Ascot Arms Hotel
Bay City, California Free State
Detective Sgt. Ellen Calhoun, fresh from the shower and wearing jeans, casual boots, dark turtleneck, and black leather blazer, looking every bit a tourist, stepped out of her room, pulled the door shut behind her, adjusted her backpack, and stepped into the hallway, then checked her optic clock.
It read: 10:12:33.
She blinked a few times and her vision went back to normal.
Still not used to it. Chen had said it would take some time. The optics. The implants.
Everything.
Time.
But she didn't have time.
She'd force herself to adapt. That would be the key.
And step one of adaptation was less than fifteen minutes away.
She grinned.
Let's see how you like this.
* * *
"I'm here," Sakura said into the earbud, starting up the staircase at a sprint, her footfalls echoing off the stone walls.
"Wouldn't the elevator be faster?" said Simon.
"Can't be seen," she said. "Or did you forget?"
"They're at the front entrance. What floor are you at?"
Sakura glanced at the nearest door as she sprinted past. "Sixth floor."
"Eleven more to go, boss. Better hurry."
"Sakura out."
She gritted her teeth and took the steps five at a time, six, then a whole flight, two flights, more, bounding up the staircase like a gazelle.
Why hadn't she seen this coming?
* * *
When the elevator doors closed, Mouse turned to me and made a face. "Why always this place?" she said. "Why can't they pick another damn hotel. There's gotta be at least a dozen of them in Uptown."
"I know," I said. "But we go where they ask us to go."
"Good thing there's a fee waiting for us."
Good thing.
We were back at the Ascot Arms hotel yet again, dressed like a pair of businesswomen, and I had to agree with Mouse. I personally didn't like coming here. Our first time here had ended with a corner penthouse exploding. The second instance involved a shoot-out in the downstairs restaurant and a dead client. And the last time resulted in the two of us being kidnapped by some nutball assassin who then put us through a deranged obstacle course.
"Next time," I said, "I'll choose the hotel."
"Damn straight you will."
The elevator toned, signalling our floor.
Seventeenth.
The doors wooshed open and we emerged from the elevator, padded down the carpeted hallway to room 1712, then stopped outside.
"Let's get this over with," said Mouse, fidgeting in her outfit. "I hate these clothes."
"At least we're not in the woods," I said.
"That's enough nature for me for the rest of my life, thank you very much."
I stepped forward to knock on the door.
My eye caught a small red light along the doorframe at knee height.
"What the hell--" I said.
* * *
Ellen Calhoun, seated in a plush armchair in the Ascot Arms hotel lobby and looking at the display of her cellphone, felt the buzz in her pocket.
She smiled and pressed the red button on the phone's keypad.
* * *
Thunder roared across the Bay City morning.
A half-city block section of the Ascot Arms' seventeeth floor exploded in a geyser of fire, concrete, and glass, raining debris onto the street below.
(to be continued...)
0 comments:
Post a Comment