Chapter 10
I picked up my pace and hurried back down the Strip to my hotel, which was fortunately only a short walk from the entrance of the Nefarium casino. I glanced back a couple of times to check where the burly guards were and if they were on my tail, but they weren’t getting any closer to me. They simply trailed me as I pushed my way through the sea of tourists, but I could feel their eyes boring into me despite the crowds around me.
I rushed inside once I was back at my own hotel, and though I was sure they couldn’t possibly have noticed which casino I had entered, I could swear I still felt their eyes on me. I dashed across the lobby, hopped into an elevator that had just arrived, and finally exhaled when the doors slid shut. I tapped my fingers on the wall behind me, and my eyes darted side to side while I considered what my next move should be.
“Is everything alright, Will?” Francine asked while I pressed the button to take me to my floor of the hotel.
“I’ve got a bad feeling,” I replied.
“About those men that work at Nefarium?” the AI asked.
“Yeah, the security guards,” I said. “I saw them talking to someone who I’m pretty sure was their boss, and I have a feeling they know which hotel I’m in.”
“Do you think they will follow you?” it asked.
“I just won a hell of a lot of money,” I replied. “I can’t imagine that they’re too pleased with me.”
“I thought gambling was legal?” Francine asked.
“It is,” I began, “but they don’t expect you to win and not in such a large amount. They probably suspect I cheated--”
“We did cheat,” the AI interjected.
“Sure, but we didn’t cheat the way they probably think we cheated,” I replied. “It’s complicated. I probably made a bit of a mistake by winning so many times in a row.”
“I don’t suppose they care about the nuance,” Francine said.
“Yeah, nuance is usually lost on guys that big,” I laughed.
There was a ding as the elevator arrived on my floor, and I pushed past a couple waiting on the other side and sprinted to my room. I unlocked the door and barged inside as the door swung shut behind me.
“Maybe we should take an earlier flight,” I suggested. “Even if we have to make a couple of connecting flights.”
I started to repack my bag, and though I tried to remain calm, every odd bump or strange noise made me glance toward the door. I had no doubts that the pit boss believed I’d cheated somehow, and so, it was only a matter of time before someone showed up and invited me for a long drive in the desert.
I put the shell of the AI into the bag, chucked the rest of the clothes, then zipped the bag shut and did a last sweep of the room. The whole operation had taken me less than five minutes, but it was still too long. Before I could scoop up my bag, there was a loud knock on my door.
“Shit,” I whispered, and I froze for a moment while I considered my options.
Was it the guys from the Nefarium? How could they even know which room I was in? Maybe it was just some tourist who’d gotten lost in the maze of rooms and knocked on the door. There were a lot of possibilities, and most of them weren’t good.
There was another loud knock on the door, and it almost sounded like the fist would come through the door. I was pretty sure I could hear the sound of something hard and metallic on the door, too, and I recalled seeing the heavy, sharp rings on one of the meaty guards’ hands.
“I am detecting four men outside the door,” the AI said. “There may be more located at other positions in the hotel. From a strategic standpoint, it would make sense to have people watching the exits as well.”
“Got it,” I replied.
“Three of the four have criminal records,” it continued. “Assault and battery, aggravated assault, and--”
“Thanks, Francine, I get the picture,” I whispered as a shudder slithered down my spine.
“Will Ryder,” a deep voice on the other side of the door said. “Open the door. We have some things we need to discuss.”
“No thanks,” I called back. “I’m good.”
“Open the door, or we’ll break it down,” the voice hissed, and I knew they weren’t bluffing.
“Well, I guess we’re about to test out whether that upload really did work,” I muttered as I crossed the room to the door.
I put my hand on the cold door handle, braced myself mentally, and then pulled the door open.
Four enormous men stood opposite me in the hall, and if someone had told me that they lived at the top of a magical beanstalk, I would have believed them. They were massive, both in height and width. I recognized the one right in front of me, with his bald head, bushy beard, and rings on his fingers, and the other three appeared to be the guys I had seen in the casino as well, only they were a lot bigger and more intimidating up close.
They barged their way into my room as though I had just opened a floodgate, and I didn’t try to stop them as they entered. I decided that if I could somehow talk my way out of this then that would be ideal, although judging by the way one of them cracked his knuckles in a very menacing way, I was pretty sure they weren’t interested in talking.
The bald guy parked himself at the back of the room, while the next two guys planted themselves on either side of me. One of them was black and had cornrows on his head, while the other one was a pale guy with a tuft of ginger hair on top of his head.
The last guy slammed the door shut behind himself before he planted his very dense frame in front of me. He actually snarled, which revealed a mouth full of silver teeth. I briefly wondered if he had chosen the color to match his place of work, or if it was just an unfortunate coincidence.
“Sure, come on in, guys,” I quipped. “Make yourselves at home.”
“I’m sure you recognize some of us,” the bald guard said, and I turned around slowly to look at him. “And you know where we work.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” I replied.
“Then you know why we’re here,” he said.
“Actually, I’m not quite sure I do,” I replied. “I mean, if it’s for tips on hair care, I’d be happy to help you out.”
The bald guy sneered at this, and his eyes went cold.
“Be careful, Will,” the AI said. “You might have the suit, but you’re not totally invincible.”
Francine was right. I needed to cool it a bit. I didn’t want this to escalate if it didn’t have to, although the look on the bald guy’s face was worth a few bruises.
“I’m just messing around,” I said. “You guys work at Nefarium, right?”
“Yeah, we work there,” the man with red hair replied.
“All of you?” I asked as I eyed the man by the door who I definitely hadn’t seen before.
“Yes,” baldy said.
“And we saw you there this evening,” the man with cornrows added.
“Yes, I was there,” I said.
“We hear you’ve had a pretty lucky evening, Mr. Ryder,” the bald man said. “We know you won quite a lot of money at our casino.”
“Yeah, I had a good night,” I replied. “I retired this year, so I thought I’d treat myself to a trip to Vegas.”
“You retired?” the man with cornrows asked. “Aren’t you like, thirty?”
“I wish,” I chuckled. “But thank you. I’m flattered.”
The bald man glared at his colleague for complimenting me, and then got us back on track.
“Two wins in a row on the wheel,” he said. “What are the odds of that happening?”
“I’d say they’re pretty low,” I replied. “But not impossible, as luck would have it.”
“You keep saying that word,” he said.
“What word?” I asked.
“Luck,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re getting at,” I said as I focused on keeping my expression unreadable.
“Well, you keep talking about how lucky you were that you won tonight,” he said. “But, you see, you won on the roulette wheel twice in a row. That’s basically impossible.”
“Clearly not,” I replied. “I mean, I proved that tonight.”
“Cut the crap,” he snapped. “We know you cheated.”
“Cheated?” I scoffed. “How can a person cheat on a roulette wheel? You wanna talk about something being impossible? That’s impossible.”
Unless you have an alien AI in your head that can calculate where the ball will land, of course, I thought to myself, but they didn’t need to know about that part.
“We don’t know how you cheated,” he said. “But we know you did, and that’s what we’re here to find out.”
“That makes zero sense, man,” I replied. “You can’t accuse me of cheating on a roulette wheel. I got lucky, I won some money, and I left. There’s nothing else to it.”
“This really isn’t the time to be lying to us, man,” the bald man said, and that must have been the signal they’d agreed on because they all took a step toward me.
“Okay, guys, this is all really unnecessary,” I said as I slowly turned in a circle to look at each of them. “You’ve got the wrong idea. I didn’t cheat.” I turned back to the bald man just as he took another step toward me, and we ended up almost nose to nose with one another.
“I’m gonna let you in on a secret, Will,” he whispered.
“What?” I asked.
He grinned then, and he looked like a hyena just before it pounced on its prey.
“We don’t really care how you cheated,” he hissed. “We’re here to make sure you never cheat again.”
He shoved me backward as hard as he could, and I stumbled back into the enormous man posted in front of the door. I regained my balance quickly, moved back into the center of the circle, and brought my fists up.
“Look at this,” the ginger one scoffed. “We’ve got ourselves a Bruce Lee wannabe.”
The ginger one decided it was his turn then, and he threw a quick punch at my head with his meaty hand. I ducked under it easily, stepped forward as I did so, and then brought my fist up onto the underside of his nose. He fell backward and blood spurted out of both nostrils like a crimson shower.
He cried out and landed on the bed, right next to my bag where the AI’s shell was hidden.
“You fucking bastard!” the ginger one screeched as blood poured out of his face like a faucet. “You broke my nose!”
“Anything will be an improvement on the old one,” I quipped, which just enraged him even more.
He launched himself at me and knocked me to the ground, but despite his superior weight and size, I barely felt a thing. He tried to pin me down, and I’m sure he was expecting me to try and squirm out of his grasp. Thankfully, my suit and the nanobots gave me more than enough strength to grab his arms and toss him to the side. It was as easy as tossing a sack of potatoes, and the shocked expression on his face when he landed on his back made me chuckle.
I sprang to my feet with a perfect kip-up, and the other three men all took a step back. I gave them a sly smile and started to settle into my fighting stance. I still had my gun holstered, but I didn’t feel the need to bring it into the fight, and I also didn’t want to use it inside the hotel if I could help it.
These guys obviously didn’t care about being seen on my hotel security cameras, but I did.
“Well, now that is unexpected,” the bald guy said. “But what’re you gonna do against all three of us?”
“Sounds like a fair fight,” I replied as I raised my fists again. “Me against all of you.”
“We’ll see about that,” the bald guy said as he and the guy with cornrows both charged toward me.
I moved fast. I used Cornrows’ own momentum to fling him past me, and he stumbled into the giant in front of the door. I spun around just as Baldy threw a quick jab toward my stomach. I jumped back and then struck out at him with a punch to the chest. I hadn’t realized how hard I had hit him until I watched him fly back the entire length of the room and smash into the wall behind him.
“Holy shit,” I said as I looked down at my fists and marveled at the power I had just unlocked.
“What are you waiting for?” Cornrows shouted. “Get him!”
Two strong arms wrapped around me from behind as the giant picked me up. I struggled against him, but he was clearly the strongest of the four. As I squirmed in his arms, he turned to the side, and I was able to use Cornrows as a makeshift wall.
I planted both feet on his chest before he could process what was going on and shoved both me and the giant backward. Cornrows flew across the room and clattered into the TV, which fell to the floor on top of him with a loud crash. Meanwhile, the giant and I also stumbled back, and he loosened his grip to stop himself from losing his balance, and that gave me the chance to break free.
I threw my head back and headbutted him, and then I burst out of his grip and landed back on the ground. Baldy was still slumped over, but Ginger was almost back on his feet, although blood still poured out of his nose, and he looked a little faint. Cornrows seemed to be moving as well, so it looked like we were going to have a round two.
But the doorway was clear now, so I made the split-second decision to grab my bag with Francine’s shell, sling it over my shoulder, and then bolt. As Francine had pointed out, the suit didn’t guarantee that I could beat them, and I didn’t think this was a good time to test out just how much abuse it could take, nor did I want to use my gun inside the hotel in case someone saw me with it and called the cops. But I figured that if I could lose them in the hotel and maybe take them down one at a time, then I had a better chance of escaping Las Vegas in one piece.
Out of habit, I ran for the nearest elevators as soon as I cleared the room. I didn’t hear any footsteps behind me, but I knew it was only a matter of seconds before at least one of the giants managed to come after me.
“Come on, come on, come on!” I said as I jabbed at the call button.
I heard something thudding down the hallway then, and when I glanced back, I saw Cornrows stumbling toward me. He shouted when he spotted me and then started to charge in my direction in a sort of half-run I usually associated with zombie movies.
He arrived before the elevator did, and he threw a sloppy punch, which I blocked with my forearm, and then I returned the favor and blasted him sharply in the gut. The blow staggered him, but he didn’t go down. Instead, he tried to wrap his arms around me, but I grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the stomach. He crumpled into a ball from the impact, and right at that moment, the elevator doors pinged open.
I dragged him into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. I threw him against the wall head first with only half the force I had at my disposal, but it was enough to knock him out, and he slumped into a heap on the floor.
I stepped out of the elevator just as the doors slid shut, and I got out just as the other two appeared. Each of them looked consumed by fury, and I took that as my cue to get the hell away from them.
I opened the emergency door beside the elevator and leapt into the dingy, empty stairwell. I hesitated as I tried to decide which direction to take, then opted for down since I could always lose them on the Strip if I had to. If I went up, I risked getting cornered on the top floor, and since I’d just sent Cornrows up there, they’d be back to their full strength.
“Shit,” I muttered as I started to spring down the steps two at a time.
I heard footsteps clatter into the stairwell behind me, and as I made one of the turns, I glanced back up and saw the two men, Giant and Ginger, hot on my tail. I picked up the pace, and soon, all I could hear was their labored breathing.
I was feeling pretty good about my chances until I reached the second floor. I stopped for a moment when I realized that there were footsteps coming up the stairs, and when I looked over the banister, I saw yet another oversized goon heading in my direction. I had no doubt he was from Nefarium as well, and while I was sure I could knock him down, he might slow me down enough to give the other goons a chance to reach me.
With the three men closing on me, I yanked open the door to the second floor and ran down the hallway. I was hoping I would find another set of emergency stairs or even a service elevator, but somehow I’d gotten turned around, because I found myself at a dead end.
“Shit,” I muttered again as I looked around frantically.
It looked like I was in an operational area of the floor rather than one with guest rooms. None of the doors had numbers, and more than a few were marked for employees only. I tried a couple of the doors and finally found one that was unlocked. I ducked inside just as the herd of rhinoceroses started to barrel toward me.
The room was filled with industrial washers, dryers, shelves with fresh linens on them, and even old-fashioned lines that criss-crossed the length of the room. Every machine seemed to be in use, but there were still sheets hung up to air-dry and sinks filled with water and something made out of satin.
I ran between the machines until I found a spot where I could hide behind one of the dryers. I squeezed myself into the narrow space and then waited for the goon squad to enter the laundry room.
It was a short wait, and a few seconds later, I heard the door slam into the wall and then the goons’ pounding footsteps as the three men stomped across the linoleum floor. I had to believe the herd was deliberately making so much noise because it was a noisy place with all the machines going. It was probably supposed to scare me, but all I did was chuckle,
“Will,” one of them called out in an eerie tone. “We know you’re in here.”
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” another voice jeered.
I peeked around the dryer, and I could see a couple of the guys as they slowly crept through the room. They appeared to have split up, which worked to my advantage, not theirs. Obviously, military tactics weren’t something they were very good with.
I quickly snuck across the aisle to another washing machine when they weren’t looking in my direction. It gave me a better chance to study my opponents, particularly the new guy. He was just as large as the other men, though he sported a buzz cut and a scar on his fat chin. He had partnered up with Ginger, and the pair were slowly working their way down the line of washers toward me.
I pulled my head back as Ginger turned in my direction, and I held my breath as I waited for the sound of footsteps charging toward me. Unfortunately, I’d been right when I’d assumed they were deliberately being noisy, and I should have known they could move quietly when they wanted to.
Suddenly, two hands grabbed my blazer from above, and I was pulled over the washing machine and then tossed onto the ground on the other side. I found myself staring up at Ginger and Buzzcut.
Ginger growled at me, and he was clearly on the warpath after I had broken his nose. Blood still dripped from the faucet in the center of his face, and he had left a trail of it down the aisle in the middle of the room, too.
He let out what could only be described as a war cry and buried his fist into my stomach. I braced myself for the pain of the blow, but it never came. Instead, I heard a crunching sound like footsteps on snow, and I looked up and saw him clutching his now-shattered fist. He clutched his hand to his body and whined like an injured animal.
“Whoa,” I murmured.
“What the hell, man?” Ginger screamed. “You broke my fucking hand!”
Buzzcut looked just as perplexed, and he kept looking between me and Ginger’s broken hand.
“That’s awesome,” I chuckled.
And then I was on my feet, just as Giant joined the fray. Buzzcut tried to grab me by the neck again, but I swatted his arms away like they were pool noodles and shoved him backwards into the Giant. Buzzcut was airborne for a few moments before he crashed into his buddies, and then the trio crashed into a pile on the floor.
Buzzcut grabbed my leg from where he was on the ground, but one kick to the head had him out cold, too. Ginger was next. The poor guy had suffered the brunt of my strength that evening, but he still tried one last time to fight me even with a broken hand and a bloody nose. I had to respect him for not giving up, but that didn’t mean I’d go easy on him.
He threw the first kick, but I caught his foot and threw it back up into the air. He flipped over backward and landed on his stomach on the ground with a hard thud. He tried to lift his head a couple of times, but his body finally gave up, and he slumped against the linoleum.
That just left the Giant, who was still awake but hadn’t moved since he’d been turned into a bowling pin. He was panting hard, and I could see specks of blood on his silver teeth. He watched my approach with large eyes, and for a moment, I thought he’d start to hyperventilate.
“What are you?” he asked as his eyes started to roll back up in his head.
“I guess I’m a cheater,” I replied, just before his eyes closed.
I took a second to look around at the three men on the ground around me. I couldn’t quite believe that I had done this, and without getting a scratch on me. But I had only knocked them out temporarily, so I had to move quickly.
The stairwell was still my safest bet, so I found the one I’d raced down just a few moments earlier and started to trot back up. Despite all the running and fighting, I was still breathing at my normal rate, and I shook my head in disbelief as I bounded up the stairs.
“That was insane,” I said.
“I told you the upload worked,” Francine replied.
“Lucky for me, or else I’d be cooked,” I said. “Imagine if I was just some normal guy who had gotten lucky and won big at the casino. I wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“Unfortunately for them, that was not the case,” the AI replied, and there was a sense of pride in its voice.
“Wonder what story they’ll tell to explain how they lost me?” I said.
I was back on my own floor by then as I still needed to pick up my bag, so I opened the emergency door, did a quick check for any more suspicious characters, and then speedwalked back to my room. The door was still cracked open, so I pushed it open slowly and did another scan of the area.
Baldy was gone, which meant that he’d either managed to crawl out of there to the elevator, although in his state I doubted whether he would have been able to move at all, or someone else had found him. If the latter was the case, then I needed to leave before someone came back.
The only thing to be seen was the trashed state of my room, and that included the smashed TV and the bloody sheets on the bed. I felt a twinge of sympathy for whatever unfortunate employee had to clean up the mess, but I suspected that wasn’t so uncommon in Vegas.
I crouched down next to the bed and picked up my bag, which had the rest of Francine’s core in it, as well as my belongings.
“Will, I am sensing more activity,” Francine said as I was standing up.
“Seriously?” I sighed. “More?”
“Look out your window,” it said.
I did, and I saw another group of massive men enter the hotel down below.
“It appears that they called for backup,” Francine said.
“I’d agree with that conclusion,” I replied as I stepped out of my hotel room and closed the door behind me. “Damn. This is crazy. They’ve probably covered every exit by now. At least I have this with me. I guess it’s time to use it.” I held up the gun, pressed the silver button to take the safety off, and then set the dial to stun.
I shouldered my bag and slunk out of the room. My floor was still empty, but I was sure it wouldn’t remain that way for long. So what was the best way out of the building?
I heard the elevator ding, so I slipped the gun into the inside pocket of my blazer and walked quickly toward the elevator. No giants emerged from the doors, and when I peeked inside, all I saw was an elderly couple and a skinny guy reading a book on how to beat the easy marks at poker. One of the room doors opened nearby, and a group of young women ran into the elevator. I followed them inside, since hiding in a large group of people seemed like the only way I could shake the goons.
“What floor, dear?” the old woman asked me in a polite British accent.
“Oh, the first floor, please,” I said with a smile. “The lobby.”
She winked at me and pressed the button for me, and then she turned to talk quietly to her companion. I allowed myself to relax as the car began to go down, and the elevator filled with the excited chatter of the women.
However, I felt it start to slow as we approached the third floor, and I started to look around at the other occupants. None of them looked like they were about to get off, and I could see that no one had selected this floor.
“Sorry, is someone getting off on this floor?” I asked.
“No,” the skinny guy replied without looking up from his book.
“Someone must have called the elevator, love,” the old woman said.
“Right,” I said.
The elevator came to a halt, the doors slid open, and my heart leapt into my mouth. A muscular man stood on the other side of the door, and he looked at each of us individually as though he was looking for something… or someone. I put my head down, and I felt my heart start to pound.
“Shit,” I whispered.
“Are you getting in, dear?” the lady asked him.
I looked back up at the man, whose eyes locked onto mine, and then he slowly stepped into the elevator with a smirk. Did he know who I was? Was he one of the Nefarium guards? He stayed right by the door so he could block the entire doorway with his wide shoulders. There was no room for me to push past him, and just as I considered whether or not to jump out of the doors before they closed, they slid shut, locking us all inside.
I was trapped.