Plans
The doors of the elevator slid open, revealing the long hallway on the groundfloor before them, almost empty. Mohinder took a breath to steady his nerves. He was glad they´d taken the other elevator, the one at the north end of the building, not the one to the lobby. That way he gained a few minutes to prepare himself, to calm down and put on a mask of indifference.
He noticed Sylar glancing strangely at him and realized for the first time how nervous he must look.
Immediately he put on a more composed face. If Sylar noticed the difference, he didn´t say it.
"How long will Shawn and Gus need to get down here, what do you think?" Mohinder asked him while they stepped out of the car, to make their way down the hallway.
"Twenty-three minutes, eight seconds." Sylar answered dryly and when Mohinder looked at him, he raised a brow. "Was that a serious question?"
"Actually it was meant as one." Mohinder mumbled, still far too tensed.
"Don´t worry." Sylar said. "This part of the plan is a piece of cake."
"Not if we blow it."
"That´s their part, remember? They´ll draw enough attention for ten people. No one will even look twice at the two of us."
Mohinder took another breath. "I sure hope so."
He threw a brief glance upwards to the camera under the ceiling. Small, round and black. Unsuspicious. Usually unnoticed. Usually operated by the hotel security. Only they knew that currently things were different in the system, that the picture this camera sent to the real security monitors was fake and that the only ones who could really see them passing through this corridor, were Bennet, Lassiter and O´Hara.
"I heard what you said to Bennet earlier by the way." Sylar mentioned, his gaze looking everywhere but at Mohinder.
"I only want this operation to go smoothly." the scientist replied. "Matt´s family depends on it."
"I know that. I just wanted to say thanks anyway. You know. That you defended me before Bennet."
"Don´t mention it. Just do me a favor."
"What?"
"Stop provoking him."
Sylar stopped dead in his tracks for a moment before hurrying on. "I don´t provoke him." he cried.
"Yes, you do."
"No, I don´t."
"Yes, you do." Mohinder snapped and stopped, so abruptly that Sylar flinched. "Yes, you do." he repeated, emphasizing every single word. "So stop doing it."
He kept on walking and Sylar followed, a smirk on his lips. "I just try to make conversations." he remarked and made Mohinder stop dead, once again.
"Are you kidding?" he cried. This man was just unbelievable.
...
"Dude, this is so awesome." Shawn exclaimed, while sneaking along the hallways of the hotel with light feet. "We´re so doing Ocean´s Eleven here."
"I know." Gus agreed, moving on the other side of the hallway to cover the whole perimeter.
"That makes you Basher." Shawn went on, almost too excited to keep his voice down to the whisper tone that was so crucial for their mission. "Or that dude from the gambling tables." he added after a brief consideration.
"What?" Gus glared at him with insulted pride. "So you only find the two roles for me that were actually played by the black dudes?" he snapped.
"Who else could you be?" Shawn replied. "I mean you´re obviously the safe cracker."
That argument finally seemed to convince Gus and even if it didn´t, it definitely stroke his ego, considering his confident smile.
"And I´m obviously the smart planner of the operation." Shawn went on, but Gus only snorted.
"You wish. If anyone planned this operation then it was Bennet. You´re only an expert in screwing up."
"That´s not true." Shawn cried. Now he was the one with the insulted pride.
"Of course it´s true. We´re only in this position of the plan, because you screwed up earlier. We could have been in the smart agents down there in the lobby. Instead we´re once again sneaking around, dressing up as servants. Servants, Shawn."
"And?"
"And? I´m not a servant. That´s total prejudice in regard of black people, Shawn."
"It´s just a disguise, dude."
"But a discriminating one."
"You really want to say, being a bellhop is something to be ashamed of?"
"Shawn!"
...
Up in the suite Bennet was sitting in front of the screens, his hand on his forehead and didn´t know what else to do than to shake his head. This was just ridiculous. Both of their so called teams had independently from each other, put a hold on the mission in order to clear out some very important differences. Only that something in his guts told him, that it was not necessarily the mission they talked about.
"I have a bad feeling about this plan." he remarked, shaking his head again. "Worse than bad. I mean … what the hell are they doing there? Arguing? About what?"
Lassiter only smirked, as if that whole situation was actually amusing him. "Welcome to my world." he said.
Noah couldn´t quiet share the humor he obviously found in this. There was too much at stake here and he was used to work with people who knew to remember that. He took his cell phone out and dialed Suresh´s number. On the screen, he could see the doctor stopping his argument with Sylar and reach for his cell.
"Yeah?" Noah heard his voice.
"Is there a problem, doctor?" the Company man asked, calm but firmly.
On the screen Mohinder looked up into the camera, an annoyed expression on his face. "Don´t worry about us." he answered the question. "We´re fine."
"I hope so."
The line got disconnected. Noah watched how Mohinder took his cell phone away and grabbed Sylar´s elbow, urging him to keep going. A moment later the two of them vanished around the corner and were out of sight. Noah glanced over to the second screen. Shawn and Gus were still arguing.
"You want to give them a call?" he asked Carlton but the detective just snorted.
"What´s the point?" he asked indifferent.
Noah couldn´t remember when he´d been sweating on a mission the last time, because it had not happened in years. But now he did. How the hell was this happening?
Fortunately it turned out that Carlton was right and calling these two was unnecessary. On a certain point they just stopped arguing and entered the room they´d been heading for all along. For as long as they were in there Noah´s screen would remain empty. He wasn´t sure if that was a comforting thing though.
...
Gus took one of the hotel uniforms off the hook and held it over his chest, examining it. It was red with golden applications. The typical liftboy uniform, Gus thought to himself.
"Dude, you will look absolutely dashing in that, believe me." Shawn said and Gus shot him a dark glare.
"And about what you said earlier." his friend just went on, totally ignoring the silent warning. "You´re wrong. Because, if I would be the one screwing up all the time, it would make me Matt Damon´s character, but that´s ridiculous because I´m obviously Brad Pitt. While in fact I should be George Clooney because Jules can only be Julia Roberts and the two of them are supposed to be a couple."
"Lassiter plays Juliet´s husband." Gus pointed out, glad to have found something to pay Shawn back a little of the teasing.
"Are you kidding?" Shawn cried promptly. "He has nothing of George Clooney."
"Neither have you."
"You´re right. So I´ll be Brad Pitt then."
"You´re nuts." Gus remarked.
"Exactly." Shawn replied and pointed at Gus just as Gus pointed at him, celebrating this remarkable quote exchange they´d managed.
After that they changed into their disguises quietly, not speaking another word until they were ready to leave the closet again. The second half of the plan could begin.
...
Just seeing them come out of the closet again, only a few minutes later, fully dressed the way they were supposed to be and even acting as if they knew what they had to do, made Noah relax a little. He took a deep breath, convincing himself that things would go smoothly after all.
"Here we go."
"Let´s have a look at the conference, shell we?" Carlton suggested and Noah agreed.
A few switches on the keyboard and the lobby appeared on the screen before them, slowly getting crowded with people who were attempting today´s conference. After looking for a while, they spotted Sylar and Mohinder among those people, standing in the crowd as if they actually belonged there. Sort of.
The real guests of the conference were scattered around in small groups, eating the snacks on the buffet tables or drinking the champagne the service staff carried around. The two uninvited guests stood inbetween all this and Noah could do nothing but hope they wouldn´t try to make conversation with anyone, risking it to get caught in the process.
A few minutes later, Shawn and Gus reached the lobby, both of them carrying trays with champagne just the way the real staff did it. Noah had no idea where they´d gotten them from, but it definitely helped them to blend in. Again he took a breath.
"So far so good."
...
Sylar tapped Mohinder´s arm and motioned across the lobby with his chin. When Mohinder looked that way, his eyes met those of Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster, both of them looking over-serious as if they were in a bad version of Mission Impossible. The glance they shared lasted exactly two seconds and the two of them glanced away, performing something they obviously considered as acting natural.
Mohinder exchanged a helpless glance with Sylar, but his companion only shrugged, smiling indifferently. He held out a bowl he´d picked up from the snack table, still munching on the contents himself.
"Water Melon?" he offered.
Mohinder scowled in annoyance and put his attention back to Shawn and Gus, trying to do it unsuspiciously and in a way that it wouldn´t look as if he was stalking these two servants. As it turned out it wasn´t the easiest thing to do, especially since he was so obvious in his tensed state. A man in a gray suit passed him, glancing at him irritated. Mohinder turned around quickly and when Sylar offered him the bowl again, he snatched it from him with a growl.
"Calm down." Sylar told him, still too lighthearted for Mohinder´s taste. "Just enjoy the ride."
"This is not a sightseeing tour." Mohinder hissed. "We´re here for a reason."
"Exactly." Sylar replied, his smile a little smaller now. He took Mohinder by the shoulders and held him firmly, his gaze serious. "And when you don´t relax a bit, people will start worrying if you might get a seizure or something." he remarked. "Remember the plan? Blend in? Look around. These people we´re supposed to blend into … they´re actually having fun." he wagged his head a little, adding: "As much as a politician can have fun that is. But I think you got my point, doctor."
He released Mohinder again and turned back to the snack table to collect himself a bowl of pineapple. When he was done, he threw him another meaningful glance, making Mohinder feel extremely embarrassed. He was just not meant for this. He was a scientist, not a special agent.
He picked up one of the water melon pieces and put it into his mouth. It needed several more for him to calm down and to actually breath better again. Sylar was right. He was endangering the whole mission acting like that. God, he hated it when Sylar was right, especially when he looked at him like he did now.
Mohinder didn´t say a word, only nodded at him, telling him that he was fine. Now.
His eyes caught sight of Shawn and Gus again. The two of them had made their way over to the reception, mixing themselves with the other waiters, that were still busily walking up and down the place. Alone behind the reception there were three clerks, working their computers or books or whatever it was they had to do during this conference. Right now the reception seemed to be the most busy place in this lobby, except for the snack tables.
One of the actual waiters noticed his two colleagues lingering around without carrying new food to the tables or handing champagne to the guests. He stopped to reprove them. Mohinder´s throat tightened at the sight. But then Shawn exaggeratedly agreed with the other man and was left alone, never intending to actually pick up his work again. Mohinder exhaled.
"Just … stay calm." Sylar repeated but this time his gaze was tensed as well.
He scanned the area around the reception, estimating. Shawn was currently trying to slip behind the reception, but one of the three clerks exited just in that moment, not even noticing that Shawn avoided a crash with him just in time.
"They´re never gonna make it back there." Mohinder shook his head and this time Sylar didn´t tell him to stay calm. Instead he looked around the lobby as if searching something. When he´d found it, he tapped Mohinder´s elbow with his own, to show him.
Mohinder followed his gaze but didn´t see anything. Only the snack table on the other side of the lobby.
"What …?" he asked, confused.
"Watch this." Sylar told him, holding out his hand, imitating a gun with his thumb and index finger.
His eyes were fixed on the table and for a moment Mohinder thought he was going to cut it in half or something like that. He was about to pull Sylar´s arm down but there it had already happened. Sylar´s thumb flipped down, only once and on the other side of the lobby a big bowl of punch exploded, spilling its pink-red content all over the table, and the people who stood around it.
Gasps and shocked screams echoed through the lobby and within only five seconds all attention was on that snack table. Heads were turned, people skipped back, security hurried around to make sure that no bomb had just gone off. But the most important thing was that almost every single waiter that had gathered around the reception, was now looking the other way, giving Shawn and Gus the chance to slip behind their backs without being noticed.
One exchanged glance between Shawn and Sylar and the fake psychic understood what had happened. He dragged Gus behind, whispering something at him and then shoved him forward. After Gus had slipped in quietly, diving under the counter, Shawn pushed himself off the ground and effectively rolled himself over this very counter, landing behind the female clerk with a thud that Sylar could hear even from that distance – he just couldn´t believe it. Neither could Gus, regarding his face.
Fortunately the girl was busy talking to someone on the phone, so she didn´t see them. At the time she´d hung up and turned around, Shawn and Gus had slipped through the door in the back and were out of sight.
...
"What the hell are they doing?" Benet cried, unable to believe what he was seeing. "They´re supposed to get in there quietly. To act unsuspicious."
"I believe that is what they´re trying to do." Juliet remarked with a sigh, making him turn around and stare at her.
"Is that a joke?" he cried.
"Now you know what I´m dealing with." Lassiter spoke, totally calm and padded his back, a smirk on his face. "Don´t worry." he said. "We´re just getting started. Wait until Spencer starts to improvise."
...
Mohinder turned to Sylar, a look of utter disbelieve on his face. He was laughing.
"You tell me one more time to stay calm." he chuckled, shaking his head.
Sylar didn´t even know what to reply. This was something even he hadn´t expected. Mohinder took the little fruit bowl he´d emptied earlier and downed the juice that was left in it as if it were Whiskey.
In this moment, Sylar´s eyes found a man in the crowd that had gathered around the table of the exploded bowl. A circle of spectators had formed there. They were laughing about the fright the incident has given them, some of them making supposedly funny comments about a bomb threat that came from the kitchen. Inbetween all this stood the man they´d been waiting for all along.
Emmerson, the hotel manager, listening to the report his security people were giving him.
Sylar nudged Mohinder´s shoulder to gain his attention. As soon as his eyes found Emmerson, his posture got rigid again. But meeting Sylar´s gaze he composed himself, taking only one deep breath to prepare. Eventually he nodded.
"Let´s go and get him."
Together they made their way through the crowd, crossing the lobby, not too fast but quickly enough to make sure Emmerson wouldn´t be gone before they could reach him. And sure enough, the manager was just in the process of leaving, now that he´d made sure his people could handle the situation.
Sylar and Mohinder exchanged a glance and parted ways. It was Mohinder who had to reach the manager first, and somehow he managed it to make that happen. Pretending to look the other way, he ran into Emmerson and with a cry of surprise, pushed him backwards. Right into Sylar, who caught the stumbling man with steady hands.
"Oh dear god, I´m so sorry." Mohinder cried. "Are you all right, sir?"
Sylar let go of the manager again, looking him over as if to make sure he wasn´t injured. Emmerson composed himself, straightening his jacket to regain his dignity.
"Don´t worry." he half chuckled. "Nothing happened."
"I don´t know, I´m so clumsy. I can´t tell you how sorry I am." Mohinder kept talking.
"It´s all right. Never mind. Have a nice day, sir." And with that the manager retrieved, making his way over to the reception in a hurry.
Mohinder glanced after him for a minute before turning an asking gaze to Sylar.
The shapeshifter only raised his hand for him, rubbing together the tips of his fingers. He continued without transition to show Mohinder an approving face, appreciating his performance and the shoulders of the other man relaxed a little. So this was the more complicated part of the plan. Now all they could do was wait for Shawn and Gus to initiate the next part.
...
"Dude, how long do you still need?" Shawn hissed, from his position at the door.
"Don´t rush me, Shawn." Gus demanded, his attention a hundred percent on the hotel safe. "This is some delicate work." he told him, taking deep and steady breaths. "Just let me work."
Shawn watched his friend work, with only a slight feeling of irritation. He´d seen him do this before so it wasn´t completely new to him, no matter how weird it was to see how much Gus blustered into this … work. And then he heard a click and the safe that Gus had been trying to seduce went open.
"Dude, that´s so great." Shawn exclaimed, hurrying through the room to stand beside him.
"I know." Gus´ eyes were glowing, facing that open door.
For a moment they were just standing there, looking at the now available contents of the hotel safe. Shawn frowned. Something was wrong. Something should have happened by now.
"Why is there no alarm?" he wondered, looking up to the ceiling.
"This is a hotel safe, Shawn." Gus told him. „Not a bank deposit box. I don´t think they have an alarm."
"But … how are they supposed to know they´re getting robbed?" Shawn asked and hurried back to the door he´d been supposed to watch. When he peeked out again, he almost laughed out loud. "Dude, can you believe it?" he cried. "They haven´t even noticed us yet. We could just walk out of here with all that stuff in there."
"That´s really not good secured." Gus agreed, highly disapproving with the safety of this hotel. "I mean, look at all that value stuff in here."
His eyes found something in the safe and he gasped, reaching in to get a collier of diamonds out, holding it up for Shawn to see it.
"Those are worth at least ten grands." he cried scandalized and put it back in. "I never put any of my stuff in a hotel safe again."
A ringing tone echoed through the room and made them both jump. Shawn´s first thought that there might be an alarm after all, was gone as soon as he recognized the ring tone of his cellphone. He got it out and answered the call.
"Who´s there?" he asked nervous.
"What the hell are you waiting for?" Bennet asked, impatiently. "You want to stand there all day?"
Shawn looked up again and spotted the camera that hung under the ceiling. "Well, obviously we´re just too good for them." he defended himself, staring into that small lens. "What are we supposed to do? Yell out there: Hello, you morons, guess what. We´re in the process of robbing you?"
"I suggest you do something to gain their attention." was all Bennet would reply. "And I suggest you do it now."
"All right, all right." Shawn grumbled and hung up without waiting for a response. He looked around for a moment and then walked over to a small desk.
"Hurry up, Shawn." Gus urged him.
"Would you stop rushing me?" Shawn hissed. "That´s some delicate work I´m doing here."
With that he took the table with both hands and threw it over, shattering everything that had been on it around the room.
...
Outside the two receptionists flinched at the sudden noise that came from their backroom, the room where the hotel safe was located. Just as one of them reached the door to look inside, the door got ripped open and two guys came jumping out, both of them wielding guns around, shouting like in a bank robbery situation. The two receptionists screamed and ducked for cover, while the two culprits jumped over the counter to make a run for the door.
"Security!" someone shouted and then there was a big mess of screaming and running people.
"Freeze!" one of the security men yelled. "Stop, or we´ll shoot."
People screamed and hurried to get away from that area around the main entrance, the place where the bullets would fly, should there be any shooting.
The two running men had almost reached the door now. One of the guards pulled his gun, aiming at them. But just before he could actually shoot, something made him slip and hit the ground. He lost the gun from his hand and when he tried to reach for it, it slid away as if someone had kicked against it. It vanished under a table, out of his reach.
The man cursed and struggled back to his feet. But as it turned out the running thieves had already been stopped without his help, just outside the hotel. Just as they´d left it, rushing out into the street, a car had crossed their path and stopped with squeaking tires. The white one of the thieves had been too fast to stop in time and after a somersault over the hood, he´d ended up lying sprawled out on the street, his theft lying scattered all around him. Security really only needed to collect these two jokers.
...
"What are you waiting for?" Mohinder cried behind him. He was already standing at the door that led into the staircase, looking back at Sylar impatiently. But Sylar had had no choice. When he´d seen the security man pull his gun, he´d had to do something. Now that he saw that Shawn and Gus were all right, he could keep going.
"Sylar, for Christ´s sake." Mohinder urged and Sylar turned around, to follow him.
"Coming."
He barely registered the sound of a door that had been opened just behind him, one of the backdoors that led into the big conference room. When he finally turned around, he ran into a man and
stumbled. Mumbling an apology he hurried on, barely glancing at him, in order to keep walking. But Mohinder wasn´t urging anymore. He was staring in shock. Not at Sylar though. At something else. Something behind him. And then the man he´d just ran into, spoke up, and he knew why.
"You." a familiar voice spat out and Sylar´s mouth dropped open. Slowly he turned around to look into the face of a man he´d considered dead.
"Parkman?"