Read Fixed for Free Online

didn’t seem interested. “Do you ever have dreams of yourself?” he asked. An odd note had crept into his voice, almost as if he was nervous. “Of seeing yourself from outside, as if you were someone else?”
    “That doesn’t make sense,” Nellie said flatly. Why was Westcott so interested in this? Usually he reeled off a long list of silly disconnected questions, nothing she could fit into any kind of theme. “You can’t see yourself like someone else,” she added, hoping he would get the point and drop the subject.
    “Pretend you can,” said Westcott.
    “What do you mean?” faltered Nellie. “Pretend right now?”
    “Okay,” said Westcott. “Pretend now.”
    Instantly the image of the shorn-headed girl appeared in Nellie’s head. It was just as she’d dreamed — the girl standing beside a boy with thick brown hair and green eyes, the kind most people had, without a hint of a slant. Oddly enough, he was missing a finger on one hand, the wound recently healed. Slightly taller than the girl, he stood close by, listening as she spoke. There was something protective in the boy’s stance, as if he’d appointed himself the girl’s guardian. But there was something protective about the girl too, as if she was secretly watching over the boy. Though Nellie strained, she couldn’t hear what the two were saying. They seemed to be underground, in some kind of tunnel.
    A tiny gasp sounded through the speaker in her right ear. “So, how about it Nellie?” said Westcott, clearing his throat. “Can you see yourself now with all your hair cut off?”
    Fear dug a path deep through Nellie’s brain. “This is stupid,” she said harshly. “You can’t see yourself unless you’re looking in a mirror. Ask me a different question, not such a dumb stupid one.”
    “That’s okay,” Westcott said quickly. “I think we’ll leave it there for today. This will be a short session. Dr. Juba, perhaps you could help Nellie out of the Relaxer?”
    As the chin strap was released and the helmet lifted from her head, Nellie fought off a wave of panic. What was going on? Westcott always counted backward and had her bring in the sailboat with her Advanced thoughts before letting her out of the Relaxer. He always finished with that idiotic sailboat routine. For one thick stunned moment, Nellie sat in the Relaxer and stared at the psychiatrist. Giving her an uneasy smile, he fidgeted with a mole on his chin.
    “Well, how about it Nellie?” he said. “I think you’re due back for your Bio-weapons class in ten minutes.”
    Stiffly Nellie got out of the Relaxer. None of her joints seemed to be working properly — they thudded and thumped as she crossed the room and jammed her hand into the candy bowl on the psychiatrist’s desk. “These could be bio-weapons y’know,” she said, unwrapping one noisily. “Think about it, Dr. Westcott. You could be putting anything into these candies and feeding them to your victims.”
    Westcott’s eyebrows lifted. “Perhaps I am,” he said, smiling. “Help yourself.”
    His smile did nothing to take the edge off his words. Nellie’s throat tightened and she swallowed. Slowly she placed the unwrapped candy on the psychiatrist’s desk.
    “Sure thing,” she said huskily. “Actually, I was unwrapping this one for you.”
    Without waiting for his response, she deked around Juba who was standing right behind her, and headed for the door.

Three
    N ELLIE SAT AT THE BACK of the classroom, her thoughts running frantically down the endless corridors of her mind. Each twist in the inner maze brought up another possibility, but the basic question remained the same: why had Westcott gasped when the image of the shorn-headed girl appeared in her mind? There had to be a connection. Could he read her thoughts? But how was that possible? Nellie scowled, considering the options. Maybe the psychiatrist had psychic abilities, but she doubted it. On the other hand, she couldn’t say for sure — she