Vegas Part 10: Bringing them Down
Annie made her way through the lobby quickly and easily. She gave the desk clerk a flirty smile when she emerged from the vault in significantly different clothes, but again money buys a lot of discretion and he didn't say a thing. Just smiled a "Have a good evening" to her as she stealthily moved away.
The noise of the service elevator was too risky so she found a back staircase that smelled heavily of food, both good and bad and she figured it was both the room service hallway for this side of the hotel and the path to the kitchens and garbage.
She stopped, her back flat against a wall and listened closely, longing for Auggie's ability to focus so acutely on sound. Confident things were quiet, she went one flight up and repeated the process on the 2nd floor landing and again on the third.
"I'm at the third floor," she reported to Barber.
"I have you Helvetica, no known hostiles in the hall in front of you, but there could be staff, so be cautious," he replied.
She cracked the door just a bit and again used her mirror, women made very good spies, to clear both ends of the very long corridor. Her weapon was still concealed, but she looked slightly suspicious.
"All clear," she said for her benefit as well as Barber's.
"Auggie's position hasn't changed," Barber supplied.
***555***
"Mr. Williams you are infuriatingly obtuse, we know you are not who you say you are, we think you are CIA. What we do not know is how much you have told your wife," he said wife in such a malevolent tone that Auggie cringed inwardly while maintaining his obtuse façade.
"And I continue to not have a clue what you are talking about, we are Marvin and Annette Williams from Manhattan, my wife is originally from Andorra. Google us, we are local celebrities," Auggie smirked his left cheek swelling from the couple of pops Nikolai and his henchmen had gotten in.
"We did, lots of pretty pictures, but anyone can take a picture these days. I could stand in front of a screen and pretend I was doing yoga on the Great Wall of China, doesn't mean it ever happened. Or maybe they are real and you have been leading that pretty little lady on for years while you travel back and forth to DC bedding waitresses, poor woman, she has no idea does she?" Nikolai continued to doubt Annie and Auggie just sat quietly and waited for her to arrive.
"I love my wife," Auggie said with complete honesty.
"You certainly do enjoy sleeping with her, I will give you that, but a big spy stud like you probably has enough testosterone to go around. Why don't we ask this other pretty lady, ungag her," Nikolai ordered.
There was a small struggle and some soft female grunting and finally a female voice he did not recognize from earlier.
"Please don't hurt me," she said in soft breathy pants.
"Mr. Williams here says he has been happily married for 4 years," Nikolai sneered.
The woman remained silent, although Auggie could swear he could hear her trembling certain a gun was pointed at her.
"Did you sleep with him?" Nikolai demanded.
"I think so," she nodded.
"And his name wasn't Williams right?"
"Could have been, didn't know his last name," she mumbled.
"You little slut, picking up random men in bars," Nikola chided and Auggie heard him come closer.
"Where did he take you? A Hotel?"
"No, an apartment," she answered honestly.
"So it wasn't a simple business trip to DC, he lived there?" Nikolai pressed.
"I didn't ask for ID, could have been a friend's place," she fought back and Auggie could not understand why she was trying to protect him.
Nikolai slapped her. Auggie was grateful it wasn't a punch, but it still sounded like it hurt and the woman bit back a cry. Luckily Nikolai's phone rang.
"Do you have the woman? Well, where could she have gone? Olga is in the room, she isn't there. I want everyone in this hotel looking for that woman, curly blond hair, tall with her shoes on and a slinky red dress, she should not be too hard to spot," Nikolai messaged out.
"We aren't getting any information out of them, let's put these two on ice," Nikolai ordered and simultaneously two of his henchmen raised their guns and brought them down to knock out Auggie and Katie.
***555***
Annie moved through the halls, ducking behind large metal racks of food at the slightest sound. She hadn't heard from Barber so she assumed she was heading towards Auggie.
"Helvetica you have a hostile approaching from the corridor on your left. Your choice, wait him out and hope he passes by or element of surprise, he is only a few feet away though," Barber informed.
Annie grabbed one of the large empty metal trays from the rack.
"He is just about on you…..now," Barber guided and Annie swung out and took the Russian out with the tray.
She recovered his weapon and dragged his body into a closet, he seemed good and unconscious so she bound his hands and left him.
"That sounded painful," Barber grinned.
"He'll live," Annie replied.
Annie could still hear noise coming from the Savoy room, the poker games continued despite her absence and she could see one of the Russians standing guard outside from her position behind a large potted plant.
"I have a guard dog, need another route."
"OK, to the right of the elevator banks are service stairs, take them up or down a flight and cross the hallway there, there are access points to the other rooms on that side."
Annie did as she was told, keeping her footfalls light. Now taking in the reverse angle she could see the guard still at his post, but there was another corridor with rooms off of it.
"Auggie is on the move, with 2 of the henchmen at least. He is moving further from you, he is travelling at a pretty good pace and his companions' heart rates are up and his is not, which is either his ninja military skills or they have knocked him out. He isn't in distress though," Barber related the info on his screen calmly.
"OK, you keep your eyes on him, I can take care of myself now, I am in a clear path," Annie instructed.
Annie moved down the hall, at the first room she knew was not the gaming room she opened the door cautiously with her weapon drawn. It was empty and dark and there was no lingering scent of people.
At the next door she repeated the process, but this room was lit and there was a combination of stale cigarette smoke, faint perfume and the faintest scent of Auggie's soap or after shave. There was no one in the room though. She stowed her weapon and moved about the room.
She found a tiny bit of blood, nothing that caused great concern. There was an overturned chair and an overflowing ashtray, but otherwise the room looked fine, no signs of a significant struggle.
"I found the room they had him in, how far have they moved him?"
"Not far, same floor, and he is alone now – or at least not with anyone who consumed the compound and this is weird…his body temp has gone down a few degrees," Barber noticed.
"There is a service galley on this floor, full kitchen it must be a refrigerator or freezer they have him stashed in," Annie assumed.
"I think freezer is more likely his temp is dropping pretty fast, you need to find him. Head back to the hallway and keep going right, at the end take a left you should be able to see the units then," Barber advised.
"Will do," Annie replied.
She turned back to the door and just as she was about to reach it, it opened.
"Mrs. Williams, you came back for him after all," Nikolai Astrovski grinned.
TBC…