“Absolutely not,” Kathryn said as we exited the lab.
“You don’t think it’s weird that I noticed Mason has a nice side?”
“Weird, no. Blind, definitely. Mason only has one side, and nice it’s not.”
“Maybe he just had a bad childhood. Maybe he’s trying to change.”
“Maybe he’s an evil wombat. Be afraid. Be very—” Kathryn must have sensed a disturbance in the Force or something, because she suddenly spun on her heels. Bobby rounded the corner down the hall.
And I was supposed to be the psychic one.
“Okay, Bobby,” Kathryn sang as he approached. “What’s your secret? You’re smiling!”
I didn’t see any smile.
“S-s-secret?” he stammered.
“You know, Bobby, the Spring Fling is coming. I think you’re out here deciding who to ask.”
Bobby turned a morbid shade of purple. His scalp glowed under his buzz cut. His eyes went wide with fear.
“You are as subtle as a pipe bomb,” I told her.
“Hey, I was simply inquiring as to what was on Bobby’s brilliant mind while we were in chemistry boiling gookem puckey. I mean, it’s not like he’s only an awe-inspiring specimen of virility. He has a mind, too, Rinnie. I utter a gasp of dismay that you only see his outward hunkness. That’s just shallow.”
Bobby scowled. His eyes narrowed. “Gookem puckey? They’re making lysergic acid in that lab!”
“May I inquire as to what your brilliant hunkness means?” I asked. Kathryn elbowed me.
Bobby shook his head. “I wasn’t certain before, but now I know. You hydrolyze ergot to make lysergic acid. That’s what Miliron sends to Old Torrents. He’s too harebrained to realize what they’re doing. Lysergic acid is only one step away from LSD, which was originally developed to treat mental patients. But in the lab at the Old Torrents Mental Facility, they change the chemical structure to make it do things LSD was never meant to do.”
“And you know this how?”
“Plenty of research. And I overheard Tammy Angel bragging about how she made Kent Gable stash it in my locker for the cops to find. The real thing, not the harmless stuff from the Class Project. Angel is smart. She knows somebody at the Old Torrents lab. Now she has Chuckie and Art pushing this poison on us. It turns people nasty. Look at what it did to Erica Jasmine before she quit. And Agatha Chew. Chuckie Cuff has always been weird, but now he’s just mean. And it’s not because he hangs out with Rubric.”
Suddenly a light went on in my head, and my stomach knotted. I remembered Andy’s words. The Walpurgis Knights kidnap children and train them to be Knights. They use mutated hallucinogens to change their personalities. Nice people can’t be Knights.
“See?” Kathryn said. “I told you he’s brilliant.”
Yes, Bobby was brilliant. How could I have missed it? The Knights were making Psychedone 10 right under our noses. And Mason had just invited me to help, although I wasn’t convinced that he knew what he was asking.
…
The next morning, lost in thought, I drifted down the hall to meet Kathryn for language arts. I was pretty sure I finally understood, and I didn’t like it at all. The Knights were manufacturing Psychedone 10. The Class Project was the precursor. And, if what Bobby said about Angel was true, the Red Team was in charge of distribution. Angel’s stash in the SSA was actual vitamin supplements, a nice ruse to cover her if anyone questioned the garbage she was pushing in school. But judging from Mason’s sincerity when he talked about helping the mentally ill, it was unlikely that he knew anything about the Class Project other than what he had told me. He really believed he was producing the first stages of a miracle cure.
According to the Book of Lore, the real truth about Psychedone was frightening—after extended use, it caused physical addiction and altered the users’ personalities, breaking down their mental defenses. They couldn’t think for themselves, and became almost totally unable to disobey the commands of a stronger personality. It was a very powerful mind-control drug. And the formula had advanced over the years.