[Ganzfield 2] Adversary (2 page)

I laughed shakily, tilting up to meet his gaze again, warmed by the light within his eyes. “In my twisted subconscious, those baby chicks would become vicious monsters that would peck our brains out.”

Trevor laughed. “Probably.” He gave me a quick, sweet kiss. “You do have a dark side. You know what we could do—”

The sound of a gunshot cut him off. Hot agony ripped through me and I cried out. I was suddenly horribly awake—and back in the real world. Trevor was no longer beside me. I curled into the fetal position, overwhelmed by the excruciating, screaming pain. 

CHAPTER 2

In the pre-dawn dark, Trevor vaulted up to my loft in the old church. His hands gripped my face. “Maddie! What happened? What’s wrong?”

“It’s not me,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Drew’s outside. He’s shot.”

Trevor took a couple of sleep-muddled seconds to process that I wasn’t injured. Once everything clicked, he jumped back down to the main floor of the church and stuffed his feet into boots. Outside our front door, his best friend lay bleeding in the fresh snow, swearing and feeling stupid.

Trevor picked up Drew and quickly started off toward the infirmary. Drew was about the size and build of a bear, so it was a good thing Trevor could carry several hundred pounds telekinetically. As they left my mental range, my face muscles unlocked from their grimace. I took a deep breath.

Feeling other people’s pain was definitely one of the downsides of telepathy, and the sensation of a fresh bullet wound was probably the worst wake-up call ever. I’d sensed that Drew had gotten himself in the leg—a long, angry injury that ripped from the top of his outer thigh nearly to his knee. From the location, I assumed the gun had been holstered. I rolled my eyes; Drew should know better than to carry a loaded gun around. As a spark, he accidentally ignited things all the time.

On the plus side, he never needed to carry matches.

No stress—Drew’s wound was nasty, but it would be gone in a few minutes. I needed to give the healers a head start since I didn’t want to share his pain again. I used the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and pulled on some clothes. Grabbing Trevor’s coat along with my own, I headed out to the infirmary, flashlight in hand.

Drew looked up from the exam table as I came in. His red-haired, freckled bulk dwarfed tiny Matilda, who was just finishing with the bullet wound. I could feel the vicarious electric tingles from her healing ability working through Drew’s leg. She and I smiled a silent hi at each other, her white teeth flashing in bright contrast to her mahogany complexion.

“Sorry, Maddie.” Drew gave me a sheepish look.

I laughed. “Only in a weird place like Ganzfield would someone accidentally shoot himself, and then apologize to someone else.”

Trevor had carried Drew all the way from our church to Blake House in ten-degree weather wearing just a long-sleeved t-shirt and flannel PJ-pants, and his lanky frame still shivered. I hung his coat over a chair then slid my arms around him and rubbed his back. He sighed and leaned against me. Since he’s about ten inches taller than my little five-foot-three frame, we nearly toppled over, but his invisible hands steadied us.

“So, Drew, why were you coming over so early?”

He slid his feet to the floor, experimentally testing his leg as he put his linebacker-like weight on it. “It’s a go.”

Excitement flashed through me. “Today?”

“Yup. Williamson okayed it…
if
we get Frank and Greg to sign off. But here’s the catch.” I unfolded the sheet of paper he handed me and scanned it quickly. My eyebrows crawled up my face as I read.

I let out a long breath and handed the paper to Trevor. “I’ll go up and wake the rest of the team.”

*   *   *

“Give me ten minutes.” Hannah jumped out of bed.

“Give me coffee,” groaned Rachel. A few strands of her hair formed a static halo around her head as she lifted it from the pillow.

“Dining hall. Let’s make it twenty minutes.” I went down the hall and knocked on Grace’s door.

“Go away.” The voice dripped with charm resonance.

Save it for someone who’ll do what you say,
I thought directly into her mind. The unexpected mental contact shocked her awake.
Bring your documents. Team’s meeting in the dining hall in twenty.

“Documents?” She flung open the door. “You mean—?”

“We’ve got to pass Frank and Greg’s latest test, but when we do, it’s a go.”

Grace grinned. It was the first time I’d seen her smile in a while.

*   *   *

Drew was the last to join us; he’d needed to go to his locker down by the spark houses to find a pair of jeans without rips and bloodstains. Trevor finished reading Dr. Williamson’s note aloud to the others.

“Another scavenger hunt?” Grace scowled. “What’s the point?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.”

“We’ve been training for over a month now, and all we do is—”

“That’s training.” I cut her off. “And now, if we do this, we get a reward. C’mon. We all want to go, right?”

“This stuff just seems pointless,” Grace sulked.              

“It wouldn’t seem pointless to you if you’d been at Eden Imaging that night.” Drew was tired of her whining, as well.

“I’m sick of hearing about Eden Imaging all the time.” I saw deep red flecks of irritation rising from her—an aura of annoyance. “I’m
this
close to charming you all to shut up about it!”

Grace, DON’T threaten them with your ability.
My voice filled her head—dead-serious and cold.
Ever.

Grace paled and met my eyes as she realized what she’d said. “I wouldn’t really. You know that, Maddie.”

I nodded, but Rachel looked at Grace with loathing and even Drew leaned away from her. Refocus—we needed to work together. But the continual bickering, particularly between Grace and Rachel, made my head ache. “Okay, forget it. Let’s do this. I’m thinking Rachel finds Frank, and then Grace and I go talk to him.”

“He’s in his room.” Rachel wore her straight, blonde hair pulled back tightly from her face, making her look older and serious. She could pass for twenty-something, even though she wasn’t going to be eighteen for a few more months. I could see the RV connection in her mind; it looked like a golden thread of light to me. Rachel could locate things just about anywhere. She’d effortlessly found Frank in his home here at Ganzfield.

I gave Trevor’s hand a squeeze as Grace and I stood up. “We’ll be right back.”

“You want backup?” Something twitched in Trevor at the thought of separation.

“The fewer people he can charm, the better.” I would’ve preferred to do this solo, but I’d need Grace’s help if Frank noticed me in his head.

“What’s the plan?” she asked, once we‘d left the main building. It was later than it looked; reluctant grey light filtered through the trees as we walked to one of the smaller houses surrounding the old crossroads.
I can’t believe I said that—about charming them—after what Victor tried to make me do in the basement. But I’m so sick of being treated like an outsider…and no one likes me anyway.

Grace hadn’t meant for me to hear her thoughts. I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing I could stop feeling so much from everyone—just for a little while. I’d had the contents of so many people’s heads dumped into mine over the past few months. Most of the time, it was more than I wanted to know, I’d gotten better at pretending I didn’t sense what people were really thinking, so I responded to what she’d said aloud.

“I’ll see if I can get the intel without him knowing I’m there. But there’s a good chance he’ll figure out what I’m doing—he’ll be expecting me. I’ll signal you if I need help.”

We skirted around the newly-built access ramp at the back of the house. I could now hear Frank’s thoughts, bitter and familiar. He pulled on his second prosthetic leg, adjusting the support straps above his knee. Pain painted his memories purple. He flashed back to his last day with military intelligence in Baghdad when his second tour had been cut short by the explosion of a roadside IED. The injuries no longer hurt him physically—Morris had seen to that the day Frank had returned to Ganzfield. He’d come straight from the military hospital at the end of December—more than a month ago. Frank paused, refrained from throwing the prosthetic across the room, and then tightened the strap across his thigh and reached for his crutches.

Get close to the window,
I thought to Grace. Snow muffled our footsteps.

What does the team need to know for today’s training mission?
I floated the thought lightly into Frank’s head.

Frank stiffened. “Nice try, Maddie.” His head filled with images of a brick wall and an old Pink Floyd song.

Crap.

Okay, Plan B.
Grace, charm him to think about what we need to know.

“Franklin Summers! Don’t say another word to us. Think about what we need to know!” she charm-yelled at the window. Quick surprise flashed through Frank—he’d assumed I’d come alone. He hadn’t even tried to charm me, since he knew I was immune to his ability. Now the image of a cloth bag hanging from a tree filled his thoughts.
Where is it?
I thought strongly into his mind. No need for stealth anymore. I recognized the path near the front gate.

We were never here
, I thought to Grace.

“Forget we were ever here, Frank!” she yelled. Frank’s thoughts returned to the pain of that last day in Baghdad. I bit my lip. Should we give him a happier train of thought? No. Pleasant emotions might make Frank suspicious. We left him with his memories.

Okay, This wasn’t as elegantly executed as I would’ve liked, but at least we had the next step. I touched Trevor’s mind with mine as we returned—our special connection gave me a larger range with him than with other people.
Time for a walk in the woods.

Rachel’s ability took us into the maze of grey, leafless trunks and dark evergreens. We moved without talking; when we trained, I used my ability to relay instructions to everyone. The team knew how to frame thoughts into words so I could read them clearly, although most still felt uncomfortable with me in their heads.

The sky had lightened further by the time I sensed the two charms in a hunter’s blind. I recognized their minds: Alex and Josh. The cold of inactivity seeped through both of them, giving me sympathy shivers. I wondered what they’d been offered to undertake guard duty. Most people at Ganzfield refused to train against us anymore.

I smiled. In a way, that was a huge compliment—we’d gotten that good.

Rachel’s ability cast an invisible golden halo around the little bag high above the little shelter, impaled to the trunk with an arrow.

Two guards. Charms,
I silently told the team.

Trevor met my eyes.
I’m ready to try it.

I nodded. We watched as he moved in behind the blind with careful steps. My heart pounded faster, but it was with excitement, not fear. Actually, with no real threat present, training was kinda fun. It was like playing an unusual sport where the rules could change if we thought of another way to do things. We’d come up with new ways to use our abilities to gather intel, scale walls, and disarm or disable our opponents. To think that a few months ago, my biggest challenges had been exams in Mr. Storrs’ A.P. history class.

Trevor threw out his telekinetic hands as he slid around the side of the shelter. The startled charms didn’t have time to react before Trevor’s invisible grip covered their mouths and pushed them back in their seats. Their shock flashed sunrise colors brightly through their minds.

It worked!
Trevor’s yellow-green thrill of joy brought a smile to my lips. I jumped up to join him, trailed by the rest of the team.