A flame from the past

"Well," John stepped in putting the badge into his pocket quickly, "I'm not Louis and I don't know Louis. So I will ask again," he paused looking at all the men in the room individually, "what seems to be the problem here?"

Tom glanced up as the new guy barged in the room waving a badge. This guy's wearing street clothes and he just happens to show up now?That doesn't add up.

Squinting into the darkness below him, he looked around for a ladder but wasn't able to see one. "Who needs the boyscouts?" he muttered as he dug around in his pocket. After a moment of fumbling with his keys, he got ahold of the small penlight clipped to the ring. He twisted it to turn the light on and played it back and forth over the inky darkness below. He wanted to drop in directly, determined to find Christie, but he wanted to be sure he wasn't going to break a leg in the process.

"Feel free to explain everything to him Rick. I still need to see where our friend disappeared to." Without waiting for a reply he sat down on the edge of the hatch and began to slide his legs inside.

"Where are you going?" John asked the man about to enter the hole. "What the fuck is going on here?" He looked at the gas station worker angrily and focused his efforts on intimidating the man while still pretending to be a cop.

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Spoiler:

"Fuck off," Tom snarled at the imposter. "That's not even a Detroit Metro badge you're waving." He played basketball with a league of cops every other weekend, he had a very good idea what their badges looked like, and the one in this guy's hand wasn't it. At best he was an out-of-state cop with no more legal jurisdiction than any civilian. More likely, given how the day was going, he was a fraud.

"Remember Christie's text, Rick," was all the warning he could provide. He began to slide into the cellar, holding most of his weight on his arms as his feet sought out solid ground or a step of some sort.

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"That man-" The station attendant pointed to where Tom had dropped through. "- is breaking and entering. We've asked him to leave and he refuses. If you really want to help, maybe you can throw his ass out.

I bet Dan is calling Sheriff Louis right now."

At Tom and John's disagreement, the station attendant started looking shrewdly at John. Until the mention of a text.

Spoiler:

Now emotion blossomed in the man's face- surprise, wariness and a darker, more fleeting shadow.


"Text? What the fuck are you talking about? She didn't send no text."

Rick turned on the attendant now, his own face contorting.

"Thought you didn't see a woman all day? No woman checked in here or some shit?"

"She didn't-"

"So you did see her!" Rick grabs the attendant by the shirt. One minute he looked like Mike Tyson had kicked the shit out of him, the next he was thrwing the attendant bodily out into the parking lot. His face set in anger, Rick moved with purpose towards the attendant, out of the hotel lobby.

was all the warning he could provide. He began to slide into the cellar, holding most of his weight on his arms as his feet sought out solid ground or a step of some sort.

As Tom lowered himself, his foot hit against something. After a moment, he found a makeshift ladder leading downwards. It was easy enough to descend down to the bottom, which took only moments. The 'cellar' was hardly more than a man's height stretching beneath the floor boards.

Flashing his pen around, he couldn't see the motel manager. His did see stacks and stacks of mundane items, however. Was this really a storage area? Glancing at one book case revealed about fifty tapes with various dates written across them. Beside the book shelf were three card board boxes with a handful of tapes within them. Reading the boxes showed 'To Louis', 'To David' and 'to subscribers'.

Moving around, he discovered the cellar was only about nine feet by nine and the majority was crammed with book shelves. Beside one book shelf lining the wall, there was a void... Shining his light there, he was startled to discover some sort of tunnel leading into blackness.

Tom had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he glanced over the contents of the boxes and the tapes. He wouldn't know for sure unless he watched one, but he doubted they had anything wholesome recorded on them. He didn't have time to worry about that yet though, as he still had not found the hotel manager. Seeing nowhere else he could have gone besides the tunnel, he set off down that way cautiously, muscles tensed for action.

The tunnel went on for a good fourteen feet. As he moved, he noticed that some light filtered down from above. Flashing the light above his head showed that there were some floorboards there- likely a second entrance. Yes, looking around showed a second small ladder laying by the side of the tunnel here.

No sign of the manager yet, but he could see a light flickering about six feet ahead. Should he climb up and look through the new hatch, or move onwards down the tunnel?

Tom paused, debating his options. Given the short distance he'd traveled so far, the new hatch was either in another part of the hotel or just outside of it. That didn't really seem like the sort of place that someone would drag Christie off to. And if the manager had gone up there, why not leave the ladder set up to facilitate a return trip, like the other hatch had? He didn't like leaving any option unexplored but he didn't believe he had much time to waste.

Making up his mind he pressed forward towards the flickering light ahead, leaving the second hatch behind him.

As Tom pressed forward, he came to a widening in the path, almost a small room. It was clearly a junction as there were two small side rooms to the room that he was standing in.

This center room held nothing of interest beyond discarded food wrappings bearing the nae of the gas station across the street. The left most room had a access hatch and a ladder already in place beneath it. Here there was also a wall locker with a small lock on it. Looking up the ladder, Tom can see that the hatch above was left open.

He is staring up to the sky outside- suggestive that the hotel manager has left the mote entirely.

The third small room features three small chairs oriented around a large lock box.

"Fuck," Tom hissed as he caught a glimpse of open sky. Seeing nothing useful in reach and knowing he lacked both the time and equipment to try and forced the lockers open, he instead grabbed hold of the ladder and began hauling himself up.

As Tom climbed up, he came out some distance from the hotel. He was now facing a tree line of trees that looked desolate and untamed, like something out of Hatchet. As he looked about, he could still see the hotel parking lot- but without Rick or the gas station attendant.

Facing forward, he saw a streak of black- the motel manager was emerging from the tree line. The manager was heading your way, not having spotted Tom yet.

Finally spotting the hotel manager Tom was conflicted. He wanted to rush the other male and beat him until he told him where Christie was. But he was still a way's away, and out in the open he'd be able to see him and maybe outrun him or hide. Seeing that he was heading back towards the hatch caused an icy tendril of fear to stab into his gut. He wouldn't just leave Christie out in the woods, would he? He wanted to act now, but he couldn't risk losing the manager before he could get answers.

Seeing no alternative, he dove back into hatch and out of sight of the manager. He was almost positive the manager would take this same route back and as soon as the other man started to descend the ladder, he'd be ready.

As Tom lowered himself, he didn't think that he had been spotted. Sure enough, after about four minutes, a shadow fell across the hatch.

A man stepped on the ladder, beginning to descend. "Hey man, have you seen Louis?" He called down. "We need to let him know about these guys..." The man carefully, delicately progresses down the ladder.
"You not there, Brent? Jack ass, I told you to watch the guys!"

Adrenaline flooded his system as he heard the creak of the ladder as the manager began his descent. Knowing he had to get him closer, he grunted a quiet "Yeah" when the other man called down to his associate. The low tone and brief response would hopefully disguise his voice sufficiently.

The man's legs came into view and Tom trembled with anticipation. One more step....Lunging forward he locked one hand around the man's belt and wrapped the other around his ankle yanking him down and away from the ladder and intending to send him sprawling to the ground, where he could conduct a more thorough "interview."

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"Yaaaah!" The man bellowed fearfully as he crashed down onto the ground.
"Brent, what the f-" He suddenly fell silent as he stared up at Tom. "How'd you get down here?" He asked, stupidly.

The man looked uncertain, glancing around the room fearfully.

Tom's first response to the man's question was to hammer a fist directly into the manager's nose. "What did you do with her, you sonofabitch?!" Tom hollered at the bloodied hotel employee. "Don't you fucking lie to me again or I'll have you breathing through your damn ears!"

Spoiler:

Tom connects solidly, knocking the hotel manager on his ass. He immediately began to scream in pain.

"Oh God!" Chen screamed, clutching his nose. Blood began to sneak through of his fingers, dropping down to the dirt floor below.
"Okay! Okay! Just don't hit me, man." His words are muffled as he speaks around the hand cradling his nose. He remains on the ground, not bothering to stand up.

"You don't want to get hit then you better start talking! Where's the woman you lied about seeing earlier? What did you do to her?" Tom cocked a fist back, making it obvious that any equivocation or lying would be dealt with harshly.

"I didn't do anything! I just called the guys!" Chen shouted, panic in his voice. "I swear, man. I called Brent and he came over... I didn't do anything to her. I don't hurt the girls, I just find them..."

"Where is she?!"

"I don't know!" Chen screams fearfully, his voice shrill with emotion. "I don't touch the girls! Brent. Brent or David. They move the people, I can get them down here, O.K!"

"Then what were you doing down here?"

"I was just checking the Gulag, man. I swear. I just had to make sure David was ready. There's a truck coming in tonight."

"The Gulag? What the fuck are you talking about? What do you cocksuckers do with the women you grab?"

"Its the place!" Chen screamed, covering his head with his hands. Blood had began to congeal on his lip. "David has the truck meet him there. He deals with all that stuff... Louis made me do it, man. It was either call them or David would sell me!"