Agent Gray, Red with Love

Rodger, and Shadowsan, and Carmen. Oh My!

    "So," Rodger said, completing a third side of his Rubix cube, "You were an electrician working for Sydney.... You fell to the crime world, you joined V.I.L.E.... You got kicked out of V.I.L.E. for getting kicked in the face by Carmen San Diego, subsequently getting yourself arrested, these Frankenstein dudes—"

  "The cleaners."

  "Right. The cleaners rescued you, but then your mind got wiped, you returned to your electrical job, met Carmen again but as a civilian with no recount of her existence, got stood up, she showed back up a couple months later, you saved a bunch of people in Auckland from the pain of no WiFi—"

  "Little more than just WiFi, but sure."

  "And then we recruited you."

  "Yep," Graham confirmed.

  "When was that again?"

  "Couple months ago... remember?"

  "Oh right. You trained in the LA facility?"

  "Miami."

  Rodger furrowed his brow, "We have one in Miami?"

  Graham sighed. "Yes, sir. You know that."

 "I do?" Rodger asked, dead serious, "Oh I probably did. But really, do you honestly expect me to keep track of this stuff?"

  Graham looked at him confused. "Er... yeah. You're a faculty member."

  "Lame excuse for me to have to keep track of Chief and Hayashi's dirty laundry," Rodger chuckled.

  Graham looked at him, blonde Elvis hair, pink sunglasses with orange lenses, lavender dress shirt with polka dot die, tiger-striped pants, leather boots and all. With a brave breath, he decided to ask what was on everyone's mind.

  "Sir, may I ask a question?"

  "Well, considering the phrase 'may I ask a question' is a question, and I haven't chased you off with a pitchfork and torch for asking it, I'd say yes," he answered.

  "How.... How did you make faculty?"

  Rodger looked surprised at the question. "What, you interested?"

  "Oh, no. No no no no no, I didn't mean—" Graham stammered, but he was cut off by Rodger.

  "Well then reconsider, you'd be a good candidate to make it someday. But, it really is a good question," he said, stretching. 

  "Part of it is I was good friends with both the big boss— Chief— and Faculty Member choice one: Hayashi Ono. Hayashi was my first partner, and Tamara and I were trained together when we joined team ACME," he reminisced, looking out the nearby window. 

  Graham's jaw nearly dropped. Rodger and Hayashi working together on a daily basis sounded as terrible as Devineaux's breath without mints, and that was saying something! (Graham unfortunately knew from experience how bad his partner's breath could get.)

  "The other was... Well, we're allowed to have other jobs, Graham, and I happen to own and rent out a lot of land in North America and Western Europe," he admitted. 

  Graham's eyes furrowed. "Explain."

  "To put it lightly, I own this private— very private real estate company and it builds all the tools. The gas guns, the sun glasses, the HQs, the sub stations.... Sewer Station, the one in South Korea was built by me— I even coined the name! In summary, you may be the phone man, but I'm the tech guy. Along with that, I buy the locations, I fund our smaller projects... I have a number to do with recruiting, and I'm the person who gets our agents into those lavish parties, or snooty balls where people like V.I.L.E. and Carmen San Diego like to show up. 'Hear about the Belulga Caviar thing a few months back? Thank goodness agent Argent, bless her young heart, was on the scene to track the whale babies down.... or something like that. But how'd she get into high-class charity ball, so prestigious that even the Monacan Royals showed up?" He jabbed a thumb at his chest, "This guy right here."