Balance (69 page)

“Rena,
dear, you take care of yourself
,
okay?
  You two
,”
Ms. Smith glances at Michael, “a
re my favorites
and the best I’ve
worked with
.”

Michael join
s them
.

“And you …
Y
ou take care of this one, she’s a diamond.  You do what you did last night and I know you two will be safe.
”  T
ears forming in
Ms. Smith
’s eyes,
she
grabs Rena and hugs her.
Wiping her tears, Ms. Smith steels herself, “Okay, you get going.”

Rena whispers, “Thank you.”

Rena and Michael board a military transport to the small airport
th
e
y arri
ved at almost two years earlier.  Boarding a
jet
,
they’
re
airborne in under sixty-minutes.

T
he
bellhop
deposits
their luggage in the front entry
, Michael tipping
him as he leaves.
 
Posing as a couple, Michael and Rena
check into
a large elegant hotel,
downtown Detroit
.
Closing the door, Michael inserts the bud into his ear.
“
We’re operational.
S
tatus?”
T
alk
s
into the air
,
he
watc
h
es
Rena
move about
the
suite
looking for hidden surveillance, t
he room coming up clean.

“Nothing to report on a location for the meeting, but we’ve identified at least two-hundred potential attendees.  Michael be careful, something this big is likely to have caught the attention of
our competition.
”  Mr. Black
warns
.

“I’ll leave my bud in
, receive only.
No
sense having you listen to us unpack.”

Rena
organize
d
the room for ope
rat
ions and a quick departure,
stationing
their garment bags and accessories
for
easy
access.  The
ir
driver
,
stay
ing
with the
limousine
, waits
for the signal to pick them up and depart … du haste
.
W
eapons
cache
in the
car
,
Michael felt
it
less complicated
than
trying to walk through an executive hotel
,
armed
.
 
They spend the evening in the room,
remaining
close to their possessions
,
ready at
a
moment’s notice when the call comes with the location of the
address
.

Night
arrives without a word.
Michael and Rena sleep together in the nude, not for romantic reasons, but out of necessity.  They
must
not leave
any trace
of their
existence
,
and undergarments have a habit of hiding themselves away, especially at the most inopportune times.

Mid-morning of their second day
,
the call
arrives
. 
Facial recognition
,
monitoring s
urveillance cameras
throughout the city,
identif
ied
a
large
contingency
of
potential attendees
headed
s
outhwest
,
toward the
outer extents of the
metro-area.

D
ress
ing quickly,
Rena wears an elegant white silk blouse, wit
h layers of material
plunging
below her chest
, exposing
a fair amount of
cleavage. 
F
orm fitting black
leather
leggings
and
knee-
high boots
complete her ensemble.
Ms. Smith
dressed her to look
privileged
, elegant,
and alluring.  Everything Rena would need to get
them
into the meeting. 
She
loosely
braids her hair, completing the look
, while providing functionality
.

Over his
dark
field
jumper,
Michael dresses in a black suit
, with w
hite shirt and dark tie,
standard
bodyguard attire.

E
xi
t
ing
the hotel
through a rear entrance
, the
Immersion Team
handles
their check out remotely
, removing all evidence of their stay
.
 
The limo picks
them up,
then
head
s
s
outhwest
to
ward
the
metro
limits.

Through Michael,
Rena
directs
the
Immersion Team
,
instructing
the technicians
to
use aerial views
to
look for seclu
ded hotels, arenas and theaters, explaining that
Drakos
wi
ll want privacy, seating for many and a stage.  Immersion
identifies
two locations, the first; a hotel, large and recently shutdown, the second; a performing arts theater
, still in operation
.

“When did the hotel shut down?” Michael
relays
, the question posed by Rena.

“Four months ago.
”
  Black replies.

“Is there any traffic within a one mile
radius
of either site?” Rena asks
.

“Both sites show similar
density
.”

“Look back three weeks
, same time of day.
” Rena instructs
.

“Tr
affic is
comparable
at the theater, but
t
he hotel
and surrounding area is
almost
no
nexistent
.”

“That’s it,
the hotel. 
Get
us coordinates
.”
Rena giving orders through Michael
.

Rena
ha
s
the drive
r
circle
the hotel, one block out to
assess
the activity
level
.  They
identify
a parade of
people
ambling about
on
the street and entering the
building
. 
Discretion
does not look to be of paramount importance. 

Michael slides into his double holster,
affixing
the glaive to the back of the harness,
hiding it under his
suit
jacket.
H
e’s pretty sure
he’ll
have to relinquish the firearms
upon
entering
, but the glaive may go undetected
. 
U
nder his dress pants,
h
e slides several knives into sleeves in his jumper
,
knowing
they will be difficult to access
in an altercation
. 
As a precaution,
he hides four
additional knives in his boots
and
wraps
a handful in a small inconspicuous pouch
he
intends to
stash
near the entrance
.

Rena
conceals
two throwing and a butterfly knife in her
knee
-high leather boots.

After dropping them off,
Rena instructs
t
he
drive
r
to
park
off the Southwest corner
of the hotel
,
giving him a
clear
view of
both
side
s
of the building
.
 
I
f they need
a
quick departure
,
she
wants to know exactly
where the car is
located
,
and close
.

Out on the street
,
Rena
and Michael
fade
seamlessly
into the
current
o
f attendees entering the hotel.
To Michael’s
sur
prise, their weapons go unchecked
.
  Following the
flow of people
,
directed to the third f
loor
,
they
proceed through a double-door
entrance into
a
balcony
overlooking a large stage
. 
The
gallery
, with its t
heater
style
seats, slopes
down
,
allow
ing
all in attendance to see the stage
,
two
floors
below. 

Rena observes s
imilar theater seats in the main hall
accessed from the second floor
, intentionally
left unoccupied
.  Scanning the auditorium,
she
identifies
no less than twenty people in attendance that could be agents.
 
Rena
realizes the seating arrangement
and retained
weapons
are for Drakos’ protection.
W
hat better way to protect
the
speaker,
place the potential threats too far for a shot without a rifle, amongst a
contingent
of trained killers of divergent allegiances.
It would be a suicide mission to
reveal
a gun in this crowd. 
She
si
ts down in the last row
, on the aisle, nearest the entrance
.

Michael
tak
es
the seat next to her
.

She
turns, leaning into
him
and
whisper
s
, “Let ops know
there are several
fox in the hen house.”
  She knows
Michael’s presence make
s
th
e
situation far more volatile.  If
word got out the Harbinger
was on site, it could start a blood bath.  His
loyalties
still undefined and a p
enchant for targeting the armed
could
trigger
chaos.

Michael
starts to transmit
the message,
wh
en an armed man walks up
and asks
f
or his ear
bud. 
“You may remain armed, but you will not be allowed to communicate outside this building while within the auditorium
.
”
T
he guard
explains.

Relinquishing
their communications
,
Rena
watches as t
he
security guard
steps on the b
ud, destroying it,
then
proceed
s
to another
attendee
she
had id
entified as a potential agent.
 
Suspecting
he
has
a scanning device,
she watches
as he
systematically
approach
es
all
the attendees
she
’
d
identified
as potential agents
. 
Since he did not make notice of their tracking chips,
she assumes
the scanner must only identify a
ctive transmitters
.