Chapter 15

"Well, I guess we don't look too out of place in our morphing outfits alongside these New Yorkers," I said gazing around at the vast variety of clothing worn by the more individual members of the city. "Is that jacket actually supposed to be clothing? I think it has a live fish in the pocket."

"I can't if this is supposed to be fancy dress or not," laughed Ferdie.

"I think you look the most out of place, Flawless," I said. "The can't be anyone else wearing riding breeches for about fifty miles."

The four of us were exploring the streets of New York City, each chewing on some pizza we'd bought using the small change we'd found. The pizza was good. Well, it was a change from burgers anyway.

"Well, as I see it, you've got two types of people. The suits, and the streets. Half the guys are career goers, power walking and cab-calling around Manhattan, and I guess the other half are…not," said Sam.

"Asha would have loved it here," Ferdie said, causing Sam to go silent. "All these chavs. All these townies. You can even hear the beat of the city thumping out that rap music."

"I'm sure she would have liked it," said Sam. "Unfortunately, we'll never know."

"Maybe she wasn't killed," he continued. "Maybe she was only stunned-"

"Ferdie," snapped Philip, cutting him off. "That's enough. I don't think we've all learned to cope with it yet, and you're going to make things worse."

Ferdie shut up, leaving the rest of us to reminisce our fifth team member. One I'd hardly met, yet had saved all of our lives.

"Do you know," said Ferdie, forgetting his place, "I think we should use our powers for slightly more personal reasons. Just this once."

"What?" said Sam. "Flawless, these abilities weren't given to us so that you could go and sneak into the movies or whatever."

"I wasn't talking about a film," he replied. "I think we should get a hotel room for the night."

"Yeah? How are we going to do that? I don't think we can quite afford a hotel room."

"We don't need to afford one," he said, his eyes twinkling. "We can just morph and grab a room by flying in through the window."

"Ferdie…I don't know where you get your ideas from," sighed Philip. "How many things can you spot that are wrong with that plan? One: can you see a hotel around here with open windows? Two: How do you know how to find a room that's empty? And three: if everything actually did go to plan, what if a maid walks in or whatever, and we get caught!"

"And three problems that I can provide answers for," Ferdie grinned. "One: we've already walked past a dozen or so hotels in the last few minutes - many of which have open windows! Two: we morph hawks and check that they're empty. Three: got any loose change?"

"Any money?" Sam opened her hand, counting the last of our change. "Just under a dollar. Why?"

"Give me that quarter," he said. Sam tossed him the coin, looking at him suspiciously. "What are you going to do?"

Ferdie grinned at her again and walked over to a telephone box. We followed him in, and Sam stood next to him, a puzzled look on her face. He opened the directory and flicked to 'hotels', running his finger down the page until he had located a phone number.

"I saw a Hilton back there with loads of open windows," he said. "I'm just getting the number for them now."

He placed the receiver to his ear, dropped some coins in the slot, punched in the number and motioned for us to be quiet. I heard the click that the call had connected, followed by the tinny voice of the answerer.

"Hi," Ferdie said after a moment. "Yeah, I'd like to book a room for tomorrow please. Double. Yeah, en-suite. Um…probably around midday I should think." Another pause. "Yep, sure, it's Mister Stephan Carlson. Great. Thanks very much. Oh - sorry, one more thing. Is it possible to get the room number now? Only I have colleagues staying in your hotel and I'd like to be able to inform them of my room number in advance, if that's ok. Ah, great, thanks. Five-four-oh. Wonderful. Bye then."

Ferdie placed the receiver down, a triumphant look on his face.

"What, exactly, was that about?" asked Sam.

"We've got a room," he said. Five hundred and forty at the Hilton across the road."

"Ferdie - how are you going to pay for it? And you've booked it for tomorrow? We don't want a room tomorrow. And what was all that stuff about Mister Steven Carlson?" said Philip.

"We're not going to pay, you muppet," Ferdie replied. "The room is empty now - the guys said it had just been cleaned. They're not going to place any more bookings on it between now and then, are they? We're just going to locate that room, fly in, make ourselves comfortable for the night, and clear off early tomorrow morning. If we're feeling kind, we can give them another ring and cancel Mister C's booking. "

I shook my head in slight disbelief. "You really think this will work?" I asked incredulously. "We won't get caught?"

"Why should we? There's probably over a thousand rooms in that hotel, and it's already been cleaned once today. Why stop by to check on it between now and tomorrow? And if some cleaner does walk in, we'll just make them assume she's made a mistake, and get out of there."

"How are we going to find the right room?" I asked. "And what if the window is shut?"

"Room five hundred and forty. That's probably the fifth floor. And in all the hotels I've stayed in, the room number is printed on the welcome pack on the dressing table. If we go bird, we should be able to see which is our room."

"What if the window is shut? How are we supposed to get in then?" asked Sam.

"We can morph flies and go in through the front door," Ferdie replied. "Or go in through another open window, buzz out into the corridor, then crawl under the door."

"What if the doors are, like, really close to the floor and we can't squeeze underneath? I don't think this is going to work, Ferdie."

"Look, if we can't get it, then it doesn't really matter, does it? We've not lost anything. We've not given them any money. We'll just have to sleep outside." He gave Sam the fish eye. "Again. Sleeping rough. In the cold. And it looks like it might rain tonight so-"

"Ok!" said Sam. "I get the picture! We'll give it a go. But only because you've already made the call."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Ferdie. "I can't wait to have a shower."