Chapter 4

I woke to a buzzing noise. I blinked at the light seeping in through the windows of my bedroom, confused. I pondered how a bee managed to get through the doors into the apartment complex, and then into my apartment, and why on earth it would want to. My brown thumb had guaranteed that no living plants ever survived more than moments in my care. Then the buzzing stopped, and I wondered where the bee went.

I sat upright in bed as the buzzing resumed, followed by the sound of something impacting the ground from a height. With a start, I noticed my cell phone dancing on the floor, and surged out of the covers and onto the floor. I grabbed the phone, and fumbled with the buttons. "Hello?" I managed.

"You are so slow, Will." I blinked at the clock. I managed to make out the time glowing in red digits on the nightstand.

"Shauna, what the hell are you doing out of bed at nine in the morning? More importantly, why are you calling me before nine in the morning?"

"It's nine sixteen, William Erisson Jones," Shauna continued, her smile audible over the wireless connection. "I felt bad about last night, and figured the least I could do was find out where the five hundred dollar debt came from." Echoing tricks from the drug trade, Shauna instinctively shifted zeros from the bottom of my debt. I appreciated her discretion, although I didn't know where she had learned the trick from. I had learned it from a Philip K. Dick I had read in my younger years.

"I'd love to know," I answered as my mind slowly woke up to focus on the important part of the conversation. "However," I continued, looking down at my boxer- clad body, "I think I'm not ready for this conversation. Meet me for breakfast, my treat."

"Bellagio, then." I winced. Shauna didn't like spending her money, but was happy to spend mine. "Is that a problem?" she asked in a sickeningly saccarine voice.

"No, Shauna. Thanks for your help. See you there in an hour?"

"I'll be the one with the lobster and mimosa," she laughed as she hung up.

I glared at the phone for a moment, then threw it on the bed. I took a quick shower, and then wiped the mirror and shaved. I stared deeply into my own eyes, psyching myself up for the day ahead of me. My eyes shifted from light blue to dark grey as I watched, dancing between colors. Shaking my head, I pulled out some hair gel and forced my normally tussled hair back. A handful of hair gel left me feeling vaguely like a greaser, but I had introduced the desired variation in my normal appearance. I retaped my ribs as best I could, and then chose to restrict myself to a button up shirt. I went with a grey silk tailored shirt that looked out of place in my dingy apartment. The silk black suit and leather shoes I pulled on looked similarly inappropriate, but perfectly fit the high roller image I would need for the remainder of my day. I extracted a clean identity from behind my bottom dresser drawer, and left the apartment behind me, whistling tunelessly as I went.

I was late for the hour mark, having had to walk a few blocks to catch a cab. Shauna was as good as her word; I found her sitting in the Bellagio buffet, three empty champagne glasses next to the half full mimosa. "I see you started without me," I said as I sat down across from her.

"I'm Irish in the purest sense. It's not like it's ever too early to drink."

The waiter came over promptly, and I ordered, "A mimosa, hold the champagne." He looked at me blankly.

"He thinks he's funny," Shauna interjected. "He wants a boring old orange juice." The waiter looked to me for verification, then glided away. "You have to learn to read your audience, Will."

"I'm not a stand up comedian, you know that."

"You're not any kind of a comedian." Shauna was clearly enjoying that she had something I needed for a change. She looked different, almost glowing. It may have just been the sunlight.

I grumbled, then got up to gather breakfast. I came back to the table, to see Shauna digging into lobster benedict. She glanced up as I sat down, then froze. "Will, isn't that your girlfriend coming this way?"

I turned in surprise to see a very angry Elise storming across the buffet floor. I had just enough time to mutter, "Shit" as she finished crossing to our table. She was dressed casually, having the morning off, and judging by the table full of beautiful girls watching behind her, she had also come here for breakfast with friends.

"Hi, honey," I started weakly, desperately reaching for excuses. "I was just--"

I was cut off by Elise's fist impacting my chin. She was slight, but apparently knew how to throw a punch. Yet another thing I didn't know about her past. I hit table next to ours, and fell to the floor. I looked up her long legs atop her high heels, with what would have been an otherwise enticing view up her short skirt.

"You son of a bitch!" Elise shouted loudly, attracting the attention of all the people in the buffet. "You tell me you were too tired last night, and had meetings when you were just running off with that, that, that tramp!" She pointed at Shauna, who was too busy laughing to take much offense to the tirade.

"Honey, that's not true!" I tried to stand up, only to receive a fierce kick to my side from Elise's exceedingly expensive shoes -- which I had bought her.

"Shut up, you bastard! To think I was all excited to move in with your cheating ass! We're through!" Elise stormed across the buffet, leaving her friends to hurry to console her.

I pushed myself off the floor, and slid red-faced into my chair. I looked deep into Shauna's laughing eyes and asked, "Why did everyone choose this week to hit me?"

"You'd rather they chose next week?" Shauna managed to get out between giggles.

"I'd rather they chose when that damn coin still worked." Shauna managed to stiffle her laughter after a few moments.

"I still don't know what you ever saw in that girl. Isn't she a stripper?"

"Who am I to judge, Shauna? She makes uses her talents to make money. I use my talents to make money. Both things are legal, and I wouldn't want to tell my mother about either job."

"True enough, Will. I just never understood what you saw in her. I mean, sure she's beautiful, but..."

"Well, it wasn't just about the sex. We would talk for... well, we understood each... Oh, hell. It was about the sex."

That set Shauna off laughing again, and I stole her mimosa while she was distracted, swallowing down half the glass, hoping my cheeks were fading from their embarassed reaction.

Shauna managed to recover, and grabbed for her glass. After a swallow, she grimaced. "You stole my mimosa. Don't you know it's dangerous to steal from a leprechaun?"

"You're only a half blood."

"Right. Whatever happened to that Karen girl? She was nice, I liked her. She never thought my standards were so low that I would sleep with you."

"I couldn't get away with lying to her. She got tired of my lies about what I did for a living, and I got tired of her being so suspicious."

"Will, did you once tell her anything resembling the truth?" Shauna asked, leaning forward with her elbows on the table.

"Of course not." Shauna smirked knowingly in response. "What did you find?"

Shauna became business like. "Will, did you do some family work last December?"

I thought for a moment, then remembered the brief encounter I had had with a full time job. "You mean the risk analysis I did? I saved them a few million dollars! I earned my pay."

"You did. You flagged a few unbalanced roulette wheels, minor wall issues on crap tables, and even advised them to change who manufactured their playing cards."

"Exactly. I didn't steal anything from them!"

"You placed a bet on 3 December, while employed by them," Shauna asked, leaning back with clear satisfacton on a job well done.

I cocked my head to the side. "What on earth does that have to do with anything?"

"Colorado Rockies."

"So? They lost. I bet on them losing after six games, and lost after game four. Damn those Red Sox."

"But at the time when you made your bet, no one expected them to make it that far. I tried to do the math, but I'm guessing the five hundred thousand is utter guesswork on their part. As far as Tony is concerned, you had some better information, and could have saved them money by telling them to change the odds on the Rockies."

I sat back, dumfounded. "You think they're holding me responsible because I didn't tell them that I thought the Rockies might make the World Series?"

"Hey, I'm not in organized crime. I'm sure it makes sense." Shauna broke out her box of cigarettes, then frowned at the no smoking sign. "Damn, I'm getting out of here. Sorry things didn't work out with the girl."

"It's better this way," I answered distractedly. "She wanted to move in with me."

"Aw, how sweet. She would have sooner or later gotten tired of you, anyway." Shauna leaned over and kissed my forehead on the way out, displaying a generous amount of cleavage. "You're a strong attractor for entropy."

"No shit, blame my Mother," I grumbled, somewhat distracted by Shauna's strange gesture. Okay, very distracted.

"Will you be able to pull this off, William?" Shauna paused before leaving.

"Oh, come on. They've switched to those silly computer identification systems; they no longer pass around pictures. Their system can't identify me, there's too much possibility for error. Bad camera angles, different hair. I'm a nobody. I'll be out of here and never be seen again, even when I walk back in tomorrow." Shauna shook her head at my confidence.