We had to wait in the car until they deemed the hotel inhabitants safe enough from suddenly dying of frostbite. Which is to say, everyone else had to be guarded, and given space heaters, which I guess the secret service just had lying around? They probably bought them specifically for my arrival, knowing who I was.

The walk from the car from the motel room was short, and felt somewhat like I imagined walking down the red carpet to be like. The path was flanked by men in black suits, so that if I dared escape, they'd... do something, probably. I didn't see any guns of them, oddly. They stared at us behind black glasses, even though it was the dead of night, even though frost was rimming their sunglasses. I was (maybe consciously, maybe not) infusing the air with my Inheritance, the Chill. I can feel the temperature drop around me as I step outside, and I don't know whether it's just colder outside than it was in the car or if it's just me. It is winter, but it shouldn't be this cold outside, should it? South East is shivering. More than earlier.

The door to the hotel is open, but the secret service guys let me touch the door handle. I don't know why they wouldn't. I don't know what I thought that they thought I would do with it. Maybe I could freeze it to be so brittle it breaks off? But no, I don't have that precise control over my powers. And that require pretty extensive cooling, right? The most dramatic I've been able to do so far is freeze water, and I had absolutely no control over it. 

Was the Compass like that also? For the Compass, there was probably little need to control it. She already knew where all the other Inheritors were, and it only told her the direction, not the distance. It could be useful, but it wasn't inherently dangerous like the Chill. I looked to her as we entered the room. She gave me a little smile.

I felt bad for her. She seemed nice. Had she grown up in circumstances like these, Inheriting when she was a child or teenager and then being torn from her life to live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by military goons? Just the thought made me shiver. Or maybe something else made me shiver.

A suit followed in after us, and then began to close the door behind us. But he didn't finish, because South East said "Sorry. I just realized I forgot something. Can I go get it?"

Surely they wouldn't let her go alone. One of these guys would offer to get it for her, whatever it was. Instead, the nondescript man hesitated for only a moment, and then shrugged.

She turned to me. "I'll be right back." She said, with one large, fake smile.

I nodded.

She was almost out the door, but paused for a moment, turned back again, and said "Goodbye." 

I didn't nod. That was too complete a word for her proposed mission.

She closed the door herself. The secret service guy did not re-open it to watch her. Maybe he didn't want to give me a chance to escape? There was silence for a moment, as frost began to cover the mirror of the adjoined bathroom, and ice crystals began to spread out from beneath my feet. When I exhaled, my breath fogged the air densely and thoroughly. I would've thought my own breath would be immune, but maybe I had some body heat deep down inside me all along.

The secret service guy was mouthing something. The same words over and over. He wasn't looking at me, not exactly, but there was no one else in the room. I wonder if they intended to stand guard over me as I slept, and if so, why they weren't in the room already. Maybe there was a hidden camera he was talking to. But he couldn't have ignored the possibility I would see him. Did he assume I couldn't read lips? Well, I wasn't very good at it, but

"Look for Lot's wife. Look for Lot's wife. Look for Lot's wife." That's what it seemed like he was saying. But it didn't make any sense. A message for me? Did he have to wait until South East was out of the room? Had he been waiting this entire time for a moment alone?

I hoped it wasn't a trap, but it's not like I had anything to lose if it was. I mouthed back, looking at the wall behind him, "You mean the one that got turned into a pillar of-"

Shots rang out. A dozen or so. Screaming outside. The door burst open, men in suits piling through and pinning me to the ground, as if there was any way I could have had a hand in this. I didn't get a good glimpse of the parking lot outside. It just seemed dark. And cold.