Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense

by John Van Stry

  "Why don't you just tell me a number?" I asked curious.

  "Because I don't know what the number is," he answered simply. "Oh, I'll probably know when you get there. But right now that's too far off to tell."

  I nodded; he was the god after all.

  "So, once I get those weapons, then what?" I asked, pressing for a little more information and hoping to get some idea of what all this was about.

  "You don't need to know that yet," he said shaking his head.

  "Hey, this is my life on the line here!"

  "Yes, it is, and that is why I want you focused on the first task and not worrying about the next one. You are no use to me dead, Paul. That dye bag in the taxi didn't just happen to get triggered when you tossed it out the window, I kept it from going off until then."

  I sighed and waved a hand, "Fair enough. So, is there anything else I do need to know?"

  "Yes, bring your flight suit."

  "My flight suit?" I asked and then just had to wonder, as he was gone.

  - 14 -

  I stayed away for almost three whole weeks. I was surprised that Jill chased after me a little, once it was clear I wasn't living with Heather anymore. But I didn't know if that was because she really liked me, wanted a partner at the tables, or if she was just playing some game of her own.

  It was tempting; I will say that. Jill was very pretty. But I had four weeks to go and at least ten grand more to raise. Three weeks later I had made eleven, not paying as much rent helped, staying at the hotel was a lot less than five hundred a week. So I had thirteen grand total in the bank, and still about two grand in pocket money.

  So I decided to go make another payment and find out if I still had an expedition, or if I was going to be on my own.

  "Hi, I'm here to see Sarah," I said to Jane as I entered the office.

  "Haven't seen you in a while, Paul," Jane said with a smile.

  "Yeah, I figured it might be best to be scarce for a while," I said and smiled back.

  "So, what brings you here today then?"

  "I need to pay off the balance on the expedition," I told her. "You don't know if Sarah's backing out now, do you?" I asked a little worried. The weather had been rather nice of late and it looked like I'd need to get going sooner now, instead of later.

  "I don't think so," she said and got up and went over to Sarah's office and opened the door.

  "Paul Young is here to see you; he has the rest of the money."

  "Come on in, Paul!" Sarah called.

  I walked past the desks, and smiled at Jane who smiled back and shrugged at me as I went into Sarah's office.

  Sarah was looking very happy and she got up and came around the desk and gave me a rather warm hug and a nice kiss while pressing into me like she had when we were sleeping together.

  "So, have you got the rest of the money?" She asked.

  I nodded and handed her another bank draft.

  "Here's another eleven thousand," I told her. "I can give you a couple more when it's time to leave."

  "Jane!" She called out, letting go of me and walking over to the door.

  "Yes?"

  "Cash this, and tell William to buy the rest of the gear on the list and get everyone ready."

  "Yes, Sarah."

  Sarah came back in and closed the door behind her.

  "So, you're looking good," I started off, not exactly sure what to say next. She was kind of my ex-girlfriend now. "Are things okay between you two?"

  Sarah smiled and gave me another hug, then sat down on the edge of her desk. "Thanks, Paul. I owe you for that. I especially owe you for staying away so long. We have been working through things, and yeah, we are a couple again. It has not all been great, but I am just so happy right now."

  I nodded, "Does that mean you're not going on the expedition then?"

  "Oh, I am still going, but you are going to need to come up with another seven thousand."

  "Huh?" I said a little shocked.

  "Well, you see," she smiled at me, "I want to bring a couple more people, and one of them is not cheap. Also, the weather is such that if you want to beat this friend of yours, we need to leave soon. That means we have had to rush on a bunch of stuff, and that also made the price go up."

  I sighed. "I have almost four grand more that I could give you right now, but then I'd be flat broke. Would that be enough?"

  "Sorry, hon. I need that seven. Eight or nine would be even better."

  I gave a heavy sigh, "Fine. How soon do you want to leave?"

  "As soon as you have the money. Have you bought your own gear yet?"

  I shook my head, "Can you handle that for me?"

  "Make it nine grand then," she said. "Ten would be best."

  I rolled my eyes, "I need to get back to work then. Just take care of it for me, I'll have the money."

  I turned and headed for the door.

  "What, do you not want to stay for lunch?" Sarah asked, sounding a little disappointed. Or at least I thought she did.

  "Gambling is actually a lot harder than people think it is. Besides, I don't want to do anything that will get you two in trouble with each other," I said and opening the door I went back to my room and made sure everything was packed and ready to go. If she wanted to leave as soon as I had the money, then I'd best be prepared.

  Then I headed off to the Gold Star.

  The Gold Star was definitely the finest gaming establishment in the city of Havsue. The people that worked there were all very attractive and well dressed. The female dealers were all dressed to show off for the men, and the male dealers were all dressed to show off for the women.

  Same for a lot of the wait staff and according to Jill, if the money was right, they were all for 'hire'. Jill had actually told me a lot about the place, and it was as fancy as she had led me to believe. It was clean, well furnished, everything looked new, there were fancy chandeliers, a very polite staff, and most of the gamblers were also dressed rather nicely.

  "Can I help you, Sir?" a very attractive blond asked coming up to me. Her outfit was more skin than it was clothing, and she had the body to make it look good.

  "I'm here to play poker," I told her.

  "We have a dress code for the poker tables, Sir. I'll have to ask you to please come back in more suitable attire."

  "Un-huh," I said and smiled down at her. "Do you have a place on the premises where I can take care of that?"

  She smiled back, "Of course we do, follow me, please."

  "Oh, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do," I chuckled and enjoyed the view as she led me through the casino, past the three in-house restaurants, the gift shop, and the jewelers to a tailor shop.

  "How may I help you, Sir?" The woman there asked, as the blond smiled and went back to the casino, after I tipped her a twenty.

  "I need suitable attire to play poker here," I said. "The sooner, the better."

  "Five hundred and I can have it by dinner time," she replied.

  "Here's six," I said peeling off six hundred dollar bills from the bankroll I kept in my pocket.

  "Ah, good. Come with me, and we can get started."

  An hour later I was escorted to the poker room by a different, but still lovely, young woman and I made a beeline for one of the lower range bet limited tables. I only had twelve hundred dollars in my pocket, plus the two grand in the bank. Normally that would have been enough, but Jill had warned me that the people here were pretty wild bettors, because they had the money and were not afraid to try and push out another opponent with lots of big bets. Even with Coyote's help, I wasn't a hundred percent, and I'd need to build up quickly to a reasonable bankroll, before I ventured over to the no-limit tables, where the real money was.

  I started off slow, I had never played the tables here before and I had no idea what to expect from the people in the room. Most of the people I dealt with playing at the Silver Witch or the other casinos, when I occasionally checked them out, were mid-level gamblers. They had a set limit t
o blow, or their paycheck, and not much else. So that meant you had to be careful in your approach, you didn't want to scare them off after all.

  But the people here, they had money.

  Also there were the local sharks who worked these tables as well. I had met two of them, Roger and Ted. The other three I had seen around, but I didn't know anything about them at all.

  "So, what brings you around here?" Roger asked, coming over to the table. I'd made a point of not sitting at any of the tables that he or the other sharks were at.

  "I need to raise some funds," I said in a low voice as I put my twelve hundred dollars on the table for the dealer to give me chips. "So once that's done, I'm gone. I'm not making a move on any of you guy's territory."

  "I don't think Charles or Phil are going to like that much," he chuckled.

  I shrugged, "Sorry, can't be helped. I'll stay out of their hands if they stay out of mine."

  "And if they don't?" Roger asked with a grin.

  "I'll bust them," I said and gathered up my chips from the dealer, and anted up for the next hand. There were six people at the table; half the tables weren't even open yet. It was a Monday after all, and it was still early in the day.

  "Look," I said turning to face him for a moment as the dealer dealt out the hands, "I'm under the gun here, and while I don't want to step on anyone's toes, I will not back down from any confrontations."

  "This ain't the Sands, Paul, you better remember that," Roger warned me.

  "No, and the game here isn't rigged either. So I don't think there will be any problems."

  Roger stopped and blinked. "Wait, what?"

  "The game at the Sands was rigged. That's why they got so mad at me. I didn't cheat them, they cheated themselves, they just didn't realize that their machines couldn't deal with a pattern roller," I said, lying outrageously.

  "Why didn't you turn them in?"

  "Their acting like assholes hurt their business far more than a report to the games board ever would.

  "Now, if you'd excuse me?" I said and matched the current bet. I hadn't even looked at my hole cards yet, but I wasn't getting any warnings. Still, it wasn't ever safe to take anything for granted. So I turned back to the table and got my head into the game.

  Being on a limit table definitely kept things in check, though as the day wore on there were more than a few people who'd go with the max bet and push the three-raise limit. I was more than happy to let them.

  The thing about the limit tables was that you couldn't bluff most people off of their cards, they had money and they didn't mind losing it. Actually, they were so desperate for the thrill of winning, that they'd often hold tight and stay in on cards that they should have mucked after the flop, hoping to buy it on the river.

  This was both good and bad. It was bad because sometimes they did in fact catch the card they wanted to on the river, which was the very last card dealt on the hand. But it was good because if I had a strong hand after the flop, I could push in some heavy bets and just play the odds. Sure I lost one in ten, and those losses were pretty big.

  But I won the other nine times, and while I didn't win as big as I lost on any individual hand, those nine wins were more than triple that one big loss. Plus the big loss kept the fish in the game and kept me from looking like the shark I really was.

  After dinner, which I ate at the table, the rest of the seats at the table quickly filled up. With me playing here, there was a lot more action going on, so a lot of the players wanted to get in on it. But most of the high stakes tables were still covered, and Roger was the only other shark playing. Ted, Charles, and Phil took Mondays off, like I did. I think Roger was here today only because of the lack of competition from the other sharks.

  The only other draw back to the limit table was the rate at which I was making money. After twelve hours of playing, I'd only pulled in twenty-five hundred dollars, which put me at thirty-seven hundred total. I needed about five grand more, and if I stayed here, that would take me until the end of the week, barring any incidents. When I packed up for the night and went back to my room at the hotel, it was pretty clear that I was going to have to move to the no-limit high-stakes tables tomorrow. A good night on one of those and I'd be able to win what I needed and get the hell out of Dodge.

  I walked into the casino just after six. I'd noticed the day before that the high stakes tables didn't even open up until after five. When I got back to the poker room, only one of the high-stakes tables was open, and I noticed right off that neither Roger nor Ted was sitting at it. There were six players there already and my favorite spot was open, so I sat down at table and put all of my cash on the table.

  "Chips please," I asked the dealer.

  "Hey, aren't you that friend of Jill's that plays at the Witch?" The guy sitting across the table at spot five asked.

  "Yeah, I'm Paul. You?"

  "Charles," he said and nodded.

  "Nice to meet you, Charles," I said and looked at the other five players who all quickly introduced themselves. None of them were named Phil, so I really didn't pay much mind to their names. Odds are the other players would be coming and going all night long.

  I started off easy, I didn't want to crash the table, and I did my best not to step on any of Charles hands, and he returned the favor, though I had to catch him in a bluff first to let him know that I wasn't a small fry.

  "Jill must have taught you well," he laughed when I beat him on that hand.

  "Anything I learned from her was a hard won battle," I said with a smile, "She gives nothing away for free."

  "Isn't that the truth!" he laughed.

  I had some food delivered then and had dinner while things got busy. I was surprised to see a reserved sign get stuck on seat three when things at my table started to fill up. Charles looked a little surprised at that, but didn't say anything. By nine o'clock I was up two grand and feeling pretty good about everything. If I didn't make it tonight, I knew I'd be able to make it tomorrow.

  And then Phil showed up.

  I knew it was Phil right away, as I heard Roger call out his name and wave hello. Phil didn't look very pleased about that, I had the distinct feeling that he wanted to come in and sit down without me knowing who he was. He moved immediately to the reserved spot at three and dropped a wad on the table.

  "Ten thousand in chips, Scott," he said to the dealer and sat down quickly.

  "So, I hear there's somebody who thinks he can come to my casino and sit in at my table?"

  I looked at Charles, who was pretty much just ignoring the whole thing, while the other six at the table all looked at each other and then back at him.

  "I don't see no signs saying I can't play at this here table," one of the other players said, taking offense.

  "Yes, really," another one spoke up, "this is an open table. We can play here all we like."

  I noticed Charles smirked faintly, but that was about it. Phil scanned the table and then took his chips and stacked them before him.

  "One of you doesn't belong here, and he knows it," Phil continued. "It takes money to sit at this table, boys. And I'm gonna take all of that away from you, until I find out which one of you I'm after. So if you're smart, you'll go home now, or just move to another table."

  "Geez, the mouth on this guy," the player to my right said and shook his head.

  I watched Phil out of the corner of my eyes as the dealer dealt out the next hand, and checked my cards. He pushed in hard, raising the hundred-dollar ante as soon as the bet came to him. I mucked as I had crap, and all of the rest of the table mucked as well. That scene played itself out for the next three hands, until someone went in against him.

  He pushed them out, making several large bets and causing them to toss their cards in and muck then on the turn. I couldn't tell if Phil had a good hand, or was bluffing, but his bets had been pretty strong.

  The next hand I got an ace and a king, both in spades. That was the strongest starting hand possible, so I called the bet,
and then called Phil's hundred-dollar bet when he raised.

  The flop came, and it was a queen of spades, a queen of diamonds, and a three of spades.

  As the raiser in the last round of betting, it led off with Phil, and I watched as he first grabbed a large stack of chips, but then stopped a moment, and only peeled two off the top and chucked in two hundred dollars. I found that to be interesting, it was the first small bet he'd made. Normally he was trying to push everyone else out and just run the table.

  Charles folded, which also made me think. The guy next to him raised Phil's bet, and while I had nothing, I was one card off of a high card flush; I still called and waited to see what happened.

  Phil re-raised another two hundred, the guy called and I got a good feeling about it, plus I was more than willing to pay another two hundred to see the next card. Everyone else folding leaving just me, Phil, and the guy who had raised him in the hand.

  The dealer dealt the turn card and it was a ten of spades. The guy who had raised Phil looked happy, but Phil was inscrutable.

  Phil bet a hundred, the guy raised him another two hundred. I stopped and thought about it a moment, I had a flush, ace high, and there wasn't anything on the board that I could see that could beat me. Unless someone had four of a kind, or a full house. I called and Phil re-raised another two hundred. I considered going out while the guy called, but I got one of those pretty good feelings from Coyote about the way things were going suddenly. So I raised two hundred.

  Phil smiled then, and I suddenly guessed that he had two queens in his hand. Which gave him four of a kind, which beat my flush. Both Phil and the other guy called, which told me the other guy either had two pair, which I could beat, or a full house, which I couldn't.

  I did my best to relax and watched Phil as the dealer turned over the river card. Phil was a statue, he gave nothing away, the other guy however gave a small gasp.