sore, and Mark has a nice bruise on the side of his neck. Those two are proud of themselves."
Kate laughed at that. "That's how boys should be boys."
"No shit," Dez agreed. "So how's the Clairmont?"
"No one was seriously hurt," Adam told her. "Seven went to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Seventy-five percent of the first floor is a write off. Parts of the second floor are not considered safe because the floor burned enough to not be stable. Early estimates are about three million in damage."
Dez sucked a breath in between her teeth. "That's bad."
"What's bad?" Chance asked as he stepped around the corner. "Adam. Kate. Nice to see both of you. I honestly wish it was under better circumstances."
"Me too," Adam agreed. "Sorry to hear about the vandalism."
Chance waved that off. "Fire suppression didn't go off, so we didn't lose the computers. Our emergency systems worked just like we'd hoped. All servers backed up and switched to off-site hosting. It's slower, so we had complaints of lag, but means we had additional copies of everything. I think I can handle some new glass and tile."
"Clairmont's toast," Dez told him.
"Shit," Chance breathed.
Adam just nodded. "The room we use as the gaming hall was the target. Gasoline was used as an accelerant, spread across the floor. Security has footage of three guys pouring out thermoses of it. A linen closet - "
Kate cut him off with a noise. "A room filled with sheets and towels," she clarified. "Like, a big room."
"Well, it was also set on fire," Adam said. "That meant it spread fast. The fire department says they want ten days to go over it all. We're currently moving all the guests to a competitor's hotel down the street, and the Clairmont will be closed for renovations for about three months."
"Fuck," Chance groaned. "Insurance is going to cover it?"
"It's fine," Adam promised. "I'm just pissed, because there's no way to make this work for the expo. I mean, we have another venue in Cincinnati, but I'm not sure how it would work to move locations this late."
"We're canceling," Chance decided, looking over at Dez for approval. "If they're willing to risk harming the guests in the hotel, I don't want to tempt them to attack our fans."
Dez sighed. "How about we do it virtually instead? Put out some teasers, offer Deviant Dollars for an online match-up, and keep the theme without requiring a flight or tickets?"
"We'll have to refund the ones people already bought, never mind the ones who already booked their flights."
Dez sighed. "I know. It sucks, Chance, but what else can we do?"
"Risk more people getting hurt," he said. "Not something I'm willing to do for a few bucks."
"Wait," Kate said. "You have proof this was KoG, right?"
"I think so," Chance told her. "Our agents should be back shortly. Why? What are you thinking?"
She looked over at Adam. "Degrass needs to put out a press statement. We'll wait until Cyn is back, make sure it's all verifiable, and then make it known that the Clairmont was set on fire by arsonists with a group of incel terrorists. Name and shame KoG, put it right back on them, and let the hotels be the reason there's no expo rather than Deviant."
Adam groaned. "Oh, that's going to hurt. Terrorist attacks tend to make customers shy away from the chain, darlin'."
"We can make it clear we were targeted because of the gaming events," Kate said. "The Clairmont's going to be out of commission for a while, and in three months, everyone will forget all about it."
"Either way, I think it's a good idea," he admitted. "Funny, because my accountant was just saying that we're taking a hit to profits this year. Yep, they're going to love this."
Kate reached up to rub his shoulder. "It's for a good cause. A very good one, because a few million this year for you is nothing, but for Deviant?"
"It's a big hit," Chance admitted. "Probably enough for layoffs, and we just got a call center deal."
"At least losing Columbus is a tax write off," Adam said as he pushed to his feet. "Guess we should tell them?" He gestured to the rest of the warehouse.
"Listen up!" Dez barked. "This is our good friend Adam Degrass. He's the guy who owns those fancy-ass hotels that give us nice suites for the PLG tournaments." Then she gestured for him to take over.
Adam stepped into the room and looked around at all the faces turned toward him. "I