Blind Rage: Team Red, Book 4

by T. Hammond

  “Not too often,” I laughed. “We sever the connection when Red is physically active, as I get dizzy when his head swings from side to side, or when he’s running. It’s a lot like looking at a photograph. If you take a still picture of a cat, you can see everything in the photograph: the cat, furniture in the background, the rug pattern, even reflections in the windows. I am not limited to what Red is focused on. Right now, Red is watching my face, but in his peripheral vision, I watched Dex wad up his song lyrics page and place it in his front, right coat pocket. I see the deer crossing the road behind me, as well as woodpeckers flirting at the base of the tree fifty yards to my right. I also see the…” I turned and waved over my shoulder, “…the drone hovering up in the treetops.” Red shifted his focus to show me two more, quietly holding a pattern south of where we stood. Automatically, I looked in that direction, and the men’s gazes followed mine. “Arggh,” I growled, frustrated, “I have been trying to break myself of the habit of looking toward what I am watching through Red. It’s a dead giveaway.”

  Russ addressed the men, “As the Team Red security detail, you’ll need to remind Teresa when she does something which could give away her mind-sight. A discrete hand on her arm, to bring her attention to you. Or, if you have an opportunity to deflect attention, feel free to take initiative—drop something on the floor, or ask a question. I’m sure each of you understands the importance, and the possibilities, presented by what you’ve observed this morning.”

  “For the mind-sight, we use the term ‘lights on’ to indicate Red should send me visual. When we are done, we use ‘lights off.’ If you feel we are in an emergency, any of you can tell Red ‘lights on’ or ‘off.’ Red will mentally speak a warning to me before he gives me visual, or turns it off. Warnings were one of the rules we put in place so I don’t get surprised when I’m suddenly hit with a head full of bright light. There are also times when unanticipated withdrawal is dangerous, for example if I’m walking down stairs, and he disconnected abruptly.”

  “How disorienting is mind vision?” Frost asked, striking me once again with his perception.

  “Connecting is always a bit of a shock,” I admitted. “As much as I value being able to see, imagine you’ve been in a totally dark room for a day, then someone flips a switch, flooding the room with one-hundred-watt light. I’m lucky, my eyes don’t need to make a physical adjustment, as this is all, literally, in my head. Regardless of whether Red is at my side, or in another room, there is still a split second where I need to absorb what I’m seeing, and mentally put things into their proper places. There is also disorientation because what I see is not necessarily what is in front of me, and never from my own perspective, since Red is at thigh-height.”

  “I’ve noticed a pause, or maybe, more of a hitch, in Teresa’s movements, when the lights turn on or off,” Russ explained. “She will often reach out a hand, as if to steady herself. Bas always seems to be aware of her body language. You’ll see him shift a shoulder or arm against her hand so she’ll have something to grasp if she loses balance. Often, a touch seems to be enough to ground her, so she recovers immediately.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed,” I muttered aloud. In my mind, I pictured me flailing about, disoriented.

  “Sure. You do it all the time, Teresa. There’s a slight hesitation when the link connects and closes. ‘Lights out.’” Red closed our link, and I felt my hand lift in response to the sudden darkness. Almost immediately, an elbow slid under my wrist, and I felt balanced again. Just as quickly, “Lights on,” and my vision was back, though I waivered again. “David will sometimes put a hand out too, but he’s not always watching you. David doesn’t have the same awareness of his surroundings as Bas. Bas is a better multi-tasker,” Red praised. It was true, even David had remarked on Bastian’s ability to focus on many things at one time. I was now able to see the elbow belonged to Frost, which didn’t surprise me. I had a feeling he and Bas shared a lot in common, as far as their alertness to what was going on around them. Friendly-fire snowballs, exempted.

  “Red seems to agree with you, Russ. Thanks, Frost.” I briefly squeezed his arm to acknowledge the support; he dropped back to a position a little behind me. “Red decided to give me a demonstration and I lost visual for a split second. I don’t know if I can do better to cover the awkwardness when mind-sight is activated, but it’s something for me to work on, now that I’m aware of it. When I’m walking, it’s especially hard; although momentum still moves me forward, there can be a hesitancy in taking the next step while I adjust to the fact I can no longer see.”

  “How did that work at the BAWG? There were so many people there. How did you keep focused with Red scanning the crowds?” Fritz asked.

  “Bog?” Jaspar asked, his voice an undertone, as if embarrassed he may have missed something important.

  “B-A-W-G. An acronym for the Black and White Gala ball. The job Fritz and I were part of last November when Teresa and Red assisted with the gun running mission,” Dex clarified.

  “The BAWG was actually easier for me. Red was watching the crowd, and I had already taken a seat so I could concentrate. He’s good at scanning slowly, or staying focused on a single point so I can use his peripheral vision.” I reached down to scratch behind his ears. “Another thing which made the BAWG an easier job for us, is one of our people sprayed a dog pheromone on the mark’s clothing, so Red was able to track, rather than rely entirely on scanning faces.”

  “I hadn’t realized you and Red were part of that mission,” Eddie said. “How were you able to help find the perp?”

  Perp? I grinned to myself. Heaven forbid we say perpetrator, or even bad guy, when we can reduce language to four-letter words. “We already suspected Capt. Morales, and were trying to discover his contact for the gun running operation. I’m sure you’ve heard me remark ‘be careful what you say in front of the dog, he repeats everything.’ Red was out on the balcony when Morales met Major Stark. Red recited, verbatim, the conversation between the two. They were very generous about information concerning locations and schedules,” I snickered. “Red even got a few pats and scratches while they chatted away in front of him.”

  Jaspar mused, “This mind-sight has huge undercover potential, especially combined with the mind-speaking. Who would suspect a dog of being a covert operative?”

  I could feel a surge of pride in Red. Between the video and the praise from the team, he was going to be impossible to live with. Predictably, he said, “I’m a top secret spy dog, Teresa. Lassie’s got nothing on me. I’m an operative. I go on important missions to discover intel.”

  I sighed, and so it begins. “You’re a good boy, Red. I’m very proud of the way you handled yourself at the BAWG. You did such a great job, Colonel Spencer hasn’t stopped asking us to go to Miami.”

  … wait for it…

  “Not going to Florida, Teresa,” the men chorused.

  “What’s the big deal with Florida?” I mumbled under my breath, knowing the men would ignore the question like they always do.

  “Bas is worried the job will be unnecessarily dangerous,” Red volunteered. “The colonel suspects a whole squad of soldiers is dealing drugs out of one of the off-base housing units. Bas thinks the colonel wants to test us to see the range of our skills. Bas told the colonel we are not a ‘dog and pony show’ who needs to prove anything, and we have more important things to do than fly to Miami to clean up his mess.”

  Mmm, it seems Bas forgot the ‘be careful what you say in front of the dog’ rule. “So what is he asking us to do, exactly?” I directed at Red. It was hilarious to see all the men snap their heads around to look down at my not-so-confidential informant. No doubt, each was mentally reviewing all conversations they’ve had in front of my clever canine.

  “From what Colonel Spencer said on the speaker phone, he wanted us to pretend to move into the house next door, and sniff around when the guys are called back to the base for an e-merg-gen-cy.” I’m sure Red’s emphasis parr
oted how the colonel stressed it during the call. “Bas told him the same job could be done by a couple of MPs, and he didn’t want us unnecessarily exposed. Russ says the colonel is either trying to test us for undercover drug work, or he’s not giving us the whole story. Russ thinks the colonel is being a secretive bastard, and if he got a few good men and a decent listening device, he could have had his answers weeks ago.”

  “So it’s not mission dependent on our unique skill sets, simply a test to see if we can assist with drug cases? Or, it is a possibly dangerous mission, and he’s not disclosing all the information?” I contemplated possible reasons the colonel would withhold all the facts, watching the men make meaningful eye contact amongst themselves. “I can see why Bas would turn it down. We wouldn’t want to go into an operation blind, now would we?” I joked.

  “David and Bas were worried about you going undercover and living alone in the house next to a meth lab,” Russ disclosed tentatively, finally giving me some information about the job. “I’ve also discussed the job with your guys, and we suspect there is another element he’s withholding. If it was as urgent as the colonel claims, it would have been handled already. I had a few men look into it, and it initially was a pretty obvious case of selling marijuana. A surprisingly large-scale operation. Last week, they started to manufacture meth. Coincidentally, last night, I believe an anonymous tip was called into the local police department. If there is an aspect of the mission being held back, I probably screwed with the colonel’s internal investigation, but with the danger of a meth lab in the neighborhood I decided to interfere. The colonel didn’t seem to take the safety of innocent civilians into consideration.”

  “I’d like to think I’m a reasonable person, Russ. Why couldn’t you guys have simply told me this before? And, since the meth lab is a recent development, it doesn’t explain why David and Bas have been adamantly opposed to Miami since it was brought up weeks ago.” Russ frowned, and there was more of that manly eye-contact with the team as he tried to compose an answer.

  “’T was ’riginally David’s decision to not discuss Florida with you. Thought you shouldn’t worry ‘bout it,” Frost offered, earning a sharp glance from Russ. “Not been discussed aloud, Teresa, but Bas can’t accompany you ‘cuz of PreClan deadlines. If he’s correct ‘bout not havin’ all the facts, he’d want to be there person’ly to assess risks, rather than rely on someone else.” Russ continued to glare at Frost for voicing a personal opinion. Yep, Frost was definitely my favorite guard. “Man loves you. Wants you safe.”

  I had a small flash of anger, regarding David’s presumption, but I did tell them the jobs we accepted would depend on their judgment, so it seemed petty to be pissed I was excluded from the decision-making process. Still, I resented he wouldn’t even talk to me about his reasons. I felt I was being patted on the head, and told not to worry my poor little brain about it. Knowing Bastian, he kept silent deferring to David’s personal relationship with me. Idiot.

  “Anything in Miami would be risky, Teresa,” Russ admitted. “Drugs, prostitution, white slavery, illegal adoptions… the list goes on. There are less hazardous jobs which are just as important. Unfortunately, it would be like hanging a neon sign around your neck. A single, good-looking, blind woman and a large German shepherd, in a land of ankle-biters; you’d stand out and be remembered. As the date of a military officer, you had a reason to be at the Black and White ball. You don’t have a reason to be alone in Miami, in military housing, living next door to a meth operation.”

  “Yeah, I get it, Russ. But seriously, it would have been easier for David to simply tell me from the start,” I sighed. “There are plenty of things the Team can do, and I would have been fine with the reasoning for skipping this mission. Whether we’re sifting through police evidence, uncovering gun runners for the military, or looking for lost people, we want to help. I also want input. I’d like to have a place at the table when serious jobs are discussed.”

  “You’re a smart woman, Teresa. And, as a civilian, you offer a unique perspective,” Dex said. “I think it’s a great idea to include you in mission discussions.”

  Okay, Dex earned a spot as my second-favorite guard.

  “Gentlemen, you can see the need for Team Red to be assigned their own detail,” Russ stated, meeting the eyes of each team member to emphasize the importance. “Not only do we want to assure Teresa’s safety so Bastian and David can finish up the mapping program in peace, but the communication link these two share would be exploited if the wrong people found out.”

  “Can see how Bas ‘n David’d be worried for you. Will do my best to safeguard the secrets ‘n assure your personal safety,” Frost pledged. Each of the men added their own, individual assurances.

  Apparently satisfied, Russ continued detailing his expectations, “We are trying to keep the mind-sight contained to a tight circle of individuals, but most of the PreClan security people are aware, or will be told, of the mind-speak. With so many Mustangs wandering through Teresa’s home or monitoring the cameras, it’s harder for her to hide the communication link as she’s unaware of who’s watching. It’s especially difficult to conceal with the cameras and drones’ constantly patrolling the property. As Teresa pointed out, when we argued about revealing the mind-sight to her security detail, if they’re distracted because they suspect something is going on between her and Red, they may fail to pay attention to others who might be observing them, too. We felt it best to disclose the full range of capabilities to this group, so each of you can focus on her safety. If you have questions, ask. Don’t get caught up in watching your charges to the point you aren’t watching out for them.”

  “Who already knows about the mind-sight abilities?” Eddie asked.

  “In addition to us, we have Bas and David, of course. There’s Henry, oh, and all of you’ve met Gil, the cop Red and Teresa work with at the Spokane PD,” Russ clarified.

  “Janey and Ken are also in on the mind-sight secret,” I added. “We have tried to limit the number of people who know about the visual link. The officers who work with Gil know about the mind-speak only. Except for little flashes, to see something specific, Red and I don’t use the mind-sight when he’s going over police evidence, as it’s harder for him to hold both links open concurrently. To minimize our exposure, Gil is careful to schedule one of the six or seven officers who already know about the verbal link, to observe Red when he’s working. There are a dozen or so military men who also know about mind-speak, although Colonel Spencer is the only person who has been told about the vision.” I mentally ran through the list again. “I think that’s everyone.”

  As we wandered back, towards the waiting SUVs, I explained the scope of the jobs we’ve done for the police department, going into detail about Red’s deductive reasoning skills, as well as limitations. Russ added a recap of what he knew of the BAWG mission, with Dex and Fritz adding observations to the narration. The men were full of suggestions to help train me not to respond to visual stimuli, and Fritz surprised me by offering to develop some games and possible coping skills to help us work better as a unit. Apparently, Fritz had a degree in early childhood development, and felt some of the skills he learned may translate to our situation.

  I leaned casually against the door of our vehicle, Frost to my right, a position he seemed comfortable with. I noted the other men deferred to his preference, forming a circle around me as the conversation continued.

  Frost brought up, “Thing to consider: who should be told ‘bout vision sharing? As Russ’ second-in-command, think Fairview should be on the short list.”

  “Adam Fairview is in charge of the San Diego office while I’m up here in the wilds of Spokane. I don’t anticipate him coming up for a visit, but he should know about you and Red so he can allocate backup as needed,” Russ explained. “His title is project coordinator, but in actuality, he makes most of the job assignments and implements skills assessments. He’ll need to know what you represent as a resource, and we need him
to understand why there is a tight, closed circle of people on your detail.”

  “We should tell Gwyn also,” Dex suggested. “Her advice has always been invaluable, and she’s also in a position to observe and overhear people talking about Red and Teresa. She would be quick to pick up on anyone puzzling over their relationship. Not to mention, that woman could cause some serious damage to the boss, here, if she found out on her own.”

  “Amen,” Russ affirmed. “Gwyn is an ex-Marine, and the most observant person on our team, next to Frost. She’s an award winning marksman, and a valued member of our think tank.”

  Dex nodded agreement. “She’s pretty shrewd, all right. She also has implied authority, as Russ’ wife, to handle administrative issues, so the men are used to taking her advice and talking to her about their concerns. If she knows what to look for, she can help keep a potential problem contained.”

  A few more suggestions were made, mostly men I hadn’t met yet. Turning to Frost, I asked, “How long have we been here? Red and I are usually limited to fifteen minutes or so with mind-sight, but he still has the vision open, and it seems like it’s been awhile.”

  Frost glanced down at his watch. “’Bout thirty-six minutes since you left the vehicle.”