68 The gap protocol

When they arrived at the hotel, Chance and Fait went in first to check in.

While they were getting the room key cards, Lola drove around the building to the delivery entrance.

For the sake of convenience, he and Koty were going to smuggle their prisoner in using the freight elevator. This made it much easier for them to transport the still unconscious man and would help them avoid attracting unwanted attention.

After checking in, Chance took the room cards and went to meet up with the rest of the guys while Fait went to the hotel's security office.

She stepped into the office and showed the lead security guard her company identification card.

"Miss Foster." He nodded politely and waited for instruction.

"Gap protocol. Start at the delivery entrance. Feed 17." She pointed to a monitor on the wall that currently showed the security footage of the rear of the building. Lola's SUV had just pulled up and parked.

"Yes, ma'am."

The lead guard sat at his console and started furiously typing on his keyboard. After successfully logging into the override system, he selected the camera feed for 17 and paused the recording.

"Feed 19." Fait called out the next camera as Lola and Koty carried Tucker out of sight of the first camera.

The guard quickly paused the recording on camera feed 19. Once the odd trio had completely cleared the first camera, he resumed the recording.

They repeated this process over and over until all three men had slipped into the room Fait had gotten for their captive.

The goal of the gap protocol was to create as few blanks in the camera feeds as possible. They would only stop recording on the cameras they absolutely needed and the recording wouldn't be paused for longer than necessary.

It could only be paused just long enough to keep what should be hidden as such. In this case just long enough was however long it took to drag a drunken man into the next field of view.

The camera feeds themselves were never cut or altered, only the recordings. This allowed the security staff to continuously monitor without interruption.

It was acceptable to create gaps of a few seconds but not acceptable for something to go wrong during those gaps and for no one to know about it.

It was a system recommended by a former mercenary and then put into place by Mack Lovewell himself.

The former mercenary had cited various instances where an innocent or unrelated person happened to suffer some misfortune at the same time as a camera blackout set up for someone else's convenience.

Such incidents often left the victim with no proof and no way to investigate. Ultimately many victims could only accept that there was not enough evidence and justice would not be served.

From his own personal experience, the mercenary had told Mack that "no one thinks about it or feels any guilt about it until someone they know becomes the collateral damage."

It was then that Mack decided that no camera blackout in an LCM building could ever be allowed to become a critical plot point in someone's tragic story.

"Thank you for your assistance. I may need to return in the morning." She also let him know that she would have to call in a few more gaps to get the rest of their party out of the room they had just entered.

The guard took down her contact information and made a note for the guard that would be in charge of the morning shift.

Fait then left the security office and made her way to Tucker's room to join the guys.

She could hear Chance arguing with Koty as soon as she cracked the door. It looked like they were arguing about restraints while Lola just stood off to the side, seemingly uninterested in the heated conversation.

"I still say we just bind him and leave him until morning." Koty had a fist full of cable ties and was waving them in Chance's face.

Tucker, the 'him' in question, had been laid on top of the bed so that he was on his side. It should have been a comfortable position but his hands were still bound behind his back.

"No. We should cut the ties on his hands. Someone will have to keep a close eye on him anyway to make sure he will even survive until morning."

"He'll be fine. I put him on his side and he's close enough to the edge that if he gets sick, he won't choke."

"Dakota Flynn, when did you become so cruel?" Chance scolded Koty.

"I don't know Mr. Addison. When did you become so soft?" Koty mocked him in return.

"That's it. I-"

"Enough." Fait's chilling voice and stare dropped the temperature of the room by a few degrees. Both men instantly shut up and gave her their full attention.

She stepped in between the two of them and then took the cable ties from Koty. Then she extended her hand out towards Lola.

He reached in his pocket, pulled out Tucker's pocket knife, and tossed it to her.

Fait easily caught the knife and then took it with the ties over to the sleeping man. She reached behind him and used the knife to cut the cables ties that Koty had put on him earlier.

Both of the man's wrists were sporting angry red marks from how tightly Koty had pulled the ties.