Choosing Corners: Bare Skin Escape

I stared at Jack across the table. Olivia tapped her gun against my knee and nodded toward the exit. Next to me, Gina openly gawked at Olivia as her mind raced to catch up to the point where Jack and I already were. I nodded at Jack and he returned it, we both knew this was not the way things could go if we had any hope of making it out of the city with the latest treasure, not to mention alive. The only problem was I was a little unprepared, not so much mentally as I had neglected to bring anything like a gun with me when I walked out of our room. I hoped Jack had been a little more on top of his game.

"Oh you have another guests," Our waitress said, hurrying over to the table, having noticed Olivia's presence. Olivia was momentarily distracted by the girl's bubbling personality and I took advantage, sticking my foot out in the poor waitress' walk path and consequently tripping her up. She fell head first into Olivia's surprised lap.

Jack and I both exited the table and moved on Olivia from behind while she was otherwise occupied with our apologetic waitress. She dumped the waitress out of her lap, onto the floor and was about to jump up when Jack leveled his gun against the back of her neck. "Another inch and it'll be your last," Jack said sounding amazingly calm.

The waitress, rolling on the floor, caught sight of the guns in Olivia's hands and started screaming. An instant later we were in the middle of chaos as people leapt from their chairs and headed for the exit. No heroes in the room at least, but the mass exodus was enough of a distraction, I could see Olivia taking a chance. I know I would have in her shoes, well okay I would never wear combat boots, but you know what I mean.

I grabbed her left arm and twisted her wrist to point the gun back at herself and said, "Drop them both, now," She glared up at me with a pouting lip that almost laughable if I did not think she would kill me given half a chance. After a nervous moment, she let go of the guns and let the one fall to the floor and the other into her lap. I grabbed the one in her lap and Gina, finally shaken out of her shock, took the one on the floor and stepped a safe distance back.

Glancing around the room, I determined we were all alone, but I knew it would not last. Olivia was not foolish enough to have come for us alone and after the exodus, her back up would know she had a little trouble. Jack must have been thinking the same thing because he said, "How many people are with you?"

Gina turned toward the beaded doorway and pointed her gun in the general direction. I stepped back and away from Olivia to give myself a clear view of both the doorway and the swinging doors behind the bar. Neither direction seemed an appealing exit to me, but they were both likely candidates for Olivia's reinforcements.

"I don't want anybody to get hurt," Olivia said.

"I might have believed you if you hadn't walked in here with guns," Gina said. "What have you done to Brian?"

"He's safe,"Olivia said, sounding like she was in control rather than being controlled. "If the three of you would just calm down and lower the guns for a minute, everything will work out just fine."

"How many?" Jack asked again, getting impatient enough to press the muzzle of his gun harder against her neck.

"A lot more than you can handle," Olivia said, glaring up at Jack.

"What was the mission?" I asked, walking sideways away from her to get a clear view of the short hallway with the elevator and stairs.

"We just want to talk," Olivia said.

"Yeah," I said, "I remember your version of talking from Chile."

"That might have been a mistake," Olivia said and I replied, "You think?"

The area was clear, too clear. Other than ourselves, there were no noises, no ambient sounds, just us and nothing more. It was like the calm before a storm, you know its coming and you know its going to be bad when it arrives, but there is nothing to do until that point when it comes. Then again, smart people know when to pack their things and leave before a hurricane and I like to think of myself as smart.

"We need your help," Olivia said.

I glanced sideways at her and said, "You know what they say, don't you?"

She looked confused, but Jack caught my eye and smiled. "The first step toward solving a problem is admitting you have one," He said.

"Funny," Olivia said, not laughing, "You two should do Vegas."

I said, "No, you see what's funny, is that you and your boss would think I would be willing to help you with anything in the first place." Jack nodded behind her and said, "Yeah, now that's fucking hilarious."

"I'm going to guess you've got this place pretty much surrounded?" I said.

"You kill me and I promise you won't make it out of this hotel alive," Olivia said.

Jack said, "Why would we kill you? It's not like you were trying to kill us or something, is it?"

"We just wanted to talk," Olivia said, "I didn't think you'd come along nicely if I just asked."

"Now we'll never know, will we?" Gina said.

Jack said, "So talk, we'll listen. Won't we V?"

"Anything you say Jack," I said glancing around the room as an idea began to form.

Jack said, "She's not real good at listening, but she does a remarkable job of pretending to."

"I heard that," I said.

"I thought you wanted to talk?" Gina said, glancing back at Olivia.

"I told you people, this isn't the place," Olivia said.

"Fine," I said, "Take your clothes off."

Gina raised an eyebrow at me. Jack cocked his head at me. Olivia stared open-mouthed at me. I returned her stare, without blinking.

"Excuse me?" Olivia said.

"You heard me," I said, enjoying her discomfort. "Either take them off or I'll have Jack cut them off with his itty bitty Swiss army knife."

"It's not that small," Jack said.

"And you say I don't listen," I said shaking my head at Jack. "I was talking about the one in your boot, not the little Jack in your pocket."

"Little?" He said.

"Size is relative Jack," I said.

Gina said, "Do you two ever stop?"

Olivia looked between Jack and I, obviously trying to figure out if I was serious or if in fact either of us was ever serious. I enjoyed the confusion, but we did not have time for her to waste. "I'm not going to tell you again," I said to Olivia, "Strip."

She stood up slowly and glared at me, her hands resting on the bottom hem of her tank. "You know you're going to regret this," She said.

I nodded, keeping a half eye on her while watching the entrances at the same time. "Funny, last time we met, I think it was you who had my clothes cut off of me while I was unconscious. At least I'm giving you the option to do it yourself."

Olivia bit back whatever nasty reply was on the tip of her tongue and resigned herself to following my orders. She yanked the tank top over her head and through it at the floor. I would be lying if I said I was surprised by the fact she was not wearing a bra. The double piercings through her nipples were not much of a shock either. Her hands yanked her shorts and panties off in one fluid motion and sent them to join her top in a neat pile between us. Jack whistled appreciatively noticing her other, lower piercing.

"Boot too," I said, noticing Olivia just standing there after revealing the main attractions. She huffed, but wisely said nothing more to me.

Jack said, "Not that I'm objecting V, but what's the plan?"

"Smoke and mirrors," I said.

Jack looked quizzically at me, but Olivia understood perfectly. Pulling off her left boot and sock and surprisingly not trying anything with the large knife she had concealed within it, she said, "She's going to distract everyone with me, so you can slip away unnoticed. Simple, but it might even work."

"Is that it?" Jack said looking at me.

I said, "She's got the gist of it, but I don't think you want me to go into the details with her sitting right here. I mean once she gets out there, it won't take her long to get her minions in pursuit of us and I'm not really wanting to go through this again in a half hour."

"Alright," Jack said, "We'll follow your lead this time."

Olivia stood up, finally stark naked like I wanted her, and faced Jack. She said, "You shouldn't be so condescending toward her Jack. Before she came along, your team wasn't even a threat."

"That's why you killed Victor," Jack said and although I had no idea who Victor was I could see he was still an open wound to Jack.

"Who is Victor?" I asked.

Surprisingly it was Gina who answered, "He was the former head of Q5."

"Things are not what you think," Olivia said. "There is still time to do this the easy way and I promise, no one will get hurt."

"Tempting as your offer is," I said. "I don't trust you."

"You don't have to," Olivia said, "Let me go and agree to meet in two days and I'll take my people and leave."

"Maybe if you'd called with that offer last week," Jack said.

"Jack, check the kitchen for some cooking oil, we're going to need a bottle full of the stuff if this is going to work," I said.

A minute later, Jack poked his head back into the room from the kitchen behind the bar, with a half bottle of cooking oil in one hand and a tub of lard in the other. He said, "This is the best we have. Will it work?"

I thought about it for a second and nodded. "Yeah, grab a spatula if you can find one," I said.

Jack returned with the items and a question look, still not quite catching on to my way of thinking. It really is not that surprising because you would probably have to be a little crazy to follow my reasoning. I moved over to the bar and grabbed a book of matches with the hotel's logo on the front. If things worked right, we would not be welcome back anytime soon and if they did not, if would not really matter anyway.

I said, "Use the lard to grease her up, all over. That's what the spatula is for, I don't think you'll want the stuff on your hands."

"Getting a little kinky aren't you?" Gina asked.

Jack laughed, but got to work and had her covered in white lard in no time. The look on her face as he rubbed it in was priceless and I wish I had thought to have Gina take a few pictures, but understandably we had other things on our minds.

"I think we're all set," Jack said.

I grabbed the bottle of cooking oil and moved over to the beaded doorway. I poured the oil from the top of the beads so it ran down their length and then I used the remaining oil to pour across the top of the bar. By the look on Olivia's face as she watched me, I knew she thought she knew what I was doing, but I had a few surprises for her.

Everything in place, I turned to Olivia and said, "Run out the front door and get your friends."

"This isn't over," She said.

I said, "I know and if you hurt Brian, the next time we meet will be the last."

Olivia shook her head at me and said, "You have no idea what you are mixed up in."

"Start running unless you'd like me to light a match first," I said.

She glared at me for a moment and then started walking toward the beads. "I said run," I said feeling a touch mean spirited, but knowing there really was no other option. She hesitated a moment, glaring angrily at me, but then broke into a jog, slipping on the floor as she went. As soon as she was through the beads I lit a match and threw it at them and then another and tossed it on the bar. The oil caught fire and began to fill the room with smoke. Jack and Gina looked at me as if I was trying to kill us all.

Hearing the ruckus outside as Olivia exposed her naked slippery self to the masses, I smiled and said, "Let's get out of here."