The large panes of glass all over the house began to vibrate.
“You sure it’s ‘nothing’?” Griffin pushed.
Fanny chuckled, but the sound was breathy, unsure, and a bit alarmed.
I stood too, and Bobo pressed against my legs. Hunt, Layla, and Brady huddled around Griffin and me.
The light in the kitchen began to flicker.
“Okay,” I snapped at Fanny. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I’m sure everything’s fine,” she answered, her voice an octave higher than before. “But we may want to take cover, just in case.”
Before any of us could so much as take a step to do so, a loud and unmistakableKABOOMshattered the campus’s quiet.
The entire house shook. Dishes and silverware rattled loudly in the cupboards and drawers, and a fine dusting of plaster rained down from above.
The five of us crawled under the massive table, dragging Bobo under with us.
Fanny lay sprawled out on the floor, squawking, “What was that?”
“How the hell should we know?” Brady snapped back. “We were just asking you that!”
“Not you,” Fanny snapped back at Brady. “Hush so I can hear.”
I placed my hand on the floor. The shaking seemed to be slowing.
“And is he locked up now?” Fanny asked someone.
“Holy shit,” Hunt breathed. “She’s chipped.”
I jerked a stare at him, then Fanny. She didn’t have her tablet or phone out, nor had I noticed a comm on her, and I’d looked in her ears specifically.
“Who’d be insane enough to let someone do that to them?” Layla whispered.
As one, all of us, even Bobo, studied Fanny.
Her hands were pressed against the floor as she spoke to the air around her. “Well, then take him out! Get him locked up!”
The shaking settled even more.
“Yes, yes, I’m on my way,” she told the invisible person on the other end of the chip in her head. “Yes, I’m with them. But they can make it to the labs on their own. I showed them the way already.”
She paused as if listening. “No, they’ll be fine.” Then she stared angrily at us, as if we were at fault in whatever the hell chaos was going down now. “They’ll go straight there. Uh-huh. On my way, but don’t wait to get security there. Tranq him if you need to. Keep dosing him till it works.”
As if nothing untoward had happened, Fanny rose from the floor, dusted off her flowered skirt, hitched her bag higher, then walked to the window-wall with a view down to the drive where the buggy was parked. I glanced toward it too. Don was standing beside the cart, looking anxiously up at her.
She glanced back toward us. “You’re to go directly to the labs, nowhere else. They’ll be waiting for you there. When you’re finished, someone will be there to escort you to your next appointment.”
She powerwalked to the door, and with it already opened, she added, “And hurry. I don’t have time today to deal with your bullshit.” She stepped out and slid the door shut behind her.
On the other side of the door, she muttered, “I don’t have time to deal withhisbullshit either.” She surely wasn’t referring to her precious Magnum. “No, I’m not talking to you, Fred. Give me an injury and destruction update.”
She walked down the small hill to the buggy, hopped in, and Don took them down the drive.
The five of us looked at each other, and without a single word we dropped everything and raced toward the garage level, Bobo on our heels. Ordinarily, I’d leave him at home. But not when some majorly sus shit was going down like this.
We piled into Bonnie in record time and Brady had us peeling down the driveway after the buggy while it was still in sight.
