Three Card Monte (The Martian Alliance) (6 page)

“A large number of Polliworld Underground personnel are on premises,” Ciarissa shared. “They are looking for Fren and myself.”

“Because I blocked surveillance, my dear? I did my best to make it look like equipment failure.”

Ciarissa shook her head slowly. “You did a good job with that, Fren. No, I believe we tripped another form of surveillance. One none of us spotted.”

“We need to know what spotted us,” Roy said, “or else we can’t counter it next time, let alone as soon as we walk through the door back into the casino.”

Ciarissa shook her head. “I don’t know. I can pick up nothing untoward.”

“Maybe Monte did it,” Kyle suggested.

“It’s as likely a possibility as any other,” I agreed.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Doven said under his breath. There’d been a lot of muttering on this trip, which wasn’t really normal for our crew.

“Fine, let’s get out of here and worry about who tripped what another time. We need a distraction,” Roy said, “that’s all.”

“What do you propose?” Bullfrog asked. “We walked in here without a plan for getting out, and they’ve got us on holographic for sure.”

“They don’t know who we are,” Roy said. “We’re scientists here on a mission, remember? We even told the Spillway clerk we were going to check out the new casino. We have every right to be here.”

“But we don’t,” Ciarissa said, indicating herself and Dr. Wufren.

Everyone’s expressions were stressed and worried. I had no idea why. The solution seemed obvious. I heaved a sigh. “Everyone, just calm down. We need those ’Skins and Ciarissa and our good doctor need to get back to the
Stingray
. So, not to worry—one Underground distraction coming up.”

With that, I concentrated and shifted.

“Nice job,” Roy said. “Now we have two of Ciarissa. How is that helping?”

“They’re looking for something that an Espen triggered, but it’s likely that all they have to go on is holographic feeds of the people who went down the corridor to see Monte.” I spent the time I was talking modulating my voice to sound as close to Ciarissa’s as possible.

I’d shifted into a likeness of her before. I’d ensured I knew how to shift into any one of us, just in case. Modestly speaking, I was the best shifter around, even before the Diamante Purge. It was one of the reasons I was still alive and able to shift.

Internal shifting was as important as external in many cases, and I knew this would be one of them. This was one of the areas I excelled at, but even for the best, there were limits. Ciarissa and Dr. Wufren presented a challenge I had yet to surmount—telepathic brains were distinctly different from non-telepathic, in part because they were in a constant state of subtle flux. So far I’d been unable to come even close to recreating the same inner workings as Dr. Wufren possessed, let alone Ciarissa. But in this situation, that lack was the strength of my plan.

“You want to be arrested?” Roy looked worried and protective. It was sweet, but I was a little worried myself. He wasn’t usually this slow on the uptake.

“No. I can’t imitate an Espen mind. They’re too complex even for someone with my level of shifting skill, you know that.”

“So?” Roy got a lot of worry into that one syllable.

Doven chuckled. “They’ll spend their time on DeeDee who won’t trigger the right things because her mind isn’t actually capable of any form of tele-talent, and the rest of us will get our ’Skins and get out of here. Good plan.”

“Terrible plan,” Roy snapped. “Espens look like regular humanoids. If they can figure out that Ciarissa and Doctor Wufren are tele-capable without our being able to spot their tele-surveillance, that means they have equipment we’re not familiar with. And that equipment might show them what DeeDee really is.”

“Do you have a better idea with a higher chance of success?”

Roy’s expression told me he didn’t. I squeezed his hand. “I’ll be fine. Just get into those ’Skins, take mine with you, and get the flyer ready and waiting for me. I have no idea which exit I’ll be coming out of, but I think it’s a safe bet and even odds that when I leave the building I’ll be running.”

Bullfrog seemed to be struggling with something. “You can’t go alone.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re going to need backup, and that backup needs to understand how the Underground works as well as how to get to the Space Center in case the others can’t wait. Only one of us can do all that, and that means I’m going with DeeDee.”

Roy grimaced. “Fine, you both win on this one. Anyone else going to decide to be a renegade or tell me what we’re doing?”

“No,” Tresia said, as she snipped part of the lining of her cloak. Pincers were really useful appendages. “However, I believe Ciarissa needs to wear a head covering.” She wrapped the lining around Ciarissa’s head in the same way that religious adherents from Convent wore their head coverings.

“Sure, since you asked.” Kyle grinned. “I think I should be in charge from now on. And I think we need to ensure Bullfrog and I get to take those coat check girls out.”

“We need to go in teams to the coat check,” Roy said. “Worry about dating later.”

“Great idea, Tresia. The rest of you can all fight this out while Bullfrog and I go start our distraction. But hurry it up, and save the real arguments for when we’re back on the
Stingray
.” With that, I headed off down the corridor that took us back to the casino floor.

Interestingly enough, the door at the end of the corridor wasn’t being guarded. Either Monte had covered really well, or he’d sent them after us and the Underground enforcers were actually behind us.

“What’s your plan, DeeDee?”

Since Bullfrog had said he was coming with me, I’d been revising my plan to utilize all the options now available.

“We’re going to head into the casino, in the opposite direction from the coat check. Either they’ll go after us and our distraction will evolve naturally, or I’ll pick a suitably big being and bump into them, and you’ll act like a drunk, jealous boyfriend.”

“I can do that.” Bullfrog opened the door carefully. “Huh. No guards.”

“Does that mean we’re lucky or that this entire thing is some kind of huge trap?”

“No bet.”

Bullfrog took my hand, and we sauntered down a short corridor that led to a bank of flashing machines. The people at them were, to a one, having the time of their lives. It still rang as overacting to me, but I’d worry about it when we were somewhere safer than we were right now.

We weaved nonchalantly through this section and back onto the main casino floor. Despite Ciarissa having telepathically spotted people after us, we were still amazingly unmolested.

I took a casual look around. It was easy to do, because of the floating hair. As I moved my head, the hair moved more slowly, so I could look through it without appearing to be able to see.

And what I saw was Kyle, Willie, and Dr. Wufren wandering calmly through the casino. Roy, Ciarissa, Doven, and Tresia were behind them, but not looking like they were together. They filtered through the casino toward the main entrance.

A group of Polliwogs wearing suits were hovering around the main entrance. Polliwogs rarely wore suits, because they were heavy and confining. However, in the Underground, wearing a suit indicated you were a high-level enforcer of some kind.

Another group of suit-wearers came out of the same dark corridor we’d gone down to visit Monte, not the one we’d left through, which was good. They were looking around, which wasn’t. Time to put on the show.

We were near a pair of roulette tables. Their wheels were spinning, the balls were dropped, and there was a lot of money on both.

“Going with Plan B,” I whispered to Bullfrog. Then I laughed loudly. “You’re crazy; I have
not
had ‘too much’!” Announcement of my lack of inebriation made so that anyone nearby could hear, I “tripped” and slammed into one of the roulette dealers.

He might be a Polliwog, but he was unprepared for me to body slam him. He lost his balance, falling onto his wheel.

I “bounced” off of him and hit the other dealer back to back. This one had been no more prepared than her co-worker, and she went over, too.

This all happened quickly. Clearly this wasn’t in the script, because the shills at the tables all gaped. A couple shrieked.

“Oooh, I’m so sorry,” I said. “Did I mess up all the chips?” The dealers were recovering themselves, and the Polliwogs in the suits were taking an interest in us.

“You’re drunk,” Bullfrog said flatly.

“But there’s all that money on the tables,” I said plaintively, but loud enough to carry. “I want some.”

“We’re going home,” Bullfrog said sternly. He took my hand and pulled me to him. I “stumbled” and shoved him into several beings behind him, which caused a domino effect. They were knocked over, and they knocked the blackjack table they were at over. There were now chips and money all over the place, and some of the shills realized that chaos meant they could possibly grab some extra money.

I heard a few squeals, and then some of the Arachnidans started using those extra limbs to grab money. Seeing this, the others at the tables decided not to miss out. The dealers tried to protect the chips and money, and the scramble started. It went chaotic quickly, which was my goal.

Bullfrog and I extracted ourselves from the growing mob as the Polliwogs in suits decided that whatever was going on in our section was more important than finding the tele-talented. They were joined in this by a goodly contingent of Polliwogs working security.

“We have our Polliskins
,” Ciarissa said in our heads. “
The people looking for Fren and myself have all been distracted by the two of you.”

“Time to run,” Bullfrog said quietly. He took my hand again, and we headed for what a tiny sign proclaimed to be the rear exit.

We reached the exit door just ahead of the Polliwogs after us. The door was made of tinted glass, so you could see who was coming in or who was outside if you were up close. The area outside this door looked clear.

Unfortunately, the door happened to be locked.

Conveniently, the first Polliwog to reach us grabbed Bullfrog and threw him against the glass door.