Visions (Hell Portals, Book One)

Chapter Thirteen: I Left My Heart in San Francisco

AFTER SPENDING THE DAY GETTING MENTALLY AND LOGISTICALLY READY FOR THE JOB THEY HAD THAT NIGHT, picking up some bungee cords at a local automotive store, the wait was over. Nate, Jack, and Tabby, the members of the Knights Errant Motorcycle Club saddled up and rode toward the Adalante Hotel.

The hotel was an old classic with a paint-chipped fire escape running from street to rooftop in the front-center of the building. A giant 1940s vertical sign in maroon and white ran up the front-right corner of the building and read simply "Adalante".

Jack, Nate, and Tabby dismounted their iron steeds, hung their helmets, and looked up at the building.

"You ready for this?" Jack asked.

"It would be easier to be ready if we knew what to expect," Tabby replied.

"Ditto that," Nate added. "But I think we're locked and loaded, if that's what you mean."

"Yeah, I guess so," Jack said with a sigh. He looked down, took a deep breath and steeled himself. "OK, let's do this thing."

Nate and Tabby followed Jack into the lobby of the hotel. The front desk was done in old, dark wood that looked as though it had fifty years of grime literally hand-polished into it, creating a nice matte patina formed from human grease. The carpet was a 1970s brown with orange geometrical pattern that reminded Jack of the "Big Wheel" conveying carpet from the Stanley Kubrick movie, The Shining. A girl sporting earbuds and a zombie-like expression (who was probably working at the hotel as a college side job) was reading a textbook behind the counter, not paying attention to much anything else.

The three walked past the counter to the elevators and Nate pressed the up button. A few moments later the elevator door opened with a ding, and they stepped inside. Pressing the button for the second floor, the doors slid shut and the elevator started to ascend. Jack, Nate, and Tabby looked at each other in the mirrored walls of the elevator and nodded, their apprehension increasing in positive linear relation to the elevator's altitude. They were all nervous about what they might find in room 205.

After walking down the quiet, dingy hallway, its floor covered with the same eerily reminiscent carpet, Jack knocked on the door of room 205. He could see the peep hole darken for a moment and then heard two latches being unlocked. The door opened just enough for a person to get through, and the middle-eastern guy who they had dealt with at the pawn shop motioned in a pressured way for them to enter quickly. Jack thought he remembered the man's name was Akmal.

The room was considerably dark, with only one bedside lamp lit. It smelled of chemicals of some kind—not the normal hotel room air. Toward the back, beyond the queen-sized bed with teal-colored bedspread, the bathroom door was cracked a bit, letting a sliver of bright light spill out. A pale man with short-trimmed red hair poked his head out nervously to see who had come in, and then retreated back into the bathroom. Jack noticed the man had bloody latex gloves on, and had used his shoulder to open the bathroom door as he had peered out, holding his gloved hands out in front of him as if to protect them from germs, or perhaps just trying not to get blood on the door, Jack didn't know which.

Akmal said "Sit. Wait," and motioned for them to sit on the bed. Nate and Tabby sat down on the edge of the bed, and Jack took a seat in the orange-fabric chair next to the bed. They all three looked uncomfortable.

"You will take what we give you directly to the first place," Akmal said, and handed Jack a folded piece of paper. Jack opened the paper and saw two addresses. "You will be met by a woman who will ask you for a light of her cigarette, saying exactly 'I don't have any matches. Do you have a light?'. You will then reply exactly 'yes, I have a lighter', then give her the duffel bags. She will give you an envelope. Take it and leave. Don't ask her anything. Don't stare at her or look her in the eyes. Don't open the envelope. Just leave. Understand?"