Summary:
The Extended Dixon Family Vacation gets in gear. Some stealth, some sweetness, and some gifts included.
Glenn hurried down the hall to the first of the three hotel suites reserved for the impromptu extended family vacation. In his hand he held a small envelope. Knocking on the door, he waited. Excited about his usefullness in the task Merle had assigned.
Merle opened the door, and grinned when Glenn held out the envelope. "Any problems there short round?"
"Nah, the IT department will never miss them. I scammed them from the housing of unused employee ID badges. I made sure to take ones that were passive, not active, so if we track anything we will need to pull up the info on the laptop. We aren't going to be getting alerts every time there is movement."
"Not sure how this shit works, but glad you do. Lets get the gifts put together then let Andrea do her thing."
Together, the two men stripped the backs off of the eleven cheap smart phones. Inserting the metalic pins into the back casing was easy. Next was Andrea's turn to contribure. She personalized each phone within a case that made each one individual. She gift wrapped all but two of them, and loaded them into a box. When Merle walked up, she handed him one of the two unwrapped phones, then slid the other in her back pocket.
"How long until the buffet meet up?" she asked.
"Fifteen minutes. Perfect timing wifey. Go get Rick and his family, Daryl and his family as well as T together in the hall. T will take you down to the buffet. Give Glenn and I about 10 minutes, then we will join you."
"No worries – I got this covered Merle."
When Andrea left the room, Glenn opened his laptop, and pulled up the program needed for RFID tracking capabilities. By that time, the group had noisily walked down the hall, and they knew they were out of range of sight.
"OK Merle, grab the gifts packed in the box, go walk through the door, walk down to the elevator, go up one floor, then go down two floors, then come back here."
Merle did as he asked and was back in less than ten minutes. When he opened the door, he was met with a grinnng Glenn.
"It worked spectacularly Merle. Everything is labled. It looks just like Daryl, Carol, Ella, Sophia, Rick, Lori, Carl, T-Dog, and myself went where you just were. Those gifts were a great idea since the hotel has RFID readers at every doorway. We will be able to track where everybody is at any given time. Plus, yours and Andrea's of course. Let's get us downstairs and let you and Andrea give out the presents."
Everybody was indulging in their favorite foods. Despite it being dinner, Sopha and Ella had once again hit the cinammon rolls and strawberry pancakes. The grown ups had almost universally hit up the prime rib station. Lori was the lone healthy one getting a workout at the salad bar.
Merle nodded at Andrea and winked. She stood up and tapped a glass with a knife to get everybody's attention.
"Merle and I wanted to welcome everybody here to the first extended Dixon Family vacation. Seriously – T-Dog, Glenn; that includes you even beyond this stay. Rick, Lori, Carl . . . we both know how important you are to Carol and Sophia. You were family before to them. You are family now to us. We wanted to do something special for everybody. Just like Batman has the 'Batphone', we decided that even honorary Dixons deserve a D-phone. So please accept these with our love."
She then handed out each phone with it's personalized case. After all were opened, and oohs and aahs all shared over Carl's blue case, Ella's pink case, and Sophia's purple case, Merle sent the three kids up to the dessert bar.
When they were gone, he explained quickly. "Everybody's phone is RFID tracked. We can tell where anybody is at any given time. The phones themselves have GPS capabilities. The only phone numbers programmed into them are the people sitting here at this family dinner. These are for your safety. Make sure you keep them on you at all times, and stress that the kids must wear them at all times as well."
The adults all nodded. Daryl and Carol hugged Merle profusely, offering their profound thanks on helping to keep their daughters safe.
Merle then handed Daryl and Carol an envelope. "A little gift from Andrea and I for you two. You deserve a night out without the girls."
Carol opened the envelope. Her face immediately turned bright red. Daryl looked at her face, then looked down questioningly at the card.
"Goddammit Merle!"
"What's up?" asked Rick.
"The bastard bought us massage sessions."
"So what's wrong with that?"
"It's lessons at the spa on how to give errogeonous massages."
Lori started laughing her ass off. "No wonder Carol is so red. Better recover quickly girl, here come the kids, and I don't think you want to have to do any explaining."
"You are right on that." whispered Carol.
"No worries. We will do a movie night in our suite for the girls and Carl until you get back. You two can most of the night to yourselves."
Daryl grinned. "Lori, in case I haven't told ya yet – I really like ya!"
Carol started laughing. "Down big boy – we have two hours until that happens. Let's just sit down and enjoy eating this wonderful dinner."
Daryl whispered in her ear "I can think of better things to eat right now."
MEANWHILE BACK AT MERLE'S ROOM, A MESSAGE IS SLIPPED UNDER THE DOOR. A SIMPLE POST IT NOTE WITH W-X WRITTEN ON IT. THE BELLBOY DELIVERED THE PHONE MESSAGE WITH NO THOUGHT TO WHAT IT CONTAINED. IT WAS JUST A PHONE MESSAGE AFTER ALL.
Notes:
The bit at the end is very important. There will be another of these bits coming up. Keep an eye out for it.