He turned and walked to the other side of the lab. His shoes clicked loudly on the lab floor. He started turning dials, pushing buttons, and tapping on keyboards.

“Listen to me,” I whispered to Jackson. “No way we can trust this guy. Don’t let him know we have special powers. If he thinks we’re normal, he’ll let us go home.”

“But how can we hide it from him?” Jackson whispered back. “Maybe he did pick up our vibrations. Maybe he can read minds.”

“Just concentrate on one thing,” I said. “The whole time. Just think about … think about Nina and Artie and how much you hate them.”

Jackson nodded. “That’s good,” he whispered. “I’ll just think their names over and over.”

“Me, too,” I said.

Inspector Cranium came clicking back to us. He carried a set of headphones in each hand. “Put these on,” he said. “They’re wireless.”

I took the headphones from him. I held them in front of me, studying them.

“Go ahead,” Inspector Cranium urged. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. It’s easy. Put them on.”

I shoved them back at him. “Sorry. I don’t want to,” I said.

His tiny eyes burned into mine. “Put them on,” he said softly.

He kept his eyes trained on me. He didn’t blink. Didn’t move.

I felt a tingling inside my head. A prickly feeling under my forehead.

I tried to scratch it away. But the tingling became a dull ache. And then my temples started to throb … throb with a blinding pain.

“Put them on,” he repeated, “and the pain will go away.”

I took a deep breath. And pulled the headphones down over my ears …

I didn’t hear anything.

I started to think the Lerner twins’ names over and over. Nina … Artie … Nina … Artie …

I glanced at Jackson. He had the headphones in place. I read his mind: Nina … Artie … Artie … Nina …

I heard a low hum. The hum grew louder, then disappeared. Silence again.

Nina … Artie …

I looked up. Inspector Cranium was back against the far wall. He was tapping a keyboard and gazing at numbers on a large computer monitor.

Nina … Artie …

Across the lab, Inspector Cranium turned some dials. I heard a soft pulsing sound in my ears. A steady pulse.

Beeep beeep beeep …

The pulsing sound grew louder. Longer. Until it rose and fell like a deafening ambulance siren inside my head.

I opened my mouth in a shrill scream of pain.

But I couldn’t hear my own scream over the wail of the siren. My head throbbed and vibrated. The sound shook my whole body.

Frantically, I grabbed the headphones with both hands.

I tugged hard. The headphones were clamped tight to my ears.

I struggled to slide them off. I pulled with all my strength.

But they stuck tight, and the siren grew even louder.

“Help me! HELP! It HURTS so bad! I can’t STAND it!”