Ding asked, “What are you doing?”

Lusso didn’t answer, but kept searching the room, as if he was looking for a hidden time bomb 30 seconds from going off.

Lusso said, “Ding, call Micky. Right now. We’ve been robbed.”

Micky flung open the door and brushed Ding aside, approaching Lusso. Micky’s pupils were dilated, and her cheeks white, as if they had been drained of blood.

Micky said, “Lusso. Somebody got in.”

“Us too.”

“Back me up. Think they’re gone, but haven’t checked the bathroom.”

Micky bit her lower lip and gestured in the direction of her room with her thumb.

Lusso thought of telling her about the jar, but stopped himself. There was something about Micky’s reaction that seemed off. Lusso swallowed as he approached Micky’s room. Lusso pushed, and the door swung inwards. Four cement walls rose from each size, encasing the claustrophobic space, and the floor was a cracked, mud brown tile. On the left side of the room, a bed just large enough to fit Micky’s large frame waited uninvitingly. Its sheets were rags mottled with yellow, brown, and black like a moldy slice of white bread. A couple steps before the bathroom door in the far right corner of the room, a square window served as the only source of ventilation. A singular LED panel was stuck onto the ceiling, spouting harsh, artificial white light. The room was just about the same as the one Lusso and Ding shared, the main difference being the multicolored pieces of differently sized confetti that covered everything, like dead leaves fallen off of a tree.

Lusso knelt down to pick up a piece, and felt it in his hand. It was stretchy nylon. Ragged at the edges. It felt like sweatpants, and underwear. He looked up at Micky, rolling the stretchy cloth between his fingers. Micky tilted her head towards the bathroom door, in the right corner of the room.

Lusso noticed wisps of white smoke escape from under the bathroom door. Lusso darted to the door, and threw it open. Lusso thought that whether it was a fire awaiting him, or the culprit, it would be better to face whatever was on the other side quickly. A tidal wave of vapor washed over him, filling the room in an instant. Lusso looked up, catching a glimpse of a red smoke detector latched onto the wall above the bathroom door before his vision became white. Ding yelped in surprise.

Ding said, “Micky, where’re you?”

Micky said, “Calm down.”

Lusso braced himself for a shower, but nothing happened. He kept his ears peeled, listening for footsteps or breathing. Lusso carefully put one foot in front of the other as he felt across the wall where he remembered the window was. He fumbled with the latch, rattling it for a couple of seconds until it opened. The white vapor traveled out into the black of night, taking on the color of gray smoke once it left the room.

Lusso had smelled it in the other room before, and something like it yesterday when he was with Jin. But he hadn’t paid much attention to it. Lusso sniffed. Hints of flower perfume, and rotten eggs. It was how Jin smelled. Lusso realized whoever the culprit was, they’d been in close contact with Jin recently.

Lusso moved away from the window and waited. He remembered seeing the same vapor come out from the fumigators yesterday at the concert hall. In a minute, the room was filled with little enough smoke that Lusso could see a couple steps ahead of him.

“Micky, check the bathroom, will you? I can’t see where it is.”

“Just tell me you’re scared.”

As Micky swept into the bathroom, Lusso could make out the shape of the fire alarm on the wall.

Lusso muttered, “What a shithole. If you’re going to have one, at least make sure it works.”

Micky carried the fumigator out of the bathroom.

Micky announced, “All clear. It’s been running for 4 minutes 47 seconds. We almost met the guy. Would’ve killed him too.”

Lusso asked, “Is it your clothes on the ground?”

“Kind of. Some perverted fuck tore my underwear up. All of it.”

Lusso let a piece of nylon he was rubbing between his fingers fall to the floor. Ding’s face grew a dark red, the color of the fire alarm.

Ding said, “I’m going to check the other room.”

Ding darted out of the room.

Lusso said, “Someone stole from us.”

“Same person?”

“I’m not sure. But they stole the jar.”

Micky did a double take, as if she’d snapped out of orbit, and came back to Earth. “Took what?”

“Jin’s jar. Gone.”

Lusso gazed at the view the window offered them. Inch City was no Felicity. And they were on the outskirts. A few lonely neon signs flashed on and off by themselves in the darkness, as if they themselves didn’t expect any customers. The culprit was out there. They’d been close, but Lusso knew almost meant nothing.

Lusso said, “If the fire alarm had been functional, that would have been a hell of a mess.”

Micky said, “We’re lucky.”

Lusso said, “There were two fumigators in your duffel bag. If we find one in the other room, we’ll know for sure that it’s the same guy.”

___________

Lusso said, “Micky, you checked behind the nightstand, right?”

“Yep. There’s barely anything in this room to begin with. Open it.”

Just like Micky’s room, vapor flowed out, and this time, most of it spilled through the window instead of the room.

Lusso said, “Ding, put the fumigator back in Micky’s room. Don’t drop it.”

Ding carried the fumigator out of the room.

Lusso said, “The latch was already open on this window.”

Micky said, “Think he jumped?”

“Maybe.”

Micky nodded. “Gonna buy underwear.”

“Take Ding with you.”

“Worry about your own ass. I’ll be fine.”

“No. He’s fishbait. I’m hoping some crazy comes out from the shadows tonight and puts a vibro-blade right through his liver.”

“In that case … Ding. We’re going shopping.”

Ding stood in the doorway, looking Lusso in the eyes, then Micky, then Lusso again.

“Micky, you aren’t trying to get me killed for real, right?”

“You’ll find out.”

Ding bit his lower lip and gripped his cross necklace.

Lusso said, “Get the fuck out, Ding. Or I’m going to be the one stabbing you.”

Micky slid off of the bed, and headed over to Ding, who was waiting for her. Micky shut the door behind her, and the latch clicked.

Lusso sat on the bed and set his eyes on the spot the fire alarm had been in Micky’s room. The rooms were identical, save for the fire alarm. Lusso leapt off the bed, and sprinted out into the hallway. Micky and Ding hadn’t made it very far yet.

“Micky!”

Micky turned back, eyebrows raised in a quizzical expression.

“Your room. The fire alarm. Quick!”

“What’s the hurry?”

“Throw me your key, come!”

Lusso opened the door as Micky arrived, with Ding right behind her.

Lusso pointed at the fire alarm set above the bathroom door.

“Take it down. Now.”

Micky stood on her tiptoes and tugged at the fire alarm before it fell off. Micky turned it over in her hands, then she gritted her teeth and dashed it against the floor. The red covering broke in half, revealing a singular yellow wire connecting a black box of a transmitter and a miniscule lens, a third of a fingernail in size.

Lusso said, “Whoa there.”

Micky snatched the contraption off of the ground. She held the lens in her hand, glaring into it, then flipped it off. Micky then eased one end of the wire off of the transmitter. Cheap solder fell from it like silver breadcrumbs.

Lusso said, “I might know someone who can track it.”

Micky dropped them into Lusso’s hand as she walked past him, and said, “If I see this fuck out there, he’s dead.”

Micky said, “Ding, we’re going.”

__________

Lusso sat on the bed in his room cross-legged, scanning the room for anything he’d missed the first time. He noticed a piece of pale yellow cloth tucked under the bedsheets. It was a piece of Micky’s bra. Something was scribbled on it. The terrible handwriting read, “Don’t trust her.” Lusso guessed it was talking about Ria.

Lusso browsed through his recent calls. What he needed was more information. He called Ria. She didn’t answer the first call. He tried again, after a good minute’s wait. She picked up on the last ring.

“You have 5 seconds to tell me why I shouldn’t hang up.”

“Our motel rooms were robbed.”

Radio silence. Lusso couldn’t even hear her breathing over the phone.

“So what?”

Lusso chuckled inwardly. Lusso thought she was trying too hard.

“They took evidence. Evidence we took from the crime scene. More importantly, they ripped Micky’s underwear into confetti, threw it over her room, then installed a hidden camera. A real fuckin’ piece of work, this guy is.”

“Why?”

Lusso could feel it coming on. His medical condition he’d named Felicity Madness. Endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline roared through his veins. His tongue became limber, free, and gained a life of its own. He no longer relied on reason to make decisions, suss out everyone’s motives. Things became intuitive, simple as black and white. These moments of clarity found him in the worst of times, and kept him falling over the edge, into the void.

“The guy even left us a note.”

“A note?”

“Yeah. I think it’s talking about you. It reads… “Don’t trust her.”

“Why? Why any of this?”

Lusso feigned ignorance. “I guess he wanted to remove the evidence, so he didn’t get caught.”

“Yeah, I get that. But everything else?”

“You’d know that better than me, right? He hates you, not me.”

“It’s a he?”

“No idea. Just calling them a guy. For concision. Anyways. I’ve a feeling somebody’s trying to get you. You haven’t found a way to fire us yet, right?”

“No. I will soon.”

“Hold that. New deal. We find the guy, and get him before he gets you. We scratch your back, you’ll scratch ours, eventually. No set conditions, but it’ll be reasonable.”

“Maybe.”

“Take it or leave it. The way I see it, you’ve got nobody to trust but us. And the guy’s still out there, hiding in your entourage, biding his time for something, not sure what. You know. Let’s decide this now. Give me a call within a minute if you want in, I’m not waiting a second past that. If you don’t like that, we’ll go our separate ways here. Capice?”

Lusso ended the call. She’d call back. They’d always call back, if they needed you. He knew, love was holding Ria hostage. His phone buzzed in his hand 27.3 seconds later. He’d been timing her. He grinned, baring his teeth like a wolf converging in on cornered prey. Lusso picked up.

“Lusso speaking. Who is this?”

“You know full well it’s me. Fine. I’ll take it. But everything from now has to be open between us. No bullshit. Or it’s over for both of us. I’ll make sure of it.”

Lusso sang, “Done deal.”

Lusso said, “Now. Ms. Ria Jun. Give me a list. Who would want your ass this badly?”