Ranger's Bargain Chapter 12
At Steph's Apartment
The phone rings. Steph jerks awake, knocking her alarm clock off the nightstand. When that doesn't stop the ringing she curses and stumbles out of bed looking for the source of the noise. She finally finds the phone hidden in between her couch cushions. Now how did it get there? "Hello."
"Stephanie Plum?" A young female asks questioningly.
"Speaking."
"It'll just be a minute while I get the president on the phone."
"The president? Of the United States?"
"The one and only." I deeper male voice says.
"Oh...Ummm... Hello, Mr. President. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Ok. It's just the president. Stay calm. It's okay. No, it's not. It's the president. Why would the president be calling me? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
"Have you talked with the FBI, yet?"
"No, should I have?"
"I thought they were going to talk with you last night."
"They were? I didn't know that. I was supposed to meet with someone last night, though."
"What happened?"
"He wasn't there when I arrived, but he did leave me his phone number. I was supposed to call him."
"Why haven't you?"
"I just woke up. I haven't really started my day, yet."
"You're just now getting up? It's 1pm where you are."
"Yeah well, somebody I know decided to wake me up at 6am this morning and it took me a while to go back to sleep. I figured if it was really important they'd call me."
"I guess you could say they have. I'd really hoped that you would have already talked with the FBI before I talked with you."
"Why?"
"They were going to offer you a position as an FBI agent."
"Oooh. Really?" Stephanie asks excitedly.
"Yes. Your first assignment was actually to be doing something for me, which I had hoped to talk to you about, but it would really be best for you to talk to the FBI guy first. Then you can call me. Ask Ricardo Manoso for my number. He should have it on file."
"Ric... You mean Ranger? Why does he have your number? Does he work for you to?"
"That's privileged information. I hope to hear from you soon and we'll talk more then." Click.
Grrr. He does it, too. Realizing she's not even dressed, yet and not sure how much time they'll give her to get ready once everything gets sorted out Stephanie quickly grabs some clothes and jumps in the shower. She manages to get her shower and her hair done in about 40 minutes. Then she turns and looks at herself in the full-length mirror hanging on the door. Aaaaah. My clothes don't match. Hurrying into her room, she starts pulling outfits out of her closet. Finally, she finds a cute skirt and t-shirt that goes with it.
Feeling slightly more prepared, in case she needs to rush off, Stephanie pulls out the phone number that was left at the playground.
"John McKayle."
"Stephanie Plum calling as commanded, sir."
"Alright, who told you to do that?"
"No one, sir."
"Then why did you? You don't even know who I am."
"That's where you're wrong. I know you are put of the FBI."
"And how do you know that? Did Ranger or someone in his company tell you?"
"No, the president told me."
"When did you talk to the president?"
"About an hour ago."
"And what did he have to say?"
"Just that you had a job to offer me and that my first assignment would be with him. He wanted me to talk with you before he gave me any more information on the assignment, though."
"Really?" I should have known he would call when he didn't hear back from me. He's always been an impatient person wanting something done and wanting it done now.
"Yes, sir."
"Stop, that. You don't need to call me, sir. In fact, why don't you call me John? After your assignment with the president you'll probably end up doing a lot of work for me."
"Ok, John, so what exactly are you offering me."
"Well, I'm the director of the FBI and as such I would like to offer you a position as an FBI agent, only you wouldn't be a normal agent. You'd have to get training before you could do that, but until you have that training there are a couple of cases where we need a woman of your talents and training doesn't matter as much for these particular cases."
"What talents do I have that you could possibly use?"
"Your intuition and ability to solve cases before anyone else puts the pieces together."
"Oh."
"So will you do it?"
"Let me talk it over with some friends first, but I probably will."
"Ok. Tell Ranger hi for me."
"What? How did you? I didn't say I would be talking with Ranger."
"No, but he called me earlier today and it sounded like you two were good friends, so I made an assumption."
Stephanie rolled her eyes. "I'll let him know."
"Good."
"Is there anything else?"
"No."
"Ok. Umm. Bye."
"Bye." Click.
He actually knows how to say goodbye on the phone. Amazing.