Authors: Nicola Claire
For: Jamie & Whitney, cheerleaders extraordinaire!
"
W
elcome to ASI
, Charlie. I just know you're going to make a great addition to the team."
If only he knew. But then, if Nicholas Anscombe, of Anscombe Securities & Investigations, was aware of just who I was and who I actually worked for, never mind the real reason why I was here, he wouldn't be so eager to file that employment contract I’d just signed.
"I'm sure we can do a lot of damage together, Nick," I replied, perfecting a friendly smile that was more acting ability than true emotion.
I don't have normal emotions. They've been trained out of me.
“You know, you remind me of someone,” he said, accompanied with a casual smile; it was shockingly devastating. Well it would have been, if I’d fallen for such things.
“I can’t think who,” I offered as a come-back. My connections here in Auckland were tenuous at best.
A complete fabrication in all reality.
“Never mind,” he said with a shake of his head. “You probably get that a lot.”
Being mistaken for someone else? I smiled. Little did he know.
"Well, let me show you around the place and introduce you to a few of the guys," Nick suggested, standing up from behind his thick wooden desk, which said more about the guy than his dossier had.
Nick Anscombe, thirty-three years old, married to Evangeline Rowe, twenty-nine. No dependants, just a team of highly trained private investigators all with some form of previous military training, or simply graduates from the school of hard knocks. No one in this firm didn't have the skills to walk on the shady side of the street, if they so chose.
I stood up as well and followed him from the room, taking in the broad shoulders, tight fitting black t-shirt that showed off the well defined muscles. He may try to effect the CEO persona, but Nick Anscombe was every bit as capable as his hand picked mercenary team.
Short, dark hair cut in a perfunctory fashion, setting the trend for his employees, I'd guess. No-nonsense, hard façade, dedicated to the task at hand. I'd read he ran a tight ship, he certainly took the position seriously in his presentation alone. Thick neck and chest, thinning to a trim waist laden with weapons, and then moulding into bulging thighs and a butt you could bounce coins off that his jeans managed to cradle lovingly.
I suppressed a snort and turned my attention to the eleven cameras I'd counted on the way to his office. Some weren't even on our blueprints, I'd be adding those as soon as I got back to my base. For now, I just double checked their specifications, recommitting them to my mental map. Making sure I hadn't missed any.
I don't miss anything. But you had to consider all outcomes, even ridiculous ones.
"You met Carmel at the front desk," Nick said, as he turned yet another corner of ASI's rabbit warren of a floor plan. I was sure the design was intentional. This building could be locked down and cut off in varying degrees. Fall back positions on top of fall back positions. All of it monitored from the infamous ASI control.
Now
that
I wanted dearly to see.
"Yes," I answered. "Most charming."
"Yeah, that's our Carmel. But don't let the cardigans and grandma stockings fool you. She can hold her own."
Or the Kel-Tec KSG 12 gauge shotgun hidden under her desk.
"She works Monday to Friday, eight to five. If we're here on the weekend, entrance is handled by control," Nick added. Nothing I didn't already know.
"This is the gym," he said, holding a door open for me to precede him.
Two guys were in the boxing area, one holding a bag, while the other beat the crap out of it.
"I like everyone to spend some time in here," Nick advised. "It'll be written into your schedule."
I nodded, noting the four AXIS M3203 ceiling mounted dome network cameras, the panic buttons dotted throughout the room, and the reinforced steel bars on the windows. Only then did I take in the two men, who had stopped boxing and were watching with avid interest.
New toy, boys. Come and get it.
"This is Koki Tanaka and Brook Osborne," Nick said. "Guys, this is our new operative, Charlie Downes."
"Charlie?" Koki, the Asian looking guy challenged.
"Short for don't-ask-and-I-won't-have-to-break-your-fingers," I supplied with a sweet smile.
"Ouch!" the salt and pepper one, Brook, exclaimed. "You're gonna fit in just fine."
I smiled; no doubt it was slightly feral. Two more faces to the names in my dossier.
Koki Tanaka; an expert at several different martial arts. New Zealand born, Japanese parents, thirty-two years old. And a temper that could rival a stampeding rhinoceros.
His counterpart, on the other hand, was the rhino's soothing balm. Brook Osborne; former Army medic, had a calm persona, laid back outlook on life, and could stop a man breathing in seven different ways, barely breaking a sweat to do it. Anatomy was his weapon, or at least how to make it work for or against you was. Thirty years old and had been employed by Nick Anscombe for eight of them.
"OK, back to it," Nick ordered and spun on his heel to march out of the room.
I offered a chin lift to the guys, forcing myself to place them at my back as I followed Nick out of the gym.
"Firing range," Nick succinctly announced at our next stop. This time it was bare. No one practising. "Just advise control if you plan to hone your skills here. Unexplained gunshots tend to put us all on edge."
Not that the place wasn't under surveillance or anything. I spotted four more cameras on the way in and another three in here as well. This place was wired. No wonder we'd never been able to gain access before.
ASI was paranoid. Interesting.
"We have bi-monthly testing," Nick went on. "Either I'll do them, or Jason Cain, our arms specialist. You'll meet him later, he's out on a job right now."
I nodded. I knew exactly who Cain was. Every single sordid detail, type written, carbon copied, and filed under "top secret" and "classified."
"Next up, staffroom," Nick advised. "The heart of the place."
"I thought control would be," I offered.
"Nah. That's the brains."
And rightly so. Not one IT genius, but two working it. Husband and wife team that my bosses would dearly love to headhunt away from ASI. Not that that would ever happen.
Not now.
"That's
my
doughnut, red," a guff male voice growled as we walked into the staffroom.
"Does it have your name on it?" a blonde woman replied. "I can't see it anywhere. Wait! Could your name be Chocolate Sprinkles?"
"Babe, I may be all about the chocolate, but there's nothin' remotely sprinkled about me."
"Sprinkled," the woman guffawed. "I like it."
"Woman!"
Ben Tamati and his girlfriend Abi Merchant, aka Sarah Monaghan, aka Abi Monaghan. Aka several other aliases that had the New Zealand Police Force trailing a ghost for close to five years. Tamati was Māori, thirty years old and the best shadow stalker this country has probably ever seen. If he wasn't so opposed to authority, he would have had a stellar career in the Services. As for his woman, Abi Monaghan was twenty-four, daughter of a mob syndicate snitch, raised in a drug lord's compound, and then escaped and ran for five years, only getting caught when Tamati shadowed her at the request of the Police.
Both were excellent at blending in and not being seen. Both would suit my line of work perfectly. I'd be keeping a close watch on these two; if anyone could see through my façade, it would be a couple of shadow dwellers like me.
"Ben Tamati, Abi Monaghan, this is Charlie Downes, our new operative," Nick announced, breaking up the love spat in the kitchen.
"Yo," Ben said with a chin lift, dark brown eyes, tanned skin and prominent tribal tattoo making up the image of a fierce warrior. Not to mention the six pack he wore, visible through his faded ACDC t-shirt.
"Hi," the diminutive Abi said, offering a beaming smile that under other circumstances I would have found friendly. But right now I couldn’t afford to read more than a pleasant greeting into it. "It's great to have another female on the team," she added. Genuinely, I think.
"Great to be here," I offered, because it was expected. And, well maybe, because I enjoyed my job. The challenge. The danger. The secrets. I'd been doing it for so long now, I knew I'd never be able to stop.
"Finally we might have a chance at getting the Neanderthals to clean up around here," Abi advised.
"Neanderthals?" Nick and Ben said in unison.
"Red," Ben added. "It's not like you haven't got you're own changin' rooms. You don't
have
to keep stormin' into ours."
"I do not storm into yours!" she exclaimed. Nick started to shake his head and turn back toward the door.
"Come on," he muttered. "They could be at this a while."
"You stormed in there just last night," Ben argued.
"You were alone," Abi pointed out. "And there's no cameras in the showers."
Good to know.
Their voices dimmed as we progressed down the hallway, but I did hear Ben's last comment.
"Just as well, yeah? Otherwise they would've got an eyeful in control."
So much for a tight team. I'd just found the chink in ASI's armour.
Excitement rushed through me, thrilling me, buzzing me, making me feel more alive than I had been for months. Sometimes the length of time between assignments could drive you crazy. I'd been borderline certifiable when this one came up. But now that old familiar sensation of invigoration swept through me, and I knew for the next few days, maybe weeks, everything would be vivid, and loud, and wild again.
The game was on.
"Control," Nick announced, glancing up into a camera lens above the steel door. "Always present your face to either this camera," he advised, pointing to the one overhead, "or this one," he said tapping the dome on a camera to the side, "and knock."
That exhilaration was now accompanied by pure anticipation.
How many times had my superiors talked about this room? About its capabilities. About its demise. Governments don't handle the private sector out shining them in any domain, but in the area of espionage? You just became public enemy number one. I should know.
"Welcome to the brains of ASI," Nick said, pushing the now unlocked door open and walking inside.
I stepped into IT geek Nirvana, unable to take everything in at once and keep the people sitting in front of wall to wall LED screens in my line of sight.
Eric Shaw, ex-specialist in the SAS, could give me a run for my money, I knew. But Amber Shaw was an unknown. Twenty-two years old, former employee and partner to Mitchell Wallis, aka Jaxon Harding, half-brother to mob boss Roan McLaren, and former undercover cop. Eric may have still been sporting a knee brace from recent inflamed injuries, but I was well aware of his physical capabilities, even incapacitated to that degree. At thirty-one years old the ex-military genius had made a name for himself recently.
And that was on top of the name he already had behind the scenes.
"Guys, this is Charlie Downes," Nick announced. "Charlie, this is Eric Shaw and his wife Amber, both are in charge of control, which basically means they're in charge of ASI."
Amber smiled sweetly and Eric let out a huff of a laugh.
"Only when he lets us, Charlie," he countered, holding out his hand to shake mine.
I took it, and then shook Amber's, thinking these two made the most gorgeous couple I'd ever seen. Stunning green eyes in Eric, deep, rich chocolate in Amber's, and then don't forget the to-die-for bodies they both sported. But then, exotic dancing and an ex-military career tended to help with these kind of things.
"Charlie short for Charlene," Eric said with a grin.
"Ah, I wouldn't go there if I were you," Nick suggested, covering his smile with a big hand.
"Aw, come on!" Eric shot back. "Charlie knows we have no secrets here."
"I had guessed as much," I offered. "But if you keep it within these four walls, we'll get along just fine."
"Deal," Eric agreed, good naturedly. "Now, do you want to know what we dug up on you?"
I smiled, making sure it looked amused and not shark-like.
"Dazzle me with your skills, Mr Shaw."
"Twenty-nine years old," he started.
"Why do men always start with the age?" Amber queried.
I laughed, it was surprisingly natural. It surprised me so much I almost dropped my façade. But then, I wouldn't be who I was if I let shock dictate my actions.
"Why do women always want to hide their age?" Eric shot back. "Wear it with pride, sweetheart."
"What, along with our crows feet, you mean?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"Moving on," Nick murmured.
"OK, so we've establish Ms Downes is of a certain quite acceptable age," Eric said, smirk in place. "We also know she was born here in Auckland, New Zealand. Grew up in Pakuranga, moved to Wellington when she was fourteen, went to Victoria University and gained a Bachelor of Arts in modern languages. Snaffled up by the Navy not long afterwards, and served the past six years at HMNZS Philomel in Devonport, at the Naval College there. Her recent discharge has now meant our good fortune and the Navy's loss. Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Downes."
"Impressive," I said with a nod. But not unexpected. Only half the information was correct, the rest was a cover I'd had in place for ten years. Even the Navy thought I'd taught there.
But it was only one cover of many.
"Charlie officially starts tomorrow at eight," Nick said to Eric. Then turning to me he added, "So, if you don't have any more questions, thanks for stopping in today and enjoy the rest of your last afternoon of freedom."
"Because as of tomorrow morning, we'll own your arse," Eric supplied.
"It's not as bad as he makes out," Amber offered, sending a frown Eric's way.
"I'm sure I've had worse."
And that there was probably the only truthful statement I'd uttered since I arrived at ASI HQ an hour ago.
"I'm certain you're going to fit in just fine, Charlie," Nick said moving to the door of control. "Tomorrow will be orientation. A few assessments; fitness, firearms, and so forth. So, be prepared. You'll also meet the rest of the team then."