Page 94 of Shielding Instinct

“Cooper? Not really. Not unless there was a scent source. What I knew was that the guy was last seen going through security. And unless they arrested him for something, he should only be in one direction. Cooper and I went back to security, and we started there.”

“Not knowing what the guy looked like, were you just walking up to any guy with a cane and saying, ‘Hey, do you know where your wife is?’”

“I wasn’t looking for a guy or a cane. I was looking for a green jacket. That was the thing that would probably be the most different. So, out on a search, there are various techniques. For example, there are no straight lines in nature. If you see a straight line, it’s manmade and might be a clue.”

“A stick.” She bent over to pick one up and examined it.

“Nope.”

She pointed. “Those silk strands of spider webs.”

“Have the semblance of being straight.”

“Okay, I don’t know,” Petra gave in, “so I won’t argue about it. You’re looking for a green jacket, and you found it. Why did you land on that being the thing you’d be looking for?”

“Again, I’ve trained to conduct searches in all kinds of scenarios. We learned that the eye takes in everything all at once, millions of pieces of information, and your brain can’t pay attention to all of it. It has to be selective.”

“This is very true. My eyes see my nose all the time, but since it’s not moving or doing anything of interest, I don’t see my nose.”

“Exactly, good, you’re with me then. So, I label something that I want to look for.”

“I want to look for straight lines.”

‘Which is true in nature. But in an airport, I can tell my brain to seek out the color green. It’s surprising how little green is in the airport.”

“Blue jeans, black shirts so no one sees when you spill stuff down your front. Neutrals. You said, ‘Brain, find me something green,’ and it worked? I’m going to put you back in your search story in just a second.” Petra did a little quick step, “I wanted to tell you that I know this theory. When I woke up and got the call from Tamika that she wasn’t coming to St. Croix with me, I knew my brain would be looking for all the crappy things that would happen that day—the day of the pseudo-stroke. My brain was primed for crappy. That’s the reason why the Romans said they got up on the—”

“Wrong side of the bed.” Hawkeye grinned. “Sinister. Exactly. That’s exactly how it works on a search. So, looking for green, I came upon an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair.”

“Wait.” Petra stopped and squeezed his arm. “I thought you saidcane,not wheelchair.”

“Theysaid cane. It’s funny how people describe things to searchers. Stress is a part of the reason, but let’s take your friend, the one who couldn’t come along on this adventure.”

“Tamika.”

“Describe Tamika to me.”

“She has long natural hair that forms a cloud of curls. She’s about three inches taller than me. She runs, so she still has her track and field body type even though she’s in her mid-thirties, like me. She’s always put together—makeup, hair. Very vibrant with a big smile and friendly eyes.”

“She’s sick?” Hawkeye asked.

“Ah, I see what you’re saying. If you went looking for the Tamika I described, you’d walk by. And that man’s wife described how she knew him, up and using a cane. She would omit the wheelchair because it’s temporary. Which is exactly what I did in the hospital when the doctor asked if I was taking medication. In general, I do not. The patch never occurred to me. Continue.”

“It’s a thing when we look for kids. Under the biggest stress imaginable, can a caregiver remember what their kid was wearing? When we’re doing close protection, and the numbers are off, say one protection professional to a family, we take pictures front and back to show people and ask them if they saw that particular person.”

“Front and back. I can see why that would be important. Yeah. Only certain kinds of brains have the ability to imagine what the opposite side might look like. And clothes would be easiest to remember, especially when something stands out—a color or design. Like the families you see wearing the same color shirt at the amusement park. If one gets separated, you know where they belong. Brains like that—categorization, recognizable systems.”

“They explained to us that it would engage creativity to imagine what the other side of the clothing looked like. And we want the brain engaged in seeing what we’re looking for, not draining energy.”

“I agree with that. It would cut down on distractibility, false positives, and things like that. The guy who was missing, it sure would have helped find him quicker if someone had said ‘wheelchair.’”

“I approached him because he had a green jacket folded on his lap. I introduced myself and asked if his name was Tom. He said yes. I told him his wife was worried because he wasn’t at his gate, and he said they just parked him there in the corner.”

“Corner?” Petra drew her face into a scowl.

“He was tucked away in a corner—away from the chairs—and in a shadow. It reminded me of someone leaning a broom on the wall out of the way.”

“Wow,” she whispered. “That’s so sad. Thank you for finding Tom. You brought him back?”

---