Spy School Viva Vegas

Chapter 9 - Las Vegas

Oasis Motel
Las Vegas
June 13
0600 hours

I wasn't prepared for Las Vegas. Not just the dry heat was different from Washington D.C., it was also just plain loud. The party never seemed to stop, and our windows were about thirty-years old. They didn't block any of the noise. Large limousines passed by our motel three times in the middle of the night, waking me up, only to see people shouting outside of the sunroof trying to give the driver directions, helping find the place they were staying.

I was also not prepared for Cyrus. He was militant about waking us up. Banging on the door at six in the morning. I knew Vegas stayed open 24 hours a day, but I couldn't imagine Murray Hill getting up before noon, so I really didn't understand the rush. Despite not sleeping well, it was not too hard to wake up, since it felt like we were on Washington D.C. time.

Cyrus made it clear we were supposed to get dressed in our school uniforms. Chip had already gone through two pairs of trousers and Cyrus warned him that he was not allowed to bend over for the rest of the day, out of fear of ripping the bottom again.

On top of that, Cyrus made everything even more uncomfortable, because he stood in the room while we prepared for the day, barking orders and timing us. He gave us each two minutes to get showered and ready in the bathroom, before he started banging on the door. Which meant it only took a total of six minutes for the tiny space to become a complete disaster area. Wet towels and water strewn about the floor, and the mirror had been fogged up and wiped away so many times it was more fingerprints than reflection. And well, it smelled too. I don't know if that was from us, or if it always smelled. Unfortunately, I was the last one in the bathroom, and was left to shower with lukewarm water and no clean towels to dry off with. I think Chip had used two.

"Let's move it Ripley," Cyrus said, hitting his fist on the door after one minute and forty seconds.

I didn't find out what he was so anxious about until we had all gathered downstairs. The motel had a small room next to the check-in counter where guests supposedly received their complimentary breakfast. On the small counter were a toaster, coffee maker, and a thermos of hot water. The night-clerk walked in yawning, and angrily tossed down some pieces of plain white bread and small rectangular packages of strawberry jam on a plate. Apparently, Cyrus had come down and woken him up too, requesting our continental breakfast. I made myself a cup of tea and found that the water was too cold to infuse the bag, and I was left with gray tepid water.

Once we settled on the folding chairs the clerk had handed out, Cyrus announced why were there so early.

"We need to get to the convention center. Registration for the middle school competition starts at eight in the morning, and we have to be checked in by then. Then we need to be present for the competition."

"I thought you said this was just a cover, and that we wouldn't even need to attend," Mike said yawning.

"Err, there was a mistake in the paperwork. We need to get there or we'll draw too much attention to ourselves. The last thing we need is a group of administrators reporting us missing."

Unfortunately, the convention center was located at the north side of the strip and we were all the way on the south. This meant we had to travel all the way up, and why Cyrus had woken us up so early. This would have taken a long time, with the throngs of people that lined up along the sidewalk, and bumper to bumper traffic blocking the roads even at this time of the day. We didn't have that much time, so we took our only option - the monorail. 

The monorail was a little train that ran above the sidewalks along a single concrete track, elevated behind the main strip. There were several stations located on the backside of the major hotels. It only went in two directions, north and south. But, it was the fastest way we could travel. There happened to be a station right next to the convention center and one not far from our motel.