The Camaleon Chronicals

[oZoneRanger]

Phillip DeLafontaine was asleep in his chair, feet up on his desk, he was in a beautiful dream, sipping Gallic wine on some far off beach in his head, where the air was fresh, the sun shinning and life was good and perfect..

"MISTER LAFUENTE..."

His assistants high pitched booming voice made him loose his balance, and from a perfect sleep he awoke to find himself on the floor of his office with a large bumb on the back of his head.

"MISTER LAFUENTE...."

He pulled him self up to the edge of his desk and hit the intercom.

"Maria its DELAFONTAIN...Fontain...not Fuente"

He rubbed the back of his head and wondered if his headache was due to his crash with reality or the 2 bottles of wine he drank before passing out at his desk.

"What is it maria?"

"Sir" her whisper voice came over the speaker "sir the ion storm has passed, the comms are up again"

He was now annoyed, bruised and hungover.
"speak up Maria I can't hear you "

"DE STORM HAS PASSED..YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FROM MR. JET ROW, DO YOU KNOW IF HE IS CUTE HE SOUND RICH"

He grabbed his aching head. He sat down in his chair. The severity of his reality comming to full weight on his shoulders. He hit the intercom.

"Maria could you please come in here". It was the last straw, he was going to fire her.

A few moments later, she appeared in the door way. She must have known she was going to get fired. She was wearing her tightest blouse and shortest skirt. The outline of her figure in his doorway made him loose his thoughts for a brief second. He remembered why he had hired her. Eye candy for prospective clients.

"Yes Mr. LaFontaaaaiiiin" she said meekly with a flirtish grin, putting emphasis on the last part of his last name.

"ahh...nothing..nothing..Maria..send Mr Jethros message to my terminal, and bring my some pharmaceuticals would you please."

"Yes Mr Lafuente" she said curtly, looking at her nails, as if sensing that the danger of unemployment had passed.

He rubbed the back of his head. All of a sudden curious "..ah Maria, why do you think Mr. Jethro to be rich?"

She peaked her head around the corner with excitement in her eyes. "Becouse... he want you to seel him 25 apartamentos...thas is allot of bathrooms..aiii quien pudiera tener un hombre asi" her voice trailed off behind her as she went to get the pharma.

"He what?' he though to himself. He hit a couple of keys and waited for the message to show up on screen. "she is half crazy, but nice to look at" he mused

The message came up and he started to read it. "Nope, shes not that crazy after all" he thought. "At least there is no bad news here", he thought to himself, "and a unique opportunity to rid himself of stale spacestation air for good." He could hear Marias voice coming back to his office.

"...tiene que ser un hombre muy rico..all those houses ...Here mister Lafuente" she said handing over the pills. As she turned to leave, she put on her best wiggle, knowing her boss would be watching her walk out, all men watched her walk. She knew it, used it and liked the attention.

"Thank you Maria" his eyes lost somewhere between the small of her back and her knees. "Anything from Gallia yet Maria?". He popped the pills into his mouth and washed them down with the last bit of the wine left over from the night before.

"Gallia? no notting yet Mr.Lafuente."

He finished reading the message. Pulled up a fresh transmit page and started to work. He didn't care what he had to do. Beg, borrow, steal, sell his first yet unborn child, it didn't matter. He was going to live the good life no matter what it took. And a nice little office on a nice new station sounded like to perfect place to be.

"Maria.." he said while typing.."have the cafeteria send up a pot of Java and take the rest of the day off."

"Really Mr. Lafuente...oh thank you, I think I go get my nails done..." her voice trailed off, as he put his thoughts together.

As much as she was nice to look at, he didn't need her around to read over his shoulder. And he could do with out the squealing tone in her voice considering the condition of his head. And, she had already proven to him that she could play dumb real good. He could not risk taking any chances of any of this getting out.