Benton ploughing right ahead however, continued to instruct Mason “Yeah, its sensitive to the movement of your eyes. Look to the corner of the lens and you will see a toggle switch.”
Sure enough, Mason looked to the corner of his right eye and saw a tiny pinpoint of red light in the corner of the lens.
Benton then instructed him, “Just focus on that toggle switch and move your eye from left to right—when you do, everything will zoom out.”
As Raina and Nelson waited on the sidelines, Mason did as he was instructed and the lens dutifully picked up his ocular movement as the scenery zoomed out a degree when he moved his eye left to right on top of the toggle switch.
Mason continued to zoom out, as Benton informed him, “And if you need to zoom back in, just do the opposite—just move your eye right to left.”
Doing as directed, Mason found himself being halfway fascinated, yet halfway disgusted with the technology. It seemed to exemplify his entire love/hate relationship with much of modern life. He often longed for the day that man was not quite so augmented with tech, but had to rely on his own natural God-given senses.
Nevertheless, he appreciated the edge that the extra vision provided as he scanned the horizon all the same, as he remarked to Benton, “Alright man, nice toy.”
It was just then that Nelson decided to speak up, “Are you guys just going to leave me handcuffed, sitting in the dirt?”
Mason turned to Nelson and stared at him through his glasses, as he snapped, “I really don’t think you are in the position to be giving orders.”
Nelson then warned, “Okay tough guy. Do what you like but I know the longer we stay here the greater the chance that we get ambushed again—this place is crawling with narcos.”
Hearing this, Mason then abruptly stood the man to his feet and asked, “Alright then, well what about you? Can you walk?”
Nelson muttered, “I can manage.”
Raina put her hand on Nelson’s shoulder, a sudden expression of comfort that the man did not expect, and told him, “But as soon as we get you to higher ground we are going to have to see about that injury.”
Nelson, a bit overwhelmed by this one small act of compassion. answered softly, “Okay…”
Mason then led them back to the opening of the trail toward the house, and zooming in, took a look at the building, as he cursed, “Shit the kid’s right—we’ve got some bogies up there right now.”
Raina peering over his shoulder then asked, “Mason what do you see?”
Mason nodded, “I saw two guys just walk into the house.”
Mason then turned to Nelson and asked, “What exactly was this house used for?”
Nelson looked in the distance but with his natural vision wasn’t able to see anything but his own tortured memories. It was in the midst of this sad introspection that he answered, “Yeah—it’s a kind of outpost command center.”
Mason echoed, “Outpost command center? What the hell is that? What do they do there?”
Nelson replied, “It’s where they keep track of the main trail back and forth to the main compound. It’s like a nerve center and main hub for the whole drug enterprise.”
Mason looked over to Benton and grunted, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s take them out!”
5
Clara Walker’s Day Off
ASHORT TIME LATER IN CLARA WALKER’S DORM ROOM AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
Serena sank back into Clara’s beanbag as she encouraged her friend, “Oh come on Clara—why don’t you just go ahead and rip the band aid off and call him already?”
Clara remembering how Serena had once said the same words to push her into the arms of her former abductor Ben Walters, groaned, “Now, where have I heard that before?”
Serena realizing as much, sheepishly corrected, “Oh—sorry. Bad choice of words.”
Clara nevertheless, picked up the phone and started to dial Travis’s phone number, as she entreated her friend, “Anyway…. wish me luck.”
To which her friend nodded, “Of course. You need a break from the books Clara. Everyone needs a day off sometime.”
Serena then made the oddball pop reference—as she had a penchant to do from time to time—exclaiming, “It could be just like Ferris Bueller’s day off! Except without a pesky Dean trying to catch us and ruin all of our adolescent hijinks!”
Clara rolled her eyes, “Whatever Serena…” before putting the phone to her ear.
Clara literally crossed her fingers as the phone began to ring Travis’s number. He didn’t pick up immediately and as the phone reached its fourth ring, she thought that he wasn’t going to pick up at all, but then sure enough the ringing ceased as she heard Travis’s voice answer, “Hello?”
Clara took a breath, before responding, “Hi Travis, this is Clara—”
Before she could even finish Travis exclaimed, “Clara! You called!”
Clara taken in by his enthusiasm, laughed, “Yes—yes, I guess I did.”
Travis dryly chuckled, “I’ve been waiting.”
Clara sarcastically quipped, “Really? Well—sorry to keep you on my waiting list.”
She looked over to Serena who gave her an encouraging smile. Clara then cut through the chitchat and went ahead and dived right in, “Hey Travis, I’d like to meet up with you sometime.”
Ever since the beginning of the phone call, Travis had been trying to think of a way to lead up to just that same statement, but when she foisted it upon him first, he felt himself taken a bit aback, as he sputtered, “You… you do?”
Serena gave her the thumbs up, as she continued, “But could you do me a favor?”
Travis replied, “Sure—what is it?”
Clara requested, “Could you make it a double date?”
Travis echoed, “A double date?”
Clara grinned at Serena as she answered, “Yeah—I’ve got a friend whose here from out of town. She doesn’t get out much—.”
Serena feigned offense at being portrayed as a shut-in and quietly muttered, “Well gee—thanks’ a lot Clara!”
But Serena and Clara both knew that her being referred to in this manner was all
