China Blue VI ©

Stepping out of the elevator onto the floor of his hotel room, Travis looked at his watch. 11:30, "Damn, I didn't expect to stay out this late." he said out loud. Putting his key in the lock and entering his room, what he saw, he could not believe. His room was in a shambles. Luggage had been gone through, his mattress up turned and left balancing on one corner of the box springs. Drawers left open, clothing scattered everywhere. Nothing had been untouched. Even the pictures on the walls had been taken down and pulled apart. "What the hell happened?" Travis thought to himself. Placing a cushion back in a chair he sat down and surveyed the damage. Taking his cell phone from his pocket, he placed a call to Ted. "Michaels here." came the familiar voice. "Ted, Travis here, we got a problem.", Travis said with a sense of urgency in his voice. "Just got back into my room and someone thought it needed remodeling. Everything has been turned upside down and gone through." After a short pause Ted spoke, "Who do you think it might be Trav?" "Don't have the slightest idea. I haven't checked with the desk to see if there had been anyone here asking about me nor have I had a chance to talk to security and see if they have surveillance on the halls. They really made a mess of things though. My mattress has been shredded and the linings of my suits ripped out. They even pulled the frames apart on the walls. They definitely know I am here for a reason Ted.",Travis waited for Ted's response. Another pause, this time a bit longer, "Alright Trav, you check the room for any thing they might have left behind?" "Not yet , haven't had time to. I thought I would call you first and let you know what is going on. Ted, outside of my cover, I have not told anyone why I am here, so this is very confusing right now. Is there a possibility that someone back there could have leaked anything?" Travis asked. "No, I know everyone involved in this and they are high above our heads. Leaking anything would just be cutting their own throat. You check your room to see if they left anything behind and then check with the desk and hotel security, you find out what you can and I will do a little checking here and see if I can come up with anything. By all means Travis, be careful, if they are on to you and what you are up to there, the results could be very bad." Ted warned Travis. He ended the call and started looking around the room, this time much closer than he did when he first came in. Lifting the mattress, he noticed a small piece of paper, nothing that couldn't have already been there before, but just to make sure, he picked it up and set it on the table. Next, he looked around the dresser and through the clothes that were scattered around it. Not finding anything, he went over and started checking around where his jackets hung. Nothing found here either. "Damn, professional job.", he remarked to himself. Back out his door and to the elevators, Travis scanned the hallway to see if there were any cameras that might have recorded someone entering his room. None that he could see, but then again, that did not mean they weren't there. Standing in front of the counter in the lobby, Travis waited impatiently for someone to notice him standing there. What he did not notice that in the lobby at that moment was Sammy, standing off in a corner watching Travis as he waited for the evening clerk. "Good evening sir, is there anything I can help you with?" the clerk politely asked him. "Maybe you can, my name is Travis Williams and I am staying in room 1108, has anyone been in this evening inquiring about me?" Travis asked. "Not that I am aware of sir. Unless they have come in the past hour, I would not know. My shift started at 11:00 this evening. But, if you like, I can leave a note for the day shift and see if anyone has been in asking for you." the clerk offered. "Thanks anyway, but it is not necessary. Is there anyone with hotel security available tonight?" he continued asking questions of the clerk. "Yes, there is. Han Luc is in charge in the evenings, but he would not know if anyone has been asking about you, he comes in at the same time I do." the clerk explained apologetically. "May I speak with him anyways?" Travis asked. "Let me get him on the radio Mr Williams, I am sure he will be happy to assist you in any way he can.", answered the clerk. A few moments later a man wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie with a badge pinned to the left breast pocket came walking across the lobby and straight up to Travis. "Good evening Mr Williams, my name is Han Luc, is there anything I can help you with?" Luc offered him holding out his hand. Travis shook Luc's hand and said, "I am in room 1108 and I was wondering if you had surveillance cameras in the hallways to monitor the security." "No Mr Williams, I am sorry, but we do not. However, we do have them in all of the elevators and in the lobby as well as over the reservations desk." Luc offered. "Is there some concern of yours that the hotel should be aware of?" "Is there anyway I could take a look at those recordings?" Travis asked. "No, I am sorry Mr Williams, it is against hotel policy to let the guest look at the security tapes. Guest privacy, I am sure you can appreciate that." Luc answered. "Sure, I understand, I would like to know if I had any unannounced visitors tonight. Someone has been in my room while I was out and I just wanted to see if your cameras had picked up anything." Travis returned. "Is everything okay in your room?" Luc continued to ask. "Not really, it is in shambles. I will need another room.", Travis informed him. "Please Mr Williams, show me your room so that I can make a report on it and contact the authorities. While we are gone, the clerk will see to another room for you sir." Luc told Travis. As they headed towards the elevator, Sammy made a quick exit for the lobby doors. Back in the room, Travis and Luc stood at the door way looking about. "You are right Mr Williams, someone did pay you a visit tonight and it seems they were set on finding something. As I asked earlier, is there anything the hotel should be aware of sir?" Luc asked again. "No, there is nothing, I am nothing more than a security analyst for Memdec, here to evaluate their security protocol and report back to the corporate headquarters my findings. That is why this is so puzzling to me. ", Travis said in a matter of fact manner. Luc did not need to know anymore than Travis had told him. He was not connected to Memdec, he was just some hotel security officer. Luc pulled a digital camera out and started to take pictures. Travis noticed the piece of paper he had left laying on the desk and casually walked over and placed his hand over it. Palming it, he looked over at Luc, whose back was to him as he took pictures of Travis's torn suits. Travis took another quick look around the room and was satisfied that he had covered the place pretty thoroughly. "I think I have enough Mr Williams, we can go back down to the desk and see what the clerk has found you to stay in." Luc started, "Then we will have to call the authorities and report this incident. I am pretty sure that your suits will not be covered by the hotel on this, I am sorry to inform you." "Considering how tonight has gone, I am not surprised at all." Travis said almost laughing about it. Walking out of the room, Travis took the piece of paper and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

Back at the front desk, the reservationist handed Travis a key to another room and informed him of the room number. She could not apologize enough for the inconvenience he had been through and assured him that was not a common occurrence. Travis accepted her apology and told her not to worry about it and turned and headed towards the elevators. As he was stepping inside, from the corner of his eye, he saw a man in dark clothing quietly slip down a side hall. Travis took note of the man’s features and pressed the button to his floor. Entering his room, the first thing he noticed was it’s carbon copy appearance to his previous room. Shaking his head, he smiled to himself and thought, “First rule is never be repetitive, always change things.” Walking over to the window, Travis peers out into the night, looking in the direction of SuMing’s home. His mind drifting back to that dance and the way she felt in his arms. As he stood there, he put his hands into his jacket pocket. There it was, that little piece of paper. He had almost forgotten it was in there. Pulling it out he studied it. Really not much there, a couple of Chinese characters and a phone number, but maybe just enough to get him the answers he was looking for. Taking his wallet out of his inside breast pocket, he placed the piece of paper in it and put his wallet back. “I will look into this tomorrow.” He thought to himself. He stretched out on the bed, not taking his clothes off and closed his eyes. Drifting in and out of sleep, he could not keep his mind off SuMing.

The next morning, Travis got up and immediately went to the bathroom and took a shower. Once he had cleaned himself up, he put on a clean shirt and pants and grabbing the jacket he had worn the night before and headed out the door, set on getting some answers to what had happened. Once in the elevator, he started thinking about the events of the last couple of days and back tracking himself to see if he had done something that might have given him away. Outside of SuMing, he could not think of anyone that would have known what he was up to. It could not have been SuMing, she was the one who had offered him information concerning China Blue in the beginning. And other than the fact that all it was, was entries on a spreadsheet, she really didn’t have a clue as to what was really going on. He hated to think she had anything to do with what had happened. Getting out of the elevator, Travis headed across the lobby towards the entry and out on the street. Grabbing a cup of coffee from the Starbucks next to the hotel, he hailed a cab and climbed in. Informing the driver as to where he wanted to go, he settled into the seat and started thinking again.

Arriving at Memdek, Travis pays his fare and heads to the building. Not really paying attention to the cab that pulled up a few seconds after he did. As he entered the revolving doors, the same figure who had disappeared down the side hall at the hotel emerged from the cab and headed around to the alley, entering at the loading docks.

Heading straight for his office, Travis asked Lei to pull the file on Mark Littleman. “Sure.”, she answered, “Just his employee file?” Travis turned and looked at Lei, “You mean you have more than just his employee file locked away in there?”, he asked Lei smiling. “Of course, you said I should be very resourceful and get all the information about the employees on the list you gave me.”, she smiled answering him. Travis could not believe his eyes when he opened the file. Mark Littleman had more than a few skeletons in his closet. Perusing the pages he found he liked to gamble and it seemed he did not like using his money to do so. He liked living a lifestyle beyond his means and seemed to be very fond of young women, much younger than he should, more girls than young women. Travis kept thumbing through the pages, looking for something that might tie him to the reason he had been sent there. Any leads in that direction were coming up as dead ends. He noticed Mark kept more than one residence in town and looked at the address. Looking a bit further down the page he noticed a telephone number. A puzzled look came across Travis’ face and he reached for his wallet and pulled out the little piece of paper and held it next to the page. “Bingo!”, he said aloud. “Same damn phone number!” Whoever was in his room last night phoned this number and talked with Mark. But what exactly was his involvement with what he was doing there? It could have nothing at all to do with it, Mark could have had his own agenda not even remotely related to why he was there. Maybe Mark felt the company had become wise to what he had been up to and was planning on replacing him. That his book keeping was not as tight as he thought it was. Truth is, it was better than he thought. Memdec had no idea of what Mark was up to as far as the books went. Travis was thinking when would be a good time to confront Mark with this. Too early and he could blow everything, too late and he might not be able to place Mark anywhere near the chinablue project. But he was going to talk to him. That was for sure, and the sooner, the better. Turning around, he walked over to Lei and hugged her. Lei looked at Travis with surprise and turned a little red. “How did you ever get all this information Lei?” Travis asked. “You told me to be resourceful, so I contacted a few of my friends that owed me.” Lei responded smiling. “Well I hope you haven’t used up all your favors, we still may need a bit more information before this is all over with.”, Travis replied. “Oh, no sir, still a few favors out there to be returned yet.”, Lei informed Travis.

“I couldn’t find a damn thing!”, Sammy burst out at Mark. “I even took my best man with me and he couldn’t find anything. We went through that room thoroughly. I’m telling you Mark, there wasn’t anything to be found.” “Keep you voice dawn Sammy. You think I want the rest of the building to know what you were up to last night? It is bad enough you have to make an appearance at my office and then to have you rant about.”, Mark said in a quiet but stern voice. “Listen Mark, if this guy is up to something, he isn’t letting anyone know about it here. I have called all my contacts within the government and on the street. Nothing is known about him. Or why he is here. Outside of him working for the same company you do, there is nothing else to be found out.”, Sammy informed Mark. “I spoke with our friend Mr. Ling last night Sammy. I was not very comfortable with him at all. I just want you to understand and remember that you are in this just as deep as I am and if anything should happen to disrupt the balance of this very fragile agreement with Mr. Ling, your name will be mentioned more than Christ’s at church on Sunday. Just stay on him, you Sammy, not one of your so-called trusted monkeys that spend more time shooting up heroine than they do working for it.”, Mark instructed him. “Don’t worry about me Mark, I will take care of Mr. Williams. Sammy assured Mark. “Just be sure you do.” Mark reiterated.