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Masque de la Terreur: a Gabriel Knight Mystery

Chapter 2, Part IV

by Travis Lester, published on April 1, 2001

“Are you getting out here, monsieur?” the female taxi driver asked Gabriel. She had parked the taxi just out front of the hotel.

“Just hang on a second,” he directed her, staring out the window at the entrance of a rather large, extravagant-looking hotel. “What’s the name of this place?”

She sighed, rolling her irritated eyes in the rear view mirror, “Le Grand Hotel Inter-Continental Paris.”

Gabriel glanced through the opposite window of the cab, and could see the Paris opera house standing vigilantly against the howling winds and hailing rain. It was nearing 7 p.m. (French time). “And that’s the, uh, Paris opera house, right?”

She nodded quickly. “Are you getting out or non?”

Gabriel looked back to the entrance of the hotel and opened his door. Stepping out, the rain pattered down mercilessly. He approached the driver’s window, it rolled down just a bit.

“How much will it be?” he asked, reaching for his billfold.


Gabriel stepped into the foyer, completely drenched. It was a beautiful lobby, sleek floors, high towering walls and a large extravagant desk dominated the center of the floor.

He felt like a wet mop, and his hair fit the description. Pushing it back, he wiped and adjusted the lapels of his biker jacket, and pressed on.

The snooty-looking young man at the front desk rubbed his bare chin as he surveyed Gabriel’s appearance.

“You’re American,” he said almost impulsively.

“You’re a bright one,” Gabriel said pulling out his wallet again. “I’d like a room, if you don’t mind.”

“Are you with the other gentleman?”

Gabriel stopped fingering through the bills. “Why, yes,” he began slowly, and threw in a bit more of an accent to match Mosely’s. “Yeah, I am, ackshilly.”

“Ah yes, but of course,” the young man remarked at his brilliance.

“But uh, y’see, it’s kind of a surprise visit, y’know?”

“I do not believe I understand...” he said, brows forming a hill of confusion.

“Well, he doesn't know I'm here,” Gabriel smiled.

“Are you not taking care of the arrangements?”

“Wha’?”

“Well, he did not get a room of his own.”

Gabriel felt his smile falling. “He’s meetin’ someone?”

“He explained he would be staying with someone.”

Gabriel felt himself tensing up. His hands, which braced the desk, were beginning to tighten and constrict as his temperature and anger rose simultaneously. “S’at so...”

“Indeed, monsieur.”

“Well, alright, uh...” Gabriel scratched the side of his wet face. “I don’t s’pose you could put me a room... opposite theirs?”

“This is part of your surprise?”

“Well, I hafta keep an eye on ‘im, y’know?” Gabriel reflected harmlessly.

“Ah mais ouis!” he giggled. “Very sorry, monsieur.”

“Think nothin’ of it,” Gabriel said watching as he went through the board of keys behind him. There were quite a few keys and several vacant pins.

“By the way, my name is François,” he said turning around with a key, and placing it on the desk before Gabriel. “If you need anything, I am with whom you will speak.”

“Peachy,” Gabriel said, pulling over the guest-book and signing it with the attached pen. Scooping up the key, he read the code on the tag. “And this is across from theirs, right?”

“It is... how do you say... adjacent?”

“Why not across?” Gabriel asked with mild interest.

“Taken,” François said with a heavy French lilt. “So sorry.”

Gabriel only nodded and made for the elevator.


“Hey Gracie, what’s happenin’?” Gabriel said with his usual grin.

Nah...

Gabriel folded his arms, then looked up. “Holy sh*t, what’re you doin’ here? You’re investigatin’ the Phantom thang, too?”

No... too coincidental.

“Alright,” Gabriel sighed. “I had to come, Gracie. I had to... I just couldn't... ah sh*t!”

Gabriel smacked his forehead and glared back at his bronze reflection in the gleaming panel of the keypad. “What the hell is wrong with you, man?”

So much for rehearsal...

Ding.

The elevator doors opened, and Gabriel found himself at an empty hallway. As he walked down the rather claustrophobic hallway, he glanced at the lettering above each door.

The floor below him looked like a mix between a Picasso failure and the floor of a latrine. And that was just the carpet design.

When he finally found his room, he could not help but wander over to the door beside his. Glancing left and right, he placed his ear to the door... listening.

He could make out nothing, but there was conversation.

Dammit, Gabriel thought.

They were in there having a nice little chit-chat, and all Gabriel was getting was something only slightly less clearer than the the dialogue of the teacher’s on the old Peanuts cartoons.

Suddenly, the door across the hall swung open and Gabriel shot up and spun around.

“Hey!” he called, smiling wildly, eyes large like a rabbit in the head-lights.

He was face-to-face with a dark-skinned young lady. She looked Indian to Gabriel, her raven-esque hair, which seemed shoulder-length, was pulled into a loose pony tail. Her dark eyes stared at him, almost through him.

“Are you Mister Mosely?” she asked, then held out her hand. She was tall, equal to Gabriel’s height.

Gabriel felt threatened by her size as she closed in. He suddenly found himself leaning up against the door at which he was previously eavesdropping.

“Eh, no, no, I'm not...,” Gabriel laughed. “I'm uh...”

And then the door behind Gabriel opened, and he came to the floor with a heavy thud.

The back of his head hit hard. Gabriel attempted to stand up, but couldn't move his legs. The first thing he saw was the blurry image of the Indian girl standing in the hall, looking down at him. Then as he laid back, his vision becoming even more dizzy, he saw the bulky person staring down at him in surprise...

“Knight?” Mosely asked, leaning down beside him, his head became two in Gabriel’s vision and then faded back to one.

“Gabriel...” said Grace, who now appeared behind Mosely.

Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but his words fell away with his consciousness.

And the blessed sleep which he’d been yearning was finally in his grasp as darkness fell.

So much for the rehearsal, indeed...

 

Last update: October 25, 2007


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