A wave of cold panic swept over me. I turned to my brother. He stared openmouthed at the sign.

“What are we doing here?” he whispered. “How did we get here?”

“I — I don’t remember,” I replied. “Jackson, I don’t like this. I —”

The door swung open. A smiling man in a long white lab coat stepped into the room.

He had tiny, round black eyes and a long bent nose stuck in a large bald head. He wasn’t much taller than Jackson and me. His head appeared too big for his body, and his bald scalp glowed like a lightbulb under the bright lights.

He had thick gray eyebrows and a small gray brush of a beard on his chin. When he smiled at us, a gold tooth glowed in the front of his mouth.

He carried a clipboard in one hand. The other hand was buried in his lab coat pocket. His smile faded as he saw the frightened expressions on our faces.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said softly. His voice was warm and smooth, like a TV announcer. “You won’t be harmed here. I’m a scientist. A normal scientist — not a MAD scientist!”

He laughed at his own joke, a dry chuckle.

“Why did you bring us here?” Jackson demanded. “What do you want?”

“How can you do this?” I said angrily. “How can you drag people here against their will?”

He didn’t answer our questions. His tiny eyes moved from me to my brother.

“Jillian and Jackson,” he said, nodding his head. “Twins often have special mind powers. Did you know that some twins even have their own secret language?”

“We saw a thing on TV about that,” Jackson said.

“But answer our questions,” I said. “Why did you force us to come here? Did that weird guy hypnotize us or something?”

He frowned at me. “Please, Jillian, relax,” he said in his soft, smooth voice. “I’m not going to keep you here for long. I’m going to send you back home in a short while — if you cooperate.”

“Cooperate? Why should we cooperate with you?” I cried. “That old guy did something to our minds. He —”

“That was Finney, my assistant,” he said. “If we pick up unusual brain vibrations at The Institute, we have to send one of our drivers to check it out.”

“What are you talking about?” Jackson demanded. “Who are you?”

“Please forgive my rudeness,” the man said. He rubbed his short, paintbrush beard. “My real name is very hard to pronounce. So everyone calls me Inspector Cranium.”

“Excuse me?” I said. “Cranium?”

He nodded. “Cranium means skull. Some of my workers gave me the name. It’s kind of a joke.”

“Ha-ha,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can we go now?”

“Let me tell you what my job is. I do brain research,” he said.

He stepped over to a keyboard and typed for a few seconds. A picture of a giant human brain appeared on the wall in front of us.

“See?” he said. “A normal human brain. Some people think it looks like a disgusting blob of meat. But I think it’s beautiful.” He smiled and his gold tooth flashed again.

I suddenly remembered my new powers. I turned to Inspector Cranium and tried to read his thoughts. But I couldn’t. He was blocking me out somehow.

“Sometimes when people have special mind powers, it’s a good thing,” Inspector Cranium continued. “Take Finney, for instance. Did you know that Finney is a hundred and fourteen years old?”

I gasped. “For real?”

Inspector Cranium nodded. “He uses his special mind powers to keep himself alive. I think that’s wonderful — don’t you?”

Jackson and I didn’t react at all. Could Cranium be telling the truth? Finney certainly looked a hundred and fourteen years old!

Cranium’s smile faded. “Then sometimes special brain powers can be a bad thing,” he said. “I’m not saying you two have special powers. But let’s just say you do….”

He scribbled something on his clipboard. His tiny eyes almost disappeared as he squinted at what he was writing.

Finally, he turned back to Jackson and me. “If you had special powers, people wouldn’t know how to deal with you,” he said. “Your friends would treat you as outcasts. It would be a terrible problem for everyone. You would be treated like freaks for the rest of your lives.”

I forced a laugh. “Well, it’s a good thing Jackson and I don’t have any powers,” I said.

I glanced at Jackson. I hoped he caught on. “She’s right,” he said after a few seconds. “We don’t have special brain powers.”

“Hmpf.” Inspector Cranium made a sound with his lips. He scribbled on his clipboard pad some more.

“Well, that’s why I brought you here,” he said. “We usually don’t make mistakes. But let’s give you a few tests and we’ll see.”

“Tests?” I started.

Inspector Cranium raised one hand. A smile spread over his face. “Don’t be nervous. The tests are very simple. And completely painless. I’ll have you home in no time.”

His smile faded quickly. “I’ll have you home in no time,” he repeated. “If all goes well.”