Ethernauts

“Plaza Hotel. She must have suffered. I can tell, even through the dark night and the driving rain that she must have been something in her time. She reached for the sky out of an age long past. Then fire laid her low and only rubble remains.

I’d never stayed at the Plaza though I’d visited several times. Mostly it was through a tele-photo lens, catching cheating husbands and corporate rats. Both of them in bed with someone they shouldn’t be.

I couldn’t afford her, but her wide windows helped me earn a lot of cash back in the day and for that I was grateful.

We pull up now and I watch the rain rush over those walls. Over the edges rivulets pound the pavement like never ending tears. They remind me of the ones cried by all those wives who’ve had their hearts broken here. I wonder if I was right to tell them. Old regrets mix with an increasing sense of unease.

As I step out onto the sidewalk I notice a black sedan pulling away down the street. It all but screams government spook, but something about the plates bothers me. It’s not something I can put into words yet, but the whole picture just seems off.

Not much I can do in any case. The sedan takes the first corner and is gone, prowling into the dark. So my attention turns to the Plaza instead.

The old revolving doors are still there, but most of the wall next to them was destroyed. Picking my way through the rubble leads me to the old foyer. Old memories of a warmer, dryer time overlay on the dark, dank vision before me. Old junk lies all over the place but I don’t see any evidence of any squatters. Seems like the police at least make a token effort to keep the building clear.

But no beat cop is going to cover the whole hotel. Too many dark corners, too many opportunities to get sent home as a letter. Upstairs looks unstable, but the basement might hold what I seek.”