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I could tell that Meed liked that even better.
CHAPTER 39
THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up with a strange voice in my head. Female. Chirpy. A bit nasal.
As I came out of my sleep fog, I realized that I had headphones over my ears. I didn’t remember putting them on. What I was hearing was a series of repeated phrases about Chinese etiquette. When I blinked my eyes open, Meed was standing over me. She lifted the earphones away from my ears and asked me a question. In Mandarin. Without thinking, I gave her the answer. Also in Mandarin. My voice was doing things I didn’t know it could do, making sounds I didn’t know it could make.
I’d never studied Mandarin in my life, partly because everybody said it was the hardest language on earth to learn. But now, somehow, I could not only understand it, butspeakit. How was that possible? I’d always been a quick learner, but now my brain was doing things that seemed way beyond reality. Freakish. I was absorbing information as I never had before, sometimes without even knowing it.
I pulled the headphones off. They were connected to an old-school disc player lying on my blanket. It looked like something Radio Shack might have sold thirty years ago.
“What the hell is this?” I asked. “What am I listening to?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything,” said Meed. “Some things I can teach you. Other things you need to learn for yourself, just like I did.” She held up a pile of worn discs with handwritten labels. “You can absorb a lot during the REM stage. Why waste it?”
I tossed the headphones onto the blanket. I rubbed my eyes and swung my legs out from under the covers. This was crazy. Now she was even invading my dreams.
“Whatelsehave I learned in my sleep?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” said Meed.
I reached for my workout clothes at the end of the bed. “Don’t bother with those,” she said. “Just leave your shorts on.”
“What? Why?” I asked. Wake. Health shake. Workout. That was the morning routine. I hated it, but I’d gotten used to it. I got nervous whenever she broke the pattern.
“Follow me,” she said.
I pushed the blanket aside and put my feet on the floor. I got a tingle in my belly and I started to sweat. Meed opened my cell door.
“You know I hate surprises,” I said.
“You really need to be more flexible,” she replied.
She led the way through the kitchen, past the utility closet, and around a corner to a door that led to a back staircase. At least that’s what I always assumed. The door had a heavy-duty alarm bar across the center. A small window with wire mesh showed a dim hallway on the other side. But when Meed disarmed the alarm and pushed the door open, I realized that the view of the hallway went along for the ride. It was simply an image set into the window frame. A trompe l’oeil. An illusion. What was behind the door wasn’t a hallway at all.
It was a gigantic swimming pool.
CHAPTER 40
“YOU HAVEGOTto be shitting me,” I mumbled. The door closed behind us. We were standing in a sealed room with no windows. Just white brick walls and a narrow tile ledge around the edge of the pool. It was competition length, with three lanes. The bottom and sides were painted deep blue. A huge TV screen hung from a metal beam across the ceiling. I could hear the patter from a morning news team echoing off the walls.
As I took it all in, my stomach churned. It wasn’t just the scent of the chlorine. It was pure, primal fear. Taking a dip in an ice bath was bad enough, but this was something else. I was absolutely terrified of pools. And lakes. And oceans. Because I’d never learned how to swim. While other kids were at summer camp, I was digging up artifacts in New Mexico. I didn’t know what Meed had in mind, but it was going to take a shock wand to get me into that water.
“Have a seat,” she said. She pointed to a narrow wood bench along the wall. Underneath was a plastic bin.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. I was trying not to sound scared, but my voice was pinched and thin. The air in the room was warm and thick, almost tropical. But now I was shivering all over.
“We’re testing your resolve,” said Meed. “Among other things.”
When we reached the bench, she pushed me down by the shoulders. Then she reached under and lifted the lid on the bin. I felt something being wrapped around my ankles. When I looked down, my feet were strapped together with thick nylon straps connected to lead weights.
“No!” I shouted. “Don’t do this! I’llsink!”
Meed looked me right in the eyes. “That’s correct,” she said. “What happens after that depends on you.”
My head was spinning. My mouth went dry. I pressed my back up against the tile, as if I thought I could push myself through it.
“Up we go, Doctor,” said Meed, tugging on my wrists. When she pulled me to my feet, I was hobbled and off balance. She nudged me toward the pool. I tried to pull back.
