Color Blind (Team Red) by T. Hammond Read Free Book Online

swear it’s at least a thigh-burning, twenty percent grade.
     
    Red was in the habit of talking to me about our surroundings when we went on walks, so I had a play-by-play of every animal, vehicle, and person that came into sight. I was still latching the back gate behind us when Red returned, after making a quick dash through the trees. “Everything looks good, Teresa,” he said. “There is increased drone activity near the far edge of the property. David and Bas are probably running a test for our guests.”
     
    “Probably,” I agreed. “Having the Colonel and his entourage come here gives the guys a chance to pitch some ideas and show examples of other projects that overlap the mapping program. I bet they’re showing off that 3-D program Bas has been working on. The guys tell me it’s so detailed they can see pine beetles on the trees.”
     
    Red laughingly bragged, “As soon as I approached the grid, the drones moved about six feet higher. Where is the trust? I know where the DMZ is.”
     
    Red had no concept of distance, any more than he had a grasp on time- it’s a numbers thing. Red can’t count above four or five, but he can make associations. He knows that Bas and David are both over six-foot tall, so I have found Red uses their height as a guesstimate when we refer to height or distance.
     
    I laid a hand on the head resting against my thigh and scratched an ear. “This contract is very important for the military; Bas and David just want to make sure temptation is out of reach.”
     
    An image flashed through my mind of Red launching himself off some fallen stumps to pluck a mini-drone out of the air. The image was black and white, but very clear. The drone zipped through the pines as I watched Red lope towards a fallen tree, spring up, then soar. I could see his light-colored paws outstretched and his body arced in the air, muscles straining- his coat black and glossy in the sunlight. Sharp white teeth snapped closed around a small drone before the image ended abruptly.
     
    “What’s wrong?” Red asked, ever aware of my moods.
     
    “It’s the strangest thing, Red. I just imagined you jumping up to catch a drone. It was so real and distinct in my mind.”
     
    “Yeah, I bet if I hit the log at the correct angle I could add a good three feet to a jump and snag one of them right off the grid,” he boasted. “I was just thinking about how easy it would be.”
     
    “Were you thinking about anything special, or thinking at me differently when you imagined the jump?” I knew dogs didn’t see in the human color spectrum, I was trying to remember if what I saw was really black and white. Sepia? Maybe it was more of a washed out… damn, I was losing the image in my head. I wasn’t sure if I was remembering the vision I thought Red projected, or if I was superimposing the washed out colors I thought should be there if Red was seeing the scene.
     
    “Red, I think I was seeing the picture you had in your mind.” I was still grasping the significance of being able to see his thoughts, but trying hard not to get excited for what may be nothing. “I pictured you using a stump, or log, to leap into the air. I saw your feet and your body as if I was watching you, not like I was watching through your vision.”
     
    “That makes sense, Teresa. I wasn’t actually chasing drones. I was picturing me catching a drone.” Red considered for a moment. “You were touching me when you think you saw the vision. Rest your hand on my head again and I’ll see if I can imagine something else,” he offered.
     
    His muzzle slipped through my fingers so that I palmed the side of his face. A picture of me started to form in my mind. Not black and white, exactly, but shades of grey touched with pale yellow and blue. My shoulder-length dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and I saw a design on my shirt front. I turned my body so that Red could see the shirt more clearly. There was a pattern of butterflies