"Do you normally make-out with the people you're hired to kill? It doesn't strike me as very professional."
"Put the gun down," Gabriel panted, not answering her.
"Why on earth would I do that?"
"Because you're not going to shoot me," Gabriel rep...
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"Ma'am," Ash heard a man's voice say gently. She cracked her eyes open to see a flight attending smiling at her. "Ma'am, you fell asleep. We're here."
Ash looked around at the empty plane. "I'm so sorry," she told him.
"That's alright," he replied. "Happens all the time. Welcome to Mexico."
Ash stepped off the plane and into customs. She put her backpack in a scanner and walked up to the customs' counter. The agent glanced at her passport, stamped it, and gestured for her to keep walking. Ash retrieved her backpack and let out a sigh of relief.
Now what? She could have been thinking of plans on the plane, but instead she fell asleep. She didn't regret it, though. She needed all the rest she could get. A drowsy mind was more likely to make mistakes than an alert one. And she couldn't afford to make mistakes anymore. She needed to get some real rest before she came up with a plan.
Ash approached a counter labeled "información." A woman with the nametag "Gloria" looked up at her and smiled. "Hello. Can I help you?" she asked in accented English.
"I'm looking for a hotel that has an airport shuttle," Ash explained. "The cheapest one that does."
"City Express has a shuttle. It's $45 a night. Do you want me to give them a call?"
"Yes, please."
Gloria called on the phone, speaking quickly in Spanish to the party on the other line. "They have a room available," she told Ash as she hung up the phone. "You can just take the shuttle over and talk to Eduardo at the front desk."
"Muchas gracias, señora," Ash replied.
"Enjoy your stay," Gloria said cheerfully.
Ash located the City Express shuttle almost immediately upon exiting the airport. Traffic clogged most of the roads they turned down, but they still made it to the hotel quickly. Eduardo, who was manning the front desk, helped her book her room and gave her a room key. Ash barely looked at the room when she entered. Instead, she walked directly to the bed and collapsed on top of it. She didn't even crawl under the covers before she fell asleep.
A few hours later, Ash woke up to her stomach rumbling. The last time she ate was hours ago, and her body was craving something healthier than a gas station sandwich. She walked down to the front desk.
"Hola, Eduardo," she said politely, switching to Spanish. "Where can I buy something to eat?"
Eduardo raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised at her Spanish fluency. "There's a grocery store around the corner," he told her. He proceeded to give her directions to the store, which Ash memorized easily.
