Alias Mars
By Michael Weyer
Part nine: Any Rescue You Can Walk Away From…
The clerk behind the desk at the hotel looked up and stiffened a bit as he saw Logan Echolls saunter in. He knew who he was of course. Everyone in Neptune did after all the press given to him and his father. He tried to put on his best smile as the man came up. "Mr. Echolls. What can I do for you?"
"Well, you can start by getting a suite ready," Logan said as he leaned on the desk. "As you may have heard, I'm experiencing a housing shortage and shocking as it sounds, it seems 'Extreme Makeover' doesn't do anything for the upper tax bracket. And as I am planning some debauchery my roomies don't want around, I need a place for the night."
"Certainly," the clerk said as he looked over the computer. "Just you?"
"At the moment," Logan said. "But I am expecting some…ah…friends over later." He slid a small wad of $100 bills on the desk. "I'm hoping they won't have any problems getting up to my room."
The clerk smiled as he quickly pocketed the money. "No problems at all, Mr. Echolls." He quickly typed on the computer and presented Logan with a key. "There you go, room 869. Enjoy your stay."
"I shall, thank you," Logan said as he took the key and marched off, hoisting the bag on his shoulder. "Wasn't too hard," he muttered under his breath.
"Don't get cocky," Jack's voice crackled into his ear.
"Wow, you really don't know him," Duncan's voice echoed.
"Ah, come on," Logan said, adjusting the sunglasses over his eyes as he leaned against the wall next to the elevators and waited for it to arrive. "This doesn't seem as dangerous as you said it'd be."
"Really?" Jack dryly stated. "Perhaps the man sitting by the column might disagree."
Logan's eyes darted toward the man. "Why him?"
"Aside from the fact he hasn't flipped the page of the magazine in the entire time you were talking to the clerk," the elder man stated. "There's a bulge under his right arm that matches the dimensions of a shoulder holster for a Russian-made pistol."
Logan was still for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Okay…um…so, is the room okay?"
"Perfect," Marshall's voice came in. "Just set it up and the guests will be right there."
Logan nodded and hummed under his breath as he stepped into the elevator.
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The doors to the hotel opened up and two people walked in. Actually, they didn't so much walk in as marched in as if they owned the place. The man was a bit heavyset but good looking, in a stylish pair of jeans, denim shirt, vest and cowboy hat. The woman was dressed in a very skimpy red vinyl miniskirt with a low cut red and black halter that left her belly bare. Her hair was a short red cut that was spiked and colored with blue and purple trails. She followed the man as he came up to the front desk. "Hey there," he said in a voice laced with a trace of a European accent. "We're here for Logan Echolls."
The man looked them over, trying to keep his face straight. "And, ah, you would be?"
"We're here for the party," the woman said, smacking some gum in her mouth as she spoke with an alluring French accent. "That's all you need to know."
The man pursed his lips as he tapped on the computer. "Ah, yes. He's in 869. Did you need any…help with bags?" He looked at the two large black bags the two carried.
"Naw," the man said. "We just got some party favors here." He and the woman shared a wicked smile.
The clerk frowned. "Um…we don't encourage our guests to take their own…refreshments in our establishment."
"Come on, we can handle it!" the woman laughed. She leaned forward, pressing her chest up a bit as she spoke. ""Be a dear, won't you?"
The clerk tried to keep his eyes off her cleavage as he licked his lips. Before he could speak, there was a commotion from the lobby doors. Looking up, the clerk blanched as he saw a pack of young Latinos in dark jeans and leather coats stride in. Their leader marched right over to the desk and leaned on it. "Okay, we can handle this one of two ways," Weevil said without preamble. "You tell us where Logan Echolls is right now or we make a fuss."
The man licked his lips. "Um, I'm not at liberty to say."
Weevil's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Really?" He leaned forward, glaring at the increasingly nervous man. "You at liberty to keep all your limbs intact? Cause we're leaning in that direction right now."
The clerk swallowed. "Okay, I think you should leave."
Weevil kept staring at him before backing up. He looked around the lobby as he spoke out loudly to his gang. "You know, guys, I think we outghta hold our meeting here, don't you? We got a good place to gather, grab a bite to eat, maybe hit the arcade." A wave of nods and words of agreement came from the others. Smiling, Weevil moved to a nearby sofa chair and sat back on it, propping his feet on the table.
"Excuse me," the clerk snapped. "You can't just-----"
"Public place, my friend," Weevil said as he picked up a magazine and started to flip through it. "We've got a right to be here." He snapped his fingers at a waiter who was delivering a tray to the dark-suited man by the pillar. "Yo! Get us some pretzels, ok?"
The clerk frowned as he picked up the phone to call security. He was so intent on the men in the lobby that he didn't fully register how the two strange guests had left the lobby area.
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"I can't believe Sydney wears stuff like this so often," Nadia stated as she tugged at her tight top.
Weiss gave her an appraising smile. "Ah, you can work it pretty well."
Nadia returned the smile as they exited the elevator. "Watch it, we're on the clock." They quickly headed to 869 and Nadia knocked on the door. It opened to show Logan, who threw a smirk at them. "Well, hello. I see MTV Europe for the Straight Guy has come to call."
Nadia brushed past him to enter the room, pulling the wig off her head. She spoke softly as she rubbed her ear. ""We're in."
"Okay," Jack said over the line. "Start scanning."
Weiss had opened one of the bags and pulled out what looked like a metal detector. He lifted the round section up to the ceiling and swept it around. In the team's headquarters, Marshall and Mac watched as an image filled their screens, showing the layout of the room above and the shapes of humans colored orange. "We're getting thermal readings," Mac stated.
Marshall looked them over carefully. "Okay…two people sitting down and not moving…I think that's Syd and Veronica."
"Anyone else?" Nadia asked as she opened up the other bag and began to remove a set of small packets of what appeared to be clay.
"One guy walking around near them," Mac answered. "But no one in that immediate area."
"All right," Nadia said as she stood on the bed and molded one of the small packets in her hand. "Tell me where to place them."
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Veronica tapped her foot on the floor and sighed deeply. "Funny, I never realized just how boring being held captive could be."
"Yeah, I do find myself wishing I had a book," Sydney replied as she shuffled on her chair. "At least we got a bathroom break."
Veronica snorted. "Oh, yeah, having a guy right inside when we do is sooo helpful."
"I've learned from experience to never let Sydney Bristow alone, even if for a moment," Sark stated as he entered the room. He smiled at the agent. "Well, Sydney, it appears your boredom may be alleviated thanks to an unexpected visitor."
Sydney frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Sark snapped his fingers and one of his men came in, pushing Vaughn before him. Vaughn had his hands up, a bruise forming under one cheek and a gun aimed at his back. "Vaughn," Sydney breathed.
He managed a small smile. "Hey. Sorry, thought I had the exit covered."
"I must admit some disappointment, Mr. Vaughn," Sark intoned. "I had expected a bit of a higher caliber rescue than this. Budget cuts hampering you already?"
Vaughn glared at him. "You've got an hour, tops, before this hotel is swarming with agents, Sark. Either give up or get out now."
Sark raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, this does this ridiculous 'surrender now' line you people use every actually work?"
Vaughn shrugged. "You'd be surprised. Some people we meet are actually intelligent."
Veronica let out a loud snicker at that as Sark glared at her. "Your arrival does complicate matters," the man was forced to state. "We'll have to speed up our timetable a bit in order to make this work."
"Too bad," Vaughn said as he carefully moved over so he was standing right next to Sydney. "But at least you've got us together, which is good."
Something in the way he said it caught Sydney's interest. She did her best to hide it before Sark but she did glance at Vaughn. He didn't look back but something in his eyes spoke to Sydney and let her know that the plan was much bigger than Sark imagined.
Sark sniffed. "Please, spare me the romantics, Vaughn. I had enough of that in our last encounter."
"Yeah, you have your own style, Sark," Vaughn said as he tapped his foot twice on the floor. "Maybe we should take that up. You know, love them…and leave them."
He slammed his foot down hard on the floor. In the room below, Nadia and Weiss heard it from their position. They, and Logan, were kneeling on the floor behind one bed, which was propped up on its side. Weiss thumbed the switch on a remote and ducked with the others.
The signal activated the charges inside the small mounds of plastique that were spread in a wide circle on the ceiling. One by one, they went off, chunks of plaster and wallpaper flying about. Above, Veronica couldn't help but let out a surprised yelp as the entire section of floor beneath her, Sydney and Vaughn gave way and collapsed into the room right below.
Vaughn was already moving, a knife pulled from his boot as he quickly cut Sydney and Veronica from the bonds keeping them to their chairs. Above, Sark and the one man inside were both stunned by the unexpected development. That gave Weiss and Nadia the chance to move toward the circle, aiming up and firing with their pistols. The one guard had foolishly leaned over to look down the hall and was blown back by the bullets. Sark, for his part, fell back and crawled into the other room to yell to his men.
Veronica coughed on the cloud of smoke flowing into the room. Her eyes watering, she found herself staring at an unexpected person. "Logan? What the hell…"
The young man couldn't help but smirk. "What can I say? Being the White Knight is good for karma."
"Let's move!" Weiss said as he pushed Veronica forward. "We're only one floor down, Sark's guys are gonna be here any minute."
They piled into the hallway and took off toward the elevators. "Shouldn't we try the stairs?" Sydney asked. "Elevators will take too long."
"Not this time," Nadia said with a smile. Sydney saw why when they came and found one elevator door already open. There was something attached to it that looked like a couple of large harnesses. Nadia reached one and slipped it on. Weiss moved in to grip it with her and without a word, they kicked out and slid down the cable. Sydney held one out for Veronica to slip into. Veronica let herself be attached to the cable and then started as Logan grabbed on. He gave her that cocky grin. "Didn't think you'd be going down with me again, did you?"
Veronica glared at him as they slid down the cable. She couldn't help letting out a yelp of exhilaration at the ride as they landed on the floor of the tunnel. A few moments later, Sydney and Vaughn were right by them. Nadia touched her earpiece and spoke. "We're down. Are we okay for cover?"
"In one minute," Jack answered as he spoke into another line.
In the lobby, a pair of men in security outfits were trying their best to quietly get Weevil and his gang out of the lobby. "Hey, easy, easy," Weevil said as he saw the man by the column suddenly get to his feet and head over toward the elevators. "We just want to see Echolls, have a chat and then we're out of here, okay?"
One security guard gave him a light push. "How about you leave now, pal, before we call the cops?"
Weevil acted like the push was much harder and ran right into the suited man behind him. He swung around, his face hard. "Hey, watch it!"
"Out of way, spic," the man snarled in a rough accent.
Weevil didn't have to fake the anger raging at the slur. To his surprise, it was one of the guards, who happened to be Mexican, who took offense, moving to the suited man. "Hey, apologize!"
The man simply punched the guard and began to head to the elevators and that was all that was needed. In seconds, Weevil and his gang were descending on the man to pelt him with punches and kicks. Other security guards raced in as the clerk watched in dismay and failed to see the flash of lights on the phone from rooms who had heard the explosion.
The elevator doors slid open and Sydney, Vaughn, Veronica, Logan, Nadia and Weiss stole out. In the chaos of the erupting brawl, with guests coming from the lounge and restaurant to see the commotion, they were barely noticed as they raced out toward the exit. Bursting into the open air, they saw a van waiting for them with Keith behind the wheel. The six quickly piled in and Keith didn't even wait for the sliding door to close before peeling off.
Back at the hotel, Sark and his men burst out of the stairway door only to literally run into the brawl. Before Sark knew it, he'd been punched in the face and shoved against a wall. He took his attacker out with a quick series of blows but saw the rest of his men were caught fighting the gang members and heard the wail of incoming sirens. Given the situation, Sark decided it was time for discretion to be the better part of valor and quickly headed back to his room to grab his bag before making his own way out of town.
Inside the van, Veronica heaved for breath, the full impact of what had happened flowing over her. She looked at Sydney and managed a smile. "Wow….all of your…rescues…so interesting?"
Sydney smiled back. "Nah. Just wait till you see one that makes us break into a sweat."
Veronica nodded as she made her way forward to where Keith was driving. He kept his eyes on the road but managed to reach over to stroke her hair. "Hey, baby," he softly said. "You ok?"
Veronica nodded as she fought the tears of relief in her eyes. She moved in and hugged her father the best she could. "I love you," she whispered.
Keith blinked back tears as he whispered. "Who's your daddy?"
"You my daddy," Veronica whispered back and they kept together the entire drive.
Only one more chapter left. Thanks for all the kind words.