The House of Grey- Volume 4 (5 page)

Artorius and Casey whispered, “Agreed.”

“Done then. Don’t forget, though. We need to finish this conversation.”

Monson changed the subject. “So what about the MIB?  Did you kill them? Are we going to need to find some shovels?”

Casey seemed to catch on to what Monson was trying to do. “Grey, only you could say that with a straight face. Of course not, dude. I just messed them up a little. The move fries the brain a bit. If all goes well, they won’t remember a thing about tonight.”

“If all—goes well?” stuttered Monson, sounding a little panicked.

“Yeah…the move doesn’t always work, but hopefully there won’t be any permanent damage.”

Artorius snorted. “Remind me never to threaten Kylie.”

“What’s this crap you’re spouting?” spat Casey indignantly. “I wasn’t doing any of that for her. They just pissed me off.”

“Sure Casey. Whatever you say.”

Monson slowly stood.  Once at full height, he craned his neck to see over the hedge. “So what do we do with Mr. Skywalker and his buddy Jim?”

More voices from the main pathway answered the question. “HQ, we have men down. I repeat. We have men down. Send all extra units! Location: the student dormitory.”

“I think it’s about time we make our exit, fellas,” Artorius said in a conversational tone that hardly hid his apprehension. “We don’t want to be here when the CIA and the rest of Baroty’s men get here.”

“CIA?” Monson asked, unsure that he had heard right. 

“The Coren Intervention Agency.”

Monson started to giggle. “Now that’s a terrible rip
-
off. The Central Intelligence Agency should sue for trademark infringement.”

Additional voices and footsteps indicated the arrival of more of Baroty’s men along with some of Coren’s special CIA security force.

“We should
split up.” Casey popped his head just above the hedge. “Grey, are you still going to see Baroty?”

Monson nodded. “Yeah, but hold on, back up a second. Why are we splitting—
”

“Shhh you two!” Artorius pulled both Monson and Casey to the ground. “You guys have to work on your indoor voices.”

Casey whispered derisively. “Arthur, we’re outside. Using an indoor voice outdoors is a fundamental mistake of voice usage. And here I thought you were cultured.”

Monson could actually feel Artorius rolling his eyes. “Anyway, Casey you go that way. I’ll take Grey to meet Baroty.”

“Got it. I’ll meet you two back at Grey’s place. Be careful.”

Under the cover of night, Cassius Kay disappeared, making no sound as he slipped into the shadows.

Artorius and Monson crouched and moved slowly away from their hiding place along the border of the brushwall. Monson followed Artorius in silence until the echoes of gathering foot soldiers faded.

Monson tapped Artorius on his lower back. “Arthur.”

“Yeah, Grey.”

“Why did we need to split up?”

“Think about it, Grey. It’s Casey we’re talking about here.”

“Drama King. I know I know.”

“You good then?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” 

Artorius turned and gave Monson a little pat on the shoulder. “Come on, Grey. You have a date with CEO of the Baroty Conglomerate.”

***

“You’re late, Mr. Grey.”

Christopher Baroty sat in a refined manner sipping on wine and sampling an assortment of cheese and crackers. Monson walked slowly up the steps of the main gazebo in The GM’s inner courtyard.  Baroty’s goons patrolled the space, pacing in an assertive way. They looked like machines moving in countless repetitions from one checkpoint to another. The MIB had run through their routine once, twice, then three times when Monson started to see and memorize a pattern. He tried to ignore them and focus on Baroty.

Baroty continued to sip his wine, his masked face portraying nothing of his feelings or intentions. Aaron Gibson was a great deal easier to read. He remained completely rigid
just behind Baroty, watching the approaching Monson. At the sight of the assistant, Monson felt an intense desire to throw him a vulgar gesture. The feeling caught him by surprise.

“It’s good to see you, Mr. Grey. Why were you late?” Baroty offered him a seat pointing to it with his wine-free hand.

Monson pulled out the chair and sat. “It’s past curfew, Mr. Baroty. I had to sneak out to meet you. If you were concerned with timeliness, you should have set the meeting during regular school hours. Then again, you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Baroty let out one of his infectious laughs.  “You are certainly correct Mr
. ...
Monson—do you mind if I call you Monson?”

“Not at all,” replied Monson, helping himself to the tray of cheese and crackers. “But back to my question, Mr. Baro—”

“Please call me Chris. All the Mr. Baroty this, Mr. Baroty that, is very tiresome.”

Monson popped the cracker and cheese into his mouth and gagged almost immediately, spitting out the food. “Ho—ho—holy freakin’ crap! What was that?”

“
Vieux Boulogne
.
”
Baroty
vainly attempted to hold back his amusement
.
“
Renowned as
the smelliest cheese in the world. Definit
ely
an acquired taste
,
but once you do—”

Monson interrupted
.
“You see
,
that doesn’t make any sense to me
.
”

“
What do you mean
,
Monson?”

“I mean
,
why would you force yourself to acquire a taste
for something that bad
?”

Christopher Baroty studied the inquiring face of Monson Grey as if the answers were tattooed on the crinkled lines of his forehead. He sounded unsure once he spoke.

“Umm…I don’t know
,
Mr. Grey
.
T
hat is an excellent question.”

“Monson.”

“What was that
,
Mr. Grey?”

“You asked for my permission to call me Monson and then you reverted back to Mr. Grey. I was just reminding you to call me Monson.”

Baroty laughed again
.
“
S
orry about that Monson
,
my boy.”

A crushing pang of familiarity
assaulted
Monson
, as Baroty’s voice echoed in his head.
“
M
y boy….”

Monson’s
hand moved on its own, gravitating towards his pocket and grasping a white piece of paper.
He
threw the crumpled white invitation onto the table. “I believe you were going to answer a question for me
,
Chris.”

Baroty glanced at the crush
ed
paper on the table
.
“
T
hat I was
,
Monson, but one question at a time. Did you not want to know why I asked you to meet me here tonight and after hours?’

Although at this point it didn’t seem to matter, Monson nodded. “Sure, why not. Lay it on me
.”

Baroty took another sip of wine
.
“
I
t may be shocking to
hear,
but the answer is an exceedingly simple one.”

Monson waited patiently for the punch line.

“I was testing you
,
Monson.”

“You were testing me?”

“Yes
,
I was testing you.”

Monson
wasn’t sure how to react
. Should he be
angry? Confused? Annoyed? He
did not know. He settled on confused and
allowed
the emotion
to show
.

“I see that you are confused.”

Monson snapped his fingers.
“And I was trying so hard to hide it.”

Monson caught a glimpse of Gibson who gave an unexpected, appreciative chuckle in reaction to Monson’s sarcasm.

Baroty continued
,
either not noticing or choosing to ignore Monson and Gibson. “Do you want to know why I’m so successful
,
Mr. Grey?”

Another
cheeky
comment, half
a
second away from leaving Monson’s lips
,
never quite made it out. Cold
. Monson felt
cool impatience
emanate
from Baroty. Monson decided that it was about time to get down to serious business.

“Sure,
Chris,
why don’t you tell me why you are so successful?”

“Because I always have better information th
a
n the next guy.”

“So you were testing me to get information?”

Baroty continued as if Monson
had
never asked the question
.
“I find that the most accurate indicator
s
of people
are their
true desires,
their
morality, and
their ingenuity.  All of these can be seen in
situational task
s,
like the one I assigned you.”

Monson did not quite catch his meaning so he remained silent.

Baroty leveled a penetrating stare at Monson
.
“Look at what I found out about you
,
Mr. Grey. I found out that you are resourceful
.
Y
ou were able to find a way out of The Barracks, move along
patrolled
grounds
,
and
arrive
here
,
all without being caught.
From that,
I
ascertained
that you are gutsy
,
maybe even reckless
.
Y
ou were willing to come here despite the chance of serious punishment and without knowing the nature of the information that I have to share with you. This
fascinates
me
.
Incredibly enough
,
t
here is something about you that tells me
that
not only did you ignore the consequences of your actions
but that you hardly
even consider
ed
them. I
also discovered
that you are cautious and logical
despite
your
apparent
recklessness
.
C
ase
in
point, I told you in my letter to come alone, but I know that you have at least one of your friends out
in
the gardens here. Finally, I
determined
that you are willing to do what it takes to get the job done
.
T
hough I can’t be certain
,
I am willing to bet you had something to do with the commotion in front of
T
he Barracks that Mr. Gibson keeps hearing about on his all
-
too
-
expensive phone over there.”

Baroty glanced knowingly over his shoulder
,
acknowledging Aaron Gibson
.
“Now
,
I was able to accumulate all that information by handing you a simple white envelop
e
. How could I not take advantage of such an opportunity? Ultimately you will find, Monson Gre
y, that life is merely a series
of tests
.
T
he measure of your success will be how you tackle those tests.”

Monson reached for another cracker
.
“You practice
d
that
speech?”

Baroty let out another unexpected chuckle
.
“Yes,
y
es I did. Did you like it?”

Monson shrugged
.
“
It
was cryptic to say the least. Also,
I noticed you left out y
our reasoning behind my testing and why you would even need to accumulate information on yours truly in the first place.
”

“You are a sharp one, my boy. You really are.” Baroty leaned forward as he reached into
his
ridiculously expensive
-looking
jacket
.
“
A
nd
as a matter of fact
,
Mr.
Grey
,
you
just asked the forty
-
billion
-
dollar question.”