Steph just sighed. “Oh I guess. Just fast forward to who won because the game of quarters explains the hangover.”
Amanda sighed . “Spoil sport………..fine. Some guy won. It wasn’t you or Matt. But at least you out lasted him.”
Steph smiled. “Well poo. I wanted to win. At least I beat Matt.” She stretched. “Well I better get out of here. No telling how long I was in here before you got in.”
Amanda just simply stated, “Okay.”
Steph got out of the steam room and threw the towel in the hamper. She quickly put the robe back on and walked back up to her room so she could shower and change.
On her way to the room she stopped on the first floor to see Natalie sitting outside naked. Steph stopped and opened the sliding glass door to the balcony where Natalie was laying.
“What are you doing?”
Natalie opened her eyes and looked up at her. “What does it look like I’m doing. I’m tanning of course.”
“Wouldn’t you just use your tanning booths that you have downstairs?”
“Na I prefer the natural way. The tanning booths just feel completely false to me.”
“And your naked?”
“So…. ? I really don’t like tan lines. You should try it sometime. It’s better than a stupid tanning booth. Besides, it makes me feel more down to earth.”
Steph laughed. “I’ll remember that.”
She continued to look up at her. “You can join me if you want.”
“Maybe another time.”
“Alright.” Natalie laid her head back down and enjoyed the sun rays licking across her naked body.
Steph made it up to her room and decided to take a shower. Steph threw the robe onto the bed and walked into the bathroom. She turned on the shower and did her military shower; just hoped in, threw shampoo and conditioner in her hair; soaped her body, and washed everything off.
Steph exited the shower, quickly dried off, brushed her hair, rubbed some lotion on her body (the special lotion that Amanda made for her), rolled some deodorant on, and exited the bathroom.
Steph didn’t really feel like getting all spiffied up or anything like that so she just put on her Tennessee basketball shorts that her dad got for her and put on a simple white tank top. No underwear and no bra. She flopped down on the bed and remembered that Matt had given her a hard drive of yesterday.
She fished out the laptop that Matt had given her previously and plugged it into the wall along with plugging the hard drive into the laptop. As soon as the computer recognized the hard drive she pulled up the first video she could find.
The video displayed that the time was 10:37am. She didn’t notice anything really special just Matt’s people cleaning up the house and arranging things for the party that was going to be happening later that night.
She pulled up the next video and saw that it was Matt sitting in his study reading a book. She was amazed at the quality of the video because she could clearly read what was on the pages. Whatever it was she could clearly tell it was in Russian or Czech or something like that. She was never good with those languages, they always sounded rough to her. The code on the video read 10:41am when Matt got a call. It was then she realized that the video also had sound.
“This is Matt.”
He listened for a few moments.
“Oui I'm ayant une partie ce soir. [Yes I'm having a party this evening]”
Great, he switched to French. It might be the same person from this morning. She plugged in her headphones so she could hear clearly what was being said. That and so no one, if they were walking by her room, would hear what she was doing.
At this moment she was thanking her mother for forcing her to be fluent in French.
“Oui les membres habituels de société seront ici ce soir. [Yes the usual members of the society will be here this evening.]”
“Oui Amanda sera là. Pourquoi ? [Yes Amanda will be there. Why?]”
“She's seulement été ici deux ou trois semaines et elle a amené un ami pour l'été. [She's only been here two weeks and she brought a friend for the summer.]”
“Jaillissent son ami a ses qualités spéciales. Je l'aime qu'elle maintient des choses intéressantes. [Her friend has her special qualities. I like her, she makes things interesting.]”
“I don't savent. I'le ll lui demandent ce soir. [I don't know. I'll ask her tonight.]”
“We' correct attente de ll jusqu'à la réunion la semaine prochaine à apporter jusqu'à la vitesse. [Ok we'll wait until the meeting next week to be brought up to speed.]”
“Voyez-bien vous alors. Bye. [Alright see you then. Bye.]”
She watched as Matt put the phone back down on table and went back to reading.
Steph wondered if Matt was talking about asking Amanda something. But now she wouldn’t know. She wondered if it was the same person he was talking to this morning about testing someone. Well there was only way to find out.
She put the computer on top of the bed and searched around the room to find the other hard drive that Matt had supplied her, with footage from the first night she was at Matt’s party and the night where she was auctioned off. Maybe there will be more footage of him talking to someone in French about a society and testing someone, Steph thought to herself. And, whether the information referred to Amanda at any point. She just hoped that the videos on the other hard drive had sound as well.
She finally found it in her suitcase. She quickly hooked it up and searched through the footage where Matt was to see if she could find more footage of Matt talking on the phone. If so she needed to find if all of his phone conversations were in French or if he was talking to someone in private. She went back to the first night to see if there was any footage in Matt’s room where he talked to people in private.
Sure enough there was footage.
The first video had some guy talking to Matt. She couldn’t make out the sound, because the party was giving too much feedback.
The next video had some girl in it, but it had the same problem as the previous video.
The next video had his cousin…James, then Amanda, then three other guys and six girls. Each video had the same problem; the music from the party drowned out what he talked to each person about.
She wished she had her brother J.J. here. That way he might be able to bring down the audio of the music and the audio of them talking up so she could hear it properly. But that brings problem that she wasn’t going to wait too long before she saw J.J. again so he could do this for her . Steph needed to find someone that could do what she needed done with all the videos.
She could take the hard drive to James Rockler to see if he could do it, but then she was afraid if he was in this society. If he was in this society then he might delete it or something bad like that. For all she knew, everything that was going on could be completely harmless and just a bunch of people just getting together and talking about business or something like that.
She continued to search through the videos on both hard drives to see if she could find anything else like what she just saw. Matt had lots of phone calls, but most of the conversations were in different languages. One video had the conversation she walked in on today and a few other videos were the only ones she could find in French. If she did find someone that could fix the audio, she wondered if she might be able to find someone who could also translate each of the languages.
She found one other video of Matt talking in French over the phone. The time code showed that it was before the party started where she got auctioned off.
“Bonjour. [Hello.]”
“Ah oui. Nous allons reprendre avoir les réunions maintenant qu'une partie équitable des membres du Conseil sont ici. [Ah yes. We are going to start having the meetings again now that a fair share of the council members are here.]”
“Jusqu'ici il y a 14 membres ici. Nous attendons plus dans les prochains couples des semaines. [So far there are 14 members here. We are expecting more within the next couple of weeks.]”
“Oui la première rencontre devrait être avec les prochaines semaines. J'attendais au moins 18 ou plus de nos membres pour être ici. [Yes the first meeting should be within the next few weeks. I was waiting for at least 18 or more of our members to be here.]”
“Oui il va être ici ce soir. [Yes he is going to be here tonight.]”
“I' bon m travaillant toujours à lui. Je pense que je pourrais pouvoir le balancer si je peux convaincre Amanda' ami de s, Steph à être sa cerise sur l'affaire. [Well I'm still working on it. I think I might be able to sway him if I can convince Amanda's friend, Steph to be his cherry on top of the deal.]”
“Pourquoi elle ? Bien après les dernières semaines party l'a montré le grand intérêt dans elle. [Why her? Well after last weeks party he showed great interest in her.]”
“I' bon m pas sure que cela fonctionnera. Je dois encore parler à Steph pour voir si elle me permettra de l'employer ainsi je peux gagner l'affaire avec lui. [Well I'm not sure it will work. I still have to talk to Steph to see if she will allow me to use her so I can win the deal with him.]”
“Jaillissez comment j'accomplis qui est rien vos affaires. [Well how I accomplish that is none of your business.]”
“Hé. You'au sujet de la personne qui m'a dit d'accomplir ceci cependant je voir l'ajustement. Didn't vous ? [Hey. You're the one who told me to accomplish this however I see fit. Didn't you?]”
“Oui, je vous maintiendrai signalé sur la façon dont il disparaît. [Yes, I will keep you posted on how it goes.]”
He waited for a few moments on the phone and wrote something on a piece of paper. He folded it and immediately put it in his book.
He laughed, “J'ai figuré you'd indiquent cela. [I figured you'd say that.]”
“Oui l'essai a déjà commencé. Nous devrions voir quelques résultats bientôt. [Yes the testing has already begun. We should be seeing some results soon.]”
“Jaillissent la personne exécutant les essais devrait rapporter leurs résultats. Si tout va bien il sera quand la première rencontre se produit. [Well the person running the tests should report their results. Hopefully it will be when the first meeting happens.]”
“Pas, I don't pensent qui est sage de précipiter les résultats. [No, I don't think that it is wise to rush the results.]”
“I' bien bon le ll vous voient en deux ou trois semaines. [Alright, well I'll see you in a couple of weeks.]”
He hung up and went back to reading his book.
She recognized the time code on the video and realized her private conversation with Matt should happen in about twenty minutes.
She fast forwarded past after she left to see if he did anything. As soon as she left, he picked up his phone and dialed.
“Hey Dale,” he laughed, “yes it’s me Matt. Hey I was wondering if I can call in a favor for someone I know for a possible position at your company.”
He waited on the phone for a few moments. “Is there any way I can talk you into junior exec on my account?” He waited a few moments longer.
“Wonderful. Wonderful. That’s excellent.”
There was a pause for a few moments. “What was that?....Oh yes. I need you to write up a contract for me…….No no we can do this in the morning if that is fine with you……Splendid. I’ll have someone bring you out if that is fine……Alright see you then, take care and rub your beautiful wife’s belly for me. Until then.” He hung up and went back to reading.
Well at least she knew Matt was a man of his word. But the rest of the conversation was completely one sided. There could be so many things taken out of context with that one side. One thing was for sure, there was someone higher pulling Matt’s strings. If only she knew who it was.
While she was thinking, a knock came at her door. Steph jumped but quickly closed the video and answered, “Yes.”
“It’s me sis.”
“What do you want?”
“Nothing, just wanted to see if you wanted to have lunch with us.” Steph looked at the time and saw that it read 12:40pm. She realized that she wasn’t exactly hungry but she could use a small bite. Mainly she needed some liquids.
“Sure give me a minute.”
Steph walked downstairs to see Natalie just wearing a Denver Broncos jersey, and obviously nothing else on. The only way she knew that was because a.) the way she was sitting trying not to show that she wasn’t wearing any underwear and b.) her nipple piercings were a little more noticeable in the jersey.
Amanda was wearing a worn out basketball jersey and nothing else. The jersey on her looked a little big but Steph imagined that was how she wanted it. And Nate was wearing his Tennessee Volunteers basketball shorts and a simple white t shirt.
“Did I miss the memo to wearing your favorite jersey and only the jersey?”
Nate was the first to comment, “I know. I feel over dressed.”
Steph looked down. “I know what you mean.”
Nate looked at Amanda, “Where do you keep your alcohol?” He looked back at Steph, “Because if you were wearing only a jersey and nothing else I would need it in major quantities so I could erase seeing any part of you naked.”
Steph back handed him across the arm. He quickly cowered behind Amanda. “Save me.”
The entire time Amanda and Natalie were laughing. He looked at Natalie, “Maybe I should have asked for a spoon to gouge out my eyes.”
Amanda just slapped his arm. “I don’t think you want to ruin your eyes, if you did that you couldn’t enjoy the view when I take you to my bed.”
Nate laughed. “Oh don’t worry I can still do Braille.” He reached through the opening in Amanda’s jersey and ran his hand over Amanda’s breast . “See I feel for bumps.”
Natalie made a half gag sound. “Can we please not do this in front of innocent eyes? I would like to at least keep my lunch down.”
All of them started laughing.
“Fine, what’s for lunch?” Steph asked, hoping to find who the cook was for lunch, she just hoped it wasn’t her.
Nate stood up from teasing Amanda. “I guess that will be me. So ladies, what will it be? Chinese, pasta, chicken, beef, take out?”
Natalie instantly chimed in before Steph or Amanda could say anything, “Do you know how to make a sweet and sour bowl?”
Nate looked at her quizzically. “If I knew what’s in it I’m sure I could.”
Natalie thought about it for a moment . “I believe chicken or steak with green peppers, steamed vegetables, rice, and sweet and sour sauce.”
Before Nate could answer her Amanda quickly chimed in, “I think that would be better for dinner than lunch. Let’s just make sandwiches or call in for lunch.”
Nate laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
Amanda walked over to the counter in the kitchen and opened one of the drawers. She reached in and slapped down a stack of take out menus. “All right let’s decide which one we want from and then decide what we want.”
After some time they finally decided on some Thai place. Nate had orange chicken with steamed shrimp and rice. Amanda had some eel rolls and a couple of other things. Natalie got some seaweed wraps and some soup. Steph decided upon some spicy chicken with rice. Seeing as how Steph wasn’t really hungry that should fill her up.
While waiting, Steph decided to see if they were any computer techs besides James Rockler.
“Hey Amanda.”
Amanda just looked at her waiting to see what she was going to say.
“I was wondering if there were any computer tech guys around here.”
Amanda just simply stated, “Yeah there are a few. Why what’s up?”
Crap, she needed to think of a quick answer. “Oh, I think there is a problem with my iphone so I was wondering if there might be someone around here that might be able to work on it.”
Amanda thought about it for a moment . “Well I could call James and see if he knows anything that might be the problem.”
Crap, she was afraid of that. Think Steph, think damn it. “Well if he doesn’t know are there any people around here that might? ”
Once again Amanda thought about it . “Well you can check with Richard. He’s the resident genius when it comes to electronics.”
That was what Steph was hoping for. There was someone else besides James that might be able to fix the audio on those video files. “Great. So where might I be able to find Richard.”
“Don’t you want to check with James first?”
“Well I don’t want to bother him.”
Amanda shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll take you after lunch.”
Crap, crap, crap, crap. She needed to get out of this. She needed to go alone. “Na. Why don’t you draw me a map to get to his place? That way you can spend time with Nate or whatever.”
Amanda thought about it for a moment. But, before she could make her decision, Nate came up behind her and whispered something in her ear and she instantly giggled. “Oh alright. I’ll draw you up a map to get to him.”
After Steph ate lunch with everyone, she changed, grabbed both hard drives, and drove her way until she got to the place indicated by Amanda’s map. She was surprised that the drive wasn’t very long.
Steph walked into an electronics store and was amazed by what she saw in the place. It looked like a high end electronics store but the name of the store she didn’t recognize. She saw both high end plasma TVs, LCD TVs, right down to TVs at least ten years old. There were mp3 players, CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs , and all sorts of things. There was even a sign in the rear corner that read: Cell Phones. She looked over the place and was amazed at how much they were able to fit into a place like this.
While she was looking over the place, a sales person came up. “May I help you miss?”
Steph looked at his name tag, which read “Sam”, and sighed; it wasn’t the person she was looking for. “Point me to where I might find Richard.”
The sales person kind of sweated the question but he still smiled. “Right this way miss.”
Steph followed Sam , just drifting off, trying to figure out how to ask Richard her questions without raising too many questions. She just hoped he wasn’t some type of crazy person that believed the moon landing was a hoax. Her attention was snapped back to reality when Sam knocked on an open door that read Manager. “Sir, a lady would like to speak to you.”
All she heard was a moderate voice, not too deep not too high pitched say, “Let her in.”
Sam showed her in and she saw a typical man sitting behind a three monitor desk against the side wall. This person wasn’t too heavy set nor was he skinny. He was right in the middle. She could tell he tried to keep in shape but his family background was working against him.
The man wasn’t pasty white nor tanning, just somewhere in the middle. He was wearing an old school game shirt that screamed tech geek. All completed with a black vest and a name tag reading Richard and just underneath it Manager.
“Please have a seat. I’ll be right with you in a minute,” was all he said while he continued to do something on the monitors.
She had to admit it was a nice set up because the way it was arranged you literally had to sit in front of the monitors to see what it was displaying. From where she was sitting it was a complete blur. It was the same when she entered, the monitors were a complete blur.
After a few moments he finally turned in his chair and looked at her. “Now, what can I do for you, miss?”
“I was told you can work wonders on electronics no matter the medium. Is this true?”
Richard laughed. “Well I don’t know if that is true. It depends on what your asking for. Why do you ask?”
Steph wanted to keep her information close to her chest but she also needed to find out what he was capable of. “Well I have a video. More like videos. I’m trying to find out something for a friend. But the audio is too distorted for me to hear what they’re saying. Is that something you can do?”
Richard raised his eyebrow at the question. “Well that is unique. The only thing I can say is that it really depends on the original quality of the video and how it’s encoded. The higher the quality the more it can be worked on. I’m sort of interested.”
Steph pulled out the two hard drives out her purse. “Well I was wondering if you could fix the audio so I can hear what each person is talking about. And if you can keep it between just you and me, I would be greatly appreciated.”
Richard licked his lips at the two hard drives. “Call me intrigued. It sounds like you have something secret you want hidden. Tell you what, I’ll see what I can do.”
Steph handed over the hard drives. “How long do you think it will take?”
Richard looked at the two hard drives. “I don’t know. It could take 48hrs. Maybe longer. But it won’t be cheap.”
Steph smiled at him . “Whatever the cost is, I’ll take care of it. And like I said, if you can keep this between you and me I’ll make it worth your while.”
Richard smiled at her. “Well we’ll see. I’ll let you know when I get done. Just give me your number and I’ll call you once it’s done.”
Steph just looked at him, “I’ll give you my number if you’ll be the only one working on it.”
Richard had a smile she didn’t like. “Fine.” She quickly wrote her number on a post it and slapped it on one of the hard drives and walked out of his office. She didn’t check to see if he was checking out her ass or not. She just simply left and began her drive back up to Amanda’s.
