“May I? We’ll be able to put the Runoratas in our debt, and besides…there’s a little something I’d like to test.”
Half an hour laterSomewhere in New York A broad avenue
“Hey. I heard all about it, Nader. They tell me you were at Ra’s Lance yesterday, too,” Ladd called in a friendly way.
“Yeah… I was doing a little proxy gambling for one of the rich guests,” Nader responded with a polite smile.
Shaft had taken Nader down a big street near Little Italy to his parked car, where they’d found Ladd, Graham, and several of their thuggish underlings loitering around it.
Nader hadn’t been able to get his shock and worry over Sonia out of his head, though, and even that smile didn’t have much strength behind it.
“You look pretty wrung out. Did you lose your shirt or something?”
“Yesterday was just for sizing up the competition. Nobody was winning or losing.”
“Ha! Playin’ it safe, eh? All we did was hang around the building, pretending like we were guards. I barely even stuck my head into the casino rooms. I didn’t see anybody I was after. It was boring as hell.” Ladd shrugged.
Graham had clambered up to sit on the roof of Shaft’s car. “Ladd, my brother…,” he began. “Let me tell you a sad, sad story.”
“What’s up, Kid Graham?”
“Somebody once said that life should be lived on the straight and narrow. But even once you pour out all that blood, sweat, and tears, the odds of being rewarded are low. And where there’s odds, there’s a gamble. No! What the hell is a straight and narrow gamble?! The chips are always all over the place, and the odds are anybody’s guess. In the East, y’know, I hear there’s a crackerjack gambler who won himself a big old mansion and a wife with nothing but a straw for a chip!”
Graham had abruptly launched into one of his usual long-winded spiels.
Nader wasn’t used to this, and his expression was clouding with consternation, but Shaft responded calmly. “Oh, you can just ignore him.”
It wasn’t clear whether Graham had heard, as he went on, rolling around on top of the car.
“What the hell is the ‘straight and narrow’ even supposed to be, huh?! Why play it safe? America’s a nation of pioneers! What happened to the frontier spirit?! …Actually, I said that in front of a guy once, and he got mad and told me that’s the opinion of a bunch of outsiders who barged in, and some other guy told the first guy he was wrong, and then they got into a great big argument about colonization and race politics, so I stopped thinking, and I was the only one who couldn’t get in on that debate. So it’s sad.”
Graham plummeted to the depths of despair. He sprawled limply over the roof of the car, but his barely audible voice kept right on going.
“It’s no good… I bet this world is one big gamble, and Earth’s the banker, and it’s taking the human race to the cleaners. It’s a dark world out there… Of course it is; it’s always night over half of it! Even if humans cut down the forests and mine the land and control the skies, we won’t have won for long. You just know someday we’re gonna lose big, and the world will start exploiting us. Maybe I’m actually the very first exploited human?”
“Don’t sweat it. Just deck the banker and take back what you lost.”
“What?! Ladd, you mean I should punch Earth?!”
“Should be easy enough, yeah? The ground don’t move. Make a mountain in a sandbox, straddle it, and whale away on it.”
Graham had sent himself into a depression with his crazy ramblings, and then Ladd came up with something even crazier.
Wondering what he was being forced to watch, Nader glanced over at Shaft. The man responded with the same old expressionless “Just ignore them.”
“Ghk… You would say that, Ladd. People say life is full of ups and downs, and everything comes down to luck in this world, but, Ladd, you’re always thinking about how to hit straight and true without leaning on luck! You taught me! Yeah, that’s right! Life is fun! It’s fun because we walk along the straight and narrow, taking one step at a time toward tomorrow’s dream! This is a revolution, Shaft! If we can beat Earth, we can lick the Runorata Family without even trying! Ain’t that right?!”
“That goes without sayin’. Everybody knew that but you, Kid Graham.”
“Is that right! The world’s left me behind… If life’s a gamble, I wasn’t even at the table yet. That means none of my previous losses count! I haven’t won yet, but I haven’t lost, either! A brand-new land is rolling out before me! So this—this is the frontier spirit, isn’t it?!”
“Yeah, and you better keep it burnin’. Pioneer the hell out of it!”
Graham was bellowing so loud his voice echoed down the street now. Ladd shrugged it off lightly, mostly ignoring him. Lua only smiled faintly in the back seat of the car; there was no way to tell what she was thinking.
At any rate, Nader thought, if they kept this up, any curious onlookers nearby might fall on him, too. Keeping a wary eye out for strange birds or women, he called to Ladd. “And…? What did you need me for?”
“Oh yeah. You’re headed to the casino to do more proxy gambling today, right? If so, I’ve got a li’l favor to ask.”
“What favor?”
“It’s the same thing we did the other day.”
“?”
Nader felt the weight of a heavy bag come to rest in his hands.
Apprehension spread across his chest as he carefully opened the bag and peeked inside.
At the sight of a whole pile of bills, Nader’s spine froze, his bad feeling turning to certainty.
“That’s your war fund. I don’t care if you win or lose. Raise Cain at the Runorata Family’s table with that.”
“Wait… Raise Cain? You don’t mean start a fight, right?”
“Course not. You’re doing it so I can start the fight.”
“I don’t get it.” Nader tensed, pulling his cheeks taut.
Ladd went on, his eyes sparkling with glee. “It’s real simple. Just blow that dough, make people think you’re a high roller, and get the Runoratas’ attention. You can be a genius who wins big or an idiot who loses a jaw-dropping wad in a day. Either’s fine.”
“So, uh…what do you get out of that?”
“Hey, I’ve got no plans to make trouble for the fat cat you’re gambling for. Once you’re standing out and people start asking you questions, just make sure you slip a little white lie into your story.