She sat in one of the chairs left behind in the small conference room. Even though the Mankind2Mars team hadn’t occupied the spot for long, it was weird to see the room nearly bare. The dark window coverings she and Dr. Cutchin had put up the day they first arrived were still in place. They needed to come down. She was sure the hotel staff would take care of it, but having them do it didn’t seem fair, especially since she had nothing pressing to do except pack her suitcase.
Starting at one corner of the room, she peeled the black, felt-like fabric from the window, carefully rolling each piece as though it might be used again at their next location instead of thrown in the trash, where it would most likely end up.
She couldn’t help feeling all of this had been a waste of time, that it didn’t matter if the study moved forward when it was constantly taking steps backward. If she’d learned anything in the last few years, it was that Zack was more of a hindrance than a help. He gave the impression of being a force of action, capable of getting the impossible done simply by stating hisdesires. This may have been true some of the time, but it also became clear that he couldn’t get out of his own way, usually making a situation worse.
Whispers were hard to ignore. Especially ones confirming what Sasha already suspected. Zack had never sought cooperation with the Mexican government at all. None of this had been done on the level. And word about what they were doing had gotten out because, of course, he didn’t care about the consequences and had arrogantly posted something on social media he shouldn’t have. It wasn’t surprising government officials weren’t happy and looking to shut them down.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go or how she was supposed to be working. She wondered if—
The bottom of her left shoe lifted from the floor with a gummy sensation, causing it to loosely stick to the hotel’s carpeting every time she took a step. Using the wall as support, she lifted her foot, discovering a crumpled sticker stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
Between pinched fingers, Sasha carefully peeled the sticker away. It wasn’t too dirty. In fact, it looked like a fairly new sticker, if a bit creased and folded. She was about to toss it into a small nearby waste bin when something caught her eye. It was a name tag sticker, similar to the ones she was handing out in Ballroom A before she had to hand the task to one of her coworkers because of the meeting with Zack. In fact, the handwriting was hers.
Out of curiosity, she uncrumpled the sticker in order to read the name better.
Catalina.
She remembered writing the name, but it wasn’t enough to match it to a face, to know who specifically it had belonged to. Either way, it was definitely one of the guests Mankind2Mars had paid for under the guise of a free vacation.
Well, whatever. Sasha tossed the sticker into the trash and went about her day, later packing up her items in the hotel room. Except the more she thought about it, the more the sticker began to provoke her curiosity.
How did the sticker get in that room? It hadn’t been stuck to her shoe before she started removing the window coverings. She would have noticed if there’d been something on the bottom of her shoe, causing it to stick to carpet fibers.
She supposed the sticker could have been brought in by the team that had cleaned out the room of the equipment being sent to Belize. Sure, that was probably it. Maybe the sticker fell off in the hallway and then stuck to a moving dolly or someone else’s shoe, only to end up inside of the room. This seemed to be a reasonable theory. Her brain needed to drop the matter. It was a silly sticker and didn’t warrant spending a lot of time considering what it signified other than being discarded garbage.
It was ridiculous to assume a name tag inside of the room meant that a guest had wandered where they shouldn’t. And even if they had accidentally gone in, they’d realize their mistake quickly and leave. Right?
Regardless, Sasha was going to make sure the next place they set up was going to have a door with better locking protocols. Because if unauthorized people did end up in that room, who knows what could happen. She tried her best to convince her brain nothing had occurred and she was worrying for no reason.
Sasha tapped her finger nervously on the nightstand near where she sat on the bed. Retrieving her tablet, she opened the Vacations4Fun document of guests. Her finger scrolled through the list before stopping.
Catalina Rosario.
The woman had been logged in at the same time as Trey Schuster. They’d been partnered up with Bill Higgins.
Sasha pulled out her cell phone, pressing it against her chin as she pondered everything. This was ridiculous, she kept telling herself, but, for her own peace of mind, she decided to call Bill.
“Yeah,” the man’s voice answered, muffled by what sounded like him being in a wind tunnel.
“Bill?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember that couple that got assigned to you this morning? Catalina and Trey?”
“How could I forget?” was his deadpan reply.
She wasn’t sure how to follow-up after this. How was Bill to know if they’d inadvertently gone into the MASS room? She chewed on a fingernail, hoping talking to Bill would reassure her rather than stokeher worries.
“Are you still there?” he asked impatiently. “Hello?”
“Yeah, sorry. I, uh, was just wondering if you knew where they went afterwards.”
“No idea,” he responded. His answer wasn’t surprising. Why would Bill even notice what the couple had done after they left the ballroom?
“Except…” he started, interrupting her thoughts.
Her heart stopped. “Except what?”
