[Ganzfield 2] Adversary (15 page)

Rachel concentrated her mental vision on Matilda. She huddled in a fetal position on the floor of one of the outbuildings—alone and scared. Seeing her like that—my hands clenched into fists and I suddenly wanted to blast somebody.

Our team started our assessment. Drew mentally reached out, feeling the electrical grid that fed the surveillance cameras and gate locks. Geez—who lived here, the frickin’ royal family? I searched for a mind count. Near the front gate, I felt two security guards as well as three Doberman dogs, whose thoughts were hungry and vividly scented. I tried to stretch my mental range up to the house, knowing it was probably out of reach.

SOMEONE’S OUT THERE!

The voice in my head was extremely strong and very, very angry.

Oh, my God!
I felt him running toward the front gate—toward
us
—with every intention of delivering a killing mental blast to the telepath he felt outside.

Crap. Isaiah!
I startled badly. “Drive! Go, GO, GO!” I tried desperately to shield my mind, frantically throwing up a brick wall of mental energy. His telepathic touch burned into my thoughts.

Sean accelerated. After two blocks or so, I started to blink and breathe again.

“Maddie? What is it? What happened?” Trevor didn’t loosen the invisible arms surrounding me.

“Isaiah. He was there. He could hear me.” I wrapped my arms around my head, clutching my fingers in my hair.

Oh, hell!
His range was so large and his thoughts were incredibly strong. I felt like a little kid pretending to be a grown-up—I was completely outmatched. How had Dr. Williamson ever expected me to go up against that?

“What would happen if we called the police and told them that two people were being held hostage?” Trevor asked. “It’s not like Isaiah’s a charm. He wouldn’t be able to talk the police out of looking around. We could call 9-1-1 anonymously and say our friends were being held inside.”

“How would we know that?” I asked.

“Maybe they’d managed to get to a phone and called us but someone discovered them and took it away.”

My hopes for the new plan sank. “It’d work if he couldn’t blast them with his mind. I think he might kill the police officers.”

“So it’s up to us,” said Trevor.

At the moment, that didn’t seem like a very good thing for Matilda and Morris.

“Um, where are we going now?” Sean drove in the general direction of the highway, back the way we had come.

“287 North,” I replied. Several sets of eyes looked at me curiously. “We can stay at my mom’s house tonight.” I tried to calm down. I still felt rattled from the contact with Isaiah. I needed to think—someplace safe.
Ah, hell.
How could we get Matilda and Morris out if I couldn’t even get near the front gate?

My cell phone rang a few minutes later. Hey, the weak little thing had finally held a charge long enough to be good for something.

“Ms. Dunn?” Coleman’s assistant informed me that the new account was ready to go and gave me the web address and initial password for my account. I rolled up my sleeve and wrote them down on my arm.
I really should carry a notepad or something.
I then called my mom’s office and left a message, giving her the heads-up on the invasion of houseguests.

We arrived at my mom’s house in Chatham a short time later. It was small, lily-pad green and, as both sparks mentally noted as we pulled up, made of wood. The second story protruded on columns over an open porch below, giving the house an overbalanced appearance, as though it might fall on its face. The room over the porch had been mine only a few months ago, but I suddenly felt like an outsider—like I no longer belonged here. Bringing this group of Ganzfield people into this world felt strange and slightly uncomfortable.

“Got any plans for the sleeping arrangements, Maddie?” asked Drew, again mentally noting just how wooden the house was.

“Any suggestions?”

“Actually, yeah. Was that a high school we just passed?”

“Uh-huh.” I’d lived only a block away from it. The walk to the school took just under three minutes; I’d timed it last year.

“How do you feel about breaking-and-entering?”

I smiled. “I’m pretty okay with it. Do it all the time.” I followed his thinking; the school was constructed of concrete. There were many fire-safe places there, if we could get inside, and Trevor could have plenty of room in the gym.

“Can you take out some security cameras?’ I knew that he could, of course.

Drew nodded. “Piece of cake.”

“Zack, I think there’s a guard.”

“No problem,” he said. Everyone was up to speed.

“Okay, then those without special sleeping issues can have the house. Hannah, why don’t you take my room? Zack, you can have the guest room.”

I didn’t know how to handle Rachel; she was unsure if she was going to be in the house or with Sean. Since she was already aware of my mental monitoring, I decided to use my powers for her benefit.

If it helps, he really wants you with him
.

Rachel startled, then glared at me for a second before the silent words had their impact. When they did, she blushed and covered her smile with her hand. At least she was no longer fuming at me.

Once I showed Hannah and Zack where they’d be sleeping, I put out some snacks and sodas in the kitchen. I then went to my room, pulled out my laptop, and went online. Using the information that Coleman’s assistant had given me, I logged in, launched the investment screen, and looked up “Locus Two.”

Locus Two Systems: LCST. Current price: just over $12 per share. After a few moments of deliberation, I decided to buy $50,000 worth. Maybe I should make it an even number—five thousand shares. $60,000. Wait, was that too much? I had a huge line of credit from the Ganzfield account, but I didn’t want to make a too-costly mistake if I was wrong…or if Mr. Sleek, the elevator man, was wrong.

Actually, even that much was making my hands clammy. Was I really ready to do this? That was a
lot
of money. That was a
whole lot
of money.

No, it’d be okay. I could do this. What was the worst that could happen?

I tried to remember all the things Dr. Williamson had taught me. Options might be safer—contracts I could pay a small percentage of the stock price for, giving me the choice of buying the stock at a particular price at a later date. The idea of using options made it easier for me to breathe.
Much less risky
. I picked a strike price and chose a date a month away. I wanted five thousand shares, so I put in an order for five thousand contracts and set up the system to handle the steps of the transaction and close the position automatically before the options expired.

I set my order to fill when the market opened in the morning. Dr. Williamson had walked me through all of this during our practicals. Still, the idea of making this decision with real money made my stomach clench and my fingers itch to tap nervously on something. I forced myself to get over it—it wasn’t life or death or anything. I hit the final key that submitted the order just as I felt my mom drive into the driveway. I quickly logged off from the confirmation screen and went down to greet her.

I hadn’t seen my mom since Christmas. Her plump arms enveloped me in a huge hug and I felt some of my stress melt away.

My mom loves to feed people. With the six of us gathered around her dining room table, she was happily stuffing us and we were happily being stuffed. She remembered Drew, Hannah, and Rachel from December and, if her smile grew a little strained when she greeted Trevor, I could only hope he wouldn’t notice.

Okay, he did notice and it hurt him.
Crap.
My shoulders tensed. Suddenly, this visit suddenly seemed like it couldn’t be short enough.

I introduced her to Sean and Zack. I thought she’d met Sean during her visit to Ganzfield, but he’d been lumped in her mind as
one-of-those-red-haired-guys-who-set-things-on-fire
, so she needed a reminder on his name.

Mom gave me some grief over springing houseguests on her unannounced. However, between her hostess-energy buzz and her relief that we weren’t out in the world in peril somewhere, her words lost their edge.

I took a steadying breath. Hearing my mom’s thoughts made me twitchy. I worried that I might hear unpleasant things, some censored disapproval that she didn’t voice for fear of hurting me. I wanted her to be proud of me; criticism from her hurt more than when it came from other people. The fact that she disapproved of my relationship with Trevor rankled, but I had absolutely no intention of doing things the way she wanted when it came to him.

If she’d only try to get to know him.

I was sure she’d eventually change her mind. Trevor was simply the best person on the planet, and he made me so happy that I sometimes forgot to breathe. One or both of those facts should make a difference to her in the long run. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself whenever I felt her negative thoughts about him.

We helped my mom clear the table then everyone but Hannah prepared to leave. My mom frowned. “Where are you going?”

“Sleeping in the high school,” I replied. “You know about this. We talked about it at Christmas, remember? Fires, knocking down walls, throwing nightmares.”

“You can’t just break into the high school.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. We’ll get the security guard’s permission.” I tried to soothe her.

“It’s all right, Dr. Dunn.” Zack’s voice hummed with charm resonance.

“Oh, okay, then.” She returned to drying the cooking pans.

I bit my lip. Zack had just charmed my mom.
Without even asking or anything.
True, it was benevolently intended and resolved the situation quickly, but still…my
mom
? I had a problem watching my mother being manipulated. Should I say anything? Should I tell him not to do it again? I felt myself scowling as we grabbed the sleeping gear from the van.

You okay?
Trevor asked.

I didn’t like Zack doing that
.

Trevor nodded.
Got a better idea?

It’s either this or camping in the backyard.
I really wanted to sleep somewhere warm tonight.

The walk to the high school took the same three minutes it had back when I’d lived here. Trevor opened the locked double doors without even breaking stride. A guard looked up in surprise from his desk in the security office.

“It’s okay that we’re here,” said Zack, quickly. The guard relaxed. “My friends are going to sleep in the school tonight, all right?”

The guard nodded. “That’s fine.”

“In fact, why don’t you go ahead and give them permission in writing right now?”

I was reluctantly impressed—that was a good idea. Someone else might show up after Zack left and this way we’d be covered.

“I’m going back now, okay?” he said to us, once we had the papers in hand.

I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks,” It was awkward having him with us. Convenient, but awkward.

“Gym’s at the end of the hall,” I said, as we walked down the echoing corridors. It still had that high school smell. Posters for events I’d never attend lined the walls amid rows of green metal lockers. “Pool’s through a passage in the back.”

“Your high school has a pool?” said Sean, enviously.

“It’s not my high school anymore.” Being back felt wrong. I didn’t belong here. I was an intruder into my old life.

“Dibs on the pool!” Sean grinned wickedly as the idea of skinny-dipping with Rachel filled his mind.

I let out a sigh of exasperation.

“The locker rooms have showers,” I added, for Drew’s benefit. “They’re big, tiled rooms. Should be pretty fire-proof.”

Drew nodded.

Trevor unlocked the gym door at the end of the hall. We turned on the lights with an audible clack from each of the long line of switches by the door. Large banks of humming neon staggered on above us, glowing green-white.

I froze.
Oh, my God.
Just inside the door was a large display—a shrine to the three student-athletes the school had lost this past fall.

Del. Mike. Carl.

Their faces shone large from the blown-up photos. Professional pictures—probably their class portraits. Smaller pictures and notes surrounded the large ones. In a few of them, someone had painted halos with glitter glue around their heads. I felt my stomach heave and my hands clenched into fists. Birth and death dates scrolled under each picture. The dates of their deaths were all the same: the day before I’d gone to Ganzfield.

I’d gone to Ganzfield because I’d killed them.

I bit my lip and pulled my arms tightly around my waist. The notes and pictures…people missed them. People’s lives had been altered, saddened because of their deaths…deaths I had caused. But they’d attacked me.