Blackjack Messiah

by Ben Bequer

  “I’ve seen the readings while I’m wearing these things.”

  “I know, but it’s like juggling a nuclear bomb, Dale. There’s no guarantee that those devices will work.”

  “If you graduate their absorption-“

  “They’ll start working like suppression cuffs. You’ll lose your strength.”

  “Fine, ratchet that shit up. I can take it.”

  He took a deep breath, “That’s all fine, but then what? I’m getting all kinds of static for having you here, and it’s not like there are many countries that will welcome you with open arms. The Germans have a proposal to ban you from the EU altogether.”

  “We could wait until Brexit’s done,” I joked, but not even Apogee laughed. “I can go back to the States.”

  “It’s not that simple,” he said. “You don’t even have a passport.”

  “I don’t?”

  “Apparently it’s expired and the State Department has a hold order on you.”

  I laughed, “I don’t need a passport to be in the States.”

  “You do need one to get back in,” Apogee said.

  “Come on, I saved the President’s life!” I said, but I already knew that I couldn’t count on her assistance, nor that of anyone in her administration - not while she was running for re-election.

  “It’s not all bad news,” he said. “Apogee and I know someone - he’s kind of a big deal behind the scenes, a big investor and supporter here. He might be able to help with your situation.”

  “Who’re we talking about?”

  “The guy’s name is Graydon Chase,” Apogee said. “More a friend of Jeff’s, really, but a really connected guy.”

  “The name’s familiar,” I said, wracking my brain to no avail.

  “Hedge fund guy,” Jeff said. “Now he’s-“

  “Graydon Chase,” I repeated - it was coming to me.

  “Yes.”

  “Former Senate staffer, former chief of staff for Ted Ashbourne.”

  Few people hated me more than Ted Ashbourne, and a lot of people hated me. I had actually earned it, for a change. His only son was a hero called Pulsewave, and I had thrown him off a building during a fight.

  “Same one,” Jeff said. “I know him from school. He’s a good guy.”

  “Oh, that makes me trust him instantly,” I said.

  “Don’t be so conspiratorial,” he said. “I’m telling you he’s not like that. Do you trust me?”

  He asked the question so suddenly that I was taken aback for a moment, answering after a long enough pause that it seemed weird. “Of course.”

  “Gray might be able to work on your situation from behind the scenes. The problem is that it’ll take time, even if he’s able to do it at all.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Trust this guy who’s boss hates my guts. Got it. What do I do in the meantime?”

  Superdynamic finally reached over and stuck a fork into his food, nibbling on some chicken. The first bite opened up his nascent appetite, and soon he had fork and knife in hand. “Lay low,” he said after a couple of bites. “If that’s even possible.”

  “Alright,” I said. “But how long?”

  He didn’t seem to want to answer.

  “That long, huh? I can’t sit on the shelf that long, man. Not with what’s happening.”

  “There has to be another alternative,” Apogee said.

  “Well, I talked to Gray about this already and he had an idea.” He paused, waiting for me to say something snarky, but I was too eager to hear what “Gray” had to say. “He thinks we establish a record with you. A positive one, that is.”

  I was about to complain about all I had done so far, but now was the point where I would normally screw up everything with my big mouth. Instead, I shut up and let him continue. “So, the idea would be to start at the bottom, get a psych eval, go from there. Give us documented stuff to work with. Hell, the guy’s brilliant. Maybe he can help figure out what to do with your new External 3D tech. I mean, if I could, I’d dedicate a whole floor - give you a hundred guys to work with. Believe me, people would come. But it’s like a vicious circle, Dale.”

  “I’ve got a handle on the 3D thing,” I said, though I honestly didn’t. Bubu was running things, keeping it small for now, even though he was already having huge success.

  “It’s not the dollars,” Superdynamic said. “It’s the application. Imagine that tech repurposed to help people out here, he said waving his arm out to the vast savanna outside the window. He meant helping the African people - he meant pro bono work. “Imagine rebuilding D.C., or Amsterdam. Anyway, having Graydon Chase guiding you will look a lot better than having some Swiss attorney managing some offshore accounts filled with East European money.”

  “Annit’s good people,” I said.

  “So is Gray,” he said. “And this will help legitimize you. Help rehabilitate your image across the world.”

  I looked out to the landscape. The sun was beginning to set across the plains of Mali, though the shadows were already playing at the base of the tower far below us. It was time to take a chance - the old stuff wasn’t working. It was time to take a risk and trust this Graydon Chase person. Trust Superdynamic and Apogee - put my life in the hand of others. The problem was how to explain the situation to Annit and Bubu. They were rolling in the cash. Maybe a separate operation? It was complicated, but if this guy Chase was as good as advertised, then wading through that minefield would be no problem.

  Then again, he might steal my tech and ruin my life.

  “I like this,” Apogee said, her hand crossing the desk to touch mine.

  “I do too,” I said.

  I didn’t.

  We rode the elevator without saying anything. Apogee knew I had a lot on my mind, and I think she wanted me to decide without feeling like she was pulling any strings. The thing is, I knew she was. She was behind all of this and frankly, I was torn between being thankful and resentful.

  What I really wanted was to do my own thing, maybe start my own group - Blackjack’s Badasses, or something silly like that - and bring in some people. Set up a base somewhere central, or build a satellite - I could be a bastion against the Lightbringers when those evil fuckers came.

  But instead, I was off to Kansas City to join the All-Stars, a D-List team that kept busy getting old lady’s cats from trees and not much else. In and of itself, that wasn’t a big deal. I could get used to being a big fish in a little pond. The problem was that the founder and leader of the All-Stars was Powermaster - a guy I had some history with.

  When I made my big splash into the supers world, I was running with a group called The Impossibles. It was never an official name, just what we called ourselves. We got into a tussle in New York City with a group designed to stop us that included Apogee, and I ran into Powermaster. It was late in the incident - I was beaten, down for the count, when my former associate turned nemesis, Dr. Zundergrub, had mind-jobbed Madelyne with a simple command, “Save me.”

  She helped me off and a few blocks later, we ran into Powermaster. He didn’t know how beat up I was. I was a Class-A monster that had taken Apogee captive, and I forced him to back down. Cowed him with threats and intimidation. That had to burn, knowing he’d bitched out and let me take Apogee. The unspoken fear for every heroine in the game was the unpleasant aftermath of getting captured or beaten by a crazy villain.

  No, I didn’t figure that my time in K.C. was going to be all that fun.

  Truth was, I had few choices. I had powerful enemies and a sordid background that I couldn’t walk away from. I was lucky to be walking around, talking and not sitting in another mind prison for a couple of decades. If the authorities set their minds to it, I wouldn’t last long in the wild. My experience in Romania had proven that there was no place on the planet left for me to hide.

  Which had me thinking: what do I do if they come after me?

  Oh, I was safe in the Tower, with Apogee, but if someone smart…say, someone like Senator Ashb
ourne decided to organize a top-tier group to get me, what would I do? It’s funny, the first thing that came to me was Nostromo’s base on the moon. Out of sight is out of mind, right? Time to start working on some new attachments for my suit - something interstellar.

  Apogee fiddled with her smartphone, returning texts and emails, and as the elevator reached our floor, I had to nudge her out of it. “Busy?”

  She smiled, “Always.”

  We walked towards our room in a section of the Tower that was normally busy - the guest quarters. I didn’t need to have it explained for me to know that he’d cleared out the area with me staying here. It was slow going, my limp growing more pronounced the longer I put weight on the leg. Madelyne did a good job of pretending our glacial pace didn’t annoy her.

  “What do you think?” she said, taking my hand. I got to admit, I was starting to like all the hand holding and stuff. Even the cutesy names that she dropped on me from time to time, like “babe” and “darling” were growing on me. For the longest time, I thought those kind of affectations were more insults than anything, demeaning to the other person and intended to dehumanize them in a way. Now I fucking loved it.

  “Not sure about this guy, Chase,” I said. “And I’m not sure about the All-Stars. They sound like a bunch of former cheerleaders. I guess I don’t have much of a choice.”

  She stopped, putting her hand on my arm, pausing me, “Don’t talk like that, okay? You have a ton of choices. You can do whatever you want.”

  “If that’s the case, then I want to rebuild my Romanian castle,” I said, drawing a nice smile from her. “You liked that place, didn’t you?”

  “It was too Castlevania for me,” she said. “Like some anime fan’s wet dream.”

  I didn’t hide the shock at her gaming knowledge. “Shit, you trying to close the deal or something?”

  She stopped at that, frozen on the spot. Her whole mood changed and I couldn’t tell if she was shocked or pissed. “What?”

  “I meant you’re making me want to rip your clothes off.”

  Then I saw an expression that I’ve never seen in her before. Was it shame? Embarrassment?

  “What did you think I meant?”

  “Nothing,” she said, fumbling. “I mean, I didn’t know what you meant.”

  Disappointment?

  I said nothing, curious at the flush of emotions she was experiencing. Madelyne was older than me, smarter, wiser, everything more than me, but right now, she was acting like a little girl who’d said “I love you” first in a nascent relationship.

  Her world famous temper flared. “What?”

  “You didn’t answer,” I said. “About the clothes ripping.”

  Relief. What the hell was going on with this woman?

  She cocked her head, “There’s no way you’re ripping this shirt, Mr. McKeown. You’ll use the buttons like any other civilized human.”

  Apogee started away and I followed, more confused than ever.

  All I wanted was sex with my girlfriend, a lot of alcohol and some sleep. Unfortunately, I was due in the medbay for some rehab on my leg, and they would probably want me to spend the night in a healing pod. I needed to call Annit and Bubu if only to give them a head's up, but I found myself dreading the call, and instead, sat on one of the couches and stared at the TV - which was off.

  "I like that look," Apogee said stepping out of the bathroom. Why do women seem to exist only in the brief periods between going to pee? "All you need is some eyeshadow and a knife to cut your wrists."

  I didn't say anything, dreading the argument that would spring to life should I try to argue the silliness of this plan. "Hey, I'm kidding," she said, slipping into the couch next to me, and using her feet to dig into my midsection, searching for a spot to tickle me.

  "I'm not ticklish," I said, though her knobby toes were coming close to proving me a liar.

  "Really?" she said. "So how do I harass you when you're being all moody?"

  I took a deep sigh that felt more dramatic than I wanted it to be. "I don't want to fight."

  She bunched up close to me, "Good because I want to have fun sex tonight, not makeup sex."

  I looked over at her. "That might cheer me up."

  "Good boy," Madelyne said, getting up and heading back in the direction of the bedroom and taking off her blouse as she did. She let it drip off her shoulder as she stopped by the doorway, turning to her side and displaying her bust in profile. "What are you waiting for?"

  I couldn't help but laugh, groaning through the pain as I headed in her direction, but before I crossed the room, the doorbell rang. Her expression changed, from impending glee to sudden disappointment. People didn't come to our room unless there was trouble. Or it was Moe - that dude didn't text or call, he just showed up.

  Madelyne returned to sexy mode spinning in my direction and dropping the blouse off her other shoulder. I had a full view of the girls, held back from a full flop by a black lace bra that was strained beyond its structural capacity. "Get rid of him," she said and slipped into the bedroom.

  I hobbled to the door and opened it. Of course, it was Moe.

  "Okay, enough bellyaching," he said, storming past me. "Apogee here?"

  "She's in the bedroom," I said.

  "Ah, good. Smells like a woman was here." He gave me a once over and nodded in satisfaction. "Get some shoes on."

  "Moe, Apogee and I were going to -"

  "No, no, no. Get your shoes and let's go. I gotta talk to you."

  "Moe, this is important," I said.

  "Exactly," Moe said, looking around and finding my shoes. He picked them up and slammed them into my stomach. "We gotta talk guy shit, dog. Tell that woman to wait."

  Madelyne then returned from the bedroom, her shirt back on and buttoned. "Hey, Moe."

  "Hey, girl. Sorry to take your boy like this, but I gotta season him some. Boy don't know what to do with a good woman like you, so that shit's left to me, you see?"

  I looked at her in despair, unsure of what to do or say. She smiled, "Go on, hon. I'll be here when you get back."

  Moe smiled, "Wow...'hon,' she said. That's good, man." He slapped me hard in the arm. A good slap from him is like getting hit with a sledgehammer. "Hon's the second stage, B."

  "What's that?"

  "Her calling you that," Moe said. Apogee was also curious, coming closer. "First it's nothing. All nervous and shit. Barely touching, holding hands. Then, after you fuck a few times, it's 'hon.' That means she likes you, dog. Good fucking job."

  "What comes after 'hon'?" she said.

  "After hon comes darling, and after that comes 'hey motherfucker, get the fuck out!'" he said, doubling over in laughter.

  "Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Madelyne said.

  Moe opened his arms wide, "That's why I'm here. Trying to save you from this man and the worst demons of his nature - or whatever the fuck. See, this motherfucker's just like me, so I know all the steps."

  "And you have experience from successful relationships?" I said, knowing the answer.

  "All my relationships are successful if you know what I mean," he said, leaning in and digging his elbow into my ribs. "Anyway, me and the homes here are gonna be awhile. Don't wait up."

  He wrapped his arm around my neck and led me away. I looked back, desperate, but Apogee was laughing, reaching for the controller - it was Netflix binge time for her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Downtime (it's never down)

  My phone rang as we waited for one of the elevators, and looking over I saw it was Bubu, as if he knew something was wrong. I sent a message back that I was busy, instead of taking the call.

  "That another woman?" Moe asked.

  "No," I said, chuckling. "It's a business partner."

  He humphed, as if disappointed, but the elevator came and soon we were wading through all the people coming out. "So what do you have planned," I said once the doors had slid closed. Oddly, there was no one with us.

  "I w
anna take your ass to go blow some holes in some shit, but your stupid ass doesn't like guns."

  "I don't mind guns," I said.

  "No?"

  "Not at all," I said. "They're just inelegant, you know?"

  He laughed, "Now you're a bow Jedi or some shit. God, I am gonna miss you B. You make my big ass laugh so hard sometimes. Anyway, I gave up on that and the waiting list at the gun range is as long as my...you know what I'm talking about."

  My turn to laugh, "So what's the plan, man? You're taking me away from a very willing woman."

  He shrugged that off, "Man, pussy's pussy. Pussy's always there if you got your shit on. That's what we're gonna do, we're gonna put your shit on."

  "My shit isn't on?"

  "It's a saying," he said, frustrated. "Just cause I don't talk nerd, it don't mean you gotta fuck with me like that. Shit, your sorry ass wouldn't have made it two days back where I come from."

  "Was it tough?" I said, still egging him on.

  "Man, fuck your stupid face. I'm trying to help your sorry ass."

  I was in stitches, and it took him a second to realize I was leading him on. "Man, fuck you," he said, smiling. "Stupid white motherfucker. Got yourself a hot woman now you think you know everything."

  "I can't help I'm beautiful," I said, looking at the elevator counter. We were going down.

  He stared at me, "You really think you're hot and shit?" Moe exploded into laughter. "Just cause you're on a cover or two? I've been on covers since I was little Moe. I get calls all the time about that shit. Management, motherfucker. I got some. What do you have?"

  "Oh, God," I said. "Please don't tell me that Superdynamic's got you lobbying me too."

  He stared at me as if I had just recited a formula from Quantum Dynamics. "He trying to get to you?"

  "Yeah," I said, surprised he didn't know. "Jeff's trying to put me together with some money guy who-"

  "Man, fuck all that. You don't need that shit. You need management," he said, emphasizing the word with air quotes. "And you don't need to go any farther than me, dog. I got your back."