by Clay Moore
"Now you stay right there until some of your mates come down and get you out. I promise I will tell the CEO that you are down here, and no doubt he will send help."
John left the security man wondering why he was still alive. Once he had gotten pushed over onto his butt, he knew that the man in the gray suit before him had his life in his hand. John wondered what kind of man would fight a battle and then inform the loser that the victor would set help back. All the security men knew was that if it were him victorious, he would leave the man in gray on the floor dying.
John found a parking elevator on level four. He wrote the car down to the first floor. John knew that they could not let him walk through this casino unhindered. The question that John wanted to know was whether the CEO of the Butterfly would resist John, or will he allow John to come up to his office.
On the first floor of the parking structure, he crossed a small Street that separated the make a casino from the parking structure The parking structure was no match in size for the mega-casino. John trotted across the street not trusting any traffic regulations to be enforced. There were several smaller entrances, but when one is trying to make an entry, you don't do so from the also-ran entrances.
As John walked along the edge of the mega casino, he looked into the main floor of the casino. It was hustling and bustling just like the Dragon was today, but he could see the underlying tension in the players and the dealers. All were wondering if the man in gray was going to make an appearance here.
John decided that he was not going to disappoint them. When he reached the main entrance, he walked to the sill of the doors that could close. John stood there bathed in the lights of the signage around the hall. He opened his jacket and stood with his arms akimbo. He looked around the main room, and everyone was transfixed. Here was the bogeyman that had terrorized a mega-casino just yesterday. Now he stood before them all.
John held his hands up after all had given them their eyes. "Continue your play. There will be no fighting started by me. I am here to negotiate."
It took the players and dealers a few seconds to realize that John is telling them to continue with their fun. If they had a preference, they would have not wanted John to arrive on this day. The bedding would not be fun, the games would not be entertaining so • long as John was in the building. He had already shown them that he was armed with a blaster under his suit coat. Then as if by magic the dealers and the players started to play. We kept one eye on John and the other on the game. Many people missed good plays because they were so intent upon John. That should make the CEO of the Butterfly happy.
John lowered his hands and walked at a steady pace through the main floor. His senses were all focused on the space around him. If someone should decide to deal with the man in gray, he wanted to know about it so he could set an example for the others.
No one came to a stop the man in the gray suit. They were curious about John, but not enough to do anything about. The security men about the room remained absolutely stationary in their spots. It was apparent that the CEO was allowing John to come up to the 10 floors down from the penthouses. If this had been in a hotel, the actual loft would be reserved for the CEO, and the next five stories down would be called apartments. The name Penthouse meant that you can charge 10,000 credits a night.
Keeping his vigil alive John walked into the lobby area in the center of the building where the elevator banks were located. He went to the first one that went up to the executive suites. The doors opened at his command. He made sure that there were no notes or crannies where someone could ride with him without being seen. Then he turned around and faced the main room through the elevator opening. He tossed the floor that he knew the CEO resided and administered this mega-casino. The doors closed on John's still alive.
John wrote in the elevator car for 45 flights. The doors opened into a productive office environment. There were suited men and elegantly dressed women talking on communicators or Hypercom's. Everyone was focused on booking high rolling people, called whales, into the Butterfly.
Across the way from the elevators stood a pillar, floor to ceiling, that contained a plaque with words and arrows pointing to the appropriate direction. On this plate at the very bottom wasn't an entry for CEO and an arrow pointing to John's left. Either the present business was so great that no one even knew that Amanda known detail and entered their environment, or that they were so inculcated into the ethos of this corporation that they chose it over their own safety.
John did not have to walk far to get to the CEOs office suite. He opened the door and found an intimidating reception desk manned by a rather large woman. When he entered the reception area, and she stood for the first time in John's life he had to look up into somebody else's eyes. She either wore an utterly white wig, or she colored it. Because it looked preternaturally white. Aside from our incredible height, or at least unnatural to John, she was a beautiful woman. To downplay her height, she wore a stark black pantsuit.
“Welcome to Bullon Enterprises Inc. my name is Darla. How may I be of assistance to you?"
What she said was not enough for John to get a bead on where she came from. He knew of no planets on which the women were so tall. To sustain such a population, everybody would have to be taller than the norm. That would mean a gravity lesson earth. John walked up to the desk and put his hands on the desktop. He leaned over until he was extremely close to her face.
“My name is John Leslie, and I have an appointment to see Mr. Bullon."
Darla picked up her stylus and slipped. She chops a few motions onto the slate surface. They should put the sleep down and announced, "you do not have an appointment, Mr. Leslie. I'm afraid you will have to leave."
Yes but you see I do have an appointment." He brought back his left coat side so that she could see the massive blaster hanging from its holster.
The sudden appearance of a weapon made of security men posted at the corners of the reception room to come instantly aware. They reached for their guns. John reflexively drew his blaster and ducked behind the receptionist desk.
From the door behind Darla boom the voice full of authority and anger. "I thought I told you that at the man gray showed up he was to be instantly brought into my office, Darla."
“I'm sorry sir, but I cannot allow you to endanger your life. You owe it to us, and you owe it to the stockholders.”
“Don't you think I know that? If this man had wanted to damage the Butterfly or me then he could've shot out the main room with his heavy blaster pistol. So far all he is done is put down one of the guards on the parking structure. And that man is still alive which I have a whole ton of questions that have answered.
“I know that you said that your name was John Leslie, I actually know that your name is John Hardesty. Let that soak in while you come into my office."
John was impressed by that little legerdemain about his name. John Hardesty showed up and no books maintained by any organization on this planet, save for the station. He would like to know how Edgar Bullon got his name.
John stayed in his position until the security men released their weapons and went back to attention. Then he stood up and emphatically holstered his blaster pistol. He looked each security man in the eye before he walked into Edgar Bullion's office.
Edgar:'s office was filled with the trinkets of success. In one case was all of the trophies that the sports teams he owned garnered over the years. Then John noticed a specially crafted display case artifacts of some antiquity. John was pooled toward that display case. He saw handmade tools of stone and leather.
“Some scientists say," said Edgar Bullon, "that we are alone in the universe. Well, we all know that is poppycock. There are millions of galaxies and trillions of stars in most galaxies. The sheer chance of there being no life in any of those places is unfathomable.”
“Have you these artifacts?"
"Yes, your Mr. A was very influential in getting them aged. He told me that these artifacts are in fact
over 3 million years old. While our ancestors were swinging from tree to tree, these people were making tools, making their own fire, and hunting the beasts of this planet."
"Where did you find these artifacts?”
"When we were digging for the foundation of this establishment we found these artifacts. I stop the work because of the importance of one month.”
"Was there any other artifacts found in the H?"
“No there was no additional artifacts. Justice things from their Stone Age."
“What happened to the civilization.”
"About a million years ago they fought the war that we manage not to fight, the nuclear war. Everybody that had these weapons exchange them with their hated enemies. Not • one single nation was left alive."
“The gloominess…"
"Yes, Mr. Hardesty, you start to understand the troubling realization that I came to. We are suffering from that nuclear exchange. This is atomic winter after every single nation of this world fired their arsenals. All that is left of their civilization on the stone tools of their primordial ancestors.
“The interesting thing is that the cloud cover is thinning and it's getting warmer here. I say that we are about where Faraway is right now in recovery."
"I wonder if…”
"No. My astrophysicists tell me that Faraway is a naturally occurring late autumn. Their star is slowly collapsing in on itself. My people tell me that that star system will go supernova in five or 6 million years, so don't feel sad for them.
“Now Mr. Hardesty what can I do for you.”
"Do you have a cow that is lactating now."
Edgar Bullon drew back the corners of his mouth and laughed. "No, but I have a lactating goat. Will that do."
"That insufferable… You are not going to tell me. You obviously knew what I am."
"Oliver is an excellent front." He pushed the button on his desk. The door to John's right opened, and Oliver walked out wearing the gray suit. "No don't get angry at him. A and I did not know what your plan was for dealing with Anton. Now I think I have an idea of what you're doing. In ancient times nobles used to hunt with commoners that they called beaters. These commoners beat the underbrush flushing the game. You're the leader, Mr. Hardesty, and Anton Hecton is your game."
"Are you really Edgar Bullon?"
“How can I answer that question without giving you a definite answer. If I said no I am not John Bullon, then you would know that A is John Bullon. By the way, I am authorized to tell you that."
"It is A a multibillionaire?"
When we built this legend forming, I was given seed money. This is over 10 years ago and not Eridani I made my sports Enterprises, and spread out even to Alphacent and their predilection for soccer. We needed somewhere where we could train our people. Snake Eyes is the perfect place. I have several different kinds of teens here. The professionals do all of their work in the early hours. My men and women do their training in the remaining time.”
“No reporter would come to Snake Eyes because it is such an armpit. Why couldn't you with your resources blow up the Snake?"
"I asked A about that. A said That he wanted to keep this part of our organization a secret. When you arrived here, he and I had a very heated Hypercom conversation about it. I thought if anything that your presence here would bring all of the counter agents out in the open. They must believe that you are a plant. However, that little flints that I saw in the foliage of the wine old told me where every one of the counter agents existed. With Oliver and my other people, we have a good knowledge of who is here and the organization they work for.
“So, your presence is actually an excellent thing for me. What is it that you want me to do as a result of this meeting. I want you to broker a meeting between all of the mega-casino owners.”
“Are you coming to this meeting?”
"In a way. I will be here, but I will be watching the meeting. Oliver will be here acting like me. It's going to be wearing one of the inner earpieces. I will tell him what to say, and he will say it."
"Then what's the meeting for?"
"Well, Mr. Bullon you're going to have a brainwave. You want the mega-casinos to band together and form a monopoly with you as its head. All of this is for one purpose, and that is to convince Anton Hecton that the man in gray is as corrupt as any on Snake Eyes."
Oliver clapped his hands together. "Oh, this is delicious. We pull the wool over Anton Hecton's eyes, and we get the revenue of all of the mega casinos."
Edgar Bullon rubbed his hands together. He said, “This world is so corrupt that this will look like one of those corruption things. It'll bolster my legend, and the legend of the man in gray who will be Oliver.”
"I haven't told A yet, but Oliver has the makings of a Z-level agent."
Oliver looked stunned. "I thought you said that it required that I kill someone."
“It may be during this mission that you perform that task. If it doesn't happen here in this mission, then A will surely find a mission for you to kill someone wanting."
Oliver didn't say anything. He was of two minds about taking on Z-level license to kill. "I'll sure try to make you proud of me."
"Hearing that makes me proud of you now."
Edgar ever the team leader brought this skull session back on track. "Just what are we doing in this meeting."
“As has been said the main reason for this meeting is to distract Anton from making a logical leap to me. We are going to present him with an Oliver acting as the man in the gray suit. This should distract him enough for me to set off a chain reaction. I'm going to set it off once I know where his escape starship is located."
"Flush the prey into the trap," said Edgar, the hunting enthusiast.
"There are a couple of things that you need to know. Anton killed my wife, or actually had my wife killed by another's hand. I intend to kill Anton myself. There will be no capture. If he does manage to get past me and then to his ship, there will be his last trip on that ship.”
Oliver stared at John for a long moment. He blinked and said, "I would like to know how you're going to accomplish that?"
"I'm going to pay a little visit to that starship before entering the Snake. There, I will do a little fiddling with his computer. • No matter what he does Anton Hecton does not believe Snake Eyes."
"Okay, it's now my turn to bring everybody else to the meeting. That means I need to have you guys out of the office while I do the inviting. If they should happen to see you both wearing the gray suit, then as they say the jig is up."
"Do you have a penthouse available?"
“I surely do. Your things are up in your room. Oliver was nice enough to pack everything that was yours back into your luggage and bring it with him using a shuttlecraft. That was how you got here before you."
"Okay, it's always nice to know that we have these kinds of things. Where is it now?"
“We have something of a mini Starport on our roof. We moved your luxury car up to the roof. You can just drive off of it when you need to go back to the Snake Eyes Starport."
"How do I get into my room?"
Edgar Reese donned his desk and pulled up a 500 credit chip. He tossed that chip at John. "All of our high-level rooms use a 500 credit ship. These are legal tender in this mega-casino, so don't wager it. As part of our security procedures, we really don't have a master key. We do have a master key that only works only when the customer has checked out of the room.
“It'll probably be about six hours before we will have the meeting. I'll set out a dinner buffet in the meeting room. Maybe some lovely ladies might join us to help us relax and drop our guard."
John pointed at Oliver. "Enjoy the ladies but do not drop your guard. I don't know how this is going to work out. If the other to make casino owners are the low levelheaded businessman, then it will work out the way I wanted to. At the end of this mission, all four mega casinos will either be destroyed or controlled by our Secret Service. If they get rough than my first shot wi
ll be the Anton Hecton, and we may need a full action team to put down the gang members."
