Second Installment of the Story!

It was an incredibly hot day; Monica was dressed in a black tank top and shorts, and she was sweating incessantly. Nichole was quietly cleaning her guns on the seedy hotel’s bed, while Anna was changing in the bathroom.
“So let’s run through scenarios… How many people?”
“Oh, I’d imagine quite a few. Drug exchanges are usually busy.” Nichole answered.
“Ok, how many guns? How many weapons?” Monica wasn’t sure how many dynamite sticks to pack.
“Depends on the amount of people. Damn it, I wish there was some way for us to check out the hotel’s security… We’re going in there blind, Monica.”
“I know.”
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“Jennifer’s a mad genius”, Laura decided. There was a calm coolness about her, despite the fact that they were going to crash a drug bust in about two hours. Natalie seemed especially somber, as though she felt responsible for telling Laura and Jennifer about it in the first place. For the most part, Laura was anxious. The three of them had been drifting for a couple of weeks, and she had no idea how they were going to support themselves. Plus, Laura knew that her brother Johnny was somewhere close, but she had no idea where. Natalie knew, but Laura would have to work on that later. Back to the drug bust.
“Jennifer, what happens when they start shooting?” Natalie blurted out. It was obvious she was nervous.
“Duck, I guess.” Jennifer was polishing her large, intimidating gun. She was busy thinking, but she was completely silent. She knew the most about the criminal underworld; had learned their secrets over poker games, and things had just advanced from there. Laura was catching up to Jennifer, but she had more to learn. Natalie was a computer hacker, but was hardly criminal. They made an interesting group.
“One hour.” Laura announced. She couldn’t decide on which knives to bring, there were so many choices. “I guess I’ll just bring them all…” She murmured.
“Ok, it’s time to go. Laura, you go and book a room for tonight, and Natalie and I will book another. Meet us in the restaurant and we’ll take it from there.” Jennifer loved the thrill, the tension, that was in the air. She thrived on it.

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In the restaurant, Laura ordered a paltry plate of mozzarella cheese sticks to keep the waiter busy for some time. It was almost 2:30, and the weather could not be more hot and miserable. It was all Laura could do to keep the butter knives in the restaurant from slipping from her fingers, let alone her throwing knives. Natalie hadn’t spoken a word since the trio left for the hotel, but as she and Jennifer returned from booking a room, she broke her silence.
“Ok, let’s be honest. I work with computers. I like computers. I don’t, on the other hand, like guns. Or knives, or whatever else drug dealers have with them. Can someone explain to me why we’re crashing the drug bust anyways?”
Jennifer took that one. “At a drug exchange, what’s usually there? Besides people and drugs?”
Natalie blinked. “…Money?”
“You bet. Tons of it. So think of it like this-we break up a drug bust, snatch the money and leave. No big deal. Of course, we’ll use intimidation”-here Jennifer patted her jacket pocket, which housed a rather poorly hid gun- “but hopefully, we won’t even be seen.”
Laura finally spoke up. “Not seen? How are we going to manage that?”
Jennifer smiled, and Laura and Natalie felt the sinking dread pit in their stomachs.
“Oh no… Jennifer’s on the jazz…” Laura sighed.

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Anna liked to think she was tough and dangerous. She had taken on a chauvinistic pilot, and although it cost her a career in the Air Force, it had reinforced the idea that she was not to be messed with. She was only slightly frightened, therefore, when she, Monica, and Nichole started their descent up the hotel’s staircase.
“Hey, uh, so why exactly are we doing this? Because I’m a little fuzzy on the details. Kinda.” Anna knew that silence was sacred at this point, but the question had been bugging her insistently since dawn.
Nichole hissed, “Can’t afford to have drug dealers run around this city-they cause too much trouble. They ruin lives.”
Monica nodded silently. It was odd that two financially independent women and an ex-Air Force pilot would crash a drug bust for seemingly “no reason”, but we all know that isn’t quite true.
“So, are we going to just…Knock on the door?” Anna whispered.
Monica and Nichole traded glances. It seemed rather absurd, but…
With a wink and a smile, Monica rapped lightly on the door of room 312.

*****************
The door swung open silently, and out peered a clean cut, young Caucasian man in a business suit. For a moment Nichole thought they had made a major mistake, but she remembered that her parents didn’t exactly look like back-alley criminals, though they had done some major damage in their time.
“Hello.” The man smiled. Monica and Anna waited for something more, but Nichole knew the routine from the days when she would listen in on some of her parent’s deals. It was her turn to provide some vital piece of information.
“Hello yourself. I hope you accept cash here?” It was a long shot, but she had seen femme fatales get into her parent’s meetings using the same line.
“Ah, it just so happens that we do! Please, step in, and be sure to throw your guns, and all other weapons, on the floor before we shoot them off.” With that, the door was opened to the three novices.
Monica, the last to enter the room, had hardly enough time to survey her surroundings (initially deemed to be very high end), before everything went black.

TO BE CONTINUED…