Waiting at the baggage carousel for their bags, Travis put his arm around Monique's shoulders, "You've not heard anything from the foreign female have you?"
"No... nothing. I worry. I've not heard anything from my son, and the only consistent message from everyone is that he's in trouble and some kind of danger. All I get are... mysterious phone calls from eastern women." Monique said with a trembling voice.
"Eastern women?" Travis asked in his warm southern accent.
"Yes. Some of the time it's a Thai girl, or something like that, giving me warnings or strange updates. Other times it's a Chinese girl, rattling off instructions that I can barely understand before she hangs up." Monique said.
"What kind of instructions?" Travis asked as he turned to face Monique. Concern registering across his face.
Monique squeezed her eyes shut a moment, holding in her emotions, "Just, things."
Travis cupped her chin in his hand as he looked down on her, "Mon, are you not telling me somethin'?"
"No. But I was told by the Chinese girl not to go to the Spanish mansion under any circumstances." Monique said as she covered her forehead, "I don't even know if my son is still alive..."
"Listen! Lennon's a smart boy, and he's as decent as the day is long. He'll always do the right thing! And the next time you get one of these cryptic calls, why don't 'cha hand the phone to me?"
"I'd definitely like you to listen too to see if you can make more sense of the calls, but until Logan and Nathan fly home, I can't even ask them if it makes sense. They've spoken to these weird people and been inside the mansion....which they said was more like a prison. And, I've had to leave Merrick at home, and you know how ill he is..."
Travis cut in "My older brother is a fighter. I ain't never seen that man back down for nothin'. He fights for what he wants until he gets it. He's fought off cancer once already! And Dutch is by his side keepin' a close watch on him....to make sure he don't come up with some cockamayme plan, like usual. Uncle Rick was gonna go but Merrick wouldn't have him as things are still raw between them over his treatment of Lennon."
"I don't blame him one bit! If he hadn't chased Len away, then maybe he would be safe now!" Monique said.
Travis reached for the luggage, and then pulled their bags off before he turned to Monique, "Do you have a place to stay here, or should I book something for us?"
"I have booked a place, and its very central.." Monique said before she paused a moment, "Its funny. The next time I thought I would be here in Europe was for my ex-step sons wedding... but things fell through..." Monique said.
"Not that Merrick would approve. Unless... he wasn't going to know about it. I like to think that you can tell me anything.." Travis said as they walked to the exit.
"I always wanted to keep things civil with my ex-step children, as I loved them all dearly." Monique said.
"Then how did it fall through?" Travis asked.
"Well.. I called when his sister gave me a current mobile number for him. He sounded shocked to hear me after all these years. Most of the time we just e-mailed each other on holidays or anniversaries. It was just nice to hear his voice, even though he sounded very stressed and somewhat emotional. He told me that in over a year, he was getting married, and wanted me there." Monique said.
"Ahh.. I can see where the problem is." Travis said.
"Yes. He told me that his father was going to be there, and that we would be kept far apart. But... I just couldn't bring myself to be in the same room as his father." Monique said.
"I don't blame you! That guy was a psychopath! And you gotta admit, all of his kids are weird too and have tons of issues. Especially the eldest two that you're so fond of." Travis said as he tried to find someone who spoke English to get a taxi.
"Well, he flatly refused to have any of my children attend with me as I did not want to go alone! We were losing more and more common ground the longer we spoke." Monique said.
"Because they most likely believe all the bullshit their father told them. They probably feel resentful over your children, and feel you were stolen from them." Travis said.
Monique looked down, the topic still effecting her, "Yes, they told me years ago that their father said that I didn't care about them because they weren't mine. That was such a vicious lie. But, they believe it to this day."
"Darlin', that's not your fault. The two eldest should know that." Travis said.
"I tried to negotiate with my step son, as I know he was under a lot of criticism from his family over the girl he is marrying, and I had heard the rumours from all his siblings. But about attending the wedding, he just said that we have to agree to disagree, and that he loved me and was happy I called. He had no idea how I had tried to see them all, years ago." Monique said.
Travis shook his head, "The last time I saw your ex-husband was when Lennon was a toddler, and you were still trying to see that guys kids. I was happy to go with you as I knew that Merrick would go ballistic if he found out and I wasn't gonna let you go alone to meet that psycho and his two eldest. That old French guy was as creepy and stubborn as always, and had obviously ordered his kids not to speak to you. His son and daughter were in their twenties if I remember right, and I realised that his son was just as vindictive and bad tempered as he was, when I saw him kick over Lennon's building blocks. But still, I do kinda wanna know what kind of people the tall and talented, curly haired girl, and the paler than white anorexic boy, grew up into. "
"Don't remind me! That was terrible. He had no intention of mediating with me. All he wanted to do was accuse me of this or that, and tell me how I had ruined his life, and made the children miserable." Monique said.
"Well, let them fester over the past. None of it matters now. Didn't that guy get married a whole buncha of times after you?" Travis asked.
"Yes. I think right now, he is married to a much younger fifty year old Thai woman." Monique said.
Travis couldn't help bursting into a short laugh, "Well, he's finally got a woman who won't leave him.... until she leaves him! Haha!"
"It's actually quite sad. That's his sixth wife, I believe."
"Well, when is that guy gonna realise that marriage, is not for him.." Travis said, as they stepped to the front of the taxi queue.
"Well, I was not lucky the first time, though I was wife number two for him." Monique said.
"I guess it just depends on what you're made of, and how faithful you are. But, if you're a man with principals, when you marry.. you have to just leave everything else behind. You make a life with your partner and that's it. Personally, I've been in love with the same woman for nearly thirty years. It's never changed, and if anything, I've grown to love her even more over the years. I would do anything for her." Travis said.
"And for that reason, you and Genevieve are a beautiful couple! You're as happy as Merrick and I, and it's so rare to be able to share your life with your soul-mate." Monique said.
"That's very true, Darlin'." Travis said as he opened the cab door for Monique.
~ X ~
Javier made his way up the dark corridors on his way to the family compound. As he passed a doorway, he heard Mateo call after him.
"Javier!!" Mateo called with relief.
"Mateo! Oh my God! Are you okay?!" Javier asked as Mateo grabbed him and hugged him tightly, but then pulled away quickly and coughed, trying to resume a cool exterior.
"Yeah.. yeah, why wouldn't I be?!" Mateo answered.
"Dude, you look scared." Javier said.
"Well... people are dead, Hav. The lights out and shit. The shutters are down and phones don't work. Then my radio died." Mateo said.
"Yeah... yeah. I saw." Javier said as he looked down.
"It ain't safe out here." Mateo said quietly.
Javier grabbed Mateo's shoulders, "Mateo, have you met any team members?"
Mateo just shook his head as he stared at the floor.
"Listen! Tell me the truth! Have you seen the boss!?" Javier said sternly.
Mateo just nodded slowly as he stared at the floor, absolutely mute.
"I have too. But... I don't think we should say anything about it." Javier said.
"How come you're still alive?" Mateo asked.
"I don't know. I think it's because... I never drew on him, or he just didn't perceive me as a threat. But I didn't know what was going on until after he'd left. I tried looking for him everywhere, but couldn't find him anywhere." Javier said.
"Holy shit. He knows this place inside out! He could be anywhere!" Mateo said as he started to panic, "Didn't he help design the plans to this place?"
"Yes..." Javier said as he sat for a moment on a chair, "I remember the attention to small detail he had. I heard him telling Madam Dolores that he was basing this place on a Japanese Okiya, but with the security of a prison and the impregnability of a fortress."
Mateo smiled slightly, "Did he like... never get his own room as a kid?"
Javier sighed, "The fact of the matter is that we need to get to the family compound or the ESR and find out how to get this place back online. I'm not taking sides in this. If people ask me if I've seen him, I'm denying it, and if you're smart you'll do the same thing, or they'll treat you with suspicion. If I know Dolores, she's going to want all her children to the panic rooms." Javier said as he started to walk to the door.
"I had Chéri.." Mateo said.
Javier paused at the door, then turned back, "You had Chéri?! What the hell happened?"
"We were with some gay assets and Ethan. Chéri and Ethan crawled through the air-ducts to try and open an external door. That was the last time I actually saw the little guy." Mateo said.
"Okay Mateo, exactly who, is where..?" Javier asked.
"It looks like.... Kenzo is in control as Lennon is AWOL... if he is even still alive." Mateo said.
"Don't even joke Mateo." Javier said, "I'm not losing any more friends over this Chéri bullshit."
"Hav...?"
"Yes?"
"Just.... who are your friends? Who are you trying to protect..?" Mateo asked quietly.
Javier stared back a moment lost in thought, then shook his head, "Come on.. We gotta go."
~ X ~
Kenzo turned to Dolores, "I have very few of the security team members left. I guess we need to see who shows up here to know who's left."
Dolores looked down, the make-up having run down her face, "I still don't have Chéri or Hugo here."
"I'll go look for them!" Selina said as she walked into the room.
"Get back into your panic room!" Kenzo shouted back.
"You don't tell me what to do!" Selina shouted back.
Dolores hit her armrests, "Kenzo is right! You stay here and in your panic room, where you're safe!"
Selina rolled her eyes, "Safe from what?! Marcel?! You've got to be joking! I am not frightened of him in any way, shape or form!"
Kenzo folded his arms, "I ain't about to give Marcel a family member as a hostage, and I don't give a shit if you feel that just because you fucked the guy years ago, you feel you can reason with him now."
Selina turned to her mother, "Are you going to let him speak to me like that?!"
"Kenzo! Moderate yourself! Remember that she is my daughter, not a member of your staff!" Dolores said.
"HELLO! HELLO! ANYONE THERE?! I HAVE A RADIO!" came the excited Filipino voice of Bayani over the radio, with loud shrieks in the background.
Kenzo stormed over to the radio and grabbed it off the table, "How come ALL these fuckers can find a radio, and the fucking security team, can't!?"
"Because the security team is dead, Kenzo." Selina said.
"Where are you and what's the situation?" Kenzo asked.
"We are in the straight asset compound. I'm with Akara and Sanyi!" Bayani said.
"Are there any security team members with you?" Kenzo asked.
"Only Felipe, the rest were dead in the corridors." Bayani said.
Kenzo looked up at Dolores, "They're with a French security member. I don't fucking trust them."
"Don't be ridiculous! They need protecting! You can't just leave them out there! Tell them to come here!" Selina said.
Kenzo looked back at Selina, "What?! Risk the family compound to let in three screaming queens and a Frenchman. No fucking way! I don't trust the Spanish to any great degree, and I sure as fucking shit ain't trusting no French man in here. He'll murder us all!"
"So, you'll leave them out there as cannon fodder for each other?!" Selina said.
"I'm keeping you all safe! I'm in charge!" Kenzo said.
"He has a point." Madam Dolores said, "I love Bayani, but he is with untrustworthy people. Unless they can produce Chéri or Hugo, or unless Lennon himself walks up to that door.... it does not open." Dolores said.
"Mamma.... ?!" Selina asked in complete shock.
~ X ~
Hugo slowly wheeled himself towards the ESR. He could not take a direct route due to stairwells and areas he could not negotiate with his wheelchair. At one point, he had to tip himself off his chair and drag himself along the floor to pull himself up on to a chair, and then reach a latch on a door. After undoing the latch, he pulled himself back along the floor and, with great effort, he pulled himself back up onto his wheelchair.
Navigating the dark corridors, he didn't head straight for the family compound as he was one of the programmers for the mainframe, and he wanted to at least try to get the electronic systems back on line, and he knew that if he joined his mother in the family area, he would never be allowed to leave.
Every time he reached an intersection, he was forced to go whichever way allowed for his wheelchair. He knew the Bordello inside out, so it was easy to find his way about, even in the near darkness, as he was on ground level.
He noticed that many of the shutters were open in this particular area as he wheeled himself down the corridor. Moving further on down, he saw in the distance a figure using their phone light to try and read a map on the wall.
Hugo pushed his glasses up as he stared forward.
"Who's there..?" Hugo asked in the echoey hall.
"Hugo!? It's me! Ethan! How the hell have you got this far?!" Ethan asked, with surprise.
"Sometimes I had to go far out of my way to get around stairs and the lifts that don't work." Hugo said.
"Are you crazy?! You need to join the family in the main family compound!" Ethan said as he held up his radio to hale Kenzo.
"No! If you tell them I'm here then they'll send out a unit to get me! And I won't be able to get this place back up and running! Especially with people showing up dead in corridors everywhere!" Hugo said.
"That's Marcel's handiwork!" Ethan said.
"Wait, what?!" Hugo asked, shocked.
"I can't waste time explaining! I'm taking you to your mother! I didn't manage to hold onto Chéri, but you're a sitting duck, you can't get away. No offence." Ethan said as he quickly got behind Hugo's wheelchair and started to push him.
"Thanks Ethan..." Hugo said as he pulled up the hand-break on his wheelchair,"but I'm going to the ESR."
"No you're not! I'm calling Kenzo for your free ass-kicking." Ethan said as he lifted his radio.
Hugo grabbed Ethan's arm, "Well, unless you plan on carrying me, I am going there! I helped program the IT system here! I can get in there and see everything! Turn back on the lights, cellular network, wifi, electricity. Please! Only I can fix this!" Hugo pleaded.
Ethan sighed loudly, "Okay, but if anyone asks. I never let you do this! Anyway, do you know the way?"
"You have my word, and of course I know the way." Hugo said as he released the hand-break.
~ X ~
Bayani looked to Felipe, "What now? They have told us to wait here for rescue."
"This is bullshit!" Felipe snapped back in his strong French accent, "They are making no attempt to retrieve us! They are happy to leave us here in the dark! Only to be murdered by someone who has a grudge against us!" he said as he tried haling any of the few French that did not resign, on the French radio.
"I wish Lennon was here." Bayani said as he sat down.
"I don't have any faith in that American." Felipe said.
"Maybe the Spanish will come here for us...?" Akara asked hopefully.
"Don't hold your breath." Felipe said, "The Spanish only care about themselves."
Sanyi got up all excited, "I have idea! Why not we go check Spangna apartment? If she there then if we bump into Marcel, and if he plan kill us with gun, we get her give him slap, and argument."
"That is the dumbest idea I have heard in all the years I have worked here. He'll only shoot her, and then you! Because I will tell him that idiotic plan!" Felipe said.
"Then he'll kill you, for telling him an idiotic plan." Bayani said to Felipe.
"Then he'll kill you for being transgender." Felipe responded to Bayani.
"While he's killing you all. I run away." Akara said.
Bayani turned to Akara, "Where is Spangna, anyway?"
"Good question. If she's not dead, she is probably trapped inside her luxury apartment eating microwaved food." Felipe said.
"I think we should head there! Just to make sure she is not trapped. I want to make sure she is safe." Bayani said.
"I agree." Akara said, as Sanyi nodded.
"Alright. I guess it isn't far from here."Felipe said as he checked his handgun.
~ X ~
Javier and Mateo walked cautiously through the compound, and reached the ESR corridor. Javier held his arm out in front of Mateo to halt him. He then quickly held his finger up to his mouth in a hushing motion, before pointing to the door of the ESR, which was ajar and had some light being shon around.
Javier motioned for Mateo to stay where he stood, and then took his pistols out of their holster and placed them at Mateo's feet, before he slowly walked up to the room. Reaching the door, he held his hands up in surrender, and pushed open the door slowly. He was shocked to see Ethan and Hugo in the ESR.
"Javier! Javier! Fuck me, you're alive!" Ethan shouted as he moved over and hugged him.
"Ethan! Hugo! Mateo's here with me!" Javier said as they all exchanged smiles.
Mateo walked in, "S'up dudes! Me n' Hav.... got everything under control!"
"Hugo! You need to go to your mother, now!" Javier said.
"I already tried that.." Ethan said.
Hugo turned to Javier, "Do you want the good news, or the bad news?"
Javier shook his head and smiled, "Give me some good news, Hugo..."
"I'm getting the CCTV back online, as well as the upper ring electricity. Soon, I'll have full control of the Bordello!" Hugo said.
"What about internet and phone network?" Javier asked.
"The problem is, that the router which was attached to the cellular transponder was ripped from the wall. I have to re-solder the wires." Hugo said.
"There was a soldering iron in the infirmary, near the family compound." Javier said.
"Are you sure?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah, the team was always working on something in there. What's the bad news..?" Javier asked.
Hugo sighed, "We've been robbed. Big time." he said as he typed frantically across the keyboard and lots of machine code filled the screen.
Mateo walked forward,"What do you mean?"
Hugo pointed to the monitor as Javier leant in, "Look at these records. These are the trace records of transactions that took place just before the red offline. Millions of Euros have been exchanged into cryptocurrency, then spirited away to accounts abroad with fake names."
Ethan looked confused, "Crypto currency?"
"Yeah, I've heard of it." Mateo said, "It's like, untraceable internet credit that has been embraced as a traditional currency now in many countries. But, as its not centralised, its used ALOT by criminals."
Javier slowly smiled as he looked at the information on the screen, "How much percentage wise, would you say was taken?"
Hugo shrugged, "Approximately... a little over half of the Bordello's entire liquid assets. We're talking millions."
"I bet that laundered money has already been converted back into Euros, and is sitting in a Swiss account... If I know Marcel." Mateo said.
"This is an outrage. Mamma's going to go insane." Hugo said.
Javier shrugged, "This is not my problem. Getting you all back to the family compound, is."
"I'm not leaving here until I have done a full trace, and gathered as much digital information about these transactions as possible. Also get this place back on it's feet." Hugo said.
Ethan turned to Hugo, "You're going to get us all killed! If not by the evil pied piper of women, we'll get killed by your mother, when she finds out that we didn't force you back to the family compound!"
"Then I take full responsibility for my own safety!" Hugo said.
"Madam Dolores won't see it like that!" Mateo said.
Hugo threw his arms up, "Look! I tell you what. Let's all make the agreement, that NONE of you saw me!"
"I can't have that on my conscience." Javier said.
"You are all MY security team! And I outrank you all! And I order the following......." Hugo said before a short pause, "Hav, I order you to retrieve me a soldering iron. You're one of the best men here, and I trust you with every fibre of my being. Mateo, I order you, to take Ethan to my mother in the family compound, and I order you all not to mention that you saw me at all. Are we understood?" Hugo asked.
Everyone reluctantly nodded slowly in response.
Hugo wheeled his chair backwards a moment, "And finally... please, please. Find my baby brother, Cheri."
"But.. What if the boss finds you? Not that I've....seen him anywhere around this part of the Bordello..." Mateo asked as Javier rolled his eyes.
Hugo turned to Mateo, "What would he want with me? He's already got his money. I'm just a cripple in a wheelchair.. he has no need to extract any revenge on me." Hugo said as his gaze fell to the floor, "He wants revenge on my brother, Cheri."
Javier stepped forward, "Take this..." he said as he held out one of his guns.
"I don't need a gun. My weapon... is right up here.." Hugo said as he tapped the side of his head with his index finger.
Javier put the gun back in the holster on his leg, and offered his hand to Hugo. "I'll be back with that iron." he said as they shook hands.
"I know you will, Hav." Hugo said, as he watched Javier, Mateo and Ethan leave the room.