“Alright staff, the doors will be opening in twenty minutes, but before they do, let’s go over everything one last time.” Zaire said, walking back and forth in front of the assembled staff. “You’ve all seen events this big before…well most of you have…” the young woman corrected herself. Looking over the crowd of men and women, she saw plenty of faces she didn’t recognize. The owners had had to hire on a lot of new staff to handle the crowds that were expected to be here for this conference.
The young woman shrugged. “Well, for those of you who haven’t, let me tell you; things can get pretty crazy, fast. Lots of people, tired, jet lagged, probably getting drunk on the company expense account, it doesn’t take much to cause trouble…”
Zaire was a striking woman, young at 28 for the position of operations manager in charge of the convention hall. She’d worked hard for this position, though her good looks had certainly helped. The young black woman was tall, thin, with long legs and ample curves. The dark red business suit, skirt and dark hose helped to show that off. Her skin was a smooth, light brown and her dark, curly hair was cut short and stylish. Gold earrings with red gems dangled from her ears and around her slender neck was a long gold chain necklace hung with a diamond brooch.
“…let’s talk security for the convention floor.” Zaire continued, nodding to a group of eight people. There were five men and three women on the hall’s security team. They were dressed in matching uniforms: light blue dress shirts with gold cord, smart military style caps. Patches on the left breast denoted them as security officers. The men were wearing dark blue pants and black boots while the women had on dark blue skirts, knee-length, dark colored pantyhose and black heels.
“You two will be on door duty to start with.” Zaire said, indicating two of the men. “The lines are already getting pretty long, hopefully tempers won’t flare up when things get hot outside.” The two she picked were tall and burly. With luck, that should dissuade anyone from trying to pick a fight with them. “Help the staff at the door check badges. Make sure no one gets in the building without a staff badge of convention badge.”
Zaire turned to the three female security guards. “Thema, Jina! The two of you will be patrolling the convention floor to start with.” The pair were tall, athletic and very pretty. Zaire was sure they would make a good impression among the convention goers, which would reflect well on the hall as a whole. “Farai, you’ll be in the security booth on camera duty. Keep an eye on things. If you spot anything suspicious or troubling, get on the radio and report it…” Farai was the youngest of the guards on staff, fresh out of school. Though she was still pretty in a schoolgirl sort of way, she was shorter than the other two and didn’t have the same ‘assets’ that made her female coworkers easily noticeable.
“The rest of you will be our mobile response team.” Zaire told the three remaining guards. “Move around the convention hall, stay visible to the guests and be ready to move as soon as Farai reports something to you, got it?”
The security officers nodded. “Well get to it then.” While Zaire turned to discuss placements with the cleaning staff, the security officers slipped out of the office and split up in the hallway. Most of them headed towards the elevators to head down to the lower floors, where they would be needed.
Farai, on the other hand, started walking towards the security room on the other side of the fifth floor. Except for the attached hotel tower, this was the highest floor in the building. It was staff only, reserved for offices, maintenance etc. Guests weren’t allowed up here. Which was why Farai stopped in surprise when she turned a corner and saw two young women walking down the hallway. They were dressed as flight stewardesses in light blue jackets, skirts and caps.
“Excuse me!” Farai called out. As the pair turned, she noticed they both had guest badges pinned to their jackets, which explained how they got in the building, though not what they were doing up here in the first place. “I’m sorry…” she said, walking towards the women. “But this part of the building is for convention staff only. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to head one floor down, please.
“Sorry…” One of the women, a tall, athletic black woman, replied, raising her hands apologetically. “We seem to be a bit lost. We’re looking for the Conference Suites.”
“Oh, you just went up a floor to far.” Farai said, lowering her guard. “You’ll want to head to the elevators and take them down one floor…” focused on the woman in front of her, the security guard didn’t notice her friend was slowly moving around behind her. Without warning, the second woman struck, grabbing Farai’s arms and chest. The first pulled out a pistol from her purse and thrust it against the security guard’s belly. The young woman had started to struggle, but immediately went still.
“What…what are you doing?” Farai stammered, frightened.
“Isn’t it obvious?” The woman in front of her said, smiling. “Now, nice and slow, start walking to the security room. Don’t try anything stupid…” Farai was marched to a door marked “Security Offices”. With her free hand, she grabbed the guard’s keys from her belt and unlocked the door. “Get in!” Farai’s captor ordered, gesturing with her pistol.
Inside the room, there was a large desk, taking up the wall opposite the door. The surface was lined with monitors, cycling through feed from the security cameras around the building. On the convention floor, the businesses and groups were setting up their booths. Near the doors, a large crowd was waiting to be let inside.
Also on the desk was a large red button, which would activate the building’s alarm system. Farai knew she could, if she suddenly lunged for it and took her captors by surprise, hit that button. Whatever crime these women were planning would fail…of course they would almost certainly kill her a moment later. She hesitated, torn between her duty and a desire to go on living.
Farai’s captors must have guessed what she was thinking. While the second one kept a strong grip on their prisoner, the other reached into her purse again and pulled out a pair of plastic zip-ties. “Hands together, please.” She ordered, with a nod to her partner. The larger woman slowly let go of their captive. Glumly, Farai turned around, placing her hands behind her back so they could be bound. She winced as the hard plastic dug into the soft skin of her wrists.
Farai was pushed back into the desk chair. The first woman found the radio. She switched it on, holding the microphone up to Farai’s face. “I want you to contact your two female coworkers.” She said. “Tell them to come up here. That it’s important they do so. If you say anything else, try to warn them in anyway, my friend here will shoot you.” She warned. Farai nodded, nervously. When the woman pushed the talk button down, she hesitantly spoke into the mic. “Jena! Thema! Could you come up to the control room for a moment? It’s very important.”
On the screen, she could see her coworkers, walking down the hallway towards the convention floor when their radio’s crackled to life. With sighs, the two turned, making their way back to the elevators to go back to the fifth floor.
“Good job.” The false stewardess said. “Now, you just sit quietly, while we take care of the other two.” Farai groaned as one she pulled a ball of some kind of wadded up cloth from her bag and stuffed it into the guard’s mouth. “The ladies we took our conference badges from were also kind enough to loan us their luggage.” Farai’s captor taunted, pulling out a length of white cloth. “Including these uniforms and a few spare pairs of underwear.” The captive grunted as the intruder tied the cloth over her mouth, keeping her from spitting her gag out. The bright cloth contrasted sharply with the woman’s dark skin.
A few minutes later, the other two security officers arrived. Jena was the first to step in. Her eyes widened in shock as she opened the door and saw Farai sitting, bound and gagged. They got even wider when the two intruders standing just to the side of the door grabber her and pressed a gun to her side. Thema came in a moment later. Her fate was the same. Both women had their hands bound with plastic zip-ties. Balled up panties were stuffed in their mouths and cloth gags tied over them.
The two guards were forced to lie down on their bellies. Farai was hauled up from the chair and joined the other two. Working quickly, their captors taped the frightened women’s legs at the ankles and knees, and wrapped tape around their arms and chest. Finally, the three were blindfolded with several strips of tape each.
Pulling out her radio, the leader of the intruders spoke to someone on the other end. “Blindside is complete. We now have eyes on the entire building. We also have three ladies for pickup. Will stand by and keep an eye on them until then.” From the corner of the room, the three captives whimpered through their gags in fear.
On the radio, another woman answered. “Copy that. We are set to begin Change of Scenery. Can you find us outfits?”
She looked at the security screen, watching intently as they cycled through the different cameras, looking for something. Finally, she nodded. “Got it.” She spoke into the radio. “Fourth floor, west side. Look for a storeroom…”
***
“Wow…pretty crazy out there, right?” Ebele said, sitting back on a metal folding chair. A trolley carrying a dozen other chairs like it stood nearby.
“Tell me about it.” Hasina replied. The young woman was leaning against a shelf of cleaning supplies. She opened her purse and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. Opening it, she pulled one of the white tubes out and stuck it into her mouth. She rooted around, looking for a lighter.
“Hey, give me one of those.” Ebele told her friend. Hasina tossed her friend the pack and, after lighting her own cigarette, passes the other woman the lighter. The two young women puffed contentedly, enjoying their clandestine smoking break.
Both Ebele and Hasina were wearing the uniform of the convention hall staff: an open maroon jacket, over a white dress shirt; unbuttoned at the top of the neck, matching knee length skirts, hose and black heels. Most of the staff had a brass nametag pinned to the blouse with their name on it, but these two had temporary plastic tags, marking them as staff. They’d been hired on a temporary basis, to help the regular staff during the convention.
“We should probably get back out there.” Ebele said, “Before anyone notices we’re gone. I like this job. Maybe if we do a good job, they’ll hire us on full ti-“ She was interrupted when she heard the knob on the door begin to turn. Hurriedly, the two women tried to jump up and look busy, stamping their cigarettes out underfoot. They relaxed when they saw a woman, dressed as a stewardess, a convention badge pinned to her uniform jacket, step through the door. Another woman, dressed identically, was behind her.
“um…excuse me!” Ebele said, uncertainly. “I don’t think guests are allowed back here. As far as I know, there aren’t any events scheduled on this floor today…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed the strange woman had a pistol in her hand, pointed at the two staffers.
“Please stay calm. Don’t cause a fuss.” The woman said, calmly. “We just need something from you: your clothes. Please take them off…”
***
“MMMPPPHHH!!!” Ebele and Hasina groaned, squirming on the ground. The two young women sat on the floor of the storeroom. Their legs had been bound at the ankles and knees with plastic zip-ties. Their arms were bound the same at the wrists and elbows.
“Thank you so much for your clothes, ladies.” Their captor teased as she buttoned up Ebele’s jacket. Her partner was putting on Hasina’s clothes, after stripping out of her stolen stewardess’ uniform. The two captives moaned. After forcing them to strip naked and binding them, the two kidnappers had stuffed their victims’ underwear in their mouths to keep them quiet, gagging them with strips of white cloth. Two more strips of cloth covered their eyes, leaving them blindfolded.
“We need to leave now, but don’t worry. Someone will be along shortly to take care of you two…” the woman said, enjoying the frightened whimpers from her helpless victims. She nodded to her companion. The two of them slipped out of the room, closing the door behind them. She quickly locked the door with a ring of keys she’d taken of Ebele. Inside, their helpless cries could still be heard, but only faintly.
Turning, the two hurried down the hallway. As she walked, the first woman spoke into her radio. “Two more for pickup. Starting Change of Scenery now…”