Accused (Ganzfield) (26 page)

And you’re thinking about sparkly vampires.
Seth’s thoughts crackled with anxiety.

Any new developments?

The reinforcements will be here in about twenty minutes. Hey, go more to the left—you’re already too loud.

Suck it up. I’m not shielding today. Wait, did you say twenty minutes? They’re early!

When armored vehicles from Homeland Security break the speed limit, the cops don’t pull them over.

Does Williamson know?

I just radioed him.

I frowned.
They listening in on your transmissions?

Yeah, of course they are; they’re federal agents. We have a code.

I rolled my eyes.
I doubt your cipher’s too sophisticated for the FBI. I mean, Williamson’s access code’s still an odd-number countdown.
We were used to talking directly into each other’s heads—verbal subtlety wasn’t something we’d practiced, aside from phone calls with Coleman.

Whatever. He knows they’re coming. They have a smaller contingent going around to the back gate. We’re getting the bulk of the forces up front here. And they plan to fly in four helicopters and land them in the middle of the field. They’ll deploy from there to surround the buildings.

My breath hitched in my chest as I imagined the most vulnerable people of Ganzfield surrounded by armed men swarming from lethal-looking helicopters. My mom, Sienna, Rachel, Matilda and Morris, the other RVs. We’d left the two youngest charms—Tyler and Becca—there, as well. They were cousins, both fifteen, and some of their relatives had been killed in the helicopter attack in February.

If things went wrong today, would their family be mourning more of its children?

Trevor pulled me closer to his side.
It’ll be okay. The sparks will keep them safe. Jonah’s leading that group and he’s good. He’ll take care of them all.

We reached the wall. The area next to it was open, wide enough for the dirt road that ran around the perimeter. The rest of the group followed us out of the trees. Trevor’s invisible arms closed around me. I felt Seth’s minder-loud thoughts over to my right, on the far side of the gate.

Cecelia stood next to Michelle, the other new charm, who crackled bright orange with nervous energy. She’d only arrived here in August and now, before the first semester was over, she was out in the cold defending the place from an armed attack by federal agents.

Welcome to Ganzfield.

Let’s get this thing started!
Drew’s enthusiasm flared brightly around him.

Harrison’s anxiety tinted him mustard yellow.
I don’t want to let Drew down.
At sixteen, he was the youngest spark at the front gate. The other sparks were ready—I felt the energy building within them, charging them like batteries. We had Melanie and Kelly McFee, as well as Katie Underwood and her cousin Devon. Mel and Katie looked bulky in the remaining Kevlar vests.

Apparently, chivalry was alive and well for sparks.

Heather McFee was here as our medic. Her small backpack stuck out at a strange angle on top of the Kevlar. I knew it contained some medical supplies—like scalpels—she might need to speed the removal of bullets.

Bullets.

Ah, hell. This had gotten much too real. I swallowed hard and wiped my palms on my pants.

Just outside the gate, Hunter barked into his phone, coordinating final positions with the incoming reinforcements. Something pinged as an incoming message loaded onto his laptop. How was that happening? I couldn’t get wi-fi or cell reception anywhere around here. It must be a special Homeland Security uplink or something.

The photo in the email finished loading and I gasped as I saw what’d come through.
Crap! There goes the element of surprise.

Our little group at the front gate showed up in the surveillance photo—human-shaped dots against the grey-brown leaf litter on the dirt road by the wall.

Hunter chuckled.
They’re more dangerous than I thought—they must know about today’s operation. Interesting—they’ll be even more useful once I break them. I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

Maddie, Rachel just saw the convoy of vehicles turning off from North Conway.
Seth’s thoughts vibrated with anxiety. This was too real—too nightmarishly familiar. He’d felt all those people die in the massacre… and now he thought it might happen again.

I started to shake. I’d proposed a lot of this defense plan. What if it failed? Would it be my fault? Had I been smart enough? Was I strong enough? I suddenly felt too young—too scared.

Trevor leaned down and touched his temple against mine.
Maddie, that’s not you. You’re picking up that stress from Seth and the others. You’re strong and brilliant and you can blast people’s brains with a thought.

I closed my eyes and leaned into Trevor, trying to slow my breathing
. And you know me better than they do
.

I know you better than they do. I know this will work. I know everything will be okay.

I felt his faith in me and my thoughts seem to clear. I revved up with purpose, feeling my game-face slide into place.

That’s my Maddie.

Always,
I thought back to him. I slid my hand into his and stood up straight as I focused on the thoughts coming from the other side of the brick wall.

Showtime.

The sounds of the distant rotors rumbled low—helicopters.

Seth’s fear spiked through me.
Grenades!
Trevor’s arms spread around us, forming a protective cocoon.

INCOMING GRENADES!
I relayed to the sparks, whose heads all snapped up to watch the top of the wall.

“Cover your zones!” yelled Drew.

Air cannons on the other side of the wall made hollow metal sounds—thunk, thunk. Two small projectiles flew over the wall.

The sparks’ focus pounced onto the grenades like cats on a mouse. Their combined suppression was instant and effective. Both devices rolled in the dirt then lay there dead. I felt Drew’s quick assessment—
flash grenades, not enough explosives to cause major damage
. They’d been designed to create a sudden light and a bang, to confuse us at the start of the attack.

The gathered forces on the far side waited for the sound of the grenades—it was the signal to go in. I suddenly pictured a cartoon alien with a broom on his hat muttering about how there was supposed to be an “earth-shattering ka-boom.”

“Two more. Hit them again.”
Hunter’s anger growled from where he hunched inside the vehicle that served as command center.

I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.
Two more on the way!
With one invisible arm, Trevor grabbed up the two dud grenades and lobbed them into the woods—away from all of us.

Just in case.

A few seconds later, two more grenades flew over the wall. The sparks reduced them to paperweights, and Trevor disposed of them, as well.

Agent Rudolph stood outside the command vehicle, watching the gathered power.
I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

A smile crept up my face, but it dribbled off as the sound of the helicopters suddenly increased as they cleared the trees. Two of them—large, black, and sinister-looking—passed over the wall to our left. Seth’s anxiety spiked with remembered terror, and memories of the previous attack flashed through him. He froze as something in his soul started screaming.

PULL IT TOGETHER!
I shouted into his head.

The sick grip of trauma had him by the throat and shook him.
Dammit! I can’t lose it now! No, No, NO!
He took a deep breath and steadied.

I met Drew’s eyes.
Have you got range on them?

He shook his head, frustrated. Cold dread dripped down the back of my neck as we watched the helicopters head toward the main buildings. I crushed my free hand into a fist to stop it from shaking.

They’re about to ram the gate!
Seth’s mental voice in my head focused me back to our own position.

They’re ramming the gate!
I relayed. Between Seth’s large receptive ability and my projection, we were keeping up the communication on our team pretty well. From Hunter to Seth to me to the sparks; it was like a game of telephone—one Hunter didn’t know he was playing.

Ha!

Something large and black—like a cross between an armored bank car and a giant Humvee—gunned its engine as it drove straight for the gate. A grid of metal extended from the front like a snout.
A battering ram.
It took down our gate with a ringing crash. The twisted metal remains spiraled off over the roof of the vehicle.

And then the vehicle’s motor died as it came into the range of the sparks. The driver guided it to a stop.
What the—?

Cecelia raised her hands in surrender, slid a look of blonde innocence onto her face, and ran toward the driver’s door.

“Help me! Help me!” she cried, as troops jumped from the back of the vehicle. Mel and Katie focused on the guns, doing what they could to keep Cecelia from being shot.

“Stay where you are!” The shout came from behind a riot helmet. “Keep your hands where we can see them!”

Cecelia froze as armed men surrounded her. “I can do that, but you’ve got to
drop your weapons and sit on the ground
!”

Ah, charms. They could be so useful sometimes. The invaders’ minds crystallized into obedience, although an undercurrent of confusion—
this isn’t part of the plan
—floated within them.

“Stay here and don’t move,” Michelle continued to charm them. “Sitting here makes you happy. You don’t want to do anything else.” Cecelia nodded then flipped her hair back and looked for new targets.

A second armored vehicle made it through the gate. It sputtered and rolled to a stop next to the first once the sparks got a focus on its engine. Cecelia subdued them the same way. We now had a collection of unarmed men sitting on the dirt road inside the gates.

They’re coming over the wall!
Seth relayed.

Drew and Harrison flanked the front gate with Cecelia. They stood out of sight as more armed invaders ran in.

—
keep the guns from firing
—

—
don’t let them get a shot off, or
—

Cecelia then charmed the Feds into submission and they joined the docile group of captives that Michelle supervised. The captured men and women sat on the ground and watched the next waves coming in. Several had vacant smiles on their faces as they took in the show. Their confusion reached out to me—
why are we just sitting around in the middle of a mission?—
but they couldn’t muster the impulse to do anything.

Should I activate them now?
Michelle’s anxious thought splashed into my head.

No.
We’d only turn the Feds on each other if things went bad. Things were confusing enough without having to keep track of which ones had been charmed. So far, we’d been able to—

They’re coming over the wall!
Seth’s minder-loud warning slammed into me.

Trevor and I moved farther to the left to intercept the group I sensed approaching. One started to boost the others up, in turn, over the eight-foot barrier. A helmet appeared over the top, and then a boot swung over the edge of the wall.

Got a grip?
I flashed to Trevor.

Got it.

I blasted the intruder’s motor cortexes—first left, and then right—and he went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. Trevor hauled him safely to the ground and disarmed him.

“What the—? I can’t move! I need help here!”

Crap.

Sick-yellow panic flashed through me before I blasted his Broca’s area into seizure, too. He yelled a few random syllables before lapsing into a terrified silence. I recognized his mind; he was one of Hunter’s people, one of the men who’d dragged me into that hospital.

After Trevor and I got an even dozen of them that way, they stopped coming. Our growing stack of nasty-looking, confiscated weapons included several filled with antagonist projectiles.
Frikkin’ kryptonite darts
, as Drew thought of them.

All along the front perimeter, the sparks had suppressed the invaders’ guns. Several Feds had realized the inefficacy of their weapons and had started to attack hand-to-hand.

One moved in behind Heather and cold, yellow fear spiked through her as he wrapped an arm around her neck. She gasped and struggled against him, pulling on his arm as he tightened the chokehold he had on her. Her fingernails raked at his sleeve as he dragged her back toward the gate. After a few steps, she caught the edge of his glove, touched his bare wrist, and sent a flash of energy through him. He fell unconscious at her feet. She stared—wide-eyed—at his crumpled body for a couple of seconds.
He nearly knocked me out. I could’ve lost consciousness.
Then she grinned.
Bet he wasn’t expecting me to do that!
She filled with green enthusiasm and let out a whoop as she spun around and tagged another invader on his bare neck. He fell away from Drew, who gave his cousin a huge grin. She darted away and took out the two people closing in on Seth, who’d raised his hands as he’d backed against the far wall.

“If you don’t live here, stop fighting!” Cecelia scowled as she repeated her commands. Her voice didn’t carry far in the noise and confusion, but as more invaders ended up unconscious or charmed, the balance began to shift; I felt like I could breathe again.

At our feet, two of the men in our dozen recovered movement in their legs. I gasped and zapped them back into seizure again. Drew and Katie ended up back to back, surprised to find no one left standing who needed their weapons suppressed. A babble of confused passivity filled the space around the gate as the last of the invaders fell to Cecelia’s charms. Above it, pain came to me like a hug from a headache; one of the invaders near the gate had a dislocated shoulder, and Harrison’s broken nose registered in angry purple.