Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) by Dave Renol (sad books to read .txt) 📗

jumping upand peering out the window. “It looks like some kind of brightflare.”

“GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!” Sara screamed asshe jumped up from her seat and tackled Carl.

Just as she hit him, I heard the sound ofbreaking glass, followed by Carl crying out in pain.

“Everybody get down and stay away from thewindows,” she continued frantically. “That was a rifle shot.”

“He wouldn’t dare!” I replied indignantly.But as I threw myself down to the ground, I thought, “I guess hedoes dare, the bastard.”

“My leg,” Carl sputtered, “I think I’ve beenshot!”

“Stay back, don’t cross the window. I gotthis,” Sara said.

I watched Sara drag Carl into the corner awayfrom the window as I tried to think of how I could help. “The firstaid kit dummy, reach out for the kit.” As I reached out with mymind to find it, I watched Sara pull out a folding buck knife fromher hip pocket. She wasted no time and started to cut away thejeans from around Carl’s wound.

Once I had the kit, I dropped it next to herand turned my attention to the window. A few mental tugs later, andI had the window blinds in place to block the snipers view of us.Feeling slightly safer, I made the move over to Carl to see howbadly he was hurt.

“Careful with that knife,” Carl saidnervously. “You’re pretty close to some sensitive bits.”

“Shut up and hold still,” Sara orderedcurtly. “If my knife ever slips down there it won’t be byaccident.” Wiping blood away from the wound she said, “It doesn’tlook too bad. It’s a simple graze with a bit of shrapnel fromsomething.”

Grabbing the kit, she quickly cleaned anddressed the wound. Finished, she crawled over to the window andreached out with the tip of her knife to rattle the blinds. Nothinghappened, so she crawled closer and peeked out of the lower cornerwhere there was a small opening.

“I can’t see anything. Take care of the otherwindows, make sure the doors are all locked, and keep out of sightat all times. Move now!”

I was a bit offended by her abrupt orders,but quickly dismissed that thought as childish. Someone had justshot Carl, and with her military background, Sara was the best oneof us to take command.

“I’ll take the south side, you gonorth,” Linda sent to me.

“On my way,” I shot back, alreadymoving. “Take care to wait a sec before moving past any windowor door that you touch, and keep low.”

“I’m way ahead of ya. Don’t forget thegarage.”

It only took a few minutes to block all ofthe windows and make sure everything was locked tight. With thatdone, I tried to think of what else we should do. “We needbarricades,” I sent to Linda. Without waiting for a reply, Istarted moving the heavier furniture pieces around to block off asmuch as I could.

Hearing the banging of the furniture, Sararushed out to the living room expecting to find combat in progress.Seeing what we were doing, she skidded to a halt and cheered. “Nowthat’s quick thinking, securing the access points. Did you buildany shields?”

Cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner,I started building up layered shields in front of each window anddoor. Linda ran back to the bedrooms, presumably to do the same.Once we had the house as safe as we could make it, we allreconvened back into the office.

“The bastard sent me a text message,” Sarasaid fuming.

HOPE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND SOON. LOVE YA.

Chapter 16

Linda: Under Siege

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Who intheir right mind does this kind of thing? Mark and Sara were bothpacing back and forth, one on each side of the office, like twinmetronomes. Sara kept pulling out her phone, starting to type, thenputting it away again swearing. She suddenly bolted out of theroom, returning a few moments later with a hand gun and a couple ofclips.

“I just remembered that we had this in thebag from our mountain trip,” she said happily.

Mark looked thoughtful but fairly calmconsidering what just happened, and that helped calm me down alittle bit. I decided to check on how Carl was doing. He lookedpretty bummed out, sitting there in the corner still nursing hiswound.

“Care for a dance?” I asked, squatting nextto him.

“Not funny,” he whined. “I’m dying here andyou’re making bad jokes.”

“Can I get you anything?”

“A glass of water would rock, maybe a pillowtoo.”

“I think you can crawl out of your corner ifyou want to,” Sara interjected. “What I got out of the assholeslast message is that he wants us to change our minds, so he’ll giveus some time to stew.”

“How long do you think?” Mark queried.

“I dunno, it could be an hour or it could bea full day. Either way, we need to come up with a plan in ahurry.”

“Son of a bitch,” Carl exclaimed. “Thebastard shot my laptop when he got me.”

Glancing over to where it lay abandoned nextto the window, I saw that he was right. The bullet had gone rightthrough the keyboard. That must have been the source of theshrapnel that Sara had removed from around his wound.

“That gives me an idea,” Mark said. Hestarted digging through his knapsack. “Here it is, my little travelwebcam. Let’s set this up in the window so we can get a viewoutside without poking our noses into the line of fire.”

“Excellent idea,” Sara proclaimed. Turningher head back and forth between Carl and me she asked “Do either ofyou have one also?”

“Mine was built into my laptop,” Carl said,shaking his head.

“Same with mine, but I might have an old onethat I used with my old machine. Let me check.” I pulled my box ofold computer stuff out of the closet and started rifling through itquickly. “Here it is,” I said in triumph. “Where do you wantit?”

“Let’s try the patio doors. That’s probablyour weakest point, and Mark’s cam should get a good view of thefront side from here.”

Agreeing, I grabbed my laptop and followedher over to the patio door. Even though we had the house sealed,Sara was cautious at the corners and I wondered if this was how sheacted when in a war zone. “Maybe we