Tunnel Vision Read Online Free Page B

failure.
    “We have never been able to find a subject who is consistently right, who can provide us with the kind of information we need. Mrs. Timmerman believes she witnessed something special—exactly what we’ve been looking for. If this ability she saw is real, you could be extremely helpful to us, Jacob. You could locate hostages, fugitives, spies, criminals. Missing persons. That’s just the start. The CIA, FBI, NSA … and that’s only in Washington. Of course, we’ll have to test you first. But I believe we could be partners. I believe we could work very well together.”
    I shake my head, eyes still closed, her words crashing over me. They don’t really know anything. They can’t make me do anything. I have to remember that.
    “No.”
    “What was that?”
    I open my eyes. She hasn’t moved, hands still in her lap, but she seems more intense. Like she fired herself up a notch or two.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, stiff. “I’m as normal as you get. I’m eighteen. I’m graduating in a few months. I’m waiting to see what colleges I got into. I’m not some freak, like you’re saying. I’m normal .”
    She shakes her head lightly. “I’m going to make you an offer, Jacob Lukin. I suggest you listen.”
    “What’s your name?” She works my name so hard, and I don’t even know who she is. Maybe if I know it, it will make her human, someone I can deal with.
    She purses her lips. “Liesel. Dr. Liesel Miller. Here, I’ll show you my badge, if it helps.”
    She pulls a badge out of her coat pocket, with her picture on it. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Dr. Liesel Miller.
    It doesn’t help. She feels even more dangerous with a name, a badge.
    I push to my feet, so I’m not looking up at her anymore. Try not to sway. “No, Liesel Miller. I don’t know anything. I can’t do anything. Whatever you heard, read, whatever, it’s not true. I don’t need to listen to your offer because I can’t help you. Now it’s time for you to get the fuck out of my house.”
    “You’re forgetting about the man who followed you,” she says. “Aren’t you?”
    There’s a knock on the door behind me, and I jump. The knob rattles.
    “Jake? Who’re you talking to? I thought you were coming to help me with dinner.”
    Myka.
    “Tell her you’re on the phone,” Liesel whispers.
    I keep my eyes on her. “I’m on the phone with Chris,” I say through the door. “I’ve got to talk to him for a couple more minutes. Can you keep going with dinner?”
    There’s a puzzled pause. I never talk to Chris on the phone—we just text. I should’ve said I was talking to a girl. That at least is true. Kind of.
    “Okay,” Myk says, finally, quietly. “I’ll do it myself. It’ll be ready in about 10 minutes.”
    I wait for her to go away, but she doesn’t. I can still hear her breathing.
    “Jake?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You’re acting very weird. This whole thing today was weird.”
    The understatement of the century. I take a deep breath. “I know. Sorry.”
    This time I hear her thump back toward the kitchen, and Liesel relaxes a little. I don’t.
    “You need to leave, ” I say again. “Now. This is insane and an invasion of privacy, and probably illegal. We’re done.”
    Her eyebrows—perfectly plucked—arch. “You don’t want me to do that.”
    They don’t know anything. They can’t make me do anything. Whoever the other guy is—he can’t either. If I pretend to be normal from now on.…
    She sighs, dead green eyes on me, and her voice hardens. “Jacob. I’m going to be straight with you. Trust me, your other friend is out there, whoever he is. On this street somewhere, probably. He’s not in here only because I am, because my people are outside. Do you think he’s going to go away because you ask him to? That he’s going to believe your patently false denial? You knew why I was here as soon as I mentioned the party. It was obvious. And those