Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) (20 page)

Calmly, she picked up her knife and got to
her feet. She walked over to where Sid was lying, either unwilling
or unable to get up. Then she bent down and slit his throat with
two quick slashes, one on each side. She stared at him for a long
moment before standing and giving him a kick to the ribs.
“Payback’s a bitch, asshole,” she said, before turning and walking
back to the house.

She knelt down by my head and checked me for
injuries. “You’re looking a little rough, but we need to get you
out of here. In case you didn’t notice, your house is on fire. Can
you walk?”

I tried to answer, but all I could do was
groan in what I hoped was a negative fashion. Apparently it was
good enough as she got to her feet in preparation to dragging me
away. She paused for a moment in the act of grabbing my shoulders,
stood, and floated me a foot off of the ground.

“I guess I didn’t imagine it. I
did
use your ability at the end of my fight with Sid. Carl was right
back at the cave; I guess I’ll have to give him an apology the next
time I see his ugly face.”

She brought me away from the house and set me
down in the thick grass near the road. “It’s over now girl, we’re
safe. You don’t seem to be bleeding anywhere, so I think you’ll be
alright. Sid’s grenade knocked you for a loop just like last time,
but it’ll pass.”

As she held my head in her lap comforting me,
I noticed that the fire in my house was starting to spread. It was
heartbreaking, to see my lovely home about to go up in flames, and
I began crying. Suddenly it hit me – there were still the two
wounded soldiers in my bedroom. Giving it everything I had left, I
managed to get the words out: “people inside.”

She looked quizzically at me for a moment and
then her eyes flew wide open with understanding. She gently lowered
my head down to the ground and rushed toward the house. Smoke and
flames were belching forth from the doorway by this point, but she
charged straight through them.

I heard the sound of tires on the gravel road
now, but couldn’t raise the strength to turn and see if it was a
new danger approaching. I heard a car skidding to a stop, the slam
of a door, and then the most beautiful sound that I’ve ever
heard.

“Linda, are you ok?” Mark asked.

My tears became tears of joy as he fell to
the ground and wrapped his arms around me. I wanted to tell him how
much I loved him, but didn’t have the strength.

“Medic, we need help over here! Hurry!” he
shouted.

Two medics converged on me and pushed Mark
out of the way. One began going over my body checking for injuries,
while the second began wrapping a brace around my neck. I saw the
sheriff who was bent over Sid suddenly look up at my front
door.

“People at the house, help them quick!” I
heard someone shout. Focusing on the doorway, I saw Sara on the
porch with the two soldiers from inside. The medic who had just
installed the brace on my neck got up and ran to assist, as well as
the person who had shouted. It was one of the policemen from town.
They shouldered Sara off to the side and pulled the two men away
from the fire.

Mark returned to me with a blanket and slid
it gently under my head. “Rest easy, dear, it’s all going to be ok.
I’m here with the sheriff, a deputy, and an ambulance. The fire
department is on the way, along with every police officer and state
trooper within a hundred miles, if I heard the sheriff right.”

“We need some help over here, these men have
been shot.” The officer called out from where they were tending the
two men.

“Watch her closely and yell out instantly if
you think anything is wrong,” my doctor said brusquely to Mark
before rushing off to help.

Sara made her way over to us and dropped down
beside me. “What a mess,” she said in a disgusted tone of voice.
“Glad you could finally join us,” she added to Mark.

“Sorry, we got arrested in town. It’s a long
story and not important at the moment.” Glancing around quickly he
continued in a whisper, “What happened while I was gone? Why didn’t
you wait in the cave?”

Sara gave him the abbreviated version of our
adventure while Mark just kept shaking his head at the stupidity of
our assault.

When she finished her story, Mark commented
“All I can say is that you two have more luck than brains. You’re
both lucky to be alive right now. Don’t even think of pulling such
a
stupid
stunt ever again!”

“No worries on that count, I’m fresh out of
asshole husbands now.”

Sirens blaring, the road and lawn in front of
my house started filling up with emergency vehicles. More medical
staff rushed out to assist with the wounded men and also with me.
Two fire trucks disgorged their operators and began pumping water
on the blaze that was once my lovely home. Sara went over to where
the police were gathering and began telling them about the guards
in the area that needed to be picked up.

Now it’s over, I thought to myself as they
placed me on a gurney and hauled me off to a waiting ambulance. For
the first time in days I felt safe. The cost had been great, but we
had won. More importantly, we were all still alive to enjoy it.

Linda:

“Welcome home!” they all shouted at me as I
stepped through the door of Mark’s house. Technically, my home was
a pile of burnt cinders, but the warm welcome here from my friends
made it a non-issue. Home is where the heart is, and my heart
belonged here now.

I had just spent the last week in the
hospital due to my injuries, and a welcome home party with Mark,
Sara, and Carl was the perfect thing to cheer me up. They had all
come to visit me in the hospital of course, but this was the first
time that we had all gotten together at once.

By unspoken agreement, we had held off in
relating our various parts of the story until we could all gather
together. As we got caught up with details from everyone to make a
whole, the experience started shifting away from nightmare and
toward a unique bond between us. What happened out there was a tale
that nobody who didn’t live through it would believe.

I laughed at Carl’s description of what
happened to get them arrested, and how it took them all day to
convince the cops that they weren’t lunatic armed thugs. Sara
continued to make digs at him, but in a warmer manner than I’ve
seen her exhibit before. If I didn’t know better, I would swear
that they might become a couple soon.

I felt completely fine and to be honest,
didn’t think that I needed to stay in the hospital for even a
single day. Now that I was home with Mark and my friends, I was
more than happy to let them pamper me. The state of shock they
found me in on the day of the fire was due to the strain placed on
me from the overuse and abuse of my new abilities.

At least that was all over and done with now;
any future experimentation could be done in a safe and controlled
manner. For a while, at least, we could turn to more mundane
matters like designing my new house. The media had raised quite the
buzz over how a military unit on a training exercise could have
made such an egregious error in shooting up a civilian residence.
The lawsuits would be legendary, they predicted.

I wasn’t sure how much attention we wanted
though. It might be for the best to try and let it quietly fade
away. Either way, we could relax for a while.

Mark:

It was good having Linda home with me. The
last week with the media piranhas descending on me every time I
stepped outside was almost as bad as the previous week and our
fight for survival. A story like this comes along once in a
lifetime, they claimed, and it had drawn the press from all across
the country.

I was still upset that Linda and Sara were
forced to take on Sid and his troops without me. It felt like I had
failed, and all due to a stupid misunderstanding in that donut
shop. If I hadn’t been recognized by that one clerk who was a fan
of my books, we might still be rotting in jail.

If Linda had gotten herself killed in that
insane attack, I’m not sure if I could have ever forgiven myself. I
still felt a little bad that Sid was killed, and more so for Sara
who had to do the deed. She may have been a battle hardened
veteran, but it couldn’t have been easy. She seemed to be taking it
well though.

Carl seemed especially subdued ever since he
got out of jail. He blamed himself and his stupidity for getting
caught with a gun and ruining our chance to bring help in a timely
fashion. At least he had all the charges against him dropped after
the sheriff had seen for himself that we were telling the truth.
The sheriff might have been a small town redneck, but he was far
from stupid.

Glancing around the room, I was glad that
Linda seemed to be enjoying herself immensely with our little
surprise party. She had looked to be in really bad shape as they
took her away in the ambulance, but thank God that her injuries
were superficial. I was worried that she might want to avoid using
our unique new abilities, but she quickly dispelled that notion in
the hospital with a telepathic greeting of love.

Not wanting to be overheard talking about
what
really
happened out there, we engaged in several long
silent conversations during her recovery. The media bulldogs
hanging around the hospital mistook our silent conversations as
simply being content to be with each other. They ran it as a
lovey-dovey piece for days after I proposed to her.

I was still eager to examine our psionics in
detail, but was determined that it would be in a safe and
controlled environment from now on. Carl and Sara had both
expressed a desire to continue on the course we started, but had no
objections to taking things slower and safer. It was good to have
friends that you could count on.

Major Matt Hatter:

I escaped the Colonel’s office with relief.
Even though I wasn’t directly involved in the ‘training exercise’
shit storm, I was the one who had signed off on the orders allowing
it and so was held responsible.

What a mess! Sid and another soldier killed,
two more injured, along with civilian injuries to boot. If Sid
hadn’t been killed there, I would probably shoot him myself. To
make matters worse, I now had orders to go down there and take
control of the situation.

I was to investigate the chain of events that
led a training unit to attack a civilian residence and find out who
would be assigned the blame during the formal inquiry. Reparations
alone would be astronomical.

Reaching my own office, I flopped down into
my chair and pulled out the bottle of scotch that I kept in my desk
drawer for emergencies. I poured two fingers’ worth into my glass,
shot it back quickly, and refilled it to sip normally as I pulled
out Sid’s final letter to me. I had to read it three times to make
sure I understood the implications of what he had written down.

It sounded insane, yet had the ring of truth
behind it. I must have sat there for over an hour, deep in thought,
my drink forgotten. If Sid was right, then the meaning was
frightening; it would have to be investigated very carefully. With
the eye of the media on us, extreme caution would have to be
exercised if I was to find out the truth.

Perhaps Sid didn’t die in vain … perhaps his
death could be avenged.

Book 2: Blood Magic

Mark, the psionic scientist, continues his
investigation into the abilities that he acquired along with his
fiancée Linda during the strange lightning storm. Along with their
friends Carl and Sara, who helped them along the path to discovery,
they delve deeper into the root causes behind it.

However, a series of brutal murders in their
small town, that rarely sees any crime, has put them into the
spotlight again. The investigating sheriff noticed a similarity
between the new murders and the corpse of Sid Jensen, who was found
at what is now known as the ‘
Valley Battle Site’
.

To make matters worse, Major Matt Hatter from
Fort Bragg is in town to investigate the incident, but seems more
interested in watching Mark and Linda. Shadowed by both police and
military observers, they will have to be extra careful if they are
to avoid having their secrets revealed.

###

Afterword

I would like to thank you for reading this
book. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review where you
purchased it. It would be greatly appreciated. You can also contact
me: [email protected] with any comments, feedback, or
suggestions.

David J. Renol, Feb. 2012