Zero Sum (34 page)

The hotel itself was only twenty something stories tall. That wasn’t big by Vegas standards, but at the center of the resort stood that monstrous tower. It dwarfed everything in the valley, and cast shade on the entire Strip. But while the tower was tall, it had some major flaws: It was so massive that its three giant legs were dedicated to supporting its weight, and the space up top was pathetic considering the expense of building a tower that tall. Besides the observation deck on the roof, there was only room for a few guest suites and a restaurant. The previous owners had made a bit of money charging people to visit the observatory, but considering the expense of building it, the whole thing was a loser. The real earner was the casino underneath the tower’s legs. It had the usual array of slot machines and table games, plus one brand new gimmick: the entire roof was a clear plexiglass dome. It allowed the gamblers to look up at the tower from below. But for some reason, the management kept “home of the most expensive up-skirt view in the history of the world” off the brochures.

The elevator dinged, and I rolled my cart into the hall. Room 2017 first, I decided.
 

I rang the bell, and a booming Nordic voice asked, “Who is it?”

“Room Service,” I announced. “Your, uh, mead and meat, sir.”
 

I heard heavy footsteps approach the door. The man filled the entire doorframe. I arched my neck backwards. “Hello, sir.” He must have been nearly seven feet tall. His nose was the size of a teacup, and his ears, the size of saucers. I bet myself I could fit a bottle cork up one of his nostrils (not that I would try). “Would you like me to set up your food on the table?”
 

The giant grunted and clomped back over to his bed.
 

I took that for a yes and entered his room.
 

He waited patiently and watched as I laid out his food.

“Are you enjoying your stay, sir?” I asked at last.

“So-so,” he rumbled. “Bit warm for me blood.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why Vegas then?”

“Ah, not for pleasure. Work. Olaph’s firm was hired for a job.” The flatware clattered as he spoke. “Personally hate to travel, but Norwegian taxes…” He shook his head. “By the Gods. Six piece out of ten. Will bankrupt Olaph and Company right quick if we’re not crafty.”

I couldn’t resist a chance to promote my hometown. “Maybe you should consider moving your business here. We don’t have a state income tax in Nevada.”

Mr. Olaph laughed heartily. I finished up the food preparation, but the two large ducks looked woefully inadequate. Mr. Olaph seemed satisfied, though. He reached over and slid the table towards the bed. It was a good decision. The chairs had no hope of bearing his weight. I un-corked the mead stuff and served it to him. The smell reminded me of honey.

“What’s your trade, Mr. Olaph?”

“Security. And call me Per or take a dare.” He handed me his card.

Per Olaph

President, Olaph Security, a division of Olaph Industries

Olaph…I remembered that name from somewhere…“Say, Mr. Olaph, er, Per, didn’t Olaph Industries design those Quick Passage devices? You know, the ones that let cars go full speed through toll stations?”

Mr. Olaph smiled. “Yeps. That’s pa’s invention. Different division, though.”

“Very cool.” I handed him the bill. “Well have a good evening, sir.”

“You too, young lad.” He signed the bill and handed it back to me, but as I reached for it, he took my whole forearm in his enormous hand. I didn’t dare pull away. I had the feeling he could pluck off my head like a dandelion. Mr. Olaph leaned forward and examined my palm. “Strange history,” he muttered. He took in a deep wheezy breath. “Tom,” he said calling me by the name on my nametag, “tough choices lie ahead.”

I nodded quietly and he released me. Rolling my cart out the door, I couldn’t quite shake it. Why’d Mr. Olaph stare at my hands…? Must have been some Norwegian thing.
 

I knocked on room 2021 next. “Room service,” I announced.

“One sec,” a woman’s voice announced over the sound of a hairdryer. Locks shifted and the door cracked open. Propping the door open with her bare foot, she said, “I’m finishing up in the bathroom. Be a dear and set up the food on the table.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, taking the door from her foot. If the well-manicured toes were any hint…I shook my head. Job. I had a job to do. I waited for the bathroom door to shut and then rolled my cart in.
 

The place looked like a suitcase exploded. Clothing hung from every available surface. The bed was dedicated to not one, not two, but three different cameras. Those really expensive lenses you saw at sporting events were strewn around like confetti. Her table was completely covered in newspapers. I shifted an open laptop to the side and set up her dinner.
 

The hairdryer shut off just as I finished lining up the sandwiches on the plate. I’d formed a double-decker triad (Princess Zelda would have been proud). I hadn’t read a normal people paper in like four months, so with a few moments to spare, I glanced at one of the articles she’d circled with a marker. Apparently, a nasty drug war was developing between a major Mexican cartel and some upstarts from Canada. I caught the name of the reporter: Lauren Curray.
 

Wow. Lauren Curray was the woman who had tried to interview me at the hospital. She actually wrote for one of the big national papers? No wonder she was so sharp.

“You need me to sign for that, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, turning to hand her the bill.
 

“Why hello…Tom.” The lanky woman with the auburn hair broke into a toothy grin. “Or should I say, Dieter Resnick?”

My smile melted.
Shitsticks
.

Chapter 15

NO COMMENT

“I’m terribly sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to intrude while you were changing.”

Ms. Curray was unfazed. Cinching her bathrobe, she backed up and kicked the front door shut. “Well, if it isn’t Dieter Resnick, science fair winner, full-merit scholarship awardee, survivalist—and now, a lowly busboy named Tom?” Her arms crossed, she leaned back against the door. Her bare foot tapped idly on the ground.
 

I took a deep breath to keep my nerves in check. “Actually, they call us room service attendants. We hold the same rank as waiters.” I tried to remember which execution method the Tenets prescribed for press leaks. I was pretty sure it was burned at the stake, but it might be rectal impalement. This wasn’t good. I was going to fail Polimag if I wasn’t careful. Never mind, Polimag was cancelled. My Polimag professor was dead, shot in the head. “Perrier, ma’am?”

“Why yes,” she replied. “Pour one for yourself too.”
 

I looked at the door wistfully. If I ran really fast…

Ms. Curray’s smile dropped. “Sit or I start screaming.”

I sat.
 

“You know,” I grumbled, “when women make false accusations, it threatens the safety—”

“Oh, be quiet,” she said, grabbing the second chair. She was careful to keep herself between the door and me. Darn it. I played with the idea of jumping out the window. Splattered like pea soup on the concrete seemed like an improvement over the current situation. If I could only fly on a broom…

“I thought you were in college now, Dieter. But here you are working at the Over the Top.”

One thing I had learned from our last meeting was to never lie. Ms. Curray could read right through it.
 

“I
am
going to college,” I replied. “I’m on winter break right now.”

Ms. Curray ate another cream cheese and jelly sandwich. Finishing it, she leaned back and smiled. “Goodness, I should compliment your boss.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why, for allowing you such a short term of employment. It’s quite commendable.” She was right. No sane manager would train up a staffer that was only willing to work for a month. We had lied about that (among other things) on our applications. I gulped. If Ms. Curray figured out that I was bullshitting, it would be just a hop skip and a jump before she found out three other people got hired on the exact same day and shared the exact same address. The entire operation would be blown. I was grateful Rei wasn’t sitting next to me. I didn’t like to think of her solution to this problem.

“Look, you’re right,” I conceded. “I wasn’t exactly truthful on the application—but do you know how hard it is to get short-term work around here? With the tips I get at this job, I’ll be able to buy all my books for this year.” I left out the part about delivering divine vengeance upon my foes.
 

Ms. Curray leaned forward on her elbows and took another slow sip of Perrier. The view was…distracting. “So, boy, you’re telling me that it’s just a coincidence that the kid who nearly died along with a high school drug dealer is now working under a false name at a hotel freshly purchased by a drug cartel?”
 

“Wait. What?” I asked, feigning confusion. “How could a drug cartel buy a casino? The gaming commission wouldn’t allow that sort of thing.”

Ms. Curray looked at me dubiously. She knew I was holding back, but she didn’t know about what. “Come on, Dieter, there’s a depression on. Money talks. I’ve got it on good authority that they’ve even bought the mayor. And I’m sure you know that the violence didn’t die off when you left town last summer.” Her face darkened. “Just last week, the photographer I worked with…” She shook her head. “The point is, the violence has only gotten worse.”

I flipped on my Sight and executed a quick read. Her aura was a haze of shivering blue light. Under that calm, cool exterior Lauren Curray was alone and vulnerable. Something had happened to shatter her confidence—and that was where I had to hit her. Was Sighting her a dirty trick? An invasion of her privacy? You betcha. Was it necessary? Hell yes. I placed my glass back down on the table. “Stars above, I’m sorry. What happened?”

She frowned, but just as I’d sensed, she wanted to get it out. “There were rumors that people were being kept against their will in the tower suites. Forced prostitution, that sort of thing. My colleague, Jason, I told him not to go, but he snuck up there. They say he was on the observation deck when he was…”

“Electrocuted?” My jaw tensed. More death. More pain. More collateral damage from this ridiculous war. I turned to look at the second bed with the three lonely cameras. Ms. Curray had no idea what she was sticking her nose in. And it wasn’t because she was being careless. She had no ability to comprehend the danger. That rankled me. These Conscious pricks were messing around with innocent people’s lives. They were exploiting their gifts and crushing the weak. At least Lambda knew the score. We knew what we were getting into. We knew the risks. To not even have that—I shook my head in disgust.

Ms. Curray’s posture stiffened. “How did you know that? The cause of death hasn’t even been made public. The coroner is suppressing the findings. The tower’s grand opening is coming up, and the tourist bureau is doing its best to keep a lid on it. They don’t want another flop on their hands.”

“Easy guess,” I said quickly. “You were the one that showed me all those pictures, remember?”

“Dieter…do you know something?”
 

She was so desperate. All I needed to do was give her a little nudge. “I’ve heard stuff…but what can any of us do? There’s no proof.” I stood as to leave. “I’m terribly sorry for your loss, Ms. Curray, but I need to go. If you want to get me fired, that’s your prerogative, but if I don’t check back in with my boss, this job is done.”
 

I tried to slide past her, but Ms. Curray grabbed my arm. She gave me a look that cut through me like butter. I felt like she was looking into my very soul. “The data stick,” she said, finally. “They took the data stick from his camera, but Jason switched them before that. He slipped it into a mail slot. The photos show some sort of meeting, a group of men gathered in a circle. It was bizarre. All the men were wearing strange pendants, like they were in some sort of secret society. One of them was a known narcotrafficer, a man by the name of Diego Carrera.”

A rush of excitement ran through me. “How many men?” I asked.

“Twelve in all.”

 
“Only a dozen?” I couldn’t wait to get up there. I couldn’t wait to finally meet them. Three faculty members dead. Sadie’s parents dead. Over two dozen innocent Elliot students captured or killed. Hundreds of others murdered. And that wasn’t even counting their drug business. I ground my teeth back and forth. The thought of finally getting the drop on them…

“Ms. Curray, I sympathize, I really do, but you need to steer clear of this.” I needed to get out of here. I needed to prepare.

“Wait,” she said standing. She grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.
 

I responded with a glare that would make Rei proud. I had no time for this. All I could think of was what I planned to do to those assholes. “It’ll be taken care of. Now let go of me.”
 

Ms. Curray recoiled as if I’d burned her.
 

I turned, took my cart, and wheeled it slowly out the door. I left her shaking in her bathrobe. The rattling of the cart hid my own shivers. They weren’t from fear.

Chapter 16

ROLZ

“All I’m sayin’ is it ain’t necessary. It attracts too much attention. And besides, yer country is in the middle of a depression. It’s unseemly.”

“I don’t know, Jules,” Dante said from the front seat, “I think it’s pretty sweet. This thing has more buttons than a laptop.”

“Which you will not press,” Rei interjected. “Lieutenant, I will remind you that while we are onboard this vessel,
I
am in command.”

“Sovereign Bathory territory, eh?” Dante said with a mock salute. “Aye-aye, captain.”
 

Spending a week in the same apartment as Rei had sure loosened Dante up. Conversation came easy now. He’d even forgiven her for juggling with explosives. Dante’s change of heart made Elliot’s decision to keep Rei out of the dorms appear all the more stupid.