Some extraordinary children are to be found in the Northern Irish port-town of Hardglass. One, Akeem, has in fact just arrived - a stowaway on a cargo ship. Elsewhere, friends Andrew and Ewan are waiting to see the result of Ewan's father's trial for being a weapons dealer. While their friend May is newly residing at a most unusual school, one whose pupils have talents to match her singular one of sensing and empathising with the thoughts of animals. It's a gang of people brought together in a natural, realistic way, with some fantastic factors to their lives that are only going to get heightened. For said weapons, allegedly going on their way to be decommissioned, will soon be on the same cargo boat Akeem has just left - and they're weapons from the darker side of horror...
A further school for the talented, such as mentioned here, can be found in the series including [[Going to Ground: Shapeshifter Book 3 by Ali Sparkes]], with a second forming from the franchise opening that is [[Meteorite Strike by A G Taylor]]. For a fictional Garrett, I loved [[Boot Camp by Todd Strasser]].