Alice in Borderland: New York

Rising Tensions (3): The Raid

June entered the Tech Center again, stretching. Teineji entered as well, clearly in high spirits. Humming, he placed a Three of Clubs card into a large box, and a post it reading "Three of Clubs" next to a large laptop that had turned on. "I guess it really is true, huh..." June mused, looking at the powered electronics.

Suddenly, a man burst into the tech center, grinning widely. "We got it, Tei!" he yelled happily. "We've caught him in the act!" June blinked, startled. "Who is this person?" She asked Teineji. Teineji smiled. "Oh, I forgot I hadn't told you. This is Ray, my friend. We met a few days ago, and he agreed to join the tech center." He explained. "We've come up with a theory about the Borderlands." Ray said. "You know how once a game is cleared, a new electronic here gets powered?" June nodded slowly. She had noticed that new electronics were powered that hasn't been previously. "At first, we thought that these were some sort of gateway." Teineji cut in. "But now...we believe it's a progress counter. The truly important things-" he pulled out a box and opening it, revealing several playing cards- "are the cards."

"Each game, on completion, gives a playing card. We think that once a full deck of 52 cards is assembled...we'll be able to leave." June was shocked. 52 cards...it made sense. Once all 52 cards were assembled, they could finally leave? "The electronics here are a tally; a way to count how many cards have been gathered here." Teineji said. "Which leads into some great news I have!" Ray said excitedly.

"Rumor has it that Charlie, who's been seen taking control of the Marquis Hotel in Manhattan, has a fat stack of cards, including a Ten of Hearts and Ten of Diamonds! If we can get those cards, we'll be several steps closer to escaping, without having to play in Ten games ourselves!" Ray rubbed his hands together eagerly as he stood up. "That's why we've been spying on him for days, and why today, I'm breaking into the Marquis! I'm going to steal those cards for us, and we'll be able to leave."

June thought about this. She didn't exactly have a high opinion of Charlie, due to how he'd deliberately killed Pier and Rayna...but was it really justifiable to steal from him?

Ray smiled and walked out of the center grabbing a small box, a pistol for self-defense, and a banana peel. "When you next see me, we'll be one step closer to escaping this hell." He told Teineji. Outside, he got onto a bicycle and started pedaling towards the Marquis.

Once Ray arrived, he parked his bicycle a few blocks away, so anyone entering the Marquis wouldn't notice it. Instead of risking going through the lobby, he chose to enter through the back door, picking the lock open. The hotel was grand, and clearly well stocked with both supplies and people. Ray saw no less than 3 people wandering around the carpeted hallways, some with lethal weaponry. Luckily, there were also numerous closets that Ray could hide in, and staying away from the security cameras was something he had a lot of experience with. He looked at his notes sheet and remembered his conversation with Teineji about the Marquis's hierarchy:

"According to spies and conversations I've overheard, there are 3 factions within the Marquis: Organization, Resources, and Security." Teineji explained. "Of them, Security is the most dangerous, because they're the only ones besides high-ranking Organization officials that are allowed to use weapons, and they have access to the Marquis's security system. They'reprobably going to be guarding the main way in, so you'll have to take this alternate route." Ray grinned at Teineji. "Alright, I'll do my best."

Ray sighed, and slowly opened the door, peeking his head out of the doorway. No one in sight. Opening his map, Ray double-checked the route he had made with Teineji to avoid the security cameras, before sneaking out of the closet. Ray then slipped into an empty elevator, taking it to the top floor.

When he stepped out, Ray immediately looked at his map again, taking a route that would avoid as many cameras as possible. For cameras that weren't avoidable...a pistol did fairly well. As Ray made his way to the main office, he passed by a door labeled "Room 1013", when...

"Hi! I haven't seen you before!"

Ray froze, and whirled around. A young girl, maybe about 10 or 11 years old, was in the room, a golden necklace around her neck. "I'm Alice!" The girl said. "Who are you?" Ray relaxed slightly. "I'm Ray." He said, glancing at his toolbox of equipment as he spoke. "I'm here to...ah...fix some faulty plumbing on the top floor!" Alice smiled. "Oh wow, that sounds difficult. Good luck!" She said brightly. Ray nodded and smiled, backing out of the room. Once he was out of sight, he exhaled nervously and sprinted to the largest suite in the hotel: Charlie's room.

The room was, of course, massive and extravagant. But it wasn't the fancy decorations, the diamond-studded chandelier, or even the plush bed and red carpet that caught Ray's attention.

Rather, it was the large safe on the main desk.

Ray snuck up to the safe, hands shaking. This was it. He'd finally found the safe. The location of at least 2 cards, and who knew how many more. Soon, he and Teineji would be able to leave. Ray typed in the safe's code: X-V-A-T, which they'd discovered from countless hours of secretly spying. He opened the safe to find...

Nothing.

Not a single card.

Ray fell to the ground, stunned. As he tried to process this, he heard the door lock. He turned around, but before he could fight back, someone had hit him across the head hard with a metal bat. As his crashed into the table, his vision blurry, Ray tried to look up. He saw the faint outline of a man with messy brown hair, shuffling what looked like a deck of cards in his hands.

"Well, this is a surprise." Charlie commented as the red-haired leader of the Security branch put his bat down and aimed his gun at Ray. "I didn't expect the plumber to come fix my pipes for another few days. I guess you wanted to get paid early, huh..." he mused, snickering as he walked close to Ray, still shuffling the deck in his hands. "While I'm honored that you two stalked me for so long, I can't have you stealing my deck of cards. I worked hard to find these in a shop, and it's my main source of entertainment whenever Teineji isn't around. I can only imagine how you two must've panicked whenever I flashed it to you. It was so crude and so obviously a trap, that I admittedly feel ashamed of myself every time I did it, but you fell for it every time." Charlie said calmly, before nodding to the red-haired man. "Now, I hate to cut this lovely conversation short, but I have to remind Teineji that my pipes are working perfectly fine. Karma, please escort this man out of this hotel and into his assigned grave." And with that, Charlie turned away.

The last thing Ray saw before Karma shot him (both literally and figuratively) was Charlie holding his deck of cards upside down, a Seven of Hearts clearly visible as he pocketed the deck.