The Siege Read Online Free PDF Page B

around to see her leaning out of the back of the truck.  She quickly ducked back inside.  Ted gingerly tapped the doorknob, and when he didn’t feel the expected heat, locked the door.  Mia had used telekinesis to shut the door.  In the past, her brand of mind power usually ended in a fire because she super-heated anything she chose to move.  The farther away an object was, the worse the heat.  She had scorched Angelo’s wings saving him from a deadly fall.  What had changed?
     
    Mia was running through the footage they had accumulated so far when Ted climbed into the back of the truck.  He sat down and transferred the controls from the portable joystick to the console.  Mia scooted over and watched as his fingers flew over the keyboard.  Soon, the monitor was receiving Curly’s video feed.  Once this was settled, Ted turned his chair so he was facing Mia and asked, “You wanna explain the door thing?”
    “I didn’t want to take the chance of you being trapped inside the house, so I pushed it shut.  Sorry it slammed. Actually, I pulled it shut…”
    “It shut, but how come it wasn’t hot?”
    “Oh, Anatolie Gabor gave me the secret of how to control the environment while using telekinesis before he, well… left,” Mia said in an odd voice.
    “So you’re saying that you’re not starting things on fire, but the environment is?”
    “Yes, no, let me explain.  I’m using the molecules around the item-to-be-moved more correctly than before, less friction.  It sounds hard, but it’s quite easy once you get the knack.  Watch.”
    Mia drew out a small box of wooden matches.  She drew out a match and lifted it with her mind.  She twirled it like a true Texan majorette, putting the match through its paces.  She put out her hand, and the match landed in it.  “Go ahead and feel it, no heat.”
    Ted picked it up and studied it.  He held on to the wood end of the match and requested, “Light it.”
    The match trembled slightly, and the business end burst into flame.
    “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” he said mesmerized.
    “Well, you may be, considering the gene pool of the Martin and Cooper spawn. Between your sister’s kids and Sabine’s triplets, you have yourself a barrel full of monkeys. Speaking of which, we need to go Christmas shopping.”
    Ted shook out the flame and put his head in his hands a moment.
    Mia watched him for a moment before speaking.  “Are you alright?”
    “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed,” he confessed.
    “I’ll stop the telekinesis if it makes you uncomfortable,” Mia offered.
    “No, it’s not that.  That’s amazing.  It just occurred to me that we are having a little boy with half the genetic makeup of the Martin side of the family.  My nephews, Condom and Condom, are an extreme handful.  Add in the possible magical abilities from the Cooper side, and suddenly I’m Darrin Stephens with a Tabitha on my hands!”
    “Bewitched right?” Mia asked, not fully caught up on the sixties and seventies sitcoms that Ted loved to binge on when he was in a loafing mood.
    “Yes.”
    “You have me to help you.  Batboy may be an ordinary child.”
    “If he has wings, I’m going to kill Angelo, Mia.”
    “You were there at the conception.  Angelo had nothing to…  Well, fuck me and leave me a rose, he did, didn’t he?  If Judge Roumain wasn’t worried about me accompanying you and Angelo into the dark world, he wouldn’t have had you knock me up.”
    “You make me sound like a thug,” Ted teased.  “Knocking up women so they can’t get lost in the nether world.  Hey, that’s a career path.  Perhaps Dave would…”
    Mia hit Ted on the arm.
    “Spousal abuse!”
    “I barely touched you,” Mia said.  “Hand me a grapefruit, and I’ll show you spousal abuse.”
    “I’m never letting Dave pick out the movie on classic night again.  It’s giving you bad ideas,” Ted said.
    “Wuss,” Mia commented, turning her chair’s back to