Part 1 here:

Josh had always been something of a gray man. He didn't intentionally start out that way. It was merely a quirk of his personality.

He was the guy just in the shadows. Attention was somewhat embarrassing to him and he deflected it whenever he could.

His time in the service had compounded this feeling. He had spent many hours in lectures, seminars and training to learn how to be unobtrusive. He had learned how to hide in plain site.

He had spent much time with the truly invisible - the homeless, the bums, the addicts. From them he learned how to observe, how to watch people and the goings on of the city.

Josh was amazed that by simply donning the trappings of these people, he could simply disappear. His clothes reeked of sour sweat and urine. He shuffled here and there unimpeded. He muttered to himself a lot. It was a device that he used to implant what he saw into his long-term memory.

Most of the time, though, he was just gray. Khaki pants or faded jeans, some subdued colored shirt and a well-worn baseball cap with the area's favorite sports team's logo were a big part of this. He was rarely clean shaven nor was he fully bearded.

He was just a guy.

Image Credit: "Cave sunset" by benketaro is licensed under CC BY 2.0