Mark Greaney - Full Force and Effect

The elevator rose to the second floor and the door opened. Jack and Élise stood there quietly looking at an empty tile floor. Jack looked at the gorgeous tall blonde and smiled. “It’s a beautiful hotel.”

“Seeing it for the first time?”

“No. Just mentioning it.”

The doors closed and they started heading up again.

—

John Clark bolted out of the third-floor stairwell, sweat dripping from his face and his chest heaving from exertion, and he ran toward the elevator bank. He reached it at a sprint and pushed the call button to go up.

As soon as he did so he heard the bell announcing a car was stopping on the floor. He quickly moved out of the sightline of anyone in the car.

The door opened just feet away from him and Clark held his breath so as to stop his heavy breathing. In the moment of silence, both in his earpiece and from the car itself, he heard a female speak with a pronounced French accent.

“Damn children.”

Ryan replied, “Little bastards.” The door closed.

Clark let out a quick sigh of relief and said, “I stalled them as much as I can, Dom. They’ll be less than sixty seconds behind you.”

Caruso replied, his own voice affected by heavy breathing. “Understood.”

—

Two minutes later Jack slipped the key card into the lock of “his” hotel room on the thirty-ninth floor.

He held the door open, but Élise just stood there dumbfounded.

“I don’t believe it,” she said softly, and only after a delay did she enter the room.

Jack smiled and followed her in, then he caught a surprised look on her face. He glanced across the room. Dominic had left a pair of Jack’s red boxer shorts in the middle of the floor in the sitting area. Jack groaned inwardly, and told himself he’d kick his cousin’s ass the next time he saw him.

Some other clothing was scattered about; there was a suit laid out neatly on his bed, and his computer was on the coffee table in front of the sofa. It was a little sloppy, but it looked legit.

“Sorry,” he said, scooping up his shorts. “I hadn’t planned on having company.”

Élise did not reply. Instead, she stepped over to the open bathroom door and peered inside. A couple of wet towels lay on the tile floor, the toothbrush was on the vanity next to an open tube of toothpaste, a mouthwash bottle open next to it.

The walls and floor of the shower were damp.

She turned away and stepped back into the middle of the room.

There was an iced bottle of champagne on the coffee table next to the sofa, and Ryan was both surprised and impressed that the hotel had managed to have that ready not more than twenty minutes after the initial reservation had been made. Jack walked over to it and pulled the bottle out of the ice.

Élise noticed the wine bucket now and she cocked her head quickly. “Why the champagne?” she asked. “Isn’t that something that’s normally done when you check in?”

Jack scrambled for a second, then said, “It’s a little embarrassing.”

“More embarrassing than your underwear on the floor?”

Jack laughed. “The owner is a Republican. I don’t throw my dad’s name around, I’m not even using my own name on the reservation, but sometimes people recognize me. I guess he found out I’m here and he’s giving me the royal treatment. Champagne every night.” Jack added, “I didn’t ask for it.”

“I see,” she replied.

Jack popped the bottle and poured two glasses, then he started to lead Élise toward the couch, but a voice in his ear caused him to change his plans.

It was Dominic, and his whisper was barely audible. “Take her out on the balcony. Now. ”

Christ , Ryan thought. Dom was somewhere in this room.

Jack said, “Oh, I forgot. You have to see this view.” Jack led her to the balcony, the entire time hoping like hell he actually did have a nice view.

—

Dom Caruso slipped out of the closet next to the bed, shut the door behind him, and dropped down onto the floor. He belly-crawled across the carpet, keeping an eye on the balcony, and the backs of his cousin and, much more important, his date, the knockout French spy.

When he was certain her focus was firmly on the neon lights of the Strip from the thirty-ninth floor, Dom rose to his feet and left the room quickly and silently.

As soon as he was in the hall he said, “I’m clear. Ding, vector me to her hotel room.”

Ding said, “There is no reservation under her name at the hotel. Either she’s using an alias, or a second alias, or she’s using her real name, or she’s not staying there.”

Dom stopped walking in the hallway. “Well, damn. Okay, Jack, get back to work. Get it out of her.”

—

On the balcony, Élise turned away from the view and looked to Ryan. Her face had softened. She didn’t seem as cynical or mistrusting.

She said, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.” She took a sip of champagne.

Jack took a sip from his glass. “No big deal. So, now it’s time for you to come clean. Where are you staying?”

“I told you. I’m staying here.”

Ryan took his time reading her face. Finally he said, “I believe you.”

He heard Clark’s voice in his ear now. “Ryan is telling us she is staying there. Domingo, look for reservations under female names that came on the twenty-fifth of last month. That’s the day before she started work at Valley Floor. There can’t be more than a couple of women who have been here for two weeks.”

There was a pause for a moment. Élise and Jack stood out on the balcony and looked over the lights of Las Vegas.

Chavez called over the net now. “Got it! Only three females who came on the twenty-fifth are still there. One of them is under the name Sophie Brochard from Ontario, Canada. Room thirty-one-twelve. That’s gotta be our girl.”

Dom said, “I’m en route.”

On the balcony of his suite, Jack turned away from the view of the Strip to find Élise going inside to retrieve the champagne bottle. She came back outside, refilled her own glass, then took his glass and did the same.

After she put the bottle down on the table on the balcony, she moved back to the railing, extremely close to Ryan.

Things were moving curiously fast, and now, far from worrying he’d have to find an excuse to keep the beautiful woman away from her hotel room while his cousin searched for the missing mobile phone, Ryan was less concerned about her wanting to leave and more concerned about her wanting to stay.

And then, as if on cue, she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

Jack was not caught totally off guard, he’d noted her attraction, but there was a difficult moment when she put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him close. The earpiece’s battery supply hung behind his ear. It was out of sight, but it was not designed to go undetected if someone was mussing up the hair of the person wearing it.

Jack pulled away, a show of hesitation.

Clark spoke into his ear, his own voice soft. “Jack, we are not receiving any transmissions from you. Everything okay in there?”

Élise said, “Oh . . . I see. You are married.”

Jack smiled. “If I were, I think you would have read about it on Google.”

“You’re gay?”

“I guarantee that would have made the Internet.”

“Then?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh.” She smiled. “No problem. I’ll wait.”

Élise went back into the suite and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Ryan stepped into the bathroom, shut the door, and stood there. C’mon, Jack, what’s the fucking plan here?