Blueprint: The Team, #2

By Romilly King

Meet Blue - The Arranger - Psychopath - Utterly Lost

 

My name is Indigo Jones, I smile like a human, I walk like a human, I kill like a god who believes in evolution.

The Handler system gave me the blueprint to being human, so I won't stand out in the crowd, but they can't change the way I think, and death and all its aspects entrances me.

Most humans don't want to think about dying, I never stop.

It's my deviancy, that fascination with how you die, every little detail of it.

I had someone to share my passion with once. My soul match. My symbiote. They are gone now, it's just me and the silence in my head as all the dark questions pile up, like so much oily pressure.

My work keeps the pressure from blowing me apart, but The Team is a shadow of what I once had, just enough to keep me sane.

Some corner of my brain though, it keeps looking for them, convinced they will come back, and make me whole again.

The arrogance of the psychopath!

Monsters aren't allowed to make wishes, and monsters don't get happy endings.

 

Blueprint is the second in a five book series of standalone novels from Romilly King, author of the Handled and Outreach series of mm romances and gay thrillers. Set in the same universe as Handled the world of The Teams is dark, morally ambiguous, and full of secrets and lies. It's going to be a hot and violent ride with a lot of angst along the way to the happy ever afters these complex characters deserve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balloon Ride Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215694435

Romilly King

Romilly write's character driven gay romances that focus on the dynamics of intense relationships.  Romilly's plots tend to dive deep into the more fascinating aspects of human behaviour - basically there will be a lot of kinky stuff!

Book preview

Briefing Document - The Handler System, it’s evolution and dissolution

The Handler system was the United States short lived response to the issue of Capital Punishment.  Following the high profile outcry against the delivery of capital punishment - particularly following the suicide of Prison Governor Elinor Abigail Walsh, who cited carrying out executions in her suicide note - and increasing concern about the bias of the judiciary the Handler System was developed and then implemented by Federal Law, bypassing State Law.

Created and overseen by Psychiatrist and Academic Doctor Arthur Goodlove the Handler System trained and managed a roster of Handlers whose psychological profiles and skill set made them ideally suited to investigate capital crime and then deliver the death penalty.

Their actions were supervised by individual Witnesses who assessed the evidence, delivered the verdict, and then witnessed the punishment.

The Handler system was active in the US for 22 years before being dissolved when capital punishment was outlawed across all fifty states.

The most controversial aspect of the Handler System was the training unit attached to the department, or the Baby Handler School as it came to be known.  Here potential Handlers - primarily young people with a range of conduct disorders - were trained. 

Dr Goodlove, explaining the training unit to congressional committee, pointed out that given the increasing prevalence of conduct disorders among the population, and the lack of resources for treating the cases, the unit provided a valuable public service as well as a pool of highly trained staff.

Not all residents of the training unit became Handlers.  Some were guided towards civilian fields they would excel in, and some took the very controversial suicide option which was available to all those who felt they could not function as they wished within society, and preferred to leave it, permanently.

It is the availability of the suicide option that is believed to have been the main reason for the dissolution of the system - it was an unpalatable part of the process to a Christian right political cadre that whilst not opposed to capital punishment saw suicide as a grevious sin.

The end of capital punishment in the United States therefore came about because suicide was wrong, not because killing people was wrong!

The number of Handlers who saw active service has never been released and there are limited statistics relating to the system which operated in secrecy, primarily to maximise its deterrent value.  However, Nathan Jones, the second and final Director of the Handler System - he succeeded Dr Goodlove on his death, and oversaw the shutting down of the system - reported to his final congressional committee meeting that over the lifetime of the system 757 offenders had been handled.

The crimes the system took on were primarily related to serial murder, serial rape, child abuse and human trafficking, and domestic terrorism.  International terrorism was never part of the system remit.

The Handler System, for all its naysayers and detractors, was actually a much fairer system than had previously been in place.  It had no bias, it’s burden of proof went far beyond reasonable doubt, and it employed people suited to the task rather than tasking those in a different system with an onerous additional role they were ill prepared and inadequately supported in.

Internationally it was felt to be a brave choice, and for countries whose feelings towards capital punishment were ambivalent but who knew its likely appeal to a certain section of voters, it allowed them to bring the ultimate punishment back onto the statute books.  Following the USA, the United Kingdom, France and Australia instigated their own Handler systems.  These systems are still in place today.

Addendum - Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information

Following the dissolution of the Handler System many of the highly trained staff team were offered positions in a shadowy international organisation known as The Teams.

The Teams primarily carry out ultra sensitive operations.  Their stated purpose is the fostering of international cooperation and the development of a fairer society.

Apparently they also want world peace!

In reality they undertake anything from political assassinations to retrieving whistleblowers to freeing political prisoners.  It is believed that each team operates democratically and will only accept jobs the team votes to take - a nod to egalitarian ethics in an organisation that acts outside the law.

It is known that Nathan Jones, Director at the Handler System at the time, made it clear that he disapproved of the concept, seeing it as little more than mercenary work, but it is believed that a significant number of Handlers and Witnesses, along with military trained support staff, took advantage of the offer in order to stay in a line of work they were good at.

The Teams are known to the security services and we grudgingly provide co-operation and limited intelligence as our aims often align however we have no jurisdiction over their activities.

The Teams are reportedly funded, guided and deployed by a team of international leaders - the question remains, leaders of what?

PAS - Intelligence Analyst

File Note - Indigo Jones & Intake 47 (Trans)

This will be ‘stream of consciousness’ because formalised note taking with regard to these two puts unfeasible barriers around highlighting their interactions and what they may, or may not, mean to each other.

Dr Goodlove sat back in the chair, pausing the recorder.  He thought for a moment and then leaned forward again. 

Security level ultimate, eyes only myself and Grayson Marshall Miller.  Distribute to him, in private, hard copy of this file note and my private files on Intake 47, on notification of my death, dismissal or retirement.  Confirm.

Confirmed, the computer said.

Dr Greenlove resumed speaking to the computer but he leaned back in the office chair, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his thin shanks resting on an open drawer of his desk.  A rare moment of informality for the man who was normally well buttoned up. 

He felt the east wind blowing tonight, he didn’t think he was long for the post, and he wanted these impressions registered if, for no other reason, than they intrigued him.  They were unique in his experience.

Background

Without wishing to go over old ground Indigo Jones came to us at age six. He exhibited profound lack of regard for the consequences of his actions and had little empathy with either humans or animals. The catalyst for his admission was an incident where he maimed and then killed a pet animal - it did not appear to be malicious, rather, a profound curiosity instigated the mutilation, although given his age and verbalisation skills it would have been difficult to tell if there was a sexual element involved in the genesis of the action. 

He had no history of maternal or paternal neglect however when very young he had been present when his mother died in a car crash. He had begun to exhibit psychopathic behaviours at age four. He was signed into the potential handler program by his brother Nathan Jones who joined the Witness program himself and rose through the ranks to his current position of deputy director and head of Handler training.

Indigo did well in the potential handler program.  He had a keen interest in biology, which was fostered by the staff, and his brother provided him with regular contact and an appropriate adult role model.

Despite his good progress, willingness to accept routine as the way to manage his compulsions, and high intelligence, he remained fascinated by death, violence and the handler system in particular.  I expected him to become a handler in due course.  I did not see him as particularly likely to take either a civilian position, or the suicide option.

I did, as was my habit, have regular 1:1 sessions with Indigo and I found him interesting, manipulative, chameleon-like in his presentation, and as pure a psychopath as I have ever met.  I found him delightful.

When Indigo was twelve years old we, with reluctance, admitted to the unit Intake 47.  This is when things became downright fascinating.

Intake 47 - who came to allow themselves to be identified by the name Trans by the staff team...

Dr Goodlove paused his recording and thought for a moment before resuming.

...but not by Indigo, who only ever referenced his compatriot as Them - was intersex with small but functioning external male genitalia, a sealed vaginal entrance, and internal female anatomy.  They presented initially as withdrawn, mainly non-verbal through choice, and the bare bones referral report suggested the child was prone to outbursts of rage and displayed no empathy or attachment.  The referral was made at the insistence of the (unknown) parents and the psychiatrists report was bare bones.  Reading between the lines I felt the psychiatrist was reluctant to relinquish the case and had been treating the child almost since birth.  I met the psychiatrist briefly, he had some bizarre theories and a narcissistic belief that given time and resources he could have cured Intake 47.

Early Years

Within days of admission it was clear to the staff that Intake 47 and Indigo were developing some sort of communication and were much taken with each other.

Their studios and labs were next to each other and their sleeping quarters abuted. Given how their relationship developed over the years to come, and if I was a more fanciful man, I might posit that their bond was an almost supernatural thing, as if, during the nights when they slept with a wall between them their minds synced, their brain waves aligned, their individual impulses meshed.

I think I do grow fanciful in my old age! But it is hard not to when you have observed them for so long.

The students only socialised under carefully monitored conditions.  During physical training, during some meals, and during crafted tableaux where they had practical experience of appearing mainstream in their behaviours.

It was noted that Indigo and Trans constantly drifted close to each other at every opportunity. It was as if they were two stars orbiting the same object, drawn into convergence by a gravity source we could not see.

Within six months it was apparent they were communicating.  Within a year it was clear that communication was almost without words, and yet was profound.  When we convened a panel to discuss their growing closeness the majority of the staff expressed disquiet with their relationship.  I chose to ignore this and allowed that Indigo and Intake 47 should be allowed to develop a relationship if they so chose but for it to be carefully monitored.

It has long been my belief that psychopaths are a positive influence on human evolution.  They exist in such numbers within the general population as to be more than an anomaly and the achievements of psychopaths represent some of the greatest leaps forward in societal development even if that leap comes in response to their more abhorrent actions.  They are frequently catalysts of great change.

I was fascinated to see what would happen when two individuals with psychopathy formed a relationship of any kind. 

One of my staff did - quite rightly - point out that allowing this could be considered breaking several of the guidelines of the Nuremberg Code however I felt this was not experimentation, it was