Roxy's Story: Chapter 3

The plane ride was comfortable with a few bumps, but Roxy slept through most of it. She woke as she felt the plane bump down for a landing, and she grabbed her bag, which still contained the tablet, and got off the plane with the other passengers to find her luggage, which was kind of easy, since she only had one bag to get. Once she had her bag, she caught a taxi and told the driver to take her to her hotel, the Hotel Shanker.

It was a pretty fancy looking hotel, but she had some friends pull some strings to get her in, and they managed to get her a single bed room with a view of the pool. Her friend gave her the key to room 109 and then left on an important errand for her. Roxy walked into her room and closed the door behind her, setting her bag on the bed, then sitting next to it. She wasn't exactly tired from her trip, but she wanted to relax a little bit. So she decided to head down to the pool outside, remembering she had packed her bathing suit for a relaxing swim.

Roxy spent a few hours at the pool, swimming and relaxing as much as she needed, and then as she lay on her belly in the sun, a loud humming caught her ear, and she opened her eyes to see her cell phone buzzing on the table next to her. She smiled and answered the phone, propping herself up on her elbows to talk.

“Hello?“ she asked.

“Roxanne? It's Shamal. I've arranged for a small group of yaks and some sleds to take us up into the mountains two days from now,“ said the voice at the other end.

“Did you tell them why we're going up?“

“No, just like you told me.“

“Good. We can't be too careful of ourselves, because if this gets out, thousands of people will want to find it for themselves, and I will not let something this good get ruined by tourists or some other manner of folk.“

“You Americans are very wise, Roxanne. Very well, I will see you in two days,“ said the man, and then he hung up. Roxy put her phone down, then sat up and picked up her things to go back to her room.
~<>~
In her room, Roxy had taken off her bathing suit and put on her tank top and pants then went into the bathroom to start a nice hot shower to wash out the chlorine in her hair. With the tablet safely hidden, strapped to the wood beneath the bed, she felt it was safe enough to have it out of her sight for a few moments.

She walked out of the bathroom, closing the door just slightly to preserve the heat, and walked over to the closet, squatting into the corner of it to get into her suitcase and find the body wash she just bought and wanted to try out, when she heard a rattling noise. She froze as she heard her door open and someone walk in, cold sweat appearing on the back of her neck. She knew it wasn't the maid, she had left a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, and it certainly wasn't Shamal, because she told him to keep a low profile until the day they left…

Roxy carefully stood up, her back against the wall, and reached into her jacket, removing her revolver as she heard the bathroom door creak open. She peeked out of the closet, and saw someone just vanish into the bathroom, and she moved quickly, and quietly due to her bare feet into the bathroom, moving the gun a few inches behind the stranger's head and pulling back the hammer.

“Don't move,“ she said firmly, and the red haired stranger froze.