  We have conducted observations of the environment around the z=2.15 radio
loud quasar 1550-269 in search of distant galaxies associated either with it or
the z=2.09 CIV absorber along its line of sight. Such objects will be
distinguished by their red colours, R-K > 4.5. We find five such objects in a
1.5 arcmin^2 field around the quasar, with typical K' magnitudes of ~20.4 and
no detected R band emission. We also find a sixth object with K=19.6 +/- 0.3,
and undetected at R, just two arcseconds from the quasar. The nature of all
these objects is currently unclear, and will remain so until we have determined
their redshifts. We suggest that it is likely that they are associated with
either the quasar or the CIV absorber, in which case their properties might be
similar to those of the z=2.38 red Ly-alpha emitting galaxies discovered by
Francis et al. (1997). The small separation between the quasar and the
brightest of our objects suggests that it may be the galaxy responsible for the
CIV metal line absorption system. The closeness to the quasar and the red
colour might have precluded similar objects from being uncovered in previous
searches for emission from CIV and eg. damped absorbers.
