Chapter 17: I Wanna Lay You Down
"What's got everyone so quiet? You're in Vegas with your favorite hacker and none of you are excited?" Sombra asked, leaning on the back of the driver's seat at the tail end of a long road trip. "Val, did you forget to take your happy pills or something? You haven't been talking to me all day." She sat back and looked out the window at the Las Vegas buildings passing by.
"What? No. I'm just tired. Back to back contracts, and after this I still have to finish moving into my apartment." Val did not exactly look forward to potentially holding a hostage in a hotel room for several days with these idiots, likely as punishment for all his insubordination recently, especially when he had an apartment he had yet to move into.
"You already started moving?" Sombra asked.
"No, not really. It's been sitting empty. I don't really own anything to move, but I do at least have to clean."
"We could have a housewarming party! Just you, me, Fabuloso, and El Tigres Del Norte," Sombra said, leaning over to picture it with Val.
Widow looked over her shoulder at the two purple haired agents in the back. "How rude, you plan a party right next to me, and you don't even extend an invite."
"It's not much of a party if I don't have any furniture," Val said flatly.
"Will there be alcohol?" Widow asked.
"You know it!" Sombra cut in.
"Then I will be there. I will bring Gabriel; he needs to get out more."
"When did I say I wanted to go?" Gabriel sat up straight from his leaned-back position in the driver's seat, looking up at the rearview mirror.
"So you don't want to come? Even if there's a bottle of whiskey with your name on it?" Sombra says.
"I didn't say that," Gabriel answered coyly, and Val rolled his eyes.
When they arrived at the hotel, Reaper immediately went to unpack the trunk, while Val opened the doors for the ladies. While helping the other two out of the car, he overheard Reaper talking to a new voice.
"What the hell were you doing in there? You're not supposed to be here," Reaper said begrudgingly.
"Yes, I am. I was supposed to be on this mission originally." Val recognizes the voice now; it's Madlyn.
"You said I could take it from you," Gabriel said, as Val comes to help unload the car, and indeed finds an extra person, which would explain the extra suitcase of unknown origin they loaded earlier.
"I said you could go. I didn't say you could take it," she squeaked in her high-pitched voice, and Reaper looked over at Val, who stared at the two of them in confusion.
"When did you get here?" Val asked.
"I was here the whole time. What do you mean?" Madelyn said flatly, as if she didn't just pop out of the trunk; no matter how physically improbable that was. Val stared at her in disbelief before shaking his head and refocusing.
"You know what, Girard, I don't have time for this. You're already here, just get in the hotel." Val shooed the younger girl away from the trunk so they could finish unpacking the car.
As they walked in, Val headed straight to the check-in desk, and the other four waited in the lobby for him to bring their room keys. Val returned to the group to find Sombra craning her neck to look around at the high ceiling of the hotel, Widow on her phone, Girard on a chair staring at a decoration, and Reaper standing while subtly trying to sneak a peek around.
"Our room wasn't ready, lucky for Girard I was able to get us an extra bed because of it," Val said, handing a key card to Sombra.
"Que suave," Sombra said, as she stared at the glittering chandelier draped across the ceiling, taking her key. "They never put me up this nice, I should ask Max for more contracts. But I'm guessing Widow is used to living like this, right rich girl?" She elbowed Widow, who looked up and took her key.
"Absolutely not, this decor is tacky. If it were my choice we would be staying at the Four Seasons." Widow said, as she continued to distract herself, ignoring her surroundings. Sombra rolled her eyes, and Val shook his head, trying not to laugh as he handed Reaper his key card.
"And the stowaway?" Reaper said, nodding towards Girard, who sat behind him just out of earshot on a chair staring at some of the decor.
"I want to smack the shit out of her. She should know she's not getting paid either way, I don't know why she came." Out of the corner of his eye, Val noticed Girard had gotten up and began speaking to the front desk, interestingly enough.
"I'm not babysitting," Reaper said sternly.
"We're kind of stuck with her right now, we drove here." Val rubbed the bridge of his nose. Of course he had to have the least patient agent with him in these circumstances. He looked over at the three women of their group, finding all of them distracted and leaned in, lowering his voice.
"Look, she doesn't have a key, we just stick her with the girls and problem solved."
"Alright, but if she gets lost, I say we just leave her here."
"We aren't leaving her here." Val rubbed his face, wondering if his whole mission was going to end up going this annoyingly. Sombra came up next to him, pulling up the front camera on her phone, quickly causing him to change his demeanor for the photo.
"Can you two quit goofing off? I would like to put my bags down sometime today," Widow complained.
"Give me a minute, I gonna handle Girard," Val said, and walked over to the reception desk the 19 year old had just sullenly began to walk away from. "Girard, come 'ere. What are you doing?"
"Did you know you cannot buy alcohol until you're 21 here?" She asked, exasperated. "I was trying to ask about the alcohol prices, they asked for my ID and said you have to be 21 to order alcohol to the hotel room."
"That's the legal drinking age in the US babe. You should've read up before you tagged along. You know you aren't getting paid for this contract right?" She frowned at him. "If it weren't for the fact we drove here, I would've shipped you straight back to the base."
"You're saying it is going to be like that everywhere? In Sin City?" She looked up at him, pouting. Val gave an exasperated sigh.
"Welcome to America, where you can die for your country but can't drink a beer. I don't have a room key for you so you need to stay with Sombra or Widow." The girl nodded and started to walk to the rest of the group, still seeming solemn about the stupid alcohol. Val grabbed her arm, frustrated at her relaxed attitude, and leaned down, speaking through gritted teeth. "And just so you know, if you pulled this shit with anybody else, they'd kick your ass and leave you to work the strip. Don't go doing this shit again."
He let her go, unclenching his jaw, not realizing he had been carrying so much tension, and went to go speak to the front desk.
"Hi, quick question," Val said, putting on his best customer service voice as he leaned one arm on the counter. "That girl right there is part of my group, can I just be nosy and ask what she was asking about for the hotel room? She said you guys were carding her for alcohol." The receptionist looked up through his glasses, stopping his typing to turn to Val.
"She was asking how much it was to send a bottle of champagne and two glasses to the room," he answered dryly, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I carded her because we have to ask for an ID to charge the room anyways." Val nodded.
Turning back to look at the rookie, he was mystified to find Girard attempting to chat up a very unhappy Reaper. He tilted his head as she touched the older man's bicep during their conversation, which he swatted at immediately. Putting a few pieces together, he bit his lip trying to hold in a laugh. The little brat was trying to hit on Reaper, that's why she stowed away.
"You know what I'm so sorry, a couple of our group members are French." Val let out a small laugh, as he dug into his pocket for his wallet. "We just got back from France actually, I think the older ones forgot the drinking age is different there. I can just pay for it, and uh, if I give you thirty dollars, will you run it up to the room right now?" Val said, handing over his ID.
Val came back to the group, grinning ear to ear.
"What's so funny?" Sombra asked, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"Oh nothing, just uh, helping out Girard, like I have been." Val winked at the younger girl, who blinked before averting her gaze. "Here let me take your bags, I want to see if I can remember my way from the last time I was here." He took the luggage from the women, easily adding them to his load as he finally allowed himself a look around the glittering hotel.
"Are you sure you know your way around?" Girard asked, a bit of accusation in her voice as he walked backwards and looked up in wanderlust, just as the other four had earlier. "When was the last time you were here?"
"I don't remember, I think I had to have been like, 14?" Val said.
"You're gonna get us lost Hollywood," Gabriel warned.
"You can head straight to the hotel room then. I know Sombra wants to look around," Sombra and Girard nodded in agreement. "Widow?"
"I don't care, as long as I don't have to hold my bag," she answered, not looking up from her phone.
"Great," Val said, smiling. "So you can take your nasty attitude up to the 10th floor while we stretch our legs real quick." Reaper squinted at him, and the younger man faced forward to walk.
As they passed through the crowds of people, Val took note of some of the restaurants that interested him. He also happily smiled at the decor, finding himself in a much better mood at the scenery, falling to the back of the group with Reaper. Just like Sombra had earlier, he leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling, gawking at the giant chandelier encasing a bar.
"You don't seem the type to get starstruck by Vegas, Hollywood," Reaper said, breaking Val out of his hypnosis.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Val tilted his head back down.
"You buy expensive clothes, and you said you'd been here before. I thought you would be in your element here."
"What makes you think I'm not in my element?" Val asked. Reaper stuck his hands in his pockets, quieting his voice as he spoke.
"You're about to break your neck looking at all the pretty lights, just like Sombra is." Val changed his focus to Sombra taking pictures of everything, and felt his face start to warm up a bit.
"Oh. Yeah it's just, I'm a lot taller now." Val looked up one more time at the signs and the chandelier, before looking back at Reaper, who was eye level with him. "Everything seems a lot shorter. It's kind of scary, honestly. It's like I'm seeing everything with new eyes now, which I am, but also metaphorically."
"That's a little, what's the word, endearing, I guess," Gabriel said, though his voice dripped with distaste at the use of the word endearing. "I thought you would be jaded to all this."
"And you aren't? You don't seem very happy to be here."
"I'm jaded to life, Hollywood," Reaper said as they finally approached the elevators, and Val shook his head.
The five of them squeezed into the elevator, with Girard not very subtly forcing herself between the two men. Val hoped there had been enough time to put together his mischievous little plan. They arrived at the two rooms, and he stopped the group, waving for Reaper to walk to the door.
"Would you care to do the honors?" Val said, as he bowed and made a path to the door, specifically the one he had the wine sent to, along with a few extra amenities. This earned him a very stern stare as the eldest of the group walked to the door, scanned his keycard, and opened it. Walking in with a trail of agents behind, he watched Reaper's reaction expectantly.
The room was decorated with rose petals across the floor, as well as in a very lovely heart shape across the king size bed, a red streamer delicately strung across the headboard, a bottle of champagne ever so neatly tucked in a bucket of ice just for them, and side by side were two champagne flutes, with little pinks bows tied around the stems. Widow and Sombra gasped, before they burst into giggles, and Val couldn't hold in his laughter any longer.
Reaper tilted his head, turning to look at the rest of the group, hands on his hips, his Dad Mode activated.
"Alright, which of you clowns did this? Was this you?" Gabriel pointed at Sombra, who was losing her shit laughing and couldn't do anything but shake her head.
He gave Widow a glare, which she shook her head in response, holding her hand over her mouth as she held in her laughter.
This led to him turning straight to Val.
"Man, what the fuck?" Gabriel said.
"Hey, this wasn't my idea," Val said between laughs. "Girard was the one asking about the alcohol, but they wouldn't let her buy it. The rose petals were mine though." He started to laugh again, and Gabriel locked his eyes onto the youngest of the group.
In a surprisingly calm fashion, he pulled the bottle of wine out of the bucket, took a look at the label, then walked up to Girard.
"This was your idea?" He asked calmly, holding it out for her to look at. She set her hands gently on the sides of the bottle as she tried to read the label.
"Uh, yes, but this is a bit much, I just meant for the wine." Reaper snatched the bottle out of her hand stopping her train of thought.
"You three," Reaper snapped his head to look at the three spectators, who had all stopped laughing at this point, as black smoke trailed off of his shoulders. "Out. Balcony, hallway, don't care. Get out, and here." He then shoved the bottle into Widowmaker's chest. The three gave each other a glance before evacuating to the nearest exit, and proceeded to stare at the hallway carpet.
"If she dies am I liable?" Val asked, quickly breaking the tense silence.
"No, she hid a box of chocolates in his gym locker the other day, I think she's asking for it at this point." Sombra leaned up against the door, trying to listen in on the conversation going on.
"How fast do you think I can drink this?" Widow asked, as she read the label to the bottle of champagne, opening their other hotel room door with one hand.
This room, lacking in the romantic decor, was a double queen bedroom for the ladies, able to fit their extra guest now since their original accommodations weren't ready. It was nice, the bathroom a sleek black and silver decor, a wall painted white with large golden words all across it, the standard white hotel bed sheets, and a desk and dresser under the large wall mounted TV.
Val set their bags down, and passing by the door that connected their rooms, he could hear Reaper's voice booming through the wall. He looked over at Sombra, pointed at the wall, and widened his eyes. She did the same back as they communicated silently with each other.
Once the yelling had stopped, Val opened the adjoining door on their side, and knocked lightly. A tiny Madlyn answered, her mouth pressed firmly in a line as she entered and closed the door behind.
"So he does not like wine either," the rookie said, "He said to stop buying him things because he was not interested. Do you think he likes handmade items then?" Val and Sombra shared a look of awe.
"Girl, take a hint," Sombra said under her breath as she sat at the room's desk, typing away at her holographic screen.
"Let me go put my bag down and, uh, check he didn't break anything," Val said, before he knocked on the door before trying the knob, finding it still unlocked.
In the room he found Reaper mumbling to himself as he carried a trash can, picking up the rose petals off the floor. Val sighed making sure his footfalls were heard so he didn't startle the man, and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"You know that little creep has been following me around the base? We should leave her here, the little stalker." Reaper said, and he aggressively threw a handful of petals into the trash can, some of them flying back out.
"You're one to talk." Val said under his breath.
"What?" Reaper stood up, not hearing what was said thankfully, as the man looked like he was about to explode, maybe literally.
"Just give me the trash, I'll clean it." Val said, taking the small basket out of the aggressive man's hand, earning him a glare. "I got it, just go to the other room, go cool off."
"I don't want to be around her right now."
"Send her in, she can help me clean."
Gabriel grunted, but complied, and sent in the youngest of the bunch to help pick up the flower petals off the floor. The two did so in silence, and after maybe five minutes of cleaning and Girard shooting a few glares, they found a nice clean hotel room. Val opened the door between the rooms to share the good news, finding the adjoining room to be empty.
Today was going to be a long day wasn't it?
Looking at his watch, their mission really started around seven pm, and they had checked in around three. So while he knew they had four hours to kill, he was about to lose his mind over why every single agent had to disappear, and he got stuck babysitting. He turned to look at Madlyn.
"Where did they go?"
"I do not know, they didn't tell me."
"Fucking fantastic." Val leaned his head back and groaned as he hung on the doorway between the rooms, knowing he was going to have to track them down in this massively tall building. Especially if they didn't report back here on time for the mission, he would have to start hunting them down right now. "I'm going to make some calls, you don't leave this room or you're getting locked out, got it?" Madelyn gave him a side eye, and he began dialing his teammates' phones. Well their company issued phones. Starting with the most important, their body snatcher, Reaper.
Ringing was heard from inside the room, and Val turned around quickly, seeing Reaper's backpack and duffle bag sitting atop the dresser and desk, respectively. Holding the phone with his shoulder, he started digging through the back pack, not hearing the ringing grow any louder. He quickly opened the duffle, and with the ringing growing louder, found it glowing underneath all of Gabriel's gear.
Val clenched his jaw, growing very irritated, very quickly, as there was no way to contact his teammate in this very large building. He had a few hours, so Val gripped his phone tightly, took a deep breath, and tried Widow next, who thankfully picked up right away.
"Hello?"
"Where the hell are you?" Val raised his voice into the phone, letting out his frustration, thankfully on the spider that was minimally affected.
"I went to the spa."
"You went— didn't you just have a bottle of wine in your hand?" Val asked, flabbergasted at her lack of reaction.
"I drank it. Now I'm going to the spa, this is quite the large building. I will be back before seven."
"You were supposed to watch the newbie, or at least let someone know where you were going."
"I'm letting you know. I have my phone, I told Sombra to stay and watch her."
"Lot of good that did." Val rubbed the bridge of his nose as he spoke. "Do you know where Reaper is?"
"No, he was still there the last time I saw him."
"Great, thanks that's all I need, be back by seven." Val hung up and dialed Sombra next, who took a few seconds too long to answer.
"Yellow?" Sombra said, the microphone filled with background noise.
"Where are you?" Val asked, growing confused at the noise.
"The casino, duh. I'm getting us spending money, how else are we taking home souvenirs?"
"Please tell me you aren't drinking." Val rubbed his forehead as he worriedly waited for an answer.
"I'm not, I don't hack and drink." Sombra laughed into her phone, the noise of a slot machine loudly playing.
"Oh my god, you're hacking the fucking slot machines?" Val paced around the room. "Sombra you're gonna get us kicked out!"
"Don't worry, I'm not doing big jackpots, they won't notice. I have it down to a science, trust me, I do this all the time online."
"You know what? As long as you only get yourself kicked out, I don't care. Where's Reaper, is he with you?"
"No, he left with me, but he didn't come to the casino. He said he was gonna take a walk. I saw him heading towards the lobby, I think he's walking the strip."
"Are you fucking joking me?" He started punching the air before collecting himself. "He doesn't have his fucking phone."
"Oh, maybe he's doing something else for work, did he take his gear?"
"No!"
"Oh, that's not good."
"Yeah no shit!"
"Give me a minute, I'll be back up there."
Back in the hotel room, a few minutes later, Sombra sat at the desk in her room, pulling up CCTV footage for Val.
"What the hell is he up to that he didn't take his phone?" He asked as he paced behind the hacker.
"Whatever it is, clearly he didn't want me tracking him. I have an idea, but I don't want to say," Sombra said, and pointed at their accompanying newbie, who sat on one of the beds watching TV.
Val nodded at her with furrowed brows, prompting her to elaborate, and she checked if the distracted agent was paying attention. While scrubbing through the security camera footage for the hotel and the neighboring buildings, Sombra placed her hand flat on the desk, tapping her ring finger, right where a wedding band would go, then went back to scrolling through the footage.
He mouthed "Martina?" with a furrowed brow to communicate his question. She shrugged in response, which said all he needed to know.
He started to grind his teeth as he thought about how that made the most sense in this situation. He would stick out like a sore thumb wearing his gear during the day time, casual wear would blend right in, his cloth face mask hid plenty of his face, and if he didn't want Sombra tracking him, it would be the perfect opportunity to forget his phone for a few hours.
"I think he's at the Flamingo right now, in the casino." Sombra gestured for him to lean down, and she whispered in his ear. "Should you go? What if you run into his familia?"
"I don't care, his ass needs to be back here right now. I don't even know what they look like, and I don't want to. That might not even be what he's doing."
"Okay, just go, I'll call you if he leaves."
Val jogged down and through the Vegas Strip, quickly arriving at the Flamingo.
He didn't even notice what the hotel looked like, only focusing on finding Gabriel.
Perhaps it was a bit of a tunnel visioned rage that made Val stubbornly lap the casino floor repeatedly, but he finally found a recognizable silhouette in the crowd. Sighing in relief as he approached, he knew he recognized the tall hooded profile leaning against a wall, though he barely saw a nose peeking out from behind the hood.
"Gabriel!" Val called out, only to find a young man, about his age, turned his head to look up at him instead of Reaper.
The young man he stared at bore a striking resemblance to his teammate, minus the grays and the facial hair, and the Talon agent's heart began to sink.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Val said. The young man tilted his head, furrowed his brow, and stood up off the wall, taking out an earbud.
"Sorry, are you talking to me?" Now standing up straight, he did stand a little bit shorter than Val, unlike Gabriel.
Val prayed the resemblance was just a coincidence.
"I'm so sorry. I thought you were my friend, I've been looking for him everywhere." Val couldn't help staring at the young man, trying to remember to break eye contact. "I think the only place I haven't checked is the bathrooms, but I can't seem to find them. Could you point me to them?" He asked, trying to wriggle his way out of the conversation.
"Oh yeah, it's right over there. Speaking of," The young man looked at his watch, a smart watch similar to Val's. "I can walk you over there, I've been waiting for my mom, gotta check and make sure she didn't get lost or anything." The young man gave a small laugh, which sounded a little too familiar for comfort.
Val licked his lips, before smiling, not happy that he was forced to continue interacting with this young man. It was a very uncanny interaction, and he prayed to every god he could think of it was not who he thought it was.
"What brings you to Vegas?" The young man asked politely.
"Work."
"Oh that's cool, where do you work?"
"I do freelance security. Get to be my own boss." Val said, his rehearsed small talk answer for "mercenary" coming out automatically. "So you're here with your mom?" Val said, trying to get off the topic of himself. It was much easier to get other people to talk about themselves.
"Yeah, she loves coming to Vegas. She used to come by herself all the time, it's not really my thing." The young man laughed. Val took note that this man's lips were thicker, and his cheeks a little fuller than Reaper's. "But I don't like her coming by herself anymore, she got diagnosed with dementia recently."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Val said, nodding, focusing on trying not to stare out of the corner of his eye. It had to be a coincidence, right?
"It's alright, the doctor said I noticed super early. She's been having a great time, you wouldn't even know it if you just met her. Speak of the devil, Mom!" The young man shouted over the noise as they approached the restrooms, and a short older Hispanic lady turned her head.
"You don't need to shout at me, I'm not going deaf!" The older lady approached the two, smiling as she teased the young man, before turning to Val. "Oh hello."
"Hi sorry, I'm Val, I'm guessing you're mom." Val said automatically, his southern hospitality kicking in. "I was just borrowing your son so I could find the restroom." He went to shake the older lady's hand.
"Oh, I guess I never introduced myself either, I'm Gabriel," The young man put his arm around his mother's shoulders.
Val felt his stomach sink.
"Please be a coincidence."
"This is my mom, Martina."
A chill went up Val's spine, and he continued to smile.
"It was nice meeting you two, thank you, uh, for showing me where the restroom was," Val let out an awkward laugh, trying to hurriedly finish his conversation. "I'm going to go check if my friend is in there, maybe I will see you two around. Thanks again."
Quickly, Val waved, and rushed himself into the restroom, feeling a little bit dizzy.
He went to wash his hands, then paced about the restroom for a few minutes as people rushed in and out of the stalls.
A few minutes later, he peeked back out onto the casino floor to see if the coast was clear. The immediate area safe, he slowly made his way out, kicking himself for not taking Sombra's advice and figuring out what Gabriel's family looked like, so he could at least avoid them. He slowly made his way out of the casino, and started to make his trek back to the Cosmopolitan. As soon as he left the Flamingo his phone started ringing, and he picked it up without looking.
"Hey, did he leave?" Val asked, assuming it was Sombra.
A deep voice answered. "Oh, he left a while ago."
"Gabriel?"
"The one and only." His tone was much more aggressive than his answer would let on.
Val took a deep breath. "Where are you?"
"The hotel room. Get your ass back here, now," Gabriel growled into the phone, before promptly hanging up.
He sprinted back to the hotel room. Partially out of anger, partially out of fear.
Arriving back at the room he stopped in the hall, catching his breath before deciding to knock on the girl's door instead of going into his own room. After knocking and Sombra opening the door, he found the presence of the women would not, in fact, save him from Gabriel causing a scene.
The adjoining door between their rooms had been open, and as Val came in, Gabriel crossed over into the girl's room, shoved past the small hacker, and threw Val very aggressively against the wall next to the bathroom.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Gabriel asked, gripping onto Val's shirt to keep him from escaping.
"Ow, looking for you asshole!"
"Don't be coy with me."
"I was looking for you! You didn't have your phone or your comms, and you're supposed to be working. How else am I supposed to find you?"
"You weren't supposed to find me. You ever talk to my family again I'll snap your fucking neck."
"I didn't know it was your family genius! I mistook him for you! I didn't even know what they looked like, and as much as I want to ream your asshole for pulling this shit on the clock, we're working! Get the fuck off me." Val gripped Gabriel's wrists, but the man had a very firm hold on him.
"You don't need to be following me and getting involved in my personal life. I told you, you're not my fucking boyfriend."
"Okay! Can we not do this right now? At least not in front of the girls for fucks sake?" Val said, glancing over at the ladies, who all were standing at alert with very concerned expressions. Gabriel looked over at them, breathing heavily. He let go of Val's shirt, storming off into their room, promptly slamming and locking the door.
With heart hammering, Val got up off the wall and straightened his shirt out.
"Are you alright?" Sombra asked, approaching the aggravated man carefully.
"You said you would tell me if he moved!" Val said, raising his voice at the tiny hacker.
"I know, but someone decided to distract me." Sombra glared at Girard, who averted her gaze.
Val huffed angrily. "I'm gonna go smoke on the balcony, nobody talk to me." And with that, Val sealed himself out on the terrace, lighting a cigarette.