But nothing happened.
“Slipping,” Patty said.
“Clear,” I said as I focused and froze time and let her take a few deep breaths.
“What happened?” Screamer asked. “It’s been too long.”
I knew that as well. Patty had held that last time slowing a good five seconds longer than what it should have taken to get anyone out of the machine. Harry had been so perfectly on time with everyone before this one.
“We need to keep in slow time and ready,” Patty said, “in case he’s running just a little late.”
I agreed. “Tell me when you are ready.”
She tipped her head back and said, “Okay.”
I let us come out of between instants of time and Patty had control. This time she held it for twelve real-world seconds, which seemed like an eternity to me as no one appeared in the chair.
“Slipping,” she said.
“I got it,” I said, again taking us between time.
Near the pile of tarps Ben, Samantha, Tech, and Geneva were looking very worried, their frowns frozen for the moment.
“Not good,” Screamer said.
“Harry must have passed out and can’t trigger the last group,” Patty said.
“Or he died in there,” I said.
Patty took a few more deep breaths and said “I’m ready again. “Let’s give him ten more seconds before we give up. He’ll know not to trigger the payout without exact timing.”
I waited until she squeezed my hand to let me know she had it and again took us out of between moments of time and let Patty control.
Ten more seconds and nothing appeared in the chair.
“Slipping,” Patty said.
“Let it go,” I said.
An instant later we were back functioning in real time.
“I was afraid this might happen,” Geneva said. “Harry was so weak.”
“Actually,” Tech said, “I’ll wager the machine needs three to pay out.”
“Three minimum?” Johnny asked. “So there’s not enough people in there is what you’re saying?”
Tech nodded. “Machines don’t pay out less than the full amount. Most of these old machines just froze if there wasn’t enough to pay a jackpot. An attendant had to be called and the machine refilled.”
“Oh, great,” Geneva said, “and we’re the attendants to a ghost slot machine?”
She had a good point there. We were the ones running this thing, sort of. Actually Harry was the attendant from inside the thing. And now he and some other person were trapped in there.
“I’ll go in and get him,” Tech said.
I stared at the kid. I hated the idea of him doing that. Hated it.
“You can’t,” Geneva said. “No communication with anyone out here. I have to go back in.”
“Or I do,” Johnny said as he strolled down the corridor toward the group. He had been taking the last person of the last group out to the waiting police and ambulances, although so far no one had been hurt beyond being very tired and headachey.
“No, I do,” Tech said. “If Harry’s too weak to trigger the payout you need someone to do that.”
“You can do it through Geneva to me,” Johnny said.
“Or through Johnny to me,” Geneva said.
I couldn’t believe that they were having an argument over who was going to get taken by a ghost slot machine. I had no idea how two people who could hear each other’s thoughts could even argue. That would seem to take all the fun out of fighting. Or maybe make it worse. Either way I didn’t really want to find out.
“We can set the timing with back-ups if I go in,” Tech said.
All three of them were willing to risk their lives to save the two people in there. It sure showed how really brave the people I was working with were. This was one amazing team that had come together to solve this problem.
Tech, Geneva, and Johnny sort of stared at each other for a moment, then turned to me. They wanted me to decide who would risk their life, maybe lose their life, in trying to rescue the last two people inside that machine. This kind of decision was a lot rougher than trying to decide to lay down pocket kings when an ace hit the board. Or shove all my money into the center of the table on one hand that might get beat and knock me out of the tournament. Those decisions seemed stressful, but nothing like this one.
This one the stakes were human lives, both inside the machine and facing me.
I took a deep breath, reached over and touched Patty’s hand and then took the two of us between moments of time.
“Any suggestions on this one?” I asked her, relishing the feel of her skin against mine.
“None,” she said, “other than I think it has to be either Geneva or Johnny. We need the contact with the people inside in case something doesn’t work out the way we think it’s going to.”
“Agreed,” I said, sort of knowing now who I would pick. Just talking to Patty gave me the strength to act.
I dropped us back into real time and without hesitating said, “Johnny, it would be best if you gave it a try.”
“Why?” both Tech and Geneva asked at the same moment.
“Tech, we need the contact in there in case there’s something wrong we don’t know about, not counting the timing issue. Geneva, you’ve been through that once already and seem fine. But I don’t want to push it twice.”
Johnny nodded. “I agree, Poker Boy. “Should I go in here, or wait until the machine jumps in the morning and go in at the casino?”
“Harry’s too weak to wait,” Geneva said. “I’m afraid he might not last until morning.”
“Right here,” I said, sounding a lot more sure of myself than I felt. “Let’s do this and get this finished.”
Johnny bent down and kissed Geneva hard and fast, then turned toward the machine holding up a nickel. “I’ll be right back.”
As the rest of us moved a few more steps away from the machine, Johnny sat down in the same chair that Screamer had been knocking people out of, dropped the nickel into the machine, and pulled the handle, almost in one motion. It was as if he slowed down and thought about what he was doing he wouldn’t be able to do it.
Over the years I had learned that jumping in fast and quick was often the best way to do something unpleasant. Of course, acting like that in a hand of poker had sometimes cost me a tournament. But other times it had won me tournaments. I hoped this time it would be a winner for all of us.
As the first reel on the machine clicked to a stop showing a Saturn, Johnny seemed to jerk, as if getting shocked.
Geneva bent over and grabbed her head.
Ben and Samantha were beside her but not touching her. There was nothing they could do to help her or Johnny at this point.
The second reel clicked to a stop showing a Saturn.
Johnny jerked hard in the chair, not letting go of the machine’s handle.
The third wheel clanged to a stop with a sound that seemed to echo throughout the warehouse.
Saturn.
Johnny sort of leaned forward into the machines.
Geneva screamed in pain.
Then Johnny and the ghost slot machines shimmered and disappeared, leaving the warehouse gray and much darker than a moment before.
I stared at the blank place where the slot machines had been, not believing what I was seeing, or not seeing as the case might be. The old row of slot machines that filled the wall looked like a row of perfect teeth with a front tooth missing.
“Where did they go?” Tech asked.
Geneva was on her knees staring open-mouthed at the empty place in the row of old, dead slots.
“Geneva,” I said, using my most commanding voice, “do you sense Johnny?”
She slowly shook her head.
Then she looked up at me with the most horrific empty look I have ever seen. “He’s gone.”
Chapter Twenty
MATH DOESN’T WORK
I DON’T THINK anything had ever shocked me, at any time in my life, as much
as the machines vanishing had done. Yet I knew that’s what happened every time a person was taken by a machine.
Why would this time be any different?
Yet I hadn’t expected it and I should have.
Now the connection between Johnny and Geneva had been broken, and who knew where the slot machine had jumped to.
Or if it was even coming back.
I needed answers and I needed them fast.
I moved quickly to the pile of tarps, grabbed the top one and swung it around and up over the space where the ghost slots had been. It settled over their form there, just as the tarp that had been over them originally had. We couldn’t see anything in that spot, but the part of those evil machines were still right here in the warehouse.
“They’re coming back,” Patty said.
“That they are,” I said as I yanked off the tarp and tossed it back on the pile. “But if my guess is correct, they need a person to jump.”
“Not necessarily,” Tech said. “They jumped out of here without a person.”
I stared at the kid. He was right. They had.
“Where were they headed in the morning?” I asked.
“Johnny’s got the paper,” Geneva said.
“Circus Circus,” Patty said without hesitation, staring at me. “Back wall of the main casino on the far right.”
I must have had a very puzzled look on my face because she said, “I know exactly where and when. I memorized the list. Part of my skills.”
I had no doubt that was only a minor part of her skills, and I was looking forward to learning a lot more of them, but I didn’t let myself go down that road of thought. The ghost slots were loose again and we still had people to save.
“Patty, get on the phone to The Bookkeeper and tell him what happened. Ask him if that changes things on his projections.”
She nodded and grabbed her cell phone, stepping away.
“Samantha, Ben, Tech, stay here. Geneva, Screamer, come with me. We’ve got to get the police to the Circus Circus if they aren’t already there.”
Geneva, Screamer, and I had taken no more than a dozen steps down the aisle between all the old slot machines when from behind us Samantha said, “Too late.”
The three of us spun around like someone had pulled on the same rope. The shimmering of colored lights pushed the gray of the old warehouse away as the ghost slots came back.
And with them the intense desire to sit down and lose myself in their power.
“Johnny,” Geneva said softly beside me.
“You two back in touch?”
“We are,” she said, nodding and smiling at the same time. “Thank god.”
“Is he all right?” Screamer asked.
“He’s fine,” Geneva said, beaming like a kid given a long sought-after toy at Christmas. “He just found Harry.”
“How is Harry?” Tech asked.
“Weak and very tired, but still alive.”
“Fantastic,” Screamer said.
“Thanks,” Patty said, turning back toward us and snapping her cell phone closed in disgust. The super-powered woman I was in lust with had a lot of emotions, and I sure didn’t want the one she was showing right now directed at me.
“The Bookkeeper his old charming self?” Screamer asked.
“He said we’re all idiots,” she said, clearly disgusted.
“We know that,” I said, trying to lighten her mood a little. “But did he say if the machine would stay on the pattern he worked out.”
Patty smiled at me and nodded. “It went to Circus Circus and stayed until it got someone, then came back. It’s next trip out, unless we feed it someone else, isn’t until tomorrow at a few minutes after noon. It will go back to the Horseshoe then, same spot near the stairs.”
“And if we feed it again,” I asked.
She looked at me with a very funny look on her face. “It will jump to the Horseshoe early is all. But why would we do that?”
I pointed at the machine. “Because right now there are four people in there.”
“Oh,” Tech said, his voice hushed yet. “The math doesn’t work.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Oh, no,” Samantha said.
Patty just stared at me, her wonderful brown eyes wide. She knew, without a doubt, just as I did, that we were going to have to feed more people to the beast before we had any hopes of saving everyone. Two more people to be exact. One here and one at the Horseshoe.
I glanced around at the shocked team.
Patty and I and Screamer couldn’t go in, since we were the rescue team needed to get everyone out. Geneva had to stay out as well since she was the contact with Johnny and Harry inside. That left Tech, Samantha, and Ben. And Ben had already been in the thing once before. I don’t think we dared stress him with twice through a ghost slot machine.
“I’ll go,” Tech said, stepping forward.
“So will I,” Samantha said.
“No, I will,” Ben said.
“Get Ben to do what I was doing and let me take a crack at it,” Screamer said.
In all my years of helping people, I had never seen a braver bunch of people in one room. At that moment I was very, very proud to be working with them.
“Ben,” Patty said, “we don’t dare send you back inside. We don’t know what twice through that thing would do to a person.”
“We don’t even know the long-term ramifications of once through,” I said. “And Screamer, we need your practiced quickness and knowledge of when to get people out of that chair. I don’t want to take a chance on someone new at this point.”
Screamer nodded. He knew I was right, just as I knew he had to offer to go inside.
Ben started to open his mouth to protest, but Samantha took his hand and squeezed it lightly, some sort of private signal between them that he shouldn’t say anything.
I glanced at Patty and she nodded, understanding and agreement in her wonderful brown eyes.
“Geneva, Patty, Tech, Screamer, the four of you go out and convince Johnny’s partner out there that he has to take Tech to the Horseshoe. Ben, go with Tech to the Horseshoe and show him exactly where the machines appear. Tech, when you are in position and ready, call Patty.”
“I’m going in here?” Samantha asked, her voice firm.
I nodded.
“Now wait,” Ben said.
“It’s all right,” Samantha said, turning to face her husband. “These people rescued you and all those others. They’ll get me out as well, along with everyone still inside there. You need to help Tech make sure he’s in position so we do this right.”
Ben nodded after a moment, then bent down and kissed his wife. Then he said, “I’ll be waiting here when you come out.”
“Actually,” I said, smiling at him. “We plan on having all of them out of there before you can get back here from the Horseshoe. So she’ll be waiting for you.”
Ben stared at me for a long moment, then nodded.
“Let’s go,” Patty said. She, Geneva, Tech, Screamer, and Ben headed for the door to the warehouse.
“Looks like all we have to do now is wait,” Samantha said.
“The really fun part,” I said.
Samantha eased herself down onto the pile of tarps and I sat down beside her. The things were a lot firmer than I had thought they were. More than likely a few of the people we had rescued were going to be very bruised and sore from being tossed on this pile.
“This is a brave thing you are offering to do,” I said. “You know we can find another volunteer from the police outside.”
“No,” Samantha said. “I’m going to do it. I got all these sensory powers from your friend Stan so that I could help. You saved my husband, it’s the least I can do in helping the others still trapped in that monster. If this is how I can help, then this is what I’m going to do.”
I nodded, gave Samantha a quick hug around the shoulders, then stood, moving over and leaning against an old quarter slot machine across from Sa
mantha. The silence of the big warehouse became heavier with each passing second. The bright lights and colors of the four Saturn Slot machines seemed to call to me, like a bully who just wouldn’t give up.
There were four people inside that machine under that giant image of Saturn. Two more of my team were going to willingly go in there to try to save them, under my direction. I just hoped I was making the right decision in letting them.
In all my years as Poker Boy, I had never lost someone who tried to help me. But in all the years, I had never sent anyone into such danger before. Normally I went into the danger myself, making sure the others helping me were safe.
This time, I needed to stay outside of the danger and let friends put themselves purposely at risk so that I could help rescue them and others. Patty and I and Screamer were the superheroes here, yet we really weren’t taking any risks.
That didn’t feel right.
In fact, it felt just plain wrong. But for the life of me, I couldn’t see another way.
And that didn’t feel right either.
Chapter Twenty-one
DEATH AND THE MACHINE
AFTER WHAT SEEMED like the longest time, Patty and Screamer and Geneva came back inside the warehouse, moving toward Samantha and myself at a quick pace.
“All set,” Patty said. “Tech and Ben have a police escort to the Horseshoe.”
“Good,” I said, moving away from the machine I had been leaning against and facing Patty. “How are you feeling?”
She shrugged. “Tired, but fine.”
“How about one more quick practice before we send anyone else in there?”
I didn’t want to tell her that I had gotten more and more worried about my powers fading. I often had powers for a time outside of a casino, sometimes a few hours, sometimes half a day depending on how long I had been in the casino and charged them up. So I was getting a little worried.
She smiled, her brown eyes taking me in clearly. “I was going to suggest the same thing. You reading my mind now?”
“Not yet,” I said. “But there’s still hope.”
She laughed at my lame joke and then reached out and took my hand.
Again the feel of her skin against mine gave me sensations I never wanted to let go of. Little shivers up my back, along with a warmth inside my gut. It was amazing I had been able to concentrate as much as I had so far.
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