47 An Aptitude for Acting

Waze walked slowly down the hallway carefully looking at the room numbers.

"403...404...405... This way must be 432 then...." She crept through the hotel, carefully peeking around corners to make sure there were no guards. Eventually, she came upon a hall where one door was guarded by two armed men. She did her best to make out the room number from where she stood. Luckily, she had good eye sight. It was definitely room 432.

"Found ya." Waze sat back for a moment to decide on her strategy. The plan was to walk up naturally to the men before disarming them at a close distance. If she made herself an enemy from far away, they would certainly shoot her, but she knew how to deal with guns in close combat. One thing she had learned over the years is that if you act like you're supposed to be there and like you have a destination, most people will instinctively leave you alone. So that's exactly what Waze did.

She strolled down the hallway with a flat expression, walking as naturally as if she were changing classes at school. The men didn't even notice her until she came up to them.

"Excuse me, boys. Would this happen to be room 432?"

The men snapped their heads down to look at the girl in confusion.

"Hey girly, what are you doing out here all alone?" Waze gave the men a sweet smile. She really didn't expect them to let her in, but it was worth a try. If she could get in without fighting, then that would be great.

"I'm here to see Mr. Egar." It wasn't exactly a lie.

"Did he call for you or something?"

"Nope! It's a surprise visit." Waze winked at the men, who looked very confused. "What, you don't think I could've gotten up here all on my own, do you? Some guys who know Mr. Egar said he would like a nice surprise. They had to take care of something, though. Couldn't tell me what it was. They told me to go on ahead, and that you guys would let me in."

"That's true... theres no way a little girl would've been able to go up all on her own. I'll go check with Boss and see if you can go in. I didn't know he was in to.... Never mind." The man knocked on the door and Waze stepped to the side. The less people who see her the better.

"Hey, I got a question for the Boss."

"What?"

"Theres a chick here to see him."

"He didn't say anything about that."

"Yeah, well she said it was a surprise. Anyway, see if he wants to let her in."

"Theres no way I'm asking, man. You go ask."

"Fine, fine." The guard by the door stepped into the room. Waze waited patiently and glanced up at the other man standing by the door.

"Hey, what did the guards who escorted you here look like?" The man looked down at Waze with suspicion. Waze decided to describe the men she had seen at the very bottom, the ones they had beat the information out of since they didn't look like they had an assigned job or anything.

"Hmm... let me think... the one man had brown hair that was short on the sides and spiked on top and he wore a black leather jacket with jeans and a black t-shirt. The other man had a buzz cut and wore a black t-shirt and joggers." The man stared down at Waze for a moment longer and Waze put on her most innocent face. She hadn't realized she had an aptitude for acting.

"Alright." The man tore his gaze away from Waze, who stepped to the side of the door and leaned against it.

"Still, you seem pretty content to go along with this. You're not trying to run away?" The man looked back at Waze again. Geez, he really wouldn't leave her alone. Waze channeled her emotions into her face, putting on a downcast expression.

"Where would I go? It's not like I could make it out of this hotel, and if I did the guards said we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I'd rather behave and maybe not get hurt too bad." Waze looked up at the guard with sadness in her eyes. He seemed to buy it.

"You seem pretty smart, girly."

"Maybe so." Waze thought for a moment that if that was what he considered smart, she was a flaming idiot. An idiot who had dragged all her friends into this. Waze tilted back her head and leaned it on the wall. God, she hoped everyone was ok. Especially Cassidy. The door opened again and the man stepped out.

"He said you can come on in. He didn't hear anything about it, and said he was gonna punish the guards who did it without asking later on, but he doesn't see any reason to throw away this opportunity. Waze tried not to let her excitement show. She merely gave the guards a small smile and a thank you then went inside. As she walked into the room, she thought to herself how those guards really wouldn't need any 'punishing' considering they were already locked inside a storage closet after having information beaten out of them.

As Waze walked through the door, she casually flicked the lock behind her. If anyone asked, she could say it was habit. Which it pretty much was. She didn't need the guards outside barging in if things got messy.

"This way, honey." The guard by the door walked Waze over to a door down a hallway. Waze assumed it was the bedroom, based on the layout of the rest of the suite.

"I'll warn you, sweetie, Egar doesn't play nice. He's a rough guy. Don't try anything, cause he'll kill you." Waze narrowed her eyes at the man's word. How should she approach this? Should she play nice and get real close then knock him out? Should she declare her objective from the start and stay at a safe distance so she could see his ability? She supposed she would have to wait and get a good look inside first.

"Well, right in there." The man gestured to the doorway. Waze took a deep breath and turned the handle.