“Thank you. You are relieved of your post. Tell Phil to meet me in the office in fifteen minutes,” White ordered. The man saluted him and stepped onto the elevator.
“I’m going to introduce you to Strom and his men inside,” White told me as he knocked on the apartment door.
“His men?”
“Yes, he requested two of his own body guards be able to stay and I didn’t object.”
“So we are actually protecting three people then?” I shook my head in disapproval.
“Well, yeah, but if I had known who Penumbra was before I wouldn’t have brought him in here.” He had an accusatory tone.
“I can play that game too, White. If I had known you were going to take Strom in I could have advised you against it.”
“Fine, you’re right. It doesn’t matter now who didn’t tell whom certain information. We just have to make sure it ends up where we want it to.”
White knocked on the apartment door and we didn’t wait long before a gentleman in a suit and tie answered the door. I had seen Strom before and this was not him. It must be one of his bodyguards I thought. He didn’t say anything but stepped aside to let us in.
“Ah, White,” Strom said as we walked in. “May I ask who this is?” He gestured to me with a nod of his head.
“Victor, I’d like you to meet Ms. Grey. I will be placing her here as a buffer between you and Penumbra. As you know, time is running out and he should be coming for you sometime tomorrow, if not tonight.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Grey. What are your qualifications for this job?” He sounded skeptical.
“Ms. Grey has extensive military training, as all the partners do, and she has been in training since she joined the company,” White answered for me.
Strom’s attitude lightened somewhat, “If White trusts you, then I will too.”
“I will leave you in Ms. Grey’s capable hands.” White and Strom shook hands and White left.
As soon as the door was shut Strom started questioning me about my background. He asked me how long I had been in the military and how long I had been with the company. I dodged the questions quite nicely and eventually he gave up.
His two goons never spoke to me and when they spoke to each other or Strom it was never above a whisper. I caught bits and pieces of it when their mouths were in view and it was never anything worth hearing. But out of habit I tried to place myself in a position to see everyone’s faces.
More than an hour passed and then the phone rang. It was White checking in. They had tried to talk with Keffler and he had refused to cooperate so White said they were going to bring out the syringe. I wished him luck, told him to hurry it along and he reminded me not to use Keffler’s name in any of our phone conversations.
“I wonder why you thought I would need to be told that.” I said sarcastically.
“You’re right. Call the office if you need anything.”
I hung up the phone and went to the extra room all the apartments had. I didn’t know if it had been furnished and quickly found that it hadn’t except for a cot in one corner and a phone on one wall. I could tell at least one of the men had been using the room to sleep because some personal belongings were piled neatly near the cot.
When I came out I told the men that in a few hours I was going to move them to that room. Strom started to protest and I cut him off and explained why he would be safer in there. I also told the men if they wanted to move some of the furniture into the room so it would be more comfortable, they were welcome to it. This brought some disgusted shaking of heads but I didn’t get any more complaints.
The men did, however, start talking to each other more frequently in subdued tones.
“What about her?” I saw one of the men ask Strom but wasn’t in a position to see Strom’s reply. They had been talking about me from time to time, but this made me wonder. What about me? What were they planning to have to worry about me? I suppose they were wondering if I would be in the room with them.
I gave them some time to consider their question and then said, “I imagine you will want the couch and maybe the television to help pass the time. I will remain out here until I’m sure the crisis is over. The room locks from the inside and once you are in there I want that door locked until I or White ask you to open it.”
The subdued conversations stopped after that and the three men seemed content to sit and watch television. I turned my attention to the neighboring buildings trying to catch a glimpse of Penumbra. I knew she had to be out there watching us and that made me nervous.
My attention was drawn back to the couch when I heard them whispering again. This was going to drive me crazy. I interrupted them and asked if they knew what they wanted to eat for dinner.
I called down to the office and placed our order with White. I didn’t know if I should order in food without going through him at this point plus I wanted to find out if they had made any progress with Keffler. I found out that White had already ordered us food and had done nothing with Keffler. The calm that had settled over me earlier in the day was gone and I was feeling anxious. It must have come across in my voice because White reminded me it could be several hours before Penumbra came calling and it would do me some good to invest in some patience.
I told Strom and his two men that White had already ordered in for us and it would be here shortly. I went back to my spot in the kitchen and we all waited quietly for our dinner.
After dinner I thought about getting the men into the protected room. It was dark outside and I knew from Penumbra’s background she wouldn’t strike until the day she specified. I decided to wait until closer to midnight before I shoved them in there.
It was some time later but the bothersome whispering started again. I was able to see their lips and this time I decided to pay closer attention. If nothing else, it would break the monotony of waiting.
“We still haven’t decided what we’re going to do with her?” Strom told his goon.
“We have to wait a little longer, then we can take care of her.”
“She said she wasn’t coming into the room with us, besides, how are we going to explain it?”
“Penumbra got her.”
“It really pisses me off that she’s still here to begin with. I put out good money to get rid of her.” Strom’s voice had gotten a bit louder and I almost heard him. I looked toward the television just in time because Strom’s guard looked up at me.
The whispering stopped again and I realized I was in a room of enemies. Not just because the government wanted Strom dead, but because the man I was supposed to be protecting wanted me dead. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to have to fight all three of these men because I knew the two were carrying guns and I had come in here unarmed. I decided to wait it out and try to get more information from them before I called White.
It was quiet for a long time and it was getting dangerously close to when I would be shutting them in the room for the night. I was afraid they would jump me just before they locked themselves into the safe room and leave me for the men to find in the morning. I had been trying to come up with a plan before it was too late. Then the whispering began again.
I was right. The head goon told Strom he would take me out just before they went to the safe room. Then the men would find me later and think Penumbra had done it.
Strom was concerned about Penumbra and who was going to protect them if I was gone. To that, the goon replied, “Do you really think a woman can protect you from Penumbra anyway? White will stop him before he gets this far. I know he wouldn’t have put her in here if he thought Penumbra would make it to us.”
Strom argued if Penumbra wouldn’t get this far to begin with then how could they blame my death on him. The goon had no answer for him. Finally, Strom changed the plan to killing me after the Penumbra threat was over. This was a relief to me because I didn’t have to figure out how to take out the two goons with guns and still keep Strom safe.
They continued t
o whisper and argue over who’s plan was the best but I cut them off and told them if they wanted to take any furniture into the room, now would be the time. I went to the phone to let White know I was putting them into the safe room and somehow tell him what was going on but when I picked up the receiver it was dead. Although I knew my mother wouldn’t hurt me and these men wanted to kill me I thought first of my job to secure Strom and hurried him into the room before the men could get the couch inside. Then I let the other two take the couch into the room after Strom was secured. I was shutting the door before they had even set it down.
“Lock the door, as soon as it shuts,” I said with some urgency. I was feeling jumpy and I let it come out in my voice. If they thought I had reason to worry they might comply. It worked and the door was promptly locked.
I immediately looked around for something to secure the door from the outside when I heard the door being unlocked. My stomach turned and I raced to the door.
“Don’t come out of there,” I ordered.
“One of us will stay with Strom and one of us will stay with you,” the doorknob had turned and the door was open a small crack.
“No. The phone is dead and that means Penumbra is already in the building. I need both of you on the other side of the door. If for some reason Penumbra makes it to us the only warning you will have is my struggle with him. You will be better off with two in the room instead of just one.” I had grabbed a hold of the doorknob to prevent the door from opening further and the pressure released. The door closed and I let out a sigh as they relocked it.
If Strom had been the one who had put the hit out on me then he probably was the same one to have Ed and Randolph killed. This didn’t make much sense to me but I tried to put the pieces together while I looked for something to lock the door from the outside.
I hadn’t figured anything out by the time I had searched the entire apartment for something to lock the door. I opted for some heavy furniture to block it instead.
“I’m going to move something in front of the door in case Penumbra takes me by surprise. He will have to move it to get to you so if I’m unable to give you a warning, that will,” I explained the noise I was about to make. There was no response from inside the room and the soundproofing came to mind. They probably couldn’t hear me. I looked around the room for something heavy to push in front of the door and was disappointed by my selection. What was available to me was either too heavy or not heavy enough. Then I remembered the door opened inwardly. No matter what I put in front of the door it wouldn’t matter for what I wanted it for.
I stood in front of the locked door and thought about what I was going to do next. I decided the best thing would be to open the front door and prop-open the elevator. That would give me a quick way out if things turned bad and hopefully the men would notice the elevator remaining on our floor and come to investigate. I knew I could take both of Strom’s goons out without a problem, if they didn’t have guns. Even with the guns, I could probably still do it, but I had been ordered by White and my dad that we were to keep Strom alive.
I went to put my elevator plan in motion and when I opened the door to the outside hallway I was greeted by a slim, masked figure, all in black. She reached for me and I stepped aside.
I held up my hand in a stop gesture and the figure yielded. I put my fingers to my lips and whispered, “You’re early,”
“I won’t kill him for a couple of hours yet,” the figure whispered back.
“You can’t kill him. Dad has asked us to stop you. We can potentially link him to treason and Dad thinks he might be able to get some good information out of him.”
“I’m just supposed to believe you?”
“Yes. I could have given you proof if you wouldn’t have cut the phone lines.”
“I’ll get it myself.” She took a cell phone from somewhere and dialed a number.
“I’m here to do the job and I’ve been told not too,” she listened for a moment and said, “I know I’m early, I had plans to question him.” She hung up abruptly.
“You better find what you need because I don’t want to come back.”
“Will you help me with something before you go?”
“What’s that?” She sounded put out.
“He’s got two guards in there with him and they’ve got guns. Strom is the one who hired people to kill me and they plan on going through with it at any time.”
“How do you know this?”
“Colin taught me to read lips, I thought you knew that.”
“I knew that he taught you some sign language but,” she stopped short because we heard the door being unlocked.
I ran to the door and shouted, “What are you doing?”
“Mr. Strom needs to use the restroom,” the door started to come open.
Penumbra quickly jumped and kicked the door in, effectively knocking both men to the ground. One of the men got up quickly but the other was lying on his back with blood oozing from his forehead. Strom had moved to a corner of the room and Penumbra and I advanced on the standing goon.
“I told you to stay in here and keep the door locked.”
“What is going on?” Strom yelled at me. “Who is that?”
I looked at Penumbra and knew what I needed to do. I went to Strom and punched him dead in the face. He fell dazed to the floor and when I turned around I saw the other man was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“Yes,” her tone was matter of fact as she walked toward the other man. I cringed at what I thought was coming next but she just reached down and took his gun.
“Here.” She walked to me and handed me both of the guns. After I had taken them she went back to the bleeding man, flipped him over and secured his wrists with plastic cuffs.
Strom, still dazed, had been staring at blood from his nose pooling in his hands but was now slowly getting up.
“Do you have any more of those?”
She tossed me one and I grabbed Strom by the arm and wrenched it around behind him. As I held it there I grabbed his other arm and quickly got the cuffs on.
“Lets get these guys to the elevator.” Penumbra had gotten the man to his feet and we led our captives out of the apartment. I checked the safety switch on both guns and put one in each of my back pockets. When we reached the elevator Penumbra left me so I pulled one of the guns out and trained it on Strom and his goon. We made it to the office floor without incident.
By now, the men had both regained most of their senses and I pointed the way to the office with the gun. Before we reached the office I heard Black’s deep voice behind me.
“Grey? What’s going on?”
“Are you questioning Keffler yet?” I asked with my back to him.
“Yes, but he’s not giving up much. We haven’t given the sodium pentothal yet though.”
“This one should know everything we need,” I turned my prisoners to face Black. He took them both by their bonds and led them to the interrogation area.
White came out of the small surveillance room and asked me what was going on. I told him about Strom paying to have me killed and that Penumbra helped me to secure them. About this time Red came out of the room.
“This is uncalled for, Ms. Grey. What about Penumbra?” Red admonished me.
“Been here and gone. I bought us some more time. I told him if we couldn’t deliver what Stanton wants by the end of the day I would personally deliver Strom to him.”
“What? You spoke with Penumbra? Who is he?” Red had become excited but mellowed after looking at Black and White’s faces. “Well, I guess my work has just begun then. Take him to room two and have Blue get him ready for me.”
Red utilized all of us in his interrogations of Keffler and Strom. The sodium pentothal never came back out of the bag. However, Blue did give both men a shot of painkiller. The subterfuge didn’t help much with Keffler until we were able to relay some of what Strom was telling us.
Keff
ler was a pawn but he wasn’t innocent. He had made the data transfers to pay off Strom and eventually gave Red all his information freely. He tried to cover his tracks and dispose of the evidence because he was being framed by Strom and Grimes. He had nothing to do with the killing. That was all Strom. Keffler received threats to himself and the employees that knew about the money and data transfers. He sent the three men away in hopes of saving them.
Around two A.M. we had to call Lacewell to tell her to pick up Edward Grimes Sr. He was deeply involved with Strom from the other end. He even knew about the hit on his own son. According to Strom, Keffler was to go away because of the embezzling just after he made his last data transfer. Grimes was going take over the company and continue to help Strom fund overseas terrorists with the same objectives. I couldn’t help but think if they had kept it simple they would have gotten away with it. Grimes and Strom got greedy and just had to get rid of Keffler. It was the embezzling that started it all.
The information we received that night helped piece together everything for the N.S.A. A few days later Dad arrived back home with Basar in tow. The rest was left to Lacewell.
White and I were invited to my parent’s for dinner the night Dad arrived home.
“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” I said to White.
“What?”
“We were invited to dinner and here I am cooking it, and in their kitchen.”
Mom had gone to pick up Dad and they pulled into the driveway right on time. The evening was spent making small talk, but after dinner we got down to business.
“You two have information that only three other people have. Can we trust you to keep it to yourselves?” my father asked.
“Definitely,” I said and White said at the same time, “Of course, Admiral.”
“Good. Also I understand that you bared your soul to my daughter,” he added.
Shades of Grey: Book Two of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles Page 22
