2016
“Baird? Eve Baird?”
To her surprise, a voice addressed her by name. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it until she turned around to see a friendly face making its way through the crowd toward her. Even still, she couldn’t quite believe her eyes.
“Krieger?”
Major Mark Krieger was an old army buddy she hadn’t seen in years. His leathery features and cropped blond hair were familiar to her from any number of shared operations—and close calls—overseas. Easily as tall as her, with a reddish-blond crew cut and a strong, square jaw line, he was a career soldier whose military bearing gave away his background despite his civilian attire. A neatly pressed tan sport coat and khakis conveyed the appearance of a man at leisure. His left arm rested in a sling, wrapped in Ace bandages, which possibly explained why he was off duty at the moment. It had been fine the last time they worked together.
“In the flesh,” he said, grinning. “Never thought I’d run into you at a Vegas casino.”
“Roger that.” Baird smiled back at him. “Last I heard you were stationed in Afghanistan.”
“Got a little banged up during my last tour of duty,” he said, displaying his injured arm. “Figured Vegas wasn’t a bad place to recuperate, even if it did mean deploying to yet another desert.” He chuckled at the irony. “But what about you? Rumor has it you opted out of Special Forces to go to work for … a library?”
Baird wasn’t surprised to hear that talk of her career change was making the rounds. She imagined that many of her old colleagues were puzzled by the news.
“That’s a long story,” she said.
“I’d love to hear it.” Krieger drew nearer. “You doing anything right now?”
“Not really,” she admitted. Dunphy hadn’t budged from the craps table, and they were still waiting on Jenkins’s verdict concerning the stolen penny. Nor could she explain to Krieger that she was monitoring a suspected magic abuser. “Just soaking up the atmosphere, I guess.”
“Sounds like you,” Krieger said. “You never struck me as a gambler. You always preferred solid plans and preparation to taking unnecessary chances. Should have known I’d find you conducting reconnaissance.”
You have no idea, she thought, keeping one eye on Dunphy. “You’ve got me pegged, all right.”
“So you want to get a drink at the bar?” he asked. “Catch up a little?”
“I’d like to,” she said sincerely. She and Krieger had been through some tough scrapes together and had saved each other’s lives more than once, like that time their convoy got ambushed outside Kirkuk. “But…”
“But what?” he pressed. “You here with anyone?”
She glanced at Stone, who shrugged and gave her a nod. I’ve got this was his silent message.
“Just some … librarians … from work,” she said, “but I guess I’ve got some downtime before I have to meet up with the others.” She reconsidered Krieger’s invitation. “Sure, why not? But the first round’s on you.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He started to offer her his wounded arm, but the sling got in the way. He circled around her to make his other arm available. “Sorry. Still not used to this thing. Blasted sling is seriously cramping my style.”
“Who are you kidding?” she ribbed him. “We both know you never had any style to cramp.”
Leaving Stone to keep tabs on Dunphy, she let Krieger escort her to one of the casino’s many bars, a midrange watering hole called, appropriately enough, the Oasis. Despite the ubiquitous mock-Arabian decor, the bar offered a decent selection of American beers, including a few from Portland. They settled into a cushioned booth. A lattice screen offered a degree of privacy.
“To old times,” Krieger said, raising a glass, “and even better days ahead.”
Baird clinked her glass against his. “To old times and comrades-in-arms.”
“So, about your current gig,” he said. “How does a top-notch soldier like you go from hunting down terrorists and WMDs to doing security for a library?”
“The Portland Annex of the New York Metropolitan Library, to be exact.” She couldn’t tell him the full truth, of course, but she was prepared for the question now. “What can I say? I was ready for a change, and the library has some highly valuable assets that need guarding by someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“I’m sure,” Krieger said. “But don’t you miss the excitement of your old job?”
Memories of mummies, dragons, and alternate realities flashed through her brain, and she smiled slyly.
“Trust me, it’s more exciting than it sounds.…”
* * *
“What the—?”
It took him a while, but Dunphy finally noticed that his lucky penny had been switched out somehow. His brow furrowed in confusion as he rooted through his pockets, dumping their contents onto the ledge on the outside of the craps table. Squinting at his loose change, he found a few more pennies, but not the one Ezekiel had filched. “Where in the world?”
On its way to the Annex, Stone thought. He kept watch over Dunphy from a discreet distance. Where we’ll hopefully get a ruling on that coin before long.
“Is there a problem, sir?” the dealer asked.
“Yes … no … I mean, I guess not.” Dunphy shrugged and got back to his game. “Just as long as these dice stay hot.”
Funny, Stone noted. He doesn’t seem too alarmed over the loss of his allegedly lucky penny.
The Librarian grew more concerned as Dunphy kept on winning, even with the wrong penny. Some sort of lingering side effect of the magic coin, or was there something else going on here? Stone was about to call in to the Library, to query Jenkins on the topic, when Dunphy crapped out at last, losing a good chunk of his winnings.
On second thought, maybe the effect of the coin was wearing off?
Again, Dunphy blew off the loss as though it was no big deal and he had every expectation of winning it all back eventually. He polished off another cocktail and passed the dice to the player on his left before pocketing the remainder of his chips.
“Gotta take a leak,” he announced, relinquishing his spot at the table. “See you later, Jerry.”
“I’m sure,” the dealer said. “Take it easy, Mr. Dunphy.”
Stone frowned as Dunphy strolled away from the craps table. Keeping tabs on Dunphy had just gotten a little more complicated now that the suspiciously lucky gambler was on the move, but Stone figured he could easily tail Dunphy on his own, particularly if the other man was just taking a bathroom break. It wasn’t like Baird could follow him there, and only the Library knew where Ezekiel had gotten to.
Probably picking some deep pockets, Stone guessed. Or just generally playing hooky.
Exiting the gaming floor, Dunphy veered away from the more heavily trafficked regions of the casino to reach some restrooms tucked away inconspicuously in a side corridor. Stone groaned inwardly at the signs on the doors, which distinguished “Sultans” from “Sultanas,” complete with cheesy turban and veil stencils to get the idea across. He waited outside and down the hall as Dunphy slipped into the little sultans’ room. The way Stone saw it, he didn’t need to stick that close to Dunphy.
Or did he?
To his concern, a pair of tough-looking customers followed Dunphy into the restroom, while a third man posted himself outside the door, suspiciously like a lookout. Wearing a black snakeskin jacket, the guy was built like a refrigerator, albeit one wearing a bad toupee. His sullen expression didn’t exactly fit with the fun-and-games atmosphere of the casino. Stone’s unease deepened as a random tourist, sporting a Celine Dion T-shirt and a ponytail, approached the door and was turned away.
“Out of order, dude,” Bad Toupee growled. “Move it along.”
This was not what the baffled tourist wanted to hear. He fidgeted restlessly as he looked in vain for any signs to that effect. “Um, are you with the casino? ’Cause you don’t exactly appear to be dressed the part.…”
“You deaf, buster?” Bad Toupee glowered at him in a very inhospitable way. “Take a hike.”
The tourist gulped, getting the message.
“N-no problem. I’m going.” He cast a lost, longing look at the men’s room door. “Um, by any chance, do you know where the next closest restroom is?”
“Do I look like an information booth? Scram.”
The tourist made himself scarce.
Probably a smart move, Stone thought. Whatever these guys wanted with Dunphy, they clearly didn’t want to be interrupted, which probably meant that the gambler’s luck was taking a serious turn for the worse. Stone covertly inspected the self-appointed sentry barring the door. Bad Toupee didn’t look remotely Middle Eastern, like the crew that supposedly came looking for Dunphy at the trailer park, so who else was tailing him?
Only one way to find out.
Stone casually approached the men’s room, acting as harmless as possible.
“Out of order,” Bad Toupee said. “Take it somewhere else.”
“Seriously, man?” Stone feigned discomfort. “’Cause this is kind of urgent, if you know what I mean.”
“Not my problem. Beat it.”
The guy’s surly attitude made it a lot easier to do what came next. “Thanks for nothing,” Stone grumbled. “You’d think a classy place like this would want to treat their customers more—”
A right cross to the jaw dropped Bad Toupee to the floor. His wig went askew.
“Sleep it off,” Stone said, massaging his knuckles.
Leaving the stunned goon in the hallway, Stone slipped into the men’s room, which was probably one of the few areas of the casinos that didn’t have cameras watching everywhere—or so one would like to think. The sound of a toilet flushing helpfully drowned out the sound of his entrance, so he had a chance to check out the situation—which was pretty much as dire as he had expected.
Dunphy was face down in a toilet, getting an old-fashioned swirly. A burly tormentor, boasting a shaved skull with an eight ball tattooed onto it, held Dunphy’s head down in the oversized handicapped stall, while his significantly smaller associate looked on approvingly. Stone guessed that the little guy, who wasn’t getting his hands dirty, was the brains of the operation and most likely the boss. Wearing a six-gallon hat and a bolo tie, he snarled at Dunphy as the eddying waters drained and the big enforcer yanked Dunphy’s head up by his hair. Idle hands shuffled a pile of chips that had probably come straight from Dunphy’s pockets.
“Think you can cheat me, you red-headed moron? Well, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Dunphy sputtered. “I swear, Rudy, this is just a misunderstanding. I didn’t cheat nobody!”
“That’s a load of bull and you know it. No one’s that lucky!”
The door swung shut behind Stone, alerting them to his presence. Rudy looked both confused and annoyed by the new arrival, but more the latter than the former. He made a face as though he smelled something bad. “How the hell did you get in here?”
“Er, through the door?” Stone replied, all innocence. “Am I interrupting something?”
“None of your business, hayseed. If you’re smart, you’ll turn around and head back out that door.”
“Whatever, man. I don’t want any trouble.” Stone milked his good ol’ country boy routine for all it was worth. He started toward an adjacent stall. “I’ll just take care of business and be on my way.”
Leaving Dunphy for a moment, the big, bald bruiser got in Stone’s face. “Don’t think you’re listening, pal. You need to hit the road, pronto.”
“What’s your problem?” Stone feigned confusion. “Your buddy outside said it was okay.”
“He did?” Eight Ball looked puzzled for real. He looked past Stone toward the door, no doubt wondering how Stone had got past the lookout. “He tell you that?”
That was all the opportunity Stone needed. The veteran of more bar brawls than he really ought to admit to, he grabbed the enforcer by his lapels, swept his leg out from under him, and threw the guy sideways into an empty stall. Eight Ball crashed through the swinging metal door, and his butt collided with the toilet … hard. The door bounced halfway back into position.
“You okay, man?” Stone asked. “Think you slipped on a puddle there.”
Livid with rage, Eight Ball sprang back to his feet and charged at Stone. “You’re going to regret that, you—”
Stone kicked the door so that it swung back and smacked the goon in the face before he could make it out of the stall, knocking him back into the rear of the compartment. He slumped onto the toilet, the fight knocked out of him for the moment.
Eight Ball, corner pocket, Stone thought. One more to go.
“You stupid hick!” Rudy reached into his jacket, almost surely for a weapon, but Stone lunged at Rudy, body slamming into him and pinning his arm to his chest. The back of Rudy’s head banged against a wall-mounted hand dryer, activating it. Hot air blew noisily from the unit as Stone grabbed Rudy’s wrist and, twisting, relieved him of a Smith & Wesson pistol. He ejected the cartridge, almost as smoothly as Baird might have done, and lobbed the pistol into the nearest urinal, where it cracked loudly against the enamel. Rudy slid down the wall onto the floor, landing in a sitting position on the pseudo-Arabic tiles. His cowboy hat sat askew atop his head as he practically spat at Stone.
“You’re making a big mistake, buster! You have no idea who you’re messing with.”
“Neither do you.” Stone pocketed the cartridge, just to keep it out of the wrong hands, and tugged Rudy’s hat down over his ears. “Would you believe this isn’t even the first time I’ve busted heads in a men’s room? I should really look at my life choices.”
Dunphy gaped at him from the handicapped stall. “Who … why…?”
“Later, man.” Stone grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to his feet. “We’ve got better places to be right now.”
Dunphy nodded, still looking understandably shaken. Stone hustled him out the door into the hallway, where a pack of senior citizens were clucking over the sprawled form of Bad Toupee. One of them cautiously prodded him with her foot, eliciting a low moan.
“Will you look at that?” Stone shook his head. “Some people just can’t hold their liquor.”
He figured that it was only a matter of time before the casino’s own security staff showed up, so he hauled Dunphy out of the casino onto the sidewalk with all due haste. Oddly enough, as Stone knew from experience, local authorities were seldom keen on meddling Librarians disturbing the peace, and getting bailed out by Baird was not high on his to-do list.
“Thanks, buddy!” Dunphy said. “I owe you one, big time!”
Water dripped from his soaked red hair onto his shoulders. Stone was glad he’d managed to barge into the restroom before anything worse happened to their unlikely person of interest. Aside from possibly using magic to beat the odds at gambling, Dunphy struck Stone as harmless enough. Looks could be deceiving, especially where magic was concerned, but Dunphy wasn’t exactly giving off a diabolical mastermind vibe. He seemed better suited to Gamblers Anonymous than the Serpent Brotherhood.
Then again, sometimes clueless amateurs, messing with forces they didn’t really understand, could be more dangerous than an actual black magician or mythological creature. Like that well-meaning college student not long ago, the one who accidentally opened a doorway to another reality and sicced a hungry, tentacled monster on her campus.…
“We probably ought to stick to public places.” Stone guided Dunphy toward an empty bus stop, planting him down on a bench, before pausing to take stock of the situation and look Dunphy over. “You okay, man?”
“Pretty much, I guess. Just a little rattled, you know.” Dunphy wiped his brow and tried to slick his hair back into place. “Good thing you came along when you did.”
“Glad to be of service,” Stone said. “What was that all about anyway?”
“Bunch of sore losers, that’s what. I cleaned Rudy out at a high-stakes poker game last night. He didn’t take it well, accused me of cheating him somehow.” Rudy shrugged. “Guess he holds a grudge.”
That doesn’t sound like the same crew who ransacked the trailer, Stone thought. Then again, a guy like Dunphy who had been winning big, and conspicuously so, was probably bound to attract the wrong kind of attention from more than one party. “Some people just don’t like losing, which means they’re probably in the wrong town.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” Dunphy extended his hand. “Gus Dunphy, by the way.”
“Jake Stone.” He shook Dunphy’s hand. “Glad I could play Good Samaritan for you. Guess anybody who wins big needs to keep looking over their shoulder around here.”
Dunphy glanced around nervously, even though the passing crowds were ignoring them. “Yeah, you’re probably right about that.” His stomach grumbled audibly. “Say, Jake, I know a great steakhouse downtown. You want to join me, maybe watch my back? My treat, naturally.”
Stone mulled over his options. Befriending Gus had not been part of the plan, but maybe he could work with this? He needed to stick close to Dunphy anyway.
“Sounds good to me. Let me just check in with my old lady.” He stepped away from the bus stop and dialed Baird. “Sorry to interrupt your reunion with your buddy, but we’ve had some new developments.”
He concisely briefed her on recent events, including the fracas in the restroom and his unexpected dinner invitation.
“Seems like I’ve ended up as Dunphy’s temporary bodyguard.”
“There are worse ways to shadow him,” Baird said over the phone. “Do you need backup? I can cut things short here and rendezvous with you.”
“Nah. We’re just going out for steak. I don’t expect things to get hairy.”
To be honest, a nice slice of rib eye was sounding pretty good.
“Okay. Just keep your eyes open and stay on your toes. Remember what Dunphy’s former neighbor said about loan sharks, ex-wives, et cetera. Lots of people may want a piece of him, including any number of sore losers … or worse.”
“Duly noted,” Stone said. “I’ll keep you posted.”
Wrapping up the call, he returned to Dunphy, who looked visibly relieved to have him around.
“Everything cool with your lady friend?”
“You bet,” Stone said. “So, you were saying something about steak?”