Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) (15 page)

“I thought you said that you were gonna get
some payback?” Carl asked.

“Soon,” she replied. “I managed to spot the
snipers at both positions that time. By the time of the next attack
it’ll be light enough out that I can use my regular rifle scope.
I’ll bet ya twenty bucks that I can hit both bastards the next time
they poke their noses out.”

“How about a kiss instead,” Carl quipped.

“Please no. A heaving stomach is bad for
accuracy.”

“So now we wait?” I asked.

“Now we wait,” she confirmed. “Then we fight
back.”

Mark: Escalation

I’ll admit that I was fairly nervous about
Sara’s pronouncement of payback. It was true that these people were
shooting at us, but so far, nobody was seriously hurt. What Sara
was contemplating was murder, plain and simple. I had no doubt that
she was capable of living up to her promise that whatever she aimed
for, she would hit.

The wait was killing me. Carl was no help
either, as he was still trying to figure out how to repeat his
telepathy trick. Other than that brief time during the night he was
unsuccessful in receiving any
sends
from me, and he still
couldn’t figure out how to
send
on his own. I really wanted
to figure it out, but it would have to wait until we had calmer
circumstances in which to investigate.

Sara warned us that at some point, Sid would
change up his attack schedule. It would help to keep us unnerved
and more likely to give up. It was getting close to the next four
hour mark now, so the predicted increase wasn’t likely to start for
a while. Unlike us, the bastard was probably enjoying a good
night’s sleep.

“Movement at the first sniper position,” Sara
called out. “Everyone stay under cover and get ready.”

The three of us huddled in the hallway
waiting for the attack to commence. I started to build a
proto-shield to replace the one that would inevitably go down, but
was interrupted by a loud bang from the garage. Sara had fired
first. A mere second later and a second shot rang in my ears as she
fired again. A pause of a few seconds and then a third, and finally
a fourth shot.

“I tagged three of them for sure, but I think
I missed the last one,” She crowed.

“Jesus, you killed three of them?” Carl asked
in disbelief. Turning to me he added, “Remind me never to piss her
off, eh.”

“With a known target area at optimum range,
perfect lighting, and no wind to speak of, it was child’s
play.”

“I must admit though, that the second target
at the first position was a spot of luck. When I hit the sniper
there, his partner stuck up his head like an idiot and gave me a
target too tempting to resist. Anyway, leave me be for a minute,
I’m trying to watch for anyone else.”

“If she’s taken out the snipers, then maybe
we can make a run for it,” Carl opined. “We clear the barricade
from the door and make a beeline for your truck. We all pile in,
stay low, and drive like hell to the police station.”

“What if he booby trapped the truck?” Sara
responded. “What if he mined the road? Or what if he he’s waiting
around the first corner with a rocket launcher? No, we can’t get
out that way safely. If we absolutely have to make a run for it
we’ll need to head for the forest. Even that has significant danger
involved. Now shut up and stop distracting me.”

Another shot echoed through the garage
followed immediately by a curse from Sara. “I missed. I sure wish I
had my full kit here so I could set one of you up as a
spotter.”

We all lapsed into silence in order to stop
distracting her. As we stood around waiting, all kinds of nasty
scenarios played through my mind. Would Sid stop playing games and
retaliate seriously? Maybe he would lead his people in a full on
assault at us. Sara might have escalated the situation into
something far worse for us.

I looked at my watch and saw that only twenty
five minutes had passed; it felt like a couple of hours. The beep
of a new text message interrupted my thoughts. We all gathered
around Sara who was pulling it up.

YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU KILLED AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER

SURRENDER OR DIE

YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES

“Mark, make sure that you have the area fully
covered in case they try charging us,” she ordered. “Get ready for
hell and get under cover.”

“What about you?” Carl asked in a tremulous
voice. “If he unleashes hell, then you’ll need to take cover with
us.”

“Go play with a hockey stick or something you
idiot; I know what I’m doing. Now leave me alone and get to cover,
all of you!” Turning back to her rifle, she quickly popped in a
fresh magazine and resumed her watch.

Poor Carl, I thought. The others are picking
up my habit of teasing him about being Canadian. Laughing, it eased
the tension enough that we were all able to gather in the hallway
again with a modicum of sanity. Once settled, I turned my thoughts
toward scanning our perimeter. I wasn’t sure what Sid might do, but
I knew that whatever it was, we needed to know what was coming.

After confirming that there was nothing out
of the ordinary in range of my probe, I relaxed into just keeping
the generic watch up. Suddenly, I felt a twinge at the upper edge
of my bubble. Focusing instantly, I recognized that it was
non-living and tried to shout out a warning, but was too late. A
deafening crash shook the house.

“That was a shell,” Sara screamed. “They had
the wrong range and missed the house, but don’t count on them
missing again. If one of those hits us, we’re toast!”

In a panic, I turned my full focus on the
direction from which it came. Another twinge penetrated the edge of
the bubble. “Incoming!” I shouted. Before I could try and block it,
I felt it shoot down and away from us.

“
I can feel your field and when the bomb
came in, I pushed it away
,” Linda sent to me.

Infinitely relieved I sent back, “
I love
you!
”

“
I know, and don’t you ever forget it. I
love you too, but let’s not get distracted
.”

Feeling better, I smiled and turned back to
my task. Linda deflected seven more shots in short order before the
barrage abruptly stopped. “
Keep your guard up hon; he may be
trying to psyche us out
.”

“
I ain’t going anywhere
,” she sent
back with a feeling of strong resolve.

Time passed slowly. I felt that Sid realized
his bombs were useless and he wouldn’t be wasting any more until he
could do so with a better chance of slipping them past our guard.
Even so, I was reluctant to lower my defenses. Feeling the size of
the crater that the first bomb left in the driveway, it didn’t take
much imagination to picture what would happen to us if one landed
on the house.

My ears were still ringing from the first
explosion so I almost missed the telltale beep that announced a new
text message. Carl hopped up to see what it said, allowing Linda
and I to maintain our vigilance. Before he could get started, Sara
appeared in our hallway holding up her phone.

VERY CLEVER BITCH. IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF
TIME

MAKE YOUR PEACE WITH GOD

Linda suddenly jumped and pulled her phone
out as well. “I got one too. Carl, check it for me please.” She
slid her phone in his general direction.

Carl tapped on it briefly and then read out
loud to us:

YOU ARE SAFE. MILITARY IS PRACTICING IN THE
HILLS. NOBODY IS SHOOTING AT YOU.

“That’s a reply to the text message you sent
to the sheriff,” Carl reported. “It appears that Sid had the
foresight to warn the locals before starting world war three with
us. I believe that we can forget about having the cavalry rush in
to save the day for us.”

“In my opinion, that’s a good thing,” Sara
remarked. “That was a mortar attack that he launched at us. If some
hick sheriff drives up, Sid will blow him to hell and gone. With
that kind of firepower backing Sid up, we’ll need an attack
chopper, not a ticket book. Not only that, but they have their
mortar position outside of my range, so I have no way of
threatening them at all.”

“What do you think we should we do?” I
asked.

“I think that we need to get out of here. He
can keep dropping shells on us until one makes it through, and one
is all it will take. Once out, we’ll have several options. We can
go defensive and hide out until he gives up. Option two would be to
go offensive and take out the mortar position. A third option would
be to make a run for town.”

“We could even split up and do a combination
of different things.”

“True, but two would most likely be the
practical limit. Mobility will be our biggest advantage out there,
and you and Linda are the ones who can keep us moving fast and
silent.”

“Ok, so we’re sitting ducks in here, but you
already mentioned that if we try and leave, he might obliterate us.
How do we get out safely?”

“What if we tested our escape with a dummy or
something?” Linda asked.

“That’s an exceptionally good idea,” Sara
approved. “We could stuff some of our clothes and sew it together
to resemble one of us and see if it gets shot up or not.”

“When it comes time for us to bolt, we could
also sail out with several decoys,” I added.

“This is getting better and better. We might
even have a chance to survive this. Carl, you’re on dummy duty.
Mark and Linda, you two keep up the defense. I’m going to see if I
can spot anyone out there. We’ll test out the waters with the first
dummy, and if it goes well then we get the hell out of here.
Agreed?”

We all nodded our acceptance. It was time for
flight.

Linda: Flight

I wasn’t completely sure that running away
was our best option, but that could just be me not wanting to
abandon my home. It was probably our best chance of survival, but
the thought of going out there where I could be shot or blown up
scared me beyond words. Then again, if I slipped up for a second at
the wrong time, we would get blown up in here just as easily.

Carl was proving to be quite resourceful in
the dummy building endeavor. A hoodie sweatshirt, two golf gloves,
pants and a pair of sneakers were packed with stuffing from my
trashed living room sofa. He used wire coat hangers to give the
thing some internal support and once sewn together, it was
surprisingly lifelike. He even taped on a pair of sunglasses. Carl
was always a guy who paid attention to details.

Once he had assembled the first one and
learned what worked best, he put together four more in short order.
Now we just needed to agree on a plan. Mark wanted to just get out
and lay low for a while. He wasn’t opposed to the other options; he
just didn’t want to be rushed into anything.

Carl was fully in for the ‘get the hell out
of dodge’ plan and wanted to head straight for town. He reasoned
that it made no sense for us to deal with this alone, and we should
let the proper authorities take care of things. I think he might
have been even more scared than I was, but at least he had a
logical reason for his opinion.

Sara wanted to go on the offensive and take
Sid out. Her argument was that without Sid, his support would
crumble. She was also under the impression that if we ran for help,
then our secret would be out and Sid would win. I wondered if
revenge might be affecting her judgment, though.

I was on the fence. Hiding or going to the
city seemed safer to me than attacking, but part of me agreed with
Sara. The bastard trashed my house with his bullets and totaled my
car with his bomb. There was no way I wanted Sid to emerge
victorious from this. Sara wasn’t the only one who would like to
get a little payback.

After arguing about it for a while, we
finally decided that our first order of business was to escape from
the house intact. Once out, we could find a safe place to hole up
and decide from there what to do next.

Sara started organizing backpacks and bags
for us while Carl prepared food and drink. She said that she could
live off the land, but hunting for four of us might be difficult,
especially if we ran afoul of Sid or his troops. I felt a bit
guilty letting them do all the work, but Sara put her foot down
saying that Mark and I had the only effective defense available in
case of another attack.

The plan called for us to make our break when
the sun was setting in order to take advantage of the waning light.
If our dummy test proved that it safe to leave, we would bolt out
of the small door in the garage in two flights and make our way up
to my pool as the rendezvous point. Sara had already cleared the
area and pulled the pins from the hinges so we could get out
fast.

The day seemed to take forever to go by. I
kept expecting a new attack, but all was quiet. I briefly thought
that he might have given up, but remembering his last text message
I abandoned that idea. Now twilight was approaching and I wished
that the day had gone on even longer. Sara called us all together
in the garage and handed out our gear.

“Ok folks. It’s party time,” Sara stated.
“Does anyone have any last questions or concerns before we
begin?”

We all shook our heads so she continued.
“Very well, then here’s how we’ll do it. I put our crash test dummy
in my bedroom. Mark can clear the window while Linda flies the
dummy out and into the forest. Send it in as deep as you can and
then drop it, but try not to hit any trees on the way, since it
might look a little odd to anyone watching. If things look clear,
then we drop the door here and head out as fast as you can fly
us.”

She cleared her throat before continuing.
“Mark will take Carl and I’ll go with Linda. We’ll follow the
stream up toward the pool, but try and stay in the trees as much as
you can since the openness of the stream makes it too easy for
snipers to get a clear shot. Linda will take the left side and Mark
can take the right. We’ll rendezvous at the pool and from there I
can show you a good safe spot to hole up. I noticed it on one of
the ‘joyride flights’ that Linda took me on and it’ll be hard to
get there unless you can fly.”