Seven Psychics Page 6

  “You must have been very young when you were recruited.” Either that or she was older than she looked.

  “I was sixteen. Flynn and Reece were fifteen.”

  I couldn’t hide my astonishment at that revelation. “Your parents gave you permission to drop out of high school to become federal agents?” I wasn’t sure if that was even legal.

  Her teeth were very white against her tanned face when she laughed. “Mark is more than just our boss, he’s also our guardian,” she explained. “He didn’t let us drop out of school, either. We had tutors.”

  “Oh.” I felt like I’d been saying that a lot since I’d arrived at the compound, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say. It would be rude to pry into their personal lives, so I didn’t ask what had happened to their parents. Kala didn’t seem to be inclined to tell me and returned to reading her magazine.

  Movement on the stairs caught my eye. Bare feet were followed by muscular calves and ratty cutoff sweatpants. Fleeting glimpses of sculpted abs, a rock hard chest and bulging biceps made me momentarily forget how to breathe. I lost the ability to think when Garrett reached the bottom step and I saw him in full. He’d been attractive with his shirt on, but without it he was sheer perfection. He glanced at me, saw me staring and scowled. Turning away, he loped towards the gym at the far end of the room.

  My pulse sped up as I watched him walk away and my eyes dropped down to his butt. I’d never paid much attention to boys in the past, but Reece was different from anyone I’d ever met before. He wasn’t a shy young teen, he was a grown man with a beautifully toned body that made my stomach flutter strangely.

  “Someone needs a cold shower,” Kala sang quietly without looking at my suddenly red face. Reece turned to glower at her, as if he’d somehow heard her comment from all the way across the gigantic room.

  “I’m going to my room to watch TV,” I said. My coffee almost sloshed over the rim when I stood up too quickly.

  Walker pointed at the gigantic television that was mounted on the wall and gave me a mocking grin. “There’s one right here, you know.”

  “You wouldn’t be interested in what I want to watch,” I said with a hint of desperation.

  Flicking a quick look over her shoulder at Garrett, Kala smirked. “You’re not wrong there. I have absolutely no interest in what you want to watch at all.”

  I fled before the agent could make any further innuendos. I carried my coffee carefully up the stairs, trying not trip and spill it and embarrass myself even more than I already had.

  Mark was still busy with whatever he was reading. He sat at the computer table and was completely absorbed in the document on one of the monitors. I scurried past him and headed for my room.

  Once the door was closed, I put my coffee on my bedside table then collapsed onto the bed and muffled my wild giggles with a pillow. Maybe I should take a cold shower, I thought when my giggles finally abated. Perhaps the strange feeling in my stomach would go away if I cooled my body down a bit.

  Staying in my room all day, I only left long enough to make a sandwich when I grew hungry. Flynn was already in the kitchen making a sandwich of his own when I arrived. He regarded me with his strange green eyes as I snuck quick peeks at Reece. Most people would have been tired after working out for several hours, but Garrett was still hard at it. His muscles bunched and relaxed almost hypnotically as he repeatedly lifted a bar over his head. I couldn’t quite make out how much weight he was lifting, but it seemed like a lot.

  “Most people butter their bread rather than the counter,” Bailey pointed out, snapping my attention back to what I was doing. His tone was friendly and held only a hint of condescension.

  I was in the middle of making a peanut butter sandwich and realized that I’d missed the bread entirely and was smearing butter all over the black counter instead. My face went bright red again. “I’m not used to being around half naked men,” I said in a small voice. Especially gorgeous men with beautiful bodies that brought out yearnings within me that I’d never felt before.

  Kala let out a sound that might have been a laugh. She had to have ears like a cat to have heard me from all the way across the room.

  Flynn smiled and handed me a paper towel to wipe up the mess. “I’m afraid you’ll have to get used to it. Reece hardly ever wears a shirt when we’re at home.”

  He’d probably cause a riot if he walked the streets wearing only cutoff pants. Girls would be throwing themselves at him willy-nilly.

  “Doesn’t he ever get cold?” I risked another look at the agent to see that he’d turned his back to us. The rear view was just as good as the front in my humble opinion.

  “Nope,” Bailey replied. “He runs hotter than most people.”

  Not even trying to understand that statement, I finished making my sandwich then hid in my room again. I hoped I’d get used to seeing Reece unclothed, but something told me that wasn’t very likely.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Nine

  As I’d suspected, it didn’t get any easier being around Garrett when he insisted on wearing as little as possible. A couple of days passed with no further word of any instances of mind control being used.

  Bored and restless, I left my room after eating my lunch and entered the coms room. Mark was sitting at the computer table, reading yet another file on one of the monitors. He turned, saw me and crooked his finger. “I’m sure you’d like to be able to get some fresh air without someone having to let you in and out all the time.”

  It was getting a bit old needing to request permission to come and go, so I nodded. “I’d also like to have access to the indoor range so I can keep up my practice, if that’s ok.” There were only so many inane daytime TV shows that I could watch or books that I could read before I’d start to lose my mind.

  “Of course. I should have made these arrangements already, but I’d hoped to track the psychics down quickly and return you back to Texas,” he apologized.

  It seemed it was going to take longer than he’d anticipated for us to complete our mission. The telepaths were very good at lying low when they wanted to. After their initial flurry of activity when they’d broken out over a week ago, they’d gone quiet. Only the occasional victim coming to the notice of the police told us that they were still in Denver.

  I ambled over to the table, interested in seeing the computer in action for the first time. Agent Steel tapped an icon on the screen and a picture of a hand appeared. “Place your hand on the scanner,” he instructed.

  I did as requested and the table hummed as my prints were scanned. He used a nearly invisible keyboard at the bottom edge of the screen to rapidly type some commands then the picture of the hand disappeared. “You now have access to the exits and to the indoor range.”

  “Great,” I grinned. “Which door leads to the range again?” I’d been itching to use the room and now I’d finally get my chance. The inactivity was getting to me to the point where I was even tempted to use the gym equipment. That would have been awkward with Garrett spending so much time working out. I could imagine myself dropping a barbell on my foot due to being distracted by his body all too clearly.

  “I’ll show you,” Walker called from the base of the steps.

  Startled that she’d overheard us, I saw Mark’s lips thin a little in annoyance. “She has truly unbelievable hearing,” I said.

  “I know,” Mark replied with a sigh. I had the impression she’d overheard conversations he’d rather wished she hadn’t more than once.

  “I’ll just grab some extra ammo,” I called down to her.

  “Don’t bother,” Kala called back. “We have plenty to spare.”

  I waited for Mark to nod his approval before I clomped down the stairs in my noisy boots. The TAK Squad used different handguns than the one I’d brought with me, which meant that they must stock ammunition for a variety of guns.

  Wearing her usual uniform of a white t-shirt and camouflage cargo pants, Walker waited impatiently for
me to reach her. She used the gym and sparred with the guys in the ring to keep in shape, but it seemed she’d grown tired of sitting around watching TV in her spare time as well. “I’ve been dying to see how good you are with a handgun,” she said and darted over to the door that led to the main hallway.

  Watching the other girl move, I was struck by how quick and graceful she was. Kala made me feel slow and awkward without even trying to. She had an endless supply of energy that I envied.

  We walked about halfway down the hallway before stopping. Walker gestured for me to place my palm on the scanner next to the door. “We might as well see if your clearance works.”

  Feeling strangely nervous, I wiped my sweaty palm on my jeans then placed it on the scanner. Green light flashed and the door clicked open. Now I wouldn’t have to ask to be let in and out like a pet that needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I hadn’t exactly felt like a prisoner, but the added freedom would definitely be welcome.

  Following Kala inside, I immediately felt at home at the familiar sight of an indoor gun range. Five narrow lanes stretched out for nearly two hundred feet. Various targets had been erected at different distances in each aisle. I had a choice of circular targets or silhouettes of people and animals. The distances ranged from twenty feet up to one hundred and eighty feet. Accuracy for a handgun had its limits, but I could outshoot everyone who had ever challenged me, except for my father, of course. Philip Levine was the undisputed grand master of target shooting.

  Kala pointed at the wall to our right and I goggled at the range of weapons that were on display. Everything from revolvers to machine guns and even rocket launchers hung from pegs on the wall. Shelves below the weapons were neatly labeled with the types of ammunition that were stored inside.

  “Ok, rookie, take your pick and let’s see how good you are,” she said with a grin.

  Feeling a bit like I’d stepped into a dream, I couldn’t decide which gun I wanted to try out first. I opted for a pistol identical to the one Walker had strapped to her right thigh. A clip was already inserted in the gun and I automatically ejected it and checked the magazine. It was fully loaded, so I walked over to the middle lane where a paper silhouette of a man hung from an overhead electronic railing.

  A long, wide wooden counter stretched across the room with barriers between each lane. Safety gear was stored on pegs beneath the counter. We donned gear to protect our eyes and ears then I stepped up and took aim. The target was only fifty feet away, which was barely a challenge for me at all. I flicked the safety off and blasted a hole in its heart with four rapid shots. I blew its non-existent brains out next, leaving a gaping ruin where its head had been.

  Kala nodded her approval. “Not bad,” she said and pressed the button that drew the target over to us. I took a fresh target from a stack at my feet and clipped it into place. Kala pushed a button on the wall and the new target rattled back into position.

  We spent an hour testing the various weapons. Walker was a decent shot, but she didn’t even come close to the level of skill that I possessed. Thanks to natural talent and my father’s training, my accuracy was almost embarrassingly good.

  Kala waited until I was holding a machine gun before she decided to test my skills further. Waiting for me to load the magazine, she moved to the panel on the wall that contained a series of buttons. She pressed one and a target appeared from within a panel on the left wall. Electronic railings crisscrossed the ceiling from left to right as well as front to back. I now saw that she could make a target appear from almost anywhere in the room.

  “Shoot the bad guy!” she shouted.

  With a grin, I pointed the machine gun at the very realistic life-sized cutout of a man. He was snarling in rage and held a gun in his hand. I fired a controlled burst that shredded his chest.

  “This is gonna be fun,” Walker breathed then both of her hands went to work as she pushed buttons at random.

  Used to shooting inanimate targets, it took me a few minutes to become accustomed to firing at moving ones. They came in all shapes and sizes and from both the left and the right in unpredictable patterns. Trying not to hit the stationary targets, I concentrated on shooting only the moving ones.

  Running out of bullets, I took the fresh magazine that Kala slapped into my palm and slammed it into place. I took down a bad guy with a bullet to his head just before he reached the end of the lane then blasted another one apart just as it appeared from my right.

  I’d tried my hand at shooting ducks at the local fair and had found it to be easy enough. It wasn’t quite the same as having multiple humanoid opponents rushing at me from everywhere at once. The room was full of gun smoke by the time Kala finished bombarding me with enemies. A few had gotten through my defenses, but I thought I’d done pretty well for my first time.

  “How did I do?” I asked as I removed the earmuffs. I turned to find the entire team watching me. I’d been so engrossed in taking down the bad guys that I hadn’t seen them enter. Bailey was grinning widely, Mark seemed stunned and Garrett’s face was stony. I had no idea what he was thinking, but he didn’t seem impressed. “Was I that bad?” I asked in a small voice. “I’ve never shot at moving targets before.”

  Walker rolled her eyes at the guys and grinned at me proudly. “You were awesome, Lexi! They’re just jealous because you beat their records hands down.”

  “She beat yours, too,” Flynn pointed out with a smirk.

  “Yeah, but I’m female and my pride can stand being beaten by a teenager,” she replied cheekily.

  Mark mustered a smile, yet I was pretty sure he was chagrined. I had the feeling I’d just beaten his personal record on my very first try. “I’m impressed, Alexis. You’re every bit as talented as your father.” It was high praise and I smiled my thanks, even if it wasn’t true. I was good, but my dad was far better than me. He wouldn’t have let any of the bad guys get through his defenses.

  Garrett said nothing. He just frowned harder then turned around and walked out.

  “Nothing to say, Reece? Aren’t you going to congratulate Lexi?” Kala taunted as he snatched the door open. He sent her a withering glare then let the door close behind him.

  “Never mind those two,” Flynn said. “They fight like cats and dogs most of the time.”

  Mark coughed as if he had something stuck in his throat and sent a warning look at Bailey. “I’m sure Alexis has had enough practice for one day.”

  “Can we do this again sometime?” I asked Walker as we returned our safety gear to their pegs and I placed the machine gun back in its usual resting place.

  “Sure. Maybe you could give me a few tips.”

  Stunned to have someone three years older and so much more accomplished than me asking for tips, I stammered a reply that sounded vaguely like an affirmative. I’d expected to learn from the agents, not to end up teaching them anything. She bumped her shoulder into mine affectionately and I wished I could stick around longer. It felt nice to have a real friend for the first time in my life.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Ten

  Kala and I were sitting on the couch the next morning when Mark received a call from his informant in the police department. In the middle of making coffee, he answered his phone, listened gravely then told the caller we were on our way.

  Hanging up, he slid the cell phone into an inner pocket of his jacket. As always, his suit was dark, but it was gray this time rather than black. His shirt was a blinding white and his tie matched the suit. Garrett and Bailey stopped sparring and jogged over to listen in to his report.

  “Police have been called to an office building where several people have fallen into a coma,” Agent Steel advised. “All of the victims have been taken to hospital, but none have shown any signs of waking up as yet. The cause of their deep sleep is still unknown. The doctors can’t find any physical reason for their comas, but my informant managed to get a copy of their charts. He says their brain scans reveal tell-tale signs that they�
�re under compulsion.”

  “I take it this is the work of Sloth?” Flynn asked. His expression was intense and focused. Almost as quiet as Garrett, he usually gave me the impression of being on the verge of laughter. He was dead serious now that one of the telepaths had shown their hand again.

  “That would be my guess,” Mark confirmed. “Grab your gear. I’ll meet you in the garage in five minutes.”

  I tagged along behind the agents as they raced for the stairs. My eyes tracked Garrett as he climbed ahead of me. I tripped up the first step, but Kala caught me by the elbow before I could sprawl on my face. “Try to ignore the eye candy,” she suggested with an exaggerated eye roll.

  “I wish I could,” I muttered. I still hadn’t gotten used to Reece without a shirt on after nearly a week in his company. I was beginning to think that the sight of his half naked body would always make my stomach flutter.

  Bailey coughed out a laugh then looked back at me innocently when I glared up at him. Everyone seemed to think that my crush on Garrett was funny. Everyone except for me and the object of my affection, that was. I’d never been in this situation before and I was out of my depth. I’d had guys interested in me before and I’d been asked out a few times, but I’d never had even a glimmer of interest in any of my admirers.

  My fledgling feelings for Reece were growing stronger day by day. Garrett was different from the guys I went to school with or the soldiers I’d hung out with at the shooting range. He wasn’t much older than me, but he was just as focused and dedicated to his job as Agent Steel had described. He also didn’t talk much and brought new meaning to the phrase ‘strong silent type’. It might sound arrogant, but I was used to being gawked at by guys and Reece mostly ignored me. Maybe I found him so compelling simply because he had no interest in me. My father had always told me I was more mature than most girls my age. He’d have to revise that thought if he knew about my childish unrequited crush on Reece.