Stray Cat Strut
Chapter Forty-Six – Casino Ro-nya-l

Chapter Forty-Six - Casino Ro-nya-l

"Declaring war, at a time like this? When we have Antithesis and an economic crisis to deal with? That would be stupid!"

--Prime Minister Ilunga of Congo, four days before declaring war on Zambie Two, 2039

***

Mister Veaux gestured to the table. "Please, please be seated, I'll have someone bring us fresh refreshments." He walked over, only pausing when his loafers crunched on freshly broken crystal. He was the first to sit.

I walked around the table, pulled out a seat, then plopped down across from him. Almost immediately I leaned back a little, hunching into the too-tall seat. "Sorry about the cups," I said. "I know it's probably only a couple thousand credits of damage, but it also dirtied your floor."

"Don't worry about it," he replied with a fixed smile. "We've had clients bump into serving drones and make more of a mess than that. The cleaning staff won't have any difficulty with it."

"Of course," I said. My smile was a lot more genuine. He was probably just happy that he got here before the amount of damage I caused per minute got to the level where it would take more than a broom and a garbage can to fix. "So, you're probably wondering why we're here."

"I will admit that yes, I'm very curious about that," he said. "Our fine institution has had the visit of samurai before, but it has been some time since the last deigned to enjoy the Velvet Wheel."

"Yeah, that's fair. I can't imagine too many samurai are into gambling or whatever. But uh, I'm here on business, of a sort."

Veaux sat up at that. "Business? Are you going to pitch a game?"

"No, no, nothing like that," I said. "Look, you held a conclave here a few years ago, right? A bunch of gangs all gathering up here for a quick chat?"

Veaux shifted. "I imagine denying it wouldn't serve much of a purpose? Though I feel like my legal assistants would insist that I at least make it clear that the stance of the Velvet Wheel Casino is that no such event has ever occurred here."

"Yeah, of course," I said. "Look, I'll lay it all out for you, and you tell me what you think, alright?" He nodded, and I went on. "The gangs of New Montreal are causing a bit of a stir, and usually that'd be fine, but I think that maybe the situation is very... explosive, and they're flicking lit matches in a room filled with opened containers of fuel, you know? Eventually something's gonna land in the wrong spot, and then..."

"Whoosh!" Nya said, with little hand gestures.

"That's right. Now, my job as a samurai is to kill aliens and save people. That means saving people from themselves. Hunting down every gang that's getting too uppity for its own good isn't something I want to do. I'd rather have a polite chat with them, lay down the rules, just see how people feel about being, uh, civilised about all of this."

"No explosions that way," Nya said. She sounded a little disappointed about it.

I nodded. "No explosions. I imagine instability isn't great for your business?"

Veaux made a so-so gesture. "It's a bit of both? Highs and lows are the best times for us. But lows aren't as good as highs. So, yes, we'd appreciate a well-protected and well cared for city as much as anyone else. Now, the event that you mentioned never occurred, but if it were to have, hypothetically, happened in our fine institution, then it would have required months of planning."

"Months, huh?" I asked. "Have you considered doing it in a week?"

The man stared at me. I think the prospect scared him almost as much as my previous threat with the cups. "A week," he repeated. "No. I could arrange to get into a call with the caterers in a week, a meeting with the security, and several meetings to reschedule other events, but all a week could give us is time to get through some of the very early pre-prep phases."

"That sucks," I said before leaning back. I wanted to stamp out all of this mess as soon as possible. Giving it a week to fester was bad enough, more than that and we might start hearing about trouble here and there across the city.

Unless the gangs knew about the meeting already. That might give them a reason to do what they could while they could get away with it still, but if we limited that...

"Okay, two weeks, then," I said.

"That's not much better."

"It's twice as better," I argued. "And it should be more than enough. We just need a known neutral ground with good parking, decent security, and a large enough meeting room to seat a few dozen."

"I think you're underestimating how many would show up to such an event," he said. "If an event had occur--"

"Dude, you don't need to go into hypotheticals, I'm not gonna sue you," I said. "If I was pissed at you, I'd express my anger with bullets, not lawsuits. So chill with the triple speak."

Veaux blinked, then shrugged. "Fair enough, I suppose," he said. "Last time we held a conference we had two thousand attendees."

"Two thousand?" I asked. "How?"

"There were representatives of some hundred and sixty entities across the city. Most of these didn't send a 'single' member, but at least two. Most sent a representative, a guard, some assistants, guards for those, muscle, some of the larger groups in New Montreal appeared at the event with upwards of a hundred people, though they mostly lingered outside of the conclave."

Fuck. "Alright... I can provide some help, maybe. That's bigger than I thought."

"A little. It was one of the smaller conferences we've held that still required extensive preparation. We hold conventions in our hotel area several times a year with many times as many attendees, but normal citizens require a different level of care and attention than a large gathering of... well, criminals."

"Yeah, that tracks," I said. "Okay... I'll get back to you on that. Clear out a spot in a couple of weeks though."

"And the cost for this?" he asked.

"Who covered it last time?" I asked.

"The last conclave was arranged by a few key gangs who fairly split the cost between each other," he said. "We kept careful account of all relevant expenses and our own fees and were reimbursed just days after the event took place," Veaux said. He licked his lips. "The total amount added up to a significant amount. About three to four hundred million credits."

I didn't choke on the number, but I felt like it. Fuck, that was more than I had on hand.

Then again...

"Don't worry about it," I said dismissively.

"Rich cat," Nya said.

"Yeah, sure," I said.

I was gonna send the bill to Deus Ex.

It would be funny.

She could split it with the Family, maybe. "Do you have means of contacting the members of the last conclave?" I asked.

"I have some of their contact information available, yes," he said. "Did you want the Velvet Wheel to contact them on your behalf?"

"Just as a courtesy. Let the big players know beforehand. I might... urgh, I might have to make a big social media post about it. Ask for a cease fire until the end of the conclave."

"You want a cease fire across the entire city for a period of up to two weeks?" he asked. "That... seems even more farfetched than all the rest you've said."

"Nah," Nya said. "It's a cease their fire, or else we fire." Nya tapped the side of her head as if she'd just had a great idea. "If they don't listen, big kabooms! You still have that portal gun, right?"

"The one we used to shoot at the chunk of Phobos?" I asked. "Yeah, it should still work. You're thinking we can send up a new satellite and use it as like... a quick and dirty orbital bombardment thing?"

"Mhm!"

I shrugged. "That could do it."

Veaux was pale again.

"Nothing reminds people to chill the fuck out like the threat of orbital bombs," I said. "It reminds people of the uh... bigger picture. You know? Sure, you're in a small street gang, maybe you're gonna take over some building one day, but like, the whole city? Your crew might be able to beat some punks up, but what're you gonna do when someone rains bombs from orbit? It's about context, you know?"

"I... yes, I can see why that would put things into a certain perspective," Veaux said.

"Glad you see it my way. Anyway, not this Sunday coming up, but the one after good for you? I don't have classes on weekends, so that would be best."

***

A note from RavensDagger

​I'm back!

I had a week-long trip in Oslo, where I hung out with Rheagar and Hesketh and Void Herald and Nixia and a bit with Selkie too! It was a blast! We played lots of board games (Terraforming Mars came up a lot, and we did two sessions of Hope//Punk!) and talked... a lot. And visited the National Museum, and I felt an incredible amount of envy for the public transportation network they have in Norway. Nice wilderness too!

Anyway, I'm back now! So here's the chapters I didn't get to this week! I wanted to post, but... yeah, I also really didn't wanna bother in the moment, and the one want overrode the other. My b!

Also, I'll be making a biiig advertising post on SCS in like, a few hours? Sorry about that, but most people don't read the author's notes, and I have a lot of cool stuff to promote!