Heaven Painted as a Poker Chip

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “To them, we don’t look like ghosts either,” K.J. said. “So just take his arm and walk like a couple enjoying the night in Las Vegas. I’ll be close.”

  With that K.J. vanished.

  Quickly she and Tommy headed out of the restaurant and got into a pace about forty steps behind the two men that had tried to shoot them with the machine guns they now carried slung over their shoulders.

  Both men just walked through people, not even noticing. She wondered if the people felt anything.

  She and Tommy moved around people, as if they were actually alive.

  She had no idea where the two were headed.

  But she had a hunch it wasn’t anywhere classy.

  THIRTY-SIX

  TOMMY FELT GOOD that they were following the two Brigade members. It felt good to be doing something, and even better to understand a little more about what they were fighting for.

  In essence, he was a cop fighting for light and a good future, the bad guys wanted the world to be dark and nasty. Simple, he knew that, but for the moment, until they got a lot more explanation, it worked for him.

  Good vs. bad. Got it. More than likely, as with anything, there were a thousand shades of gray between it all. He’d learn all that later.

  One of the Brigade men merged with a guy getting into a taxi and the other Brigade man got into the cab as well.

  Tommy pretended he had a communications link of some sort, like he used to have with the sheriff back in Buffalo Jump, and said simply into the air as they headed for an open cab. “K.J. stay with them. We’ll follow along in a cab, but we might lose them.”

  “Got it,” K.J.’s voice came back clearly. “They had the guy tell the driver to go to the airport.”

  “On our way,” Tommy said.

  Tommy climbed through the driver’s door of a waiting cab and merged into the cab driver sitting behind the wheel, a single man named Parks from Indiana who was out trying to make a living in the sports book and driving cab in off hours. Tommy instantly knew the guy lived alone in a dive apartment out off the old Boulder Highway, dressed in suits and ties to go to what he called “the office” when in the MGM Grand sports book, but also liked wearing jeans and a t-shirt and driving cab and talking with people.

  He had an ex-wife back in Indiana and a young daughter he saw every month when he flew back there and sent lots of money to and missed a great deal.

  Parks had actually been doing pretty well at sports betting and had about a half million in a number of accounts. He really liked his life and driving cab, except for missing his daughter.

  Tommy liked Parks and liked his attitude.

  Jewel climbed into the front seat. Tommy got them moving toward the airport, using a fairly quick route that Parks knew and only took favorite customers. There was no way in the traffic to actually follow the other cab, so Tommy figured they might as well get there ahead of the Brigade men.

  They rode in silence all the way to the airport and Tommy had Park just pull into the cab waiting area for pick-ups and left him with the feeling that it was too slow on The Strip so he had come out here to get a fare.

  They slid out and both walked quickly toward the arrivals area.

  They had just gotten there when K.J. said out of the air, “They are pulling up at the Southwest Airlines area.”

  “The Senator is coming in on Southwest tomorrow morning at seven,” Jewel said. “I learned that from the information at the hotel desk.”

  Tommy just shook his head. “It looks like the fight for control of the Senator is going to be here, tonight, instead of in the poker room tomorrow night.”

  “K.J.,” Jewel said into the air as they entered the terminal near the Southwest ticket counters. “On missions of this nature, how many of the Brigade do they normally send?”

  “Two,” K.J. said. “They honestly don’t have that many soldiers, as the Brigade men like to think of themselves, around the world. As soon as you get settled with them in sight, I’ll do some scouting, see if there are more in the area.”

  Tommy liked the sound of that a lot.

  They moved over quickly to a couch area so that they could see the doors and sat down.

  Tommy caught a glimpse of the men coming in the closest door and leaned over and hugged Jewel and kissed her, saying softly, “They are going to be close.”

  He kept his eyes in slits so that he could see around, but not look like he was doing anything but kissing Jewel, who was kissing him back in a very distracting way.

  The two men with machine guns walked right past them, headed for the gates.

  He pushed away and looked at her. “You weren’t helping,” he said, smiling.

  “I was helping myself,” she said, laughing, then turned to see where the poorly dressed men with guns were headed.

  “Let’s tail them,” Tommy said, taking her hand and walking about sixty paces behind the two.

  The Brigade men walked right through security, but Tommy felt that he and Jewel needed to act like live people, so he grabbed a couple ghost tickets from a nearby passenger, handed one to Jewel, and they went through security looking normal, but not waiting in any lines.

  Tommy half expected the x-ray scanner to see him, but he didn’t even cause a beep.

  The two men went to a gate and sat down with their backs to a wall and out of the way of traffic.

  “Let’s find out if that’s the Senator’s gate for tomorrow,” Jewel said as they strolled past the two.

  Tommy nodded and Jewel went over to a woman working at a Southwest computer out of sight of the two Brigade men. Tommy watched as Jewel merged with the woman and within a minute had the flight information that the Senator was coming in from Denver and that was the gate assigned at the moment to that flight.

  She left the woman after clearing the search and putting her back on the task she was working on.

  “That’s the Senator’s gate,” she said. “About nine hours from now.”

  K.J. appeared next to them. “Got them all wrapped up like little gifts under a Christmas tree?”

  Jewel laughed and Tommy just shook his head. “We know where they are if that’s what you mean.”

  “You police types are never any fun,” K.J. said, pouting.

  “Trust me,” Jewel said, smiling at Tommy, “I can vouch for him being a lot of fun.”

  “On that fine sexual note,” K.J. said, “I’m going to go scout for any other Brigade members in the area. Make sure we have this covered.”

  “And figure out how they knew where we were,” Tommy said. That was the information he wanted more than anything else.

  K.J. nodded and vanished.

  “Now we wait,” Jewel said.

  There was a nearby bar and Mexican food restaurant, so they went in there and found a table in a place they couldn’t see the two Brigade men, but would see if they left the gate area in a normal way.

  Tommy was worried they could just go through a wall and come around behind them in some fashion, so as Jewel grabbed a basket of chips from a passing waiter and two glasses of ice water, Tommy kept watch.

  And then together, they spent the next hour munching on chips and trying to make sure the two men didn’t come at them in any way.

  A very stressful hour.

  It was just midnight. There was still eight hours left to wait.

  It was going to be a very long night.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  JEWEL WAS HAPPY that they had gotten something to eat, but at some point they were going to have to move since the restaurant closed at midnight. They would look out of place otherwise sitting in a close restaurant.

  At one point Tommy had shaken his head and said simply, “We don’t look like passengers. Keep guard.”

  He stood and quickly went to another couple sitting near the back of the restaurant and picked up the ghost versions of their bags. The woman had a small blue roll-around and the man had a leather briefcase.

  Jewel was impressed. Something she had n
ot thought of, but he was right. You almost never saw a person inside security without a carry-on bag or two.

  He brought the bags back over and set them so that they could be seen from the main aisle of the terminal.

  It was getting late enough that there just weren’t many people around, which worried Jewel as well. It was a ton easier to hide in a crowd.

  Suddenly K.J. appeared and sat in a third chair. “Luggage,” he said, looking at their bags. “Nice thinking, but you could have had a little better taste than that ugly blue and the phony leather briefcase. You two were in Montana far too long, that much is clear.”

  Jewel, laughing, glanced down at the luggage and saw nothing at all wrong with either the small suitcase or the briefcase.

  “So anything?” Tommy asked.

  “No other Brigade soldiers closer than Los Angeles,” K.J. said. “And I understand how they found you.”

  “How?” Jewel said.

  “I forgot to tell you how to shelter yourself, so you two were broadcasting on all bands. Sorry, my bad, very bad.”

  “Broadcasting?” Tommy asked.

  “Shelter ourselves?” Jewel asked.

  “Are we broadcasting now?” Tommy asked, glancing in the direction of the two men with machine guns.

  K.J. shook his head. “Been a while since I trained new recruits. All of us in this realm of real, but not real, this ghost realm, including Brigade members, sort of send out waves of faint energy through the air. Actually, live people do as well, but the waves don’t get far from the body. The waves have been photographed, actually, on live people. They are called auras.”

  “Do these waves look like auras?” Jewel asked, “because I’m not seeing anything.”

  K.J. held up his hand for her to wait a moment. Then he said, “Again, my fault on this. I should have given this ability to you earlier. Anyone in this realm can see the aura waves others let off and find others. On missions, we block our own waves.”

  He then reached forward and touched Jewel on the forehead, then did the same for Tommy.

  “See them now?” K.J. asked. “They are kind of pretty in an induced drug state sort of way.”

  Jewel instantly saw what K.J. was talking about. Around all three of them orange and yellow and blue and green waves sort of radiated away in all directions from each of them. But the waves were stopped by a large sphere about five feet away from them.

  Wow, it was pretty. And very, very distracting.

  She looked toward the Brigade men and could see black waves radiating from the area of the gate. No color, just all black.

  “The sphere is our block,” K.J. said. “I made it larger so you can see it. Another advantage besides looks and smarts and charm that we have over the Brigade soldiers is that we can block our signal waves and they cannot. We can always see them coming which helps a ton, let me tell you.”

  “And their auras are always black?” Jewel asked, stunned at what kind of person could just emit all black.

  “Always,” K.J. said, nodding. “Like a bad funeral without flowers.”

  “So how big are our the blocks normally?” Tommy asked.

  “Skin tight,” K.J. said. “I gave you both the ability to do it, so go ahead and try and I’ll hold the larger block to keep from giving us away to our friends around the corner.”

  Jewel had no idea what K.J. was talking about.

  Tommy clearly didn’t understand either.

  “No idea how to do that?” Jewel said.

  “Just think the words aura skin tight,” K.J. said.

  Jewel did and the colors flowing from every inch of her body stopped instantly.

  Tommy did the same.

  “Now you two really look like live people,” K.J. said. “Auras tucked in tight against your skin.”

  “So how come they didn’t see us when they passed us in the airport? And in the buffet earlier.” Tommy asked.

  “I was blocking your waves,” K.J. said. “I had a hunch that was how they found you in the hotel, but I had to make sure first. Again, my bad.”

  “So how long do they stay tight in like this?” Jewel asked.

  “Until you release them,” K.J. said, shrugging. “But honestly I see no reason to release them since you can then be seen by those idiots.”

  “How do we release them?” Tommy asked, “just in case we need to be seen.

  K.J. looked puzzled, put the bubble around them again, and then said, “Just think that you want your auras open.”

  Jewel did that and again beautiful colors radiated off of her in all directions.

  Tommy did the same and their colors mixed and blended in so many different places. She liked how they blended.

  Jewel studied it for a moment, then thought about bringing her aura tight again and the colors from her body disappeared.

  Tommy did the same.

  K.J. nodded. “Quick learners as expected. Now look.” He pointed out into the area of the gate.

  The two Brigade men were clearly still there, and black waves filled the gate area like dirty waves of dark water.

  “How far can that be seen?” Tommy asked.

  K.J. shrugged. “A ways, which is how I knew there were no other Brigade members in this area.”

  “Look,” Jewel said as the two people from whom Tommy had taken their ghost luggage walked past. She was stunned. She could, if she looked hard, see the auras of both people. The woman’s aura was brown with only a few faint colors left. The man’s was mostly black, with only shades of brown left.

  She could see, without touching either person that they were unhappy and the man was working toward evil in some form or another and clearly dragging his wife down with him.

  “Wow,” Tommy said softly as he stared at them.

  A woman and a small boy about six were coming up the concourse. Jewel stared at them until she could see the colors that radiated off them. They had auras bright and colorful and active.

  “Pretty amazing tool,” K.J. said. “As time goes on, you’ll learn how to use it on missions and other things. For example, see the woman’s red area around her hips?”

  Jewel stared hard and then nodded as the woman went past them.

  “That is a sign she’s fertile right now,” K.J. said. “A signal to men to come a calling to keep the species reproducing in that old tried and true heterosexual way.”

  “So the various colors all mean something?” Tommy asked.

  “I’ve been learning them for decades and I still don’t know all of it,” K.J. said. “But they mean a great deal. And black is evil, pure and simple.”

  Jewel glanced at the black waves radiating off the Brigade soldiers out of sight in the waiting area, then at the clock over the arrivals board.

  Midnight. Another hour down.

  Seven hours to go.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  AFTER K.J. MADE sure they were all right, he said that they should call him if they had questions, he was going to bed. He said something about satin sheets and a fluffy panda to hug, but Tommy missed most of it, even though Jewel laughed.

  They moved down the concourse a ways to a Japanese restaurant that seemed to allow people to sit in it all night, even though it was closed. They could still see the black waves radiating from the waiting area from their location.

  They got some snacks from a vendor and then took turns napping for an hour, stretched out on the floor.

  When Tommy awoke a little after five a.m. to give Jewel a moment to go to the restroom and then get some more sleep, it dawned on him that they needed to take the fight to the Brigade men and do it before the senator arrived.

  So when Jewel got back from the restroom after splashing water on her face, he called K.J. “Sorry to wake you, K.J. but need some advice on a plan.”

  Jewel frowned at him.

  “Just a hair-brained idea,” he said.

  She smiled and kissed him.

  A moment later K.J. appeared wearing one-piece flowered pajamas with feet. Tomm
y was surprised the feet didn’t have bunnies on them. K.J. had a bright pink sleep mask pushed up on his forehead and a white teddy bear in one arm. And he looked like hell, his eyes barely a slit.

  “Sorry again,” Tommy said. “But people are starting to show up here and we have under two hours until the senator arrives.”

  K.J. said nothing, just nodded that Tommy should go on.

  “You said you knocked out a Brigade man with a pan once?”

  K.J. again nodded.

  “So what happens if we go through that wall they are sitting against and hit them both with something hard, knock them out? Can we tie them up and make sure they can’t bother us for the day?”

  “Oh, I like that plan,” Jewel said.

  K.J. blinked, then said, “Let me go get dressed and brush my teeth. Night breath is never fun unless you have spent the night in wonderful and strange positions with a partner. And bunny here doesn’t count. You two get something to eat for yourselves. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

  He vanished.

  They both grabbed their ghost luggage and headed toward a fast food restaurant that was just opening up. They both managed to grab cups of coffee and something that passed for a breakfast sandwich, then went back to the still-closed Japanese restaurant and sat down to eat.

  As they were finishing, K.J. appeared and wrinkled his nose at their food. “Luckily you are already dead or that stuff would kill you.”

  K.J. looked freshly showered and was dressed in dark blue slacks, a pink shirt, and a light sports-coat-like jacket. He almost blended in. Almost.

  “So can we do that?” Tommy asked. “I’m thinking we knock them out, tie them up, just before the senator’s plane arrives.”

  “Is there something that can tie up a ghost?” Jewel asked.

  K.J. nodded. “There is a ghost element to everything as you two have been learning. A ghost element in this realm is real to us, just as that food you ate was real. Bad, but real.”

  Tommy nodded. “So you like the idea?”

  “I do,” K.J. said. “But not sure you two can pull it off.”