by Dale Mayer
“It’s been hours since we ate,” she said. “I’ll put this trolley outside for them to take away, then figure out what I want for dinner. That, obviously, is, well, you know, a fairly major job.”
He laughed. “You do that.”
She pushed the trolley carefully to the door and asked, “Is it okay to open it?”
He looked over, smiled, and said, “Yes. We have an extra guard or two on the building.”
She just shook her head at that, opened up the door, put the trolley outside, and took a good long look down the hallway. Dark burgundy carpet was on the floor, and the wall had an interesting shade of beige, with some pattern on the top one-third of the wall. A very classy look, not ornate or elaborate, just businesslike and subdued. She quite approved. She counted six doors that she saw. She contemplated that.
She slowly closed the door, turned, and looked at him. “Did you ever consider that he could be in one of these rooms?” she asked, as she motioned out into the hallway.
“There is no way to check that,” he said.
“What? Can’t you just hack into the hotel registration system?”
“No,” he said. “It’s one of the hotels that we actually worked with to upgrade their security system, so that, so far, it’s hack-free.”
“That wasn’t very smart of you.”
He gave a laugh. “Generally they’re on our good guys’ list.”
“But you already had one gunman here. Another instance where they’ll owe you.”
“Maybe,” he said, with a smile.
She asked, “Shouldn’t you ask them?”
“I was thinking about checking in a different way,” he said.
“And how does that work?”
“Sometimes it works well. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all.”
“I like it,” she said. “So give it a shot.” She waited, while he clicked away on the keyboard. “Well?”
“Well, nothing,” he said. “The photo that I sent them isn’t matching anybody.”
“Does that mean that he’s here or not here?”
“It means that the photo was never used to identify a current resident. Doesn’t mean that’s the photo they booked under either though.”
“You guys have to give facial ID?”
“Actually the only people who stay here are people they have files on.”
“Interesting, but pretty hard to run a business that way.”
“Yes, and no,” he said. “It’s one way.”
The evening passed slowly. She ordered in salmon and veggies for dinner, and they had a nice quiet meal, just the two of them, slowly getting to know each other.
“Did you mean it?” he asked.
“Mean what?” she asked, as she laid down her knife and fork and put her plate back on the trolley.
“About going sailing?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Of course I don’t have a boat yet.”
“Will you get another one? I thought you were wondering about it.”
“I think everybody wonders about not getting a new one, when something like this happens,” she said. “But it’s beyond me to not have another sailboat. Maybe I’ll get something different this time.”
“I’m sure we could look at it, after this is all over with.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Just in time for me to go back to work.” She winced at that.
“Well, maybe you can take a sabbatical, like a few months off?” She looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. “A couple weeks maybe?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “It’s always so busy at work.”
“Understood.” And he left it at that.
By the time it was bedtime, she was yawning again. “So where should I go to sleep, where I won’t disturb you?” she said.
“I would suggest you go back to the bed you took your nap on.”
She thought about it and said, “I’d rather be out here, you know, with you.”
“Then take that bed,” he said.
She nodded and said, “Is it okay to take a shower?”
“Go for it.”
As she headed into the bathroom, she called back, “Still no word?”
“Nothing beyond the regular check-ins,” he said. “It’s all about waiting.”
“And you didn’t find Green’s face anywhere, on any of the cameras in town?”
“Nobody’s reported back on it yet, and they’ll only report back when the searches are done or if they found him on a camera somewhere.”
“Great,” she muttered and headed for the shower. It would be a long damn night. The trouble was, she was wrong. By the time she came out after her shower, she walked to the bed and crashed. The last thing she remembered was whispering, “Good night.”
“Good night. Tomorrow’s a whole new day.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Let’s make it a good one.” She closed her eyes and immediately was out like a light.
*
Ryland, on the other hand, knew that he needed to get some sleep but couldn’t afford to be down too long. Just then Cain tagged him and said, “Grab some sleep. We’re all set up here, and I’m coming back.”
“I’ll wait up until you get here.”
“Walking down the hallway now.”
“Good.”
Cain arrived moments later, mentioning food.
“You didn’t get to eat?”
“No.” And he wasn’t alone.
Ryland smiled as Eton walked in. The two men gripped arms in silence, as they noticed that Tabi was sleeping.
“Get some sleep,” Eton said. “We’ll go to the other room. You’ve got four hours.”
When the two men silently moved to the other room, Ryland settled on the bed beside Tabi, wrapping an arm around her and holding her close. One of the hard lessons in this life was enjoying every moment, and he would enjoy just holding her. The soft scent of whatever shampoo was in the bathroom drifted up. Her hair was wet, and yet she smelled so fresh, so innocent.
That she’d been touched by all this violence was a shame. The work they did was something that 99 percent of the population didn’t even know existed. They didn’t want to know it existed either. It kept them safe and happy in their quiet little worlds. Before long he felt his fatigue dragging him under, but the pain kept poking at him. Barely shifting, he grabbed his pain pills, took two, and settled down to sleep.
Four hours later, when his shoulder was touched ever-so-lightly, he opened his eyes to see Cain standing there.
“I need four,” he said. “Are you up for that?”
Nodding, he got up and walked a bit to stretch, then looked to see Eton crashed on the far bed in the other room. He checked to see if the coffee was still hot, but it wasn’t. He wondered about ordering more and then decided to hold off. The more traffic up and down this hallway just said that somebody was awake right now.
Something about the question Tabi had asked earlier poked at him still. What if somebody else in this hotel was involved? And while he’d told her that he didn’t have a way to get into their fortified database, the truth of the matter was, they were all pretty high-end hackers. Himself included.
As he sat down to study the database and see what he could find, Ice contacted him. “She’s a single mom, two kids.”
“Shit,” he said.
“Ten thousand dollars appeared in her bank account two days ago.”
“Just to keep an eye on the apartment, I presume?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find any connection between them?”
“In a chat room for single moms, I found a private message, saying that he can help her out. That he was a goodwill kind of guy, and he just wanted to keep an eye on the apartment. He paid her ten grand to watch Tabi’s apartment for a week.”
“And, of course, she said yes.” He remembered the security system video of her scampering back across the hallway to her apartment. “So maybe it’s not of any value to contact her.”
; “Chat line, bank deposit, all anonymous,” she said. “No reporting required, so that was the end of the conversation.”
“So another dead end.”
“But it also shows how much care he’s taking.”
“Right. I thought about checking into the hotel staff, to see if we have any other turncoats here.”
“Don’t bother,” she said. “Stone’s been swearing at that database for hours. He just got in a little bit ago.”
“Anything?”
“If there is, I’ll let you know.” And she hung up.
Just before the alarms went off at six, Eton and Cain were both up and came over just as the coffee rolled up outside the door. They moved the trolley into the room and came to sit beside Ryland. “Find out anything?”
“Stone hacked into the hotel database and couldn’t find any connection to us here. It looks like we might be safe.” He told them about the woman in the apartment across from Tabi’s.
“So,” Eton said, “a single mom just looking to make a little bit of money, probably scared, but, at the same time, hoping she has nothing more to do with them.”
“Stone’s still looking to see if they can find any other connections, but, so far, it looks like a dead end,” Cain added.
“I hope he doesn’t clean up after himself on that one,” Ryland said, not wanting the death of a single mom on his conscious.
“Let’s make sure he doesn’t,” Cain added thoughtfully, “by taking him down later today.”
They all sucked back their coffee, waiting for an alert from the rest of the team.
When it came in, Ryland looked at the message on his phone and read it aloud with satisfaction. “Everything in place.” He reached down, pulled the sim card from his phone, and snapped it in half. The other two men did the same. Then with the disposable phones that they had brought, they quickly synched up each other’s new numbers. He walked over and picked up Tabi’s phone, pulled the sim card from it, and gave her a burner phone too. He didn’t snap her sim; he just left it for her.
“You don’t want to break it?” Eton said.
“Not if I don’t have to,” he replied.
Eton nodded in understanding.
“Good luck keeping her calm and quiet today,” Cain added.
“Only until ten,” Ryland said. “Then we’ll see you at the museum.”
“You decided to go yourself?” Eton asked.
“I might as well,” Ryland said. “Who knows? We do these kind of security jobs all the time. Plus, I have a connection to Malcolm, who’ll be running the private security for the tour. We already have an established relationship.”
“Makes sense,” Eton said, and, with that, Cain and Eton quickly inhaled thick protein shakes, sucked back the last of the coffee, and said, “We’re out.”
Cain added before leaving, “Remember. We take them all alive.”
Ryland watched them both go, and, as soon as the door closed, Tabi rose from the bed.
Chapter 14
Tabi sat up slowly, looked at Ryland, and asked, “So, is it all set up?”
“It is,” he said. “They’ll do a run-through right now and check out the lay of the land. The rest of the team is in place.”
“You’re putting a lot on this, taking a chance that they’ll come after me.”
“No,” he said. “But I’ll sweeten the pot because I’m coming with you, as me.”
She stared at him in understanding, and he appreciated it. Then her face pinched, and she whispered, “Of course you are.”
“Remember? The bigger pot of gold we bring in, the more chance Green’ll take the bait.”
“And, of course, Green already knows the rest of your team is here.”
“Yeah, they all used their real passports to land,” he said cheerfully.
She groaned. “How much time do we have?”
“It’s seven-thirty right now,” he said. “We’ll leave at nine-thirty.”
“Good,” she said, as she got up and went to the bathroom. By the time she came back out, he lifted the pot of coffee, only it was empty. She frowned and said, “Do we get more?”
“More and breakfast,” he said.
“I love this hotel,” she cried out joyfully. Sitting down, she looked outside and said, “It’s raining out.”
“It does rain here,” he said mildly.
“True. Very true. Still, it just seems like a bad omen or something.”
“It’s better cover actually,” he said. “For us and for them.”
“I’m still not happy about it,” she announced.
“Doesn’t matter either way,” he said. “It’s the cards we have to deal with.” When his phone buzzed, he said, “Breakfast is outside.”
She sighed, hopped to her feet, and raced to the door, then hesitated.
He smiled and said, “I’m coming too.” He got up, walked over, and opened the door. Once again, it was just the trolley.
“My nerves are so on edge,” she murmured. “I half expected people to jump through the doors, guns blazing.”
“You missed out on all that,” he said, chuckling.
“I know, but somehow it all still has that edge to it.”
By the time they ate, she was dressed and ready to go. She stopped at the doorway, looked at him, and said, “You’ll look after yourself, right?”
“Of course,” he said.
She frowned. “No unnecessary risks. And remember. You’re already hurt.”
He reached out, tapped her lips slightly, and said, “Remember? That’s not part of this.”
“It is part of this,” she said. “I don’t want you to get any more hurt than you already are.”
He leaned over and kissed her gently and said, “Neither do I. Besides we have a sailboat to buy and a trip to take.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” he said, as he slipped his arms around her and held her close for a long moment. Then he stepped back and said, “Come on. It’s time to go.”
*
It was calm and quiet as Ryland and Tabi walked casually down the street. When they arrived at the museum, they walked up the steps where Malcolm awaited Ryland. With a big smile the two men shook hands, and Ryland introduced Tabi. She smiled, tilted her head regally, and they walked inside.
Malcolm turned to Ryland, with a smile. “Man, you know how to bring trouble, don’t you?”
“I know how to get into trouble too, apparently,” he said.
Tabi chuckled and said, “You got that right.”
Malcolm looked at her and said, “I heard something about you saving his life.”
Such a note of admiration was in his tone that Ryland wanted to knock him back. “She did,” he said, putting an arm possessively around her shoulders.
Tabi smiled at Malcolm. “I was just at the right place at the right time.”
“Sometimes that’s all it takes,” he said with a serious tone.
As they walked into the museum, Ryland leaned ever-so-slightly forward and said to Tabi, “Remember. Stay alert. Also Malcolm will be out of here soon, and he’ll be whisked back, so he’s safe.”
She shrugged. “There’s enough people involved.” He looked at her and frowned, then turned and left her standing in front of a particularly obscure piece of bronze. She walked around it, as if trying to figure out what it was. He had no idea himself. He would read the title later and hopefully an explanation would be found. Meanwhile he walked back to Malcolm. “Aren’t you leaving?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been requested to stay.”
Ryland frowned. “It could get very dangerous.”
“So I’ve been told,” he said, with a hard look. “Like I said, you know how to bring trouble.”
“You got a place to hole up?”
“Got an office.”
“I suggest you go find it for an hour.”
Malcolm looked undecided, but Ryland said, “Look. We’ve got a lot of men here. We don’t want a stray bulle
t to catch you.”
“Okay,” he said. “You got my number. Text me when I can come out.”
“Will do,” he said. He waited and watched as Malcolm turned and walked away. Then he walked back to Tabi. “Happy?”
She didn’t look up from reading the sign on the base of the statute. “Much better,” she said. “The fewerpeople who get hurt in this, the better.”
“Says you,” he said.
She looked at him. “I like him. He’s nice.”
He just rolled his eyes at her.
She chuckled and pointed at the plaque. “Do you ever wonder how stuff like this makes it in the art world?”
“What is it?”
“It’s called, ‘Eruptions of Thought,’” she said. “Looks like a volcanic eruption gone wrong.”
He chuckled at that too. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s stroll around slowly.” They walked around, commenting on the various art pieces. He thoroughly enjoyed hearing her mind come up with some of the most bizarre suggestions for what stuff really was. “You’re not really an art person, are you?”
“I know it’s trite to say,” she said. “However, I like what I like, but I don’t really know why.”
“I think even if you know that much, it helps,” he said, as they walked through into a large selection of massive paintings.
She walked up to one that just had a single black dot. It was at the eleven o’clock mark if looking at the face of a clock. “I don’t get it,” she said.
“It’s titled, ‘With a Question Mark.’ Does that help?”
At that, she burst out laughing. “Somebody probably made fifty grand for that.” She cast a last look at it, then turned and walked toward some others.
He kept looking around, hearing everything. Finally a tap came on his intercom. Alert. He walked over and slipped his hand in hers, so he could grasp her fingers and said, “Company’s coming.”
She stiffened and then relaxed. “Good,” she said. “That’s what we wanted.”
“It is, indeed,” he murmured. They continued to walk, much more alert and aware, but she didn’t appear to give any notice that anything was amiss. He really appreciated that about her. “You’re really good under tough circumstances.”
“I’m a surgical nurse,” she said. “Tough circumstances? That’s what we do. Quite often anyway.”
