"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Ninety-Nine: Espionage 101
(The Case Of The Missing Lifeguard)
***
Rowan's fingernails tapped erratically against the surface of her desk, eyes periodically going to the clock ticking away on the wall. Around her, patients hummed or silently did tasks while listening to music, Beethoven playing softly from a record player. Rowan worried her lip as she again looked at the clock, silently willing the minute hand to go faster.
After translating some of the code and the realisation that it had been broadcasted from here, Rowan could barely sleep. She could barely even do what she was supposed to do at Pennhurst, her body itching to return back to Starcourt and help translate the rest of the code and crack it. At the same time, a sense of dread churned in her at how the Russian code had come from here, from Hawkins. And given the truths lurking underneath Hawkins' small-town averageness, Rowan was worried about what that code could mean regarding those truths. She knew it wasn't possible—the gate was closed thanks to El, and Rowan hadn't felt a whisper of the Upside Down's frequency nor dream-walked into it for months—but a knot of dread still sat coiled inside her; it didn't help that given her secrets, the Russian code could mean it was about her family or at least a family like hers, the words Dr. Owens had said years ago about how the Soviets could use families like hers and the Cheongs as weapons, or even if it was about kids like El, kids experimented on and used as weapons due to their powers. That thought did wonders for her getting a full night's of sleep.
They needed to get that code translated and cracked as soon as possible. Rowan needed to know it didn't have anything to do with the Upside Down and its monsters or about people like her or El, that it was unrelated to something different, something with no supernatural ties.
The clock ticked, seconds dragging on, almost taunting her. Rowan glared at it.
Come on, come on, just fucking tick over already, she silently willed.
Almost as if it heard her silent command, the clock finally ticked over to eleven.
Rowan tried to hold in her relief as she stood up, smiling and wishing goodbyes to the nurses and patients alike before she speed-walked to the doors, where her aunt was waiting and after a quick change she could head to Starcourt and finally help everyone with this goddamned Russian code—
"Miss. Graveswood. A word, please?"
Rowan halted in her tracks, staring at Dr. Hatch.
"Uh, yeah. Sure," Rowan managed to say in a, thankfully, calm voice. The man nodded, and he began walking down the same way she was. Rowan followed, trying her best to hide her nerves—did she do something wrong? Did Hatch finally find a bullshit excuse to fire her? Was that college dream once more a pipe dream again?
