Chapter 10: The Palm Hotel
Night had barely settled in the desert district, there was an event being held and all of celebrities of the lands were arriving at the Palm Hotel; the tallest, brightest building of the district of amazing detail of architecture. There was a massive crowd covering the entrances, with photographers mainly right next to the pathways to take photos of the celebrities as they walked by. The four friends stood on the other side of the street watching in amazement at what was going on; this was going to be problematic.
Judy grabs her walky-talky to contact Chief Bogo, "Uh sir, there's a problem we did not consider."
"What? What do you mean Hopps?"
"We weren't expecting there to be a huge crowd, what is going on?"
"You're telling me you didn't know there was an award ceremony being held at the hotel? Gazelle is going to be performing as well."
"But I don't know if we can pull this off without causing panic. It'll raise alarms for the security that our faceless mastermind has in the crowds."
"Look Hopps, things never go as planned. But right now the plan hasn't gone wrong. You'll just have to work your way through this without inciting a scurry. I'll be watching and hearing what goes on. Go and get it done."
Judy puts her walky-talky away as she gazes at the crowd.
Nick sees she's worried something might go wrong, "Hey, we're all here and there's nothing that could go wrong. The Hopps I know would think of a way to use this crowd as an advantage."
She looks at him feeling better of what he said and thinks, "Alright, we can maybe use the crowd to hide in. The more we blend in as we look around, the less we'll be detected."
Judy fixed her long skirt and her formal blouse both in black, which now was suitable with everything of the same color most of the animals at the event were wearing.
With a confident serious look she straightens herself up, "Let's do this."
They all walked across the street approaching the area, though Robert and Loren were behind since they had to carry cases of their own. There were news casters all around and cameras capturing the exciting event. The four struggled to make their way through the crowd of same sized or tall animals. For a moment they got separated with Nick and Judy heading to the right side of the crowd and Robert and Loren having made it to the front of it near the opposite end. Nick and Judy walk up the steps in hope of getting a better view to spot Loren and Robert. They moved left and right trying to look through the sides of the tall animals moving around partially blocking their view time to time. They manage to spot their friends as they were next to the rails holding the crowd back. Judy and Nick waved as Loren and Robert too were searching for Judy and Nick, until they spotted them through the crowd by the stairs.
Robert gets his walky-talky, "Judy? Nick? Doesn't matter, look you two need to go in and start looking around, we'll catch up later."
"Will you two be fine?"
"Of course, we'll be sticking together. Now get going, stick to the plan."
"Alright." Judy puts her walky-talky away and grabs Nick's left hand, "Come on let's go."
They proceeded into the lobby, a massive room with large red drapes with gold color ropes. Red carpeting covered most of the floor. The front desk was connected to a large structure that ran in the center of the hotel, with bridges stemming out connecting to the other floors. It was mainly for animals to use the elevators within it to get to the higher floors. The lobby was also busy with animals whom came for the event, others who were already checked in and hotel lobby assistance moving in luggage. Judy and Nick readied themselves and walked on to the counter.
Working at the counter was a gazelle, a panda, and a giraffe all in the hotel's uniform of a dark red vest and white long sleeve button shirt underneath. The gazelle was busy logging information on the computer, too busy to have noticed Nick and Judy.
"Excuse me." Judy tried to get the gazelle's attention, but was a bit timid, "Yes, hello?" She spoke louder.
Nick stepped up and tapped on the counter, "Yes, hi."
The gazelle stopped typing and looked ahead, "No, down here."
He leans over the counter and looked down to see the small couple, "Yes, how may I help you?"
"Hi, we have a reservation here."
"And what is the name you have the reservation under?" The gazelle turned to his computer waiting to type it in.
"Alanzo." Nick replied.
The gazelle types it and surely enough they were checked in, "Here we are, Mr. Alanzo." The gazelle reaches down for the room key, "Here is the you key to your room, will there be any luggage we can have our lobby boys bring up to your room?"
"Nope, there's no luggage." Nick took the key.
"Any other kind of service you would like?"
"No, there's nothing more we'll need, thank you."
The panda had looked at Judy and Nick for a split second as Nick and Judy walked away.
Nick and Judy had gone and hid by an elevator as Judy handed Nick the walky-talky, "I can't talk to them here, it's too noisy, we might as well head up." Nick pressed the button for the elevator.
Once inside he contacts Robert, "Hey are you there?"
Robert had to shout due to the loud crowd he was in, "Yeah, Loren and I are still outside. How is your end?"
"We're heading up to the room. We'll start looking around the top floor for any suspicious guards by a room or something."
"Why are you whispering, there's no one here to rad us out?" Judy pointed out.
"You never know if they have mics around."
"What was that last part?" Robert shouted again through the walky-talky as there also was a shutter sound from a camera. Robert had put the walky-talky aside to take pictures of a celebrity walking by.
"Wait are you taking pictures?"
Robert indeed was, but lies about it, "What? No, that's Loren taking her character too seriously." He gives Loren a small nudge, "Loren easy on the pics, we're for a reason." She nudges him back.
Nick rolled his, "Look just get into the hotel already, we'll meet you guys at the rendezvous point alright?"
Robert then got serious about the operation, "OK, we'll be right there, over and out." He puts away the walky-talky, "OK we should go on ahead."
Loren nodded and they start making their way through the crowd.
Nick changes the channel, "Sir, we're all in, commence the count down." Nick informed Chief Bogo.
"Alright, it's on you four now, I hope we won't have to ruin these animal's night. Best of luck."
The elevator reaches the destined floor, Nick and Judy walk onto the huge bridge that also had red carpeting, looking around the massive structure.
"Wow, this is amazing. I'd never thought I'd get to see the inside so soon."
Judy walked to the edge and looked over the railing for animals their size down below, watching the well-dressed animals as they move around like ants.
"It is."
"You should come see this." She invited him.
"I'm good, not a fan of heights." He stood back.
Judy laughed a bit, "Alright let's go and wait for Robert and Loren."
She attempts to startle Nick by giving him a small push towards the edge of the bridge.
Nick shook his head knowing what she tried to do.
Down below Robert and Loren made it into the lobby carrying the cases looking around for the elevators.
"Oh man this is heavy. OK we should look for an elevator to take us to the room."
"Well they're clearly over there. We should hurry, it's a long way up and the time is ticking."
As they passed the counter from a distance the giraffe attending saw them walking quickly by.
"Excuse me, but where do you think you're going?" The giraffe points out to them.
Robert and Loren kept going, "We have a room here, real big rush!" Robert shouted.
They got onto and elevator and up they went.
Nick and Judy found their way to the room not far from the elevator. Nick uses the key and in they went. It was very clean inside, real luxurious, big in size like an apartment for two. They both looked at the room that was to the right of the entrance; The bed looked real comfortable with two wooden nightstands on each side, each with lamps on top. Judy and Nick were fascinated at the room, but knew they were here for a serious matter. But they decided to look around.
"This is truly beautiful, no wonder so many come from all around the world." Judy enters the other room.
Nick looked around with his paws inside his pockets and checks out the dresser and all it had on top, "Yeah, I got to say this is pretty neat."
Judy then really goes and looks around getting a good look at the entire space, "I know where I'll be staying when I get time off the force for a vacation." Judy jokingly said aloud. She waited for Nick to say something, but there was no reply from Nick.
"Nick, you there?" She turned around, "Bet you're just as fascinated with this place you've found some cool detail didn't you?"
Still there was no reply, which didn't concern Judy too much, but went to check up on him, "Nick? Are you there?" She peeks into the room as sees no one is inside. She leans back wondering where he had gone. But right when she turned to head to the look at the living room a large panther's paw reaches for her.
Robert and Loren make it to the room's door and knock, "Hey, Nick, Judy, we're here." Robert says in a low tone. He looks back at Loren whom also wondered why no one has answered yet.
"Maybe they're not here?"
"No, no, that's impossible, they were way ahead of us and were in the elevator when he contacted us remember? They have to be here." Robert knocks even harder.
Loren then moves Robert aside and turns the handle opening the door.
"Oh, guess they left it open to let us in."
But as they walked in their looks turn into shock. Pictures were broken down on the floor next to the walls they were hung on, chairs lying on their side on the floor; clearly someone unwanted had made their way into the room.