by Clay Moore
Edgar coughed. He coughed again a little louder. Then he simulated and explosive cough. John got the hint and nodded to him.
“Why don't we kill Anton in our boardroom."
"Because Anton will demand that we allow his weather and sniffers in the boardroom. They all want the weapon sniffers by the door as we walk in. Gentlemen, we are going to be without a weapon. But all is well. I have some styluses that are in fact telescopic truncheons. We will all have one of those. And Oliver, I have a combat dagger in my room that will fit in the face on the back panel of your suit coat."
“Want their weapon sniffers to find that?"
"These knives are carbon fiber mixed in with a little poly metallic plastic. There's not enough metal in the blade to even cause alarm.
"In fact —" John stood up and took the combat knife from his sheath. He put the knife in Oliver's scabbard. "How does that feel?”
"Give me a few hours, and it will feel natural. I also want to be able to grab it quickly."
“Don't give into the temptation of throwing the knife. To do that accurately you would have to practice for a while more than the six hours we have. I will leave the weapon with you so that you can practice with it."
Edgar shook his head. That was John's signal that Edgar was not part of the combat divisions of the service.
“If everything is complete, I'm going to go up to the room and get some rest."
John walked out of Edgar's office. He went to the elevator bank and took an elevator to the penultimate floor. John went to the penthouse suite that had the same number as the number etched into the chip. When he arrived, the door was opened by a tuxedo Butler.
“Welcome home sir." The Butler stepped out of the room and indicated the interior of the penthouse suite.
John walked into the penthouse suite to see the staff that was being supplied. They all stood in a line. John stopped before taking the two steps down to the penthouse suites floor. The butler came behind him and spoke once more.
"This is your staff, sir, for your stay. At the end on the far right is the housekeeper Griselda."
The matronly looking woman performed a very graceful curtsy. She wore a black dress but did not have ON an apron or a white collar.
"The gentleman ER her right is your valet, Bruno."
The valet was dressed exactly like the Butler. He performed a very respectful bow.
John went to the Butler and whispered, "I don't need a valet."
“Bruno, please go back to central dispatch and await another assignment."
Bruno bowed once more and walked sedately out of John's penthouse suite.
"The next woman is a woman's handmaiden,
Gertrude."
"And the last woman is called Betsy. She is your — special — maid."
"And what does she do this so special?"
"She is your maid. She enjoys all the usual things, as she likes to try out different things."
John suddenly understood. Betsy was his quote personal quote maid. Her maid costume was just in that, a costume. Compared to Gertrude what Betsy wore looked like a costume from a burlesque. Betsy's dress revealed more of the décolletage that was usual. It was formfitting to her waist where her skirt flared out like a ballerina’s. When she twirled around, you could see her underwear and the garters coming down to keep up her black fishnet stockings.
"Yes, I understand. Perhaps Betsy would like to assist me in my shower?"
Betsy nodded and gave a deep curtsy. Then she followed John as he walked into the bedroom.
As they said, they had brought his luggage to this room. He nodded sharply thinking that they had learned a lot about him in the two days here. They started to undress. Betsy was suddenly there in front of him assisting the unbuttoning of his jacket, helping him off with his shoulder holster. Then she did something that he was not used to. She bit off and spat out each of his shirt buttons. He did not know how sensual experience it would be to be undressed by someone. He allowed her to completely undress him. The shoes of the next to come off, and now it was the turn for the parents. In her December unzip. He was reveling in the feeling. His eyes were closed. He knew what was coming next.
“Oh my god, Mister Hardesty!”
John smiled. It was going to be a good rest.
John had an excellent dinner before they came to get him for the meeting. Instead of the gray suit that he had been wearing so far, he wore the black suit. The argument that the black suit looked entirely different on him, and made him seem altogether different. Nobody gave the man in black any second look like he had been getting from people since the destruction of that gang. The person came and got him was Oliver. Oliver wore his gray suit. Even with Oliver's jet black hair, the people who had experienced John's interference would swear that Oliver was the man in gray.
Oliver walked through the threshold and shut the door behind him. "The other two mega-casino owners have agreed to the meeting. I personally think that they want to know if they could benefit even further from this meeting. We're going to offer a union with the Dragon and the Butterfly."
“If we don't have to kill Anton here, then he is the next to go. That means I'm going to need some items. I need a janitor's uniform from the Unicorn.”
“Just what are you going to do?”
“By the time I'm through with the unicorn, it will be a smoking crater."
"How are you going to accomplish that. Did you bring a torpedo or a bomb to do that?”
“No, I did not bring a bomb. It all depends on how much HDX you have on hand."
“I have about a tonne on hand."
“Is it in plastic form?”
“Yes, it's in 1 kg cellophane wrapped bricks."
"I think 500 kg will be enough. Everyman starts taking those out and cutting the bricks into four pieces. Put a detonator in each case and then use the new detonation controllers.Which detonator control if you have?”
“I have more than enough of each to handle your request for 500.”
"I'm going to need a total of six janitor uniforms. I need to see one of the lanyards. We will all need a lanyard and the credentials for what we are. We were going to the meeting here, I will use my data's soul sleaze tools to get into the Unicorn's network. From there I should be able to get the required circuitry for our credentials. Does Edgar have underused 500 credit ships with the RFID inside?"
"Yes, he has plenty of blank ones. Are you going to use the data you get to give credentials that your sleeve is the Unicorn's network?"
"Now you're thinking like a Z-level agent. You have to use all tools at your hand to accomplish your mission. That includes you, Edgar, and your team."
“Understood. Will you need assistance planting the explosives?”
"Yes, that's why I asked for a lot of gender uniforms. This is going to end up being quite a huge number of plants. Everybody is rated to place explosive charges correct?"
“Yes, they are all qualified explosives technicians. Although, they have not done a whole lot of doubt while assigned to this station."
"They are about to get a lot of experience. Let's get going to the meeting. You in the meeting and me monitoring it."
"Are there any mannerisms that you would like for me to use."
"I don't think we need to worry about violence. I want Anton and the owner of the Unicorn. So I want you to find a plastic tube of some kind and put it in your left coat pocket. From time to time I want you to shrug your shoulders and adjust that plastic tube from the outside of the suit coat.”
“Ahhh, I see it. The plastic tube will look a little bit like a blaster pistol. Everyone will wonder if you got a pistol through their electronic frisk.”
“No, you mean you will have gotten a blaster through electronic frisk. They will have to honor that threat. They won't bring it up because you are friendly. They will simply think that you are applying the rule of 'keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer.'"
Oliver chuckled. He gave John
a friendly slap on the back and opened the door of John's penthouse. They walked out of the loft together. They rode down the two flights to the floor that Edgar had his office and his own apartment on. Oliver showed John to the room that was nothing more than a windowless desk with a computer terminal, a monitor for all of the surveillance in the place. Plus one more monitor that was tied explicitly to a stealth monitor. John was expecting them to demand that the monitoring is removed.
Since John was supposed to be the technician, John familiarized himself with the control boards for the actual surveillance and the stealth surveillance equipment. Then he sat down and waited.
The meeting Evan called for 8 PM standard earth Time. In actuality, it really was our 44 of the Snake Eyes clock. The first to arrive were the technicians from either the Uniform or from Anton. He really couldn't tell which one they were. But they all had a slightly thick case. When they opened them up the cases contained the parts that could be assembled into an electronic frisk device.
John was not familiar with this particular device. With the amount of money some of the gangs to take on Snake Eyes, it was possible for a game to get a custom-made piece of machinery. The man with practiced grace assembled this electronic frisk device in just five minutes. During that five minutes, John could see that Edgar had entered the room. He did not even waive to any one of the apparent surveillance devices or yet the stealth device. One of the things that Edgar was was a well-trained agent.
The leaders of the other three mega-casinos arrived almost together as if they had a planned. It must show how much Edgar had their respect. The first man through the electronic frisk was the owner of the Unicorn. He went through with no problems. Anton will through the electronic frisk and nothing registered there. Then it was Oliver's turn. All of the extra tools that the armory gave to the Z-level agents were designed to be scanned as a simple tool. A garrison wire would appear as nothing more than a table saw. The knife probably couldn't even be seen by the frisk. The 101 devices associated with the heel of the shoes would all appear as part of some kind of orthopedic device. Sometimes John thought that the Armory was too sneaky. He went through the machine with no problems.
The three men took positions around a roundtable at the 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock positions. Edgar sat at the 12 o'clock position. John wondered who would produce the first anti-surveillance device. He suspected it would probably be Anton, but was mildly surprised when it was the Unicorn's owner who brought out a small tube.
"This device will allow us to talk in secrecy. May I turn it on?"
Edgar said nothing. Edgar turned to Oliver, and so did the other two mega-casino leaders. Oliver nodded gravely. John was impressed with Oliver's acting skills. At this point, John took out his slate and a stylus and brought up the promotion report for Oliver and rated his acting ability as above average. It might go higher in this meeting.
The Unicorn's leader pressed the big red button on the top of the cube. John heard a very high-pitched whine which took out the standard surveillance microphones. Think each of the cameras that were visible suddenly turned off. The only surveillance device that remained was the stealth device. The Armory also did an excellent job of creating the stealth device. It was harmed against most of the common types of privacy devices. It even hid very well. Since the conventional tools were not useful anymore, he turned those off as well as the control board all you have now was the surveillance device and its limited movement. It was placed above Edgar's head pointing at the other three positions. John could move the device from person to person if he wished.
Someone needed to chair this meeting, and Edgar decided that he was the person to do that. He had a somewhat new gavel which was merely a knob of oak. He took that knob from its resting place in front of him and wrapped it twice on his desk.
“If we can have water here gentlemen. We are not ordinary gang members here. We are the elite. Let's act like it. I call this meeting for one reason. There has been a change in ownership of the Dragon. You all know this person as the man in gray. His actual name is Square Root."
There was a general laugh among the two other mega casino owners. Edgar knocked his oak knob on the desk just once. The general mirth ended at that point.
Oliver shifted his shoulders and grabbed the plastic pipe in his left breast pocket as if to straighten it in a holster. The tension in the room jumped precipitously. Everyone suddenly realized that they were not anywhere near their bodyguards. This man in gray has already shown that he would kill to get his way. They did wonder how he got his weapon through the electronic frisker. The other two bosses could not afford to make a mistake in this decision. If they made a mistake, it meant their lives.
Edgar looked around at all of the men. When he could see that they were all back in order, he continued. "I called this meeting to form a consortium with our newest boss. We all know how powerful he is, and that he is willing to use that power for the furtherance of his own goals. The first question then to be answered is should he be admitted to this august group?"
Both Anton Hecton and the Unicorn nodded their heads in assent. Edgar smiled like he was really a crime lord boss incorporation mufti.
“Well, that's the first order of business done. The second order of business is whether or not we should join together in a consortium of some sort.”
"If it is a consortium," said Anton. " I would recommend a constitution or contract of some sort spelling out the duties and prerogatives of all of the members. Our main goal is to make as much money as we possibly can. If you are like me, this means if you have a billion credits you need more billions of credits."
“All I wanted to get done in this meeting is to get the sense of whether or not this will be even possible amongst us four.”
Anton smiled and nodded at Edgar. Edgar was playing this meeting as if there were four lions in the room. To get anything done with these lines, you had to start small. "Yes, in principle I agree that we should form a consortium."
“Are we going to have to share some of our money amongst the others." The owner of the Unicorn looks straight at Oliver. Apparently, he thought that there was more damage to the Dragon and that would cause Oliver to want to move forward with taking over other casinos.
“What are you insinuating, Adolphus," asked Oliver.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, let's remember that we are gentlemen here. I agree that Adolphus was a little bit pointed in his question. What is it you want to know from Mr. Root?"
“How much did you shoot up the Dragon is what I meant."
"It was very minor damage. The former owner's men were given submachine blasters. All they managed to do was set a carpet on fire, gouge some of the wood paneling. Oh-the grand chandelier in the main floor was brought down. Most of that has been cleaned up, and we were able to read open the Dragon." Oliver looked the boss of the Unicorn straight in his eyes. The boss moved his eyes once he realized that Oliver was playing the stare down game.
John was enjoying Oliver's performance. John was definitely going to recommend Oliver for Z-level training for eventual Z-level promotion. This would be John's first referral. He was glad it was somebody that he started to like.
“Yes, Adolphus." Edgar pressed the button on his side of the table. A screen dropped from the ceiling to his right. Projected on the screen was a spy camera looking at the main entrance to the Dragon. "I have never seen the dragons that full. The profits from 10 nights gambling would probably rebuild the Dragon four or five times over. I see money, and I see whale's."