Wolf Mendelson walked down the marble staircase to the lobby. Everything was going to plan. He had checked in a week early. This gave him ample time to be ready for the capture of the Klannikov Cartel. He had the staff on his side. He knew every guest that was too be staying on the night of May 22. He had done background checks on each one but nothing definitive came out of them. That was not unexpected however, since no law agency had been able to ID Alexander Zenakis or his top leutenants. Wolf also knew which rooms the guests were to be staying in and had them all bugged with audio and visual devices. His room had been turned into a great control hub where he could watch all his suspects. It wouldn't be long now until he cracked the biggest case of the last decade.
At the moment, nothing was happening. The guests were currently dispuresed throught the hotel. Some at the hotel restaurant, others in the bar, a few in the pool/sauna/spa area while the remaining guests were at the hotel casino. Wolf decided this was the best time to grab a bite to eat and take a short break before continuing on with his survellance activities. He also didn't want to arouse suspicions. He expected the Klannikov Cartel to be very vigilante and if there a was guest acting mysteriously, it could create trouble for him.
As he sipped his Gin cocktail, he surveyed the restaurant. Even though the background info didn't give him much, he had still formed some suspicions about who might be part of the Cartel. Noticing a couple of the suspects in the room, Wolf watched them carefully so as to not arouse suspicion and to see if he might catch a giveaway or clue from their behaviour. As he ate his filet mignon, he was running through different scenarios of how he might capture the Cartel. While he paid the check, he was thinking of how he was going to contact his superiors after the capture. And when he got back to his room, he was wondering how it all went wrong.
His room had been ransacked. All his equipment had been trashed. And written on the mirror was a message: Enjoy your last meal Wolf? They knew who he was. Hundreds of agents in the field to keep track of yet they still knew who he was. He had to get out of here and get help fast. Wolf grabbed his gun from his arm holster. He checked the hallway and then scurried down it, ready for any attack. He took the stairs down, constantly scanning for any sudden attack. He got to the bottom and looked through the window of the door at the lobby. He scanned it for any possible areas of concealment for an assassin. Some hotel staff were at the desk and a couple guests were milling in the lobby. He walked out from the stairwell. He cautiously walked along with his back to the wall, inching to the marble staircase and his constantly scanning. Suddenly, he felt a tremendous burning in his stomach and he began to shake. He felt weak like he was about to throw up and his head got dizzy. Poison! He had been poisoned! His mind raced to the message on the mirror, enjoy your last meal Wolf. They must have poisoned his food. There was no other possible way.
Wolf stumbled and fell down the marble stairs to the lobby. His body was beginning to convulse. He had some screams and could sense people surrounding him. Someone grabbed him. He could feel his body being moved. There was someone talking in front of him asking him what was wrong. Poison, Wolf thought. He had to let them know but he just couldn't seem to be able to make a sound. He wanted to shout it but for some reason he just couldn't seem to get the word out. He began to close his eyes. This was it, he realized. This is how it was going to end for him. He didn't want to go. He just can't seem to fight it off. Then, he suddenly felt a calm over his whole body.
"Poison!" Wolf cried out. He suddenly sat upright. He was surrounded by a crowd of guests and hotel staff. "I've been poisoned by the Klannikov Cartel!" One of the hotel staff turned to a bellhop and told him to inform the doctor. But Wolf didn't want to risk waiting for a doctor. He had to make people aware of the situation just in case. "The Klannikov Cartel is the greatest Crime Syndicate in the world right now. They've poisoned my food. You can't let anyone leave. Their leader, Alexander Lukas Zenakis, is staying here right now. One of you people here is him. He's not alone. He has 3 high ranking helpers with him. Mustn't let them get away. Very sorry to do this to you," Wolf gasped. He then reached for his phone in his jacket. Pulling it, he pushed a button on the side. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and then a great rumbling sound. "I'm afraid I've caused an avalanche to trap you here for a while. A back-up plan in case of the Cartel trying to escape." Wolf pressed another button. "Blast. Trying to signal my HQ for support but signal is weak."
Wolf felt a sudden blast of pain. "I don't think I can make it. Here. Take this phone. Keep pressing this button to call for help." Wolf handed over the phone to a guest kneeling next him. "Listen. This is very important. I'm going to give you the authority to hold the Klannikov Cartel here by any force necessary including lethal force if it must come to that. If it does, and you are questioned by any law enforcement agency about it, just tell them I, Wolf Mendelson gave you the authority and give them this code, M128. Remember that. M128! You are the only ones who can stop this. You must prevent their escaping!"
Wolf felt more pain and his strength fading that he could no longer sit upright and fell back to the floor. He heard some chatter and one person mention that surely the hotel staff could look after this. "No!" Wolf cried out, "The staff can't be trusted. The Cartel has a staff member or two working with them. Someone on staff tipped them off about me and poisoned me. There was no way any guest could have got to the kitchen. I was watching. I was ... huuuuuuu" Wolf suddenly found he couldn't breath. He was trying with all his might to somehow get air to his burning lungs but his throat just couldn't seem to open. Then suddenly, he felt the burning fading away and a calming darkness began to come over his vision and mind.
"He's dead Jim," the Hotel Doctor told a Bellhop next to him.
The guests all stood looking at the body. Finally one person broke the silence. "I need a drink," he muttered. Then he slowly turned and started walking to the bar in a daze. Still in shock but wanting to get away from the horrible scene of death they had just witnessed turned and followed their new leader to the bar in a slow shuffle. They all sat around, deep in thought, trying to comprehend all that they had just witnessed.
"We really are trapped," said a guest looking out a window and breaking the deep silence they were all in.
"Do you think it's really true? The whole thing seems so farfetched," asked one guest aloud.
"Agreed. The whole thing would be easier to deal with in a different setting or in the past where it was harder to communicate with the outside world," said the narrator frustrated with the amount of things that had to be acounted for to get this scenario to even work.
"Hey! No one asked you. Get out of here! Quit ruining the flow of the story. You're only making yourself write more. The more you write the less people will read it and there's very few that will read this story already," the guests all shouted back at the Narrator, upset that he would break the fourth wall like that and remind everyone that this whole thing is bad fiction.
"Well, the way I see it is this. He caused the avalanche so I don't think he's crazy. From the way he died, I can believe he was poisoned even. But honestly, what am I supposed to do about it. I run a large telecommunications organization. I'm not a detective. I don't know any of you. So, how can I be expected to stop some big mafia types," complained one guest, helping to get the story back on track after that weird narrator interruption.
The other guests all murmured in agreement.
"Well see here!" shouted one guest leaping to his feet. He sounded a little crazy and looked it too. "That man just deputized us and I think we have a responsibility here whether we like it or not. Now maybe you're only here because you inherited your wealth and never had to work a day in your life for it. But I have. I'm not afraid to get rough and tumble. By gum, if there's a chance to avange that man's death, I say we take it."
"And just how do you propose we do that?" asked one critic. (Lousy critics with their questions requiring me to type more of an explaination for this whole lousy premise)
"Quit interrupting with your self-deprications Narrator. And I'll tell you how," responded the talkative crazy loudmouth, "Despite the narrator's uinfair characterization of myself, I say we start with that man over there!" The loudmouth turned and pointed to one of the guests sitting at a table. "There's something shifty about this fellow that has bugged me ever since I've seen him and with the killing we just witnessed I'm more sure than ever he's up to no good."
Well, this just caused the room to erupt in a back and forth arguement of who should suspect who and what everyone thought as to who the culprits could be. Suddenly, a loud whistle peirced the air causing everyone to stop their arguing. They all turned to look at the guest who had made the sound.
"Listen, listen. I think we're going about this the wrong way. Trying to point the finger at everyone else is never going to help us find anyone. We need to narrow down the field," the guest said.
"Narrow down the field? What do you mean by that?" asked one guest suspiciously.
"We should figure out who we can rule out of the crime and then try to figure out the guilty from there. Instead of trying to figure out who is guilty, we should discuss who is innocent instead," the guest reasoned with a kind of backwords logic that made sense at first but if you gave it too much thought could seem a little flawed. But hey, who has time to think when you've got so many other hoops to jump through to get this story rolling and thus so much to type.
"And who do you think is innocent? Yourself?" asked yet another guest that I won't name so as to not influence this game unless players would like to be worked into the story but I'm never sure if they would like that or not so I play it safe.
"Well, yes," answered the guest, hoping that maybe next time he could have a name instead of being so vague. This caused a dismissive murmur from the crowd. Not from the fact that the guests would like to have their names used but from the fact that he was saying he was innocent. "Now just wait," the guest continued," Hear me out. Of course I want you to trust me. I'm sure each of you wants everyone to trust them. But I'm not saying you have to. I'm just saying we should all make a case for why we think everyone should believe us. Tell each other a bit about us and why we couldn't be a member of this Cartel. Then when we've all gone through this process, surely we can eliminate some of the potential suspects by general consensus?"
While not enthusiastic about the idea, none in the bar objected to the plan.
"Ok great. Well, to get the ball rolling, I'll start," said the guest.
(And begin game.)
Topic: Mafia LI: Public Executioners. Day 1. Checking in. (Read 11520 times)
