Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles

by J. C. Phelps

  “Oh, my. Your dad told me you were working for these people,” she said.

  Great, here it comes. She’s going to tell me that it’s too dangerous and girls shouldn’t be doing that kind of work and when was I going to find a good man to marry.

  “I’m glad that you found something that you can like,” she said, handing the check back to me. “You’re doing something that I would have loved to do.”

  What!!! My mom, go kill people! I don’t think so.

  “It’s okay, I guess,” I said.

  She smiled and went back to her painting. I hugged her and said thank you for keeping my mail. Then I went straight to my car to set up a new bank account. I wanted to keep track of the money I made separately from my allowance afforded me by my parents. My plan was to mooch off them for as long as I could. Mom and Dad had given me lessons with money as I grew up, you know… ‘Here’s your allowance, put half in the bank and do what you want with the other half. Just remember once it’s gone it’s gone.’ I actually could have been a shop-aholic but I was careful with what I spent my money on. Usually I found myself wanting the high-priced items like a car and a good stereo and a great computer so I saved more than I spent. It had become a habit to hoard rather than to spend. I’m not saying I didn’t splurge on stupid things, like going to the bar. Fancy underwear that I would never share with anyone was a downfall of mine. I just didn’t do it as much as I used to.

  I got everything settled downtown and headed for home. The excitement of receiving my first paycheck and the shock of seeing the balance of that check had begun to wear off. I thought about the dead guy and quickly pushed him out of my brain and decided to fantasize about Mr. White. I got to a part in the fantasy where I said ‘Oh, Mr. White’ and it killed it for me. From now on I was going to have to use his real name, Malone, in my fantasies. Not that it was all that much better either.

  Upon reaching my driveway I noticed I was exhausted. I wondered why. It wasn’t even noon yet. Then I remembered I had been up for a day and a half. I decided I’d go in and go to bed.

  When I got to my bedroom, I made sure the door was shut tight before I changed out of my clothes into some sexy pajamas. I had an urge to walk around in front of the cameras, like I forgot they were there, but I hadn’t forgotten they were there. Out of all the experiences I’d had since joining the company, the cameras affected me the most. Well, other than having to kill a man.

  That brought back the vision of the guy floating face down in the water. I tried to push it out of my head but it wouldn’t go. I suppose I’m going to have to face it eventually, I thought. I retraced every part of the mission trying to find a way to not kill the guy. What if I hadn’t dropped the end of the motorboat, if Mr. Black had waited to see if he’d leave. All those and other thoughts came to mind but my reasonable side shot them all down. The guy must not have heard the splash or he would have been there sooner. Mr. Black knew what he was doing and the guy probably would have conducted a search of the deck after finding the motorboat the way it had been. Every way I found to change the outcome, I found to be flawed. I guess it had been unavoidable. That helped me a little. I finally fell asleep with the image of the dead man floating around in my skull.

  I woke up early that evening and decided to go to Mom and Dad’s. I hadn’t been around them much lately and I really missed them. Independence had always been my middle name, but I still liked to be around my parents. They were good people. Mom should have dinner ready soon anyway.

  When I reached the back door of the main house I could smell spaghetti. I hadn’t had spaghetti for a while. I walked in and there was Mom, sitting at the table, painting. Dad was at the stove stirring the noodles.

  “Is Dad cooking?” I asked incredulously.

  “No, he’s just checking the noodles for me,” Mom said. My parents were a bit old fashioned. My dad would probably starve if he had to cook and my mom didn’t trust him to cook either.

  “Here, Dad,” I said taking away the spoon he was using. He looked relieved and went to sit at the table.

  “Are you going to clean off the table before we eat?” he asked Mom.

  “Yes, honey. I just want to get this little part… done… right… here,” my mom replied and then stood and began to clean off the table. I drained the noodles and started to dish them up on plates for us. I got Dad’s plate put together and then Mom’s.

  “Did you make garlic bread?” I asked.

  “I knew I forgot something,” Mom said.

  “Oh well, no big deal,” I said and dished up my own plate.

  We sat at the table like a normal family and Mom talked about the projects she was working on. She had a sign to make for the nice couple down the street. She was thinking about going to a craft fair, she just didn’t know if she would like to sit there all day. Then she began to tell my Dad about my paycheck. How excited I was when I opened it, how much it was. All the details about how I practically ran out to go get it cashed.

  “I hope you didn’t spend it on something stupid. That’s a lot of money to be carrying around if you didn’t spend it.” Dad said to me.

  “I didn’t spend any of it. I put it in the bank.” I said like a little kid who had just gotten in trouble for something she hadn’t done.

  “Oh, well good. Does this mean I can cut your allowance off?” My Dad said.

  “No!” I yelled. I hadn’t caught the sly look on my Dad’s face until after I shouted.

  Him and Mom both found it funny. The rest of the dinner was nice and we talked about other unimportant things. I helped put the dishes in the dishwasher and headed home.

  It wasn’t time for bed yet, so I decided to play on the computer for a while. As I was killing aliens I toyed with the idea of checking out the rest of the guys real names. I was mostly interested in Mr. Black, but I thought the best way to find his out would be to ask him. I felt guilty just thinking about spying on him. Respect was a big part of our relationship. He gave me my fair share and I had tons of respect for him.

  I pushed myself away from the computer before I found myself doing something that I would feel bad about later. I decided I’d call Colin and catchup. We talked about my new job. I gave him all the details about the training and the bank job I had done. I left out the recovery mission where I had killed a man though. I didn’t feel like talking about that anymore.

  The next couple of days were pretty much the same. I spent quite a lot of time with Mom and Dad. I even started making a sign of my own to hang on my wall. I had borrowed some paint and brushes from Mom and brought them home so I could work on my sign in the evenings.

  It was late evening and I was painting on my sign to keep myself off the computer. Every time I sat at the thing I wanted to go snooping for names. The phone rang so I set my brush down on a paper towel I had at the table and got up to answer it.

  “Hello?” I said into the receiver.

  “I’ll be there to pick you up late tomorrow morning.” It was Mr. Black.

  “Okay,” I said. “What are we doing?” I asked.

  “Going back to the cabin,” he responded.

  “For how long?”

  “Don’t know. Until you learn what I have to teach,” he said.

  “See you then,” I said and he hung up. He seemed a little short with me and I hoped he wasn’t mad at me for screwing up the mission. You know what, I told myself, I didn’t screw up the mission. I finished the mission. It didn’t help, I still felt bad about how the mission had turned out. I thought on that while I went back to painting my sign. I finally came to the conclusion that I felt embarrassed for Mr. Black. I had found out he wasn’t unstoppable and unconquerable.

  I tucked myself into bed knowing that things were going to be all right between Mr. Black and myself if I could face the fact that he was human. That’s if he could face the fact that I knew that now too.

  *****

  Chapter Eleven

  The backpack I had the first time was packed and rea
dy to go when Mr. Black arrived the next morning. I heard him pull up and was in the SUV almost before the tires stopped moving. I was ready to get out of there and start back into training. The sooner we got this done the sooner we could go out on jobs again.

  I had gotten myself motivated for a long car ride again and had brought books this time. We drove to the office and when we got parked in the garage I asked him, “Should I wait in here?”

  “Nope, we’re flying this time,” he answered.

  I grabbed my stuff and we trooped up to Suite 73. Gabriella was at her post. She looked a bit dressed up; I figured she must have known Mr. Black was going to be in today.

  “Good morning, Mr. Black. Good morning, Ms. Grey.” she said as we walked in.

  “Good morning, Gabriella.” I replied and Mr. Black nodded in her direction as we passed. We went straight to Mr. White’s office to find him alone in the office. I had expected to see Mr. Brown this morning too. Mr. Black had said we were flying.

  “Here,” Mr. White said and handed Mr. Black a satellite phone and a few other electronic devices. “Keep this at the cabin so you can report your progress.”

  Mr. Black handed me one of the small electronic devices and said, “Put this in your pack.” I did as I was told and then had to hurry to catch up with the two men before they entered the elevator.

  Mr. White pressed the down button, but I had expected him to push up to take us to the helipad. We came out at the lobby and I followed them to the car garage. Mr. White took the front passenger seat of the SUV, so I was left in the back with the gear. Mr. Black handed me the rest of the electronic devices along with the satellite phone, except a small box with a screen of some kind and said, “Put one in each bag and the phone in my pack.” There were only three duffle-type bags besides Mr. Black’s backpack and mine but we were on the road before I finished stowing the gadgets. I had an idea of what they were, tracking devices of some kind, but why would we need them was my question.

  Mr. Black drove us to an unknown airfield some distance from the city. We unloaded the backpacks and duffel bags. Mr. White carried a duffel bag and Mr. Black and I each carried a bag and our backpacks. To where, I still didn’t know. We walked across the blacktop toward a small airplane and I assumed we would be using it instead of the helicopter. I was confused, but I was just along for the ride so I didn’t say anything or ask any questions. I had found it better to keep my mouth shut and wait to see what was going to happen next. Usually I could figure out what was going on without too much surprise at the last minute, usually.

  We boarded the plane and Mr. White got into the pilots’ seat. This was new. Hmmm. It had never occurred to me to think he could fly. Heck, Mr. Black could probably fly too. Maybe I was going to get a flying lesson today. That would be fun. That was something I had never done but would have liked to.

  We hadn’t been it the air long when Mr. Black started to attach parachutes to all of our gear. He showed me what he was doing and how to do it myself. Then he asked how many times I had skydived.

  “Twice,” I said.

  “Well, you know the principals then,” he replied. “Did you receive instruction on steering or did you jump with an instructor?” he asked.

  “An instructor,” I said, a bit embarrassed. I had listed skydiving as one of my accomplishments, but in reality I had just been along for the ride.

  Mr. Black gave me a nod and began to explain what was happening. We were going to jump and I was going to have to go solo. Exciting, but scary. Was I ever going to find my confidence again?

  He continued. Mr. White would fly us over the area of the cabin and we would drop our supplies, then we would jump ourselves. He continued by showing me how to put the chute on and explained about how the little chute I held in my hand would fly up and pull open the main canopy. Ok, I thought. I’m starting to remember.

  Mr. Black explained how to steer by pulling on the left or right steering line and what I should do to land safely. He put special emphasis on the avoidance of trees and other obstacles. He finished his lesson just a few minutes before we reached the jumping off point. I helped him pitch out the supplies and then he jumped. I looked to Mr. White but he was looking straight ahead not even noticing I was still there, so I jumped.

  The air rushed past me and the sensation was wonderful. I could see the cabin, a small spec below. The lake was there too but it was a much larger blue mark. I kept my eyes on the lake and watched it grow. It looked almost as if it were some sort of dark blue liquid that had been spilled on a picture. Mr. Black had said we would have to open our chutes at 2000 feet so I checked my reading and we were almost there. I watched the meter until it read 2000 and I dropped the little chute I held in my hand. It whipped up above me adding to the noise. Then I was yanked up. I worried I might have to use the backup chute, but the main one opened. I had been gaining on Mr. Black, but now he was falling farther away from me.

  Had I opened my chute too soon, I wondered. Just as the thought ran its course through my brain I saw Mr. Black’s chute open. I had the steering lines in my hands now and was practicing carefully. Mr. Black had told me if I pulled on either of the lines too roughly I could put myself into a spin that I wouldn’t be able to recover from.

  The gentle pulling that I was doing seemed to work just fine. The ground was getting more detailed as we fell toward it. The lake and the cabin were nowmore than just spots below me. I aimed for the cabin. It’s where we wanted to be. I managed to keep myself almost right over the top of it by doing large circles. But as I got closer to the ground I noticed my circles had to get smaller to stay right over the cabin area and I was afraid of putting myself into a spin like Mr. Black warned me about. I adjusted my strategy and started going from the lake to the cabin in a crisscross. If I couldn’t land at the cabin, the shore of the lake would be the next best place, maybe even better. It was more open than the tree-surrounded cabin.

  I decided to make the shore my landing destination. It was coming up quickly but I managed to land on my feet. The chute caught some air and started to pull me toward the lake. I resisted and was hauled off my feet. I landed face first and was being towed across the gravely beach into the water. I put my hands down in front of me and I was still being dragged. The parachute was skimming the top of the water and I was about half way to the buoy before it stopped.

  Mr. Black was at the edge of the water when I finally came to a stop and he yelled across the water at me, “Bring the chute back in with you.”

  I thought swimming with all my clothes on was hard. It was nothing compared to hauling in a wet parachute. Fortunately I was able to stand up and dig my feet into the bottom of the lake or I might not have been able to bring in the soaked fabric.

  Mr. Black waited for me with a grin on his face. I was mortified and angry.

  “What!” I said as I came up to him on the shore.

  “Roll it up to get the water out of it. Then we’ll take it to the cabin and hang it to dry.” I could see the glee in his eyes and couldn’t help myself. I started to laugh and so did he.

  “I don’t know what happened. The wind just caught it I guess,” I said when we finished laughing. I rolled the water out of the chute and carried it back to the cabin where we hung it on some tree limbs to dry.

  Mr. Black handed me the little black box with the screen and said, “This is a tracking unit. I’m going to show you how to find our stuff.”

  He turned it on while it was still in my hands and showed me how to operate it. Not only did our bags show up, so did we. Both of us still had on our wristbands we had received for the last mission. We went in search of the closest bag and found it in no time. Then Mr. Black left me to retrieve the rest of them on my own.

  I found a signal for another pack and headed in the appropriate direction. I saw the white chute before I saw the green pack and if it hadn’t been for the chute I might not have found the pack. It was my backpack. I grabbed it from the side of a dried-up creek bed and hau
led it back to the cabin. I took it straight to my room and headed out once more. I still had two duffel bags and Mr. Black’s backpack to find.

  A duffel bag was the next container I discovered. I hiked it back to the cabin too and found Mr. Black still unpacking the first bag. I set the bag down by the table and continued the search.

  I had located all the signals before I began my search and had retrieved the closest first and was working my way further out. The last two signals were fairly close together and I planned on retrieving them together. I had to worm my way through some tight underbrush to get to Mr. Black’s backpack. I had some trouble pulling it out of the close-knit branches and got a few scrapes but I managed to get it out. I put it on my back and continued my search for the last bag. My clothes had almost completely dried out from the swim I had taken earlier and I was beginning to warm up from the exercise I was getting.

  The last bag was tangled in a tree about fifteen feet off the ground. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the tree was a tall pine tree and the branch that the chute had caught on was one of the lowest branches available. I didn’t know how in the world I was going to get the darn thing down.

  I unloaded the pack off my back and took a running jump at it but didn’t even come close to it. I did this several times before I became winded and gave it a rest. I don’t know what was going through my head. Yeah, if I keep running and jumping maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to reach the sky. I looked around and found a long stick to jab at the bag. It wasn’t long enough though. I stood under the bag on my tiptoes trying to swing the stick up to the bag. Then I began to run and jump with the stick. Again I couldn’t get high enough. One more time I thought and I hit the bag, but the only thing that happened was that I broke my stick.

  I sat down on the forest floor totally discouraged. What in the world was I going to do? I didn’t want to go back without the bag. I had already made one mistake today. Of course we laughed it off, but this was such a simple task that Mr. Black had given me I couldn’t go ask for help. I had been gone over an hour and I had to get this done. I was wasting time.