Trellis Read online

  “I hate you.” Harper sputtered stone-faced.

  “If I had that kind of power I would be manipulating everyone! No one would be safe. The fact that she has handled this power with as much maturity as she has,” Jase thoughtfully interjected, “It is something that is astonishing.”

  “If I could get rid of this power, I would in a heartbeat. It doesn’t exactly make for a peaceful normal life. I mess up on a daily basis and fail miserably.”

  Doc interjected, “Sweetheart, there is your first problem. No one has a normal life. They make a normalcy out of their dysfunction. Everyone has issues and problems they deal with. Yours happens to be an extraordinary gift that you have handled better than anyone I know would have. Give yourself some credit, especially since no one has ever modeled good behavior for you.”

  D’s heart softened in those few words he spoke. His words actually matched what his mind was thinking and this was something she realized was a theme with the team. She really wanted to say something, like, thank you, you all have modeled more honorary behavior than I have ever seen~ or heard with my mind. She didn’t though, she let the moment pass with silence.

  “Speaking of mind reading, you still can’t read Sloan’s mind?” Colin asked.

  D shook her head no.

  “And still no to mine?”

  She looked at Colin and wished the answer was yes, “No.”

  “I wish we could all give her our blood if it was going to keep her out of our heads. I don’t like it,” Doc coughed out covering his mouth.

  “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing earlier with you men. It must be horrible trying to keep your mind scrubbed and clean.” Colin added.

  “It is, you have no idea,” Jase joked. “That woman back at the gas station. Did you see her? It was all I could do to…”

  D raised her voice, “If that was you keeping your mind clean then you failed! You are disgusting.”

  “Crud. Well, it could have been worse.” Jase frowned.

  “I am done with all of this. You people drain me and I need some sleep without your brain patterns buzzing me awake. I can’t keep this up. My body is going to start to decline if I can’t get some much needed rest. I am sure you all need rest too, right?”

  “Agreed. Why don’t we find the nearest campsite, let you sleep, and we can do research on submarines used for tours and study the maps.”

  “Deal,” they all agreed in unison.

  Chapter Twenty- Six ~

  As D rolled over nestled under the warm blankets, she realized she was in the camper, parked in an obscure campground, it was dark outside, the rain had passed, and she couldn’t hear the men. She glanced over at the clock, she figured she had been sleeping for at least ten hours. Not unusual for her but given the circumstances, she didn’t think she would sleep so peaceful. Of course, she didn’t want to admit to anyone much less herself, she really did like having the guys around. Being lonely was a normal emotion for her and she had forgotten how Treeny made her feel a part of something, a belonging to something bigger.

  She rolled out of bed and observed the men gathered around a fire in the distance. She decided to join them hoping they had food… and a plan to the island.

  “Well, look who finally decided to join the land of the living.” Harper grinned.

  Colin assessed her, picked up a stick that had been carved on one end like a spear, slid a hotdog on it, handed it to her while he pointed to the fire for her to cook it herself, then continued his talk.

  She wasn’t sure exactly what to do but she knew holding it over a flame would cook it, at least she hoped. She had never eaten a hotdog that wasn’t from a vendor on a street. Jase scooted over on the log he was sitting on and motioned for her to sit down.

  “Look, we have what looks like the biggest secret weapon going in to this,” Colin stated as he looked at D. “But we can’t count on her.”

  “Hey,” D retorted.

  “I mean, we can’t count on the fact that they have not developed something to counteract your ability. In fact, we need to adopt the mindset that nothing is as it seems going into this. Anything can change. We have no idea what weapons they have or what they have developed to immobilize you.”

  Then D remembers something she hadn’t thought about since Fort Knox, “There is something that I just remembered. When I was in Fort Knox and saw Zombie guy walking towards the building, he had this collar of some sort chained around his neck. It wasn’t a dog collar for a leash. It reminded me of a bark collar. Maybe something that controlled him if he began acting irrationally and started chewing people’s faces off.”

  “What if it was designed to keep you out of his head. Something that kept his brain patterns from being read.” Colin reasoned.

  “Well, maybe, but the first run-in with the zombie kid back on Trellis, I couldn’t really hear his thoughts, I could only decipher out the fear from his victim. It was overwhelming. They were helpless against him.”

  No one could speak. What do you say to something like that? D could hear a few of their thoughts the men were having and she felt their pity for her.

  She didn’t like the fact they were feeling sorry for her and what she lived through. She only wanted them to stop this from happening again to someone else.

  “So what is the plan? What research have you came up with?” She asked impatiently.

  Colin stepped back to the center of the group and began laying out the plan of search areas and how they have called in a few favors to get a substantial stash of satellite images from a friend that works at NASA in Cape Canaveral, an hour from here. We have photos and images that are blacked out and some are crystal clear. These blacked out images are the ones we want to focus on. Next, we researched the tour submarine company and there is no way, we can ‘borrow’ it for a few hours. We may be gone for days. Not to mention, no one here can drive the thing. So that is where you come in, D.” He pointed out while following her eyes.

  D shook her head no, she already knew what he was going to ask.

  She shifted slightly and countered his request with her own, “Look, the way I see it we have a few options. I can buy us our own submarine and we would need either to train someone or hire an outsider. This is all a time-suck. Or, we could ‘borrow’ the submarine and hire someone to drive it for us.”

  “You could mind-control the driver they have now and then erase their memory when we are done.” Sloan answered forthrightly.

  “No,” she responded, shaking her head.

  The entire group asked in the same deep excited voice, “Why not!”

  “Because! You people don’t get it! Look, I am not going to manipulate someone into risking their life. I am not, period. What if they would die. That is on me, not you. I shouldn’t have to explain it.”

  “She is right guys,” Colin agreed.

  “How about this then,” Doc tried to reason. “What if you explain to the sub-driver what we are doing? We are honest about what we want to do. If he agrees to help us, you erase his memory after this mission. If he says no, we kill him--- I’M KIDDING! You will erase his memory of us. Easy. If he says yes, the only people you will need to manipulate is the business owner’s minds on why they are missing a submarine!”

  The men’s eyes watched her as she mulled over this scenario. She stood up and walked a long stride around the campfire, then came back to stand next to Colin, “Okay. But if he doesn’t want to do it you need to have an alternative plan ready.”

  Each man breathed a sigh mixed with uncertainty. With D’s ability, they each knew this job would be the most unique mission they had ever been on and that didn’t necessarily mean it would be beneficial to the operation. Perhaps her skills would mean scenarios they could not plan for in the field. They each knew they could not look at the power she had as having the upper hand. Even though they had witnessed her in action with the semi-truck full of immigrants, they were guarded with how much reliance they wanted to grant her at the present time. They kn
ew it could be mean their lives if one detail was overlooked and unaccounted for.

  “Well, let’s get this show on the road,” Harper blurted as he stood up and began dumping his bottle of water on the fire, which prompted the other men to do the same.

  “Now?” D murmured.

  Colin answered, “Yes, we can rest while we are driving.”

  “You know you people need to sleep sometime.” She said stiffly.

  Colin softly asked her so the others wouldn’t hear, “Those phones you have, can I use one to call my sister?”

  “Yes, they are untraceable.” She answered with confusion. Did he really think she would have used a traceable phone?

  “I want to call my sister but I don’t want to place her in jeopardy.”

  D shook her head yes and then reflected out loud, “You know she is in good hands.”

  “Whose hands?” He asked harshly.

  “Umm, did I say hands. I mean good company. She is in good company and I am sure she is fine.”

  Colin pursed his lips together angrily, “Woman, what are you talking about? What do you know?”

  “Your partner at the CCD. He, umm, he asked her out to dinner. He really liked her. She accepted and I have been following their chatter on Facebook.”

  “Dinner, chatter, liked her, Facebook? You are friends with them on Facebook? What?”

  “At the search I heard his thoughts. He thought pretty highly of her the way she handled and composed herself. I have access to his Facebook and have seen a few things. I know they have went to dinner. She has a good head on her shoulders.”

  “No. I mean yes, she does, but I didn’t approve this. I… I don’t think...”

  “Okay, chill. No reason to short circuit.” D regretted she opened her mouth about Hinkle and Sissy instantly. ‘This,’ she thought, ‘this is why I don’t have friends. The Drama. I don’t need it.’

  “I need that phone.”

  “Promise you won’t mention Facebook or I won’t give you the phone.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have let her stay at my apartment. I should have made her go back to school! That is why she wanted to stay an extra week.”

  “You are not getting the phone until you promise,” D demanded.

  He was breathing heavily through his nostrils, he gritted his teeth and answered her, “Fine, I won’t say anything.”

  “Not to mention, I know you aren’t crazy about Billy Hinkle and his rich family but he is a good guy.”

  “How do you know that, are you in my head now?”

  “No, a blind, deaf man could sense those feelings coming from you.”

  “I need a phone… not his life story… not a Dr. Phil moment…” He hesitated and added, “but I do want to look at this Facebook stuff.”

  “Yes, Sir.” D answered, while she walked back to the RV to get him a phone. She couldn’t help but smile. She wondered if Sissy knew how lucky she was to have someone that wanted the best for her and watched out for her in life. She mumbled to herself loud enough for Banks to hear, “Not everyone has the luxury of an over protective lunatic watching out for them.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven ~

  Everything seemed to be moving like a well-oiled machine. The men each had a job and followed it to the letter impressing D. She wasn’t sure what to expect since the men joked around so much but she quickly was aware that when they had a job to do it was all business. No margin for error.

  Colin and D looked at each other, nodded at one another for assurance. They headed across the parking lot to the Submarine shop. A man in the window flipped the closed sign to open as they got closer.

  When Colin opened the door for D, the bell jingled on the door alerting the workers customers were there. Colin turned back around and flipped the open sign back to closed and locked the front door.

  “Yes, ma’am. Are you here for an underwater adventure?”

  Colin was amazed at how easily she could manipulate people. He watched in awe.

  Without answering back, D quickly rounded up everyone in the business and huddled them around a table in the lobby. There were eight employees and two submarine drivers.

  Colin explained the mission they had planned and asked for volunteers. Both submarine drivers raised their hands.

  Colin looked at D and raised his eyebrows, “Might as well take them both.”

  “Okay, then. You two men, follow Colin outside please. The rest of you are going to forget what you heard and are going to go on a two-week vacation to the Blue Seas of Azure, a luxurious beach resort, courtesy of the United States of America. Well, courtesy of me, but they gave me the funds.”

  Colin heard her explain this to the people still left inside the shop and he couldn’t help but smile. She wasn’t the diabolical woman he thought she was when he had first had a run in with her a few weeks ago. She was someone that had been handed a crazy deck of cards for life and was dealing with it the best she knew how. Considering she had no normalcy growing up, she was handling it better than most people would have handled being forced into a crazy life.

  A few hours later, they were in the submarine headed out to the ocean blue. Tucked below the ocean surface safe from prying eyes. The two new members of the team were older, retired navy men and were eager to be in the field again. Terry Strong and Rip Applegate.

  Doc had stayed back at a campsite near the departure area of the submarine, operating the computers and surveillance. He had access to maps and underwater diagrams that he was sending to the team on the ship as they came in.

  The silence in the floating silver bullet between the team members was deafening. D could mentally hear thoughts but not knowing what Colin and Sloan were thinking was getting on her nerves. She knew this spoke more about her control issues than she knew about herself before. Her mind processed a thought and it popped out of her mouth before she knew she even asked it, “In your apartment you had a drum set? Do you play?”

  The question pulled Colin out of his focused contemplation of the mission and the impending island danger. “Yes, I do.”

  Harper whom rarely spoke, gave Colin’s music ability accolades, “He does more than play. He can make that drum set speak.”

  Colin nodded at his buddy in a silent thank you.

  The other men in the group all shook their heads in agreement. Clearly, this melodic playing man enamored them all and they had all heard him play at some point.

  “Do you play in a band?”

  “No.”

  “Where did you learn to play? School?” Since D found herself in the United States she was fascinated with what schoolchildren were taught in America. She was on such a regimented schedule of academics that learning to play the drums seemed like a walk in the park to her.

  Colin frowned, he didn’t like talking about himself but he answered her, “I don’t really know, I have always known how to play the drums. I was taught when I started to walk my parents said.”

  D searched his face looking for a piece of a puzzle to a picture she hadn’t yet formed, “You don’t really seem like the drum playing type.”

  Colin smirked at her, “Type? There is a type to bang on drums?”

  “It seems a little freeing, a little careless and loud. Those things aren’t you,” D tried explaining hoping it didn’t sound like a putdown.

  Surprise washed across his face as he defended his rationalized drum definition, “Careless? Far from it! It is methodical and timed. You are the beat, you lead the music, without the beat you are all over the place. The drums bring what can sound like chaos into a logical order.”

  Rip Applegate the ship’s captain interrupted, “We are a few miles from the first target. I suggest you all get your minds in the game and gear on. Music class can wait till we are on land.” Obviously, Captain Applegate was comfortable being the leader of this squad. The men, from what D could read, thrived being bossed around. The men were trained to take orders from leaders and jumped to their feet at command. She however, didn�
��t like being told what to do and if she had a list, Rip Applegate would be in line under Mr. Zhao.

  D didn’t move as the men moved around the submarine’s hull and Colin noticed right away the corkscrew face she was making at Captain Applegate’s orders.

  “You have a real problem taking orders, you know that?” He asked capriciously.

  She was shocked he could read her so easily when he himself was so hard to read and had started to resent him for that precise reason.

  She responded, her voice low and careful, as she answered, “Not a problem. I have done quite well not taking orders. I’m just amused at how you all jump to attention at the ready when some man tells you to go. Baffles me…”

  “So you think we do this because we can’t think for ourselves? That is far from the case, D. We take orders and respond when it is beneficial to the unit. Something you are going to have to get use to, my friend.”

  She was surprised she like to hear him say her name and call her a friend. It rolled genuinely off his tongue like he meant every word.

  She searched and fumbled for the right words and they all seemed to be lacking in what she wanted to say. “Look, I don’t want to come off difficult. I took orders for nearly half my life, every aspect of my life. It took me a long time to trust my instincts once I escaped…” She paused and her eyes tightened, “My instincts have been the only thing I could count on. Now I have to trust a group of men I do not know and I can’t hear two of you.” She swallowed hard at hearing her words aloud.

  He was moved at her honesty and stepped closer to where she was sitting, kneeling down until he was eye level with her. “You can hear me. You may not be able to hear our exact thoughts but you can hear my words and you can trust them.”

  She shook her head softly at him, “Because you tell me to?”

  “Yes, and because we are in the middle of an ocean, in a submarine we essentially stole, saved you from the hospital, we believed your crazy life story and we want to protect you. So, when an order is given, it isn’t because we are trying to control you. We are trying to protect you and the unit.”