Smith's Monthly #10

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “The casino likes us,” Tommy said, which made K.J. look at him puzzled and Jewel smile.

  “So we could really use some pointers,” Jewel said. “Especially on how to get around through crowds without having to hear a dozen people’s thoughts.”

  “You can’t,” K.J. said, moving over and sitting down in another of the big overstuffed chairs. He sat on the edge of it, his back straight, his posture perfect. “You touch someone you get what they are thinking and all their memories and everything icky about them. That is one of your powers and no way to block it. But the thoughts fade quickly when you are not touching them.”

  “We noticed that,” Tommy said. “But besides teleporting as you do, which we haven’t learned yet, how would you suggest we walk from one side of a crowded room to the other.”

  “With style,” K.J. said, waving his arm in the air like a dancer. “And flare.” He waved the other arm.

  Tommy just shook his head as K.J. laughed at his own joke. Then, when he saw Jewel was only smiling and Tommy wasn’t even smiling, K.J. said, “You two need to lighten up and have some fun. What’s the point of being dead if you can’t enjoy life a little?”

  “We haven’t been dead two days yet,” Tommy said. “We will have fun if we can learn some of this stuff.”

  K.J. sighed and said, “Hitchhike. Both of you pile into the same person and just ride with that person across a busy room.”

  Tommy nodded. Not sure why he hadn’t thought of that, since they had basically done that on the plane. And got a guy on the elevator to push their floor button for them.

  “Food?” Jewel asked. “We discovered that all foods have a ghost component. Any suggestions on how to get a great meal in a restaurant?”

  “Sure,” K.J. said. “Wait near the kitchen door for a meal to come out that looks good and then take the ghost component off the waiter’s tray. But it’s often easier cooking your own. That works just like in the life side of things.”

  “Tommy discovered that,” Jewel said.

  “Food tastes better, doesn’t it?” K.J. asked. “I just love that.”

  “When we take a ghost plate,” Tommy asked, “what happens to the plate when we are finished.”

  K.J. shrugged in an exaggerated way. “After a few hours of you not touching it, it vanishes. No clue where they go. Dish heaven, maybe. A little white dish tunnel to the great dishwasher in the sky.”

  Again K.J. laughed at his own joke and Tommy actually found himself smiling.

  Jewel was just shaking her head and smiling.

  “Tough crowd tonight,” K.J. said. “I might need a drummer to give me an occasional rim shot, which actually sounds dirty.”

  Tommy ignored him and asked his next question. “So can we die in this ghost state, get hurt, whatever?”

  “You can’t die unless you ask to move on,” K.J. said. “But trust me, pain is very real and you could wish you were dead. I mean this one time I got shot by one of the Brigade right in the leg, right here.”

  K.J. pointed to a spot covered by his pants and then waved his hands in exasperation. “Painful, let me tell you. I couldn’t dance for almost a month. But at least it didn’t leave a scar.”

  “Shot?” Jewel asked, clearly alarmed. “I thought real stuff just went through us.”

  “Oh, sure, real bullets do. But ghost bullets can certainly slow you down some until you recover, as I discovered. No dancing, let me tell you, it was pure torture. I love to dance the night away.”

  Tommy wasn’t sure he was liking what he was hearing at all.

  “So who is firing these ghost bullets and why?”

  K.J. signed heavily. “As in the real world, in this ghost realm, there are two sides to everything. We are in a battle for the future.”

  “And which side are we on?” Jewel asked.

  “You are agents who work for the agency, as I told you in Montana, called “Ghost of a Chance.”

  “And the other side is called what?”

  “The Brigade,” K.J. said. “You know those two brothers you took care of in the diner after I left? That was really nifty by the way, how you got them to feel the pain and pee their pants like that. Had me rolling in laughter and if I hadn’t been in a compromising situation, I would have given you both a standing ovation. Well, I sort of did, but with a different part standing, if you get my drift.”

  Jewel just held up a hand. “More information than we need on that topic.”

  K.J. just stuck his tongue out at her and then smiled.

  “So what about those two,” Tommy asked.

  “Those are the type recruited by the Brigade when they die.”

  “Why?” Tommy asked, feeling completely puzzled. “What’s the fight?”

  “K.J. looked a little flustered. “As I said, we are in a battle for the future. Both our bosses and the Brigade bosses can see possible futures. And both try to direct the present to get to the future they want. Our bosses want peace and democracy and Brigade bosses feed on the energy of anger and destruction and would rather have anarchy than stability for who knows what silly reason.”

  “How and where has this played out?” Jewel asked.

  “Everywhere for centuries and centuries,” K.J. said. “Small things and huge things. For example, there were major battles ahead of the Bush/Gore presidential fight that went on for years ahead of the actual election. I was involved in a couple of those fights. We lost a few battles big time, so Bush ended up winning and there ended up being two wars and everyone completely ignoring how the climate is changing. Chaos, death, and anarchy. The Brigade bosses thrive on it.”

  Tommy just sat there silent. He had no idea what to think. Jewel seemed to be looking at her hands in her lap, clearly thinking as well.

  Finally, Tommy had another question. “So how do we know a Brigade agent when we see one?”

  “Honestly,” K.J. said, “if they weren’t as stupid and slow as a high school dropout smoking too much of the funny weed, you wouldn’t. Kind of like those two brothers. But when they join the Brigade, they are issued weapons. I’ve never seen a Brigade member walking around armed without machine guns full of ghost bullets. They love those guns more than I love a good blow job.”

  “They have guns?” Jewel asked. “Seriously? Dead people walking around with guns?”

  Tommy felt the same way. Just flat stunned.

  K.J. nodded. “They are horrid shots and dumb as hell, but you still don’t want to find yourself in front of one of those bullets, as I said.”

  “So how do we fight them?” Tommy asked. “Do we have weapons with ghost bullets or something?”

  “Can you see me carrying a gun?” K.J. asked, laughing. “That would do really bad things to my nails and I’m sure I’d scream and drop the gun and run in the other direction the moment I fired the first shot.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Tommy said.

  K.J. pointed to the side of his head. “We outthink them. Ghost of a Chance recruits brains like you two.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Tommy said. “We can’t really die again, but we can get hurt.”

  “Yes, but you recover faster than in real life.”

  Tommy nodded to that. Didn’t like it, but he nodded to it and then asked his next question. “We have to go against people with machine guns unarmed. And we do assignments that might change the future, but we don’t know how. Do I have all that?”

  K.J. smiled. “But don’t forget the great-tasting food, free time, and wonderful sex. Plus you get to help others along the way.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Tommy said, “How could I forget that?”

  “You had better not forget that sex part,” Jewel said, smiling at him.

  K.J. covered his mouth in fake shock and surprise.

  And that made Tommy laugh.

  TWENTY-SIX

  “SO WHAT’S THIS assignment we are supposed to do?” Jewel asked, feeling a little stunned that she and Tommy had actually been recruited
to fight in a war she didn’t really understand yet.

  K.J. looked serious.

  He stood and went over to one of the big windows and indicated they should come with him.

  As Tommy got near one window, he noticed a square thing floating high in the air, clearly not flying, just floating in one spot. “What’s that?”

  Jewel was stunned. She had never seen anything like it before. She had no idea how it stayed up there. It looked to be the size of a large room.

  K.J. looked up. “Oh, that’s one of the gambling god’s or hotel god’s offices. Not sure which one. I don’t pay any attention to that side of things. I stay on the ghost side.”

  “Gambling gods?” Jewel asked a moment before Tommy could.

  K.J. waved away the question. “Trust me, don’t worry about it at the moment. They only deal with the present, not the future, and work with Ghost of a Chance at times against the Brigade. But first you have a great deal of things to learn and a job to do. You can learn all the organizations and structures later. What I need you both to focus on is that tall building in the downtown area.”

  Jewel looked at where K.J. was pointing. Tommy had said earlier that was the downtown Las Vegas area. Right now they were out on what was called “The Strip.”

  “That’s the Golden Nugget, right?” Tommy asked.

  “You got it,” K.J. said. “My bosses tell me that a powerful senator, which one doesn’t matter, will be there in two days, doing who knows what to whom. My gut sense is that he likes little boys, but that’s just me guessing.”

  “What’s going to happen,” Jewel asked.

  “The Brigade is going to try to cause the senator to have a stroke, more than likely while in a compromising position or two, and thus swing the balance of the Senate. Your job is to not let them cause the senator to have a stroke in a bad position.”

  “How could they cause the senator to have a stroke?” Tommy asked.

  Jewel knew and didn’t want to think about it, but K.J. turned to her. “You want to answer that for your boyfriend, Doc?”

  “You know how we unblocked the pain dampening agents in those two in the diner?”

  “Ahh, that was just wonderful,” K.J. said.

  Tommy nodded, suddenly clearly starting to understand where she was headed.

  “If the senator has a weak blood vessel in his head, a fast increase in blood pressure could cause it to blow out. We could cause it to happen easily.”

  She never wanted to think about ever doing that to anyone, and if she was asked to, she would decline. Killing was not why she became a doctor.

  “Oh,” Tommy said. Then he turned to K.J. “What’s to stop these same people from following the Senator back to Washington and doing the same thing.”

  “Nothing,” K.J. said, “and if they did, it wouldn’t matter to the future, from what I was told when I asked the same question. What’s important is they do it here, in two days, in his room at the Golden Nugget around six in the afternoon. More than likely to discredit the senator because of something he’s doing at the time. I honestly don’t question why. Gives me a headache.”

  “So we save the senator’s life in two days and that’s the mission?” Jewel asked.

  “That’s the mission from what I understand it at the moment,” K.J. said, smiling. “Now, go get some food and do all the other things later that you heterosexuals do to each other and then test out some of your ghost skills tomorrow. The senator doesn’t arrive in town for two days, so you got some time.”

  “Any hints,” Tommy asked.

  “About sex?” K.J. asked. “Trust me big guy, you wouldn’t like what I would suggest.”

  Jewel laughed.

  Tommy blushed slightly and then said, “No, I mean about how to fight.”

  “Remember when you are inside a live human, you can’t be seen,” K.J. said. “The Brigade carry machine guns, so when they are inside a live person, you can still see their guns. They are not rocket scientists, thankfully, and they do love their guns. I’m betting a lot of them sleep with the things and more than likely use them for sex toys.”

  Tommy nodded and Jewel couldn’t think of another question. She was sure she had them, just couldn’t think of a one at the moment.

  K.J. said, “Well, better get back and see if there is any water left in my hot tub. And see if anyone is up for a rematch. All these questions have me all fired up again.”

  He smiled at Tommy, then winked at Jewel and vanished.

  “I’m really starting to like him,” Jewel said, moving over and putting her arm through Tommy’s arm as they stood staring out the window at the downtown area. It felt wonderful to be with him. In all her life she had never felt this comfortable with anyone.

  Of course, she had never been dead before, but she didn’t think that had much to do with how she was feeling about Tommy at all.

  The sun was slowly starting to sink below the hills to the west, painting everything in the city and surrounding desert with shades of red and pink.

  The lights of the city were coming up. She was surprised at how really beautiful Las Vegas was. She had seen pictures of the lights, just never expected the beauty of it all.

  “I wonder what the view’s like up there,” Tommy said, pointing to the floating office. “With this sunset, it would be really something.”

  “Maybe someday we’ll find out,” Jewel said, “but it’s not bad right here.”

  He looked down at her and smiled. “Not bad at all.”

  And with that, she just had to kiss him.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TOMMY COULDN’T REMEMBER an evening he enjoyed as much. They had walked down a few flights of stairs to find someone waiting for the elevator, then rode down with them.

  Instead of hitchhiking inside a live person, they stayed along the edge of the hallway after leaving the elevator area and made it into a wonderfully smelling steak restaurant off to one side of the casino. There was nothing like the smell of steaks sizzling on an open grill mixed with the smell of freshly baked bread.

  He couldn’t believe how hungry he was and when they moved inside the restaurant and the smell hit Jewel, she said she was so hungry, she could eat a chair leg.

  “I think the steaks will be better,” he said. “Let me get us a table.”

  He moved over and touched the shoulder of one of the greeters named Tami who was seating people and marking off tables that were occupied on a big chart.

  He could see in her mind that she was a young woman working her way through college. She had a test in physics she really needed to study for tomorrow, so she hoped she would get off early tonight, even though she could use the money. And at the moment, she was mad at her boyfriend for not remembering their third month anniversary.

  Tommy planted the idea in her mind that a special table needed to be reserved for a few hours in case a special guest decided to show up.

  She moved over to the reservation board and crossed off a table Tommy could tell was off in the back, out of sight from the front area.

  Tommy nodded and moved back over to where Jewel waited, out of the traffic pattern.

  “Around the corner in the back,” he said.

  Then as a waiter set a bottle of white wine on a table nearby and opened it, Tommy took the ghost version of the bottle and they set off toward their table.

  Tommy set the bottle down on the cloth-covered table and they both turned to go back to the exit from the kitchen.

  The first waiter coming out had a tray of Caeser salads in large bowls, already mixed.

  Tommy pointed and Jewel nodded, so they both grabbed a ghost salad and headed back to the table.

  “This feels like a buffet,” Tommy said, sitting down and grabbing a fork and digging in.

  “It kind of does,” Jewel said, laughing, as she also dug in.

  About halfway through the fantastic salad, he looked up. “K.J. said the food would taste better, but this is crazy good.”

  “Better t
han that,” she said.

  They just ate, then went back to the exit from the kitchen and waited for a waiter carrying a tray of plates with steaks on them.

  They both grabbed a plate as he went by and went back to the table. Tommy grabbed a basket of fresh soft rolls from a table near his and Jewel scored them two glasses of water.

  For Tommy, the steak tasted so good, he didn’t want to stop eating long enough to even talk. And clearly Jewel felt the same way. Granted, it had been a long time since that breakfast in her cabin in Montana. But not that long, not long enough to make this medium-rare top sirloin and asparagus spears in butter taste so good.

  He cleaned his plate completely just a moment before Jewel did.

  “Think ghosts can get fat?” she asked.

  “With this incredible-tasting food,” he said, “I’d like to try.”

  “I’m going to have to go out for a run in the morning to work this off. I don’t ever remember eating like that.”

  “I sure don’t remember a steak tasting that good before.”

  They sat and sipped their wine, watching the people around them, and talking. Tommy was amazed at how easy it was for them to just talk about everything. They had only known each other for two days. Two very traumatic days, true, but he felt like he had already known her for years.

  After dinner, Tommy grabbed a basket of rolls and another bottle of open wine from a table they passed, then headed back to the elevators, again staying to the edge of the wall to avoid contact.

  Jewel got a blonde woman with a short skirt in the elevator to punch their floor, then when Jewel pulled back, she smiled at Tommy. “She’s a high-priced escort headed for a date with a regular customer and his wife. She likes them a lot.”

  Tommy just shook his head. “We’re not in Buffalo Jump, Montana, anymore, that’s for sure.”

  “Are you saying that kind of thing wouldn’t happen in Montana?” she asked, laughing.