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

can also make a prettygood guess on some of what we’re facing now too.”

“One sec,” I said. “Mark, Sara has somenew information that you two should probably hear.”

“Coming, dear.”

They came into the garage, Mark grabbing acouple of my old lawn chairs off the shelf for them. He neveroffered me one, but I didn’t want to interrupt things. Once theysettled, Sara began.

“Ok, here’s what I know and what I can guess.First off, I’ve located two firing positions. They’re far enoughapart that I doubt that Sid is going back and forth, so there’s atleast two teams out there. The sniper positions at each are basedaround a short horizontal log, with minimal proper camouflage,which tells me that Sid isn’t at either position and neither is anyranger.”

She took a swig of her coffee, grimacing atthe taste before continuing. “With the two positions set up to astandard below what Sid would accept, then that means that he’s ata third location and giving orders through someone else. In otherwords, he’s telling someone what, and leaving the howup to them. To me, that most likely means that there’s at least onesquad of troops split into two fire teams and probably gettingtheir orders through a staff sergeant.”

“What did he do, bring in the whole damnedarmy?” Carl asked.

“No, not the whole army,” Sara snorted. “Butwe’re looking at a minimum of nine people split up between fourpositions.”

“Four?” Mark queried. “You only mentionedthree spots.”

“He’s got someone at the cell towercontrolling it. I didn’t think that I had to mention that one sinceit’s obvious that he’s controlling the signal. I suppose it’spossible that his command post is set up there, but I doubt it.It’s too far away from the action, so to speak.”

“That’s some pretty impressive deduction,Sherlock. Scary too, if there’s really that many people out thereafter us,” Carl commented.

“That’s just the minimum actually. I peggedtwo fire teams on the same hillside, but that doesn’t mean thereisn’t more. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t put all their forceson just one side of us if they have a choice, so it’s highlyprobable that there are other teams in position on the other sideof us. That would be either troops split off from the two fireteams, or a second squad which would bring our assailants strengthup to seventeen.”

“Wow,” I said in awe. “Could he really havebrought so many people against us?”

“Yes, I’m afraid that he really could have.Now, everyone stay away from the windows and doors for a while.It’ll be dawn soon, and we’re about due for another round ofattacks. Only this time, I think I’ll get a little payback. Nobodyshoots at me and gets away with it.”

As if on cue, I felt bullets hit the shieldin the office, bringing it down. There wasn’t enough glass left tobreak in that window. “Shots in the office,” I reported.

“Hit in the master bedroom also. I’mrebuilding the shield as we speak,” Mark summarized.

With all of us avoiding the rooms takingfire, I had planned to just abandon the shields. After thinkingabout it for a moment, I started rebuilding the shield so thatthings would appear to be the same in case anyone was payingattention. With the attack over, we reconvened in the garage todiscuss things.

“I thought you said that you were gonna getsome payback?” Carl asked.

“Soon,” she replied. “I managed to spot thesnipers at both positions that time. By the time of the next attackit’ll be light enough out that I can use my regular rifle scope.I’ll bet ya twenty bucks that I can hit both bastards the next timethey poke their noses out.”

“How about a kiss instead,” Carl quipped.

“Please no. A heaving stomach is bad foraccuracy.”

“So now we wait?” I asked.

“Now we wait,” she confirmed. “Then we fightback.”

Chapter 19

Mark: Escalation

I’ll admit that I was fairly nervous aboutSara’s pronouncement of payback. It was true that these people wereshooting at us, but so far, nobody was seriously hurt. What Sarawas contemplating was murder, plain and simple. I had no doubt thatshe was capable of living up to her promise that whatever she aimedfor, she would hit.

The wait was killing me. Carl was no helpeither, as he was still trying to figure out how to repeat histelepathy trick. Other than that brief time during the night he wasunsuccessful in receiving any sends from me, and he stillcouldn’t figure out how to send on his own. I really wantedto figure it out, but it would have to wait until we had calmercircumstances in which to investigate.

Sara warned us that at some point, Sid wouldchange up his attack schedule. It would help to keep us unnervedand more likely to give up. It was getting close to the next fourhour mark now, so the predicted increase wasn’t likely to start fora while. Unlike us, the bastard was probably enjoying a goodnight’s sleep.

“Movement at the first sniper position,” Saracalled out. “Everyone stay under cover and get ready.”

The three of us huddled in the hallwaywaiting for the attack to commence. I started to build aproto-shield to replace the one that would inevitably go down, butwas interrupted by a loud bang from the garage. Sara had firedfirst. A mere second later and a second shot rang in my ears as shefired again. A pause of a few seconds and then a third, and finallya fourth shot.

“I tagged three of them for sure, but I thinkI missed the last one,” She crowed.

“Jesus, you killed three of them?” Carl askedin disbelief. Turning to me he added, “Remind me never to piss heroff, eh.”

“With a known target area at optimum range,perfect lighting, and no wind to speak of, it was child’splay.”

“I must admit though, that the second targetat the first position was a spot of luck. When I hit the sniperthere, his partner stuck up his head like an idiot and gave me atarget too tempting to resist. Anyway, leave me be for a minute,I’m trying to watch for anyone else.”

“If she’s taken out the snipers, then maybewe can make a run for it,” Carl opined. “We clear the barricadefrom the door and make a beeline