by Darrell Bain
Jeannie waited impatiently until Jimmy let her know the rescue party was ready and went into her act. Her part of the plan was to keep Sharko distracted. From looking into his mind, she knew exactly how to do that. Jimmy hadn't mentioned that the rescue party was only two men and he and Amber.
If it wasn't for the seriousness of their situation, Jeannie would have laughed at the dumbstruck expression on Sharko's face as she slid off the bed and began disrobing, taking her time about it.
"What the hell're you doing?” Sharko asked, staring at her as she unbuttoned her blouse and took it off. She looked at it a moment then dropped it to the floor.
"I'm sleepy and getting ready to go back to bed. Want to join me?” Jeannie yawned theatrically and sat on the edge of the bed, making a production of sliding her tight fitting jeans down past her hips. She slowly removed each of her legs in turn from the jeans. She stood up and kicked them away, clad now only in a skimpy bra and panties.
"Get your clothes back on, girl,” Sharko said. His breathing and pulse had speeded up noticeably. He got up from his chair.
"I told you, I'm going to bed. I always sleep naked. Of course, I sleep a lot better after sex. How about it?” She reached behind her and unhooked her bra, again taking her own sweet time. She smiled at Sharko as it slowly slipped free of her breasts. She dangled it by one of the straps for a moment before dropping it to the floor. She alternated her thoughts, reaching out to Jimmy, then Brazos and last to Sharko, trying to time everything right. Jimmy was at the front door with Tarker while Amber was at the back with Ray. Jeannie was astonished that there was no one else. She held back the fright at the uneven odds by sheer determination. In the office, she was tuned to Brazos’ thoughts as he put down the phone, having reached a decision.
Hurry! Jeannie screamed silently to her friends. He's made up his mind! As if in a dream, she snaked her panties down to her knees and let them fall. They puddled around her feet. She concentrated on Sharko. He was wavering, wondering if he could get away with going to bed with his captive. She had a great figure for one so young. The bikini tan lines only enhanced it, making her more alluring. He stood mesmerized as she slowly walked toward him. He had a vagrant thought that something was wrong, but, by then, his lust had the upper hand. He ignored it and let the naked young girl lead him to the bed.
* * * *
Brazos pulled out his handgun. It was time to get away from this place. He was aggravated with himself for allowing Sharko to talk him into staying this long. They should have left immediately. From what he had heard though his hidden microphones and what his outside contacts were telling him, a virtual army had descended on his long-standing refuge. Even now, feds and cartels and God alone knew how many others were mixing it up there. He knew some of his people would surrender rather than die defending his interests. They would talk. In other areas of the city, his perceptive children were being taken into custody, mostly by feds but some by his enemies. The only safe place for him now was across the border. He would take the girl, one way or another, but not her parents. It would be too dangerous. Best to dispose of them in case the little mind reading bitch had managed to pass his thoughts to them. He stepped out of the office and was heading toward the bedroom where they were being held when a disconcerting noise stopped him. He turned and saw the back door opening. He ran.
* * * *
It felt strange to Tarker to have a girl still a few months short of fourteen years old coming along on a crash-and-shoot mission, but there was no help for it. The increasingly urgent messages being relayed by Jeannie brooked no delay. It took him a couple of minutes to bypass the alarm system and get the back door unlocked. Ordinarily, he would have had a specialist for that kind of thing with him, but again, there had been no time to get a proper crew together. He pulled his weapon and motioned for Amber to stand to one side, even as she whispered urgently to hurry.
Tarker pushed the door open with his foot and immediately heard footsteps. A second later, he heard the shout. Amber screamed.
"Kill them quick and get out of there!” Brazos yelled to the guard as he threw open the door to the room where the Burgers were being held. He ran on, trusting the distraction would give him time to get to the garage. He stopped at the bedroom where Jeannie Burger was being guarded by Sharko, turned the knob, kicked the door open, and stopped dead in his tracts.
Sharko was entangled with the girl on the bed. Both of them were naked, with Sharko on top. His mind raged at the betrayal. His gun was already out. There was no time now to untangle them and grab the girl. All he could do was try to save himself, but he was so angry that he couldn't resist. He already had his gun pointed in their direction. He fired three quick shots at the bodies and ran toward the garage again. Behind him, he heard the girl scream in agony. Good. If he couldn't use her, no one else would, either.
Jeannie had been hit in the leg by one of Brazos’ bullets, but that wasn't why she screamed. Her parents had just been shot to death.
* * * *
The guard who had killed the Burgers ran out into the hallway and immediately died in a blaze of gunfire from Tarker and Amber. Tarker had no time for prisoners, and Amber wouldn't have taken the man captive under any conditions, not after she mentally witnessed the two minds dying at the gunman's hand. “Sharko's dead, but Jeannie's hurt,” Jeannie said, her voice fast and shrill with excitement. One of Brazos’ shots had blasted away the back of Sharko's skull.
Tarker hardly hesitated. Amber's word was good enough for him. He had caught a fleeting glimpse of someone else running toward the front of the house and followed quickly. It could only be Brazos. Behind him, Amber heard Jeannie's cry and ran to help her, trusting Tarker or someone else to take care of Brazos.
Brazos got to the garage exit then suddenly realized that not only had Sharko had been carrying the keys to the car, but also that the garage door was closed. The only escape now was out the front. He whirled and ran toward that door. He was just in time to be sandwiched between Jimmy and Ray, who were already through the door, and Tarker coming up from behind. His cold, reptilian mind decided to kill or die, but he had to stop to take aim.
Jeannie was following Brazos with her thoughts even through the pain of her wound and relaying them to Jimmy instantaneously.
It wouldn't have mattered because Brazos was in such a rage that Jimmy could follow his mental presence easily. He knew the agony the man had caused Jeannie, both physically and mentally, in the last few moments. “Down, Tarker,” Jimmy yelled and began firing at Brazos at the same time.
Tarker was very fortunate that one of Jimmy's shots didn't hit him. His first two impacted the gangster squarely in the chest, but the final one passed over Brazos’ head as he fell. Tarker was already lying prone. His alert mind had followed Jimmy's orders without hesitation. Neither Ray nor Brazos fired a shot. Jimmy had been too quick.
"Jeannie's hurt. We've got to help her,” Jimmy exclaimed as he shoved his gun back into his belt, feeling the warmth of the barrel against his body like a comforting hand. He didn't know what room Jeannie was in, but Tarker did. He followed him then shoved him aside as Amber touched minds with him again, urging him on. He ran, both to help Jeannie, but even more importantly to be in Amber's physical presence. He had been mortally afraid something would happen to her during the fight. He ran into the room where Jeannie lay on the bed beside Sharko's body. Amber was trying to stop the bleeding from Jeannie's thigh with a bunched up portion of the sheets. He grabbed some more of the sheet and leaned over beside Amber so that their bodies could touch like their minds were already doing.
Tarker and Ray, both much better versed in emergency wound treatment, took over from the youngsters. A minute later, Tarker said, “The bullet didn't hit the bone or puncture an artery. Help me, Ray."
Between the two men they quickly got torn pieces of the sheet wrapped around Jeannie's leg.
"We have to get out of here. The neighbors aren't that close, but they're bound to have heard t
he gunfire. Let's go."
They all hurried to the street and toward Ray's car, Tarker carrying Jeannie in his arms, her body draped with a sheet. A couple of people at the other end of the street stood outside doorways or peeked from windows as they piled in the car and sped away, but none of them were near enough to read the license plates. They made a clean getaway, but that didn't stop Ray from disposing of the car just to be safe.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We've sure lived in a lot of different houses lately, Amber said. She and Jimmy were sitting together in an easy chair at the latest place, Amber in Jimmy's lap.
Pat and Bailey also sat together on the couch across from them. Ray had just arrived, and he was still standing and trying to get used to the idea of how he could now communicate so easily with the family mentally.
"This ought to be about the last one,” Ray said vocally. “So many people have tried the nerve agent and Benadryl combination that even the government realizes there's no danger.” He shook his head ruefully. “Just add Benadryl. It sounds too damn simple, but the proof is in the pudding, pardon the pun. Of course, governments will try to exert control, but it won't work. There's already so many mind readers in the world now that you original ones are no longer unique, other than that the media still wants the story of how you were the first ones. That will probably die down though. By the way, Bailey, now that the research is being done in the open, I'm getting reports that the reason your three kids didn't develop their mind reading ability right at first was the lack of a sufficient number of synapses. They probably had the latent ability, but it took some aging and experience before manifesting. That's what I was told, but as I said some time ago, most of the technical stuff passes me by. Does that sound right to you?"
"I had about concluded the same thing myself,” Bailey told him with a smile. He squeezed Pat's hand. The kids had been right; there was nothing a normal person could compare telepathic bonding with.
Ray looked around the room, counting heads. “Where's Jeannie, by the way?"
"She's coming,” Amber said. “She had a doctor's appointment."
Jeannie walked into the room, looking very much better than she had a couple of months ago. She had been working with Bailey in counseling sessions at first, but as soon as he found another psychologist who could read minds, he turned her over to him. Her attitude had improved tremendously, helped by the prospect of now having a chance to find a partner to pair with like Amber and Jimmy. She still envied them their closeness and utter happiness, but she no longer resented them.
"Doctor Menlow has gone back over all our records, Bailey. He says I won't have any more problems, but he still wants Doctor Simpson to see me once a month for a while.” Menlow and Simpson were married and practiced together, but they used separate names to avoid confusion.
"Great,” Bailey said. He smiled at his soon to be foster daughter. He and Pat had decided to take her into their home as well as Jimmy.
"I'm glad to hear you're getting along well, Jeannie. Tarker sends his regards also,” Ray said. He realized he was still standing and took a seat.
"Where is Mister Blackmon?"
Ray scanned the room, his expression bland. “Don't ask. In fact, don't even think about him if you can help it. And all of you, keep what you know of Project Omega to yourself. I doubt we can maintain complete secrecy for too much longer, but the less said about us the better. We still have lots of work to do."
"You look like the cat that ate the canary, Ray. What other tidings do you bring?” Pat asked.
Ray nodded affirmatively. He opened the briefcase he had brought in and removed a sheaf of papers. “These papers are the deed to your new home, your bank accounts, drivers’ licenses, and so forth. I'm sorry the FBI confiscated them, but it's all right now. The government finally had to admit all that fighting at Brazos’ mansion was connected to the perceptive kids and the mind reading stories. You'll also be glad to know that the last of the perceptive kids was finally rescued from the gangsters. They were way down in Columbia."
"Wonderful!” Pat exclaimed. She smiled at first, but it faded as she remembered that two of the children had also died in rescue attempts.
Bailey went over and took the papers. When he sat back down, he and Pat exchanged glances. Then he turned to Ray. “Thanks. You've been a good friend. However, we've about decided to move back to Arkansas. Not to Mountain Grove, but another small city in the area. I think we'll all be more comfortable there."
"Is there anything in particular that brought on that decision?"
Bailey removed his glasses and polished them, promising himself to get that eye surgery, first thing. “This has all been very traumatic, for us as well as the kids. But putting that aside, Pat and I think there's going to be some giant upheavals in the world. We'd prefer to be back in familiar territory while it happens."
"I can see your point, Bailey and you really don't know the half of it. It will get worse before it gets better. You can't have a great paradigm shift like most of the race becoming telepaths without a lot of change."
"Telepaths. That sounds so science fictionish,” Pat said.
Ray laughed along with everyone else. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You know, I think I'll buy a home somewhere in that area, too. It would be good to come back to when I'm not off on a mission."
"Come visit when you can. Just don't stumble over the kids when you do. We decided to take you up on that idea of home schooling,” Pat warned him.
"I'm going to study just like this,” Amber said from Jimmy's lap. She leaned down to meet his lips with hers. In a moment, she looked back up. “School will be lots more fun now. Especially recess!"
Ray laughed. “See what I mean? Lots and lots of changes."
Amber and Jimmy shared his mirth, but their minds were merged and there was no disagreement. They both knew that for them, the major changes had already occurred.
THE END
* * *
Visit double-dragon-ebooks.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
