier in the day."
Robin held tight to the phone with both hands.
"This is Sofie Fatale, Robin. Why are you calling this number? Your mother isn't compromised, is she?"
Robin hesitated. Nancy could see the worry cross her face, then just quickly disappear. "Not that I'm aware of. She told me to use the number if I thought it was necessary." She looked at everyone, her focus on Eleven. "I think it would be better—easier if everyone knew everything."
Again silence.
"Your mother did mention she gave you access to the number. So, I trust she trusts your judgment. Alright, Robin. What do you need," asked the voice over the phone?
Robin thought for a moment. "Um… I need the code to the safe." She was looking at a photo of a Japanese forest. "And she said to ask for a… bag option B."
"Bag option B. Might I make a suggestion? Wait until the morning to deliver the information to Jim Hopper. I can have someone deliver what was compiled during the asset's stay in California with the Byers family," spoke the voice.
Robin lingered again. "Yes, sure, I'll do that. I can wait to ensure Jim Hooper has all the necessary information."
"Here is the code: XXXXXXX. Robin, your mother, informed me you received your letter from your first choice of schools. That must be exciting. I will contact your mother and let her know that you used the code. If anything else is needed, I'm sure the two of you have a set way of communication," finished the voice.
"We do, and thank you." Robin shut off the phone, lifted the lid, and placed the phone back inside. She shut it and locked it up. Robin moved to the black-and-white photo of a Japanese forest. She removed it from the wall revealing a small safe. Robin began putting in the number a lock clicked. She put the other key she pulled from the hidden compartment and unlocked the second lock.
Nancy took that cue and walked over, holding open the small green duffle bag. Robin began removing the safe's contents. Two very thick manila envelopes. Each had 'For Jim Hopper's eyes only' written in thick magic marker on top were a few discarded Hawkins Lab files. A dusty Ziplock bag filled with fifteen-millimeter tapes with dates and times written on them and a VHS tape labeled Hawkins' Lab Security November 5th. She zipped the bag wrapping the straps around her arm.
"Just like that," asked Steve. The others did not know what to say.
"Just like that. I figured I'd just do the bag. It's really what I wanted. Mom mentioned a few weeks back that she had something she needed to give Hopper, but I don't think she's his biggest fan. So, she's kept it to herself. She didn't tell me what it was until the night she dropped me off at your house." She motioned to Nancy.
Mike let out a disgruntled noise. "How is everyone acting okay with this? Do you not remember what happened at the lab with Owens? You heard Steve. Your mom works for the enemy!"
"Enough!" Eleven stepped between Mike and Robin. "How many times, how many times do I have to say it? Robin's Mama is not the enemy. Sam Owens is not the enemy! Just because you think it's true does make it so!
"But, El, I'm just… I'm just trying to look out for you," griped Mike.
Lucas was the one who realized. "Robin's mom. She's the one who actually brought you back home, wasn't she? Max told me she told me you told her you hadn't told us the whole truth about how you got home."
Eleven nodded. "Beatrix is good. Beatrix has always helped me, never hurt me. She has never taken advantage of me. Not like Henry."
Her mention of Vecna made it clear to the others that this argument was over.
"You know. I think, maybe, we should call it a night." It was Jonathan. "A lot has happened in a tiny amount of time."
"I agree," said Nancy.
Mike shuffled his feet. "Of course, you agree…." Nancy eyed him, not now.
"We can pick this up once Robin has given Hopper what she needs to give. And we get whatever she asked those people for," continued Nancy. "Until then, I think it best we all just take some time and regroup, yeah?"
Everyone nodded their agreement. As the friends exited the house returning to their respective cars. Will and Eleven join Jonathan and Argyle this time. Robin kept her bag close. She was not looking forward to who she thought would be on her way to give Hopper the rest of the information needed. She had not seen O-Ren since she was around seven years old.