“Sure,” he finally said. He started counting the people in the room. “But it’s two thousand. Each.” He smiled. “Plus a 20% tip to ol’ Mitch for breaking the rules.”
Donut: I DON’T KNOW IF WE EVEN HAVE THAT MUCH MONEY LEFT.
Imani: We have it. Barely. We’re running low. I don’t like this, though. Something feels wrong.
Prepotente: I have significantly more money than that. I am more than willing to lend you some at only 10% interest.
Donut: PREPOTENTE, WHAT DID I TELL YOU?
Prepotente: You said never give away something when you could sell it. And always start 20% higher than you’re willing to go. That’s why I’m willing to go down to 8% interest.
Donut: NO, NOT THAT. I MEAN, ALWAYS BE WILLING TO LEND A PAW TO THE TEAM.
Prepotente: I must say, Donut. Some of your advice can be a little contradictory.
Donut: MY GOODNESS, IT’S NOT THAT HARD. DON’T DO SOMETHING IF IT’S GOING TO UPSET ME.
CARL: I agree, Imani. I still don’t understand why the guys earlier didn’t see the spot. It’s been bothering me this whole time.
Louis: Maybe the stripper dudes told the boss guy that you were looking for the Nothing spot, and they added it afterward.
CARL: That does make sense, but why?
Donut: BECAUSE IT’S A TRAP.
Damnit. Of course this was a trap somehow. But what sort of trap? This was too important. What did we know? Louis’s suggestion seemed to make sense. If they added the spots back to the wheel after in hopes that we’d come back, did that mean the portals didn’t really go to this holding area? Would my Examine Portal skill work? Pontiff had purchased one, and he had gone in.
It was starting to dawn on me how this scam could possibly work. Thiswasa trap. But to sweeten it, they would’ve had to send Pontiff to the correct place just in case we had a way to communicate post-transfer.
“Hang on,” I said to Mitch. “We gotta pool our money.”
The biggest issue with all this was that we didn’t know what this Hamed guy wanted. He’d deliberately set us up to murder his wife, Astrid. But when their children—Anaconda and Damascus Steel—had gone hunting for him, they’d seemed to change their mind and join his cause. And now the other strippers had done the same. I didn’t trust him, but I trusted them. But only if it really was them, and we hadn’t had a chance to talk.
I sent a rapid group of messages out.
Imani: No. No way, Carl.
Chris: Yes. We will do this.
“Okay, then,” I finally said. “We have a deal. But let’s just send one person at first.” I took a step back. There was a spot you had to stand in if you were spinning the wheel, and we needed to make sure nobody was on it. “We have a magical communication spell,” I lied. “We’re going to send one of us in, and if it’s not what we think, we’ll have to come up with something else.” I gave the guy a big smile. Or I tried. Instead, I just wagged my tail. “For the inconvenience, my friend Prepotente here is going to give you an extra-big tip.”
“I am?” Prepotente asked.
“Sure, pal,” Mitch said. “But it’ll be five thousand gold for a test run.”
“Okay,” I said. “Pony, pay the man.”
Mitch looked down at me, an amused expression on his face. “Is the dog really the one in charge here? I guess that’s better than the cat.”
“Excuse me?” Donut demanded.
CARL: Be calm. This can go one of a few ways if this is a trap. Be ready.
Prepotente moved forward and made a show of digging money from his inventory.
Chris turned to Imani. He reached up and put his hand against her face. She tossed the starfish at Elle and grabbed Chris’s hands with both of hers and pressed them against her cheek.
We all fell into silence.