CHAPTER 21
Garcia had almost not bothered with the towel that was rapped around his waist. He was now kind of glad that he did because, who he found in his room was not who he had expected. Still, Garcia walked on over to the closet like he had not just gotten out of the shower to parade himself in front of two other guys. He also did not bother to ask them what might have been some of the more normal questions. Tony was in his flight suit, so, that easily told Gar how they got over here. The fact that Norm was even here told him all the rest.
What Garcia did say was, “you know, you could have just called.”
Tony was over at the window, looking down on the park. He figured he might as well enjoy what little he could. He also decided to cut off any tirade by Norm. Tony had already heard enough of them this morning, “she knows dude.”
Garcia slid on a T shirt and grabbed some running shorts which, he decided, he would go back in the bathroom to put on. He stopped when he heard Tony and now he really did have a question, “which one?”
Norm was unusually subdued when he replied, “Betsy.”
It did not really come as much of a surprise as it should have but, Garcia got angry anyway. He also directed it at his first convenient target, “yeah, well Tony, who the fuck told you? You wasn't supposed to know. At least that was what I was told.” Now Gar turned it on Norm, “what was all that about compartmenlism or whatever the hell you called it?”
Tony sounded remorseful as he left the window and told his friend, “dude, I was flying the chopper. I had to know where we going.”
Gar repeated himself but with a bit more anger this time, “you could have called.”
“That note,” Norm said with an unusual lack of hostility, “the one you gave Tony here. We don't think it was real.”
Tony nodded when Garcia looked to him for confirmation. Then Tony added, “we walked into a trap, following it.”
Garcia was now swimming in a sea of emotion and thought. He did manage to sullenly ask, “everybody ok?”
Tony nodded in the affirmative again but, Norm stated, “that remains to be seen, Barbara ain't back yet.”
Before that could set off another round between Tony and Norm, Garcia started stomping around and furiously declared, “man, there ain't no way she could do no shit like that. Ok, maybe she could have sent herself a pervy note but, try and kill us? That don't make no sense?”
Instead of starting what Norm was sure would be an argument, he asked a question and tried to be sympathetic, “where is she?”
Now Garcia realized what was wrong. Tony nodded and said, “we saw her on the security video. She left here an half hour ago. We don't know where she went, all the camera's aren't on yet. Something about they power down at dawn cause of the battery and lack of light. I don't know it was...”
That set Garcia to thinking and then he asked with concern, “think she's ok?”
Norm stood up from the chair he was in and said, “what I think is, pack your stuff. We need to get the hell out of here. We still got to find Shannon, too, and these people are being cooperative but, they leave me with the impression that won't last forever. Not to mention, I don't want them too much in our business.”
“Shannon's fine man,” Garcia waived that off. “She's with Bob and stuff. We should just let her stay.”
Tony told the guy, “we called Bob. He doesn't know where she is and, she isn't answering her phone.”
Norm could see the look on Garcia's face and, he knew what it meant. Norm also realized that he had no choice but tell the guy, “you wasn't the only one on a working vacation.”
Now, Garcia got it, “that little bitch was following me? I'm going to kick her ass.”
When it was clear that Garcia was going to turn his wrath on Norm, Norm went back to his normal tone of voice and said, “it's called a double blind. Nothing against you Alvarez. We were hoping if somebody was watching you and Betsy, Shannon could get close. Nobody would suspect her and...”
“And,” Alvarez said as he tried to calm down, “if they thought I was baby sitting her, they wouldn't think nothing about her being around. All right, maybe I can buy that shit but, damn, she's too good at this. I thought she was really mad at me.”
Tony laughed and patted the guy on the shoulder, “get dressed Gar. We need to pull you guys now, in case the heat gets turned on.”
Gar walked back to the bathroom and paused to ask, “Bob and Donna?”
Norm shrugged, “they really on vacation. Let them stay.” Garcia was still complaining when he shut the bathroom door and that was more than Norm wanted to hear. He told Tony, “I'm going to let you handle this. I'm going back downstairs to the security office. When you ready, let me know. With any luck we'll have found Shannon by then.”
Tony thought about a few more things he could do and when he tried to suggest it, Norm left and slammed the door behind him. He then did exactly what he said he was going to do, and found himself in a little, sterile looking, room that was not only in the bowels of the hotel but, apparently, underneath it as well. Norm noted the place was connected to any number of extra clean looking tunnels that even had their own road signs. There was even this big round, portal looking place, that had a sign that said, “garbage.”
Norm mumbled, “if I had one of them, maybe Darcy wouldn't stay mad at me all the time.”
The plain clothed security guard, that was escorting Norm, heard him and laughed. He then noted, “those tubes could probably suck your entire house in. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little but, you could walk in them bent over. They got enough suction in them to pull a full size trash cart for miles.”
“Suction?” Norm looked back at the portal again.
The security guy shrugged, “yeah, it's a pneumatic system. They use a lot of that stuff here in the park. Sometimes I think what's going on behind the scenes is a lot more interesting than what the guests see. I mean, they do give back stage passes and stuff but, they never show all of it to anybody. Mostly for security, I think but, you know, it would be kind of like a magician telling everybody how he does his tricks.”
“Makes sense,” was all Norm had to say about that. He stopped behind the security guy who sat back down in his chair. They both looked up at the video screens and the security man checked his computer screen. Norm asked him, “any hits.”
They were running facial recognition software and, so far, nothing had come up. The guy did mention, “I could call over to the main security office and ask them to run it on the recordings too. I know she'd come up then. That way, maybe we can figure out where she went. I'm willing to bet she's in one of the dead zones.”
Norm pulled out his phone and said, “sounds to me like you guys need a better set of cameras.”
The guy shrugged it off, “what can I say man. I agree but, some ass hole at corporate thought those solar jobs would save them a few marks on a spread sheet.” As he began to type an email for the other office, he did add, “doesn't matter much anyway. Just not that many people out at this time of the morning. I mean, those new camera's have been up for about six or seven months now and, despite all that, they really haven't been much of a problem.”
Norm smiled politely and acted like he was really listening. He punched the button on his phone and quickly discovered why Shannon wasn't answering. He heard a robotic sounding voice, coming from the very desk he was standing in front of, and it was repeatedly saying, “ass hole alert. Ass hole alert. You now have an...”
“What the fuck is that,” Norm pointed to the guy's desk drawer.
The security guy looked as surprised as Norm but, he did mention, “oh yeah, they brought somebody in when I went to pick you guys up. I had forgotten all about it. This is where they put their stuff while in holding.”
The phone in the drawer was definitely Shannon's. The screen, still flashing and even had Norm's name on it. That led Norm to quickly ask, “where is holding? I think we just found her.”
Shannon actually looked agitated when Norm walked in the door. She stood up from the little cot that was the only furniture in the room, crossed her arms, and snapped, “oh great, they called the station.”
There was a camera in the corner so Norm grabbed the girl by the arm, pulled her in the hall, and then asked for some time alone which, the security guy seemed to have little trouble giving. Shannon was about to start on what looked to be a long winded explanation but, right now, Norm did not have the time, “have you seen Betsy?”
“Well yeah,” Shannon said with a little surprise in her voice. Then she pointed to the holding room at the end of the hall, “she got picked up with me. She's in that room at the end of the hall.”
Norm had seen all the rooms walking in here, “no she ain't, baby, and that's not a good sign. You coming back with us now, no arguments.”
Norm had fully expected an argument from the teen but, the girl only went into deep thought and then said, “is this about the email she got?”
“You know about that?” Norm was a little surprised and even more so when Shannon told him how she found out. What that told him was what he mumbled to himself, “that don't make no sense.”
“Doesn't matter Norm,” Shannon told him. “We have bigger trouble. Forget Betsy right now. My friend is missing and I think she's in trouble.”
All Norm could think to ask was, “why?” A minute later they were back in the security office and Norm was waiting for Shannon to finish scrolling through her pictures as Norm asked, “I hate to impose but, could you possibly run one more search for me?”
“Sure,” the security guy even seemed happy about it, “normally this shift is pretty damn boring. Got a picture?” Shannon handed over her phone and Norm got a little nervous when the guy plugged it into his work station but, it appeared as if he only got the one picture. He then started the trace and asked, “can I know what this is about or, is it CG business too?”
“It kind of is,” Norm told the guy. Shannon was a lot more energetic and forth coming as she explained what had happened. She left out many selected parts and thought everything was fine until Norm said, “you don't drink coffee Shannon.” That caused Shannon to squirm and Norm stopped her from saying anything else with, “don't say shit. I already have enough trouble with Tony, today. I don't need no more right now.”
The security officer missed that part of the conversation because he pulled up some forms on his computer and then, got a picture to go with them. He looked back and said, “I thought I recognized that name. Maggie Duncan Hartsworth, that is her, right?”
Shannon nodded and Norm asked, “is that important?”
“She's a VIP,” the security guy replied. “Her father is Martin Hartsworth.”
Again Norm asked, only this time with an air of alarm, “is that important?”
“Well,” the guy took a breath and then said, “as I understand it, he's not that big of a deal but, his wife, another story. Her brother is James Colson.”
The guy waited for Norm to ask the same question over but, instead he got a funny look from Norm and a hostile response, “I know who the fuck that is.”
The security guard picked up his internal phone and said, “I'm calling the main on this one. It's probably nothing but, I'm not going to wait and get fired if it's not.” As he was put on hold he told Shannon, “ma'am, would you care to swear out a report?”
After that, Norm had to practically drag Shannon by the arm to get her back to the elevator. Once they were let on, and riding up to the hotel, Norm finally spoke. “They can handle it Shannon. We on an itty bitty little Island here. No way in hell that girl can get off it, no matter what happened. Right now, we got other problems.”
“They're not as important to me,” Shannon said with a sneer. Norm handed over the girls phone after stopping on one particular picture. It had caught Norms eye because it was right next to the one Shannon had of her and the other girl. Shannon saw it and only shrugged, “I thought he looked suspicious. That's the guy with the ice cream on his shirt.”
“You thought right girl,” Norm told her, “that's Gary Moss. He's a spook over at the American consulate.” When Shannon developed a funny look, Norm knew he would have to explain, “a spy Baby. You hit the jackpot.”
“We need to find the other guy Norm,” Shannon was quite adamant. “I didn't say this in front of the security dude but, he tried to grab me. He has to be the one that took Maggie!”
Norm now had a very disturbed look and Shannon almost thought she was about to get yelled at until he calmly said, “your mama finds out about that and I'm going kick your ass.”
“Jesus Norm,” Shannon shot back, “grow a backbone. This was mom's idea too.”
“Not that goddamn part,” Norm said as the elevator doors opened.
Days as a Schizophrenic (Poem)
Decant
It's Hurting Again
