Black: Sometimes, not following the rules is the right thing to do … (Rule Number 3 Book 2)

by Teya Tapler

  “Sure. I’ll pick you up at noon,” Ollie said and disappeared.

  The time passed quickly as Evan read the documentation with medium speed trying to understand and remember the content at the same time. She was well familiar with the concepts and the objectives were clearly stated. Her curiosity grew as she kept on reading. The scope description and the high-level requirements made her wonder about the data and she couldn’t wait to start writing complicated queries with joins and unions.

  “Are you ready?” Ollie’s voice interrupted her indulgence. He was leaning on the low wall of her cubicle again.

  “Where are we going?” Evan took her wallet out of the messenger’s bag.

  “There is a great sandwich place right outside. They make the best Panini around.” Ollie’s eyes lit.

  Ollie was right, the Panini sandwich was great. Evan chose the chicken breast and roasted peppers sandwich on a whole wheat bread. It had burnt marks from the grill. It was both soft and crunchy and sweet and a little tangy. It was just right. Lucky for Evan Ollie spoke all the time talking about his dog, his roommates, his parents who still lived in Ohio, and about his plans to have his own company someday. Evan wasn’t in a mood to talk and the food was good so she was glad her new friend was so chatty. Now that the frightening thoughts she had when she first heard his voice were gone, she caught herself wandering whether Ollie wanted to impress her or just liked the sound of his beautiful voice. To be completely honest, Evan did like his voice, she only had a problem with his looks and loose handshake.

  “It’s time to go back.“ Ollie said after explaining his car problems from the weekend.

  “I’ll come in a minute,” she said pointing to the bathroom door nearby, “nature call. See you at the meeting.”

  ***

  Evan returned to the office, picked up her notebook, the green folder with the specifications, a pen and headed to the conference room Ollie pointed to before they left for lunch. Not wanting to knock on the closed door, Evan browsed the part of the office she hadn’t seen before. There were many pictures on the walls, all mounted on the same size thick black wooden frames. Closer to her were the photos of two dogs in someone’s backyard, a lake view from the porch and the sunset above Boston as seen from an apartment in Hull. The company had used pictures taken by the Analysis4All employees as part of its office decoration. That was an interesting and a very nice way to make everyone feel at home. It made her wonder whether they’ll ask her to submit a picture for decorating the walls in the area where her desk was. Her thoughts drifted in the direction of the picture she would select when the conference room door opened and someone bumped into her scattering the papers from her hands on the floor in front of her.

  “I’m sorry miss. I didn’t see you.” A pleasant and slightly husky male voice started talking behind her. She turned and looked up to meet the enchanting dark eyes of a handsome young man. “Not that I wouldn’t notice you,” he continued sounding like one of her stuttering high school classmates.” I – I’m sorry. I was looking in the opposite direction. Let me help you,” he kneeled down and started collecting her papers.

  Now that is embarrassing! Evan thought and knelt next to him picking up the pages from the floor. Worried about anyone else finding her crawling after the scattered materials, she spotted the pen to her left and stretched her hand to pick it up. A big and warm hand landed on top of her delicate fingers soon after. She looked up and met the beautiful dark eyes again. Everything happened so quickly and yet it felt that the time stood still. He kept her sight long enough for her to notice that his dark eyes were a very deep brown color then when she blushed he removed his hand and helped her get up. He handed her the pile he had collected, smiled and excused himself once more. She was about to introduce herself when nearing footsteps and someone calling her name made her look in the other direction; Cheryl and Ollie were coming her way.

  “Evangeline, you are very punctual. Come on in and pick your seat. First come first served,” Cheryl opened the door and headed toward the chairs closest to the smart board. “My new glasses will be ready next Thursday. Till then I need a front row seat,” she said to the two interns occupying the seats further back.

  Soon the room filled with casually dressed people. Some of them Evan had seen in the sandwich place during lunch or in the office earlier today. The guy she bumped into was there too, sitting four chairs away from her at the other side of the long table, not noticing her at the back of the room, looking around as if he owned the place.

  Cheryl started the meeting explaining what the project was all about and presented the project manager who took over and followed the agenda. Evan took copious notes hoping to find all the answers in the documents once she had all the pages in order again. Her pen ran across the notebook recording every word of the speakers.

  “Our San Diego office had lent us the best data architect in the company. Please say a warm welcome to Alex Somos.”

  Evan looked up and saw the person she had bumped into before the meeting smile and nod at the meeting attendees. Looking at him from afar made it easier for her not to focus on his eyes. She noticed his brown thin striped suit, matching shirt, vest and cufflinks. He was standing out among the T-shirt and jeans congregation announcing to the world, just like her, that today was his first day in that Analysis4All office.

  “He will be working closely with many of you as we develop the schema, the export transform load functions and analyze the initial data sets.” The project manager continued.

  I'll be seeing a lot of him. Evan thought when she realized that he was looking at her.

  Chapter 12

  Evan’s beautiful handwriting showed up on the holographic screen. The letters appeared one after another as she drew them on the baby-blue colored page with a black gel pen.

  “Dear Diary,

  Today is day 1009 since Zander left.” Evan wrote and stopped.

  Ollie and Alex sat in front of their three-fold holographic screens monitoring everything that was happening in Evan’s apartment. Located right across the street from where Evan and Brittany lived Ollie and Alex have set up an observation room in one of the top floor apartments. One of the cameras secretly placed in Evan’s room was peeking right into her diary and the letters showed on the screen as Evan wrote them. Her diaries helped Alex identify Analysis4All as the best place both of them could interact with her without raising any suspicion. Her precious notes were what he used to decide whether he or Ollie would make a move each day and who had a better chance of getting into her world.

  The other image showed a view from the camera hidden in a flowerpot close to Evan’s window. There she was lying on her stomach; pen in hand, pondering how to continue. Dressed in her lounge pants and a T-shirt, she was contemplating what to write for next.

  They already knew how her day was. It had started with Ollie brining her morning coffee. As suggested by Alex, Ollie behaved as if he had a serious crush on Evan. He learned how she liked her coffee on the second day of their internship and became the one delivering it to her for free, if you don’t count his obedient look and meaningless chatter about his life. Evan was rewarding him with one of her beautiful smiles and undivided attention for ten minutes while drinking her coffee. Then Cheryl, their boss, would call them into her office to discuss the warehouse project.

  Today, Evan’s notes were starting the same was as any other day. She was counting the days since that Zander had left her life.

  The images displayed on the holo-threen screens before Ollie were from the living room and the kitchen where Brittany was mindlessly moving around. Ollie leaned over his holo-threen and focused on the screens in front of Alex.

  “She keeps on writing about that Zander. D’you think this might be her nickname for the Chancellor’s nephew? I don’t remember Kevin being called like that by his father.” Ollie had heard that name before.

  “Take that acne look off your face. It’s Sunday.” Alex said dryly.

 
“Then who’s that Zander? Is that the dog, she left with her parents or someone from her high school or the earlier years in college?” Ollie started peeling the make-up off. His own face gradually emerged as he pulled the thin layer of artificial skin that was covering his face with various scars and pimples. “Whatever Zander turns out to be, you might have a serious competition.”

  “You do your part, and I’ll do mine.” Alex cut him off.

  Still upset by the loss of the reader maker four months ago Alex considered that loss to be Ollie’s fault. Since the events in Cambridge the faint readings of the golden locket haven’t been spotted anywhere. The amulet had to spend a year or so at its new location while the emissions accumulated enough for the tracking specialists to be able to register where it had been moved. At Cambridge they had the perfect opportunity to obtain the reader maker and to eliminate Evangeline Shtuttgart. They missed the chance to complete the two tasks simultaneously and now had to focus on them one at a time.

  Alex was already working hard on what seemed to be the easiest one of the two tasks; the accidental death of the girl. He knew where she was, both he and Ollie were around her during the day and were actively tracking her at night. Regardless of how long it was taking for her to fill in the pages of her diary, Evan was helping Alex find the best way to kill her.

  The other task, the one to obtain the golden locket, had become trickier. Alex frowned. He needed to think of something that would make the golden locket reappear on the radar faster than usual. He watched Evan contemplate her day while his mind was frantically searching for a way to solve his bigger problem. He needed to bring the reader maker medallion and ensure that he would continue to be working with the Chancellor long after that. Maybe, because the Chancellor liked his people skills he would let him wear the medallion and increase his intuition or even make him the official public relations person of the 906 Inquisitors once the group is back together.

  His thoughts suddenly stopped. Alex had found the missing link that would help him solve that problem. The locket was giving reader like skills to the regular people and the pearls worked at subconscious level. It sounded possible that the golden locket and the pearls might sense each other. Would a single pearl attract the locket? It should. Why not? After all, both of them sensed the same kind of energy; deep thoughts and emotions. Simulating a break in the vault would be easy, especially when they know the exact location of the item. Alex would need to take one pearl out of the vault and dangled it in the open. If necessary, he would charm his way in.

  A plan formed up in his mind, one that would yield him good benefits.

  On the screen Evan’s Hand touched the big blue bead of her necklace. She closed her eyes and drifted in her thoughts for a few seconds. She looked so preoccupied. Was it that Zander she was thinking of again?

  Alex had seen her do that before. Not only her daily writings started with the Zander related date count, Evan was obviously still thinking about him. Alex was positive that Zander was not a dog. He was positive that Zander was a guy. Zander’s constant presence in Evan’s diary and that transcaster bullet around her neck made Alex think that Zander guy had come from the future, that he wasn’t from Evan’s high school or earlier years in college, and that he had likely given her that item to remember him by. Alex couldn’t say from how far in the future was his competitor, he could only deduct that the time was during the existence and usage of those blue transcaster gun bullets. Actually they had come to use about one hundred years ago, from 2424 point of view of course, and because the time travel was working only backwards in time or sideways to another place, Alex couldn’t tell how long would the thick blue bullets continued to be used. The thought of Zander being someone from Alex’s future was unsettling but it was also possible that Zander person was even someone Alex had seen.

  Considering that silly girl made it out of the Cambridge house alive and on time before the explosion, that Zander could be one of the Anaconda team. Or, was she just too lucky? Alex thought.

  He slicked back his gelled hair. At the moment, the most important thing was that he was here in the present, while that Zander was not and obviously hasn’t been around for quite some time. His competition wasn’t looking as serious as Ollie thought.

  Alex gave the most charming smile he was capable of and closed his eyes. Suddenly he wasn’t worried about Zander. He was going to make Miss Evangeline Shtuttgart forget him. He was going to make her regret that she didn’t die in the explosion of the Cambridge house. Yes, he would.

  “She had stopped writing and is still lying on the bed.” Ollie reported the obvious and interrupted Alex’s thoughts.

  Alex looked at the screen and saw Evan staring at her diary. If only he could hear her thoughts.

  “So, nothing about Ollie. Focus on the rest of the day,“ Evan said suddenly.

  “You bring her coffee every morning and she skipped you again.” Alex commented.

  “If it wasn’t for my coffee how you would feed her the tracking chemicals?” Ollie protested but Alex didn’t respond. The letter “A” showed up on the screen and Alex held his breath for a split second before realizing that the following letter was “r”. He was glued to the screen watching carefully the letter coming from under Evan’s pen, waiting for his name to be mentioned.

  “Around noon, Cheryl invited me to a meeting,” Evan wrote. She just ran through her whole morning without adding a line in the diary. Even though she was extremely excited when they asked her to do it, now Evan didn’t write about the analysis of the huge data set of vendor data. Standardizing the entries before loading it into the data warehouse was one of her tasks. The team she worked in was responsible for identifying the right approach and recommending any changes and modifications. It was too big of a task and responsibility for an intern but Alex had intentionally vouched for her and made her an equal member of the team as the other Analysis4All employees. It should have made her diary at least once. Evan should have written about that great honor and recognition of her knowledge and abilities. To his surprise she never wrote about that. Her diary entries kept on focusing on her feeling and memories.

  The event that was eligible to be recorded for posterity was the call from Cheryl. It had happened around noon and she had told Evan that they need her to be present at one of the data base design discussions.

  “I took my notebook and pen ready for taking notes.” Evan continued. “You know how much I like taking notes. I even call my notebook my external memory. Oh, don’t be sad, my dear diary. You know that you are my heart and soul. You know everything about me,” she stopped for a second and lovingly touched the pale-blue pages before continuing to write. “The conference room had soda and pizza on the huge table and some of the people even had propped their feet on other chairs. It looked more like a dinner and a movie event than a data analysis meeting. Obviously the discussion had been going on for a while before I entered.”

  Evan stopped writing, put the end of the pen in her mouth, closed her eyes and got lost in her thoughts again. Alex squint his eyes, the tension was killing him. Evan was getting on his nerves and there was nothing he could do about it. His fingers moved energetically as if he was urging her to continue writing. The time was ticking and nothing was happening. It seemed that she had fallen asleep.

  Then, all of a sudden, Evan opened her eyes and the pen touched the page again. Instinctively, Alex held his breath. If she was to write about him, that should be the beginning. He couldn’t wait anymore to start reaping some benefits from the hard work he had put in to arrange all the circumstances in Evan’s live the right way so that both of them could meet and interact in an unsuspicious way.

  “Alex invited me to pizza and discussion.” Evan wrote with happier looking letters than the ones so far and added a smiley face instead of a full stop. “Cheryl had obviously told him a lot about me and the dataset analysis I did there the previous four weeks. She is just like a mother to our group; she sees the best in everyone. I
would like to be able to give wings to people someday too. Sorry, dear diary … I miss my mother.” Evan stopped again, closed her eyes for a second as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Alex smiled in such a sinister way that Ollie moved his chair away afraid that he might be killed. Yes, Alex was content. Even though Ollie was the one who delivered the poison to Evan’s mother, it was Alex’s idea. Alex had planned it all to the miniscule detail including selecting that particular poison – a triple dose of the penancola virus. The unimmunized victim initially felt like having cold then very quickly the symptoms changed resembling pneumonia right before the fatal and inevitable end. Alex had made Evan suffer. Now she had also lost a loved one. She had also lost someone very, very dear to her. Alex’s extremely beautiful face had the weird expression of a satisfaction after the revenge mixed with the happy anticipation of the next massacre. He focused on the screen where Evan was lying silent, letting her tears roll all the way down and drop on the baby-blue pages.

  “I’m going out for pop-corn, milk and cereal. Do you need anything from the grocery store?” Brittany shouted from the living room. Alex and Ollie saw her on the other set of holo-screens holding a reusable grocery bag, tapping her foot impatiently.

  Evan opened her eyes, wiped the tears with both hands and shouted back, “We are out of artificial sweetener and coffee creamer.”

  “Sure, I’ll get these too.” The screens showing the images from the living room and the kitchen became still after Brittany shouted her response and left the apartment.

  The screens showing Evan, however, sprang to live. Back from her sad trip down memory lane, she wrote quickly on the pale-blue pages.

  “So after Alex invited me to join I looked at the notes on the whiteboard and asked them whether they really want to make the rolling quarter part of the time dimension. You see, according to the data warehouse theories and my professors in college, the time dimension is better if you have only day, month, quarter and year in it. The reporting part usually takes care of the rolling piece.”