Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) (13 page)

It took us about fifteen minutes to get the
camera positioned properly so we had a good view of the back deck
and the approach to it. Finally Sara was satisfied and started back
toward the office, motioning for me to follow.

“Gimme Sid’s number,” Mark asked as we
returned. “Maybe I can make him see reason.”

Sara tossed Mark her phone and turned to
Carl. “Since you’re just lounging around, why don’t you come with
me and help with surveillance. I’ll fix you up a comfy little nest
in the corner by Linda’s laptop where you’ll be safe but
useful.”

“I’ll help him,” I volunteered. “You stay
here so you can keep watch with Mark’s rig and to help plan
things.”

Nodding assent, she settled down next to the
window and began scanning for any sign of her husband. I went to
the linen closet and grabbed up spare pillow and blankets, piling
them up next to my laptop for Carl. Satisfied that it would be good
enough, I went back and helped him up. I settled him down in the
pile, and then got him the glass of water that he asked for
earlier.

“Hon, can you bring me the house phone
please?” Mark shouted to me.

I grabbed the handset and brought it to him.
He hit the button to dial, and held it up to his ear for only a
moment before pulling it away in disgust.

“No dial tone. The bastard must have cut the
line before he attacked us,” Mark growled.

“The cell-phone didn’t work either?” I
inquired.

“Nope, no signal,” he replied.

“That’s weird; I’ve always gotten
surprisingly good reception, considering that we’re a bit
remote.”

“He has help with him,” Sara said bolting
upright. “Someone took over or knocked out the damn cell
towers.”

I felt a chill wash over me. If he had help,
then this was far more serious than we initially thought. “What do
you think he’s going to do next?” I asked.

“That depends,” Sara said, frowning. “If I
were in his shoes, I would let us stew for a few hours and let our
imaginations work against us. Then another show of force and a
demand for surrender.”

“Let him come and make his demands,” Mark
said angrily. “I’ll give him a good taste of what he wants and send
him on a free trip to visit the international space station.”

“He may be an idiot, but he’s not that
stupid. If he shows his face directly, you can guarantee he’ll have
someone watching for anything like that. At the first sign of
trouble, whatever backup he has in place will go on the
attack.”

“So we’re screwed?”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.
We’ll have to play his game for a while, but sooner or later he’ll
make a mistake. Once he does, I might even take him out myself.
Nobody shoots at me and gets away with it.”

“So what do we do in the mean time?” I
asked.

“We keep busy and don’t let him get under our
skins. At a glance, I would say that y’all did a pretty decent job
with your barricades, but it’s getting darker, and we’ll want to
avoid casting shadows on a window. A shadow in front of a window is
an open invitation to a sniper. Hang up any spare blankets that you
have over each window and place a lamp or something right up next
to it. That will help foul his placement of us. Just make sure that
you stay out of the way while doing it.”

“Right,” Mark and I said together.

“
You get blankets and sheets, I’ll gather
up lamps and stuff
,” Mark sent.

I sent him my affirmation and got on with my
part of the job. For once I was happy with my pack rat tendencies,
as I had piles of old linens in storage. We were working on the
last one when I heard a sudden sharp crack come from the living
room.

“Fire at the living room window,” Mark
warned. “
The shield held
.”

I heard several more cracks, then the sound
of shattering glass.

“More fire,” he reported. “
Shield is down,
rebuilding
.”

As we lay on the floor, I sent a probe out to
the window and felt the beginning of his replacement field. Sending
my mind out farther, I tried to pick up any sign of the shooter,
but couldn’t find anything.

“You ok?” I asked.

“Yeah, the bullets busted up my shield, but
that was minor compared to the one that put me out of action in the
mountains. Just a quick stab of pain and that’s it.”

Sara crawled out into the hallway, gun at the
ready and asked “You guys ok out here?”

“Just peachy,” I replied. “Nobody was hurt,
but one shield went down. Mark’s rebuilding it as we speak.”

Nodding, she crawled back to the office
saying “I need to check the cam. You two stay down for a couple
minutes until we know things are clear.”

I crawled over to Mark and wrapped my arms
around him, taking comfort in his presence.

“I’m ok over here, thanks for asking,” Carl
shouted at us.

“Sorry bud,” Mark replied. “I did look over
and see that you were fine, but up until now I was busy rebuilding
the shield that they took out.”

“Mark,” Sara shouted out from the office.
“The phones are up! I just got another text message. Get on the
horn and call the cops.”

I quickly disengaged from Mark so he could
get to his phone, but he thought faster than me and brought it to
where he lay.

Before he could dial he said “Crap, no signal
again. Let’s go see what message Sara has from the bugger this
time.”

“Nothing good from the sound of things” I
replied, inclining my head to indicate the swearing coming from the
office.

Sara was back at the laptop when we rounded
the corner into the office. She kept changing the angle of the
camera slightly every few seconds, trying to spot anyone.

“What did he say this time?” I asked her.

“See for yourself,” she replied shortly.

Picking her phone up off of the floor, I held
it up so Mark could see it too.

BRING OUT A WHITE FLAG WHEN YOU SEE
REASON

“He’s insane,” I said in disbelief.

“Welcome to my world,” Sara growled.

Mark: Evening the Odds

Linda and I hunkered down in the hallway so
we could keep in contact with both Carl and Sara. About every four
hours we had to endure another attack at a random window of the
house. Sometimes the shield held up, but if the attack had too many
shots then it usually resulted in another broken window. Linda was
getting pissed off at both the danger as well as the damage.

With the phone reception only going on long
enough for Sid to send us his messages, it was obvious that he had
at least one other person helping him. There was no way he could
diddle with the cell tower and still take shots at the house. Based
on the windows that were shot out, it was more likely that he had
at least three or four.

Sara suggested that we sleep in shifts in
order to keep fresh, but all of us were too keyed up to try going
to sleep. She didn’t try too hard to convince us though. She was in
the same boat as the rest of us since she made no move toward the
bedroom herself. The four hour alarm clock at our windows sure
wasn’t helping things.

“Keep alert everyone,” Sara called out. “If
he keeps to schedule, then we can expect another attack soon. We
need to spot their fire locations if we’re to have any chance of
stopping them.”

“Even if we spot him, what exactly did you
have in mind?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure that he’s out of range of
both your pistol and our abilities.”

“We can’t make any plan unless we know the
details, and spotting their location is the first detail we need.
Once we know that, we can consider options. Maybe we run, maybe we
fight. Maybe we wait him out, maybe we give in. All I know right
now is that he has the advantage, and I am going to keep looking
until there’s something else I can do.”

Figuring out something else that I could do
was easy. I made more coffee. Nobody had much of an appetite, but
everyone greedily welcomed the hot mugs that I periodically
distributed. I had just finished doling out the latest round of
java when I saw Linda stiffen up and heard the tinkle of broken
glass coming from the back bedroom.

“There goes another window,” Linda reported.
“That was your bedroom Sara; I’ll need to rebuild the shield. Your
lunatic hubby owes me for a lot of bloody damage now.”

“Don’t even think of going there,” Sara said
hotly. “The next time that bastard is within my reach, he’s a dead
man. This attack pisses me off on so many levels; I hardly know
where to begin. First, there’s the fact that he’s actually shooting
at ME. He also shot and hit Carl, he’s tearing up your house, and
he’s trying to wear us down with these continuous barrages. I think
the thing that offends me most is that he’s using
my own sniper
rifle
to shoot at me. I don’t think I could ever forgive
that.”

“How do you know he’s using your rifle?” I
asked.

“When he went back home to take care of
business, I gave him a list of things to bring back for me and it
wasn’t just clothes that I wanted. It included several weapons from
my personal collection, my basic Ranger’s kit, and my prize
Dragunov sniper rifle.”

“I took it home as a trophy from Afghanistan.
Our platoon was ordered to secure a section of the city street by
street. We had barely started the sweep when we were halted by
enemy sniper fire. The squads moving through the streets on either
side of us were in the same boat and couldn’t assist. We were
basically stuck, held at bay by a mere handful of enemy riflemen. I
wound up laying on a pile of sharp debris and broken glass for nine
and a half hours waiting for a clean shot. When I finally plugged
him, it allowed my squad to advance and flank the other enemy
snipers. I took his weapon as a souvenir.”

“That’s pretty wild,” I said. “I’ve never
heard many war stories from you.”

“Most of them don’t make for good dinner
conversation unless you have a strong stomach.”

“Dragunov sounds Russian. Is it any
good?”

“Yes,” she replied fervently. “It has eight
hundred and thirty meters per second muzzle velocity, ten round
magazine, and the scope range is adjustable up to thirteen hundred
meters. I can castrate a fly at a thousand yards with it, and would
give my right arm to have it with me right now.”

“What was it packed in?” Linda asked.

“It was in my sand-camo duffle, why?”

“Well,” Linda said with a smirk, “I don’t
want your right arm, but if that’s the bag you need, then it’s
inside your bedroom closet.”

“What? I thought that was in the truck still
with the rest of the stuff he brought from home.”

“Nope, when Sid was unloading your suitcase
from the truck, he mentioned that the camouflage duffel was yours.
I put it in your closet later so you would have it handy.”

“Hot damn,” she said enthusiastically. “Be
right back.”

I had to grin as I saw her scamper into the
bedroom like a little kid on Christmas morning rushing for presents
under the tree. A shout of victory, and she emerged carrying her
duffle.

“It’s all here! Now it’s time for a little
payback. That little shit-eater won’t know what hit him.”

As she began pulling stuff out of the bag,
she paused and handed me her hand gun.

“Give this to Carl. He should have some way
of defending himself other than his ugly face.”

She picked another hand gun for herself,
several spare clips, and a Bowie knife that made the one from the
Rambo movie look like a toothpick. Fondly stroking a case that she
half pulled out from the bag, she threw us an evil grin and hauled
her gear into the office. If looks could kill, then I would hate to
be in Sid’s shoes right now.

Curious, I poked my head around the corner of
the office. She had her precious case open on the floor next to her
and was rapidly inspecting and setting up her gun. Once satisfied,
she set it aside and pulled out what looked like a Buck Rogers ray
gun.

“Soviet NSPU night vision scope,” she
explained before I could ask. She hunkered down next to the window
and began slowly scanning the area. “I think that I know the
general area where the shots came from, but it’s a lot of forest
out there. I’ll have to get lucky in order to spot ‘em. Since
you’re here, keep an eye on the webcam screen and make sure they
don’t sneak up on us.”

Making myself comfortable on Sara’s abandoned
pile of blankets I sent to Linda, “
I’ll be staying here. Sara
delegated the laptop watch to me while she plays with her
toys
.”

“
Be nice, she can be a lot of help
here
.”

Sara looked up from her scope, “All the light
around here is messing me up. I’m going to try the garage.”

“Ok, but be careful,” I cautioned.

She just grinned at me, grabbed her gear, and
headed for the garage door. “
Little Miss Lyudmila Pavlichenko is
going to try setting up in the garage
,” I sent. “
See if she
needs anything
.”

“
Ok
.”

As I settled in for my watch, I tried again
to see if I could detect anyone in the area. I cast my awareness
out, slowly spreading away from me and covering the house. I
mentally
felt
everything in the area, just like I did on the
very first trial when I tried to locate the beer in the fridge. I
found it a little harder, trying to ‘watch’ a larger area, but it
seemed that once an area was recognized, I could keep it straight
with minimal effort.

People were a lot easier to
see
than
objects. They almost glowed to my internal sight. I could easily
see Carl at his post scratching his ass, Linda at the garage side
door, and Sara by the overhead door. Hmm, there’s a nest of mice in
the crawlspace. I would have to let Linda know.

Like a bubble forming on the end of a child’s
wand, I stretched my awareness out and away. There’s a rabbit at
the side of the driveway having a late night snack, and a squirrel
on the fencepost munching on a pine nut. I had the yard mostly
covered now, so I paused to let that settle in.