Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (8 page)

I had thought I was so smart. Granted, I
still knew more than the normal person walking the street about
computers, dancing and military maneuvers but I wasn’t sure how
much good it was doing me. Sure I was bored with being a data
processor but I wasn’t sure I wanted to live a life where people
could be watching me at any time. I was pretty good at acting cool
when other people were around, but I was human after all. Once in a
while I might feel the need to pick my nose or pass gas. I could no
longer do these things without the whole world knowing that I did
it.

All right, get yourself out of this funk, I
told myself. I opened the bedroom door and went straight to the
bathroom and shut the door. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and
pulled my hair back into a braid. I didn’t know what was on the
agenda for the day, so better to be safe than sorry with the hair.
Braids were always good. They looked nice but kept my hair out of
the way. I thought my braid helped me look a little like Lara Croft
from the “Tomb Raider” video games.

I was an avid video game player and wasted
many hours in front of the computer or TV killing things and
finding treasures. Lara Croft was one of my favorites. She had that
accent. I had tried but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t care for
Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, her lips were too big, but
considering what Hollywood had to offer, she had been the best
choice by far. She could play the tough part and still be sexy. The
only person who could have played Lara better would have been Lara
herself. I longed to be just like Lara, accent and all.

I stood in the bathroom and debated on
whether or not to call a cab to take me downtown. I finally opted
in favor of the cab. I walked out to the living room, picked up the
phone and called. I went back into the bathroom and shut the door.
I put the lid down on the toilet and sat there waiting for the cab
service to show.

Within ten minutes I heard a honk. I stepped
quickly from the bathroom to the front door. I looked out and saw a
primered black 1970 Plymouth Barracuda in my driveway. I looked
closer and saw that it was Mr. Blue in the driver’s seat. Imagine
that. I suppose someone overheard me call the cab company and sent
Mr. Blue instead.

I stepped outside and walked to the car. I
let myself in the passenger’s door and said, “Good morning, Mr.
Blue.”

“
Good morning, Ms. Stanton. How’s the
shoulder today?” he replied.

“
It’s been better, but I’ll live,” I
said.

Mr. Blue had light brown hair that was cut
short in the back but his bangs fell into his eyes. His eyes were
ice blue and had a hard quality, as did his face. He was
clean-shaven but his facial hair must have been coarse because you
could see the hairs wanting to poke out through their pores. He
looked to be in his mid-thirties. I would have guessed him right at
6’ tall and about 180 pounds. He was wearing a black suede jacket
over a tight t-shirt and I could clearly see that he worked out. I
hadn’t seen so many buff men in my life as I had seen in the past
couple days. Still, Mr. Blue didn’t get under my skin like Rick
Malone did.

He popped a rap CD into the stereo and jacked
the volume. This ended all chance of conversation but that was fine
by me. I was busy worrying about who it was on the other side of
the camera lens watching my every move. I hope it wasn’t Mr. Blue.
I hoped it was Malone.

I didn’t know if I should let Mr. White know
that I knew his real name yet because I didn’t know why they used
aliases in the first place. My training had taught me not to
divulge information unless it was necessary. I decided to be polite
and wait it out.

We pulled up to the attendant at the parking
garage and he just waved us through. Mr. Blue parked in an open
spot with the letters BLUE spray-painted with blue spray paint on
the cement in front of the spot. I looked down the row and saw
WHITE, BLACK, GREEN, BROWN and RED all spray-painted in their
corresponding colors. The spots were filled with all types of
vehicles. The black Mustang was in front of WHITE. In BLACK was a
large black SUV. GREEN drove a little yellow Miata. BROWN had a
dark gray pickup in his spot. RED drove a red Camero.

I followed Mr. Blue through the lobby with
the shiny black marble and happened to notice he was carrying a gun
in a shoulder holster by way of the marble. He nodded to Mr.
Rent-a-Cop at the front desk.

“
Mr. Blue, Ms. Stanton,” desk security
said by way of greeting. This shocked me a bit. I had been here
once and the guy already knew my name and I hadn’t given it out. I
smiled a greeting back.

I got on the elevator with Mr. Blue and I was
glad he didn’t seem to be the talkative type. He stood in the
elevator in an “at ease/parade rest” position. His arms were
clasped behind him, his feet were perfectly in line with his
shoulders and he was looking straight ahead. He had no expression
on his face whatsoever. He would have made a great poker player. I
had always wanted to play poker professionally but I usually had a
cocky half grin on my face or I just looked mad. I could never get
my face to go void of all expression.

I felt butterflies flitting around in my
stomach now. I really want this job, I think. Actually, I’m not
sure if I want this job as much as I want to know what the job
is.

The elevator came to a stop and we walked
down the hall to Suite 73. I expected to see Gabriella sitting at
her desk, but it was empty.

“
She doesn’t come in until 8:00,” Mr.
Blue said. He walked straight for Mr. White’s door, opened it and
went in. My feet wanted to falter, but I made myself stay right on
his heels.

The office was dark and empty of people. I
had expected to see Mr. White and the rest of the colors when I
walked in.

Mr. Blue gestured to the desk, where Mr.
White had been sitting during my interview. “Sit here. You will
find everything you need on the desk. Someone will be back for you
later.” And he left.

The first thing I noticed on the desk was a
computer. I better leave that alone for now, I thought. There was a
stack of papers on the corner of the desk with a pencil on top.

I flipped through them and they were more
questionnaires like the ones I had already taken. I got to work on
them. There were a few questions that had me stumped. One that I
didn’t answer fully had to do with military ranking, of course. All
in all I think I did a good job. Filling it all out took me about
and hour and a half and still no activity other than me.

I sat for about five minutes thinking about
turning on the computer. I imagine Mr. White had cameras in his
office. What the hell, I thought.

I reached around back and switched it on and
prepared to snoop. No luck, it was password protected. Time to put
to use my computer knowledge. I had spent more time in front of the
computer in my life than I think I had slept. I hacked the password
in less than thirty seconds.

Pretty normal files for a business, I
guessed. Accounting programs, that type of thing. I wasn’t finding
anything useful though. I decided to check the e-mail. No new
messages. Damn. Did he even use this computer?

I got online and hacked into the database for
the closest Naval base. You’d think government computers would be
hard to hack but they aren’t, if you know your way around. I know
this is illegal, but I know how NOT to get caught. I typed in my
dad’s password and voila… ACCESS GRANTED.

When hacking a government computer it’s handy
to have the highest security pass available and the rightful owner
of my pass was probably still in bed at home. If dad was out of bed
before 8:00 he rarely got onto his computer before 10:00 AM. I was
counting on that right now. If he logged on while I was still
connected there would be a conflict and I would be busted. Then I
would have to sneak around some more to find out his new password.
Not to mention I could go to jail. I didn’t know if my dad could
get me out of that kind of trouble. I might even get him into some
trouble of his own and I really didn’t want to do that. I typed
Rick Malone in the search box and waited for the computer to search
its files.

It seemed to be taking longer than it should.
I was still waiting when it dawned on me the military would know
him better by Petty Officer 1
^st
Class Rick Malone. I
punched in PO1 Rick Malone. It took a matter of seconds for me to
get a nice picture of PO1 Rick Malone aka Mr. Richard White, aka
Whip. Navy Seals, Covert Ops. Discharged with honors, blah, blah,
blah. Get to the good stuff. I skimmed down the page to where his
current address was listed: 1324 Plaza Dr., Suite 73. Shit.

The door to the front office opened. I
immediately logged out and started to play solitaire on the
computer. I had done this before and the solitaire bit worked like
a charm. The trick is to have the game open on the computers
desktop before you really get down to business. That way when you
close whatever you are messing with, the solitaire game is right
there for you to start playing. Not a bad idea to play for a second
before you begin too, that way there are moves made on the game and
it looks like you have been playing a while and not doing anything
else.

It was Gabriella. She walked into Mr. White’s
office and said, “Oh. It’s you. Ms. Stanton right?”

“
Yeah, hi,” I said while I quit the
game and turned off the computer like it was mine. Don’t act guilty
and people won’t think you are guilty. I hope.

“
I figured someone would be here
because I was called to work and don’t normally come in on Mondays.
I’m glad it’s you,” she said with a happy smile.

“
Mr. Blue brought me in this morning
and told me to fill out these forms.” I pointed at the papers on
the desk.

“
You have them done?” she
asked.

“
Yeah. I’ve been waiting for someone to
come back and get me,” I said.

“
You’re quick with the paperwork,
that’s for sure,” She said as she walked toward the desk to pick it
all up.

“
Come on out here and I’ll call someone
to come get you.” She was walking back to her desk and I was right
behind her.

“
They normally wouldn’t be back until
around 9:00, but then again, it normally takes a candidate until
10:00 to complete this stuff.” Gabriella set everything on her
desk, motioned me to the chair on the other side and picked up the
phone.

“
I’m going to call Mr. Black,” she said
holding the receiver up. She got a sly look on her face and said,
“I LOVE his voice, so I call him whenever I get the chance. I’ll
put him on speakerphone so you can hear, but you have to be quiet.
Okay?” Her voice got quiet with the last two sentences, like Mr.
Black might hear her.

I smiled and nodded that I would be
quiet.

She dialed a number and a very deep voice
said, “Hello?” I remembered Mr. Black from the parking lot at the
Skylight and his voice fit. Mr. Black had nice muscles. I
remembered he’d had a shaved head and a serious look. He was nice
looking and his voice added to his charm.

“
Hello, Mr. Black,” Gabriella
said.

“
Do you have me on speakerphone again
Gabriella?” he asked.

“
Well, yeah, but I have my hands full
right now,” Gabriella said walking to the filing cabinet and
putting my paperwork inside.

“
I’ll wait,” he said.

“
Alright.” She shut the drawer and
walked back to the phone and picked it up.

“
I know,” she said. I imagined him
reminding her how much he hated to be put on speakerphone. I had
had that same conversation before. I didn’t like the speakerphone
either unless I was on the receiving end.

“
Ms. Stanton is finished with her
paperwork and is waiting for a ride. Okay, see you then.” And she
put the receiver down.

She stifled a giggle with her hand and said,
“He’s my favorite. Just wait till you see.”

“
We’ve met,” I told her. “He didn’t say
anything though. You were right, he does have a great voice.” I
smiled.

“
He said it shouldn’t be much more than
half an hour. I am so excited!” Gabriella said.

“
I can’t believe I’ll get to work with
a woman again. I’d hoped you’d come through and here you are.” She
put her arms out like she was demonstrating a product for a
commercial.

“
I don’t know if I have the job yet. I
haven’t even had my second interview,” I told her with doubt in my
voice.

“
Honey, they NEVER let anyone into the
office alone that doesn’t have the job. I’m just glad it wasn’t
that creep Leonard,” she said.

“
Don’t say anything, but what you are
going through now is like a type of initiation. Mr. White likes to
know what you can and can’t do and how well or how badly you do it.
He’ll have you trained to his liking in no time.”

“
So what job am I being hired for?” I
asked.

“
Mr. White will put you on the jobs
that you are best suited for. Sometimes they hire for single jobs,
but I think you are to become a permanent fixture around here.” She
looked around suspiciously and added with a smile, “You really made
an impression on him Saturday. As soon as you left he called in all
the guys for a meeting. I don’t think everyone has been here at the
same time

EVER. At least not when I’ve been here or
when the sun was shining.” She had been leaning over her desk at me
while she had said this and now she sat back.