The War of All Wars Page 36

  “Yes on the hat…no on the glasses,” Reva replied. “How about me?”

  “Yes to both…I really-really love that hat,” she said adoringly, while taking off the sunglasses and setting them on the counter—and in the next moment, she asked, “Can I please see those sunglasses? No, not that one…yeah, that one.”

  After putting them off and glancing in the mirror, she looked over at her two friends, and asked, “Well? How do I look?”

  Reva answered, “Cool,” while Baltor answered, “Good.”

  “Cool…we’ll take all this.”

  In the next moment, he took out his debit card and handed it over to the woman—Nadia cried out, “No, we got this!”

  “Don’t worry about it…it’s on me,” Baltor said nonchalantly. “In fact, if there’s anything else you see in the store you want, just let me know, and it’s yours.”

  “Wow…you really are such a nice man,” Reva said with awe. “But what you got us will be just fine…at least for me. You, Nadia?”

  “I’m good too,” Nadia answered. “Thank you, Baltor!”

  “No problem,” he said with a nod.

  Only a second before the card was about to be swiped through, he interrupted, “Ma’am, hold on.”

  “Why?” she asked, already looking up with a scrunched forehead.

  He answered, “Girls…you need to pick out attire for tonight’s event—on me and I don’t want to hear another word, other than ‘thanks’!”

  “Thanks,” the girls said, before they spread out through the store to find an outfit they liked…this time, Baltor stayed where he was at, and the let womenfolk do what they had to do…

  Nearly ten minutes later, they came back at the same time—Reva with a very sexy clubby black dress and matching high heel shoes, and Nadia with a sexy, blue, frilly shirt, a pair of white, shiny, leather pants, and a pair of white knee-high leather boots.

  After the woman had rung everything through the register and then into the credit card machine, the receipt spit out, whereupon she handed it and also a pen to Baltor—without looking at the cost, he signed it, and she gave him the bottom-half of the receipt.

  “Would you like everything bagged up?” the woman asked.

  Nadia answered, “Just the clothes, please. We’re going to be wearing our hats and sunglasses out the store. Also, do you have some scissors, so we can cut off the price tags off everything first?”

  “Of course, let me take care of that,” the woman answered, before beginning to do so. Shortly thereafter, she placed the scissors back where they belonged, and carefully bagged up the still-hanging-on-hanger clothes, and shoes. Upon completion, each girl took her bag—the woman said with a smile, “Thanks…come again.”

  Once again wearing her brand-new hat and sunglasses, Reva replied, “You’re welcome. Have a great day!”

  “You too.”

  With that, the party of three exited out the store, making a sharp left…only five minutes later, yet another store was passed that contained men’s apparel from clothes, shoes, hats, etc.

  Instantly, both girls stopped in front of the large selection of sunglasses—Reva was the first to ask, “I like those pair right there for Baltor…what do you think?”

  “Umm, are you talking about the gold-and-blue sunglasses with the gold-tinted lenses?”

  “Yes, that’s the one!”

  After both girls kept trying to pull Baltor’s face her direction, all the while trying to imagine those sunglasses on his face, they mutually agreed, “Perfect!”

  “I’ll be right back,” Nadia said, “I’m getting those for you—you guys wait right here.”

  “Ah,” Baltor said, “you don’t have to get me anything…trust me I’ve got plenty of money and clothes.”

  Nadia entered the store—Reva stayed and explained, “In our little world, Nadia and I believe that when we get something special, we give something special. Now, you’re in our world…yes?”

  Nodding, Baltor answered, “Yeah—you two are soulmates!”

  “Exactly,” she replied with a smile. “That is why even though I will flirt with you and I will kiss you, before and later, I will never do either without her being right there, or without her consent.”

  “I totally understand,” he said, “although your guys—I should say ladies—relationship is very unique from most.”

  “Yes, it is, very unique,” Reva laughed—only two seconds later, Nadia came out of the store, already holding the sunglasses in hand.

  Together, each girl grabbed a corner, placing it snugly on his face—Nadia said, “Look at your reflection—you like…yes?”

  “Yeah, I do,” he said, as he gazed at himself. “Thank you, ladies!”

  “You’re welcome,” they responded, one right after the other.

  Together, arm-in-arm, the three continued to stroll on up to the hotel—six blocks later, they ran across another place of interest for Baltor, which happened to be a car-lot!

  As they passed by this lot, he asked, “Ladies, I’ve got a question.”

  “Yes?” they both asked.

  “How were we going to get to the show and back?”

  “Umm, bus,” Nadia was the first to answer, “Why?”

  Baltor said, “I really don’t like any of the cars in this here lot, but I would like to get a top-of-the-line sports car later on today, after you’ve ladies gotten your sleep…do you know of any places?”

  “Of course, many places,” Reva was the first to answer with a very-knowing smile. “Do you know what type of car you want?”

  “Umm, I’ll make that decision once we’re at the lot—so you think of a good place where price is not a consideration…okay?”

  “Okay…”

  Three blocks later, they reached the back entrance of the hotel. There, he slid his hotel card into the slot, and the three entered—there was an elevator, a staircase, and a hallway.

  Without delay, he stuck the card into the elevator slot, pushed the “11” button, and waited for it to arrive, as it sat on the third floor. It only took a few seconds—the three entered. Baltor slid his card in one more time, before pushing the “11” button.

  In the next moment, the elevator began to ascend—forty seconds later, it stopped at the top floor. After the door had opened, the party of three inevitably made their way—still arm in arm—into the entertainment room, and for the next couple of hours, they all kept “very entertained!”

  CHAPTER XIII

  Only minutes after the girls had fallen asleep in the bed at one in the afternoon, now wearing T-shirts and panties, Baltor turned on the television in the entertainment room and watched a documentary called “Gang life in Chicago,” talking about a wide variety of gangs and their violent and horrific crimes, including selling drugs and prostitutes, and murder.

  Once that hour-long show that was over, he turned on the video game system and began to play a “live action” game where he was a U.S. Army Special Forces, set in the modern-era and equipped with a M-4 assault rifle, up to six grenades, and on occasion, anti-tank rockets. Any weapon dropped from any slain enemy could be taken and utilized, as could unmanned enemy vehicles be stolen and driven—like army jeeps, tanks and even helicopters. That is, if the vehicle had the keys in the ignition, which was about ten percent of the time…or if he hotwired the vehicle, in which this was a skill that had percentage levels to determine his level of success.

  At 7 p.m., he semi-reluctantly turned off the entertainment center, as he had been having “a blast,” and had even formed his own “elite squad,” consisting of a dozen gamers from all around the world—not too surprising, they followed his strategic orders without question and they had never lost a battle.

  However, Baltor knew that the time had come for him to get ready for E’s show. He therefore took a nice, hot shower, before drying off and dressing into his own brand-new outfit—a black velvet sport jacket, a sparkling-blue collared shirt, a pair of black slacks, and finally, a pair of bla
ck dress shoes. Everything had been neatly folded inside a plastic bag in one of his suitcases.

  At 7:30, just after he had finished combing his hair and putting it in a tight ponytail, he called room service, ordering a nice selection of foods, including two lattes and one double-espresso.

  Room service had responded that it would take ten minutes for the drinks to arrive, and thirty minutes for the food, which timeframes Baltor felt would be good for the girls to shower, dress and be ready.

  After entering his bedroom, he saw they were still sleeping blissfully away. A second later, he sat at the very edge of the bed, while gently calling out their names and telling them to wake up.

  Yawning, Nadia was the first to say, “Wow…I’m still exhausted.” Reva’s mostly squinted eyes could only nod her head in agreement.

  After releasing a little chuckle, Baltor kept his smile as he revealed, “Well, I got us some of those drinks we ordered this morning, in order to wake us all up—lattes for Reva and I, and a double-espresso for you, Nadia! They should be up here in a few minutes longer…meantime, I figured you guys could shower and get ready for the show. Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” both girls said in unison and with appreciative smiles. Before Baltor could leave, Nadia had grabbed his hand as she led him back down to the bed, and began to kiss up-and-down his left arm.

  Before Reva could join in, however, he slipped loose of the grip, stood back to his feet, and said, “Later, and after the show…we really don’t have the time right now. Besides, as you can clearly see, I’m already to go.”

  “Awww,” both girls sighed with disappointed looks. “Okay…”

  Baltor shrugged his shoulders one time, before turning around, exiting the bedroom and entering the entertainment room. A cardboard container now lay on a table, just next to the servants’ door, containing three large cardboard cups with plastic lids, revealing steam that continuously blew out the little mouth-holes.

  After walking over and picking up the container from the bottom, he was just about to take it all into his bedroom when Reva unexpectedly opened the door—still only wearing a T-shirt.

  She both sounded and looked shy, as she asked, “Nadia and I are wondering about your boss’s whereabouts? We don’t want him to see us both like this wandering about his suite and wonder what the hell staff is doing here…we should have thought of this before, but we didn’t. Sorry.”

  Baltor hated to lie, but if he told the full truth that his boss was sleeping in a comatose state and would be for a whole week, they would think them both “weird.” Therefore, he strategically replied, “Oh, don’t worry about my boss. He is handling some personal business and will be predisposed for the entire week—next week is the time when he and I start working. Trust me, the odds of you girls running into him are a billion-to-one.”

  “Okay, thank you,” she said, sounding much more relieved—with that she poked her head back, and said, “Come on Nadia…the coast is clear.”

  Before he knew it, the two girls were already at his position, each girl picking up her designated cup. After giving him another quick kiss on the cheek, they moseyed their way into the bathroom, but they did not close the door—a few seconds later, the shower water could be heard running.

  Meanwhile, as Baltor was already “good to go,” he sat down on the couch, turned on the television, and flipped it to “The Historical Channel,” in which a commercial happened to be playing about buying car insurance.

  Not even thirty seconds later, just as that stupid commercial was ending, which commercial involved a rhino that had rear-ended another car and the rhino told the human that he didn’t have any insurance, Baltor heard one of the girls say from inside the bathroom, though he wasn’t sure which one, “You can join us if you want too…”

  After muting the television with the click of a button, Baltor laughed, “We can’t—especially if we’re going to get that car!”

  Unexpectedly, he heard both girls beginning to laugh quite hysterically…now sounding very confused, he asked, “Why are you girls laughing?”

  Again uncertain as to who spoke, one of the girls answered, “There’s no way we have time to buy a car and get to the show on time…you’re going to have to take care of that tomorrow morning!”

  “Well, how long does it all take,” Baltor asked. Without waiting for an answer, he elaborated his question, “how long should it take when it’s just a matter of me giving the salesperson my plastic, and once the sale goes through the little machine a half-minute later, the car keys are given to me so I can drive off the lot, right?”

  Again came the hysterical laughter—before he could ask why they were laughing this time, the other girl answered, “It’ll take at least two-to-four hours, silly, in which three hours is the typical time. Have you ever bought a car before?”

  “Personally, no. I’ve ridden in them before, of course, but never bought one—haven’t had too.”

  “Oh,” he heard one say, “You just ride around with your mentor in a limo all the time, yes?” Yet again came the giggling.

  “Yeah…”

  The giggling stopped as one of the girls informed, “On a serious note, Baltor, both Nadia and I have to work at the hotel tomorrow night. Fortunate for you is the fact that we are still on spring break from college until next week, which is when we both next have class, or we wouldn’t have been able to party with you after the club earlier today, or go to the show tonight…understand?”

  “Yeah, I do, girls, and I’m really glad we’ve been having an awesome time—thanks!”

  “No problem,” Nadia answered. “We’ll be done in the shower in ten minutes, so you know.”

  “Okay.”

  It was then that the last of the commercials ended, and the historical program began, called, “The lost world of the Mayans…”

  For the next ten minutes or so, Baltor observed a male narrator who revealed his recent discovery on a tropical island that existed three hundred miles to the west of Chile—an island, interestingly enough, called “Apocalypse Island.”

  The narrator went on to reveal, through video-footage and narration, that there were only two ancient Mayan structures on it, both holding great importance, especially in the year of 2,012 as it marks the end of the Mayan calendar—the race had mysteriously vanished five centuries earlier. A large stone statue displaying two combined images—one of a crouched jaguar, which was the symbol of Mayan royalty; and two, the picture of their “Sun God!”

  Though this program had mesmerized Baltor, which program still had another forty-five minutes to go until its end, the girls abruptly stood in his way in that next moment, now wearing white bathrobes and white towels wrapped around their hair.

  “Yes?” he asked, trying to keep his cool but feeling a little frustrated, especially because this program/island could be the very key he and Trendon needed to know, in order to discover where/how/when the Vompareus would be arriving. Most likely in the winter solstice of 2,012, because it happened to be the longest night of the year and the date that the narrator said would mark the final day on the Mayan calendar. Perhaps on this very Apocalypse Island?

  Nadia said, “Well, we have a bit of a problem.”

  “Yes?”

  “We don’t have our make-up or hairspray here—it’s all at our apartment. Is there anyway, right after we eat, that we can hurry up over there? Actually, it’s only fifteen blocks away from the—”

  She was about to continue, but there was a knocking at the servants’ door that interrupted her—from the other side, they heard a man ask, “Excuse me sir? We have your food here now.”

  Without a word, Baltor jabbed his index finger toward the bathroom—getting the idea, the two girls bolted into the bathroom at top speed, before closing the door behind them.

  It was then that he nonchalantly said, “Come on in.”

  In the next moment, two servants came in—one servant pushed a cart-on-wheels holding five small steaming trays of food, as well a bottle
of white wine with three crystalline glasses. The other servant pushed along a table-on-wheels. After entering, he unfolded the table legs out one at a time and flipped it over until standing on its legs. He and the other busboy began setting the table for three people.

  It was then that Baltor refocused his attention back to the program, which had just begun another commercial break—again about buying car insurance! He silently thought with quite a bit of frustration, How many freaking commercials do these television programs have? How annoying.

  After the servants had finished, which included setting up a foldable barstool behind each place setting, they stood idly by looking at Baltor with expectation—figuring out the looks, he handed over a one-hundred-ruble bill. “Split it.”

  In turn the servants said with gratitude, “Thanks, sir,” before leaving.

  Upon hearing the elevator door shut with the busboys in it, a fast-food commercial had begun playing on the television—at the same time, Baltor said, “You girls can come out now…time to eat!”

  They did come out—though they now donned their new clothes, their hair was still wrapped up in a wrapped towel. Even without makeup, he realized they were both very beautiful women.

  “All right, we’re starving,” Reva was the first person to respond. She and Nadia rushed for the table.

  After Baltor had picked up the remote, he walked over to the table. Once there, he assisted them by removing all the lids to the trays, which entrees revealed: three juicy steaks, three pieces of rotisserie chicken, three Cajun fish filets, a whole pound of mashed potatoes, and a half-pound of green beans.

  Nadia looked at all the food in shock, and said, “There’s no way we’re going to be able to eat all of this—at least not Reva and I. Maybe you, as you are such a big and strong and powerful man.”

  He laughed, “Well, I didn’t know what you guys wanted…so I got a little bit of everything.”

  Already had the girls begun scooping food onto their plates…as they had not yet grabbed at the chicken, he picked up a leg and set it onto his plate.