✓ | 3. soldier, soldier, spy [STEVE HARRINGTON]

nine

CHAPTER NINE:
DEJA-VU

[ THE SAUNA TEST ]

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Under the roasting Indiana sun, the pool was, unsurprisingly, bustling; the air was filled with the hoots of shouting, laughter, splashing. Beyond the gate, past the pool, Billy perched under an umbrella on the uplifted life-guard's chair, sucking on a purple slushes in a long-sleeve shirt and a towel over his knees.

"I don't know," Max said, peering through the binoculars Mike had brought from home. "He looks pretty normal to me."

This was the first time Thomas had seen Billy in the flesh since the fainting (well, 'fainting') had started, and he felt odd observing him. There was something stirring in his mind and body, felt in both simultaneously, like the nausea one can feel with deja-vu. Was that what it was? Deja-vu?

And if so, for what?

"How many times have we seen him with the shirt on?" Thomas quipped from the driver's seat. The group of them were in his Chevy, Thomas and El up front, the other four crammed in the back, Two Tribes playing faintly from a cassette. Thomas had his feet up on the dash, all four windows down.

"I mean, that's a little weird," Max allowed.

"More than a little," said Mike, who was sat by the back window and now peered out of it, leaning his forearm out of the open gap. "He was bathing in a tub with ice, and the mind-flayer likes it cold.... Plus everything El saw."

"But he's lounging at the pool, which is like the least mind-flayer thing ever."

"I'm not taking any risks," said Thomas.

"Not necessarily," said Will. "The mind-flayer — it likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like you're dormant, and when it needs you, you're activated."

Like when he fainted, Thomas thought. He knew he'd blanched, and that El was looking at him with that silent, knowing look, but he swallowed and stretched back his hand for the binoculars as he asked, feeling grown-up for being so proactive, "How do we activate him, then?"

Then, out of the blue, Eleven said, "Thomas, you look pale."

But by then Mike had lit up, kicking open the car door abruptly.

"Uhh, Michael!" Thomas started to yell, throwing down his feet from the dash and yanking open his own door, angered — he'd blown their cover!

But then, as Thomas swung his head and one leg out, and as Mike marched off between cars: "I have an idea! Boy's only!"

"Fuck's SAKE!" muttered Thomas, throwing himself back into the car. "Third year in a row taking care of these stupid kids," he muttered to himself, yanking out his keys with a jingle, cutting off Frankie Goes To Hollywood with fifty seconds left of the record. "Give me a break, for God's sake. Girls, stay here. Binoculars are yours." He tossed them back at Max, ignoring the OW! that came from her as she fumbled to catch them. "You two, let's go."