Chapter 13 - Company business
Brenda and Charles were sharing a room at the “Inn Side Out motel” conducting a little after hours business. Brenda was paying Charles for services rendered by rendering some services to the man who had gotten her the job she wanted with the power she wanted. Now that Steven was dead Charles would become the permanent Director and he would recommend Brenda for the assistant director position. This was working out.
This isn’t our regular room, is it? She asked rhetorically running her finger along the dusty television cabinet. She dropped pieces of clothing on the chair, on the small desk, on the floor. By the time she reached the bed where Charles was watching she was down to her panties and bra. She leaned over to loosen his tie and pull it off him. The raspy sound of the heater fan came on.
“We don’t really need any more heat than we have” said Charles coyly.
Brenda turned to the simple wall mounted thermostat to shut off the heating and did not see the cloud of dust ejected by the heating fan. It was a visible front of gray. She shut off the fan and while she was facing the wall she turned off the ceiling light too. Now with quiet and only mood lighting she could get on with it. The cloud of gray in dim light was less noticeable as she turned around. She gave Charles a big smile and pulled one strap of her bra off her shoulder then the other. She pulled down her bra and was about to say something when she was hit in the face by what felt like stinging sand. She put up her hand to brush it off. When she inhaled she drew in what she thought was facial powder. She watched Charles seem to get closer to her. No, she was falling toward him — into darkness.
In the morning, the screams of Maria Lopez, cleaning specialist, alerted the day manager that two of the motel’s regular customers had checked out permanently. They found Brenda with her face in Charles' crotch – probably her originally planned destination. Charles lay on his back with his mouth wide open and his eyes laid back. He looked like a dead man.
Phillip answered the phone in a too-many-beers-for-a-non-drinker fog. “You have just received a field promotion,” he was told by Doctor Ruth his nicest team member.
Yes, they did call her Doctor Ruth. It started as a joke reference to the diminutive TV celebrity sex doctor Ruth Westheimer. But the name had stuck even after any allusion to the other short woman with advice for your sex life had evaporated. It was a term of affection now. Phillip tended to take her seriously.
“What?”
We got a visit from the FBI this morning. They came to tell us confidentially that two of our members are dead – Charles and Brenda.
I don’t und..
There was no immediate cause of death determined. The coroner is a little backed up. These weren't the only sudden deaths last night. It looks like they died suddenly in a Motel in Baltimore. There were a couple others found dead in the same motel. You, Phillip, are next in line for the director position.
I don’t even work there. I was fired, remember! And I didn't think there was a royal line of sussesion, ah, succession.
Your termination has been revoked. You are the one who knows the most about what's going on. Get in here, boy. We need you.
Ah, Charles and Brenda dead. Can’t say I’m broken up over the news. But, Ruth, what were they doing in a motel in Baltimore?
"The usual. It could explain why you were fired and why you are now unfired. See you."
In only four days the position of Director of The Nano Defense Initiative was filled a second time.
Dust Page 13