Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

you do it?”
    I shrugged and smiled. “Wait a second,
you
pulled the handle. You must have focused all your rage into that one yank.”
    Jenna shook her head. “You’re risking your life, do you know that? I don’t even know you.”
    “I’m Quentin Draith. I thought I mentioned that.”
    “Draith? Do you run that blog full of crazy stuff online?”
    “The same,” I said. “E-mail me sometime.”
    She eyed me with suspicion. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing.”
    “Slots. You want to keep going? Or are you done wrecking this place?”
    “No,” she said. “I’m not done.”
    “Before we do any more damage, can you tell me why you’re so angry?”
    “It’s my husband,” she said. That dead tone had returned to her voice. “He’s gone. They say he just went someplace, but I know what happened. This place ate him.”
    Ate him?
The words rang in my mind. I nodded slowly, thinking of Dr. Meng. Maybe such a thing could happen. Maybe this woman wasn’t as crazy as she sounded.
    “Want to tell me how you did that trick at the table?” I asked.
    “You want to tell me how you did yours?”
    “All right,” I said. “I made the guts of that machine turn into rubber. The metal went soft, and when you pulled the arm it twisted out of place and broke.”
    She blinked at me, shaking her head. “OK then,” she said. “You did tell me first. I—uh-oh.”
    I followed her gaze over my own shoulder. The pit boss was coming. He had two chunky members of the Lucky Seven security brigade behind him. Left with little choice, I decided to bluff it through.
    “Can I help you?” I asked, meeting his charge head-on.
    His face was red and his eyes were bulging. They reminded me of boiled eggs with blue yolks.
    “You broke that machine, you freak,” he said. His breath came out in puffs.
    “Don’t worry about it,” I said, “this thing has to be under some kind of warranty.”
    “You two are coming with us.”
    The bride and I were taken by the arm, but she shook free.
    “I’m going to start screaming,” she said.
    “All right,” the pit boss said, putting up his hands. I could see the wheels turning behind his boiled-egg eyes. He didn’t want any part of manhandling a lovely, screaming bride across the floor. Some asshole was sure to take a vid with his cell and it would be all over the Internet by noon. “You get out now, lady, and stay out. You are banned from this casino for life. Albert, take her to the door and get her into a cab.”
    “Just a second,” I said, and I pushed the bucket of jingling dollars into her hands.
    “What’s this for?” she asked.
    “Your room number. Tell me.”
    “Eighteen-eleven,” she said.
    I pointed to the bucket of coins. “Be careful with that. You can give it back to me later.”
    Jenna gave me a quizzical look, but they led us in two opposite directions after that. I kept glancing over my shoulder at her. She was pretty, but that wasn’t my only concern.I’d put my .32 automatic in that bucket, sloshing around with the silver dollars. I watched to see if she would blow it and pull it out. She didn’t. If she’d noticed the gun, she was playing it cool.
    They took me to a pair of double doors that swished shut behind me. I had the feeling they weren’t going to pay my cab fare when they were done with me.

Once we were through the doors marked “Private,” the beefy guy in the too-tight security uniform tried to twist my arm behind my back. I yanked my hand away. I could have probably taken him with a surprise elbow to the throat, but I held back. After all, my little display had been intended to get the attention of the management, not just to impress Jenna Townsend.
    “You gentlemen may not know who you are dealing with,” I said.
    The pit boss smirked at me. “You’re a rock star, right? No, maybe an Arab sheik?”
    I shook my head. “I’m part of the Community, and I’ve come to talk to your boss.”
    His eyes narrowed. I took the time to read his name tag. Bernard Kinley. I figured people probably called him Bernie.
    “You’re full of shit,” Bernie said. “I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. I don’t know what you were pulling back there at the blackjack table—but I do know you broke our most expensive slot machine. I don’t even know how the fuck you did that.”
    “I guess they don’t build them like they used to, Bernie.”
    This remark didn’t improve his mood. He put his left hand up to stop the