Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (23 page)

“
What do you mean?” I thought maybe he
meant I was going to be training more, but something in his eyes
told me that’s not what he meant.

“
There have been threats made against
you,” he said.

“
Against me? Why?” For the life of me I
couldn’t understand why there would be a tangible threat against
me.

“
The recovery job that you and Mr.
Black did,” he explained. “The target is a high-profile terrorist.
His name is Abbas Salah.” He waited for some recognition from me.
“Also known as ‘The Lion’,” he added.

“
Oh,” I said when it registered. He was
a bad guy. His name had been in the papers and on TV for numerous
atrocities. He was a real bad guy.

According to the national news, The Lion had
other bad people stashed all over the world just waiting to get
their orders to commit terrible crimes against humanity. I didn’t
understand the reasoning of this group. They didn’t claim any
religious affiliation or a political one either. They were evil
just to be evil.

“
Oh shit,” I said again when it hit me
that The Lion, or his followers were after ME. What had I
ever
done. Wait, never mind. I had kidnapped the leader of a
wicked cult. Shit.

My heart leapt in my chest. I was sure my dad
had been the
client
for that job. Mr. White had said the
client had been kidnapped. I jumped to my feet and began to breathe
heavier.

“
Where is my dad?” I asked.

Mr. White got a stunned look. “How…what makes
you think the client was your dad?”

“
Don’t play around with me right now.
Where is my dad?” I repeated. “Is my Mom okay?” I added.

“
Your Mom will be fine. She was roughed
up a bit, but nothing substantial. I guess they tried to take her
too, but she put up a fight and got away,” he said.

“
I want to help,” I said.

“
Absolutely not. You are in too much
danger.”

“
I want to see my mom and make sure
she’s going to be okay,” I said. My eyes started to burn with the
expectation of tears. I fought it and was able to keep them
suppressed.

“
This is about the only place you’ll be
safe right now. Nobody knows how to get here except my
partners.”

“
What about the other recruits you’ve
brought up here?” I asked.

“
There have been no other recruits up
here,” he said.

“
But you said and Mr. Black said I had
gotten up here faster than any of the other recruits,” I
said.

“
Yes. We were talking about ourselves
and the other partners,” he explained. “People who work
for
us don’t get this kind of training.”

I tried to calm myself down by taking some
deep breaths. “Do you know where my father is?” I asked.

“
Not yet,” he said.

“
How are you going to find out?” I
asked.

“
Your mother shot one of the men that
were sent to take you all away. We have him in custody. He said the
only way we’ll get Admiral Stanton back is if we deliver up The
Lion.”

“
When and where?” I asked.

“
The government has him in custody and
they won’t give him up,” he looked back to the table.

“
What do you mean? They won’t trade?
Why not?” I asked.

“
Your father is very important, but the
government doesn’t give in to terrorists. Not to mention they won’t
even claim they have The Lion,” he explained.

“
Well, what are we going to do?” I
asked with terror in my voice.

“
I’m not sure. Your father is why I’m
doing what I’m doing now. He’s the reason I turned out to be a good
guy instead of a villain. I will figure something out.”

I started pacing and we were both quiet for a
long time. Finally Mr. White said, “You should get some sleep.”

“
You’re kidding right? There’s no way I
could sleep,” I said, still pacing.

“
Then sit down. That really bothers
me.”

I took a seat on the couch. While I was there
I was wondering what was going to happen to my father. He was the
one man I truly loved. I didn’t know if I could live without him.
Thoughts like these and all my fond memories flooded in on me. I
felt a tear hit my cheek and quickly wiped it away. I couldn’t let
Mr. White see me cry.

*****

The sun came up and we both were still
sitting around doing nothing. I stood up and asked Mr. White what
he was doing about this right now. Was Mr. Black starting the
search? Was he interrogating the guy that Mom shot? I received a
yes to both of my questions and was told to sit down again.

“
I can’t just sit down. There has to be
something I can do,” I said.

“
You can calm down and keep yourself
safe,” he replied.

“I’m not the one who matters,” I said. “My
dad is the important one!”

“
You’re worth more than you think,” he
said. “The original threat was against you and not your father.
They’re using Admiral Stanton to get to you.”

“
Because I helped to retrieve The
Lion,” I said.

“
No, because you are the daughter of
Admiral Stanton. I don’t think they knew you were involved in the
retrieval,” he said. “Believe it or not, but you are a better
bargaining chip because your dad controls the strings attached to
The Lion. They know the government won’t negotiate with them, but
your dad might, if they had you.”

“
How do you know all this stuff?” I
asked.

“
It’s my job,” he said in a matter of
fact tone.

I wasn’t getting anywhere with this so I went
to take a shower. Maybe that would make me feel better.

When I got into the bathroom I had second
thoughts about getting undressed. I always had trouble showering
and changing clothes in a new place. The first time I was up here
it was hard, but Mr. Black was in the other room, not Mr. White.
Just get over it, I told myself. I finished my shower and was
brushing my hair when Mr. White knocked at the door.

“
What are you doing in there?” he
said.

“
Brushing my hair,” I said as I opened
the door. I walked to my room to finish putting my hair up. I saw
him watching me and it was making me uncomfortable. So I said,
“Don’t you need the bathroom?” He wasn’t making any effort to go
into the room he had just disturbed me away from.

“
No. I just wanted to make sure you
were still in there,” he said.

“
Well, I
was
,” I said snottily.
He went to the couch and picked up a book and sat down. I felt a
bit bad for being such a jerk, but the circumstances were such that
I couldn’t help it. I was a nervous wreck and there wasn’t anything
I could do about it.

I roamed around the cabin for a while. I
thought about reading but I couldn’t sit still long enough to read
a whole sentence. Finally I started to bake. There were quite a few
recipes I could choose from that I could substitute our dry
ingredients for the wet ones, like eggs. The cupboards were stocked
well with things like spices and flavorings that had a long shelf
life. I made pies with the canned fruit. I made oatmeal cookies and
molasses cookies. I had been at it for several hours when Mr. White
came up behind me. He stood closer than he needed to and asked if
he could have a cookie.

“
Help yourself,” I said as I took in
his scent. Knock it off, I said to myself. Your dad has been
kidnapped and you’re smelling some guy. Well, I can’t do much of
anything else. I threw back at my inner voice.

He reached over and took a handful of cookies
and went back to the couch and his book. I finished up my baking
and cleaned up my mess and said, “I’ll be back later.” I headed for
the door and Mr. White jumped up.

“
No you don’t. You don’t leave this
building without me.”

“
I’m just going for a run around the
lake,” I said.

“
Well, I’ll come with you then,” he
said as he opened the door for me.

I sighed and took off at a jog for the lake.
He kept up with me into several laps then he fell behind and
watched from the shore. Eventually he pulled up a log and sat there
waiting. I continued to run. I didn’t have any intention of
stopping even after it started getting dark. Mr. White had stepped
in my path the last couple of laps and I had just dodged him. I
didn’t want to have to deal with my situation. At least not the way
I was being forced to deal with it. I wanted to get out there and
do
something. Just hanging out was beginning to eat away at
me. If I had to stay up here it would have been better for me to
have not known what was going on.

I was coming up on Mr. White again. I was
prepared to dodge him but he fell into step with me instead of
trying to stop me.

“
We have to get back to the cabin,” he
said. “It’s getting dark and I can’t protect you out here if I
can’t see.”

“
It’s not dark yet,” I said even though
the light was fading fast.

“
This is your last lap,” he told
me.

“
Really?” I retorted and sprinted on
ahead. He stayed right behind me until we got back to the side of
the lake where the path to the cabin began. Then he sprinted on
ahead of me and quickly turned around. I didn’t see it coming. It
all happened so fast. The next thing I knew I was being carried
back to the cabin over his shoulder. I don’t even know how he did
that.

“
Put me down!” I yelled trying to
wriggle from his grasp.

“
Not until we’re inside,” he
said.

I fought for a little longer but his grip was
firm so I calmed down and said, “Let me down.” My voice was much
more even. “I’ll walk.”

He set me on my feet and we walked side by
side to the cabin.

When we reached the cabin he went straight
for the cookies.

“
You’re going to get fat,” I
said.

“
You made ‘em.” Like it was my fault he
was going to get fat.

“
Did anyone call today?” I asked. He
had brought the phone with him to the lake but I hadn’t seen him
use it.

“
No. They should check in this
evening,” he replied. “Do you want to play cards or
something?”

“
I suppose.” We got out the cards and
sat at the table. We passed a couple of hours that way. Then Mr.
White said he was done for a while. He was hungry and was going to
find something to eat. He got up from the table and asked if I
wanted anything. I told him no. I looked to the satellite phone
that had been sitting on the table next to Mr. White. It didn’t
ring, no matter how hard I pushed my thoughts through the air at
it.

“
You should get some sleep,” he said
when he came back to the table. He had settled for more
cookies.

“
I’m not tired,” I said.

“
Well, I am and if you don’t sleep,
neither do I,” he explained.

“
Why? Do you think I’m going to take
off?” I smiled. The thought had occurred to me, but I was too tired
to go running off into the woods alone.

“
Yes, actually, I do,” he
said.

“
Oh, go get some sleep,” I said
tiredly. “I won’t leave tonight. I promise,” I said.

“
Right,” he said and put a cookie into
his mouth. “These are really good, by the way,” he
added.

“
Thanks,” I said and I walked to the
couch and sat down. I picked up a book for show, but didn’t read
anything.

Sometime later Mr. White came and sat on the
couch next to me. “Are you ever going to turn the page?” he
asked.

“
When I’m done reading it,” I said
defensively. Just then the phone rang. He jumped up to get
it.

“
Yes?” he said. A pause and then, “I
see.” More talking on the other end, then Mr. White replied,
“Rough.” I was getting nothing out of this and was about to ask who
it was when he said, “No problem,” and disconnected.

“
So?” I asked with
enthusiasm.

“
Nothing yet,” he said.

“
I can’t stand this,” I
said.

“
I know. You have got to calm down. A
lot of what we do is wait,” he explained.

“
This is my DAD,” I said. “We have to
do something.”

“
We are,” he said. “Everything we can
right now,” he stated.

I had gotten up and moved to the table while
Mr. White was on the phone, so I returned to my position on the
couch and so did Mr. White. I sat with the book in my lap for a
while, then wondered if I slept if it would make it go away. I
rested my head on the back of the couch and fell asleep.

When I woke up the next day it was well into
the afternoon. Mr. White was asleep on the floor in front of the
couch. His hand was up on the couch so if I moved I was sure he’d
feel it. I lay there for a good hour so he could get some rest too.
I didn’t know how long he had been asleep on the floor but I knew
if I got up so would he and he could use some sleep.

Finally, I had to use the bathroom. I slowly
lifted my body so I could crawl over the back of the couch and
hopefully not disturb Mr. White’s slumber. I had been watching him
sleep and he was so peaceful looking. His features weren’t as sharp
while he slept. He actually looked relaxed. When he was awake he
was very alert. I don’t think he missed much of anything going on
around him.