Color Blind (Team Red) (3 page)

“Ken? Could I trouble you for a cup of coffee please?”

“No problem,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll get some fresh cups for Bas and David too. I assume we aren’t wasting good Columbian beans on the Captain.”

“You assume correctly,” I replied, with a large smile.

I caught the tail end of David’s conversation, “… so I’ll just place you on speaker, Sir. You’ll hear some stuff that doesn’t make sense regarding the dog, Red, but I’ll explain everything later.” There was a pause as David listened to the Colonel. “Yes, Sir. If you could just press MUTE on your end until you’re ready to join the conversation, I would appreciate it, Sir.”

I heard clatter as David returned the receiver to the phone cradle, presumably on the ‘Speaker’ setting. David kissed my temple and stood in front of the seat to my left, and closest to the phone. “I’m moving the drone away from Captain Blair, which should let Bas know we are ready for him to let our
guests
in.”

David was probably talking to me rather than our eavesdropping guest, so I replied, “Red tells me that the grumpy, talking man, aka: Captain Blair, has given his gun to one of the other men, and is coming in by himself.”

I could hear the front door close and a pair of advancing footsteps.

“David and Bas are using sign language,”
there was amusement in Red’s voice,
“they are referring to the talking man as ‘the fucking moron’.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head in defeat. It’s bad enough we can’t swear out loud in front of Red, now it turns out he’s learning the ASL swear words too?

A chair across from me was scraped out (a noise for my benefit, I’m sure, as Bas was usually more silent) then Bas quietly took a chair to my right and David sat down at my left.

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, Captain Blair, that it is extremely rude to come to our home uninvited, making demands and threats.”

Ignoring my censure, the remarkably thick-skinned Captain took the offensive, “Ms. March, you and your dog have an amazing ability. You owe it to your country to lend your services to the good of the nation.”

“Who are you representing?” David asked.

“Representing?” Blair was puzzled, “Why the United States government, of course.” There was a short pause. “Is? Is there a reason the dog is watching me?”

I know, clichéd, but I couldn’t help myself, “Red
is
our
watch
dog.”

“Har har.”
Red snorted in my mind, “
We have him squirming in his chair. He doesn’t like being stared at.”

Bas interjected, “Who instructed you to come here and blackmail Team Red into working for them?”

“Blackmail is awfully harsh, Mr. Declan. I wouldn’t have had to mention media exposure if you had just been reasonable and let me in when I asked. All I wanted was an opportunity to discuss what impact Ms. March and Red’s abilities could mean to the Army, and other branches of the military. Team Red has an extraordinary skill set that could be invaluable in our efforts to combat terrorism. It would be anti-American of them to refuse to serve their country.”

Was I the only one that thought this was a load of crap? Who wrote this guy’s dialog anyway, a third grader? Obviously Bas thought alone the same lines, “That’s a bunch of bullshit. And who are you to decide what we should do to serve our country? David and I have a combined total of forty-one years of military service behind us. Are you suggesting we have not served our country? And did you just imply a dog and a blind woman are essentially traitors if they don’t agree to work for you?”

Bas was on a fine roll. I smiled as I leaned back in my chair to enjoy the ride.

“No, of course not, Mr. Declan. You and Mr. Preston have performed exemplary service to your country. But surely you can see how important Ms. March and Red can be in certain aspects of national security? They have a duty…”

Bas took a page from my book and cut him off. “Team Red has no duty to the military. The Team lends its services to the local police department.”

David interjected, “You never told us who you are here to represent, Captain. By whose authority are you making demands on Team Red? Who is your superior?”

“Everyone is his superior,”
Red quipped, before the captain managed to reply. I tapped a fingernail once on the tabletop to draw David’s attention to my hands, and signed Red’s remark. Both men chuckled.

“I have not made any demands,” the Captain protested, “I merely wanted to speak to the Team to emphasize the importance of your cooperation. Your country needs you.”

“Our cooperation for what?” I asked, impatience beginning to show in my tone, “And answer the question; who sent you?”

“I’m not at liberty to disclose the names of my superiors,” he hedged, “and there are no specific missions lined up at this time. We just want to run some further tests on Red’s skills so we can make an informed assessment of the best place to utilize the Team’s abilities.”

“Who wants to run the tests?” Bas asked. “What kinds of tests are we talking about here?”

“And where would these tests be run? Under whose direction?” David jumped right in to the discussion… way to tag team, guys!

“Um,” the Captain said intelligently. “Well, none of that has been arranged just yet. We wanted to talk about the Team’s aptitude before trying to set up testing. Ah, could you make the dog back up please? He’s staring at me.”

“The mysterious ‘we’,” I said with a snort, ignoring his request to have Red step away. I think I heard the Captain making shooing noises at Red.

“I think I’ve heard enough,” a voice announced over the phone speaker.

“Captain Blair,” David inserted smoothly, “have you had the pleasure of meeting Colonel Spencer?”

“Err, ah, no. No, I haven’t met him.” He gained a little of his lost backbone and said, “How do I even know that you’re really Colonel Spencer?”

Right about that time, a cell phone rang from the Captain’s direction. The Colonel’s voice directed, “You’ll want to take that call, Captain. I believe that is your mysteriously unnamed superior officer calling to speak with you.” I liked the Colonel already, he apparently speaks fluent sarcasm like the rest of our group.

“Red,” I said quietly, trying not to interrupt the phone conversation, “to me.” He must have already tired of his game, because almost immediately he nuzzled his head under my arm. “Good boy, go get yourself a treat out of the pantry.”

“Score!”
He said excitedly. His head disappeared and I heard the click of nails heading for the kitchen.

The Captain’s ringtone cut off abruptly, “Hello, Captain Blair speaking.” Pause. “Yes, Sir.” Pause. “Err, no, Sir, but…” longer pause. “Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir. Goodbye, Sir.””

“Any doubts about my identity now, Captain Blair?” The speaker phone voice was low and silky.

“No, Sir. I’m sorry if you felt I displayed a lack of respect Colonel Spencer.” He added belatedly, “Sir.”

“It’s time for you to leave, Captain,” The Voice continued, “I’ll be speaking with you later. I am sure I don’t have to emphasize that this matter is no longer open for discussion? Misters Declan and Preston are actively involved with some sensitive military projects. Leaks to the media involving them, or people closely connected, would be considered against the interests of national security.”

“I understand, Sir.” The Captain replied. “Mr. Declan, Mr. Preston, Ms. March, please accept my sincere apologies for what I see was bad judgment on my part. I’ll see myself out, and I won’t be bothering you again.”

There was a soft snick as the door closed gently behind him.

“Well,” I said into the quiet room, “I’m betting that Colonel Spencer has a few questions.” I faced towards David, “Would it be easier to invite the Colonel to lunch or dinner? Maybe you can just have the meeting here in your office (we never referred to it as the Cave to outsiders, as we didn’t want anyone to guess about the hidden underground room). I believe BBQ chicken is on the menu this afternoon. I’m sure there’s plenty.”

“We’d love to have you drop by the house if that’s convenient for you Colonel,” David added his encouragement towards the disembodied voice. “Bas and I would love to show you around our computer room and you can see some of the projects we have in the works. Nothing official that we’d want to formally present yet, but Bas made some innovative upgrades with the holographic imaging program just this week. If you like, we can do our presentation this afternoon or evening, if you don’t mind the informal setting.”

I could hear a muffled conversation on the Colonel’s side of the phone. I guess he forgot about the ‘mute’ button.

Guessing at least one of the problems, I added, “I’m sure you have people accompanying you, Colonel Spencer, who would probably be included in the meeting you have planned with Bas and David tomorrow; please feel free to bring along any members of your group that may be interested in the tour. Our invitation extends to them, of course. You and your party are more than welcome into our home.”

“Sorry I wasn’t more clear, Sir,” David said, squeezing my hand in a silent thank you. “We have privacy here, and you and the rest of your group will find this a nice opportunity to enjoy a casual evening. It will also give us an opportunity to introduce you to Team Red. The Team is, unfortunately, not something that can be explained convincingly over the phone.”

“Thank you, Preston. I have the other four with me who would have been present in the meeting and we are all able to head your way. It is actually more convenient to do the meeting today, as we were having some logistics challenges for tomorrow. My aide is making changes to our schedule so we are freed up until,” there was some muffled conversation on the line, “until twenty-one hundred tonight.”

Okay, I thought to myself, twenty-one minus two is nineteen, minus ten means nine o’…

“You’re subtracting in your head again, aren’t you?” Bas teased in my ear. “Nine PM, Babe,” he added condescendingly.

“Bas-hole,” I snipped back under my breath. But he was right, there was something about military time that always had me subtracting numbers in my brain. At least he hadn’t caught me counting on my fingers; I’d never live that down.

Bas leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to the hair above my temple, “Love you too, Loser,” he offered in consolation, then scooted his chair away from the table and stood up.

“Excellent,” David confirmed. “I am sending GPS coordinates to your email right this moment.” I stifled a groan, anyone else would have gotten our address and a link to vPike.com, our favored online map site. “I assume you’re at Fairchild Air Force Base, Sir?”

The Colonel chuckled, “Well, actually, we are downtown at the river. When you phoned, all five of us had been at Riverfront Park. Lieutenant Mercer is a photographer and we were taking snapshots of the Spokane Falls and this old-fashioned carousal. Did you know this thing is over a hundred years old?”

“Yes Sir. I’ve been there a few times with Teresa. The park is one of our favorite places in town. Red, our German shepherd likes to play with the kids at the red wagon sculpture just east of there.”

“So, Red’s a dog, huh? This should be an interesting story.”

Bas started laughing, “Oh Colonel, you have no idea, Sir. You are in for an interesting afternoon.” I could hear Bas’ footsteps heading for the Cave, presumably to get ready for our visitors. I heard him mumble something to Ken as he passed through the kitchen.

There was an answering chuckle from the speaker phone. “It looks like we’re about twenty or twenty-five minutes away. We’ll see you shortly”

David disconnected the call and whispered in my ear, “We’ll have to roll around on the sheets later, Lover. I’m afraid it’s down into the bowels of the earth for me now.”

“Yeah,” I sighed with false sympathy. “I know how much you hate it down there. All that loud technological equipment, whirring computers, and those big scary weights; I’m sure its just torture,” I smiled.

He bussed a quick kiss to the tip of my nose and drew me into a full frontal hug, and damn, did the man ever have a nice frontal to hug against. I was still barefoot, but my five-ten frame allowed me to snuggle my freshly kissed nose right into the crook of his neck without stretching up too high on my toes. I slid both arms around his back, just enjoying his warm hardness along the length of my body. “You. Are. So. Hot.” He said between damp kisses down the side of my neck. “I am
so
going to ravish you tonight,” he promised with a sinful chuckle, stroking his palms firmly over my waist to grab my butt and hold me tight against a tautly strained zipper.

I ran my hands up over his pecs and throat, into the silky smoothness of his hair. After twenty-plus years of Navy life, he felt most comfortable with a short cut, but he was growing it out just a little more on the top, because I liked the texture under my fingers. It was during times like this, that I missed my sight. Janey had described David’s hair and eyes to me, but I wished I could see the chocolate-dark locks against the paleness of my fingers, or stare into his eyes and pick out the green that flecked through the hazel.

I wanted so badly to see the grin she tells me carries a hint of the devil and a whole lot of love. And Oh. My. Goodness. I wished I could watch him walk. Janey told me he has a loose, lazy saunter that gains him an extra point on the one-to-ten scale (of which she informs me, he’s a thirteen. Score for me!). I know how that lazy roll of his hips translates in the bedroom, and … Gawd I needed to take a quick cool shower to take some of the heat out of my skin before our guests arrived.

“And just what are you thinking about that’s added a beautiful flush to those cheeks?” David asked with a knowing smugness in his tone.