“Hey! Good evening, JB,” David Ward – Front Desk, greeted the rather frantic-looking traveler.
“Hey, David,” the guest replied, offering a weak smile.
“Something going on with the network?” David asked, handing a key card to the guest.
“Nah. Just some routine updates. I’ll need to work in the server room for a little while.”
“Well. You know where everything is. Let me know if you need anything.”
As soon as JB, the “network guy” was behind the locked door of the hotel’s server room, he brought up the monitors and logged into each system. The first thing JB did was loop the feed of the video camera facing the elevators, outside the server room – and every camera on the third floor.
“You threatened him?” Callie blasted me before the door had even closed on our hotel room. I had only been upstairs for a few minutes, having been sent up there by my furious wife.
“What are you talking about?” I argued. “I never said a word to that guy.”
“Yeah?” Callie laughed. “He showed me the texts, Dan! What the fuck? I know you think you can kick everybody’s ass…”
“I did not send him ANYTHING!” I interrupted, loudly.
“You’re really lucky he’s not a hot-headed asshole. The shit you said to him…”
“Are you listening to me?” I asked. “Callie, I….”
“Show me your phone,” Callie ordered.
“This is fucked up. You know I wouldn’t do this to you,” I said, handing Callie my phone.
Callie brought up the lock screen and typed in my code. The last thing I had looked at was still open. Callie’s eyes went wide as she saw the dialog between Delaney and me. She was dumbfounded, scared, and mostly furious by what she read.
Every word of it had been a lie. So she knew either that Rob fucker told a big, whopping story to Delaney and she really was trying to do the right thing by a friend, or Rob told Delaney some part of the truth and she made up the rest, just to fuck with her husband.
“What in God’s name?” Callie started. “You believe that story? You were there, Dan. You know nothing happened. And when would I have fucking texted him?”
“Why would she lie? She obviously knew about last night,” I wondered, absently.
“Well now I know why you made a fool out of yourself, sending those threats,” Callie scoffed, handing my cell phone back to me. “You believe that…fucking…Delaney, what’s her name instead of your own eyes!”
“I NEVER threatened him,” I repeated.
“Whatever!” Callie growled. “I’m taking a shower. Just leave me alone, Dan. I am so pissed at you right now. Fuck!” Callie slammed the bathroom door.
The hotel phone began ringing. I assumed it was about the loud voices coming from room 3114. Instead, I heard “Howdy neighbor,” from Jonah. He told me about some work he was called in to do at our hotel. Something about the servers or network security or something. My mind was still trying to equalize from the weird shit it had been fed to process over the last few hours.
Jonah said he had a few things to take care of in the server room, and invited me to come hang out with him. Then after he finishes with his task, we could all grab a cocktail and catch up. I had no intention of asking Callie to join anybody tonight. But it would be good to see a happy face and maybe pick his brain on all this stuff from Delaney.
“Jonah called. Going down to see him,” I called into the bathroom.
Callie only acknowledged me with “bye.”
Jonah suggested I use the stairwell, since he had to disable the elevators for a few minutes. Something about routine cycling of the server blah blah blah. I didn’t care. It felt good to walk off some of my anger and bewilderment.
When I reached the basement, I noticed the lights in the hallway were much dimmer than the rest of the hotel’s fixtures. But the door to the server room was easy to find. Jonah unlocked it as soon as I approached. When the steel, fire door closed behind me, I felt something heavy intersect with the back of my head. The last thing I saw before hitting the floor was Jonah’s determined face. Then the world went dark.
Eliza from Guest Services approached Rob Mathis/Thor – God of Thunder as he headed to the front desk with his luggage. She asked him about his stay, making small talk. He was not in the best of moods. Eliza asked if he would follow her to one of their conference rooms. Rob was seriously ready to get the hell out of the hotel, but he behaved politely and followed her.
“I understand you’re checking out of the hotel,” Eliza began. “I don’t mean to try and dissuade you. But before you go, I just need to get some personal information and a signature on something.”
Eliza handed Rob an affidavit, detailing the nature of his involvement as a witness/victim to multiple felonies. The Marshals told the whole story of Rob Mathis as an unwitting participant in a major investigative operation, which was ongoing. They had observed everything from the bar video that was used illegally by their suspect. And the USMS had records of communications from the suspect’s phone, which they believed would ultimately lead them to their guy.
“We got a hit on the SIM card!” Hunter announced. That search had been running for so long, it was a real surprise to actually get any results. “And it’s here in the hotel.”
“Get on the cameras!” Combs ordered. “I want the identities of every single person who has entered the hotel in the last thirty minutes.”
“On it, sir.”
When Callie silenced the hair dryer, she could hear the hotel phone ringing from the bedroom. She had zero interest in whoever the caller was, but answered the blasted thing in an impatient huff. “Yes,” Callie growled into the phone.
“Whoa!” Jonah laughed.
“Jonah?” Callie asked, still agitated but curious.
“Hey Cal, can you come down to the server room? Dan said he was coming down to give me a hand, but he must have gotten side-tracked. I really need someone to help me for just a few minutes.”
“Ugh,” Callie groaned. “Where do I go?”
“I’ve identified all the guests who have checked into the hotel within the last two hours,” Hunter reported. “The only other person to enter the lobby was this guy,” bringing up the lobby video of JB – the network guy, speaking to the front desk personnel.
“Where did he go after that?” Combs asked.
“Front desk said he went down to the basement. To the server room down there.”
“Look at the time stamp on the downstairs camera. Fuck! He’s looped it,” Curtis noticed. “Rebooting it now, sir!”
When the camera feed came back online, Jonah was boarding the elevator…with Callie. She looked terrified and seemed reluctant to be going with that man.
“He’s got her!” Rob Mathis yelled at the Marshals. “He’s fucking got her!”
“Elevator is going to the twenty-eighth floor, sir. He’s taking her to the penthouse.”
“No!” Rob corrected, loudly. “He’s taking her to the roof! Stop that elevator on the third floor!” Rob yelled, bolting through the door and entering the stairwell.
Hunter took control of the elevator and accessed the remote override, just as it was approaching the second floor. Callie’s head was spinning. Jonah had always been a fun, flirty friend of theirs. She knew he had a crush on her. Now he was holding her wrist so tight, insisting that she get on the elevator with him. Her heart was racing.
“Where are we going, Jonah?” Callie asked, nervously.
“Dan said he wanted us to meet him at the rooftop bar,” Jonah smiled, urging Callie back against the elevator wall.
“Dan?” Callie began. “Why is he…? Wait. You said you needed…”
Jonah pressed his body into Callie, grinding his cock against her. He began kissing her lips and neck. Callie resisted, but her strength and size were no match for Jonah.
“Stop it, Jonah!” Callie screamed. “Get the fuck off me!”
“I know you want it,” Jonah groaned into Callie’s chest. He filled his mouth with her breast and began driving his body into hers with violent, animalistic urgency.
The elevator slowed, then halted when it reached the third floor. As the doors were opening, Jonah began furiously pushing the buttons on the panel to try and regain control over it. Callie screamed and pulled her hand free from Jonah’s grasp.
Jonah never saw Rob Mathis. He never saw the fist of Thor – God of Thunder before it completely shattered the left side of his face. And Jonah Ballard never saw Eliza Curtis and Jay Hunter – United States Marshal Service as they placed handcuffs and leg irons on his unconscious body.
My eyes burned. The room was full of smoke and vapor. When I was finally able to focus, I could see the silhouette of a big man wearing a gas mask, lifting me from the floor. I didn’t feel paralyzed, but I definitely did not have the strength or lung capacity to move on my own locomotion.
The man gently slid my body onto his shoulder and carried me to safety. As we passed the Halon fire retardant system, I could see the plume of chemicals being discharged from where it had been sabotaged. A few more minutes, and I likely would have suffocated in the server room.
In the hallway, I felt the hands of my wife supporting my head as the heroic Rob Mathis – The God of Thunder himself lay me onto an EMT stretcher. The paramedics began working efficiently on me, placing an oxygen mask over my face.
Callie leaned down and kissed me gently. Her beautiful eyes were flooded with tears. Rob gave me a firm handshake and kindly nodded his head as I was able to utter only two words, “Thank you.”
End of Chapter – 4
