by L. T. Ryan
“It’s no problem, I’m just glad you’re okay.” It was the courteous thing to say. It was also the truth. Blake may not have believed her story. But it relieved him she had come through the attack unharmed. He recalled his certainty that she was dead. That they had mashed her face while he laid on the ground a few feet away, helpless and useless. He imagined what effect that would have had on his own psyche.
“I guess I should get back to the hotel then,” Haeli said. She scooted her chair back. It made a high-pitched squeal as it rubbed against the floor.
Blake was sure no one from the conference center had followed them. But what about her hotel? If they had been following her, wouldn’t they know where she was staying? “Did you check in under your own name?” Blake hoped he didn’t already know the answer.
“Yeah. I didn’t think—”
After everything he had seen, why did he still feel protective of this woman? A part of his nature that he couldn’t override.
“Okay.” Blake interrupted. “You can’t go back there. Where do you live? We’ll get you to the airport and you can get out of here.”
Now Haeli spoke with a conviction he hadn’t yet heard. An intensity broke through her sweet veneer. Tears welled in her eyes. “The thumb drive is in my room and I’m not leaving without it. Do you understand? I will not give up on my father. When we walk out of this place, you will go your way and I’ll go mine, okay? I’ll figure this out on my own.”
Whether the outburst was a tactic, a kind of reverse psychology, Haeli’s stress had peeked through her collected exterior. Blake hadn’t been completely wrong about the vulnerability he’d sensed in the seminar hall. Had he?
“Haeli, listen to me.” Blake hardly believed he was saying it. “I will go with you to the hotel. Just to make sure there aren’t more of them. If all is clear, you get what you need and get out of there. Then I’ll go on my way. Deal?”
A wide grin accompanied a surge of bubbly energy as Haeli hopped up from the table and grabbed Blake’s hand.
“Deal,” she said. “Let’s go.”
12
“Here you are. Channel 8.” The driver slowed to a stop but didn’t put the car in park.
“Have a good one.” Blake stepped out onto the curb.
Haeli exited on the driver’s side. The car pulled off before she could complete the half circle around the back of it. She passed Blake on the sidewalk and moved in as close as she could to the unremarkable brick building.
“Stay close.” Haeli flapped her hand.
Blake agreed and positioned next to her. Without another word, Haeli moved south along the building, which gave way to a chain-link fence securing the entrance to the parking lot of the television studio facility. News vans and production vehicles sat idle behind the gates. Blake scanned the lot but did not detect any movement.
He followed Haeli’s lead, hugging the bit of cover that they had, while trying to draw as little attention as possible. At the edge of the motel property, they stopped and acted as though they were having a conversation.
“That’s it.” Haeli nodded toward the three-story stucco motel. “Right there, second floor, second from the end.”
A far cry from the grandeur of monolithic resorts of the Vegas strip, you could have found the rundown building at the end of any random highway exit in the country. Rows of guest room doors were visible along the exterior of each floor. Located in the shadow of the towering Wynn hotel, Blake wasn’t shocked that he could only count three cars in the narrow parking lot that wrapped around the building.
“Look.” Haeli didn’t need to clarify what she wanted Blake to look at. He had spotted the man as he entered the second-floor landing.
“I bet he’s one of them.” Haeli whispered.
Blake wouldn’t have taken that bet. If there was one thing he could spot, it was the guys that Haeli seemed to attract. Wicked men with ill intentions. This one could have been a carbon copy of the men they had encountered at the convention center, except for his clothing. Instead of the telltale tactical look, the man wore a black suit, a black tie, and sunglasses. If the goal were to blend in, he was doing a horrible job.
The man walked to the end of the landing, past the second door from the end, turned around and retraced his steps until he rounded the corner into a passageway leading further into the building.
“One hundred percent,” Blake said. “And I’d venture to say there are more where he came from. We’ve gotta get you out of here.”
“I told you,” Haeli balked, “I’m not leaving without that thumb drive.”
“Haeli, I guarantee you they’ve already been in your room. Which means they already have the thumb drive. But they’re still here, right? Because there is unfinished business. You are the unfinished business.”
The start of a syllable formed on Haeli’s lips. Blake continued before she could convert it to an audible word.
“I know you don’t want to hear it, but you have to be reasonable here. I’m telling you, that guy up there is not messing around. Do you know why he’s wearing a suit in one-hundred-degree weather? Same reason as the Secret Service. It’s easier to conceal and access a firearm. Not to mention radio communications. There are no metal detectors here. No jiu jitsu matches. You can’t judo-chop a .45 caliber bullet—”
Blake halted. He recognized that he had worked himself up to where his next words would be more insulting than helpful. But more than that, it was the look on her face. A subtle crooked smile conveying that she already knew everything he was saying. And she was comfortable with it.
As much as Blake tried to buck his own nature, he continued to be empathetic to her plight. He reminded himself that he knew less than nothing about her. He told himself he didn’t care what happened to her. More than anything, he wished that were true.
“I agree that they would have already searched the room,” Haeli said. “But I don’t think they found it. I hid it well. I’m guessing they would just assume I have it on me. And they’d have a point. This would have been a lot easier if I had taken it with me.”
The man in the suit appeared again, completed his circuit, and disappeared around the corner once more. A floor below, another less imposing figure had appeared. A short, stocky woman pushed a cart along the concrete walkway. Although at ground level, an iron railing separated the walkway from the parking lot. The labored sound of the cart’s wheels echoed through the empty street.
“I’ll go.” Blake blurted out the suggestion before thinking it through. By saying the words out loud, he had committed himself to whatever came next. “They’re not looking for me. If I go alone, I stand a better chance of getting in that room without being spotted. Just tell me where you hid it and I’ll go.”
“Thank you, but I can’t let you do that,” Haeli said.
“Don’t be—”
“No,” Haeli interrupted. “You don’t understand. I go with you or I go alone. I’m not letting that drive out of my sight.”
Blake would have been offended if the mistrust hadn’t been mutual. He resigned himself from trying to talk her out of it. He even accepted the possibility that Haeli could be on the wrong side of this thing. The only decision was whether he would let her go alone. And that was no decision at all.
“Fine. We’ll go together,” Blake said. “But we do it my way, agreed?”
Haeli’s face lit up. She nodded.
“We wait until our friend pops out again. When he… if he keeps the same pattern, we wait until he retreats around the corner, then cut across the lot to the back of the building and find a way inside.”
“Got it.” Haeli hopped over the wall and sprinted toward the back of the building.
Unbelievable.
Blake jumped over the wall and ran after her. He reached the corner of the building a few seconds behind her.
“What do you mean, got it?” Blake said. “What part of ‘wait’ was unclear?”
Haeli reached out and patted Blake on the sh
oulder. “No time like the present.”
Blake tried to suppress the smile, but it crept up on him. Her beaming grin had infected him.
The pair walked past a bank of electrical boxes and a set of metal doors with no handles. They rounded the corner into a walkway that led to the interior of the building. Blake now had a better picture of the motel’s layout. What looked like one extensive building from the side was multiple sections that surrounded a central courtyard. A series of walkways connected each section and allowed for exterior access to each room throughout.
They passed several guest rooms and reached the first intersection. Blake peeked around the corner but pulled back to avoid being seen by the sturdy woman pushing the cart. He motioned for Haeli to be still as he heard the squeal of wheels approaching. The noise stopped, replaced by that of a door opening.
Blake peeked around the corner again to see the woman pulling the cart into a room. Its metal door was unlike the brown panel doors indicative of the guest rooms. The door swung open again. The woman emerged without the cart. She walked to the end of the passageway and took a left toward the front of the building. He kept his eyes on the empty walkway a minute.
“I have an idea.” Blake motioned toward the end of the corridor. “Follow me.”
Blake rounded the corner and hurried to the stairwell that was located just past the utility room and marked with a protruding sign. He could feel Haeli behind him as he started up the stairs. Blake reached the second-floor landing and pulled Haeli against the wall. He listened.
The sound of footsteps scuffing along the concrete filled the landing. The steps grew louder, but the rhythm remained lethargic. Unlike the maid who had been scurrying back and forth, this was the sound of pacing.
Blake pushed his back against the wall. Facing the open doorway, the severe angle made it so he had only a sliver of a view into the walkway. Twenty feet to the right of the door, he could see the opening to the outside where the man in the suit had been appearing and disappearing from view.
The footsteps crescendoed and a flash of black fabric passed from left to right. Blake waited before repositioning himself to see the man’s back as he disappeared around the corner toward Haeli’s room.
“Now,” Blake whispered.
Haeli followed as Blake moved through the doorway and headed left. He opened the metal door and shuffled Haeli inside. The hinges pulled the door shut. Blake stopped it from slamming and eased the door through its last inch of travel until it latched.
Blake looked around, relieved that the gamble had paid off.
“How did you know this was here?” Haeli rustled through the sheets, towels, and toiletry items neatly stacked on a row of metal shelving units.
“I watched the maid stow away a cart in a room just below this one. Unless they have a service elevator, which is not likely, I figure they’d store separate carts on each floor.”
Blake pulled one of several gray and white smocks from a row of hooks on the wall opposite to the shelves. He twisted the gold plastic name tag toward him so he could read it.
J. Rodriguez.
He put on the smock and cleared stacks of towels from the bottom shelf of the cart.
“Let me guess,” Haeli said. “That’s my ride.”
“Hop on. I’ll try to cover you.”
“Give me these.” Haeli took the stack of towels from Blake and placed them at the edge of the bottom shelf. She grabbed several more stacks of towels from the shelves and placed them along each edge, leaving an open area in the middle. The distance between the bottom and top shelf was more than enough, but the cavity she had constructed didn’t look as though it could even hold a small child.
“Good idea, but the cart’s too small for that. There’s no way you’ll fit in there.”
“Watch me.” Haeli accepted the challenge.
Haeli removed two stacks of towels on the end and handed them to Blake. She slid into the opening, pulled her knees up and pressed her chin into her chest. To Blake’s amazement, Haeli had contorted herself to a size he couldn’t have imagined. He thought he could have been watching a magic trick.
“Put those stacks back on the end and stack a bunch more on top of me,” she said.
Blake did so, then stepped back to survey the result. In a million years, he wouldn’t have guessed there was someone under the stacked rows of terrycloth if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.
Blake rolled the cart to the door. The wheels were misaligned and rusted. It would not be the smoothest of rides. He lifted one stack of towels from the area where her head was situated.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Don’t dilly dally.”
“I need your key,” Blake said.
The heap of towels undulated. Two thin fingers protruded from the opening. Between them, a white plastic key card.
Blake placed the last stack back on top of Haeli’s head. He opened the door and wheeled the cart into the walkway. He turned left and headed toward the sunlight. Within seconds, the man in the suit appeared around the corner and started walking toward him.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Blake said.
The man walked by without the common courtesy of a response.
Would it kill you to say hello?
Blake looked over his shoulder. Beyond the man that had just passed by stood another. Another black suit. He wondered how many there were.
Blake picked up his pace, turning the corner and wheeling toward the second door from the end. He inserted the key card, opened the door, and pulled the cart inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man in the suit approaching. Blake left the cart in the doorway, propping it open. He moved to the single queen-sized bed and stripped the bedding while monitoring the doorway.
On cue, the man in the suit passed by. Blake noticed him glancing inside. He continued with his fake work, waiting for the next pass. A few seconds later, it came. Again, the man turned to look.
Blake dropped the comforter back onto the bed, hurried over to the cart, and started removing stacks of towels. Haeli extended her legs and slid herself off the cart.
“Hurry,” Blake said. “Our friend is curious. I’m sure he’ll pop in here again any minute. And I saw another. They’re probably swarming this place.”
Haeli shoved the bedside chest of drawers to the side. The motion caused the lamp to tip, but she righted it before it fell. She knelt and pulled at the base molding along the bottom of the wall behind the table. The molding tore away from the drywall, pulling a strip of paint with it. Behind it was a foot-long jagged slot that had been punched through the sheetrock.
“Did you glue that back on there?” Blake asked.
Haeli reached in and felt around. “Told you I hid it well.”
Blake picked up the comforter from the bed and shook it out. He prepared to replace it to make it appear as though he had changed the sheets and remade the bed. Haeli pulled the small blue thumb drive from the cavity and put it in her pocket. She reached back inside.
“What are you doing now?” Blake’s gaze shifted between her and the open door.
“I left one other thing.”
The handle of the pistol protruded from the opening first. Haeli twisted and tilted the gun until it was in the right orientation to fit through the opening. She shoved the firearm in her waistband at the small of her back and reached back in the hole.
“Christ.” Blake wasn’t sure he wanted to know what other surprises she had stashed away. “What is this, Mary Poppins’ purse? We’re out of time.”
Haeli’s hand emerged, grasping a smooth black cylinder. Blake recognized the SureFire suppressor. He owned several of them. She had some explaining to do for sure, but this was not the time.
“Get in the cart,” Blake said.
“One second.” Haeli picked up the molding and pushed it back into place.
Blake heard the footsteps a split second before the silhouette of the man appeared in the doorway. It was enough
time for Blake to outstretch his arms, pulling the comforter taut between them and shielding the man’s view of Haeli, who remained crouched at his feet. He shook the bedding as if he were preparing to fold it in half.
“Sorry to bother you,” the man in the suit said. “I’m out of shampoo. Can I grab another from you?”
The thinly veiled attempt to get a better look inside the room irritated Blake. They were almost home free. He had half a mind to grab the pistol out of Haeli’s waistband and make this guy wish he had minded his own business.
In his peripheral vision, Blake could see that Haeli had dropped to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. He got the message.
“Sure, no problem.” Blake dropped the comforter on Haeli, so it fell in a messy heap. He glanced at the pile of fabric. She had pulled the rabbit out of the hat a second time.
Blake opened two of the plastic tackle boxes sitting on top of the cart before he found the one that contained the miniature bottles of shampoo. He pulled out three and handed them to the man.
“Thanks, Mister…” His stare fixed on Blake’s name tag. “Rodriguez. Appreciate it.” He lingered for an extra awkward moment and then walked away.
Blake stuck his head out and watched as their adversary turned the corner. He spun around to let Haeli know the coast was clear but found her standing six inches from him.
“We’ve gotta go. Get in the cart.”
Haeli smiled. Her eyes narrowed. Without a word, she leapt on top of the cart and launched herself toward the edge of the second-floor balcony. In a feat of extreme athleticism, Haeli caught the top of the railing with both hands. Her feet swung outward, then dangled below her. She let go and caught the edge of the concrete walkway before dropping to the ground in one fluid movement.
From the moment she left her feet, Blake knew that she was in the wind. She had gotten what she needed. He’d never see her again. He thought he’d be relieved, but he wasn’t. Maybe it was curiosity. The need to know how the story ended. But it was more than that. To say that he’d met no one quite like her would have been the understatement of his lifetime.