Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (9 page)

“
I think they were just looking for
someone to take on a couple of jobs they’ve got coming up, but I
think you made Mr. White want to take in another partner. That’s
the only reason I can think of him calling in everyone.”

“
He’s quite the hunk though, don’t you
think?” she threw at me.

“
I guess so,” I said trying hard not to
blush but failing.

“
He’s a lady’s man though, so don’t get
attached. I’ve heard the guys talk. Mr. White never says anything
but the rest of them do. He’s a heartbreaker, that one,” she said
with a disapproving look.

We sat and chatted. I decided I really liked
her. She was full of juicy tidbits and wasn’t afraid to share them.
After about forty-five minutes Mr. Black came in the front
door.

*****

Mr. Black was about 6’ 3” tall and had the
look of a gangster. He had shaved his head and it looked good on
him. His eyes were almost black and unforgiving. In the parking lot
of the Skylight he had been sporting a look that said he was cooler
than cool and he wore the same face today. He pointed down at me
and in his rough, deep voice and said, “Up. Let’s go.” He hiked his
thumb toward the door.

I got myself right up out of the chair with
no hesitation. His demeanor demanded it. He was already out the
door, but I made sure to be right behind him.

The elevator ride was uneventful and we went
directly to Mr. Black’s SUV in the garage. He unlocked the
passenger’s door and opened it for me. I stepped up into the
vehicle and he shut the door for me.

We ended up in front of my place and Mr.
Black got out and met me as I came out of the vehicle. He opened
the back passengers door and pulled out what I thought had been his
dry cleaning and a manila envelope. He handed me the bag-wrapped
clothes hanger and said, “That’s a business suit for you. I think
we got your size right.” He still held the envelope as he walked me
to my door.

“
You need to wear that suit for this
job. You have forty-eight hours to complete your assignment.” He
handed me the envelope and said, “Everything you need to know is in
here. Good luck.” With that he was gone.

I got into my house and went directly to my
room. I hung the outfit on the door and sat on the bed and opened
the envelope. Inside I found a piece of folded paper and a floppy
disk.

The paper read:

Subject:

First Federal Bank

17721 1
^st
Ave.

Objective:

Find and retrieve file name FALSEPRETENSE

Notes:

You must find a way to get this file from the
bank’s computer database from inside the bank.

It must be brought to the office by 0930
hours, Wednesday.

Use of excessive force is not an option.

This is a covert act and is to go undetected.
You must find a way to get this file from the bank’s computer
database from inside the bank. It must be brought to the office by
0930 hours, Wednesday.

Use of excessive force is not an option.

This is a covert act and is to go
undetected.

Okay. I had to break into the bank’s computer
and steal a file. I could do this from home! I suppose the bank was
testing its people for security reasons. Now all I had to do was
figure out how to get on one of their computers. Getting the file
would be easy. Think.

I started to get undressed to put on the
suit. I had my shirt off and my pants undone when I remembered the
cameras staring down at me. I quickly slammed the bedroom door and
finished putting on the suit. It was a perfect fit and quite
flattering.

I had formulated a plan within half an hour
of sitting on my bed. I made a quick phone call to my dad to get
the ball rolling and stepped out the door.

I had decided I didn’t want to take a cab. I
might have to sit in the car for a few minutes before I went in to
get up the nerve and the driver might get suspicious of me.

Within the hour I was at my destination. I
found a parking spot on the street not far from the main door and
went directly into the building. I went straight to the island
loaded with forms so I could check things out. I grabbed a deposit
slip and began to fill it out so I would be doing something else
other than looking around. The security guards were posted on
either side of the main door. Both of them had their thumbs in
their front pockets making their elbows stick out and they were
casually scanning the room.

When I finished filling out the form I went
to the appointment desk and asked to speak with an officer because
I wanted to make a substantial deposit. I was directed to the
waiting area and did just that, waited. It only took a couple
minutes for an officer of the bank to come and get me. I followed
him back to his office and sat down.

He said, “How can I help you today?”

“
I would like to make a transfer from
another bank and start a new account here,” I said and handed him
the deposit slip.

His eyes widened at the sight of the sum and
said, “This should be no problem, Ms. …?”

“
Miss Stanton,” I said. “This is my
dad’s account, I hope that won’t be a problem.”

“
If he has authorized the transaction
it should be no problem,” he replied, pushing buttons on his
keyboard.

I waited while he put the information in. He
had a baffled look on his face.

“
Is there a problem?” I
asked.

“
This doesn’t seem to want to work Miss
Stanton,” he said. “I better go get my supervisor. Please stay
here, I’ll be right back.” He left the room.

I got up and quietly shut the door and ran
around to the other side of the desk. I had the file right in front
of me but there was no floppy disk drive on this computer. Shit,
shit, shit. I didn’t have much time so I quickly set up a Hotmail
account. I labeled it
[email protected]
and used the
password “firstfederal.” I was going to e-mail it to myself. I
hoped it wasn’t a huge file. It must not have been because it
didn’t take long to get it to go through. I barely got sat back
down before the officer and his supervisor came back to the
room.

“
Ms. Stanton, there seems to be a
problem. The account number you gave us does not exist. We have
called the other bank and they do have an account for a Mr. Stanton
but there is not an authorization to transfer funds,” the
supervisor explained.

“
I see,” I said, putting a mad look on
my face. “May I use your phone?”

“
Of course,” the supervisor said and
handed me the phone. He punched the nine and said, “There, now you
can make an outside call.”

I dialed my house and said to the answering
machine, “Daddy, they say you didn’t authorize the transaction.” I
waited for a second trying to look more and more frustrated. Then I
said, “Well, you could have told me that before I came down here
and made a fool of myself. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” And I hung
up the phone.

“
I’m sorry,” I said. “My dad already
transferred me money into a different account at his bank. I’m
really sorry that I wasted your time.”

“
No problem. But Miss, if this wasn’t a
misunderstanding you could be in some trouble. You should make sure
your father knows his bank will be calling him to let him know of
the attempted activity,” the supervisor said.

“
I’d hope so,” I said and walked out
the door.

I had a hard time not running from inside the
bank. I walked a little faster than normal. I wanted to get into my
car and speed away. I did pretty well until I got a couple blocks
away in my car. Somehow, my foot wanted to plant itself to the
floorboard with the accelerator underneath it.

When I reached my house my nerves had settled
a bit. I went in the bedroom, made sure the door was shut tight and
changed out of the suit and back into a t-shirt and jeans. I hung
the suit back on the clothes hanger and neatly spread the black
plastic bag over the outfit, just as I had received it. I made sure
I had the floppy disk and drove back to the office.

Gabriella wasn’t at her desk and Mr. White’s
door was closed. I went to it and knocked lightly.

“
Come in,” Mr. White
replied.

I opened the door and stepped in. I began to
walk to the couch to set the outfit down.

“
Close the door behind you please,” he
said. I saw a playful look cross his face.

While I was doing that he asked, “Do you have
some questions on your instructions?”

“
No. I think I have the file,” I
said.

If I hadn’t been watching for the surprised
look I wouldn’t have seen it. It was apparent on his face for less
than a second.

“
Bring it here please,” he said putting
out his hand.

“
It’s not here but you should be able
to access it from your computer.” I walked to the couch and laid
the outfit down.

“
Those were not your instructions,” he
said.

“
I understand, but the computer at the
bank didn’t have a floppy drive.” I handed him the empty disk. Our
hands touched and we both hesitated for a moment.

He reached over and put the disk in his
computer’s floppy drive and motioned me over.

“
Get me the file please.”

I leaned in slightly to turn on his computer
and the heat of his body made me a little shaky.

I looked toward him when the computer asked
for the password and he just looked back at me. ‘Fine,’ I thought
and typed in his password. I logged onto the Internet and looked up
the Hotmail address I had created at the bank. As I was doing this
all I could think was, please be there, please be there. I got
logged on, typed in the password and started to download the file
onto the floppy disk.

“
Fairly impressive, Ms. Stanton,” he
said making me jump.

I looked to him and he had a smile on his
face. It was a complete smile, not a sly grin that I had seen
before. It was a wonderful smile and made me melt.

The phone rang and he picked it up. “Yes?” he
said. “Yes, she’s here. Really? Yes I have it in my possession.”
Then he hung up.

“
That was Mr. Black. He lost you coming
back from the bank. Seems you have a lead foot.” His smile was
still there.

“
Thank you for a job well done. Welcome
aboard, Ms. Grey. Please have a seat while I finish this up,” he
said, still smiling. He picked up the phone and dialed.

I chose to sit on the couch. His call was to
the bank manger reporting our success and finishing up all the
little details. I didn’t pay all that much attention to his
conversation because I was trying to get used to my new name.

Mr. Black walked into the office just as Mr.
White ended his conversation with the bank. He hovered in the door
while Mr. White told me what lay ahead of me.

“
From now on you will be at my beckon
call. Do you understand that?” he said, all trace of the smile gone
from his face.

I automatically picked up on the change and
answered appropriately, “Yes, sir.”

“
I will give you jobs as I feel you
become suited for them. You have the benefit of some good training,
but it’s not thorough enough.” he added.

“
Mr. Black will get you
started.”

*****

Mr. Black ushered me out of the office
building to his waiting SUV. Again he opened the door for me. I
climbed in and waited for him. As soon as he got behind the wheel
he handed me a cell phone.

“
Call your Dad. Tell him you will be
gone on company business. No loose ends,” he said.

I did as I was told and we left the garage
for parts unknown. We stopped for gas just as we were leaving town
and he filled both tanks. He returned with a plastic grocery bag
and set it in the back seat.

“
There’s water in the bag, but pace
yourself, it’s a long trip,” he explained.

I assumed that meant we weren’t going to be
stopping for a potty break any time soon. I didn’t have any idea
where we were going or why. Talk about being on a “need to know
basis.” If I were driving I’d need to know.

“
Do you want me to drive the first
shift?” I asked.

“
Nope,” he said.

I thought I would have gotten a little more
info than that. He could have said, “No, no need for shifts.” I
guess that would have been too much information for my brain to
handle. Oh shut up and quit whining I told myself. No need to pick
on the Neanderthal man.

I actually didn’t mind Mr. Black. He was a
man of few words but he seemed very polite, a little intimidating,
but polite. He had opened the car door to let me in and shut it
behind me both times I had ridden with him. I think if I waited to
get out of the vehicle when we stopped he would come open my door
without a second thought. I know some women find that offensive
nowadays, but I found it charming and endearing. It demonstrated
respect.

We had been driving for a few hours and not a
word had been said. Mr. Black apparently didn’t want to listen to
the radio either. I had tried to turn it on and he had smacked my
hand away. I was getting bored. It was getting dark and I had a
tough time seeing any scenery.

“
Get some shut-eye. It’ll be a while
before you get another chance.”

The sound of his voice in the quiet vehicle
made me jump a bit. I lowered the seat back and closed my eyes. I
lay there and listened to the song of the tires on the road for a
long time. I couldn’t fall asleep. The seat wasn’t really too
uncomfortable, it was my mind doing aerobics.