The Typhon Project

Chapter Twenty-One: A Walk With Dr. Rail

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was she seriously trying to force me into a relationship with Dean. A chill rippled over me. Something was very wrong here. "The hell I will."

She eyed me for a long moment. Her eyes fluttered. "I think I've been going about this all wrong. Maybe this is simply the wrong setting for you. Perhaps you'd open up better elsewhere."

She stood and buttoned her blazer. "Leah, let's take a walk."

I gripped the arms of my chair. "I have homework I need to work on."

She dismissively waved her hand. "Ah, it's never bothered you to ignore it before." She lifted her chin and her eyes narrowed. "Now."

Goosebumps rose on my arms. Something in her hardened expression forced me to my feet. She rounded her desk, came alongside me, and threaded her arm through mine. "I have something I want you to see." She grinned. I tried wiggling my arm out of hers, but she held tight.

She escorted out of the office building, through the courtyard, and toward a building I had never been to before. "The hospital? Why are we going to the hospital?"

She smiled. "You'll see." And then she leaned closer and whispered in my ear, "It's a surprise." I shuddered.

We strolled through the hospital entryway and to the elevator. Dr. Rail pressed the up button. I wrinkled my nose at smell of bleach and stale air as I watched the round lights counting down floors.

I tried to pull my arm away again, but she didn't release me. My pulse throbbed in my ears. Why were we here? What could she need to show me at a hospital? My frantic imagination couldn't even find the answer.

The elevator door slid open, and she marched me inside. She pressed the button for the sixth floor. The door closed.

She squeezed my arm tighter. "Last night you were trying to access some information on Tynet. Information about your father and the magnetic field and the coil. What were you looking for?"

"You were tracking me online?"

"It's our network and our computer. We do what we want. What were you looking for?"

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. A wide hall with mint green walls extended in front of us.

My heart pounded so hard against my ribs that I thought it might break through. My gut told me that it was a bad idea to get off the elevator. Dr. Rail stepped forward, but I didn't budge.

She looked at me, her eyes blank, emotionless. "Come along, Leah."

"No," I whispered.

She pressed her free arm against the door to keep it from closing. "Guard."

A figure stepped into view. One of the crocodilian creatures I'd seen at the house stepped into view. I gasped and stumbled backward.

Dr. Rail yanked me forward. "You can come on your own, or he can force you."

I stared at him—even more hideous than the others had been in the darkness at the house. I swallowed hard and stepped forward.

"That's a good girl." She nodded at the creature. "Stand down."

The creature stepped aside.

She walked me down the hall, my shoes squeaking against the shiny industrial tiles. "Leah, someone has been accessing information on the restricted computers—the same information you were searching for on Tynet last night. Do you know anything about that?"

Dean. Dean was on the restricted computers. And he was looking up the same information as I was? "I don't. I was just looking up stuff about my dad. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Nope, nothing at all. But I doubt it's a coincidence that you just happened to be looking up the same information as whoever has been hacking into the restricted computers. And it just so happens you work inside the coil."

"I've never been on the restricted computers. I swear I haven't."

She laughed. "Of course not."

We stopped in front of a set of double doors at the end of the hall. Dr. Rail took a card from her breast pocket and swiped it over a sensor beside the door. A buzz rang out and she thrust the door open. She pushed me through it. A plaque on the wall read, "Psychiatric Ward."