TOG: Touch Too Much (Book 3), excerpt

Touch Too Much (Touch of Gray - Book Three) will be available on Amazon Kindle April 27th, pre-order now. Here is an excerpt from Chapter Six.  Enjoy!

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Sunday afternoon finds me standing in the center of the apartment complex housing the largest number of new residents. The complex is surrounded by six neighboring complexes, thus ideal as my main location. I wear a radio chest harness with multiple pockets including one for my two-way radio with my mic headset clipped to the outside of the harness. My largest pocket holds my tablet, and other pockets are filled as well. My phone is tucked into its pocket plus a small writing pad and pen in another, within easy reach next to the radio pouch. My smartwatch is strapped to my left wrist. Each processing booth has two handheld radios they can contact me with. If a visual is needed, they dial me up on the video chat installed on all the computers and share their screens. Or position the person in front of the camera if I need to speak with a new resident or someone directly. There is a battery charger station and I carry extra batteries for my phone and the radio. If anyone claims they couldn’t get ahold of me if an issue arises, I will riot.

My team and I are efficiently processing all the new Psycept residents and families.  Four-fifths of the new residents are Psycepts, with the remaining one thousand being vasmaj spouses, children, or parents, but everyone needs SWACon badges. Orientation slots for those above twelve are filling up quickly from the lottery drawings. Younger children will arrive at the Civic Center with their guardians but will be watched by volunteers during the orientation and Q&A sessions. Parents will be provided with a log in to watch video feed and check on their children. All ages will go on the shuttle tours.

“Hey, Tiko. I’m going to bike over to Still Waters to check on ‘em. I’ve had no questions from them in the last fifteen minutes and am picturing them finished early and resting. So, I’m going to ruin their fun and reassign them to other complexes. Call me on the radio if you need me, just got fresh batteries.”

“Okay, Gray. We’ve got it here and let them know we’re looking forward to their additional help.”

Still Waters is the smallest and farthest complex from my main location. They only have thirty single bedroom units available, so I felt that three volunteers would be able to quickly process the new residents. All the new residents for Still Waters arrived together over an hour ago, so if they weren’t finished yet, they soon will be. Their drop-off location is also the same location that the walking tour group should be gathering in, but it’s oddly empty as I walk by. A police officer is stationed on the divide between Still Waters and the neighboring property to the west, but that’s the only person I see out and about. I head towards the officer to ask if the tour group already departed but notice something off about her as I approach. I warily slow down and begin to stretch my senses out, trying to identify what’s prompting my unease. She stands still with a blank look on her face and her gaze turned inward. An “excuse me, officer,” yields no response.

Raise shields, yellow alert, or whatever. As a Mind Sage, my default is to absorb a person’s memories through touch. While I wear clothes to cover my skin and avoid casual contact, I also always have a light mental shield up to blunt unavoidable touch and memory draw. I go from a light shield to a thick and tough shield almost instantaneously. Thanks to my father, I received my shield training from one of the best PsySentients he knew, thus my mental shields are quite formidable. I don’t know what’s happening, but I’ll be as prepared as possible. I get off my bike, pull the mouse gun that I always carry, a Bobcat 21A, and begin to walk towards to processing station, still no reaction from the police officer.

I squeeze one of the touch-to-talk buttons on my mic. I barely remember basic radio etiquette, and don’t even know if it’s still used, so this will be fun. “Tiko, come in, this is Gray. OVER.”

“Tiko here. GO AHEAD.”

“I’m making my way towards the Still Waters processing station. Something is off. Are there any police officers in your vicinity?”

“Lieutenant Setimika and Sheriff Helki just walked up to check on how things are going.”

“Please hand your radio to them but stand nearby to listen and answer any questions.”

“Gray, Helki here. GO AHEAD”

     “Sheriff, I’m at Still Waters,” I say quietly as I am approaching the center. “Something’s going on here, I suggest a cautious response. I just walked by the officer assigned between Still Waters and the next complex. She’s standing but not responding to voices or noises. I’m approaching the processing station from the southwest side. Oh, crap! Just a sec.”

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Read Touch Too Much to find out what the 'Oh, crap!' moment entailed.

Out of Touch (Touch of Gray - Book One) available on Amazon Kindle and Google Books
Invisible Touch (Touch of Gray - Book Two) available on Amazon Kindle and Google Books
Wild and Wicked Ways (World of Touch of Gray 1) now available on Amazon Kindle

-or- Touch of Gray: Bundle 1 (collecting the above three books) is available on Amazon Kindle at the time-limited price of $2.99USD.