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situation, ma’am, but what exactly can she do? He has a gun to your son’s head, not to mention a dozen other children as shields.”
    “She may be able to read his mind,” Damian said. “Get a line on whether this is a suicide by cop situation, or something else, since he’s not talking.”
    I nodded. “I can try.”
    “If she’s successful, we’ll be making more informed decisions.”
    The police chief blew out a breath, glancing at the gunman and kids. “Will he feel it?”
    “No, I’ll focus on him and try scanning his thoughts. He won’t notice at all.” I forced my hands to relax out of the fists they’d curled into. “I need to be a little closer than this though.”
    Stannett frowned. “How close?”
    “There’s a lot of interference with this many scared people around.” I bit my lip, looking at the front of the school. “Maybe twenty feet.”
    He shook his head. “Anyone going that close could set him off.”
    “Not if he doesn’t see her.” Damian lifted his chin slightly. “She can teleport to the entrance’s roof. He won’t see her up there, but she’ll be close enough to focus on him.”
    Close enough to have trouble blocking out the terror the kids were probably feeling too, but I didn’t mention that.
    “There’s enough room for two,” Schumacher pointed out.
    “Let her do it.” Betty’s quiet request had us all looking at her pale face and red-rimmed eyes. “Please.”
    Damian edged forward. “I’ll go with Cordi.”
    “All right.” The police chief glared at me. “Do it and get back here. Do nothing else.”
    I nodded, reaching for Damian’s hand as he held it toward me. We stepped behind the SWAT van, and teleported. Reappearing on the entrance’s overhanging roof, we both immediately crouched down. A slight lean forward and I could see the group below us. Damian?
    I hear you . He squeezed my hand. Go ahead and try .
    Focusing on the top of the gunman’s head, I took a deep breath and let it out quietly before beginning to scan. My breathing hitched as I hit the wall of fear emanating from the kids. It took me a minute or so to block them out.
    I won’t do it. I won’t do it . The thought, repeated over and over again, had other thoughts attached to it, but I couldn’t quite catch them. I stared down, studying the man with the gun. We were close enough to see the faint tremors racking his arm.
    Crap, he was another victim of whoever had caused the suicides. Had to be. I scanned his mind again, as carefully as possible, trying to pick up those other thoughts hanging behind his mantra of “I won’t do it.”
    A sense of urgency that wasn’t mine crept into my head. I didn’t fight it, taking what I could pick up before teleporting us back behind the SWAT van.
    “Well?” Stannett asked the second we stepped into view.
    I offered everything I’d been able to glean. “His name is Mike Chapman. He’s being forced to do this, I think by the same person who caused the others to commit suicide.”
    Schumacher grunted. “Then this is a suicide by cop thing.”
    “He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and is fighting the compulsion.” I swallowed hard. “But I think he’s losing.”
    “He’s shaking,” Damian confirmed. “We need to act fast.”
    “Sniper.” The police chief scowled. “We’ll take him out.”
    My eyes widened. “You’re going to shoot him?”
    “To save those kids? Yes. Do you have another suggestion?”
    I thought fast. What could I do? There had to be som… “Yeah, I do.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “I’ll teleport right beside him, and teleport away with his gun. He’ll be disarmed, no need to shoot him, and we’ll have a living lead to figure out who’s behind this.”
    “Are you faster than a bullet, Jones?” Stannett stared into my eyes.
    “Time me.” I teleported without waiting for his go-ahead, before his question created any doubt. A blink and my fingers closed around the gun’s muzzle. Another and I bent,