Embers and Icicles

Chapter Five

This was so typical Jake. He could answer any question, and his intel was always on point. The only problem was that he couldn't just volunteer information and be a good fucking guy for once in his life. Slate asked him about who Silver was sending, Jake warned about the synth. That was it.

Slate was certain that Jake's sources would have warned him about the change in Silver's plans, so why would he not just pass that information on? Slate wasn't exactly friends with the guy, but over the years he felt like they had at least built up some camaraderie. Then again, Slate knew that nothing Jake did came without a price. It still stung.

All those eyes Jake had everywhere, and not a single one of them could give him a moral compass. Slate fumed for another second, but it wasn't getting him anywhere. He turned away from the wall that he had slowly been grinding his fist into and looked into the room. It was a smaller hotel room than the one he had just fled from, but Silver also didn't know he was here, so this place was arguably better.

If he had taken any more time to observe the place, the stains on every surface, including somehow the ceiling, would have been a bit of a turn-off. It was both a blessing and a curse that he didn't have any time to waste.

He had drawn the curtains for some privacy, so the only light shining down on him was a weak fluorescent one. Every few seconds it would dim for a moment before doggedly returning to max capacity. Even the fan overhead seemed to be struggling to pull its blades through the air, though by the sound it made, you would assume it was some kind of industrial fan shredding diamonds at full speed.

Overall, not the worst room Slate had ever worked in. He popped open his now much emptier suitcase, sliding his laptop from within. He had left most of his belongings behind when fleeing the previous room. He got out in the nick of time too–It had been an absolute fluke that he checked the upstairs cameras, and even luckier that he trusted his gut when he saw one go blurry near his room.

Leaving Jenny's suitcase open on the floor, throwing some clothes around, and messing up the bed had all been last minute thoughts, and he was darn lucky that he had them. Hopefully, Silver would be convinced that it was just some regular room, and wouldn't bother checking the window, now slightly ajar. With enough luck he would even neglect to wonder why the lights in the room were all on even though nobody was inside.

Enough focusing on luck. It was time to do what he always did when things felt out of his control–get them back in his control, and preferably look cool as he did it.

Slate dropped down into the bed with his computer in his lap. He reached up to his ear to turn the earpiece on, only to realize that it wasn't there. Strange–he didn't remember taking it out. The metal of the earpiece must have been grinding against the metal of his ear canal, and he popped it out without even thinking about it. A normal enough occurrence. There was no need to panic.Okay, so it was in his pocket. He checked both in his pants. Then his jacket. Then his pants again. Nothing.

The earpiece was gone. Sure, it could be crushed on a sidewalk somewhere. It could also be in the hands of the very man Slate was trying to hide from. His fingers flew across the keyboard. There had to be some way he could warn Jenny. If Silver had that earpiece–and Slate was almost certain he did–then he knew where Slate had been. He wasn't stupid. He would put two and two together, check the rest of the hotel, and find Jenny if she was still there when he arrived.

Jenny would have heard the line go dead. She would know what to do, and hopefully she had already gotten the fuck out of there. If she hadn't, well, as far as Slate was concerned he had one shot left to stop the one person he loved from being kidnapped, tortured, and then killed.

And he didn't have much time.

The synth put up very little fight once they realized they were beat. Maybe they were plotting something, or maybe they just knew when to quit. Either way, their compliance made it much easier for Jenny and Helium to secure the ropes around their wrists, and then pin their arms to their sides for good measure. The two strategy game fanatics found that they had much more in common than just their down time video game preferences–Jenny and Helium worked in perfect tandem to secure the synth as Jenny filled Helium in on the whole situation.