“What’s the matter, Who? You look beat.”
“Well, see, there was this bear this morning…”
“A bear?”
“Yeah… Never mind. It’s the kinda story you’d have to see in the papers to believe. Still, who’d have thought Isaac and Miria had pals in the DOI?”
As Who was muttering about that, Roy handed him the money he’d gotten from Nader.
“?”
“Oh, that money’s…”
When Who heard the story, he called to Nader. “Hey, the doc’s probably not gonna accept this. He told me the cops paid for your care. He’s one of those guys who won’t take more than he feels he’s earned.”
“…Maybe so. Well, consider it as a donation toward the free meals here. If he still won’t take it… I earned that with money I got from Ladd. Just pass it back to him.”
“From Ladd? Sure, I guess, but… Look, Ladd says whatever the hell he wants sometimes. I’d watch yourself.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Nader had just accepted some of that “whatever the hell,” and he was wearing a wry smile as he left the lodging house.
“Hmm…?”
That was when he realized that the sound he’d been hearing had fallen silent.
“Well, I guess it’s fine.”
Assuming it had nothing to do with him, Nader kept on walking.
✦ ✦ ✦
He didn’t realize he’d managed to skate by without being spotted only because Hilton had focused on the source of that noise.
The lucky con artist walked quickly through the alleys of Manhattan.
His fate and his life were now chips for the betting table, and he was headed into a gamble to trick the world itself.
The Martillo Family’s underground casino
“Huh? Did that noise just stop?”
Firo had been curious about the peculiar sound, but he’d kept working under the assumption that it wasn’t worth leaving the casino for. But when the sound abruptly dwindled, it caught his attention again.
“What was that? I seriously doubt it, but… Don’t tell me Huey’s outfit is pulling something.”
Christopher had been talking to Ricardo in a corner of the casino, but now he made his way over to Firo. “I’ll go take a look. If I find anything, I’ll report back later.”
“Good idea. Ricardo’s a fine kid, but you’re just noisy and in the way here.”
“Wow. Only a real friend would give it to you straight like that, wouldn’t they?!” Cackling, Christopher gave a self-deprecating shrug.
Firo didn’t look up. “Yeah, basically,” he replied lightly.
“Huh?”
Christopher hadn’t been expecting that. His red eyes widened for a moment.
“Well, not ‘friends,’ exactly, but we’ve got a connection I couldn’t shake if I tried. So…don’t do anything too crazy. It’s sad to lose a fella you know, even if that fella is somebody like you. Plus, if we ended up fighting and I had to kill you, I’d lose sleep over it no matter how bad of a person you were. If you say we’re friends, then don’t make me worry about you.”
The words were half-sarcastic, and he didn’t stop working as he spoke.
Still, he caught Christopher off guard. “That’s a shock. You’re too nice for your own good, aren’t you, Firo? Do you say things like that to all your friends?”
“I’m saying it to you because you’re trouble… Honestly, y’know, aside from the family and the guys I’ve known most of my life, I don’t have too many friends. Isaac and Miria might count. They’re trouble in a different sense of the word, but still. And then Czes is more like a kid brother…” Firo smiled wryly.
In the full knowledge of his situation, Christopher brought up another name. “…What about that girl, Ennis?”
“Ennis is family. Same as the Martillos,” Firo said immediately, although his hands stopped as he gave the answer. He turned to look at Christopher.
His eyes were unclouded—so terribly clear that they sent a shudder down Christopher’s spine.
“I see… Well, as a fellow homunculus, I’ll help in any way I can.”
“Thanks for the thought; I appreciate it. This is our problem, though. The Russos are our guests; we can’t cause trouble for you… Hey, wait. Are you allowed to just go around saying that?”
Christopher and Ennis weren’t the same type of homunculus. While they both wouldn’t age, Ennis was fully immortal, and Christopher could be killed.
Either way, it didn’t strike Firo as something the general public should know about. Was it okay to let Ricardo Russo hear about it?
Firo’s glance made his thoughts pretty obvious, and Christopher answered nonchalantly. “Sure, it’s fine. Ricardo knows plenty already. Aaall sorts of things.” He shrugged.
Firo was puzzled, but he thought, They must be close enough for that kind of trust, so he let it slide and turned back to his work. “Be careful out there. With your skills, I doubt we need to put a guard on you, but you be sure to keep your boss safe, all right? The big event may be tomorrow, but there’s no telling what’s gonna happen today, either.”
“I know. Okay, I’m off for a bit.”
With that, Christopher left the casino.
After a little while, Firo spoke to Ricardo, keeping his eyes on his work. “Hey, Ricardo. I dunno what your connection to that guy is, but are you getting by okay?”
Ricardo didn’t answer.
“Huh?” Firo turned back, scanning the room. The Russo Family boss was nowhere to be seen.
“…Did he head out with Christopher?”
✦ ✦ ✦
As they climbed the casino’s stairs side by side, Christopher spoke to Ricardo. “You could stay here, you know.”
“No… I think I should go with you.”
“And? What’s Sham saying?”
“That it’s starting already. He says the immortal from the DOI is there, too, although he doesn’t know why. You should be careful.”
Ricardo had a mental link to Sham, a collective who worked under Huey, and she was able to talk with them in her mind.
Them was a bit misleading, since there was just one main personality, but Sham’s awareness was scattered all across America. He was simultaneously one and many, and his job was gathering intelligence for Huey.
Since Ricardo shared a corner of Sham’s consciousness, she could tell what was happening in other places. That said, she tended to learn information she didn’t want to know and often found herself reluctantly driven to act on it.
“So Salomé and Chi and Sickle and the rest have run into that violent relative of yours and the nutcase who fights with a wrench? Sickle’s group just keeps meeting that guy, don’t they?”
“…Yes. Although I doubt Salomé knows about Graham and Uncle Ladd. To be honest, I can’t begin to predict what the bear or Isaac and Miria are going to do. Rail’s off doing something with that immortal kid Czes, so she’s not there.”
This obviously wasn’t a situation that was going to resolve itself peacefully. Christopher’s lips curved cheerfully, and he began skipping toward Central Park.
“You seem happy, Chris.”
“I do, don’t I?” Christopher gave a bright, feral smile, his heart soaring as he continued his jaunty footwork. “Central Park is Nature’s home right in the middle of the city. I’ll get to see everybody again as they plunge into chaos, surrounded by that natural environment. Life really is full of diversions, isn’t it? Not only that, but there’s a huge bear on the scene! What would be natural, or unnatural, for an unnaturally domesticated child of Nature to do in the midst of unnatural Nature? …Whoops. Even I lost track of where that sentence was going. Ha-ha!”
Ricardo gave a little sigh. “Chris, the things you say change every day. You and Graham would give each other a run for your money.”
“That guy changes by the second, though. Don’t pretend we’re the same.” Giving a fiendish smile full of fangs, Christopher lightly spread his arms wide and danced along, voicing the gratitude he felt to the patches of blue sky between the buildings.
“Well, let’s not worry about such trivial details. C’mon and dance! Dance! You can bet someone will have this unforeseen situation in the palm of their hand before too long. Let’s give that hand a good kick, shall we? Who for, you ask? Why, for the sake of someone chosen by Nature!”
Christopher kept yelling nonsense.
However, as Ricardo watched him go, she was sure of one thing.
Christopher was in an uncommonly good mood today. It was probably because he’d received an unambiguous admission of friendship (albeit a friendship he “couldn’t shake”) from someone he’d assumed didn’t even like him. Christopher had made a friend, and Ricardo envied him. Still, she decided to be happy for him, being another of his friends herself.