“Whose idea was it to fight in a poker tournament?” I asked. “Anyone who knows poker knows that it’s a guaranteed way to escalate a fight instead of contain it. Even blocking or taking away all the player’s magic won’t matter in the slightest.”
“I said the same thing to Laverne,” Stan said. “But it was decided that a poker tournament was the form of combat this time, unless the bridge can be found first.”
Laverne was Lady Luck herself, one of the most powerful of all gods.
Something was really bothering me that I couldn’t put my finger on. This staged fighting thing had been going on since after the Second World War.
“Who decided that?” I asked. “Who suggested a poker tournament?”
Stan stared at me for a moment, then said simply, “I’ll find out.”
He vanished and then came back less than ten seconds later.
“The poker room manager at the Okey-Doke suggested it,” Stan said.
I think I just stared blankly at him.
He laughed when he saw my look and said, “The Okey-Doke Casino and Hotel is where all the fairy-folk gamble. It’s magically hidden from real people. It’s out on the old highway headed toward the dam.”
That wasn’t why I was looking blank. I couldn’t understand why a poker room manager had suggested the battle? Poker room managers know how impossible it can be at times to keep even normal human poker players under control, let alone races with magic forced to fight under a curse. Again, nothing about this was making sense.
I sat back for a moment and just stared at the ceiling, trying to ignore all the stuff I didn’t understand, or had just learned. Instead I tried to make sense of all this from a very human viewpoint.
Point one: An angry ex-husband wanted to take out revenge on his ex-wife and her new lover’s peoples. Okay, a little over-the-top, but understandable, considering the sex under a bridge part.
Point two: If I was the very screwed-up angry husband, I would want to watch every battle to get my emotional satisfaction.
Suddenly I had an idea.
“What does this Roger Bayback look like?” I asked.
“No one really knows anymore,” Stan said. “This is a very old curse. And besides, he’s a god, he can disguise himself completely.”
I nodded. I had a hunch I knew exactly where Roger Bayback was, but I didn’t dare trust my instincts alone, so I turned to Stan.
“If we have to fight this battle, here’s how you set up the tournament. Two brackets, equal number of players in both. Equal chips. Trolls only in one bracket, fairies only in the other bracket. Winner of both brackets face off in a showdown. One on one. That should keep the chance of violence down.”
Stan nodded. “Great idea.”
He started to move, but I stopped him before he jumped. “Tell Laverne and Patty’s boss and a number of other gods to watch me carefully, then jump me and Patty and Screamer to the Okey-Doke poker room and support us.”
Stan looked as confused as Screamer and Patty looked.
“I have a hunch I know where Roger is, and if I’m right, it’s going to take a bunch of gods to contain him.
Stan, still puzzled, nodded and vanished.
If anyone could contain this Roger-god, it was Lady Luck.
I turned to Screamer and Patty. “We might need to be hooked up, Screamer, if I am wrong on my first guess of who Roger is.”
“Hooking up” was when Screamer touched us both at the same time so all three of us could be connected and acting as fast as we could think.
“Why?” Patty asked.
“We’re going to need to quickly screen a lot of bystanders,” I said.
“Laverne and everyone is ready,” Stan said, appearing again on his chair.
“If my first ploy doesn’t work,” I said to Stan, “we’re going to need to take a large number of people in a large area around the tournament set-up out of time. If Roger is in area, will he know he’s been taken out of time?”
“Yes,” Stan said. “But by jumping out of a time bubble like that, he can be traced.”
“Okay, then if he’s not in that area, Screamer, we go to the second back-up plan. You and Patty and I are going to need to be linked to check everyone close by to see if we can spot in their minds where this poker idea was planted and by who.”
“Still confused on plan one and the first back-up plan,” Stan said.
“You’ll see plan one when we get there,” I said. “If that fails, the back-up plan is to trap him and make him jump.”
“Got you,” Stan said. “But why do you think he’s there?”
“If you were as pissed-off as he has been for thousands of years, wouldn’t you be there to watch the bloodshed?”
Stan and Patty and Screamer all nodded slowly.
For an instant Stan seemed to look up, then he was back in his eyes. “Laverne and the rest are ready.”
“Then let’s go,” I said.
Four
Stan jumped us right into the front area of a large poker room that held a good thirty tables. Around the rail a large group of faintly-blue fairies stood in a group, talking. They were tall and thin and laughed a lot among themselves.
Not a one of them had wings that I could see. Not sure why I expected wings, but I did.
I stared for a minute, still working to get past my shock that fairies were real. Then I looked around to the other side of the room to a group of trolls, trying to get the image of Hitler out of my mind but failing. They all looked like fireplugs with human bodies and greasy black hair.
At first glance, The Okey-Doke Casino and Hotel seemed very much like any other casino in Vegas, except for the unicorns carrying drinks between slot machines on their backs, and the giant ponds and streams that wound through a huge forest, dividing the blackjack tables from the slots and making the entire thing look like it was a casino parked in an ancient forest. Even the carpets looked like pine needles.
And the place smelled like no other casino I had ever been in. No cigarette smoke, but a distinct odor of sour milk.
All my warning superpowers went into high gear. This was not a friendly place for most humans or superheroes. But after studying the place for a moment, I suddenly had a back-up plan three.
I nodded to Stan and then walked toward the poker room counter. It looked again like any other main counter in any poker room, with sign-up whiteboards behind it on the wall showing all the tables and possible games. Right now all the boards were wiped clean as everyone got ready for the tournament.
I walked up to the guy who was clearly the poker room manager. He was short, but human, with gray hair and a long gray beard that made him look more Gandalf-like instead of a poker room manager. He had on a white shirt, with a green vest over it, and black pants. That was the traditional uniform of most dealers and brushes that worked poker rooms.
“I’m Poker Boy,” I said, coming up beside him as he stacked racks of blue and red tournament chips on a table. I motioned at the other three of my team behind me. “We’re here to help keep the tournament under control.”
“Great to have you,” the guy said, not looking up. “We should be ready to go in about fifteen minutes.”
“Great,” I said. “We’ll be over by the rail.”
He nodded and kept counting. I turned and started to walk away, then winked at my team and turned back.
“Oh, Roger, one more thing.”
He looked up without thinking. Then I could see in his eyes he understood what I had done.
An instant later he froze in place, solid as a rock, before he could even think of jumping. In fact, he looked like he had actually become rock, like a carved Greek statue holding a rack of poker chips.
Lady Luck appeared, wearing a power suit of black silk with silver stripes. She was smiling, staring at the rock that had been the god, Roger Bayback.
After a moment she turned to all of us. “We finally got this guy. Great job, Poker Boy. Everyone. Now we just have to fi
nd that stupid bridge one last time.”
I pointed to the middle of the casino. A short bridge, styled like an ancient European bridge, crossed over a large pond to a high-stakes slot area. She turned and saw what I was pointing at, then just shook her head.
A moment later the bridge was gone in a cloud of smoke, stranding a bunch of elfin-looking old women on the island of high-stakes.
The Curse of the Bayback Bridge was gone forever.
“You don’t know how many lives you might have just saved,” Laverne said, smiling at me. “Thank you and your team once again.”
Every time Lady Luck had smiled at me, I got chills, and this time was no exception. I was a poker player, after all. You didn’t take something like that lightly.
With a slight nod to all of us, she and the now-stone-god vanished to cheers from all the fairies and trolls standing around watching.
The cheers and celebration was so loud that I couldn’t even hear the bells on the slot machines.
Trolls were kissing trolls.
Fairies were kissing fairies.
And trolls and fairies were kissing each other.
Now every warning power in my body was off, and I could feel this wonderful feeling of welcome and warmth.
It looked like the poker tournament had just been cancelled. And I had to admit, this was the first time I had been happy about a tournament cancellation.
Stan smiled, looking around. “Poker Boy, it seems you have a new room you are welcome to play in.”
I glanced around at all the laughing and cheering and dancing fairies and trolls. “Thanks, but no thanks. I have a hard enough time reading human faces.”
What I didn’t say was that I just couldn’t shake the image of Hitler as a troll.
A moment later the four of us were back in The Diner.
And this time the burgers and fries and milkshakes were paid for by Lady Luck.
About the Author
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. Soon he will be again editing for Fiction River.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name and having great fun as an indie writer as well.
Shootout in the Okey-Doke Casino: A Poker Boy story Page 2
