While after a long talk in the bar room, nothing was resolved as no one wanted to pick sides and declare someone else innocent over themselves. In the end, the hotel guests decided that they should just keep trying Wolf's to send out the signal for help.
But sitting around waiting for a signal to suddenly pick-up can be rather long and boring and tedious and this story is bad enough as is so the writer guests decided to take action.
"Hey! You there," one guest called to another, "What's your name?"
"Dasmos. What of it?" Dasmos asked suspiciously.
"You said you were in telecommunications, right?" asked the guest.
"That could have been anybody. If you look at the story, the telecommunications guest was left unnamed," said Dasmos, pointing out the vagueness in much of the plot.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. But for story purposes, you're the telecommunications guy," continued the guest.
"Why does this matter?" Dasmos asked back, getting upset at the attention he was now receiving. This couldn't be a good thing, he thought so the narrator could use some foreshadowing.
"Well, it seems to me that if anybody could boost or improve the signal range, it would be an expert in telecommunications," implied the guest rather hamhandedly.
"Just because I work in it, doesn't make me some kind of engineer. I'm in charge of the business end. Mergers, stock options, greenlighting new tech. I'm no expert," Dasmos tried to explain. Unfortunately, the guests and narrator were having none of it. They wanted progress on the situation and by the sheer fact of his association however remote of being able to fix the problem, the guests hounded Dasmos to look into. Finally, having enough of their screaming verbal abuse and people mooning him, Dasmos relented.
"Fine! I'll do it! And then when everything is really screwed up because I don't know what I'm doing, then I'm going to hunt you all down and tell you I told you so, morons!" Dasmos burst out in a rage, "At least I'll get some peace and quiet away from you animals!"
Khushrenada, the hotel manager, took Dasmos to the back of the hotel where the servers and telephone wires and all other communication do-hickey's that the writer is too stupid to remember were kept. If it is needed to contact the outside world, it is kept in this big fancy room and that is that.
"Here go! I'll check back in 20 minutes. If there's been no progress, then I can only believe that the only acceptable reason was that you were sleeping and I'm going to have to charge you for staying in a second room," Khushrenada explained then briskly walked away before Dasmos could argue back.
"Oh there, will be progress alright," Dasmos muttered to himself while cracking his knuckles.
20 minutes later, the guests were getting pretty steamed about the lack of progress.
"I mean really, how hard is to raise the dial from low signal to high?" asked one guest to another.
"Oh I know. Did anyone tell him to make sure the signal sender is plugged in. I know that forgetting to plug in an electrical device is the biggest cause of electronics failure at my residence. I don't know why someone hasn't created a device that comes preplugged in already?" another guest related to the conversation.
"So true. You know, I never have to worry about any of this stuff. My butler takes care of it for me. Makes life so grand. I recently bought a car to ride in whenever I need to get something from this information superhighway. You wouldn't believe how many potholes are on it," confided another guest.
"Well, I say we take action and see what is taking so long!" cried out a guest.
"Here, here," the others shouted in unison. One of the guests close to a phone picked it up.
"Hello, hello. Lobby is that you? Hello? Anyone there? I'm looking for the lobby. Who is ever controlling this device, put me through to the lobby this instant. Hello, hello?" the guest barked into the telephone. "There's no one there," he said, hanging up.
"This is outrageous. I say we speak to the manager and find out why this Dasmos fellow is making such a mess of things," one guest yelled out. The other guests shouted back in agreement. Then they all got up and marched down to the lobby.
"We demand to see the manager," one guest spat out at a nearby bellhop.
"Yes sir! Right away sir," the bellhop cried out and ran off for the manager.
"Why hello! Good to see you all. I'm guessing this spontaneous visit from all of the guests is to give the staff, and by staff I mean myself, a bonus for the fine service you've received so far?" asked Khushrenada asked hopefully.
"Not in the least! We demand to see Dasmos and find out what is taking so blasted long. I want this business cleared up so that I don't have to spend anymore time with these other people!" answered one guest.
"I'm with him. I didn't come here to help other people. This is too much!" agreed another guest.
"Well, you're in luck. I just finished modifying Dasmos bill to account for all the new expenses he's accrued. A second room, telecommunications hands-on repair workshop, using more signal strength, my time, etc, etc. Follow me. I'll take you to him," Khushrenada explained.
With that, the guests followed Khushrenada to the back of the hotel where the big room where all the necessary communications devices were. And there, lying in the middle of it, was Dasmos.
"I knew it. Sleeping on the job," Khushrenada smiled triumphantly.
"Wait! He's not sleeping. He's been bloody well murdered," spoke old British Lord who is one of the unnamed guests.
Sure enough. Looking closer, they realized that Dasmos had been tied up by various wires and each of his arms and legs were stuck into powerful electrical sockets frying him to death.
"I'm going to have charge him for all this excess power consumption," Khushrenada said after surveying the body.
"He can't pay you. He's dead Jim," the hotel doctor explained while forgetting the name of the hotel manager and using Jim instead in order to keep reusing this tired joke. Get ready for more of that every day. Yee-haw!
"What? This is terrible. Everybody. Everybody. I have an announcement to make. We are going to Dasmos room and we are going to have a brief fire-sale of all his belongings so that I can recoup some of the money I'm owed," announced Khushrenada.
This got the guests very excited because who can resist rock bottom prices? So they all hurried up to Dasmos room and divided up his belongings amongst themselves.
"Remember, if you can't fit all your newly acquired merchandise in your room, we have do have safeboxes available at a nominal fee," Khushrenada gleefully reminded everyone.
"Hey, look at this. I found Dasmos will," said Ceric, who was surprised to suddenly be named in the story, "Let me read a little bit of it while I try to figure out why I'm suddenly getting included in the story. To my best friend Shift Key, I leave nothing. To my friend, RABicle, I leave you the money to get your sex-change operation and become the little princess you always wanted to be. You have 18 Days to collect. And to my other friend, Infernal Monkey, I leave my two middle fingers. Finally, I give all my wealth away to a mime I saw in Bangladesh who brought me many happy memories as he cried out in pain when my rickshaw ran-over him and crippled him for life. Just kidding. I leave it all to the campaign to re-elect Prime Minister John Howard. Long may he reign. Up yours everyone."
Everyone stood in awkward silence.
"Sounds like he was a little crazy," Ceric said.
Suddenly, Sundoulos punched him. "Show some respect for the dead."
"Easy sirs. I can provide some bellhops to wrestle for you. No need to get yourselves involved. At the very least, I think we can at least agree that it sounds like he was innocent of being involved of any criminal behaviour," Khushrenada said, stepping in between the two.
"Well, what now?" asked one guest, "None of the phone lines work, the internet is done, cellular reception is non-existant, the telegraph lines are cut in the avalanche and the carrior pigeons will freeze to death in this weather. There is just no way to communicate with the outside world. Don't even try to think of a way. Just accept it. We are trapped here and that's that. We will only get untrapped by resolving this situation so let's focus on that now and not any other implausibilities about this story."
"I think it's clear that Dasmos death shows this Cartel means business," Ceric spoke up, "They killed Dasmos to keep him from fixing any communications. If they are willing to do that, how do we know they won't try to kill us all to keep any of us from warning the law and possibly identifying them. We should try to figure out who could have possibly slipped away and killed Dasmos while we were waiting for him."
All the guests agreed that was a good plan. However, on reviewing the events, they realized that, amazingly, any of them could have had the time to slip away and kill Dasmos undetected so we'll just let that idea go.
"I say, we fight fire with fire! If the Cartel want to threaten us with death, let's threaten them with death!" shouted one suddenly angry person.
"Good idea. But how can do that?" asked a confused guest willing to get swept away in the sudden rising fervor.
"Let's kill someone now! Surely, we should be able to figure out who is part of this cartel despite the fact that we were unable to come up with any concrete answers prior to this point in the story," said the very enthusiastic and bloodthirsty individual.
The bloodlust was contagious and everyone soon agreed to this great sounding idea. But whom to kill? That was the tough question. Everyone seemed to hate someone else. Then a guest spoke up. "Well, if we are going to do this, I'd trust Ceric to do it and stick by his choice."
Suddenly, the whole process went from figuring out who to kill into who should be trusted to kill. After a brief general election, it was found that Ceric won the general vote. The guests asked for a weapon and Khushrenada quickly supplied one of the semi-automatics that were kept behind glass in case of emergency next to all the fire extinguishers. The Hotel Monteverde De La Rue believes in safety first.
"I thank you all for the power you have entrusted me with," Ceric said to the crowd of guests, "This gun suddenly feels a lot heavier than any other gun I've carried before in the past. But I've never been charged with a more weighty responsibility before. With your guidance and help, I hope to resolve this present situation calmly, fairly and with grace. Now, what are your thoughts on the matter?"
"I say we kill that man over there. He's been carrying a concealed weapon all the time. Also, I can only make out part of the engraving on the wristwatch he's wearing but what I can make out is Congratulations A.L.Z. and those would be the same initials of Alexander Lukas Zenakis. Not to mention...." one guest started to explain when he was interrupted by gunshots.
Ceric had turned and started blasting Sundoulos with the gun. "Show some respect for the living, you jerk! You're a real big man now, aren't you!" Ceric cried out in triumph. The clip ran out and Ceric stopped firing and turned to face the other hotel guests. They all looked at with their mouths open in shock.
"I'm sorry guys. I panicked and made a snap decision. Give me another chance and I'll get it right this time. I swear," Ceric pleaded to the crowd.
"Uhhhh. Maybe we should rethink this," said one of the guests, hoping not offend Ceric in case he finds another loaded weapon.
"That might not be a bad idea," said another guest.
[Begin Day 2]
Topic: Mafia LI: Public Executioners. Day 2. Lying on a bed watching old reruns. (Read 14768 times)
