I pushed the hope of helping her shower with a fresh bar of raspberry soap away and replaced it with the image of my friends dying in front of my eyes because I screwed up. That kind of image will shut down just about any erotic and fancy-filled thoughts, and that’s exactly what it did.
“Ready?” I asked, looking into her eyes.
She nodded, tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and slowed time down around us.
“You got it,” I said. “Now, let me see if I can still make this work.”
She squeezed my hand and said nothing.
I focused on taking the two of us between seconds. For a fraction of a second I couldn’t feel anything different, then suddenly it worked, just as it had all evening.
“Got it,” I said.
Maybe being around all the old slot machines was like being in a casino. Or maybe Stan had increased my powers like he had with Samantha. Either way, Poker Boy was still in full force and I was damned glad of that.
“Letting go,” she said.
She did and opened her eyes. She glanced around at the frozen time and then smiled at me. “I think we’re ready.”
“I do too,” I said, letting us drop back into real time.
“Problems?” Screamer asked.
“None,” Patty said.
I regretfully let go of her hand and moved back to the quarter slot I had been leaning against a few minutes before. Samantha looked nervous sitting on the tarps and finally climbed to her feet and started pacing.
Patty watched her for a moment, then moved over to Geneva. “Are Johnny and Harry all right in there?”
“They are,” Geneva said. “And Harry completely agrees on the problem with a three person payout. He was afraid that might be a problem, and was hoping we could figure out a way around it. He thinks we’re nuts for doing it the way we’re doing it, but is thankful we are at the same time.”
Since Geneva was connected clearly to Johnny, and he was with Harry, I had a question I had been worrying about. “Did Harry notice anything when the machine took Johnny and jumped? And then when it took the other person at Circus Circus and jumped back?”
“Nothing,” Geneva said, relaying Harry’s answer through Johnny.
“Good,” Patty said. “I had been wondering about that as well? Samantha’s and Tech’s jumps won’t bother anyone then.”
“Nope,” Geneva said.
Again, the big warehouse went deathly silent as we waited.
There was nothing worse than waiting, and nothing worse than the silence of a bunch of dead, dust-covered machines that once had been active. Only the ghost slot looked alive, its colorful lights filling the space between the rows of dead slots.
I wondered how many other ghost slots were functioning in this building, maybe not active now, but waiting for a little bit of energy, a little bit of attention like Harry had given these Saturn Slots.
Harry’s mistake in trying to save himself by getting the machine to pay him back out was the only thing that might end up saving him. His mistake had caused the ghost to keep hunting and take lots of people, even though it had him inside.
And it was the sudden large amount of people going missing that had led us to this place, this moment. Thankfully, most of those people were now safe and back with their loved ones. Only four more to save, but to do that, we had to risk two others to get the total right so that the machine would work.
Patty’s phone rang with a Mozart tune that seemed very out of place.
Samantha froze and turned to face Patty.
Patty pulled the phone from her pocket and answered it with a simple, “Yes.”
“Good,” she said. “You’re near the top of the restaurant stairs?”
“Okay,” she said, “here it comes.”
She clicked the phone off and turned to face me. “Police in position, have the area blocked off completely. Only Ben and Tech are there.”
I turned to Samantha. “You ready?”
“One problem,” she said.
“What?” I asked, suddenly getting very worried about her.
“Can I borrow a nickel?”
She smiled at our shocked faces, then turned to Screamer who was digging in his pocket.
He handed her a coin. “Safe trip. See you shortly.”
Samantha took the coin. Then, with a quick adjustment of her sunglasses, moved over to the machine and sat down, her back to all of us.
“The machines seem very intense, radiating energy in a number of spectrums,” she said, fumbling with the coin for a moment before putting it into the coin slot.
“Coin and machine noises are very loud,” she said, reporting the experience to us and more than likely keeping herself as calm as possible under the circumstances.
She reached out and pulled down on the metal arm.
“Noises even louder now,” she said, turning her head slightly as if listening to the wheels of the slot machine spin. “Almost like voices calling to—”
The first wheel locked down onto Saturn and she jerked with the electrical shock going through her arm.
The second wheel locked down onto Saturn and she jerked again.
The third wheel stopped on Saturn and she slumped forward toward the machine as it took her and vanished.
“I hope I never have to see that again,” Screamer said, his voice low and angry.
I felt the same way. I was angry that we had to put Samantha through that.
And scared for her as well.
“You in contact with Johnny?” Patty asked.
Geneva shook her head, the empty and scared look back in her eyes.
“Deep breaths you two,” Patty said, turning to face me and Screamer. “There are some brave people risking a lot right now. We are shortly going to have work to do.”
Patty smiled at Screamer, then at me. Whatever calming superpower Front Desk girl was using at that moment, sure worked on me. I smiled back at her.
“Ready,” Screamer said.
“Ready,” I said.
“Now all we need is a ghost slot machine,” Patty said, taking my hand.
The three of us stood there, waiting, facing the empty hole in the row of old slot machines, waiting for the ghost slots to come home.
Three superheroes with nothing to do until the enemy showed itself.
Five long seconds later it did exactly that, shimmering back into place, very much alive and radiating light and energy.
The three of us, like a military unit, stepped forward and into position behind the seats of the four slot machines, with my left hand in Patty’s right hand and my right hand holding onto Screamer’s belt.
“Tell Johnny to tell Harry we’re ready,” I said to Geneva after getting a slight hand-squeeze from Patty.
“They’re ready,” Geneva said. “Two minute intervals just like before. I’m timing you. Just say the word.”
Patty leaned her head back and squeezed my hand that she was ready.
“Now,” I said.
“Triggering payout now,” Geneva said.
Patty slowed time as I stood ready to stop time completely for the three of us.
A long few seconds later a shape started to form in the chair in front of Screamer. Just as before, Screamer waited until the very instant Tech was all there, then shoved him out of the chair and onto the tarps as Samantha’s form started to take shape.
Samantha was suddenly fully there and again Screamer got her out of the way just in time for a man’s shape to start to appear. This was the guy taken at Circus Circus before we could stop it from happening.
Screamer got him out of the chair and onto the tarp with the other two as we waited.
No one else. At least yet.
“We’re clear,” I said.
Patty let the slowed time drop and the three of us rushed to help Geneva get the people off the tarp.
Tech was still out cold, but breathing well.
Samantha was moaning and holding her head, but she also seemed all r
ight. The man from Circus Circus just looked confused. He was clearly a tourist. He had on a bright red shirt and Bermuda shorts, with white tube socks and black leather shoes. His hair was thinning and his skin was slightly burnt from too much time in the sun on his first day in town.
“Stand over there and don’t move,” I told the guy, using my best authority voice.
He meekly nodded and backed to a position against the opposite side of the aisle, his eyes wide.
“How much time?” Patty asked.
“Forty-five seconds,” Geneva said.
“Here we go,” I said.
I turned to Patty. “You ready for one more group?”
“I am,” she said.
This time I reached out and took her hand as we moved into position behind the old wooden chairs of the Saturn Slots.
“Ten seconds,” Geneva said. “Johnny wants to know if you’re ready?”
“We’re ready,” Patty said, tilting her head back and starting to concentrate.
Geneva counted it down just as Tech had done. “Now.”
Patty closed her eyes and took us into slowed-down time.
A second later Johnny’s form started to appear in the chair. I could feel Screamer brace his feet and the moment Johnny was fully there, Screamer shoved the big detective hard toward the tarps, barely getting the man out of the way before a young woman started to appear.
This woman had been in the slots almost as long as Harry, and the moment she appeared she was like a wet rag being shoved from the chair.
Then finally, one last form started to take shape.
The Saturn Slots started to hum, the noise even louder in slow time, climbing quickly to a high-pitched sound that made me want to put my hands over my ears. I managed to not do that, keeping a firm hold on Patty’s hand and Screamer’s belt.
I could feel the pavement shaking under my feet as the ghost slot fought to keep its last source of energy.
Finally, the figure of an older man I assumed was Harry appeared completely in the chair.
Screamer knocked him sideways and onto the tarp with Johnny and the young woman.
He moaned and lay there, breathing.
He was alive.
We had got them all out alive.
In front of us, the ghost slots sat, dark and very silent.
The pull to sit down and play that had been a constant was gone.
“We’re clear,” I said to Patty, squeezing her hand lightly. “And we’re finished.”
She opened her eyes and let us slide into normal time.
“It’s dead,” she said, staring at the machine, her voice sounding almost shocked that we had actually beaten the thing.
“Very, very dead,” Screamer said.
I just stared at the ghost slot.
A few moments ago, it had been a dangerous monster. Now it was just four old, worn-out slot machines. Still dangerous, I would bet, but as long as no one played the things, they couldn’t harm anyone.
They had no energy, no human to feed them and drive them to take and take and take.
I glanced down the row at all the other old machines sitting along the wall, stacked in rows in the huge warehouse. How many of these slots had taken the life force from someone in the past and now just waited to be fed again?
I suddenly very much wanted to be out of this graveyard and back in the bright lights and activity of a poker room. I very much wanted to be risking tournament chips instead of people’s lives.
The Saturn Slots sat there, staring at me with the three reels showing small Saturn jackpots.
I stared back, knowing that this time we had beaten the machine.
This time.
But as anyone will tell you in Las Vegas, you can’t beat the machines over the long haul.
And I didn’t even want to try.
Chapter Twenty-two
A HAPPY ENDING (WITH FOOD)
AFTER STARING at the dead slot machines for the longest time, Patty put her arms around me and gave me the biggest, most wonderful hug I ever remembered getting.
That hug broke my deep thoughts about slot machines and the nature of life, and took me right to wonderful daydreams about showers and bars of raspberry soap.
Screamer suggested a few moments later, after Patty stopped her hug and let me take a breath, that everyone meet at the diner off Fremont Street. He said he would go ahead and make sure Madge kept the place open for them.
Everyone agreed, but Johnny and Geneva weren’t sure they were going to make it. Johnny had a lot of work ahead of him and Geneva had to report in to her boss Adam, although Geneva said there was no chance she was writing about what actually happened.
Johnny and I and Patty and Geneva had a quick huddle and agreed that no slot machines should be officially mentioned, that the case of all the missing people would just remain an unsolved mystery in the files of the police.
Johnny asked just how he should explain where all the missing people came from. Patty just smiled and said, “Tell them you found them in the warehouse, and if anyone pushes the point, tell them to ask the kidnapped victims where they were, see if anyone believes that.”
I had no doubt all this would be the main topic of gossip around town. And Johnny would again be a hero on the force.
Once again, I got him to agree to not mention my name in any fashion. Patty asked for the same thing, and he and Geneva both agreed.
I had never felt such fantastic relief as I left that warehouse and followed Patty quickly to her car, avoiding any talk with any of the police.
One hour later, after a quick shower alone in my own room, I joined Patty and Screamer and Ben and Samantha and Tech at the diner across the street and around the corner from the Horseshoe.
We were the only customers in the place, and the closed sign was in the window. They had pulled a couple of tables together to make a large one right in the center of the place. Madge was waiting on them and was even smiling as she popped her gum and brought everyone drinks and food. I had no idea what Screamer had offered her to keep the diner open late for us, but whatever it was, she liked it.
I slid into a chair beside Patty and she gave me a big smile and a squeeze of my hand.
Her eyes lit up with the smile and the touch of her skin lit me up.
Everyone was laughing and talking and enjoying the moment. After all, it wasn’t often you got to celebrate saving the lives of over a hundred people.
Twenty minutes later, to all of our surprise, Johnny and Geneva showed up, walking in hand-in-hand and smiling from ear-to-ear.
“How did you two escape?” Screamer asked before I could as the two pulled out chairs and sat down.
I couldn’t imagine how much paperwork Johnny was going to have to do with solving this many kidnappings behind him.
“Dinner break,” Johnny said.
Geneva laughed. “We gave them no choice. And it’s past the morning edition deadline. Adam wants to take his time on how we come at this one.”
“Don’t blame him on that,” I said.
I could just imagine how bad any decent newspaper would do if they printed a story about ghost slot machines. They’d be the laughing stock of the industry, no matter how much proof they tried to offer. And besides, this was Las Vegas, and the Sun was the main newspaper. No smart newspaper would print something that would kill the golden goose. I can see why Adam wanted to be careful and not rush into print with anything.
Suddenly, I felt the now very familiar feeling of time stopping around the table. Madge was on her way across the room, frozen in mid-step. The sound of an old Buddy Holly song was gone.
“Great work, people,” Stan said. “You are an amazing bunch, let me tell you. Laverne and all the gang working the casinos sent me to thank you all.”
Screamer and I and Patty and Samantha just sat there. I know I was stunned, and by the way Patty’s mouth was hanging slightly open, I would have bet she was as well.
Tech, Ben, Johnny, and Geneva just look
ed confused. They had no idea who this person was who had just stopped time and walked up to the table.
They had no idea who Laverne was.
Lady Luck herself had sent her thanks. I had no idea what that meant, but I sure had my hopes.
“I want to thank you, Stan,” Samantha said, “for what you gave me.”
“You earned it,” Stan said. “I hope you and your husband decide to move back here. The security forces of some of these casinos could sure use your special powers, as could those I work with once in a while.”
“We were actually talking about that on the way here,” Samantha said, smiling at the shocked look Ben was giving Stan.
“Great,” Stan said.
Stan then turned and looked directly at me, his gaze cutting through every thought I had.
“Poker Boy, I still owe you for that Christmas thing. Now I owe you for this as well. Don’t forget to collect if you need to.”
“I won’t,” I said.
Stan took Patty’s hand and kissed the back of it lightly. “A pleasure, as always. I owe you as well, and look forward to your collecting.”
Patty had the decency to just blush and say nothing.
Stan then pointed to Screamer. “No rest for the weary.”
“What’s going on?” Screamer asked, pushing his chair back and standing.
“Police just caught a guy they think buried his wife alive somewhere out in the desert,” Stan said. “Sorry to take you from the party, but they need to find out where he buried her and try to get to her to see if she’s still alive.”
“That’s it for me,” Screamer said, smiling to the group as he moved to stand beside Stan. “Next time, everyone. And Poker Boy, tell Madge I’ll make it up to her later.”
He gave me a smile that let me know I didn’t want to ask exactly what he was going to make up to Madge.
“Thanks, Screamer,” I said.
“Yes, thank you,” Samantha said. “For helping bring Ben back to me.”
“I’ll see you around I’m sure,” he said to Samantha. “Maybe we can even work together on a case some time.”
Smith's Monthly #7 Page 22