Vol 3 Chapter 11 (1/2)

Chapter 11

CONNECTING ROD

01

Everyone waited patiently for Balot to finish wiping her face with the cloth

Ashley didn’t even ask what she intended to do for the next game Neither did he collect the cards in

preparation for the shuffle He just waited for her

When Balot eventually finished wiping the tears from her face and looked up, there was Ashley,

holding out the box The box full of golden chips

Those on the floor watched in stunned silence as Balot reached for the box and took a golden chip, one

with the OctoberCorp emblem etched on its face When Ashley said, And now please choose your other

one, the whole crowd seemed about to faint Balot checked for the last OctoberCorp emblem—the final

piece of the puzzle—and once she’d located it, she gingerly took the chip into her care along with the

other three

“Perhaps you ht be able to share with me—only if it suits you, that is—just what it is about these

chips that you’re seeking?” Ashley said as he placed the box—now deprived of a third of its golden luster

—back into place

Balot casually slipped the chips into her glove—as if they were unimportant—and answered him

–I made the trade too, I think Like the mermaid with the sorceress So that I would be able to

walk, in a

“So that’s what you’re ai for, is it? To be able to walk properly?”

–I think so

Ashley nodded, greatly impressed Or so it seemed, but then he frowned

It wasn’t Balot’s fault, though—indeed, his sudden change of de to do with her and

everything to do with the barrage of words that were now assaulting his ears through his earpiece Balot

knew i him so—not so much from the voice, but from the words

themselves

If the vicious words of recrio by, this was indeed a cursed man, the man

whose life was full of the emptiness of his own creation

Balot watched Ashley as he winced and then cringed under the vicious barrage of recriminations and

insults Somehow she found it funny

–The owner of the casino, perhaps?

“As you say, miss—very perceptive of you Looks like we’ve not just entered a minefield but also

stepped right on top of a charged mine to boot I am sorry about this—I would have liked to present a

more professional face to you…” With the last words, Ashley’s glance flickered toward Bell Wing

“It’s a bit too late for that, Ashley You’ve long since fallen for this girl,” Bell Wing pointed out,

bringing hiood-naturedly Balot thought she’d seen this smile once

before somewhere

He turned back to Balot with the same expression and continued “I have one round left to win

everything back fromyou and finish you off, apparently Otherwise it’s the flamethrower”

–Flamethrower?

“Pink slip His dis explained Ashley bowed to confirmthis—just so

“Looks like this is how it’s going to end for h time for

ht be a different story if we had another ten rounds or so, of course, but

by then I’d probably be rooting for you anyway; I’m sure I’d want you to win by the end, which would

kind of defeat the whole object, wouldn’t it? Hmm, what to do…”

–Please call the owner of the casino here I want to return these chips to him in person

Balot felt the inforlove as she spoke

Ashley was rarely lost for words, but he was now He turned to look at Bell Wing

In turn, Bell Wing was no less surprised The two dealers looked at each other in silence for a while,

trying to work out as behind this sudden turn of events and what it could mean

When the silence was eventually broken it was in the forh fromAshley

“Man, you really got us, didn’t you Are you saying that it was never your intention to try and break the

bank here?” Ashley’s fine-whiskered face was now creased in laughter, as if he’d just been subjected to a

barrage of the most hilarious comedy known to mankind

Balot nodded, and Ashley looked up to the heavens “In other words, you’ve already found what

you’ve coet that we never even knew about and still don’t know the details of… Incredible

Well, you knohat? I may be here as the yojimbo, but my job is to protect the casino—I’m not a

bodyguard The oill just have to fend for himself And if you’re after him, miss, I can’t say I rate

his chances too highly”

Bell Wing was nodding too—she had finally understood it all

Ashley looked back at Balot, then placed his massive hand over his equally massive chest “I’ll be

praying for you,as possible” His tone of voice was now

dignified and polite, in such contrast to his raucous laughter of a o that Balot wondered whether

she had dreahter

–Thank you

Ashley’s infectious grin eain, and he walked away fromthe table

≡

Balot looked over in the direction Ashley wasand snarced Oeufcoque softly

–That dealer—he’s a lot like you, Oeufcoque, you know

–You think so? In ay?

–In many ways He just is, kind of He has his strict side but also a gentle streak And he’s a

unique personality

–Just your type, then

–I guess so Jealous, much?

Oeufcoque didn’t reply right away He left a short pause—signifying that he was somewhat

preoccupied with the delicate operation involving the

–I’m not aware of any such symptoms, no

–That’s a shame You’re allowed to be a little jealous, you know

–Sorry about that

Oeufcoque was apparently unaffected, and Balot felt a bit disappointed But then more words floated

abruptly up on her hand, as if Oeufcoque was spitting the words out in spite of himself

–I was frightened back then when I was re

me away

–But I want to use you, Oeufcoque In exactly the way that you want me to

She patted her gloves gently as if to reassure him that this was indeed the truth She stroked him like a

her baby’s face to tell it that it was special, beloved, wanted

It dawned on Bell Wing that Balot was up to so lady?”

Bell Wing was as sharp as ever

Balot just nodded, truthfully

–Yes I’ to someone who helps me out

“Your guardian angel, no doubt”

Balot smiled Then she turned her eyes to the table The deserted table

She needed to compose herself, to prepare for thehere

As if she too were inside the trunk of the car that had contained the corpse of Ashley’s brother

This was a battle fought over the right—the privilege—of starting everything anew

≡

“They’re co whispered

Ashley led the way, taking his characteristically large strides, flanked by two other men One of them

was theThe other she didn’t recognize Ashley’s demeanor

wasn’t sotable as that of a jailer leading

condemned prisoners toward their place of execution

Oeufcoque gave Balot the full briefing so that she was absolutely prepared for as to come

–It’s Cleanwill John October One of the leading directors of OctoberCorp He’s Shell’s direct

supervisor, as it were, but he’s also the father of the wo to marry

The iant Not just big or fat This was so else;

his body was a mass of solid flesh The stereotype of fat people was that they tend to have happy, jovial

faces, but this certainly wasn’t the case here The man wore a black sneer that seemed to look down on all

the other people on the casino floor His eyes oozed disgust at the fact that he even had to look at Balot

Balot, in turn, found his expression so repulsive that she struggled to think of a reason why she shouldn’t

just shoot hiht then and there as a service to all of humanity

The moment they arrived, Ashley stood stock-still and did his best to blend into the background like

one of the decorative plants—he knew his role was over

The lulowered at Balot with pure disdain

Suddenly, Balot picked up a ainst the table,

spinning it around casually as if it were a one-dollar coin A coin that had the OctoberCorp emblem

emblazoned on it

This seemed to have the desired effect—if she couldn’t shoot the two men dead in their tracks, this

was a daood substitute, and their reactions were al

Shell’s and John’s faces went blue simultaneously They both seemed equally fit to burst, likely to

spew forth torrents of bile and rage at any ed to keep it in, just about, nostrils

flaring, and Balot wondered how ht take before they spontaneously combusted

Cleanwill John October’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke

“Get the chips back froirl Fail and you’llspun round and

round”

Shell’s face went blank—he was like a hit man who had been ordered on a suicide mission—and he

moved into the dealer’s position

His Chalinted muddy blue

≡

Shell’s posture straightened the instant he took his position at the table It was as if his whole body had

transformed into a machine

Thisbefore Balot because he had to He was prepared for the inevitable He

was ready

Shell took off his rings His seven rings, each one adorned with a Blue Diamond Those repulsive

little jewels irls he’d killed Balot had been

destined for ring nu with a blank face as the rings were placed

on the table

Back when Balot ith Shell, it used to be her job—one of her jobs—to look after those rings

during the Shows Now the rings just lay silently on the table, their jewels shi+ning up at her like frozen

tears

Shell put away the cards that had been used for the previous match and took out a new set

He started shuffling—a shuffle fao She

remembered that there was a tiant That was only a few months

ago, but it seemed like many lifetiht have been

s the punters, but there was very little substance to them—

he was nowhere near as skilled with the cards as Ashley, for example

Whirlpools of numbers swirled around at the base of Balot’s left arm as the pile of cards was

prepared Balot reached out for the transparent red marker and took it in her hands before Shell had the

opportunity to offer it to her

Balot’s eyes ht in the AirCar

She sensed his eyes opening wide behind his sunglasses

His eyes were filled with a deep, deep anger—and at the root of this was an overwhel fear that

Shell couldn’t even understand, much less come to terms with

Balot felt the dregs of an old ed up fro

her ever so calmly about the definition of love The words popped into her head, then disappeared again

as soon as they came—but not before she had said themout loud

–You’re going to be the prettiest little orna to admire you, and

respect me Because I have all the money and love that anyone could ever want

Silently, Balot thrust the red marker into the pile of cards

–Just do as I say, and everything will be all right

A faint, scornful sneer played across Balot’s lips as she said the words, and she jerked her head at

Shell—and the cards—to indicate she was ready

Shell’s face was peculiarly shy at this ? Embarrassed? Bashful?

At the very least he seenize that the words that Balot had just spoken were quotations,

phrases that he had once said to her, even if he couldn’t re said them He had

held to account

Stuck for words, Shell focused his attention on the cards at hand, cutting the them

That handful ofshe needed to know about just how much control

Shell could still exert over the cards—and how much control he had lost

She waited for Shell to finish placing the cards in the card shoe, toying with the four million-dollar

chips in her hands, as if to say I hold your heart in my hands

–I’m not the impatient sort, my dear I like to take mytime

With these words, Balot placed a chip in the pot

It wasn’t one of the golden chips Rather, it was an ordinary hundred-thousand-dollar chip Shell had

evidently been expecting one of the ulped, then eventually exhaled deeply

–Let me peel your layers off one by one, mylittle one

Balot smiled as she spoke By now, Shell wasn’t the only one to have realized that she was quoting

verbatim words that Shell had said to her, once upon a ti

with keen interest

“You filthy gutter-born whore…” Shellthe card shoe as if in some sort of warped

act of purification

The Doctor and Ashley scohen they heard his words Only Balot and Bell Wing remained

unaffected, unflinching

Shell flicked the cards out of the card shoe Violently, recklessly, like a hotheaded teen rebel quick to

snap out his jackknife and lunge at the opponent who had enraged himso

Balot dodged the blade in a deft le blow

–There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, mylittle one

Shell continued dealing, trying to appear unconcerned

–You look a little frightened, but don’t worry, I like it that way It makes you look even more

alluring

Balot continued to s his teeth so hard it

seemed like he was about to break his o

She was ss of animosity

Balot took those hate-filled eyes off Shell for a

what she wanted of hi to release hi—the worst

part, thatto enjoy you Just as Balot had

suffered in the past

Her eyes snapped back up toward Shell, and she called out her move

–Now, open your legs wide, little one, and show daddy what he wants to see…

Then, when Shell showed no sign of understanding, Balot rephrased her instructions

–Stay

A fat vein started visibly throbbing in Shell’s teled to suppress his fury as he flipped

over his hidden card Slowly Not in order to put his opponent off No—Shell moved slowly because his

foul, abject mood meant that he physically couldn’t move any faster

The gaaame just for her

≡

Ashley and Bell Wing were the first to realize as going on

The Doctor knew already, of course, as it was none other than the Doctor who had hatched the plan in

the first place

The only ones who remained oblivious to the end were the man fromOctoberCorp and Shell

Shell’s mind wasn’t even able to co on—that he

was being played—or, if it was, he soon suppressed those errant suspicions The only thing that Shell

kneas that he inning, over and over, just as he did in life, and his victories were all he had to

hold on to frorace

For Shell inning Froame mark where they currently stood,

the cards see his way

The Doctor’s plan was unfolding nicely Your target is the golden yolks—don’t touch any white or

shell If you do end up getting so the way, be sure to return them immediately once you’ve

reached your objective Balot understood what she had to do The only question left noas the matter

of ti So that the plan would achieve its maximumeffect

It was around the twelve-game mark when it happened The upcard was 9, Balot’s cards were 3 and 8

The ures at the bottomof her left armshowed her what she needed to do Balot hit

The card she received was a 6 Then she hit again, a 2 Total nineteen At first glance it looked like

her recklessness had paid off In particular to thebehind Shell and the

chips, glaring over all he could see

Balot glanced up at hi out her intention to stay

Cleanwill John October, theand

relentless As if he wouldn’t perame An impossible

de himto play Russian roulette with an automatic pistol

Shell turned over his hidden card An ace Shell had won, by the narrowest of ins

“Ha!” John yelped in satisfaction Shell srim

expression

Shell was hanging on by a thread, and he knew it Balot was on the crest of a winning wave, on the

ulti it Leaving the door open to Shell Cutting

hi himsome rope—for what?

She was planning so He could smell it Even in his present state, Shell was still Shell, and he

was usually the first to pick up on this sort of thing

But it was already too late The race had already begun: a drag race, where speed was everything and

the first to cross the finish line took it all—and then mid-race Shell realized that the finish line was

actually a chicken run straight to hell, and yet he couldn’t slam on the brakes or he would lose, and lose

everything damned if you do, damned if you don’t

Balot’s hundred-thousand-dollar chips had run out Before long she had also exhausted her supply of

fifty-thousand-dollar chips too, and was on to the ten-thousand-dollar chips, burning through them

steadily, one after another, like a chain sarettes

What did the others in the casino—the players, the dealers—make of such a scene?

Let , most probably They would have taken the

chips in their hands and ran fros would carry them

It was only co streaks didn’t last forever

This girl and the lankyon past the point that

their luck had run out, for not knohen to quit while they were ahead

Now their recklessness had driven the casino uns, and their

chips were cru away like an asphalt road under a jackhammer An unstoppable force—and one that

nobody had any inclination to try and stop

The whole floor seemed to feel this way

And this hat Balot and the Doctor needed in order to bring the final act to an end on the requisite

bang Hoould the regulars who haunted this place react toward those who had just wandered onto

their turf and won a fortune, and not even a small one at that? Some would be prepared to kill the

interlopers to steal their newly acquired riches Others ht try and team up with them, use them to win

big for themselves It wouldn’t just be the other customers who felt this way but many of the dealers too,

no doubt Either way, they were a veritable hornets’ nest, ready to sink their opportunistic stingers into

those on big—another hurdle for Balot and the Doctor to contend with

The best way to subdue the angry hornets was to smoke them out and put them to sleep To do this,

Balot needed to lose big, and conspicuously If she was seen to stumble, to trip and drop her fat purse in

the gutter, to watch its gold contents irretrievably washed away by the effluvia—well, then she’d be of no

Indeed, once they’d seen she’d lost, and lost

everything, they’d see her as jinxed and avoid her like the plague

Even so, Balot still had to win in her oay

She had to bring verisimilitude to their little act More importantly, she had a bad debt she needed to

pay off

The upcard was 5 Balot had a queen and 2

–Stay

Waiting for the dealer to bust

Shell’s face showed his despair even before he turned his card over No doubt he already knew the

distribution of the cards, helped by information fed in from his earphone and the watchlike device on his

wrist

All that was left for hi to luck and flip his hidden card His face hoped,

prayed, begged, for total victory—no more the basic self-control expected in even a rookie dealer

The card was a king He then went on to draw another card—queen Total twenty-five Bust

John’s face erupted in nuclear fury as he watched Shell silently paying out to Balot His face turned

black

Balot waited for her nextperfectly

She snapped one of the golden chips into place on the table The sound was like a judge’s gavel when

judg to attention

The air was icy with tension Balot said and did nothing, waiting silently for her next card

It felt good to be able to stare down an opponent without having to say anything—particularly an

opponent to who to say

Shell’s blood was as thick as molten wax as he forced his hand over to the card shoe to deal As he

dealt, his fingers withdrew one of the cards and dealt the one just below it, out of turn, so that he received

a card that was meant for Balot A blatant switch

Ashley and Bell Wing saw right through the clumsy maneuver, as did Balot

The upcard was an ace Balot’s cards were a king and jack

–Stay, Balot called immediately

Shell flipped over his hidden card with his leaden hand

The card was a 4 Total fifteen He went on to draw a 7 The ace in his hand was noorth only one,

bringing his hand to twelve

Then he drew a 9 He had reached his total of twenty-one Shell had won

02

–Never doubt It’s the road to ruin

Shell looked up at Balot, confused

–The recipient of love shouldn’t have any doubts No need to trouble yourself with questions

Behind Shell, John chuckled to himself

Shell collected the golden chip with hands that couldn’t quite stop quavering, then took in the cards for

the discard pile

Shell understood all too hat had just happened The way the cards had been dealt was ace, king,

4, jack, 7, 9

In other words, before his switch the cards had been arranged king, ace, 4, jack, 7, 9

Had Shell not made his move, Balot would have had blackjack, and not just any old blackjack The

ace and jack of spades: a payout of 11 to 1 Her million-dollar stake at that level of payout would have

been an ato the casino to pieces

Then it hit Shell; he had worked it all out Where exactly Balot had inserted the red ht

below the ace that had just been dealt She had known exactly how and where he was going to cut and

based her own play around that

Shell was completely under her thu to win, forcing

his hand, quite literally He felt a deep e of

screa as his pride and confidence were ripped to shreds

John, on the other hand, was delighted to see the golden chip return to its box, welco it home like

it had been his own kidnapped daughter released fro the

chip represented his own dirty money

It wasn’t even so much the money itself that was at stake for John and Shell but the very fact of its

existence If, as a result of the transfer of large ae payout, for example—they came

under scrutiny fro scheme was discovered, it would be far

more than the actual cash that John and Shell both stood to lose

Balot’s ai to lay down the final three golden chips

She threw around more of the ten-thousand-dollar chips for the next few rounds, waiting for her next

chance Then, just as she was getting ready to place the next million-dollar chip, an old memory came to

mind

Soines—native peoples under the protection of the

Commonwealth A funeral, a wake, but a festive occasion The aborigines had great respect for Mother

Nature and celebrated a person’s return to her boso of a cow

The reason she’d ended up watching such a program was simple: she had misheard the announcer and

thought it was going to be a programabout abortion

Abortion, abortionist, abortive—Balot was only half paying attention to the television when she

thought she heard so those lines She was surprised, therefore, to find out that the program

was about a completely different topic

She kept on watching, though, if for no other purpose than to try and dispel the ies that her mind

had conjured up That was how she’d learned about aborigines Where was she when she saw that

program? Yes, that was it—the place she’d been at before her last brothel—the Date Club, in the waiting

room

There were a nu there The clients would phone in, having seen the details on a

flyer or poster, and the irl that most

closely irls waited around in interminable

stretches of tense boredoirls would do what they could to alleviate this with azines,

television, books, or by attending to their hts

Occasionally, though, these other thoughts would still seep through Much in the same way that Balot

ended up watching the prograines—to try and take her ht

The aborigines in the program didn’t just revere death—they also feared it The reporter explained

that this was all tied to their deep respect for the jungle Balot understood immediately She could relate

to the ani offered up to nature—she knehat it meant to be a sacrificial lamb And she knew

that this was a scene that played out everywhere

It the city, people feared one another Society was divided into those with power and those without,

and if it was social interaction that helped to dissolve that fear of each other, it was also social

interaction that served up scapegoats—sacrificial victims, a necessary and inevitable function to keep

society running Balot was always hearing such stories froirls

Stories of sadisticpeople, or religious nutjobs who

had to follow a precise set of bizarre rules in the correct sequence in order to get off, or men who

selected the right girls—or boys—to fulfill their fantasies to the letter, choosing their costumes and the

scenery, ordering them around like a theater director would his actors These men may not have

physically been taking machetes to the throats of their livestock, but they were doing the equivalent to the

hearts and irls

The Date Club that Balot worked at was one of the better brothels—one of the safer ones, anyway

The club paid taxes, or at least the man at reception said it did We’re virtually a public service

In other words, they’d covered their backs against charges of violating the protection of minors law

Those places that operated under the radar, avoiding such “unnecessary expenses” as taxes—it stood

to reason that these were the erous of all

The piirls, before she worked at the Date Club, used

to be piular basis She’d already been with nearly a hundred johns by the

ti his friends, drinking buddies, or customers at the

watering holes her father frequented Then one day her father found himself in deep trouble with one of

her clients and irl carried on living, surviving, through the

profession that her father had taught her so well As if that was her way of showing her filial love and

devotion