[Ganzfield 2] Adversary (19 page)

We used up the last of my mom’s bread and deli meat making our lunch sandwiches. I added both to the growing grocery list on the front of the fridge before sitting down to eat.
Oh, crap.
We really were imposing on my mom by staying here. Feeding this crew—many of whom had huge appetites from fueling their abilities—how much would that cost? Could I get Dr. Williamson to reimburse her after he got out?

Geez, I was so self-involved. Dr. Williamson was trapped in a cell somewhere. He wasn’t going to be worried about my mom’s grocery bill. He might not even know what’d happened at Ganzfield. Did he even know why he’d been detained? At least he probably could pull that information from the minds of the people holding him. But who would’ve told Homeland Security that Dr. Williamson was a
terrorist?
I thought Isaiah was the most likely suspect. But Isaiah thought Dr. Williamson was dead, at least if he believed the Sons of Adam people who’d attacked Ganzfield.

Perhaps it’d been
his
Plan B. If the Sons of Adam didn’t get Dr. Williamson, then the feds were the next thing on Isaiah’s list. It was risky to involve the official law enforcement, though. There was a very real threat of exposure for all of us. I wondered how Isaiah, if he was behind this, planned to remain under the radar. Was his Jonas Pike alias a part of that?

Did Isaiah know Dr. Williamson was alive? If so, did he suspect that the rest of us were still alive, as well? We’d all been on his list of targets—he clearly considered us special threats. Would he connect the telepath who’d killed the two men at Eden Imaging with the telepath he’d sensed outside his front gate yesterday? A cold, tight knot of sick fear formed in my gut and began to spread.

Sitting next to me at the kitchen table, Trevor startled in reaction to my turmoil.
What’s wrong?

Just how well connected are we?
I really think you’re becoming telepathic. Seriously, I haven’t had to choose to send you a thought for a long time now.

Maybe we’re on the friends-and-family plan.

I laughed.
When I become telekinetic, then we’ll know for sure.

He became thoughtful.
Have you tried it?

I frowned as I considered it for a few seconds. Then I looked at the empty soda can in front of me, concentrated, and imagined it sliding across the table.

Not like that. Pick it up like you normally would. Just don’t use your hands.

I relaxed, and then tried to do it the way he’d described it. I just reached for it with my hand, but left my hand where it was.

The soda can flew across the table, over the edge, and clattered across the floor.

Holy—
I gasped then looked at Trevor accusingly.
Tell me you did that!

His wide eyes met mine and he shook his head slightly.

Seriously? You’re not messing with me?

“Hey Trev, what’d that soda can ever do to you?” Drew assumed, as any rational person would, that when unseen forces sent things flying, Trevor was the one responsible.

“I didn’t like the look in its eye.” Trevor covered with surprising calm. He didn’t take his eyes from me.
You actually did it! I was just—I didn’t think you’d really be—you actually did it!

What was soulmating doing to us? Were we becoming some sort of Trevor-Maddie hybrid? Was connecting as energy reshaping our brains somehow? Was it dangerous? Or perhaps—perhaps our connection allowed us to share our abilities with each other? Was I piggy-backing on Trevor’s ability without his awareness, the way he was reading my thoughts without being telepathic?

Hannah watched us with concern; she’d noticed we were upset. Even from across the table, her healing ability gave her a sense of our stress reactions. Oh—
that’s
why Hannah was so uncomfortable around romantic couples. She picked up on our biological reactions, perhaps even on the hormonal level. Between reading that information from us and framing it within the morality of her strong faith, no wonder she found it disturbing.

But that wasn’t important right now, so I stored that little piece of information away for later. I had enough—no, more than enough—to think about at the moment.
Priorities.
Matilda and Morris. Rescue mission. And I didn’t see how my clumsy new telekinetic ability would be of any use on Saturday.
Focus
—I had other things to worry about. This new development would have to wait. I’d have to play to my strengths.

We can do more with this later, okay?
I told Trevor.
This afternoon, I need to blast Zack’s brain.

Yeah.
He nodded absently, his thoughts preoccupied.

“Hey, Zack. You can shield. I need to learn how to get around shields. Can I practice on you?”

Zack met my eyes, but his face and mind were both unreadable. Finally, he smiled. “You can try.”

*   *   *

Trying to blast Zack was like trying to pick up a layer of wet paint. We were alone in the backyard, back by the trees that edged the property. Pearl-colored clouds made the light diffuse and shadowless. The people in the house were out of my range here, so Zack’s were the only thoughts I should’ve been able to detect. I could now feel the shield—subtle as a heat mirage—within his mind. With effort, I could even get a pinhole connection and hear some of his thoughts from behind it. But then the web would close up again.

“Whatever you just did, it sorta tickled,” he said.

“You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”

He smiled smugly.

I felt the strong urge to slap him with a telekinetic hand, but that seemed a tad childish. Also, when I tried, it didn’t work.

Was I going about this the wrong way? There had to be another route to focus within the brain. Maybe I could strike a specific structure or region if I couldn’t get the normal connection. Perhaps his ability was the key.

“Zack, try using your charm voice.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, that special resonance you put into it when you want someone to obey you.” What did he think I meant?

“It sounds different from my regular voice to you?”

I startled. Didn’t charms hear the change? “Yeah, it’s really obvious to me when you guys are charming someone. It sounds almost like more than one of you is speaking.”

Zack considered that skeptically. “I don’t hear any difference.”

“Well, can you pretend that tree there is a person and tell it to do something?”

He rolled his eyes, unenthused. “Whatever.” His tone changed with his next words, though. “Yo, tree. Bow before me.”

I could hear the command in his voice. What’s more, it penetrated his shield.
Yes!
It was as though part of it had to weaken to allow the charm-voice out. The breach felt like the little whirlpool in a draining bathtub, and the change in energy channeled me toward the weakened point.

“Keep going,” I urged him when he stopped.

“Dance, tree. Dance for me.” His voice was bored and sarcastic. “Whip those leaves around. Ooh, yeah. Shake it.”

I pressed hard, filling the weakness with a pulse of energy. Dr. Williamson and I had discussed using this focused overload technique, but I’d never put it into practice. I followed my pulse in, sensing the structure, feeling for the right position. Given what I knew of neurology, which after months of reading was significant, it seemed like the weak area correlated with the language center of the brain called Broca’s region.

“Wiggle that trunk. Um. Twee. Moof.” Zack looked at me in horror.
WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?
Fear and distress flooded from him, cold and clammy-yellow, strong enough to overpower his weakened shield.

Success!
I felt a grin spread across my face and a weight lift from my mind. Maybe I could hold my own against Isaiah, after all. “Don’t worry. It’s just temporary.” I told him, pretty sure that it was. But what if it wasn’t? That would be bad.
What the hell am I doing?
“It should only last a few minutes, like a seizure.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the most comforting analogy. At the moment, I couldn’t really make myself care. Giddy little tendrils of success flowered within me. I’d found a way though Zack’s shield! The only problem was my new method wouldn’t work on Isaiah unless, perhaps, he was actively trying to fry someone’s brain.

Actually, that sounded like a distinct possibility for my next encounter with him, although it would probably be
my
brain he was trying to fry. Would my own shield weaken when I attacked, the way charming had weakened Zack’s?

“Okay, Zack. Once your speech returns, we need to try it again. I have to see if I can do it while shielding.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.
He shook his head in disgust and headed back to the house. His shielding was erratic—many other thoughts leaked through, as well. Disheartened, Zack felt rattled—like a prizefighter who’d expected to win a match easily, only to be knocked out in the second round.

Guilt pinged hotly within me. I hadn’t just taken his voice, I’d wounded his pride.
Ah, hell.
“Zack, wait!”

He ignored me, shutting the back door with unnecessary force.

Was this what I was? Was this the kind of person I wanted to be? Of all of the things Dr. Williamson and I’d discussed, focused overload had seemed like one of the most benign. It was both temporary and painless. How much worse were the other things I’d trained to do? Was I turning into a monster?

And just how upset was Zack? Was I finally getting a real sense of his emotions? I’d gotten so used to reading feelings from people’s minds but, because of his shield, I’d had no warning that I was upsetting Zack so much.
Crap.
Unthinking. Selfish.
The High-and-Mighty Princess of Ganzfield.
My gut filled with a flattened ache and I pressed my lips tightly together.

By the time I returned to the house, Zack had retreated to the guest room—clearly avoiding me. Good bet he wasn’t going to let me practice on him again. I guess I couldn’t blame him. But that meant I’d have to learn as much as I could from this one experience. I replayed it in my mind several times, memorizing the relevant details. Our lives might depend on it.

Trevor was with Sean and Drew, watching a movie in the living room. It seemed to be
Push,
the movie Zack had mentioned. The guys took delight in heckling it. They mimicked the little noise that accompanied telekinesis as Trevor “threw” a decorative pillow across the room repeatedly. Some screaming guys with lizard eyes cracked them up. I bet this was what it was like when a bunch of naval aviators watched that old Tom Cruise movie. I smiled as I listened in from the kitchen.

Hannah and Rachel both bent over laptops in the kitchen. Rachel had Google Earth up, zeroing in on the Peapack property.

“Printer’s in the little office off the dining room,” I answered her unasked question. Rachel nodded. In her mind, I saw the aerial view. The property held a huge house and at least a half dozen other, smaller buildings. There was even a lake, artificial in its perfect symmetry. The main house wrapped around part of its shore.

I thought you were going to be busy all afternoon,
Trevor thought from the next room.

Zack didn’t like it when I took away his ability to speak
.

Trevor’s head popped through the kitchen door.
You did what?

I took away his ability to speak. Just temporarily, I think. I hope. Dr. Williamson and I had been working on different ways to do it for a while. We’d talked about causing a petit mal seizure in one area of the brain, which would overload it and shut that part down for a while.

And you did that to Zack?

Yup.

Through his shield?

I nodded.

A shadow crossed Trevor’s mind.
Why were you practicing this?

Just in case.

Just in case?

In case Isaiah gets a mental whiff of us on Saturday. I might need to use it against him. I don’t know if he can shield. Dr. Williamson didn’t think so, but he might’ve learned since then. I picked it up in a week; he’s had years.

Trevor looked at me sadly.
Maddie, you promised.

I know I did! I’m not going to go looking for him. Really! This really is just in case. You know what a planner I am.

He relaxed.
You do like to plan
.