Accused (Ganzfield) (27 page)

Heather, Harrison’s got a broken nose that needs attention and the blond guy over there has a hurt shoulder.
I was selfishly glad not to be standing closer.

Lucky you. I can feel them from over here,
Seth complained.

Any more coming through the front gate?

Doubtful. There aren’t many left.
Seth’s cautious, nearly-giddy optimism was rather out of character for him.
Hunter’s seriously pissed off. Agent Rudolph’s calling in a status update. Hold on—

Seth focused in on the conversation, and I piggybacked along. Dismay tinged Agent Rudolph’s mind. “No, sir. They appear to have been neutralized. I recommend that we break off at this point. Our people are in there now, and another assault could put them at risk.”
I’ve never seen anything like this. All this talk of superpowers, but I never thought—
“Sir, this has now escalated to a potential hostage situation.”
If Hunter tries to send anyone else in, he’s even more unbalanced than I’d heard.
“No, sir. None of our people are responding on the secure frequency, but all of their bio tags still show them to be alive and—as far as we can tell—unharmed.”
Would terrorists really have kept all of our people alive and unharmed? What’s really going on here?

Seth flashed me a nod.
We did better than I thought we would.

I felt a smile tug at my mouth. Did it work? Did it actually work? Another of our captives started to move and I zapped him again.
Hey, Cecelia. I got a dozen guys here who need to be charmed. What’s taking you so long?

Cecelia thought rude things at me, but I didn’t care enough about what she thought to take offense. No deaths. No losses. Had we really pulled this off? Once she’d charmed our catch, they stumbled over to join the pack as they regained control of their limbs. The sun was nearly down and the cold air began to bite. How much time had passed? How had the other teams fared?

Hey, Seth. What’s going on at the main buildings and the back gate?

He grabbed the walkie-talkie and his pale green relief flashed to me from across the now-still space.
Jonah’s team took down the helicopters. Landed them in the field without damage. No casualties at the main buildings—on either side.

Breath filled my lungs again and I rubbed my hands across my face as I relayed that to the others.

“Yes!” Drew’s enthusiastic whoop was echoed by the rest of the group.

Trevor pulled me close and kissed me on the temple.
I told you your brilliant plan would work.

I gave his hand a squeeze and leaned my head against his shoulder.
Thanks. Thanks for believing in me, but it’s not over yet.

Outside the gates, Hunter’s thoughts filled with simmering anger and hate.

While the rest of our team remained to guard the broken gate, Trevor and I followed Michelle as she commanded our eighty-two new “guests” back up the road to the main buildings.

Eighty-two.
I rubbed my hand across my face, feeling some of the tension drop away.
Whew. Not a bad haul for less than a dozen unarmed teenagers.

Now you’re just bragging,
Trevor teased.

So far, so good.
But we need to have a talk with the General to really bring this all to a close. Actually, either Zack or Cecelia would need to talk to him. A good charming for the General would go a long way to fixing this problem. Would they give him a cover story or just have him forget all about us?

It wouldn’t hurt to have the eighty-two visitors write official reports detailing our normalcy and the non-terrorist nature of Ganzfield. I’d have to add that to Zack’s to-do list.

At the edge of my range, Hunter fumed at his plan’s failure.
The General will arrive in two hours. What the HELL am I going to tell him? How do I salvage this mess and get some of them to train? I need to be able to use them—America would be safer if we had obedient, captive freaks who could neutralize our enemies. We can’t allow their kind to run around loose! Maybe we could call in an airstrike and blow the place up—claim it was a meth lab or something that went up when the Feds raided it. We’d lose a lot of good agents, but they’d be heroes who died in the line of duty.

I squeezed my eyes shut.
Give us a heads up if he gets that airstrike, Seth.
I mentally spit the ugly aftertaste of Hunter from my brain as he faded from my range. I didn’t need to think about him right now—Seth would call in if anything changed up front.

Back at the main buildings, Ganzfield was jubilant in its relief. More than thirty men and women from the helicopters sat in a compliant row on the driveway. Jonah’s team had used their combined abilities and had brought the machines down smoothly in the field—then killed the engines. He grinned at me as we passed. I smiled back, sensing his relief—
we didn’t mess up!
Memories flashed around me. Once the copters were down, Tyler and Becca—the new charms—had followed Cecilia’s instructions and gotten within earshot with the “don’t shoot!” hand-raise. With the rotors silenced, they’d been audible and effective.

The helicopters seemed much less menacing now that they were hunks of dead metal on the ground. A laugh escaped me—Homeland Security had actual black helicopters. Geez—were they trying to live up to some bizarre, government-conspiracy stereotype?

My mom bustled up and enveloped me in a relieved hug. “Oh, Maddie! I’m so glad you’re all right, honey!”

Hi, Mom.
I squeezed her back, swallowing hard as I soaked in the relief that she was okay.

“Jon’s on his way back. They have more than thirty… people… with them.” My mom’s mind shied away from the word “prisoners.”

Consider them guests, Mom. They’re going to be happy while they’re here and won’t have any unpleasant memories of us after they leave.
That was more than I could say for
their
hospitality…

But how are we going to feed them all?

Why don’t you and Dorothy work that out?
I grinned. Sure, we’d taken dozens of federal agents hostage and subjected them to intense mind control, but let’s worry about giving them a nice meal.

Good idea.
She headed off to the main building to find the cook.

Williamson, Ann, and Zack arrived a few minutes later, rolling up in the first of two armored vehicles. They parked on the lawn and unloaded their own set of happy zombies into the care of the other charms.

We trudged upstairs. The warmth of Williamson’s office seeped into us—a welcome change after being outside for so long.

This isn’t over.
Williamson was contemplative and subdued. He turned to me.
Show me
.

I gave him a mental play-by-play of the activities at the front gate and I felt Ann and Zack’s attention on me, as well. Now that the physical danger was over, it was actually kind of exciting. The plan had worked—and no one had gotten hurt. A relieved grin curled up my face.

Williamson nodded.
Zack, why don’t you and Ann invite the people outside the front gate to join us… the way you did with the others?

My jaw dropped as I processed what he meant.
No way! Silent charming?
Williamson had considered it possible for Zack to learn to mentally project a charm-voice that way. I’d had no idea he was capable of it yet.

Ann’s mind glowed blue with pride.

Trevor raised his eyebrows.
Not bad.

Zack looked smug. “Today was the first time. I can only do it when Ann and I share abilities and… um… we can’t shield while doing it.”

I frowned as I considered that. Had Zack said the shielding thing to reassure us—to let us know that he couldn’t silent-charm minders? But how would we know if that was true?

The two of them ducked out. They’d only need to get in range and they could think Hunter and the others into obedience.

It’s almost too easy for him.

I turned back to Williamson
. So what did Zack do? Now YOU can show ME
.

He humphed and projected his memory of the two vehicles that had rolled up to the back gate. They’d faced flash grenades and armed men over the walls, too. Williamson had jumped as Zack and Ann’s shared shield went down, popping their minds into his consciousness like air-horns.

STOP! Sit quietly,
Zack had charmed directly into the Feds’ minds, borrowing Ann’s projective ability.
Everything is fine. You are safe.

Zack and I were on the same side and all, but something about that made bugs crawl across my skin. I shrugged. There was nothing I could do about it right now. I gritted my teeth as I followed Williamson’s memories.

Zack had kept hold of Ann’s hand as they had approached the first vehicle. “Open the door. You like us. Give us a ride. We’re all going up to the main buildings.”

The driver had given Zack a friendly nod.

Williamson’s reluctance to simply climb up into the big, armored machine full of invaders had faded as he had gotten a good headful of their thoughts.
They don’t pose any danger to us.

“Wow.” Trevor’s fingers chafed mine.

I bit my lip.
That’s impressive… and kinda scary.

Says the girl who can kill with a thought.
Williamson frowned. “Why don’t you help the new charms with our guests—make sure the cover story is sticking with all of them.”

Ugh.

More than a hundred and fifty minds to float questions into, and I’d need to make sure that each and every one thought they’d arrived here to find a completely innocent boarding school.
Good thing we have some time before the General gets here.

I want you two there when I speak with Dale.

So Dale is The General?
Hunter had been upset with Dale for preventing him from trying the kind of attack that we’d just successfully thwarted. I felt my eyebrows rise as a little schadenfreude sing-song start in my head.

Someone’s in trouble…

Trevor swallowed hard.
He deserves worse than a court-martial for what he did to you.

I bit my lip as I met his eyes. Hunter had hurt me, but I didn’t hurt now—because Trevor had taken the pain away. I suddenly realized how much of it he’d kept for himself.

Williamson’s paternal protectiveness growled within him.
Hunter’s not going to be a problem anymore.
Ann and Zack might be bringing Hunter back with the others, but he wasn’t going to be simply charmed and released.

No one’s going to harm a DOD officer here at Ganzfield. Not for me.
I wrapped my arm around myself as I looked from Trevor to Williamson.
I’m not letting anyone I care about risk prison just for revenge, okay?

Williamson nodded
. We don’t need to harm anyone. I think we can make sure that General Dale takes care of things with Hunter.

Just a court-martial?
Trevor frowned and bit his lip.
He deserves worse.

“Thanks.” The agent sat cross-legged and tried to balance the plate my mom had handed him across his shins. “This looks delicious.”

My mom returned his smile. “It’s just burgers and chips. Nothing fancy.”

My lips twitched. Personally, I thought it seemed a good effort to feed this many unexpected people on such short notice. If they’d wanted something fancier to eat, they should’ve made reservations to invade us.

Bands of white and orange off to the west accented the deep blue sky and the floodlights from the main building and Blake House cast harsh, overlapping pools of light over the people sitting across the driveway. The new charms still watched over them, now bored with the lack of activity. Everyone else had gotten cold and gone back inside. Good thing the Feds wore winter-gear; they might’ve gotten uncomfortable sitting on the driveway for hours.

Wow.
Was I actually feeling sympathy for the people who’d attacked us only a couple of hours ago?

Trevor laughed.
I told you you were a good person.

I squeezed his hand and grinned at him.
It’s your influence. You’re making me a better person. A year ago, I’d have been happy to let them freeze.

Verifying the charms’ work was tedious.
Ganzfield’s just a normal boarding school. I haven’t seen anything unusual today, right?
I repeated this as a mental whisper until the words became meaningless syllables. While the charms could influence people in groups, I had to assess each person individually, making sure their thoughts were clean of incriminating information. And I had to do it without revealing my telepathic ability.

Trevor hovered, frowning at my continued proximity to the people who’d been trying to attack us this afternoon. I smiled at him, feeling cherished.
Hey, aren’t you the one who told me how strong I was earlier?

The distant crunch of tires on gravel rolled through the evening gloom and was accompanied by the flash of thoughts as Ann returned in the command vehicle.
Maddie?

Everything okay at the front gate?

Yeah. We left Seth up there with Cecelia. Mel and Katie stayed, too. Seth says the Feds don’t expect any more reinforcements, not at this point.

Good. We’ll need to keep a few extra people there until we can get the gate repaired. I think we’ll be able to re—
Cold recognition jolted me as the vehicle rolled into view.

Hunter.

Hunter was watching me. His eyes met mine through the windshield. A sneer flowed across his face. He wore fatigues today and his bull-like solidity disturbed me, even from a distance. Hatred colored his thoughts a gun-metal grey.

I started to quiver and my lungs refused to take in air, but I couldn’t look away. Everything seemed to fade to black around me, as though I was looking down a tunnel.

Trevor stepped between Hunter and me—cutting off my view—and my legs gave out. I tasted bile and I swallowed hard.