Saturday morning, 8:00 am. I was taking a shower, and you all know that unfathomable bond between showers and bells, don't you? As soon as you are thoroughly lathered, something rings. In this case it was the door bell, so I had no choice but to quickly rinse, hurriedly wrap myself in a towel and rush to the door, dripping water all over my studio.
The pair of blue eyes that were looking back at me from the other side of the peep hole were familiar: Mercury.
I opened the door and let him in, asking: "Mercury! What brings you here on a Saturday morning?"
He got in with a single stride of his long legs, looked at me, and said, apologetically: "I'm truly sorry to disturb you on your day off, detective, and during your morning ablutions no less, but we have something of an emergency situation."
I waved him to sit down, and asked: "Do you mind if I dry off while we talk? I can hear you from the bathroom."
He made himself comfortable on my small couch, and said, loud enough for me to hear him through my half-closed bathroom door: "You see, Sapphire and Steel are on assignment here in L.A., but something is preventing them from reaching the target site."
"Preventing them? You mean they cannot teleport there?"
"No. For some reason they keep teleporting to the floor above or below the 13th, which is where the time anomaly is developing."
That definitely piqued my curiosity. "What building are you talking about?"
"The Ambassadors Hotel, that newly renovated hotel in Santa Monica."
I knew what he was talking about; I often drove by that building and had the chance to follow the different renovation steps. They were supposed to host a grand opening ceremony in a couple of weeks. How very odd, though: usually hotels do not have a 13th floor, out of respect for superstitious guests, so I asked him: "Are you sure they need to go to that specific floor?"
"Positive. They have even tried to reach it from the elevator, but the buttons go from the 12th to the 14th. Same thing with the stairs. The funny thing is that they can feel the time anomaly, only they cannot reach it."
I got out of the bathroom fully dressed, though my hair was still damp, and asked him: "How am I supposed to help them? If they can't reach their destination, I wouldn't know what to do."
He flashed a dimpled smile at me, and said: "You always know what to do. According to Steel, you're the most resourceful human he knows, and your often come out with very… uhm… creative solutions."
No wonder Mercury was specialized in communications; he certainly knew how to talk people into doing what he requested, with that irresistible smile and a few well placed praises. So who could have blamed me for giving up instantly?
"All right, Mercury, I'll go to the Ambassadors Hotel right away."
He knew how to properly reward people, too. He stood up, cupped my cheeks with his hands and placed a big kiss on my forehead, saying: "Thank you. I knew I could count on you. Good luck."
I was taken aback: "Wait! You're not coming?"
He shook his head. "No. I'm not supposed to join them in this assignment. I'm needed elsewhere. Be careful, detective." That said, he disappeared and left me standing there wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, this time.