The room remained mostly darkened when Rama Avatar opened his curtains late that night, with the exception of the neon and other lights throughout Sin City. He had felt groggy and old beyond his physical years when he finally woke up after sleeping all day long, but the hot bath had done wonders for him. The only problem was that he felt completely relaxed and at ease when he should have been gearing himself up for his intended mission: to find the wizard Aurochs in this modern-day Sodom.
Rama stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom for several minutes, staring at his bearded visage through the foggy film of water vapor. He brushed a hand across it, making a streak of clear glass with which he could see his face. He was ageless, neither young nor old, but able to pass for both. He was tall and had an athletic brown frame free of all excess body-fat, yet he was not skinny. His hair was short, like a warrior's, but his beard seemed a carry-over from a previous life. It was that which he stared at the longest, deliberating. Finally he decided to shave it completely off. His beard and now-absent warrior's garb forming such a staple "look" for the Swordsman, he would almost look like a different man entirely. He would look almost civilized.
The Swordsman changed into a fresh suit and called for laundry to pick up his old one, making sure to take the pouch of blank keys out of the jacket pocket and putting it back on the string around his neck. He didn't want any of these falling into the wrong hands. He then went down the hall to the next door down, which led to Ed's room, and knocked three times. No answer. He was probably already out long before, he realized.
The man with the alias of Rajinder Brar walked down to the dining room and selected a table in the corner, where he could see every person in the room. He ordered the paella de la casa (the house dish), rabbit tapas and Spanish meatballs, with a bottle of sangria. It was a "Spanish Christmas" theme night tonight.
While waiting for his food to arrive, Rama pulled his digital phone out of his coat pocket and dialled Ed's number. The Neanderthal had supplied them each with digital phones with active accounts in this world. "Come on, pick up, Cicciotto. Pick up," he muttered to himself, hating technology and hating himself for having to depend on it. If only Erasmus was here -- she'd be able to track down Cicciotto within half an hour.
The phone stopped ringing, and a pre-recorded voice said: "Your call has been forwarded to a voice mail service that has not been initialized to the customer you are calling..."
"Blast!" Rama cursed as he clicked the "end" key. "You have a telephone, Cicciotto -- use it."
Soon enough, the Swordsman's dinner arrived. After he was finished he left both the dining room and the hotel itself for the evening. On the way out he happened to catch a glimpse of a strikingly attractive, exotic-looking woman with raven-black long hair wearing an expensive dress. He found himself lingering his gaze over her for longer than he would normally have done so, and only looked away when she flicked her eyes over to him and smiled. He felt disorientated and unsure of where he was for a moment, until he pulled himself together and stepped outside of the hotel.
It was not until some twenty minutes later that he remembered that he wanted to find an arms dealer. He was sure that he could find some guns in this city, even on Christmas Day. In America, guns were as plentiful as water, and they -- like everything else in America -- were for sale.
