Release date: Marach 31, 2017
Subgenre: Superheroes
About Team Guardian:
This collection includes the three Team Guardian adventures: Sweet Mercy, Safe Haven and Shining Hope.
When a probability bomb exploded in the heartlands of the US, no one could have predicted the results. Spreading chaos was the point of using a probability bomb. Thousands died. Others were gifted with strange powers. Ten years later the world had become a different place.
When Rachel Connolly — a Reverse Empath — and Franklin Luke Delano (Fluke) — a Probability Talent — meet in the course of capturing a would-be bomber, they have little time to explore their powerful connection before they must draw a mad Puppet Master into the open.
Beth Talbot’s psychometry Talent is a curse as well as a blessing, making Time for her less a smoothly-flowing river than a storm-tossed ocean. She sees David Connolly as a rock of stability in that maelstrom, with his Talent for neutralizing other Talents like hers. But how can she even try to turn his attention her way when everyone on Team Guardian needs him, especially with a mad Talent out to take control of the entire world’s computing - and banking -systems.
Maybe Tom could have called on another Illusionist to help in the hunt, but Sophia Alvarez is the best, and she’s been on his mind since the last mission they worked together. Tom takes on the authority and responsibilities of leading the Team – in time to join the FBI in tracking down a rogue Talent behind a string of killings they believe the work of a vigilante Talent bent on destroying sexual predators.
When a probability bomb exploded in the heartlands of the US, no one could have predicted the results. Spreading chaos was the point of using a probability bomb. Thousands died. Others were gifted with strange powers. Ten years later the world had become a different place.
When Rachel Connolly — a Reverse Empath — and Franklin Luke Delano (Fluke) — a Probability Talent — meet in the course of capturing a would-be bomber, they have little time to explore their powerful connection before they must draw a mad Puppet Master into the open.
Beth Talbot’s psychometry Talent is a curse as well as a blessing, making Time for her less a smoothly-flowing river than a storm-tossed ocean. She sees David Connolly as a rock of stability in that maelstrom, with his Talent for neutralizing other Talents like hers. But how can she even try to turn his attention her way when everyone on Team Guardian needs him, especially with a mad Talent out to take control of the entire world’s computing - and banking -systems.
Maybe Tom could have called on another Illusionist to help in the hunt, but Sophia Alvarez is the best, and she’s been on his mind since the last mission they worked together. Tom takes on the authority and responsibilities of leading the Team – in time to join the FBI in tracking down a rogue Talent behind a string of killings they believe the work of a vigilante Talent bent on destroying sexual predators.
Excerpt:
Too bad they hadn’t found a teleporter yet who could move through walls. Be nice if they could just appear behind the fricking bomber and knock him on the head. The scientists who studied such things said their teleporters didn’t actually bypass distance, but crossed it at near light speed in some frictionless state. They didn’t understand the phenomenon yet, or how the travelers could avoid collisions with solid objects in their path but not be able to enter or exit closed spaces—except by the same means as anyone else.
Arriving outside a glass-and-steel building in a suburban office park, Rachel left Tom with a smile and wave. She spotted her tall, blond brother in his brown sports jacket, standing like a golden eagle among crows in the middle of a small group of police and SWAT members on the, presumably, safe side of a barricade of police cars.
David handed her a large to-go cup of coffee as soon as she made it to his side. “Mmm.” She took a deep swig while he turned her to face the main entrance of the building. He pointed.
“He’s got about a dozen people in there. The police are giving us this chance to go in before the SWAT. They’ve already had a negotiator on the phone with him. No luck.”
Rachel took a long deep breath, releasing it slowly.“Okay. Give me a minute here.”
“First, let me introduce your partner. He’ll be going in with you.”
Arriving outside a glass-and-steel building in a suburban office park, Rachel left Tom with a smile and wave. She spotted her tall, blond brother in his brown sports jacket, standing like a golden eagle among crows in the middle of a small group of police and SWAT members on the, presumably, safe side of a barricade of police cars.
David handed her a large to-go cup of coffee as soon as she made it to his side. “Mmm.” She took a deep swig while he turned her to face the main entrance of the building. He pointed.
“He’s got about a dozen people in there. The police are giving us this chance to go in before the SWAT. They’ve already had a negotiator on the phone with him. No luck.”
Rachel took a long deep breath, releasing it slowly.“Okay. Give me a minute here.”
“First, let me introduce your partner. He’ll be going in with you.”
"I work alone.” Rachel’s attention stayed on her breathing, keeping any annoyance, any emotional reactions under control in accordance with her well-practiced routine for inducing a state of inner peace.
“Not this time.” David understood her state.“Trust me. This guy will deal with the bomb—you deal with the bomber. This is Fluke. He’s a Probabilities Talent—just moved here from Chicago.”
The tall, well-built guy at David’s elbow raised one eyebrow quizzically. He looked more accustomed to aggravation and confrontation than to the feelings of serene compassion Rachel currently generated and projected around herself. Not a bad face that… She tamped down the stirring of her interest in his chiseled features, the finely turned lips surrounded by five o’clock shadow, and the dark eyes under shaggy dark hair. He wore his specs shoved back on his head. Rachel extended a hand and let her benevolent smile encompass him.
“A pleasure.” As usual in this state, she sounded abstracted, only half in the world of the others, the bulk of her attention turned to generating a state of peaceful serenity, building it up to project outward in an increasingly wider sphere.
Faced with this… interesting… man, it took some effort to stay focused on projecting waves of placidity like the laziest of all sleepy summer days wrapped in a dose of baby-curled-at-a-loving-mama’s-breast. She caught the spark of interest in the man’s eyes before David drew him aside.
“You feel it?” David, immune, asked Fluke. “That’s what’ll get you close. She’s a reverse empath, projects her feelings. She’ll shut down the bomber’s fear response, and the hostages’ too. No one will panic or do anything rash. You’ll be able to get access to the bomb to defuse it.”
“Not this time.” David understood her state.“Trust me. This guy will deal with the bomb—you deal with the bomber. This is Fluke. He’s a Probabilities Talent—just moved here from Chicago.”
The tall, well-built guy at David’s elbow raised one eyebrow quizzically. He looked more accustomed to aggravation and confrontation than to the feelings of serene compassion Rachel currently generated and projected around herself. Not a bad face that… She tamped down the stirring of her interest in his chiseled features, the finely turned lips surrounded by five o’clock shadow, and the dark eyes under shaggy dark hair. He wore his specs shoved back on his head. Rachel extended a hand and let her benevolent smile encompass him.
“A pleasure.” As usual in this state, she sounded abstracted, only half in the world of the others, the bulk of her attention turned to generating a state of peaceful serenity, building it up to project outward in an increasingly wider sphere.
Faced with this… interesting… man, it took some effort to stay focused on projecting waves of placidity like the laziest of all sleepy summer days wrapped in a dose of baby-curled-at-a-loving-mama’s-breast. She caught the spark of interest in the man’s eyes before David drew him aside.
“You feel it?” David, immune, asked Fluke. “That’s what’ll get you close. She’s a reverse empath, projects her feelings. She’ll shut down the bomber’s fear response, and the hostages’ too. No one will panic or do anything rash. You’ll be able to get access to the bomb to defuse it.”
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About Naomi Stone:
I loved fairy tales and tales of magic from the very start. Even
before that I loved to daydream; I daydreamed myself into adventures
with my favorite TV characters. I dreamed up adventures crossing time
and space on my own, meeting characters out of history and stories.
Books gave me the sense that there was a home waiting for my daydreams, a
place where they belonged - and it's my great pleasure now to share
them with other readers.
