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"Are you sure your friend is being reliable? I mean, maybe she was tired or wasn't paying attention to what she was seeing. Do we know she saw those five men with guns and the dead senator?" the police officer asked, while keeping his eyes on the road as he drove toward the MGM Grande. Heather wasn't intimidated at all by the officer's tone of voice. She was usually a very polite and reserved person, but when it came to people she cared about, she took action. Besides, the man didn't even look like he was thirty yet. She wasn't going to let someone close to her age boss her around, man of the law or not.
"My friend does NOT lie and she KNOWS what she saw, Officer Harper! And I know what I saw! I saw my best friend scared shitless. I have never seen her like that before. She wouldn't be so scared if nothing was wrong!" countered Heather. Angie was in the back seat, still trembling. The yelling in the front only made her more worried. What was she supposed to think if Heather and the police officer were worried and jumpy?
"Listen, young lady! You don't need to talk to me that way! I just want to be sure we don't cause a commotion for no reason!" Then he turned to Angie after parking the vehicle in the casino parking lot across the street from the hotel. "Are you sure? Five men with guns? And the senator and his guards were dead, not wounded?"
Angie slowly turned her face to his, staring him in the eyes. The emptiness and hollowness he saw in her eyes unnerved him. It was as if she wasn't there, it was just the form of a girl. Then she slightly tilted her head to the right. "I don't know, Officer. If you've lost enough blood to repaint the carpet with, can you still live?" she asked in an ironic voice.
Heather gaped at her friend, wondering what had possessed her. Officer Harper let out the slightest shudder before turning away from Angie and opening his car door. His haste was proof to anyone of how much he wanted to get away from the girl. Angie watched him and Heather both step out of the car, but she herself wouldn't get out. She wouldn't even touch the door. The thought of going near even the hotel did not appeal to her in the least. In the end, Heather had to haul her out.
"So what's the plan?" Angie asked. "Walk in to discover the men and get killed?" Heather sighed impatience and worry.
"Well....Angie... We were going use the cameras in the main security room to make sure the men are still in that room. Then we were going to evacuate each room, one at a time, except theirs of course. If we can do it silently as possible, and space out the people getting out on their floor, they might not realize what's happening. If they are the only one's in the building, we can capture them, knowing they won't have any hostages," Harper explained.
"And then when they discover I revealed what they had done to someone, they kill me." Every time Angie spoke, it had the same emotionless tone to it. With each word that came out, Heather grew more and more concerned. She spun Angie around, holding her shoulders and shook her lightly.
"Angie! The police will have them! They won't be able to get you. Can't you get that through your head? What's wrong with you?!"
"Heather..I..I.." Angie was shocked by Heather's aggressiveness. For a moment the feelinglessness that had filled her faded, and the real Angie showed. "I saw a dead man. They put a gun TO MY HEAD! I will never be able to forget...Whenever I try to think of anything, I see MY blood instead of the other man's. I see my lifeless body laying there....empty..."
"Your imagination is different from what actually is! Just 'cause you see yourself empty in your mind, doesn't mean you need to be empty in reality. YOU'RE not dead!"
The two of the just stood there, thinking. Heather was praying Angie would understand. Angie was telling herself she knew she wasn't dead. But would she get through the night and stay that way? What about her brother and her friend? What about the officer?
Harper watched the girls. He had been trained on how to deal with crimes, not the emotions that they caused, and he was too new at it to understand it from experience. He wished he could help. He hadn't an idea, though. He shut up instead. When Angie shrugged in what seemed surrender, Heather looked at the officer, wishing he could help. She also realized he didn't know what to do. Sighing, they all continued over to the building.
Walking through the double glass doors, Angie headed straight for the door behind the desk while fumbling through her pocket for something. Lifting her hand to the doorknob, she used the key that opened every door in the hotel to unlock it. "This is the way to the main security room. It's behind this door," Heather explained.
Once inside the room, they looked at the many monitors and buttons with room numbers on them. With a quick switch to the odd numbers on the fifth floor, room number 539 appeared on one of the screens, getting all of their attentions. It was blank, like someone had disconnected it.
"That makes sense. They would want to turn it off before killing him so no one would see them," the officer commented.
"Why would that matter? People would find out he was dead when they investigated the room to see why the camera wasn't working," Heather remarked, clearly confused.
"But this way, no one can see their faces," the man explained. "And if they are discovered in the room without the use of the camera, like what has happened, anyone trying to arrest them wouldn't be able to see what they were doing or how they might plan to escape." Heather finally understood. Angie wasn't listening. She didn't care about what they were saying. She was just thinking about how important it was to make sure no one died. She wouldn't let anyone else reach the same fate as that man...
"Well, do you have enough proof to call more policeman and start evacuating or what?" asked Heather, ready to get to work.
"I think what we know is efficient enough to start working. Why don't you girls come outside with me while I call the station. For safety reasons." The girls nodded and followed him out.
Unlikely Allies