Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by J. C. Phelps

  Before too long Mr. White told me, “Show me what you’ve got.”

  We circled each other a few times and I made my move. He counteracted me and had me on the ground. He stayed on top of me while he explained what I did wrong and how he knew I was going to do what I did.

  “Let’s go,” he said as he finally got off me. Sitting over the top of me with his face close to mine, his breath hot on my neck had disoriented me. I think he knew it too. It took me a second or two to finally shake the feeling enough to get up off the ground.

  “Get your mind on what you are doing, Ms. Grey,” he said and lunged for me. I went low to the ground and was barely able to get out of the way.

  “Good. Keep it up,” he said while we began to circle each other again.

  This went on for a while, then I heard the chopper in the distance. Mr. White looked to the sky and I went for him. I had him down on the ground in no time. I had him pinned with a move Mr. Black had shown me and he couldn’t get away.

  “What are you doing? The chopper’s coming,” he said, flustered.

  “What was it you said to me at the Skylight? Oh, yes. I’m just taking advantage of a situation,” I said in a calm cool voice as close to his neck as I could get without being obvious. I could tell I had completely caught him off guard. The closeness of me affected him the same way it had affected me every time he had gotten me down.

  “Let me up,” he said. “We have to get out of the way so they can land.”

  I got off him and he was up off the ground in a flash. I was in defense mode and jumped away from him instinctively. He grinned that devious grin of his and I couldn’t help but smile myself. Then thoughts of my dad flowed over the excitement of the moment.

  “Let’s get back to the cabin and get things ready to close up,” he said as he began to walk in that direction.

  It didn’t take us long to get things put away and ourselves packed. I wondered if I should leave my deer skin hanging out back and Mr. White said we should bring it home with us. He’d have it dropped off at the taxidermist so I could keep it. I wasn’t all that sure I wanted to keep it, but hey, maybe I could sell it someday, or show it to my grandkids.

  As I was bringing in the deerskin, Mr. Brown walked up. He had landed the chopper and came to see if we needed any help closing up the cabin. I told him I thought we were pretty much ready. Then he commented on my buck.

  “Nice buck. Mr. Black told me you had bagged yourself a big one.” His infectious smile had returned to its normal position on his face.

  “Thanks,” I said. I still wasn’t sure about him. He had a way of saying the wrong things. I waited for it to come but it didn’t.

  When we got inside he grabbed one of the two packs waiting to be carted off and headed back to the chopper. Mr. White grabbed the other and told me I needed to carry the deer.

  We were in the air and headed home within a matter of minutes. The trip seemed to take longer than it had before but I knew it was because I was in a hurry to get there. After we reached the office we went straight to my parent’s house.

  I walked into Mr. Black and Gabriella looking through paperwork of my father’s.

  “Did you find anything?” Mr. White asked as he came through the office door.

  “Nothing,” Mr. Black answered.

  I went straight to the computer and tried to get it to work. It wasn’t off, the screen was just blank. I tried to shut it off and it wouldn’t shut off so I unplugged it again. This shut it off. I plugged it back in but the start up screen didn’t appear. I tried several basic commands but they wouldn’t work either. Nothing was working. Then I got an idea.

  I walked to my house and Mr. White was right on my heels. I got inside and went straight to my computer. I turned it on and tried to access my dad’s computer from mine. I got it up. I started a simple search of the hard drive and found the file labeled ‘Friends’. I hoped this was the correct file or I had just wasted a lot of everyone’s time. I was just about to try to open the file when Mr. Black walked in.

  “The computer screen came back on over there,” he said.

  “Good,” I replied as I got up out of my chair. It was best to try it from the master computer. We all went back to my dad’s office and I sat back down at the computer. I started putting in passwords that we had already tried. I had Mr. White writing them down as I tried them and had him cross them off one by one. I got to the last one we put in before the computer crashed and didn’t use it. I tried another because I wanted to see if it had been the word that had shut off the screen or the number of try’s we had done.

  I typed in ‘monkey’ because I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be the password. Nothing happened except it told me I didn’t have the correct password. I tried ‘mole’, which was the last word we had tried before. The computer screen went blank and it looked like the computer had shut itself off. There was a faint green light coming from the monitor though, so I knew it hadn’t shut itself off, it had just gone to a blank screen. I sat and thought for a minute then figured it out. Dad had done this one other time to me. It was like a game between us. I have always tried to break into his computer and he was always trying to come up with new ways to protect it from me. He didn’t always know I had broken his security though, so he would use the same method if he thought they were Alex-proofed. This must have been one of those. I will admit, it did take me a while to figure it out, but I knew how to fix the problem.

  “Okay, everybody,” I said to get everyone’s attention. “I need you to look for a separate hard drive. It’ll be a little box that I can plug into the computer.”

  I got up and went in search of it myself. The last time I had run into this problem, the external drive had been in his bedroom upstairs. This was the first place I looked. Again Mr. White followed me. He helped me look upstairs but we didn’t find it in any of the rooms up there. I decided I’d check the living room and had no luck there either. As I walked past my dad’s office I saw Gabriella, Mr. Black and Mr. Brown were all busy looking through things. I rounded up Mr. Brown to come help us look through the library.

  We started by looking under all the cushions of the chairs and couch in the room. Then we moved onto the books. I knew my dad had some hollow books where he stashed things, so I went straight to them first. They all had some sort of stash, like cash or his cigarettes and lighter. He used to sneak a cigarette every once in a while, but by the look of the cigarettes in the stash box, he hadn’t done that in quite a while. Then Mr. White said, “Is this what you’re looking for?” He lifted up a small box that looked like the one dad had used before.

  “Could be,” I said. I moved over to him and took it. “Thanks,” I added as I walked back toward the office.

  I got it plugged in and the computer came back to life. The file opened and everyone was standing over me as I searched through it. There were lots of names, each with an address and/or phone number. Some of them had dates next to the names. I thought the dates might be the place to start. I didn’t know what they stood for, but it could have been the dates my dad received information from them or dates of a job he hired out.

  I found a date close to the date of my first job and the name next to the date was Abdullah Salah. Now if that wasn’t a good sign I didn’t know what was! There was no address but there was a contact number. I wrote it down and handed it to Mr. White.

  “This should be the guy,” I said.

  He nodded and took the paper from me. Turning to Mr. Black he said, “I need you to take care of Ms. Grey. I’m going to have Mr. Red call this guy up.” He turned to me and added, “Good job. This might be what we need to get the ball rolling. I’ll be back before too long.” With that, he left. Mr. Brown and Gabriella went with him. Leaving just Mr. Black and myself to clean up the mess we had all made.

  Cleaning up didn’t take all that long. When we finished, I told Mr. Black I’d like to go to my place to clean up. On the walk to my house I asked him how long he thought it might take
to locate Abdullah Salah, the suspected informant. He said it shouldn’t take too long, but he didn’t know if he would be cooperative with us.

  After I cleaned myself up and changed my clothes Mr. Black and I sat back and watched some TV. It was something I was able to do because my mind didn’t have to work. I could just sit there and become part of another world and not have to think about anything.

  *****

  Chapter Fifteen

  Several days passed with Mr. Black and myself hanging out at my place. He made and received calls daily, but there had been no luck in finding my dad’s informant.

  I had gotten over being antsy because I had gotten things moving, but now that no progress had been made I was becoming restless again. Mr. Black and I had a meeting at the office today and I wanted to get in there and get it over with. I was hoping something had come up so we could get busy. I was pretty sure Mr. Black was tired of sleeping on my couch too. It wasn’t big enough for him to stretch out on. It was a bit more comfortable than the ground up in the mountains though.

  I hadn’t been able to see my mother yet. They had brought her to a safe house and they didn’t want anyone to know where she was. I had spoken to her on the phone and she seemed very normal for what was happening. It didn’t seem to bother her she had shot someone. She did have a bit of trouble with the fact that Daddy had been kidnapped, but told me she knew I could find him and get him back. Nothing like a little pressure to make a person feel great about sitting at home doing nothing.

  It was time for the meeting so we got into my Mustang. Mr. White and company had taken both vehicles the other day so it would seem that nothing had changed. Later that day he had tried to place me in a safe house but I wouldn’t go. I told him if The Lion’s cultists came back for me, Mr. Black and I would handle it and maybe it could help us out if we were able to capture the bad guys. After I pointed out that bit of information I didn’t get much argument from Mr. White.

  We pulled into the car garage and Mr. Black pointed to my very own parking spot. He told me they had set it up while he and I had been at the cabin. I guess I’m in it for the long haul now, I thought.

  Mr. Black held the elevator door for me and opened the door to Suite 73 just like he had before. I noticed these things. Mr. White had done the same on some occasions but Mr. Black did it almost every time. The only time he wasn’t a gentleman in this way was at the cabin. I had to fend for myself up there, most of the time. He slipped once in a while, but I didn’t mind.

  Gabriella looked up from her desk and said, “Nobody’s here yet. I’m supposed to tell you they would be about half an hour late.”

  Mr. Black said he’d be back in twenty minutes and walked out the door.

  “I’m sorry about Admiral Stanton,” Gabriella said after I sat down in front of her desk. “He is such a nice man.”

  “You know my dad?” I asked.

  “Not well. He’s been here a couple times, but he was always so polite,” she said. “I took your deer to the taxidermist yesterday. Did you really get him all by yourself?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It was kind of an accident, but don’t tell the guys that.”

  She smiled. “I won’t tell. I just love the fact that a woman is right up there with these guys. Don’t tell them, but none of them came back with a buck that size, not even Mr. Black.”

  “They’ve all brought back deer?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it’s like an initiation of sorts with them. Mr. White, Mr. Brown and Mr. Red were all here the other day and they were talking about your deer,” she said. “Sometimes they forget I’m in here and I get some juicy gossip. But anyway, Mr. White was bragging you up to Mr. Red because I think Mr. Red had the biggest buck before.” She got a disgusted look on her face. “I don’t really like Mr. Red. He walks around thinking he’s all that. I think it’s because he can speak so many different languages.”

  “I’ve not met Mr. Red yet,” I said with a bit of worry in my voice.

  “Ah honey, don’t worry. He’s not all that bad; he just walks around with his nose in the air. You could knock him down a few pegs,” she said. Then she added with a sly look, “I also heard Mr. Brown razzing Mr. White about how you had him down on the ground. What were you doing out there with Mr. White?” she asked.

  “We were practicing hand-to-hand maneuvers and Mr. White was distracted by the chopper so I took him down,” I said with a big smile on my face. I was more proud of that than the buck. “I didn’t know Mr. Brown saw it.” I was a bit embarrassed.

  “Well, Mr. White got a bit upset with Mr. Brown after he said that,” Gabriella said. “He told Mr. Brown that you two were practicing, like you said, and you weren’t that kind of girl.” Her smile broadened.

  “Really?” I said, my face getting hot.

  “Oh, look at that. You’re blushing. You better try to control that because if these guys see that, they’ll pick on you forever,” she said.

  “I know,” I said. I knew I did better around them than her though. Gabriella had a way of reading me and knowing just what to say to get a reaction out of me. I suppose it was because she was a woman and could understand the things that went through my head.

  We talked about other things, like how Mr. Black had actually spoken to her since he had been back. They had talked about me mostly, but he asked her about herself too. That was a good sign for her I told her and she agreed. I didn’t know if they would ever hook up, but at least she was getting to talk to him a bit. She told me he had seemed to open up more. She thought it might be because I had come along. She said he talked about me just like one of the other guys, but he was proud when he spoke of me. This woman was a fountain of interesting information. She did most of the talking, but that was the way I liked it anyway. I gave her a little bit of information about myself here and there, but tried to keep it limited to stuff I might not care if other people found out about.

  Mr. Black finally came back and the three of us sat in silence for a while. Then I told him Gabriella had taken my buck to the taxidermist. He told me it would have to go back to the cabin because everyone else’s was there. The plan was to build onto the cabin to include rooms for everyone and the skins would hang in everyone’s separate room. They just hadn’t gotten around to building on yet. He said it was a good thing too, because now I could have my own room.

  Before long, Mr. White came in and without words Mr. Black and I followed him to his office. Mr. Black shut the door behind us and we all took seats. It was quiet for a while and the look on Mr. White’s face didn’t seem promising. He finally broke the silence by saying Mr. Red had gotten in touch with the informant but he wouldn’t help us unless he had proof Mr. Red was who he said he was. The only proof he would accept was me.

  All these different people knew me and I didn’t have a clue as to who they were. I really wished I had snooped more into what my dad’s job was.

  “What does he want me to do?” I asked.

  “He will meet only with you,” Mr. White said. “But we can’t do that, because I don’t know if we can trust him.”

  “We’ll just have to take the chance, won’t we,” I said defiantly.

  “Ms. Grey might be right,” Mr. Black said. “I don’t want to put her in danger, but we could control the meeting. We’d have everyone posted around to make sure nothing could happen to her. We just need to choose the right place for the meeting,” he said.

  “I would prefer someplace public where it would be hard to spot us and hard for them to get to her,” Mr. White said.

  “It couldn’t be a large place like a mall though,” Mr. Black said.

  I cut in and said, “What about the Skylight? Pretty much everyone there knows me and it’s a small type of bar. The building is fairly large, but it’s mostly open and the clientele doesn’t change much. I could probably pick out the people who didn’t belong or I could have Colin check things out before I go in.”

  It was quiet for a moment then Mr. Black said,
“That would probably work.”

  “It could, but I’m not sure about putting you in that kind of danger,” Mr. White said.

  “If he is my dad’s informant then I should be safe right?” I asked and got an affirmative nod from Mr. White. “If he’s not, then you guys will be around so I should still be safe,” I said.

  “Should be,” Mr. White said. “Okay, I’ll set up the meeting for tonight. You can use Gabriella’s phone to see if you can set it up with your friend. I’ll get Mr. Red on the phone and get him started on setting up the meeting with Salah.”

  “Should I tell him everything that’s going on?” I asked. “Colin likes to know what’s going on in my life.”

  “Don’t tell him all the details, but you can tell him some of them. Just be as discreet as you can be,” he said as I walked to the front office to use the phone. I looked back and he was already on his phone. I assumed he was calling Mr. Red to get the ball rolling.

  I asked permission from Gabriella before I picked up her phone. Then I dialed Colin. I was glad to hear his voice. It had been a while since we last talked. I asked him how he was doing and what he had been up to. He had met a girl while I had been gone but it wasn’t serious. I felt a pang of jealousy at this because Colin had always been mine even though I didn’t really want him. He had had other girlfriends in the past and I never liked any of them. We did a little more catching up before I asked my favor. Finally I said, “I was wondering if you could do me a favor tonight?”

  “Depends on what it is,” he said. “I’m supposed to meet Olivia tonight at the Skylight.” Olivia was his new girl.

  “Well, all I need is for you to keep an eye out for me at the Skylight,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I’m on this job and I’m supposed to meet a guy there. If he’s who he’s supposed to be then there should be no problem, but if not, there may be some other people around I would need to know of. You know everyone there and I thought you could let me know if there were a lot of different faces in the crowd before I came in.”