Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Rachel kept crawling away from the mansion.
Blacktop stretched in front of her. Was it taking too much of a chance to cross the road?
If a car came, they were done for. But getting to the other side of the country lane might be the only way to cut off the effects of whatever device Smith was using on them.
When she heard an explosion, she felt a stab of alarm. What was that? Had Smith set a trap for the other team? Not the same thing as this, but something more immediately deadly.
She turned her head toward Jake and saw him force words out of his mouth.
“Keep going.”
She glanced down the road, then reached to put a hand on the blacktop.
It was still warm from the day’s heat. Summoning an image of the Tarot Wheel of Fortune, she struggled to block out danger.
But tonight the card failed her. When she was halfway across the blacktop, she saw headlights bearing down on her.
Teeth clenched, she tried to move faster, but it was no good.
Her body was too weakened by whatever Smith had thrown at them.
There was simply no chance she could get out of the way in time.
The headlights came closer, blinding her.
Didn’t the driver see that there was someone on the pavement?
The vehicle was almost on top of her when she felt a strong arm grasp her and scoop her up. Jake pulled her to safety just as the car sped over the spot where she had been lying moments earlier.
She flopped to the gravel of the shoulder, gasping. Beside her, she could hear Jake’s breath sawing in and out of his lungs. She had lost track of him on the endless trip across what had seemed like a continent’s worth of pavement. But he had known where she was, and he had saved her.
She had feared that whatever device Smith had used would cause them permanent damage.
But as they lay limply on the shoulder, she began to feel her body returning to normal.
And as she’d hoped, Smith’s psychic defense shield only extended to the road.
Once they were out of range, they were free of the effects.
Sitting up, she looked across and saw Craig and Stephanie still sprawled on the far side of the divide.
She cupped her hands and called across. “Stay on that side, and we’ll get you.”
“Get as close to the road as you can,” Jake added.
She and her soulmate both stood. Can you hear me now? She silently asked.
Yes.
Thank God.
How about—you grab Craig, and I’ll grab Stephanie.
They were about to dash the way they’d come when a loud pop alerted them to a gunman nearby.
They both dropped to the ground. Looking up, Rachel saw a man running forward, firing as he charged toward Craig and Stephanie.
When they’d been on the other side of the road, Rachel and Jake had hardly been able to move. But her powers were coming back to her.
Centering herself, she tried to pull together enough power to do some damage.
As she readied herself to hurl an energy bolt, she felt Jake sending her power.
When the man with the gun spotted them, he swiveled the gun in their direction.
Before he could fire, she sent the bolt into his chest. A look of surprise bloomed on his face, and he staggered but held onto the weapon.
Knowing she had to put out more power, she gathered everything she had and struck him again.
This time, he fell to the ground and went limp.
Was he still a threat? She couldn’t be sure, and she couldn’t expend the energy to find out. If she was going to cross to the tainted side of the road, it must be for one purpose only—to pull the other members of the team to safety.
She glanced at Jake and caught his agreement.
They were about to go back to their original plan when the headlights of another car cut through the darkness.
They waited for it to pass before charging back across the road.
Immediately, she felt the debilitating effects of whatever anti-psychic force Smith was using.
But this time she was ready for it and had a better idea how to shield herself.
Nevertheless, it was almost impossible to pull Stephanie out of danger while staying on her feet.
She managed to do it because she had to. But she was wobbling on shaky legs by the time she made it across to the safe side of the blacktop.
She wanted to flop down, but she forced herself to keep going, and put more distance between themselves and any more guards who might come charging out of the house.
He only sent one guy, which means he’s short on help, Jake observed.
And that guy’s out of commission.
How many more does he have?
I’d like to know.
Beside her, Stephanie made a small sound, and Rachel looked down at her friend. In the dim light, she saw a dark stain on the left sleeve of her shirt.
“You’re hit,” she gasped.
Craig answered with a low curse and was immediately at his soulmate’s side, rolling up her sleeve.
She winced.
Sorry. I’ve got to find out the damage. After a careful inspection, he said, It looks like a through and through.
“And you’re unhurt,” Jake demanded.
“Yeah.” Craig was already opening the medical kit they’d brought and pulling out gauze. He slathered it with antiseptics and pressed it to Stephanie’s arm.
When she gasped, he apologized again
“It’s not so bad,” she assured him, before he secured the field dressing with a gauze strip.
The four attackers stayed hunkered down in the woods.
“We obviously didn’t expect a defense quite so sophisticated,” Jake muttered. “I wonder what’s happening with the other team.”
“There was a big explosion,” Craig said. “Let’s hope they’re okay. We’re supposed to be helping them,” he added, “but unless something changes, we can’t even get across the street.”
“What if we don’t try to go directly across? We can keep walking on this side until we find out where it’s possible to cross,” Rachel answered. “Then we have to work our way back and hope he doesn’t have the same kind of setup at the rear of the house.”
“Why would you assume he doesn’t?” Stephanie asked.
“Because we heard that explosion. If he needed to blow something up, that means he didn’t think he could stop them the same way he stopped us,” Jake answered.
The explanation made sense, and Rachel prayed that it was true.
* * *
Gabe and the three others who had been in the boat were still on the ground. “Everyone okay?” he asked.
One by one, they checked in. The shield had worked. There were no injuries.
When they dissolved the bubble, smoke drifted in around them, and he could hear everyone struggling not to cough.
“We’ve got to move and we’ve got to find shelter before he figures out the explosion didn’t get us.”
Switch to silent communications, Travis said.
Sorry, I...heard your warning, but I’m not so sure of myself with this mind-to-mind stuff.
Travis interrupted the other man sharing a body with him. I know you’re not used to it. Okay if I do it for you?
Fine.
Matt spoke. I remember the aerial Google view. There’s some kind of small structure up along the slope.
Gabe let Travis convey his thought. Let’s head for it. But be careful. I heard gunfire from the other side of the house. Someone must have been shooting at the road team.
I hope they could return fire with a mental blast, Elizabeth said.
They stayed low and silent as they moved up the hill. Gabe also remembered the small structure, but they had landed before he got a chance to orient himself to the property. And the smoke wasn’t helping. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be sure where they were going.
Olivia was the one who found the small building. As an artist, she had good spatial visualization, and she silently directed them to the right. They came to a small structure that stuck out from the hill. There was no wall on the front, but an iron gate barred the way to the interior.
Gabe looked up the hill, seeing the beams of three flashlights coming from the house.
They’re on their way to investigate, he silently told the others.
On it, Matt answered.
He, Elizabeth, and Olivia had formed a unit. They were doing something to the gate that Gabe couldn’t see.
As the lights drew closer, he sidestepped to the front of the building where the others were gathered.
He heard the gate creak as it swung to the side.
The rest of the group moved quickly inside.
The interior space was small and dank, but they managed to cram in, just as a beam of light reached the side of the building.
The barrier was already back in place, and the lights continued down the hill, all except one, which swung to the bars behind which they crouched.
As the light played over the opening, a hand reached out to try and rattle the gate.
Somehow it held fast.
Satisfied that nobody was inside, the searcher moved on, and Gabe let out the breath he was holding.
How did you pull that off? he asked, using the silent voice he had acquired so recently. I mean, why didn’t he see us when he looked through?
I painted him a blank canvas, Olivia answered.
And we held the gate in place with our minds, Elizabeth added.
She abruptly went silent because the men outside were speaking. They all sounded tough but also wary.
“See anything?”
“The dock is gone. So is any boat that landed.”
“If there was a boat.”
“Smith said he saw one coming.”
“I hope he didn’t destroy his dock for nothing.” There was a pause. “Wait a minute. There was a boat, and I see parts of it scattered around.”
“Any body parts?”
“Not so far as I can tell. But I don’t know how anybody on the boat could have survived that blast.
The light beams moved around on the grass.
“There’s a strange debris pattern here.”
“What do you mean?”
“See this circle? It’s totally clear.”
“Which means what?”
“It’s like someone put up a huge, iron umbrella to keep the stuff from falling on them.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Look for yourself. How do you explain it?”
“I can’t,” another man snapped.
“We’d better spread out and make sure nobody got away.”
As Gabe watched, the trio move apart. One of the men went to the right. The other to the left. The two of them disappeared from sight, but the third came back toward the little structure where the invaders were hiding.
When Gabe saw his face in the moonlight, the hairs on his arms began to prickle, and his skin tightened.
It’s Lambert, one of the bastards who chartered my boat like they were coming out for a day of fun on the water.
One of the same guys who put the weights on Olivia and me before throwing us overboard, Gabe added.
He had always prided himself on his ability to keep cool. Now the silent conversation was building up pressure in his chest that would have to explode or kill him.
He and Travis were in perfect accord—each of them feeding the other’s anger. This was one of the thugs who had killed them. And here was the perfect opportunity to even the score.
Some part of Gabe recognized that he was being reckless—that they were being reckless. But there was no way to pull back the tide of murderous rage surging inside him—inside them.
He felt Olivia’s hand on his arm.
Don’t. The voice of reason. Yet he couldn’t listen to her.
Before he fully realized what he was doing, he blew the gate off the entrance to the building.
As it landed with a clank on the manicured grass, Lambert drew his gun.