Dallas 2.0:Sessions:20160521
Brenda claims she's "working a party" tonight. Benjamin asks if she wants 'accompaniment'; after a moment, she says yes, "but I'll be distracted." Benjamin asks "Can we help?" Brenda starts to apologize for getting him involved last night, then cuts herself off and says that her work begins at 7:00pm.
Nathan walks in and is introduced to Brenda Simons. Brenda: "Should I know you?" Nathan: "Who do you work for?" Brenda: "I'm part of Softlight's internal security." Nathan, handing her his business card: "Are you looking to make a move? I'm always looking for good talent. Why do they need security here?" Brenda: "Bigwigs. Can't tell you more." Nathan: "I hired Ben this morning." Benjamin: "He likes the drones, too!"
Nathan: "I propose a small wager. If I guess which room you'll be in, will you allow Ben and me to be in that room?" Brenda, shooting Benjamin a 'wicked' smile: "Your charmer has already worked his way in. You think something's gonna happen." Nathan: "Room 432. My special skill is called 'money'." Benjamin: "Let us say we are invited guests!" Using her smartphone, Brenda snaps pictures of Nathan and Benjamin (and later Orley) and shares them with her Softlight crew.
Clyde is stuck in the backup behind a traffic accident and is fuming about it. As he passes the accident, he rolls down his window and angrily cusses out the cops, who glare back at him. Realizing how hungry he is, and unwilling to pay for what he considers to be overpriced, bland hotel food, he cuts across several lanes of traffic and pulls into a sports bar.
Orley reports to Nathan that room 702 has not been used, although the key had been picked up from the front desk at 8:00am. There has been no sign of Vicki Zann or Roberto Hansel.
Nathan, Benjamin, and Orley go to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner. Orley: "Ben, I think Brenda likes you." Benjamin: "I think she don't."
After dinner, Benjamin walks the area, paying special attention to stairwells and exits. He has checked his clothing and found no bugs or trackers. Nathan looks into suite 432 where the caterers are setting up. Across the hall from the main entrance, leaning against a wall, a man seems to be messing with his smartphone. Another man comes away from a window and approaches Nathan. "Mr. Rahl, you're about an hour early. I'm Wesley Weltz, head of security at Spotlight." Nathan: "I like to know all the entrances and exits." Wesley: "Brenda spoke highly of your operatives. What are you doing here?" Nathan: "I have information that something untoward might happen, and it is my nature to investigate these things. And for no fee, you get three more security agents." Weltz says the man playing with the smartphone is one of his men, Vernon. Nathan: "Benjamin's English is rough, but he's very smart. Oh, and where are the knives, and how many of them are there?"
Nathan takes Benjamin aside and tells him to introduce himself to Wesley. Benjamin: "Is there something you not tell me?" Nathan: "The lady who threw the elbow last night called and said there would be a slaughter here. Also, we have a case of a lady that should be here that's gone missing." Benjamin: "We should talk to Brenda." Nathan: "I'm not a very trusting person. Watch her reaction to the name Vicki Zann."
Benjamin texts Brenda, "Let's meet, it's important." Brenda spares him a few moments, and he asks her about "Vicki from Highland Tropic." Brenda doesn't respond to the name Vicki, but she mentions "we have run many checks on Mr. Bara [head of marketing, Vicki Zann's boss]."
Clyde checks to see if anyone is following him. His suspicions are drawn to a man reading a magazine sitting in a car in the parking lot. He sits up and puts aside his magazine when Clyde appears. Clyde, thinking this is too much of a coincidence, starts up his car, pulls around to the back of the sports bar, immediately pulls into a parking space, goes around to the trunk and pulls out a baseball bat. He had hoped that the guy would follow him, but after about three minutes Clyde realizes there is no exit from the parking lot back here. He replaces the bat and drives out of the parking lot. The guy pulls out four or five cars behind him, so Clyde guesses the guy put a tracker on his car.
Nathan sees Joe Powell, one of Clyde's poker buddies from last night, enter the suite. He learns that Joe is an executive with Softlight. Other execs include Paul Sales and Pedro Sisto.
As the day ends at Scarborough Faire, Ellen Parker mentions to Kef that she's going to a horror convention. "Stay off the fourth floor," Kef warns her.
Promptly at 8:00pm Clyde strides into suite 532. He recognizes Herman from last night, and he's already acquainted with Larry Powell (Joe's brother). He goes straight up to Kirk and calls him "dickhead" to his face. "If you send any more thugs after me, I'll break their legs -- and yours!" Tonight's game is Texas Hold-Em; the players besides Clyde are Kirk, Herman, Larry, Gordon, Greg, and Lester. The dealer's name is Tammy.
About ten minutes past seven, Nathan and Benjamin return to suite 432. Nathan sends Orley up to "try to prevent Clyde from getting killed. You know, be all official-like. Project your 'cop-ness'."
Clyde easily wins the first hand. Orley enters and makes it obvious to all that he's a cop and he knows Clyde. He explains that Clyde is a material witness from last night. Clyde does not appreciate the attention thus drawn to him.
Benjamin makes sure always to stay within a few steps of Brenda. At one point, though, he has to sit down, doubled over with a grimace of pain. When Brenda comes over to check on him, he immediately smiles and passes it off as a minor stomach bug. (After another dose of medicine, he feels fine the rest of the night.)
While sitting at a campfire listening to some people singing, Kef has a flash: Ambulances and police cars, a body breaking through a fourth-floor window and falling at her feet, another man hanging in the window, impaled on steel bars and broken glass. A woman who sounds like Ellen Parker screams in terror. Kef sighs and mutters, "I told her not to go to the fourth floor."
A little after 11:00pm, a man enters the room, a tentative, furtive manner about him. Benjamin thinks he might be a movie actor. He approaches and offers to get him a drink. The man says, "Sure... bourbon, neat." Benjamin brings him the drink and tries to clap him on the back in a friendly way (and check for concealed weapons) but the man pulls away uncomfortably and gulps down the bourbon. "What movie were you in?" "Uh, Bloodsoaked 2."
Brenda comes up behind another man, shakes her head to signal Nathan not to give away her presence, then mouths to Nathan, "Is he carrying?" Nathan replies, "Don't know." Abruptly she grabs at something near the small of the man's back and murmurs, "Oh, my. I can tell you're glad to see me." She drops a snub-nosed revolver into Nathan's coat pocket. The man pales, and Nathan mutters, "If you start screaming, I'll punch you in the throat. And who's going to notice screams at a horror convention?" The man gives his name as Earl Garrison and claims he is supposed to report on the suite's layout and personnel to a Darren Young. Nathan strikes Earl with his stun baton.
The man Benjamin was talking to slinks out of the room and suddenly bolts toward the stairs. Benjamin, gaining on him, shouts "Hey! He took my wallet!" A man just stepping out of the elevator tries to grab the fugitive, who grabs him instead and slings him at Benjamin. Benjamin adroitly steadies the Good Samaritan and uses the increased momentum to catch up with his target. He pulls out his baton and tries to hit the man across the knees, but the baton slips out of his hand. Benjamin then thrusts the heel of his hand into the man's throat, striking rather harder than he'd intended. The man gurgles and drops to the floor with a broken jaw and a concussion. Benjamin searches the man and exclaims, "Ah, my wallet! You bastard!" He also slides the gun out of the man's ankle holster. The bystander, Sam Yorkley, gets his phone out and calls the police.
Benjamin texts Nathan: Bad guy in hall. Knocked him down. Nathan says to Brenda, "I don't think it's over. I'm going to go get Benjamin."
Benjamin gives the holdout gun to Nathan. Benjamin exclaims, "I want to go back to the party and have fun with the womens!" He checks the man's ID: Dean Nightingale, age 31, of Fort Worth. In the wallet is also a slip of paper with the name POWELL printed in block letters.
Clyde draws a great hand, baits Kirk into going all-in, and cleans him out. Immediately he snarls at Kirk, "Get the f*ck out of here!" Larry stands up, allows that he needs a break, and invites Clyde to the party that his brother Joe is throwing downstairs. Clyde takes his cash and has it locked up in the hotel safe (tipping the attendant $100), then takes the elevator up to the fourth floor. Stepping around the man on the floor receiving medical attention, Clyde sees Larry waiting for him at the entrance to suite 432. Inside, Clyde recognizes the blonde from last night, Joe Powell across the room, and Benjamin and Nathan off to the side with Brenda. Clyde complains to Nathan about Orley's having busted into the poker game like a cop.
Kef had gone to her tent and is trying to sleep, but she wakes up in a cold sweat. She had smelled smoke and heard screams and seen Orley impaled in a broken window. She seems to have experienced this from Hayley Frederick's point of view. Stumbling back to the campfire, she borrows someone's phone, pulls out a slip of paper, and sends a text to Nathan: Trouble centered around Orley. Keep him away from windows!
Just then there's a commotion in the hallway and the sound of fists striking flesh. A man in a Walking Dead mask stops outside the door and reaches into his pocket. Clyde glimpses the handle of a meat cleaver. He grabs a heavy glass ashtray and hurls it; it shatters against the wall. Christa brings out a fighting stick. Clyde chucks another ashtray, this time striking a bystander. Nathan grabs Orley's arm and orders him to "run for the door and stay away from windows." Wesley screams, "Get to the side rooms!"
Someone shoots at Benjamin but misses. Clyde glances behind him for a weapon and grabs another ashtray. Benjamin drops his baton, fast-draws his .357, drops to one knee (right in front of K1, armed with a knife, standing in the doorway), and fires down the hallway, hitting the foremost thug (T1) three times. T1 stumbles but doesn't fall, fires back at Benjamin but misses, and somehow spins aside so that T2 and T3 don't trip over him. Clyde hurls an ashtray so hard it breaks K1's sternum; K1 staggers back a step and falls to his knees. Nathan runs toward the door, Orley at his heels.
Nathan reaches the door near Benjamin and Christa and gets out his pepper spray. Benjamin steps partway back into the room, still aiming down the hallway, shouting to the thugs, "Drop your guns!" Clyde grabs the ashtray that Brenda helpfully hands to him, then another. T2 charges at Benjamin, who shoots him in the face. T3 for some reason stabs T2 and pushes him into Benjamin. Several other thugs in the hallway reach the doorway, and T4 fires wildly at Nathan.
K2 charges at Nathan but his knife blow misses. K3 is crowding the door behind him. Nathan steps forward, body-checks K2, raises his arm, and pepper-sprays K3 in the eyes. Benjamin untangles himself from T2 and dislocates the thug's shoulder while disarming him. Orley aims at someone. Clyde collects a couple more ashtrays.
Nathan slams the door hard on K3's head; K3 falls down, wedging the door slightly open. Clyde bounces an ashtray off of T2. T4 fires three times into the room, but with the third shot his gun misfires and blows up in his hand.
Clyde grabs another ashtray. Benjamin, aiming head-high, finds cover and waits for a target. Nathan glances at Christa, who steps up and shoves K3 out of the doorway. Nathan shoulders the door shut.
Nathan empties his clip through the door. Out in the hallway, from the direction of the elevators, more shots are being fired -- it's the police, shooting at the thugs in front of the door.
All the thugs are down and disarmed. Orley recognizes one of the police officers as George O'Malley, a former colleague.
Nathan: "I haven't signed your paycheck yet, Orley." Clyde: "Horror fans are a bunch of idiots!" Nathan: "This is a win; be quiet." Wesley Weltz, as head of security, gives the official statement to the police. Brenda helps some of the guests get to their feet. Benjamin tells Christa, "I like how you handle the stick."
Nathan: "Joe, can we have some of your time? That was not a request. One of the perps had a note with one word on it, 'Powell'. And Larry wasn't supposed to be here. So tell me, why would someone 'Powell' you?" Joe: "I've had something stolen..." Nathan: "A portfolio? Just a guess. What's in that portfolio? I'm not a competitor." Joe: "Revolutionary pharma coming out of the Amazon... including cures for several fatal diseases, such as cancer and muscular dystrophy. There's a form of super-PCP that allows people to function after they should be dead." Nathan: "What would killing you accomplish?" Joe: "They wiped our computer storage, burned down our backup site, destroyed our cloud storage... The portfolio is encrypted... I have a very good memory, so killing me would wipe out my backup. Someone at Softlight must have told a competitor." Nathan: "Randy claimed he sold the portfolio to Mr Bara. Maybe you were the only one who was supposed to survive." Joe: "Gee, you are suspicious."
Wesley says to Nathan, "You should pay bonuses to Orley, Benjamin, and Clyde. They handled themselves very well. Joe owes you big-time." Nathan: "I couldn't let innocent or not-so-innocent people die." Joe: "Bottom line, it's not over yet. I need to get to the root of this." Nathan: "That's what we do." Joe: "I'll hire you right here, right now, to retrieve the portfolio. Softlight will develop these new drugs for the good of mankind." Nathan: "If I find you've done something bad, I will report you. But right now it's not my concern." Joe: "I mainly want the portfolio, but I'd like to see the perps brought to justice. The quicker you do this, the bigger the bonus. I want you on the clock starting now." Joe and Nathan seal the deal with a handshake.
As police detective Mike Dallas interviews the witnesses, Benjamin texts Brenda, See, told you, Mike Tyson! Except I do not bite the ear. Brenda texts back, We'll talk later. My boss has me working.
Kef sees herself sitting at a laptop, reading an article on the Dallas Morning News website: "PCP-induced attack foiled by quick-thinking security." She hears Hayley's voice saying thoughtfully, "She probably saved my life. I'll have to find some way to thank her..."
By 4:00am things are pretty well wrapped up for the night. Orley asks Nathan, "Why did you want me to get away from the window?" Nathan: "Basically, to save myself the paperwork." Exclaiming "You saved my life!" Benjamin gives Clyde a big bearhug.
Clyde retrieves his cash from the hotel safe (tipping the attendant another $100). He checks his car over thoroughly before getting in and setting his bat down on the passenger seat.
Orley, Benjamin, and Nathan go to room 702 to see if Vicki Zann and Roberto Hansel ever showed up there. Orley pulls out the key and unlocks the door. "Oh, my," he mutters. The room is a mess, the bedclothes rumpled, food containers and empty pill bottles scattered around. "It wasn't like this, this afternoon."
Nathan phones the police to request that Detective Dallas come to 702. Nathan: "I think this is the staging area for the earlier attacks. Vicki Zann was reported as a missing person. At 6:00pm this evening this room was unoccupied." Dallas: "I hope we can get a match on some fingerprints." Nathan gives him his business card and asks him to share information. Dallas: "You and your associates have been very helpful."
Orley heads home, telling Nathan he'll be back in the office around 2:00pm. Nathan phones his assistant, Sara. "I need you in the office by 1:00 this afternoon. Draw up a 'standard rich person contract' for Softlight. Mock up some invoices for myself, Orley, and Benjamin; I'll fill in the charges, then you have them sent by courier to Softlight. Also, open an account for Clyde Wheeler... he'll be paying us at some point."
Clyde knows something is wrong -- all the lights in his house are on. He parks his car, pulls out his gun and baseball bat, and enters through the front doorway... the door itself is in splinters. The house has been trashed. Electronic equipment is missing. His safe is gone -- the bolts securing it had been cut through -- but he knows it was nearly empty.
Rushing back outside, he spots a dark blue Ford sedan that has pulled up behind his own car. A man climbs into the passenger seat and the Ford peels away. The front license plate was covered up, but Clyde feels he got a pretty good look at the occupants. He jumps in his car and pulls out his phone.
Ben is asleep after having taken some medicine.
Nathan's head has just hit his pillow.
Kef sees another headline in Tuesday's Dallas Morning News: "Double suicide in Frisco"....
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