Camp chaos, p.9
Camp Chaos, page 9
part #1 of The Unit Series
They all sat silently.
“Everyone in agreement?” Spud asked.
They all reached out and tapped knuckles on the table.
Spud walked up to Dr. Anderson’s door. He heard the lock pop, and walked inside.
“What can I do for you, Spud?” the psychiatrist asked.
“The guys on the team and I would like to do a little test of our new recruit. There’s some concern about how she might react if she’s compromised.”
“You’re afraid she’ll get raped.”
“Doc, you see her stats. Looking at her weight alone, she’s only half the weight of a couple of the guys.”
The psychiatrist strummed his fingertips against each other.
“What are you proposing?”
“That one of us try to assault her.”
“Interesting. Which one?”
“Me.”
Dr. Anderson regarded Spud for a moment. “Why you?”
“Because I’m her recruiter. I’m the one she trusts. She’ll have to deal with being assaulted as well as being betrayed. And because she trusts me, we can see if she’ll try to sweep it under the rug or if she’ll report it to someone.”
“How far do you intend to go with it?”
“Just far enough for her to think it’s real.”
The psychiatrist picked up a pencil and twiddled it in his fingers, lost in thought. “Ok. I’ll approve. When?”
“Tonight. After dinner.”
“Ok. I’ll hang in here in case she’s a bit traumatized. If she is, we can figure out how we want to handle it.”
“Did you get enough, Kat?”
She scowled at Crow. “I can see you’re all jealous that I can eat and not pack on the pounds.”
Oooooooo! went around the table. “The lady strikes back,” Edge said. “And you know,” he added, “you and I are going to have to have some kind of eating contest someday.”
“Ghost peppers,” she said.
“Now that’s fighting dirty,” Voice said. “’Specially since you’d have an unfair advantage, coming from the land of Mexican food.”
She grinned. “Wait ‘til it’s my turn to cook. You know, I wanted cartel taskforce, based out of El Paso. Albuquerque has some good Mexican food, but I tell ya: Tex-Mex is the real spicy stuff, and you get that in El Paso.”
“What’d they do to you today?” Crow asked.
“CT, densitometry, audiology, eye, and dental. My teeth are now squeaky clean, no new cavities and my implant is still ok, they say I’ve got better than normal hearing along the whole range – thank you to the makers of my hearing protectors, my eyesight is actually 20/10 in both eyes with a smidge of astigmatism in my left eye. Which I don’t give a shit about, because that’s my nondominant eye anyway. Oh, and I got to ditch the monitor.”
“You’ve got a dental implant?” Voice asked.
“Yeah. I had a fucker hit me once during an apprehension and knock out a tooth. I threw the bastard to the ground and cuffed him before the court threw his ass in jail. Never found my tooth, so they put in an implant.”
“Your eyesight explains how you were picking off that Ivan way the fuck up on the hill,” Turtle remarked.
Can’t help it if I’m good.
“So, tomorrow has got to be the psych eval,” Turtle said. “You don’t impress me as ‘nucking futs,’ so I’m guessing come day after tomorrow we’re going to have seven in the team again.”
Everyone reached out and tapped on the table with their knuckles while Kat grinned from ear to ear.
She got up to leave. “I guess this means I don’t have too many days before I have to start cooking and doing dishes. So, I’m going to enjoy the time left while I’m free.”
Spud got up to accompany her.
“What’s on your agenda for tonight, Kat?” he asked as they walked.
“Shrinks make me nervous. I’m not trusted with a gun yet, otherwise I’d head to the range. I figured I’d go to the gym and work off a little nervous energy.”
Perfect, he thought. “Have fun. Catch up with you later.” Once she was out of sight, he tapped his watch. “It’s going down in the gym, guys.”
Sequestered in the security office, the rest of the team adjusted the main surveillance feed to cameras in the gym. “Let’s hope this goes ok,” Turtle said.
Kat jogged on the treadmill. Feels good to work out the kinks. She felt the prickle on her neck right before she was grabbed in a bear hug from behind.
“You know, it’s been torture for me right next door to you,” Spud breathed in her ear, his tone brutish. “I’ve thought you’re the hottest little thing ever since you boarded the plane in Albuquerque.”
Kat struggled against his hold. “Put me down, Spud.”
“Oh, I want to put you down. All the way down on your back on the floor.” He set her on her feet and ran a hand under her sweatshirt.
Suddenly, he felt her shift her weight slightly, and before he knew it, she’d thrown him over her shoulder and onto the floor, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could react, she grabbed his wrist, and jamming a thumb into the gap between some of the bones, twisted it, making him roll onto his stomach involuntarily to avoid the pain. She pinned his wrist, grabbed the other one, and ran a zip tie over his crossed wrists. Then she sat on his butt and reached down, hogtying his ankles with a second zip tie.
She stood up and walked toward his head. He felt her place a foot on his neck and press down. “Say, ‘I made a mistake,’” she hissed.
“I made a mistake,” he said, his face pressed against the floor.
“For fuck’s sake, Spud. Why did it have to be you?” she said, taking her foot off his neck.
He leaned over and got a look at her face. She looked defeated, and like she was about to cry.
She sighed heavily. “I hate this. I’ve got to report it, and the thought of having the one guy I trusted the most go spend the rest of his life in Leavenworth makes me sick to my stomach.”
“It’s ok, Kat,” she heard from behind her.
She turned to see the other five members of the team standing just inside the door of the gym.
“It wasn’t for real,” Voice said.
She looked at him incredulously.
“We were a little concerned about how you would react to an assault,” Edge said.
“So, you decide to put me through this?” she demanded.
“It was just a test,” Spud said, still hogtied on the floor. “It was approved from higher up.”
“I don’t fucking care if it was approved by God Almighty Himself!” she shouted. “You’d all better be happy I don’t have a gun, or I’d fucking shoot the balls off every one of you!” She stormed toward the door of the gym.
“You going to get me out of these?” Spud asked.
“NO!” She stormed out the door.
The guys watched her go, then turned their attention to Spud, who was still on the floor.
“I’d say she passed that one,” Crow said.
“I think I’m going to stop worrying about her getting raped,” Edge said.
“I guess we can all stop worrying about that,” Cloud said.
“Someone going to cut these zip ties?” Spud asked.
“I’d say the turkey’s all trussed up for Thanksgiving,” Crow said. Throwing a thumb over his shoulder toward the door, the rest of the team filed out of the gym.
“Guys! Guys? Oh, hell. How am I going to explain this one to Mike when he comes in tomorrow? Shit – and what happens if I need to take a piss? Guys!”
He heard laughter from outside the door of the gym.
“Aw, hell,” Edge said, coming back to him. He looked down and laughed, then flipped open a knife and cut the zip ties.
Spud massaged his wrists. “I guess I’d better go tell Doc Andy he can go home.” He got up and walked out the door. The other four team members were standing there, and laughed out loud. “I guess I just got an example of what ‘trust, but verify’ means,” he said. “Catch up with you guys later.”
He walked through the building, making his way to Medical 3. The door lock popped open as he approached. “Come on in, Spud.”
He walked in and sat down.
“What happened?” the psychiatrist asked.
“I got my ego bruised. Along with my back, which is what I landed on after she threw me over her shoulder before hogtying me with zip ties.”
The doctor chuckled. “And then?”
“And then she got the worst look of betrayal on her face I’ve ever seen.”
“And?”
“And she said she had to report me, and it was making her sick to think I’d spend the rest of my life in Leavenworth.”
“I take it you explained what was actually going on.”
“And that’s right about when she got really pissed off and stormed out of the gym.” Spud sighed. “She left me hogtied on the floor.”
The psychiatrist laughed out loud. “Just remember it was your idea.”
“It was all Edge’s doing. He was the one all concerned about her getting compromised and raped,” Spud protested.
“You know, there was a reason I approved this, Spud. Edge wasn’t the only one having those kinds of concerns. I could see it in all of your faces. But now that you all know she can hold her own – a fact I’m glad to hear, you can all start worrying about how to do a mission and not how to protect a member of the team. You can’t be distracted by thoughts like that.” He sat back, gauging Spud’s reaction. “I think I’d better go home, and I think you’d better go make amends. Don’t let her stew over this all night, or she’ll never trust any of you. And that would be the loss of a good team member.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll bet she won’t talk to me, though.”
“I’m betting she will. She wants to be part of the team, and she wants to trust all of you - especially you. Go explain things to her, and if things are still a little rough around the edges, I’ll try to smooth things out tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
Spud made his way back to the residence area. Standing outside Kat’s door, he began to second-guess whether he should try to talk to her. “Don’t be a chicken shit,” he muttered to himself. Then he remembered something he had in his quarters. He went next door and retrieved a chocolate bar. Then he walked back to her door and knocked.
“Go away, Spud.”
“Come on, Kat. Talk to me.”
“I said, go away.”
“You still want to be in the unit, don’t you?”
Silence.
“Don’t you?”
Silence.
Time for the carrot. “I’ve got a gift for you. By way of apology.”
Silence.
“It’s chocolate.”
She opened the door and grabbed the chocolate bar from his hand. “Oh, fuck you, Spud!”
“Does this mean I can come in?”
“Mom always told me to beware of geeks bearing chocolate, but yeah, ok. Come on in.”
She went and sat on the couch in the living area. “Who’s big idea was this? Like I need to ask.”
“Yeah, it was mine.”
“I should have kicked you in the balls while I had you zip tied.”
He cringed. “Thanks for not doing that.”
“Do you have any idea how I felt? The guy who was supposedly helping me and encouraging me to hang in there? The guy who sat and put up with me shitting for six hours straight last night? Jeez, Spud.”
“It was only five. You didn’t start shitting until about an hour into the prep.”
She threw a pillow from the couch at him. “Dammit! Why can’t I stay mad at you?”
“Because you know I wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a reason for it.”
“Just let me guess who the guy was who thought I’d freak out if someone laid a hand on me. I’m guessing the big guy. Edge. ‘The little girl will get compromised. The little girl will get raped.’”
“Edge was the one who voiced it, but we were all concerned to one degree or another.”
“Did you guys not vet me? I’m the one who wanted drug cartel taskforce. Do you know what the cartels do to you if they find out you’re a fed? Let me give you an example. One of the agents got his head bashed in with a ball peen hammer. Can you say ‘permanent brain damage,’ boys and girls? And he was lucky. These guys will grab you, take you across the border, hack you to pieces while you’re still alive and leave your body parts in a heap in the street.”
“I can tell you, Kat, that no one is going to have any doubts that you can hold someone off after tonight. Much as I know you hate me for it, this was a good thing. These guys know how tough you are now.”
She sat silently while he watched her, hoping to see the ice melt.
“You know, they threatened to leave me hogtied on the floor.”
He saw a smirk form on her lips.
“I’m never going to live it down. ‘Hey, guys, remember the night Spud got thrown on his ass by someone almost half his size? And a girl, too.’”
The smirk got more intense. “Karma, baby.” She unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite.
“Can I have a square of that? I really got it for myself, you know.”
The smirk broadened into a smile. “Nope.”
She looked at him while munching the chocolate, and then made a show of licking her fingers. “Mmmmmmmm. That was good.”
“Forgiven?”
“Sure, what the fuck. You want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
She went to the kitchen and poured two cups, then came back and placed both of them on the coffee table. He took it as an invitation to sit.
“Is what happened going to get to the shrink?”
“Uh, well, he approved it.”
“Fuck that!” Her eyes flashed with renewed anger. “I guess you flunk the psych eval if you cut the motherfucker’s balls off with a letter opener.”
Spud barely managed to not have coffee dribble down his chin as he grinned and swallowed the mouthful he had before lowering the cup from his mouth. “That’s my Kat.” He drained the cup and said, “Thanks for the coffee. I’d better let you get some sleep before the psych eval tomorrow. We ok?”
“Yeah, I understand why you did it. But don’t ever try any shit like that again. I really thought you were trying to rape me. Especially when you put your hand up my shirt. If I hadn’t managed to get you restrained, I would have kicked you in the balls. I would have done anything to get you subdued.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He walked to the door and stood in the door frame when it opened. “Catch up with you tomorrow, Kat. I’ve got breakfast duty, so I’ll make sure it’s a good one.”
The minute her door closed, Crow and Cloud stuck their heads out theirs. “She still pissed?” they asked simultaneously.
“Nah. But I had to sacrifice my chocolate bar. One of you guys got one?”
“Sorry,” they both answered.
“Some friends you are,” he said, and walked into his residence.
7
Kat made her way to the cafeteria. It’s about time they let me have some fucking breakfast. She swung through the door to the smell of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.
“G’morning, Kat.” Voice was already sitting at the team’s table, as were the other members of the team, minus Spud.
“Did I get up late?”
“Nope. We got up early so we’d make sure we got something to eat before you ate it all.” The team members all laughed.
“Oh, ha, ha, and fuck you,” she said. “This is the first day I’ve gotten to eat breakfast with everyone else, so tell me how this works.”
“For you, madam,” said Spud from behind her, “and for today only, you sit and we serve you.”
The other team members all got up and went to the kitchen. Arriving back at the table, each one placed an item in front of her: a plate of eggs, bacon, and sausage, pancakes, juice, coffee, a bowl of fresh fruit, and a glass of milk. Then, standing in a line and proclaiming in unison in loud enough a voice to attract the attention of the few support personnel also eating in the cafeteria, they said, “We, the members of the Field Team of the unit, would like to sincerely apologize for the events of last evening.”
“Oh, sit the fuck down,” she said.
“I think that’s as close as we’re going to get to ‘apology accepted,’” Crow observed, garnering a laugh from the rest of the team.
“Today’s the big day,” Voice said. “If you get past Doc Andy, then you’re officially FT7.”
“Should I be worried?”
“All depends. Are you batshit crazy?” Cloud asked.
“I hope not.”
“Then you might have a problem,” Cloud said. “’Cuz we’re all batshit crazy. Goes with the turf.” The rest of the team laughed.
“It’s not a huge deal,” Spud explained. “He’s going to run you through some tests in the morning. Two are done on a computer – the two personality tests. The other one he administers – the IQ test. You’ll break for lunch, and then you just go back and he talks to you for a while.”
“Sounds simple enough. But I’ve never had a shrink sit down and talk with me before. They just did testing for the Bureau, then a chat with a team of agents.”
“It’s just like a chat with your dad,” Turtle said.
“Unless he pisses me off,” she said through a mouthful of pancakes. “Well… then I guess it’s still like a chat with my dad, because we both cussed up a storm.” The team members all laughed.
They all sat and watched her eat while finishing their own breakfasts. “What? Do I have a pimple on my nose that wasn’t there yesterday?” she asked.
“No, we’re all just fascinated by the way you can pack away food. I’m starting to think that when they look at the CT scan they’re going to see that the only organ in your body is one big stomach.”
She swallowed another forkful of pancakes and said, “You know full well I’ve got intestines, Spud. You had to babysit me while I emptied them.”
