“Can I help you?” a young man said to him from behind the counter.
Jimmy reached it, tried to smile, but couldn’t. “Yes, I’m Jimmy—or—James Walls.” The counter was tall enough for him to lean an elbow up onto, so he did. “I’m here to see a Captain Fairchild for an interview.” He tried to get his mind to focus. The hangover still sat heavily over him, but at least it felt far more relaxed. He felt thankful for that. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take if it didn’t.
The young man, maybe ten years younger than he was, wore a light blue colored uniform, and on the left shoulder, he could see Ever Safe Security written on a patch on the sleeve. The young guard smiled and then turned away and looked down towards the other side of the counter.
Jimmy watched him look to a computer that was just in front of him.
After some typing on the keyboard, he looked back up to him. “Okay, just a minute.”
He turned again, and went to a black handheld radio that sat next to the computer screen on his left, and brought it up towards his face. “Front lobby to Captain,” he spoke into the receiver.
Jimmy smiled, listening to him sound as professional as he could probably stand to be, waited, and took the time to look over the room around him. He looked everywhere and noticed that the glass windows lined the entire entrance. Just to the left of the counter, he could see two doors that seemed to go nowhere at all. He could see that the one on the right was marked with a blue colored plaque to the right side of the door. It had a white colored generic picture of a stick-figured man directly in the center of the plaque, with the word Men directly under the picture. The other door wasn’t marked. The men’s room I presume. He didn’t see a women’s room with it and that made him wonder some, but not much. He figured that it had to be there somewhere, but just wasn’t where he could see it.
He turned from the two doors and looked directly behind the counter. Behind it was a hallway that stretched out away from him and the lobby. He could see that it had doors lining it on each side. To the right of the counter stood a large staircase that went up one floor to a railing made out of glass. He could barely make out what looked like offices that lined several hallways from the stairs. To the right of the staircase was another set of doors. One of them was open and he could see that it led to another hallway that went down the front of the building. Turning from that hallway, he looked back to the double glass doors that he had just come through, and could see on the opposite sides of the sidewalk, a huge front lawn that stretched out back to the parking lot. In the center of the lawn, stood three massively tall flagpoles, each with separate flags that barely moved with the lack of breeze outside. Seeing the poles, he couldn’t for the life of him remember seeing them when he pulled into the lot. It told him that his mind seemed to be a thousand miles away. Aware of it, he knew that he had to focus. He was there for an interview, and if he couldn’t notice a flagpole, three in fact, than he knew he could mess up everything. He had to pull himself back together again, so he turned back to the counter and tried to focus on it. Maybe if he studied it some, it would help.
It looked like wood, but was probably made of something else. He rubbed his open right palm on its surface, and felt that it had none of a wood’s coarseness to it, which only confirmed to him what he already knew. It came up shoulder height at the front of it, but behind it, it looked only waist high, which made it look more like a desk. He could see the top of the computer and the keyboard, and followed it to a phone that sat to the left of the board. He didn’t see a mouse. To the right of the computer, and to his left, the counter ran out until it met the wall. On the wall was what looked some type of an alarm panel with lights, some flashing, some not, in neat rows through the center of its two feet by two feet case. A glass door covered it and it made it look like a cabinet.
That looks complicated. He stared at all of the flashing lights. He’d never used a panel like that before, and it dawned on him that he might actually have to do it. The thought worried him some, but not a lot. To the right of the panel, he noticed a large red button about midway down from the center of the cabinet. It seemed about the size of his hand’s palm and had a small red colored plaque beneath it, with its white letters, it read just one word, Emergency. Seeing it and trying to take everything in, he didn’t hear the young guard say something to him, so he looked back to him and had to ask, “What?”
“I said that I got a hold of the Captain. He’ll be down shortly.” The young security guard had to raise his voice the second time, and the effect of it carried it all around the glass. It sounded eerie as it bounced back with an echo. Now that he finally got the man’s attention, he looked back to the computer screen and went back to work. He didn’t say anything else.
Jimmy gave him a simple nod and watched his blonde hair look down. He obviously didn’t want to talk, so he left the counter and walked back out into the middle of the lobby, and there he stopped. He looked straight up to the glass ceiling above him and to the world outside it. The glass looked shaded, but he could still see through it clearly. The clear blue sky stretched out as far as he could see it. It all looked so magnificent. It all looked so magical. His stores never looked like this and it made everything feel so different. This all looked so much better. The sunlight flooded the lobby and feeling it against him, it made him feel somewhat excited. It told him that he could this. He could work in a place like this.
“Mister Walls?” a deep voice came from behind him.
He turned to the sound, and watched a tall, large, firm looking man wearing a dark blue suit jacket and carrying a radio, come towards him, walking down the stairs to the bottom step. His round, white shirted belly protruded some from the center of the suit jacket, and the red tie he wore probably made it look bigger than it actually was.
“I’m Frank Fairchild.” He held out his right hand after he slid the handheld radio over to his left.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Jimmy took the man’s hand and shook it. He tried a firm grip but it felt too hard to do it properly, so he stopped it in mid grip. The man had a much firmer hand than he had.
“The same.” Fairchild released his hand and dropped his back to his side. “Thank you for coming so quickly. We’ve been waiting for someone like you for so long that I was beginning to think that the office was never going to send someone.” He smiled and laughed some, but his voice sounded calm. No echo bounced off the glass.
Jimmy nodded and smiled. “Whatever happened to the last guy?” The laugh that Fairchild used sounded rather shallow. It also sounded polite. Hearing him made him worried some. Everything looked clean cut and cut out. Everything looked formal, and he had trouble with formal. He had trouble with cookie cutter. He wasn’t like everyone else.
Fairchild shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “He left one night and never came back.” He laughed again with this one sounding even shallower than the one before it did. “It happens.” He nodded. “Security can be hard to find good people sometimes.”
“I’m sure.” Jimmy also nodded. “The retail world can be the same way.”
Fairchild laughed again. It sounded like the kind one makes when they don’t seem to care if what they said was funny or not. “Yeah, well.” He turned back to the staircase. “Shall we go on a tour?” He motioned with his right arm to the case with a wave.
Jimmy nodded. So far, he couldn’t find any reason to say no to do it. He started to like what he saw. What could it hurt to find out more?
Fairchild turned, headed to the staircase, and started up it. He took his time, allowing his interview to follow along behind him.
Jimmy did. They reached the top of the stairs and there they stopped.
“You were told that this is a graveyard shift right?” Fairchild looked at him fully, giving him his full attention.
The look told him that he was studying him intently. “Yeah, they did.” He swallowed hollowly.
“Good. Sometimes they forget to tell someone th
at, thinking that they’ll lose them before I can get them here.” Fairchild laughed his typical hollowness again.
And again, Jimmy winced.
“Like I’ve said, we’ve been searching for someone to do it for a while now. Nobody today seems to want to work overnights anymore. It’s a tough shift to work.”
“How many have you gone through?” Jimmy looked around and saw that he was now facing three long hallways that stretched out from the stairs and headed into three opposite directions. Along each hallway, he could see a line of doors on each side of them. They made the place look huge. It looked far bigger inside than what it looked like outside.
“Four in the last six months.” Fairchild left the stairs and started out down the middle hallway.
“That seems like a lot of people. Why have there been so many?” Jimmy followed closely behind him.
“Well—most people they send me are family oriented. They think it’s easier to have someone like that working in a place like this. Well, what they don‘t quite seem to understand is that most people with families don‘t want to work the graveyard shift. The kids and family are more important, and right they should be, but it doesn‘t help me much.”
“Yeah.”
“How about you? Family?”
“I‘m in the middle of being single I guess.”
Fairchild nodded and the attempt at his laugh came again.
Jimmy felt the need to change the subject. He didn‘t want to think anything more about Sally. “This is a big place.” He watched as they passed the doors along the hallway as they walked, and could see that some were open to small offices, while others were closed. Some of the open ones, had people in them, sitting behind their desks, while the others looked quiet, dark, and even a little deserted.
“It’s one of our biggest sites. Half of the building is offices.” Fairchild pointed to everything as he walked.
Jimmy looked to both his left and his right as they moved.
“The other half of the site is the labs.”
“What kind of labs are they?” Jimmy still tried to take everything in. His mind still felt somewhat foggy, but seeing everything as he was, it did help him to focus. He felt thankful that it was, but he started feeling somewhat nervous as well. Seeing everything, he knew he was going to get lost in this maze of doors and hallways more often than not.
“Their genetic research I think. They do a lot of things for the military as well as other national groups.” Fairchild reached the end of the hallway, and turned right. He started down a new one, which looked the same as the one that they just left. “You’re going to be responsible to do tours throughout the building at night. Checking to see if all of the lights are off, making sure most of the doors are locked and secured. You’re going to have to check on some of the boilers and chillers in the basement. There really isn’t that many employees that work overnight, so you’re not going to have to deal with that many people. The ones that you do see you’re going to have to make sure that you check them for identification. We have to make sure that they are supposed to be in the building. That’s not very hard to do. All of the employees that work here have ID badges that they need to get through the doors. You’re going to have a master card that will get you through most of the building. It won’t work on some of the rooms in the labs, which is fine, being that you’re going to be sticking pretty much to the office part of the building anyway.”
“Why not the labs?”
“They have their own security force for the labs. They’re armed. They keep to themselves. They stay out of our way pretty much. They’re busier back there, so as long as you stay out of their way, they’ll leave you alone.”
Jimmy nodded. He tried to understand everything. It felt like a lot to take in, all at once.
“Other than that, it’s pretty basic work. It’s pretty quiet and subdued.” They came to the end of the new hallway, turned left and entered yet another hallway that looked like the first two looked. “It’s easy, really.”
“Looks complex.” Jimmy continued to follow. “I’m going to get very lost in here, I’m sure.”
“Nah. After a while you’ll be walking through this place like you own it.”
Jimmy nodded, tried to laugh but couldn’t make it sound the way he wanted it to so he stopped it. Instead, it came out sounding more of winded wince than anything else.
“So, you want the job?” Fairchild turned yet another corner and there he stopped. His eyes showed a sparkle behind them.
Jimmy recognized the look. He wanted him. He needed him. He almost drooled for him to take the job. He looked down the new corner and found yet another hallway that seemed to go on forever and ever more.
“How many others do I work with at night?” he felt that he needed to ask, so he did.
“None. You’ll be working alone, except for the lab’s security force, but that‘s it. Most of the time, you won’t see anyone. Our job is mainly the offices and the outer front of the labs. They take care of the dock and some of the more sensitive areas.”
Jimmy nodded.
“So, do you?”
Again, he nodded.
“Great!” Fairchild blurted out with a smile flaring out over his somewhat chubby face. “You have to take the security class at the office to get your license from the state. I’ve been told that you’re going to do that next week. Can you start the Monday after that?”
Jimmy, again, nodded.
“Good. It’s Monday morning thru Friday morning. You’ll have the weekends off. The shift is eleven to seven. We’ll give you some training, which usually lasts about a week, and then we’ll let you have the place to yourself. If anything happens with you here, I‘m only a phone call away to help you.” Fairchild held out his right hand again. “Welcome to Ravenswood Labs.”
Jimmy took the man’s much larger, chubbier hand and shook it. A smile crossed his lips. Everything now felt over. He felt happy that it was finished. He hoped that his decision to take the job wouldn’t haunt him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted it, and as far as he could tell, there was only one way to find for sure if he did or didn’t. He just had to do it. Besides, what would it hurt?
7
Jimmy did the training at the Ever-Safe Security office. They started the licensing from the state, and they issued him a temporary badge. Finished after the first week, he then started at the labs. The training did go well, and Frank Fairchild was right. He did find it rather easy to get used to the place after the training. By the third night, he made his way around the maze of hallways with an almost relative ease. Everything that he was afraid of at first, he found as nothing. The alarm panel turned out to be simple to use. The red button was for the gate that they could lower over the front doors in case of an emergency. Overall, he learned everything quickly. He headed into his first full week alone with the emptiness of his newfound world around him. That was when he finally settled in and relaxed. It felt seamless. It felt all too right.
He arrived at work a little before his shift began that first Sunday night, relieved the second shift guard Pat Moore, put his thermos full of coffee behind him, and took his place behind the counter. He settled down, and began watching the three monitors that lined the interior wall of the counter with each one showing him a different view of the building, and so far, everything looked quiet. Now all he had to do was wait an hour for his first tour of the night to begin. Then he would get up and walk the route that he learned with intensity the week before. At twelve o’clock he would start. The time went by slowly.
Sitting there, thinking, he thought about what Brandon had said about him taking the job at Ever-Safe. It turned out that he was right about everything. It gave him the time to think.
First, he thought about losing his job at Save Money, and when he finished with that, he thought about Sally. He concluded that he couldn’t do anything different from what he did do. Everything seemed like it was all supposed to happen, just the way that it was supposed to be. More
importantly, being alone with just his thoughts, it gave him the time to breathe. It gave him the time to feel better.
The first hour went by rather fluidly and before he knew it, it was time to start his first tour. If his memory was accurate, and this was the first time to test it, it would only take him about a half-an-hour to go through it. Before he began, he first needed to gather his thoughts. He replayed the tour over, and over again in his mind, trying his best to picture it completely before he started it. He tried to keep it clear. He looked at the clock sitting next to the computer on the counter and it read twelve. It’s time.
He stood up and pushed in the only chair at the counter, took his wand, a cylindrical black colored five-inch long flashlight looking devise that would register his movements throughout the building, with him, and held it firmly in his hand. The thing would tell Fairchild if he accomplished the tour correctly. He hoped that he would. He wanted to be accurate. He put the wand in his back pocket, took the handheld radio that he needed to carry with him, and clipped it to the left side of his belt. He turned it on and it gave him a loud buzzing beeping sound in return, and with everything ready, so was he.
He left the back of the counter and headed up the stairs to the second floor. The place sounded quiet with only the lights in the lobby on behind him as he moved. With them, it made everything else look dark, almost spooky. With it all, his mood felt pure.
He reached the first chip at the very top of the steps, and tapped the front of the wand to the chip. The wand beeped a subtle pinging sound. A small red light at the front of the wand lit up. The location was registered. Knowing this, he took a deep breath. He was officially on the tour.
He followed the hallway on the right.
He walked down it to the very end of it, and at the first turn, found the second chip along his way. He struck it with the tip of the wand and again it beeped a high-toned sound. The light lit up red. He looked down at his wristwatch and saw that he was now only five minutes into his run. He was doing well and he seemed to be moving right on time.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 4
