Thursday Matt got a call from Tony Zimmerman, the guy he had hired to track down Adriana Foster.
“Hello, Matthew Stanton? This is Tony Zimmerman”
“Hey, did you get any information about Adriana?” Matt asked.
“I made a list of her class schedule. She usually eats at her dorm cafeteria and hangs out in the dorm with her friends on weekends. I’ll send you the schedule information.”
“OK” Matt said, a little disappointed. It was not going to be easy to run into someone who mostly just went to class and stayed in her dorm.
“Oh, I hope you don’t mind. I took a little initiative and invited her to that party you were going to. I figured it would help your chances if she had already heard about it from someone else. To my surprise she said she would go if she could bring a couple friends.” Tony said. He was pleased with himself - this would speed things along if there was going to be any inappropriate activity.
“Awesome!” Matt said, sounding relieved. “Umm, could you tell me what she looks like so I know who to talk to?”
Tony hid his surprise at this. A stalker would know what the girl looked like! He had misread the situation and it piqued his interest.
“Oh, I assumed you had seen her before. She has straight blond hair, she is skinny. Attractive in an understated way.” Tony replied. He was going to have to do some background research on Matthew Stanton - there must be something else going on here. “Hey, do you think I could go to the party too? I’ll bring some vodka.”
“My hero! That would be great. Hey… if you hook up with Adriana, I expect you to give me my money back.”
“Hah, no problem. See you on Friday” Tony laughed. It was not like he was going to seduce some random college girl unless it was for a mission. Of course, he could care less about the $50 - he just picked that number because it sounded like a plausible amount a college student could afford.
Matt was pleased with his success. He called up Scott.
“Hey Scott, good news. Adriana is going to be at that party Friday. You need to take a break and go with us!”
“Um, I was planning to just study and go to bed early. I have to drive to the prison this weekend and leave pretty early. It’s an eight-hour drive to get there!”
“That sucks! I bet this time next year you can just fly in your private jet if you need to go visit some random prison.”
“That is so ridiculous, but the way things are going… who knows?” Scott replied with a laugh.
“I know you hate parties but suck it up buttercup!” Matt teased.
“I never know what to talk about when I’m at a party.” Scott complained.
“Dude, the last party you HAD nothing to talk about. Not many girls will be interested in what level you got to in Wizard Quest or some Xianxia book you were reading on Royal Road”, Matt said. “Now, things are very different.”
“I guess… ” admitted Scott. “Hey, some girls might be interested in that stuff.”
“Yeah, those are the girls you marry, not someone you are just trying to hook up with at a party.” Matt joked.
He continued, “You are starting a tech company. You wrote a program to help a mentally challenged homeless lady communicate so she can function in society. You are driving to a prison to interview a computer hacker.”
“You’re practically nerd royalty now, dude!” Barry agreed, excited.
“OK, when you put it that way, I might have something interesting to talk about.”
“It’s settled. I’ll see you tomorrow night at nine!”
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Friday night the boys headed out. The party was at someone’s apartment, so Barry drove. Scott planned to drive home since he wasn’t going to be drinking, but nobody wanted to show up in his crappy car.
Walking in around the same time, a blond guy carrying a vodka bottle waved to them.
“Hey, are you Matthew Stanton?” the guy asked.
“Hey!” Matt said. “You must be Tony Zimmerman”
“That’s right. Do you mind if I walk in with you? I don’t know anyone here.” Tony said, pretending to be a bit shy.
“Yeah. They are going to be happy to meet you since you brought booze!” Barry said. “Hi, I’m Barry!”
“Scott”
“Nice to meet you.” The four boys walked in. The party had already started so they didn’t bother waiting at the door to be let in.
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After a quick scan of the room, Tony said. “Those three girls behind me… the blond is Adriana. Do you want me to introduce you?”
“Awesome!” said Matt. $50 well spent he thought. The girl was cute. He was certain Scott was going to get tongue-tied and make a fool of himself.
“Hi Adrianna! In case you forgot, I’m Tony. These are my friends Matt, Scott and Barry. I’ll come chat a bit, but I need to go find a place to put the booze”. Tony made a retreat to the kitchen.
At this point some pieces weren’t adding up. Matt was a decent looking guy with some social skills. He did not give off a stalker vibe. He and his friends clearly didn’t know the girl he had been paid to track down - so why pay money to find her? Tony knew that agents moving into a new territory would sometimes hire locals to help make contacts, but how had Matt decided to approach him? Tony was getting a little nervous. Was this a counter-intelligence operation? If so, it was quite sophisticated - they had drawn him out without giving him any leverage to work with. This Matt character was probably a cut-out and likely did not even realize why he was supposed to draw out Tony. His awkward looking friends were either incredible actors or completely ignorant as well.
Alexey had warned him about how sophisticated the operation was that they were up against. He mentioned his opponent had clearly burned many of their assets. They were just sitting on the information and leaving his boss to puzzle when they would strike. This was above his paygrade. Tony would wait until his boss told him the next move. Until then, he would just play along like he was a regular college guy trying to make new friends.
Meanwhile, the boys were trying to have a conversation with Adriana and her friends.
“Ummm… I’m Scott… urrr… “, Scott was freaking out and his mind was completely blank about what he was supposed to say. Adriana was gorgeous - straight blond hair, blue eyes and a cute, freckled nose. She eyed him with a pitying look.
“Sure… your friend already said that,'' said one of the girls. “I’m Elsa and this is Marta.”
“Don’t mind our friend, he knows how to speak English, but he gets really nervous talking to people for the first time. It’s kind of hilarious considering it’s kind of his job to talk to a bunch of strangers.” Barry laughed.
“Ouch,” Adriana sympathized. “Where do you work?”
“It’s kind of a start-up tech company.” Matt interrupted. “Barry is just being mean. Scott is actually a genius computer programmer. He’s actually working on a pretty cool project in his spare time to help some homeless lady.”
“That’s kind of nice,” said Elsa. “How can a computer program help a homeless lady?”
“So, she can talk…” Scott said awkwardly.
“Uh, yeah.” Matt interjected again. “So, he was helping out at the homeless shelter and met this lady who couldn’t communicate. Her words just come out all jumbled. Scott here thinks that maybe she’s not completely nuts. Maybe she just has her brain wired wrong, so her words come out mixed up. He writes a program and figures out his theory was right. She’s actually really smart but her life is ruined because no one can understand her!”
“That’s pretty cool.” Elsa said, smiling at Scott. “So, is she able to work now?”
Scott finally got control of his tongue. Talking about helping Melinda was much easier than trying to make small talk with girls! “Umm, so I can record what she says with my phone. Then I can feed it into my computer and unscramble it. Matt wasn’t kidding that this lady is smart - she is like a genius, but she has multiple personalities that all try to talk at once. Anyway, it was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done when I first figured out what she was trying to say!”
“Oh, so you can understand her but it’s not really easy for her to talk to others. Do you think you could run that program directly on her phone? It would probably really help her function in normal life.” Adriana added.
“Exactly! The problem is I’m no good at programming for phones. I’ll probably try to learn, but I feel bad giving this lady hope for the first time in her life then telling her it will be months before I can really help her.”
“Adriana is really good at programming apps, maybe she could help you.” Elsa volunteered.
“Elsa!” Adrianna only looked a bit upset. “Um yeah, I don’t have that much time, but maybe if you sent me the code, I could take a look at it.”
“That would be amazing! “ Scott looked so excited, Adrianna actually thought she would give it a try. He wasn’t her type but seemed to be a really nice guy. Matt and Tony were more attractive, but neither had seemed that interested.
Tony had overheard a little. He had brought some drinks for the group but hung back because he was trying to understand. Why were they talking about helping a homeless lady? Was that code for something?
For the next half hour or so the group chatted. Tony decided Barry was lying to impress Elsa and she seemed interested. He was claiming to be partnered with one of the professors working on an advanced fusion reactor. Ridiculous! Tony knew for a fact the government labs weren’t working on any fusion related projects at Horace Mango.
Matt seemed to be happy playing the role of wingman, complimenting his friends and supporting their lies. After a bit he wandered off and talked to a few other people he knew. Soon after this, some of the group exchanged contact information and the boys said they had to leave. They mentioned Scott had to drive to a town in West Texas that was eight hours away early in the morning.
There was something odd going on. Tony’s instincts were sure of it, but he couldn’t figure it out. He left shortly after the boys and sent a report to his handler. He requested they increase surveillance. His request was approved along with receiving some further instructions. The boss was really interested in this for some reason and was having several contractors moved into the area.
After Tony left, the girls stayed a bit.
“So, I think that Barry must have been making all that up.” Marta said.
“I like him. He was fun, but I agree he might have been trying too hard to make himself sound smart.” Elsa said.
“It’s pretty easy to check his story.” Adrianna said. “Just go to office hours for that Professor Springer and ask him what he thinks of Barry.”
“No way I’d be brave enough to do that!” Elsa complained. “I’m not even an engineering student so I don’t want to be wandering around in that building.”
“Oh please, it’s not that hard. I’ll ask his professor. Just promise me if he is lying, do not go out with him!” Adrianna said.
“You’re right, I’ll stay away if you find out he was lying. But promise me you’ll check on Monday in case he calls me before next weekend.” Elsa said.
“You’re hopeless!” Marta said. “So, Adrianna… Scott seemed nice. Somehow more believable than Barry too. I don’t think he would have made up such an odd story just to impress you.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Anyway, he said he’s sending me a video and his code, so I’ll know pretty soon. But I’m not interested in him.”
“Well, I think you could at least be friends with him. It’s nice to get invited to a party once in a while - we’ve been staying in the dorm too much.” Marta said.
The girls hung out and met a few other people before going home well after midnight.