And despite his surly looks, he was—thoughtful. Generous. One minute after they were in the house he rubbed his chin, cast a sideways glance at Lewis, and muttered, "You been on the road, huh? You guys hungry? I was going to eat breakfast."
A lie, Kaitlyn thought. He must have seen how Lewis was sniffing at a lingering aroma of eggs and bacon. She warmed to him immediately.
"There's a lot of stuff people brought over when Marisol got sick," he said, leading them into the kitchen. From the refrigerator he pulled out a giant baking dish full of what looked like corn husks and a smaller one full of noodles. "Tamales," he said hefting the big one. He put down the small one. "And chow mein."
Fifteen minutes later they were all seated around the big kitchen table, and Kait was finishing up the story of their flight from the Institute. She told how Joyce had recruited them, how they'd come to California, how Marisol had warned them that things at the Institute weren't what they seemed, and how Mr. Zetes had finally revealed himself last night.
"He's completely evil," she said finally and looked at Tony uncertainly. But again he seemed unsurprised, merely grunting. Rob had his pile of folders and papers ready as proof, but it didn't seem necessary.
Staring down into a tamale, Kaitlyn asked the others, Now how do we tell him Mr. Zetes put his sister in a coma?
From every one of them—except Gabriel—she felt discomfort. Gabriel was toying with his food, apparently not interested in eating. He sat a little away from the rest of them, as usual, and looked as if he were farther away mentally.
Anna spoke up. "How is Marisol?"
"The same. The doctors say she's always going to be the same."
"We're sorry," Lewis said, wiggling his fork inside a corn husk.
"Did you ever think," Rob said quietly, "that there was anything—strange—about what happened to her?"
Tony looked at him directly. "Everything was strange. Marisol didn't take drugs. I heard some stuff last week about how she was supposed to be on medication—but it wasn't true."
"Joyce Piper told us she was on medication. She told us Marisol was seeing a psychiatrist…" Rob's voice trailed off, because Tony was shaking his head vigorously. "Not true?"
"She saw a shrink once or twice last year, because of the really weird stuff that was going on. That was when she worked at Zetes's house. He had some sick people there—for a study, Marisol said."
"The pilot study? You know about that?" Kaitlyn leaned forward eagerly. "Marisol mentioned it—a study with other psychics like the one Mr. Zetes was doing with us."
Rob was sorting through the folders, pulling out one Kaitlyn had seen before. It was a file jacket with a photo of a brown-haired girl labeled SABRINA JESSICA GALLO, BLACK LIGHTNING PILOT STUDY.
Scrawled across the label in thick red ink was the word TERMINATED.
Tony was nodding. "Bri Gallo. She was one of them. I think they had six all together. They were into some really bizarre crap. Sick. Zetes had this mental domination over them."
He shifted, seemed to consider, then said, "I'll tell you a story. There was a guy who worked with Marisol, another assistant. He didn't like the boss, thought Zetes was crazy. He used to fight, you know? Talk back. Show up late. And finally he decided he was going to talk to a newspaper about what was going on at that house. He told Marisol that one night. She said the next morning when she saw him, he was—different. He didn't talk back anymore, and he sure didn't talk about any newspapers. He just did his work like he was sleepwalking. Like somebody enbrujado—under a spell."
"A spell?" Kait wondered. "Or drugs?"
"Stranger than drugs. He kept on working there, and he kept on getting paler and sleepier. Marisol said he had this blank look, like he was there but his soul wasn't." Tony glanced toward the hallway where a large candle burned in a niche beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary. Simply and unemotionally he said, "I think Boss Zetes works black magic."
Kaitlyn glanced at Rob, who was listening intently, his eyes amber-brown and grim. He met her gaze and said silently, It's as good a word as any for what he does with that crystal. And maybe Mr. Z does have some mental powers we don't know about.
Aloud, Kaitlyn said, "He used drugs on Marisol. Joyce Piper gave her something—I don't know what, but I saw it in a vision."
At first Tony seemed not to have heard. He said, "I told her to get out. A long time ago. But she was ambitious, you know? She made money, she bought a car, she was going to get her own place. She said she could handle things."
Kaitlyn, who had always been poor, could understand that.
"She did try to get out in the end," Rob said. "Or at least to get us out. And that was why Mr. Z had to stop her."
Tony grabbed a kitchen knife and slammed it into the wooden table.
Kait's heart almost jumped out of her body. Anna froze, her dark owl eyes on Tony's face. Lewis winced, and Rob frowned.
Gabriel, his eyes on the quivering knife handle, smiled.
"Lo siento," Tony muttered. "I'm sorry. But he shouldn't have done that to Marisol."
Almost without thinking, Kaitlyn put her hand on his. Back in Ohio she would have laughed at the idea. She'd hated boys, loud, smelly, interfering boys. But she understood exactly what Tony was feeling.
"Rob wants to stop him—Mr. Zetes," she said. "And we have this idea that if we can get to this certain place, we might get help. There are people there who act like they're against the Institute."
"Can those people help Marisol?"
Kaitlyn had to be honest. "I don't know. But if you want, we'll ask them. I promise."
Tony nodded. He took his hand from under Kaitlyn's and wiped his eye absently.
"We're not even sure who they are," Rob said. "We think they live somewhere up north, and we have an idea of what the location looks like. We figure it may take us a while to find them, and we'll be on the road all that time. The only problem is that we don't know how to get there."
"No," Gabriel broke sarcastically, speaking for the first time since they'd arrived. "That's not the only problem. The other problem is that we're broke. And stranded."
Tony looked at him, then smiled. It was a crooked smile, but genuine, as if he liked Gabriel's directness.