Sitting on the ground next to him was a homeless man with a mini Doberman pinscher panting and laying on the ground. People walked past, saw the dog, stopped to pet him and gave the man some change. The man would thank them as they moved on.
Walking back and forth across the walk was an African American man holding a stack of disks. He kept telling people it was a free album and they could buy more from his site. Most of the older people ignored him while a few younger teens grabbed the disk. When they did he shook their hands or gave them fist bumps in thanks. That at least made Daniel smile; it was nice to see someone working hard to get their art out.
He watched as a well-dressed man looked at him. He and Tanaka were recognized in Haven and it wasn’t unusual for people to recognize him outside of the city. The man was older than Daniel, maybe in his mid-fifties. His hair was full and long. A gray ponytail hung from his head and extended down to nearly his back. He wore an expensive suit which was cut to fit the man’s solid body perfectly. Daniel and the man made eye contact. The man nodded and gestured that he wanted to talk. Daniel shook his head yes and the two met. “Good evening, Daniel. Let me introduce myself. I am Turing Crystal.” He held his hand out for Daniel to shake.
“Turing,” Daniel replied, taking his hand and shaking it. His grip was strong.
“It’s good to meet you.”
“Are you a fan?”.
“Yes, you might say that,” Turing replied. “I have need of your powers. I am willing to pay a handsome sum if you’d help me.”
“Help you with what?”
Turing walked over to the railing and leaned against it. He looked over the traffic. “You don’t know me, and I can understand the thousand questions. All will be answered in due time. But you should know this.” He waved over the traffic and the city. “These people are in danger.”
Daniel couldn’t be sure the new throbbing in his head was because this man was dangerous or because the city was still affecting him. “Are you planning something to kill them?”
Turing’s laugh sounded odd to Daniel’s ears. He wasn’t able to place exactly why, but the laugh was off. “I don’t have that kind of power,” Turing replied. “I have powers, but they’re more passive. You see, I can foresee the future. Normally only a day, maybe two if I’m lucky. Most of the time I can see only a few minutes ahead.”
“Power like that would be great to have in Vegas. You’d know what numbers to play on a roulette wheel.”
He raised an eyebrow and looked over at Daniel. “You’d think that was true but it’s not.”
The pain in his head had not gone away, and he had no time for any small talk with this man. “What do you need from me?”
“You knew those arrows were coming, even though you had your eyes closed. You sensed them, am I right?”
The hairs on the back of Daniel’s neck rose. This is the man who attacked me? “You attacked me?”
“No, not me. I don’t know how to use a bow. No, it was someone I hired, named Tracker. And yes, I’ll freely admit that I was testing you. You passed.”
“And what if I hadn’t?”
Turing shrugged. “I instructed Tracker to only hurt you, not kill you, so he was aiming for your arm or something.”
“No, it was my head.” Daniel replied through his teeth. He wanted to take this man down but also wanted to hear what he had to say. “Did you send those two guys after my brother and his friend?”
Turing’s head tilted slightly and his eyes lowered just a bit. “That wasn’t me, no.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“You have other powers. You can hear my heart, check my breathing, see micro changes in my face. Tell me, do you notice anything that tells you I’m not being truthful?”
Daniel looked him over, reaching out with his senses. The man’s heart was steady and calm. There was no scent of stress sweat on him, and his face was rock solid still. He was either telling the truth or had the body control of a robot. “What do you need me for?”
“A few days ago, I had a vision that you and your brother were coming to Vegas. Based on what I had read about you two, I had the suspicion you have a danger sense. From what I could see, your sense is very strong. You see, a danger sense is nothing more than precognition. You can see into the future, but more on an instinctual level.”
“I’ve read theories about how the danger sense works. A lot of Evos have some form of it or another.”
“I know and that’s amazing. But yours is stronger than most. Either that or you’ve just trained yourself to use it more efficiently. No matter what the reason, I need it.”
“For what?”
“An experiment.” Turing said slapping the railing with excitement. “I’m sensing something. Every night, I have a vision of death. Every night I go to bed and close my eyes, I see people laying in the street dead. I see the casinos burning. I see some evil taking over. Every morning I wake up with those images in my head. I need you because I think with you and the others I’ve gathered, we can combine our powers to allow me to see that vision with clarity. To figure out if it’s true.”
“Others?”
“Yes, there are six others I have asked for help. We’ve tried a few times but we’re just not strong enough. With you and your training, I think we can accomplish what I’m looking to do.”
He’s never heard of anything like this before. Was it even possible to combine powers like that? To amplify them? His danger sense was a mental ability and he knew those with telepathy could boost others with the same power. It wasn’t the craziest theory he’s heard. On some level it made sense. “How will you connect us?”
“I have a telepath who has agreed to help. There will be no harm to you or anyone else. Most describe it like waking up from a deep sleep. It’s almost refreshing.”
“Let me think about it. I want to talk to my brother, see what he thinks.”
“That’s fair,” Turing said, pulling out a card from his wallet. He handed it to Daniel. “When you say yes, give me a call. It’s been an honor meeting you, looking forward to working with you in a few days.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tanaka picked up the small, plastic slot machine souvenir and pulled the tiny handle. The paper wheel spun and give him three lemons. According to the machine that was a huge jackpot. “Hey, maybe I should do this for real soon.”
Nancy walked down the aisle of the souvenir shop, looking at all the Vegas keepsakes. Ashtrays, pens, pencils, toys, wallets, and other cheap looking things surrounded them both. Most had pictures of casinos or shots of the strip, some during the day, others at night.
“Boy, Vegas sure knows how to celebrate itself, doesn’t it?” Tanaka asked.
“You should see it during the holidays. They go all out for the tourist. Heck, it’s how we make money. People like buying crap like this.”
“I have no plans on buying it.” Tanaka said, placing the plastic trinket down where he found it. “You almost done?”
“Done? I just got here.”
“You live here, figured you could come here anytime and shop.”
“I could, but you know, I never do.” She placed the ashtray she was looking at down and headed for the exit. “Might as well get going I guess.” She looked around. “Where’s Daniel?”
“Oh, we lost him a while ago. Took you that long to notice?”
“Well, he is kind of a quiet guy, figured he was just hiding or something. That’s something he does, right?”
Tanaka nodded. “It is. We lost him when we crossed over the pedestrian walk.”
She smiled broadly. Tanaka had forgotten how big and pretty her smile was. He missed that smile. She asked, “So, what are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know. I could always teleport—”
“No!” Nancy yelled. “No more teleporting me. I hate it. I hate how it makes me feel.”
“Okay, no teleporting. Sorry. We could walk back to the room and chill for the
rest of the night.”
She looked at him with a wry eye. “Chill? Is that what you kids back in Haven are calling it now a days?”
“Huh?”
“Come on, Tanaka. We used to chill a lot when we were dating.”
Tanaka’s face reddened. “No, I really meant chill, as in relax. But, if you want to ‘chill’, I’m all for it.”
“Keep your pants on, big guy.” Nancy laughed and playfully punched his shoulder. “There’s plenty of things for us to do that don’t involve going back to the hotel room. You wanted to gamble, right?”
“Oh yeah. Been studying my blackjack strategies. Feel I could do really well at the tables.”
“Shame you don’t have your brother’s hyper senses. Shame your brother doesn’t want to use those senses to help you out. Your brother, man, what a shame.”
Tanaka laughed. “Yeah, he’s a square sometimes. Come on, let’s get walking, I hate standing still if there’s stuff for us to see.”
Tanaka and Nancy walked with the crowds through the streets. Tanaka found it funny how many drunk people he passed. Most of the drunk woman were dressed in skin tight outfits that showed off so much skin Tanaka started wondering if he should move to Vegas. The town itself seemed dress to party with its bright and colorful lights. Some of the newer casinos had elaborate digital displays, showing people having fun gambling. Everyone in those animated displays won at whatever game they were playing, and all seemed happy without being drunk. False advertising at its best, Tanaka thought, even as he admitted seeing the ads made him want to gamble.
“Best place to gamble is New York, New York,” Nancy said. “Or one of those kinds of casinos.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, they’re kind of cheaper, relatively speaking of course, so they want to attract all the tourists who don’t want to go to the high-end places like the Paris or the Bellagio. New York, Excalibur, The Luxor, those are good places to gamble if you want to win.”
“Must be nice to live here. You get to pick up stuff like that.”
“I meet a lot of gamblers at my job. They give me advice, not that I ask, they just like to show off.”
A twinge of jealousy passed through Tanaka. He wanted to talk to her about her work but it didn’t seem right for some reason. He couldn’t help wondering why. If she were a lawyer or a computer programmer, or just about all the other jobs that didn’t involve taking her clothes off, he would. It didn’t seem proper to ask her, to talk to her about it. The feeling of holding back was odd for Tanaka; normally he didn’t care. “I bet.”
“Come on,” Nancy said, wrapping her arm around his. “You know you want to ask me about my job, right?”
“I don’t even know where to start,” he replied. “I don’t want to make it seem taboo, but—”
“I know, I know. Look, it’s a job. I like it. I’m good at it. We can talk about anything you want. Actually, I have a few things I’d like to know about you.”
“Like what?”
“Why did you leave the Protectors? I’ve read about it but I’m not sure I believe the official version.”
“What’s the official version say?”
“That Peter and Leonard wanted to test the vigilante laws. That if those laws were passed, they wanted two of the best Protectors to be the first to live under those rules. That you two were chosen for that reason. Is that true?”
“Well, yeah, sort of. I mean, I was going to leave anyway, and if I left, Daniel was going to leave too, so I don’t think Peter wanted to lose us both without at least having us around to try this new system out.”
“Why did you want to leave?”
Tanaka looked down as if the ground would make his confession sound any better. “I almost killed a human while trying to arrest him. I know we’re not supposed to interfere with the cops when they’re going after normal humans, but this was different. I saw this guy beat his girl and I snapped. Went after him. He sent his dog, a huge Doberman, after me. Nearly tore my arms off before I killed it.”
“Aw, you killed a dog?” Nancy gasped.
“I felt worse killing that dog than almost killing the scum who sent him. I had the guy up against the wall. My left arm was useless and I was pissed. God, Nancy, I’ve never been that angry in my life. I was going to teleport him as high into the sky as I could. I was going to strangle him. I was going to stab his heart out with my dagger. Instead I just beat the crap out of him. Beat him so bad he was in the hospital for a month. I broke three knuckles on my hand, I was hitting him so hard. If Daniel hadn’t stopped me, I would have beat him to death.”
“Jesus,” Nancy whispered. “I had no idea you were so angry.”
“I was then,” he said. “I’m still angry but I can control it.”
“So, what happened next?”
“I was going to be suspended for a very long time. So, I quit. I was going to leave, do things on my own under the new law. Leonard tried to stop me, gave a call to Daniel, had him come up to talk some sense into me.”
“Guess it didn’t work. You still left. I still don’t get why. I mean, you deserved to be suspended.”
“I did,” Tanaka replied. “But... Well, you know Leonard. You know I didn’t get along with him. I hated him, in fact. Still do.”
“Because of Mary?”
Tanaka’s head snapped around to look at Nancy. “How did you know about Mary?”
“Oh, come on!” Nancy laughed. “You had a thing for her the minute you saw her. You’re like that, did the same thing with me you know. I think she’s one of the reasons we never got back together.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Tanaka admitted. “But, no, it wasn’t completely her. Leonard just rubs me the wrong way. Every time he opens his mouth, I want to punch it. And he was going to become the next leader of the Protectors. I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t have him ordering me around. So, I left. The suspension was just the last straw.”
“How did you get Daniel to come with you?”
“It wasn’t easy,” Tanaka said. “See, when we were teens... As a matter of fact, this was right when we broke up. Daniel and I made a promise to each other that we’d always be a team, no matter what. So, when I left, he had to leave.”
“He had to leave?”
“Yeah.”
“Did he want to leave?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tanaka snapped. “Me and him have been through this. He would do anything for me and I would do anything for him. We’re brothers. We made a promise to each other to always be there.”
She held he hands up defensively. “All right, all right. If you don’t think it doesn’t matter, then it doesn’t matter. Just wondering how he felt about it.”
“Whatever. The point is, we’re now successful members of the business community and we’re model Vigilantes. Saved the world once, did I tell you that?”
“A few times,” she said with an annoyed voice.
Tanaka understood. She was probably still upset that he snapped at her for asking as simple question. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped.”
“No, don’t worry about it. It’s over. I don’t dwell on things like that.”
“You just... You hit a nerve because I know Daniel wants to still be a Protector. He denies it but I know he never wanted to leave.”
“Then why did you make him?”
He shook his head and sighed. “Because I really didn’t want to do that alone, you know? I lost you. Mary got married. My parents shipped us off. I messed up my chance at being a Protector. Couldn’t deal with another blow like losing my brother too.”
She squeezed him closer to her. “I know. People just want to leave. No one wants to stay around. You were lucky you had your brother to be there for you.”
“Yeah, guess I am.” His phone beeped a text alert. He pulled out the phone and looked at the screen. “Speak of the devil. Daniel wants to meet up, where should I tell him?”
“You hungry?”
“Always.”
“
Serendipity 3 is close, have him meet us there.”
Tanaka and Daniel looked at the very large coffee cup filled with liquid chocolate and topped with a mountain of whipped cream dubiously. “What’s this called again?” Daniel asked Nancy who sat across from the two men.
“Frozen hot chocolate.”
“I don’t think this fits my healthy lifestyle,” Daniel replied taking a sip from the straw. His eyes closed and rolled into the back of his head. “I’m so very thankful I have enhanced senses. This is wonderful.”
Tanaka took a large sip as well. “Dead Lord, this must be what heaven tastes like.”
“Told you you’d like it,” Nancy said taking a sip from hers. “So, Daniel. What are you going to do about this Turing guy?”
“I feel I need to go,” he said. “With Tanaka’s support of course.”
“I agree,” Tanaka replied with his mouth still on the straw, sucking in more of the sweet chocolate. “I don’t trust this guy at all.”
“Me, either,” Daniel replied. “I didn’t sense any malice from him but I have been fooled in the past. He could very well try to kill me and all the others he gathered once he gets the information he needs. At least if I’m there I can fight him and try to save the others.”
“What should I do?” Nancy asked.
“Stay in the hotel room. This isn’t a place for you.” Tanaka replied.
“The hell with that! I’m a trained Protector, just like you. I might be out of practice but I’m still trained.”
Daniel looked at Tanaka who just shrugged. “You tell her she can’t go. I won’t.”
“Fine,” Daniel replied. “You can come. I’m going to give this Turing guy a call and we’ll make the arrangements to meet. Tanaka, if we’re going to do this, we need our uniforms.”
The Evolutionite Chronicles Book Two: Dagger and Shadow Ninja in: Welcome to Las Vegas Page 6