As the standoff peaked, Luke Ellis reflexively knocked up a blond gunman’s weapon with his mind, unleashing a surge of Stasi Lights. Through the fading glare, Luke saw a deputy pinning the blond man’s wrist and Sheriff Ashworth preparing to kick the attacker again. The Stasi Lights returned even stronger as Luke was slammed by the combined mental voices of his friends, sending him stumbling backward into the holding area.

At that moment Louis Grant and Tom Jones opened fire with automatic rifles through the shattered entrance. Tim Jamieson tackled Wendy to shield her. Bullets struck Sheriff Ashworth and the deputy standing on the assailant’s hand, dropping both. Glass exploded and screaming filled the room, likely Wendy’s.

Outside, a woman who sounded like Julia Sigsby shouted an order that sounded like “all of you now,” pushing her team to act. Dazed and time-dilated from the Stasi Lights and the psychic call, Luke watched a wounded deputy turn toward the doors. The blond gunman rose and shot that deputy in the back.

Before the blond man could shoot Luke, a redheaded deputy bent and fired, hitting the blond man in the temple and killing him. The blond man toppled onto the woman who had posed as his wife. Gunfire continued outside, and another woman with a southern accent yelled, “Don’t you do it!”

Then the first woman—whose voice Luke recognized—yelled, “The boy! We have to get the boy!” Luke realized it truly was Julia Sigsby commanding outside and understood that the assault’s objective was to capture him.