Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1)

by Dave Renol

  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.”

  “What if we run into anyone?” I asked.

  “Keep your distance, keep moving, and take a roundabout route to the pool if you have to. If the pool area is dangerous, then you and Mark will have to figure out a backup spot to meet at. Also, if you’re forced out of the trees, try not to fly in a straight line. Keep as evasive as you can and never ever stop to give them a stationary target.”

  Glancing at her watch she took a deep breath and said, “It’s time. We need to go now or it’ll be too dark before we get to the pool. Give us some shields and launch the dummy.”

  I quickly built the shields around Sara and myself and sent to Mark “I’m ready if you are.”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be. You take care, you hear?”

  “You take care too. I love you.”

  “Love you too. I’m clearing the window NOW!”

  On his ‘NOW’ I sent the dummy flying out of the window and turned it straight toward the tree line. Having only the mental ghost image of the forest to go by, I was rather proud that I only bumped the dummy into one tree. I took it into the forest for a good hundred yards before thinking that it was good enough. Rather than just dropping it, I decided to park it up high in the branches in case we managed to fool anyone. It was possible that someone might watch that tree for quite a while waiting for movement.

  “The dummy made it safe,” I squawked. “Get the door open and let’s do this before I chicken out.”

  Sara quickly pulled the door away and drew her pistol. “Go, go, go now!”

  We each picked up our respective partner and flew out of the door; Mark with Carl in the lead, Sara and I a few seconds behind them. I noticed that Mark had separated himself from Carl by a few yards, where I had stuck Sara almost on my back. I wasn’t sure which way would be safer so I just left it like that.

  Keeping in mind Sara’s order to stay evasive, I flew us in a random corkscrew pattern as I turned toward the stream path. I kept it up as best as I could, but once inside the trees it became fairly difficult. Risking a glance over at Mark, I saw that he was having a difficult time of it. I had plenty of experience flying with Sara up to the pool, but Mark had only taken a passenger a couple of times.

  He was forced to keep mostly to the open area, but at least he was dodging around well. Neither one of us tried taking our decoys into the woods. I was able to stay inside the trees, and even with all of my extra darting around between them, I kept up an even pace with Mark. Eventually this became harder to do as we started losing what little light we had. Reluctantly, I broke out of the tree cover and joined Mark above the stream.

  “Almost there hon, I think we made it!” I sent.

  “We can slow down now. We’ll take a quick break when we get there so Sara can tell us how to get to the spot she picked out for our refuge.”

  I nodded my agreement, realizing after the fact that he probably couldn’t see the gesture in what little light we had left. Before I could correct myself we came over the last rise into the pool clearing and the world exploded around us.

  A bright light filled my eyes and a mighty roar burst into my ears. It was instantly followed by intense pain, until finally I fell into darkness.

  Chapter 21

  Sara: Second Interlude

  Our flight from the house was the scariest thing that I’ve ever encountered. It was also the most exhilarating. Flying through the trees at a high rate of speed reminded me of that scene from Return of the Jedi where Luke and Leia were racing through the forest on hover bikes. I thought that my sidearm would be more useful during our flight, so I wore my Dragunov slung on my back. I was so enthralled with the flight that it made no difference.

  I had asked Linda to use plenty of dodging on our flight but WOW; she brought the art of evasion to a whole new level. She kept spinning through the trees for far longer than I could have hoped. I like to think I’ve got some guts, but if I was the one flying, I would have given up on the trees long ago. She damn near made it all the way to the pool.

  I figured that the next part of our flight would be slower, so I holstered my weapon so I could switch back to my rifle once we landed. It was by that bit of luck that I was looking away when we flew over the lip of the falls and into an explosion.

  I smelled burnt hair and felt wetness on my face as I flew into Linda’s back. The salty metallic taste telling me it was blood. We started falling, and I instinctively clenched my arms around her. “Get control, bring us up,” I screamed in her ear as I slid down around her.

  She looked unconscious but we stopped falling, so she must have been aware enough to hear me and react. Heartened, I peered around and saw the guys lying in the water below the pool. I wasn’t sure if they were alive or not, but we had to try and help them. I pulled my head up as close to Linda’s as I could and tried to push it over to indicate where to look. “Get the guys out of the water, we need to move before Sid and his cronies arrive.

  That was a bad move on my part, as her blood ran into my eyes and I desperately tried to blink them clear. Frantic, I was about to repeat myself when I saw the guys start to float up toward us. “Way to go, now get us up and over the next cliff. We’re not safe here.”

  Linda was still completely unresponsive in my arms and I realized that the blood that covered my face had come from her. As the four of us began rising as a group I felt like cheering. Hurt or not, my girl was tough! I shouted out the directions to the cliff side cave that I spotted last week, Linda steering us as directed almost before the command left my mouth.

  It wasn’t far, but with my ears ringing, blood in my eyes and mouth, and my arms going numb it seemed to take ages. We finally made it into the cave, where Linda unceremoniously dumped u
s to the floor. I crawled off of her, pulled my mag-lite out of my jacket and rolled her over. She was out cold with a badly bleeding gash across her forehead. I wiped off the blood with the back of my hand to get a better look and it didn’t look too terribly bad. Head wounds always seem to bleed a lot and look worse than they really were. She was breathing and that was the important thing.

  I crawled over to the guys, stripping the pack off my back as I went so I could get at the first aid kit inside. Other than some minor burns and scrapes, Mark seemed to be ok, just pale and unconscious. He looked sort of like he did after the plastique test knocked him for a loop.

  Carl started groaning at this point and began trying to sit up. I started to help him and, giving him the once over, noticed only a big bump on his forehead. “Are you all right?” I asked, concerned.

  “I think so,” he replied after taking personal stock. “What happened?”

  “Sid happened. We flew right into a trap.” Taking out a roll of bandages, I crawled back to Linda. “Help Mark,” I called back over my shoulder.

  Needing a rag, I ripped open the front of my shirt and cut out a large strip to use as a towel. I cleaned out Linda’s head wound, rinsing it liberally and wrapped it tightly with the bandage. She had bled quite a bit out of her nose as well, but the flow seemed to be slowing on its own already. Finished with the obvious wounds, I began inspecting her for other injuries. She seemed to be mostly ok, so I allowed myself to marginally relax.

  “How ya making out over there,” I inquired, wiping my own face with the makeshift towel.

  “I think we’ll live, but Mark is still out cold.”

  “Same with Linda, and if it’s like I think, they’ll both be down for a day or two.”

  Nodding his understanding, he began rooting through our gear. “Let’s see if we can get some beds or at least pillows for them.”

  “Good idea. Maybe that knock to your head broke loose some common sense. By the way, you might have a concussion so you shouldn’t go to sleep.”

  “What exactly happened out there? Did someone attack us or did we blunder into a trap?”

  “It could have been either. Someone could have been stationed there to watch for us and triggered the explosion. We slowed down toward the end and that might have thrown off their timing enough to keep us from eating the full force. It’s also possible that it was an unmanned trap and we just triggered a sensor, perhaps infrared. Either way, we underestimated the bastard and were far luckier than we deserve to be.”

  “Should we build a fire to help keep them warm?”

  “No, it’s too risky. This cave is too shallow to hide it and I don’t want to lead the bastard right to us. If he finds us before Mark or Linda are able to defend against him, then we’re as good as dead.”

  Carl stopped pulling stuff out of the packs and sat up, looking at me speculatively. “You were the only one conscious after the blast?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I was hanging below Linda and holding on for dear life the whole way here.”

  “If they were both out, then who flew us up?”

  “I was shouting instructions into Linda’s ear and she must have had enough awareness to follow my directions.”

  “Hmm, it’s possible but highly improbable. Are you sure that you didn’t do it yourself?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Linda’s just a lot tougher than you give her credit for. I think you must have cracked your coconut harder than we thought.”

  “Maybe,” he replied unconvinced. “If you recall, I had a brush with telepathy earlier. If I can do it, then it’s logical that you could too. Especially under stress, and I think it’s safe to say that plummeting toward the ground qualifies as stressful.”

  “Flying is like a dream come true. I would do anything to be able to fly, but I think you’re wrong. Linda was the one who saved us.” Despite my words, I silently tried to lift myself off the ground. I tried my hardest for several minutes but without success. Crushed, I turned back to tending Linda.

  Carl was surprisingly diplomatic and gave me the time to myself that I needed right now. We all teased and insulted him a lot, but that was just in good natured fun. He was really very smart and there was no doubt that he knew what I was thinking.

  We spent the rest of the night tending our charges. Linda’s blood was sticky and drying in my hair and I desperately wanted to give it a good washing. I was reluctant to use up our meager supply of drinking water though, no matter how icky I felt. I was pretty sure that both Mark and Linda were in shock, but there was nothing we could do for them tonight. Maybe after they recovered we could retrieve our decoys and salvage the clothes, if the coast was clear.

  That was highly unlikely. By now the bastard knew we had left the house, and the explosion up at the pool would have been clear as day, even if there wasn’t a man at the scene. It was frustrating as hell. By tomorrow morning, his men would be all over the area and there wasn’t a single thing we could do other than hunker down.

  I was freezing with my shirt half gone and my jacket covering Linda, but she needed it more than I did. With four packs full of gear, why didn’t I bring a damn spare shirt? Carl and Mark were worse off than I was, since they had gotten soaked from landing in the water after the explosion.

  Wet and cold was bad enough, but it could have been worse. If we hadn’t slowed at the last minute, then we would have either been at ground zero when the bomb went off, or we could have flown right into the cliff at full speed. I was too angry to feel lucky though; I wanted to murder the bastard with my bare hands.

  “It’ll be dawn soon,” I remarked quietly.

  “What’s your plan?”

  “I don’t know yet. There’s a bit of cover at the mouth of the cave so I can keep watch, but that’s all I can do. If I spot anyone, I can’t do anything or I’ll give away our position. The bomb going off is bound to bring them up to the pool, but hopefully we’re safe in here for a while.”

  “So we’re basically screwed until Mark and Linda are back to normal. That sucks.”

  “You’re supposed to be the genius. Why don’t you come up with a plan?”

  “Fine, ask them nicely to hold off on murdering us so I can properly research the problem.”

  I had to laugh at the deadpan way he said that. “Is Mark showing any sign of waking up?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “No, but if I had to make a guess, I would say he’s resting a bit easier. What about Linda?”

  “No change. She looks pretty rough.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be ok,” he consoled me.

  “I know it. As I said earlier, my girl’s far tougher than y’all give her credit for. Anyway, let’s get back to your question about my plan. I already mentioned that I’ll be keeping a silent watch, but I’m prepared to fight if we’re spotted. I have two full clips of ammo for my Dragunov and we also have the two 9mm hand guns with a total of four clips for those. From our position, we can hold them off in a firefight for quite a while”

  “What if they chuck a grenade at us or shoot a rocket?”

  “Then we’re screwed,” I said bluntly.

  “If I was screwed, then it must have been a marathon session,” Mark said weakly.

  “Mark, you’re awake! How are you?” Carl asked excitedly.

  “I’ve been better. What the hell happened? I feel like my head is going to explode. How’s Linda?”

  I quickly assured him that Linda was a little beat up, but otherwise fine. Carl helped him to sit up and drink some water while I went through my explanations. Finished, I sat back on my heels and waited for him to process everything.

  “I can’t think too well right now, I hurt too much,” he said. “I’ll need a while to recover, and it goes without saying that we’re not leaving until Linda is also on her feet. Keep going with your plan, I’m going to lie down before my brain starts to leak out of my ears.” With that, he crawled over to Linda and flopped down next to her.

  I watched him inspect
her wounds, touching them gently. He then wrapped his arms around her and was asleep again within moments. I looked outside the cave and saw the sun rise up over the mountains. I crawled over to the brush at the entrance with my Dragunov and settled in to watch and wait. It wasn’t over yet.

  Chapter 22

  Mark: Decisions

  “Go, go, go now!” Sara shouted.

  I was ready to go with both Carl and our decoys, determined to get out ahead of Linda. At Sara’s command, I shot through the door before her and headed for the hills. I knew that she was a better flier than me, so I decided to stick mostly to the edge of the trees where I could keep up my speed better.

  I kept expecting to feel a bullet in my back at any second, but it seemed that we made it out free and clear. I was even starting to get optimistic about our chances as we approached the pool and slowed down in order to land. Of course the world would pick that time to explode in my face.

  I awoke with a start and immediately regretted it. I carefully looked around, trying to figure out where I was. Dark – cave – a rock sticking in my back – pain. I couldn’t process much more than basics at the moment.

  “Then we’re screwed,” I heard Sara say.

  “If I was screwed, then it must have been a marathon session,” I said weakly.

  They explained things to me slowly, but it was still a little too much for me to handle right now. I asked them to continue doing whatever they could and crawled over to Linda. I held her in my arms and let sleep take me again.

  The next time I awoke it was brighter inside the cave. This wasn’t necessarily a good thing, as the light stabbing into my eyes instantly multiplied my headache. At least I could think this time. I thought that I was pretty thirsty.

  “Water,” I croaked weakly.

  Carl was slouched against the wall, but popped his head up at the word. “Hey, welcome back, eh!” he said quietly, as he shuffled over with a water bottle.