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

“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 windowNOW!”

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

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

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

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

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

He was forced to keep mostly to the openarea, but at least he was dodging around well. Neither one of ustried taking our decoys into the woods. I was able to stay insidethe trees, and even with all of my extra darting around betweenthem, I kept up an even pace with Mark. Eventually this becameharder to do as we started losing what little light we had.Reluctantly, I broke out of the tree cover and joined Mark abovethe stream.

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

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

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

A bright light filled my eyes and a mightyroar 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 scariestthing that I’ve ever encountered. It was also the mostexhilarating. Flying through the trees at a high rate of speedreminded me of that scene from Return of the Jedi where Luke andLeia were racing through the forest on hover bikes. I thought thatmy sidearm would be more useful during our flight, so I wore myDragunov slung on my back. I was so enthralled with the flight thatit made no difference.

I had asked Linda to use plenty of dodging onour flight but WOW; she brought the art of evasion to awhole new level. She kept spinning through the trees for far longerthan I could have hoped. I like to think I’ve got some guts, but ifI 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 flightwould be slower, so I holstered my weapon so I could switch back tomy rifle once we landed. It was by that bit of luck that I waslooking away when we flew over the lip of the falls and into anexplosion.

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

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

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

Linda was still completely unresponsive in myarms and I realized that the blood that covered my face had comefrom her. As the four of us began rising as a group I felt likecheering. Hurt or not, my girl was tough! I shouted out thedirections to the cliff side cave that I spotted last week, Lindasteering us as directed almost before the command left mymouth.

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