Dead Lucky (4 page)

"Despre has a thing for the cliche," Dannelle said.

"He's probably just working it up a little for the tourists." I turned and looked down the alley. There was a second door further in the back, and a dumpster resting across from it. "Evan, let's go."

I didn't know how big the casino was. If I got too far away, I would lose the tether and Evan would drop wherever he happened to be standing. I tapped the side of the dumpster when we reached it. "In you go."

He scowled at me. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You're afraid of garbage?"

"I'm not afraid. That doesn't mean I want to sit in it."

"What does it matter? You already stink."

He didn't have a choice, anyway. I directed him into the dumpster.

"I hate you," he said, right before I put him back to sleep.

Evan in position, I went back to where Dannie was waiting by the door.

"Knock away."

Dannie raised her fist and slammed it against the door. A half-elf in a tight green, sequined cocktail dress answered before she could hit the door a second time.

"Welcome to the Oubliette," she said. She waved us past her, into a small, dark corridor. A poster hung on the left-hand wall, a single six-sided die in the center, the face on the twin line symbol. The words, 'Beat the odds! Play Elements!' dominated the bottom portion.

"Elements?" Dannie said.

"It's a new dice game invented by the owner himself," the half explained. "It's getting pretty popular, enough that I heard Mr. D was talking about licensing it. Make sure you play."

The corridor ended at a single red leather upholstered door. I could hear the muffled sounds from behind it.

I started towards it, but our hostess slid past me and blocked my path.
 

"Weapons need to stay out here," she said.
 

"Weapons?" Dannie said.

"Are you trying to lie to an elf?"
 

Dannie smiled and handed over her handbag. "You get a lot of armed guests?"

I had decided against the guns, opting instead for a single small knife strapped to my calf. She took that, too.

"Enough. Most people fly in, but a few take the roads. You only need one to ruin a good time. You'll get these back on the way out."

 
Dannie looked at me, and I shrugged.
 

I hadn't been planning on a gunfight anyway.

CHAPTER SEVEN

High-roller.

The inside of the Oubliette didn't require much description. It was a casino. It was carpeted in a dark maroon, had a mahogany paneled ceiling, and was crowded and loud. I could hear the fake ticking of the digital slots, the ringing of digital bells, and the announcements of lucky winners over hidden loudspeakers. We'd come out onto a raised platform, so I could see most of the floor below.
 

It was easy to pick out the Element tables from here.
 

Not that I could see any of the dice. The tables were packed, the gamblers running two to three deep around them.

"Look over there," Dannie said, squeezing my shoulder.
 

I followed her subtle point to a table in the back corner. There was an ogre standing there, a massive mound of dark muscle mostly hidden by an oversized tux. He was the only one in the room.

"Despre?" I asked.

Dannie nodded. "If he's here, my bet is on that being his bodyguard."

"Okay. I'll meet you over there."

The plan for inside the Oubliette was simple: If Despre was in the casino, Dannie would go and chat him up a bit, either to try to get some clues about the real dice, or to distract him from my own sortie. I would wander the tables, watching for a few minutes and trying to get my eyeballs both on the sets of dice in play, and the spares being held by the dealers. I didn't really know what I was expecting to see or feel. My experience with enchanted items was limited. I'd seen a few, touched one, once. I'd never actually used an artifact.

Dannie split away, descending the steps ahead of me and slowly making her way towards the table where the ogre was towering. She stopped at a couple of the slots on the way there, pulling a pre-paid card from her cleavage and swiping it to make a play or two before moving on. I started going down too, taking a straighter route to the rear.

I was uncomfortable in the crowd, feeling like the wig and makeup made me stand out. The throng itself was a mixed bag: suits, tuxes, and gowns blended with less formal dress. All the men were wearing jackets. All the women had on skirts and high-heels.
 

Nobody paid me any mind.

I reached the first table, walking around the side and trying to squeeze through so I could see that action. The people around the table were quiet, watching with tense anticipation. I got up to the front of the gathering just in time to watch the current player make his toss.
 

The symbols on the dice looked to be pretty crude smears of red on the yellowish surface. Even so, I could make out the result of the roll.

Snake, and snake.

The collective groan of the crowd clued me in that this wasn't a good outcome. The roller slammed his fist on the table and got up, pushing his way out of the area with his head down. A woman slid into the seat to take his place, dropping a small stack of chips on the table.

I stared at the dice. There was nothing about them that stood out to me. I glanced over at the dealer. I could see a small square box riding in the front pocket of his slacks, and I assumed it was carrying the spares. There was nothing jumping out at me from there either.
 

I moved on.

The second table was like the first, though the player was having a bit better luck. He had a nice stack of chips on the table, and the crowd was cheering with every roll. The dealer kept congratulating him, smiling and moving his hands a lot. That was so the gathering wouldn't notice when he palmed the box and traded out the dice for something weighted more in the house's favor. I saw him glance at me after he did it, and I tried to wipe the smirk from my face before I looked suspicious.
 

Quit while you're ahead, dumb-ass.

The idiot lost his fortune on the next roll.

The dice were ordinary.

It took me about twenty minutes to get through half the tables. By the time I finished with the one in the center, I was getting tired, annoyed, and hot. I had to concentrate on not touching my face and smearing the makeup, and I could almost feel the glue holding the wig in place melting under my sweat. I decided it would be a good time to rendezvous with Dannie.

The ogre looked massive from the top of the steps. He was even bigger than that up close. At least twelve feet tall and close to half a ton or more. He had a decent face for a leather, with a more narrow, pointed nose and shorter lower teeth than was common.
 

I found Dannie perched next to him, sitting in the lap of a man I could only assume was Olivier Despre.

He was an older man, but he was handsome. Really handsome. Tight white hair on a rounded head, huge brown eyes, all sharp angles and smooth lines. He was probably seventy years old, and he had the body of someone half his age.

I played it cool, not giving Danelle or Despre any special attention, and instead circling around so she could see me in her peripheral vision. Despre whispered something in her ear, and she laughed and threw her head back, making sure to twitch her eyelid on the way down.
 

It was a signal. She was asking me if I found it.

I licked my lips, telling her I hadn't.

The crowd hushed as bets were placed. Dannie leaned forward in Despre's lap so she could pick up the dice. I hadn't realized she was playing. She held them in her open palm, giving me a great view. I didn't sense anything.

She held them tight for a second and let fly. They bounced on the green velvet of the table before settling on what looked like fire, and lightning.
 

The crowd cheered. I guess it was a good roll.

She had a nice stack of chips, and I watched the dealer take the dice. I think he would have switched them out then, but Despre raised his finger, and the dealer put them back down on the table in front of them.

A hand landed on my shoulder.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Odds and ends.

I turned my head. The guy touching me was muscled and mean, in the same dark tux as the ogre.
 

Security.

Shit.

"Can you come with me, sir?" he asked.
 

"Is there a problem?"

He looked at my hair. Did he know? I'd been so careful with the makeup, with everything.

"I just needed to ask you a couple of questions."

I had enough experience with guns to know what it felt like when someone jabbed a pistol into my ribs. I felt my heartbeat increasing, and I looked back towards Dannie.

The dice were still on the table. Despre was reaching for them.
 

I felt it then. A feeling, so hard to describe. Like the dice were reaching out to me. Calling. Summoning. Begging me to get to them, to pick them up and roll them.
 

"Sir?"
 

The gun pushed harder into my side. The dice vanished in Despre's grip. Dannie hopped off his lap and took his hand, letting him lead her away. She glanced back at me for just an instant as he did.
 

I blinked my eyes twice, then six times fast. We'd worked out the codes ahead of time. The first one meant I found the dice. The rest was an S.O.S.
 

She would go with Despre. She would do whatever she had to in order to keep herself close to the job. She would do it for the money, for me.
 

I needed to deal with my current predicament.

"Which way?" I asked.

"Back room. Turn right and go straight."

I followed the instructions, moving myself away from the crowd, the gun against the small of my back now. The ogre noticed the other guard and trailed behind him.
 

I thought he was Despre's bodyguard. I was wrong.
 

This was going to be trickier than I thought.

We ducked into a small room, and he shut the door.
 

The room was empty, with dark gray, soundproof walls. A camera looked down from the corner. The only door was the one we'd come in from.

"Cameras picked you up paying a lot of attention to the dealers," he said. "Especially when they palmed the randoms."

"If your dealers weren't so obviously cheating, it wouldn't have caught my attention."

He punched me in the gut for being a smart-ass. I doubled over, coughing.
 

"House rules. We don't cheat. We even the odds."

"Right. Mr. D hired me to observe the dealers, make sure they were playing it straight." I forced myself to stand up again, despite the pain in my stomach and the urge to keep hacking.

"He didn't tell me anyone was coming."

"It wouldn't have been much of a secret if he did. How would he know you weren't on the take if a dealer turned out to be crooked?"

He looked at me like he had just caught me in bed with his wife. "You son of a-"

I had let him hit me once.
 

Once was enough.

I might have been sick and weak. I might have been dying.
 

That didn't mean I couldn't fight.
 

His fist came in at my gut again, going for the same spot as the first time. I sidestepped the punch, caught his arm, and kicked him in the ribs. He grunted but didn't topple, using his weight and muscle to steady himself and pull me off-balance before I could release the arm. He grabbed me and threw me into the wall, and I got my hand up just in time to keep from having my nose broken.

"Think you can fight?" he asked.
 

He spun me around and tried to hit my face. I ducked down, letting my arms slip out of the tuxedo jacket and pushing forward into him. He wasn't expecting it, and it was enough to knock him to the ground. He jumped back to his feet, but it gave me enough breathing room to reset.

He still had the gun, and he drew it on me and smiled. Then he tossed it onto the floor in the back corner. "Come on, asshole."

I took a minute to cough.
 

"It wouldn't piss you off so much if you weren't guilty," I said, once I could speak again.
 

The taunt worked perfectly, and his face twisted as he threw himself at me again. It was a lot easier to fight someone who was going on emotion. It made them sloppy. It made them slow.

His punches came in heavy, and I blocked a couple, deflected a couple more off my body, and waited for my opening. When it came, I caught his hand in one hand, and put my other one to his forehead. I pushed the magic out into him then, the death magic. His eyes widened, and all the fight went out of him.
 

"What the-"

It wasn't much. A tap, really. Not nearly enough to kill him. Just enough that he knew right then that I was a user. It didn't matter that it would have killed me to try to use any worthwhile amount of energy on him.
 

The threat was enough.

He dropped to his knees. "I have a kid. Please. I'm just doing my job."

I wasn't a cold-blooded killer. I walked over to the gun and picked it up. "I have a kid, too. And my own job to do." I cocked him over the head with the gun. He toppled over, out cold.

I grabbed my jacket and slipped it back on, and then tried to be discreet while I moved out of the room and back into the casino.
 

Then I remembered the camera.

I made a run for it, shoving my way through the crowd, jumping onto and over an Elements table , pushing people aside and headed for the stairs. I could hear more shouting behind me, and when I turned to look I saw the masses parting for the ogre.

Shit.

His face was calm, confident that he was going to catch up to me. Why not? His strides were three times longer, and the people around him were doing everything they could to move. I had the gun. I aimed back and fired, hitting a slot machine next to him. I got slowed by a drunk guy.