Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) by Dave Renol Read Free Book Online Page A

things ready for dinner later, Sid and Carl went to the
living room to watch a football game, and Sara challenged me to a
game of cribbage.
    By the time it was getting close to dinner, I
was down three games to one. I was normally a better player than
Sara, but had trouble concentrating today. By mutual agreement, we
all helped haul our dinner supplies outside. Carl drew the short
straw and pulled grill duty. While he got things ready to cook our
burgers and shrimp skewers, the rest of us laid out our condiments
and side dishes.
    After dinner, the boys did the cleanup while
Sara and I relaxed with a drink. Finished with their chores they
rejoined us outside, Mark bringing the game box for our Risk set
with him. Things went smoothly for a while as we all focused on our
strategies. After a good round where I knocked Carl off of
Australia and took it for my own, Mark turned to me and said, “Well
played. Why don’t you fetch us all a round of beers while
waiting for your next turn.”
    Gulping at his slight emphasis on the word
‘fetch’, I looked up at Mark and saw him give me a slight nod.
    It was time.

Chapter 8

    Mark: The Secret Revealed

    All through the day I was nervous and unsure
on how to let the cat out of the bag. I kept throwing furtive
glances over to Linda, and was a little jealous at how calm and
composed she appeared. I was close to blurting out the truth when
she figured out that I had used little psionic nudges to assist my
golf game this morning, but restrained myself in time when she
appeared to let it slide.
    Even as we all soaked in the hot tub, I found
myself unable to fully relax as I ran multiple scenarios through my
head on the best way to broach the subject. It was almost a relief
to get out of the tub and I eagerly jumped on the chance to get
some time to myself doing prep work in the kitchen.
    I found myself stretching out the time the
work took. I would stand around the table where Linda and Sara were
playing cards or watch some of the Raiders game with the guys
before retreating back to the kitchen to think … anything to delay
having to take the plunge.
    I heard Sara claim victory on the latest crib
match just as the football game ended. Figuring that this was as
good a time as any, I called everyone together for dinner and
played a quick game of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ with Carl and Sid to
see who would be tonight’s BBQ master. Carl lost. While Carl set up
the grill, the rest of us hauled our supplies outside and set up
the table.
    Dinner went well, but because I was so
distracted, I couldn’t have said if I ate burgers or boogers. It
was the boy’s turn for cleanup duty, but since I had spent most of
the afternoon doing prep work, the other guys took pity and did the
bulk of the work. For once, I wished that cleanup would have taken
longer. Five or six years might have been good.
    Despite my wishes to the contrary, our work
was finished in short order, and we were free to rejoin the ladies
outside. To give me a bit more time to think, I grabbed our Risk
game on my way out and threw down the gauntlet, which was eagerly
accepted by all. We soon had a heated game in the works, with Sid
and me battling over the Americas, Sara and Carl duking it out in
Europe/Asia, and Linda gaining strongholds in both Africa and
Australia.
    Strengthening my resolve, I watched Linda
trounce Carl and gain complete control over Australia and decided
that with her turn over, she would have the perfect chance to
introduce our little surprise. I turned to her and said, “Well
played. Why don’t you fetch us all a round of beers while
waiting for your next turn.”
    She gulped at the slight emphasis I put on
the word ‘fetch’ and looked up at me. I gave her a slight nod: this
was it.
    Sara started to stare at Linda as she
acquiesced to my request but didn’t make a move to get up. To
distract her for a few moments and give Linda the time she needed,
I attacked her in Europe, making her roll the dice in