Session 13
VIVA LAS VEGAS
By jak981125
Note: This story is part of a series. It will make more sense if you read the
earlier sessions.
"Oof!"
Lau had a rather rude
awakening. Faye kicked him in her sleep so hard that it knocked him out of bed.
It had been a long time since Lau had shared a bed with someone and he
certainly wasn't used to this. Not only did Faye twitch a lot in her sleep, but
she snored. I suppose you can't blame her with that tiny nose of hers.
By the time Lau picked himself
off the floor, she had flopped around so much that she was taking up the entire
bed. He couldn't get back in. He sighed, and laid down on the floor. Some
honeymoon this was turning out to be so far. First of all, they had hardly
enjoyed a minute alone together because Jet and Ed were still in Vegas with
them and Ed wanted to hang out with Faye as much as possible. Second of all,
they had suffered some rather unfortunate gambling losses. And no, I'm not
going to give you any of the X-rated details of the honeymoon, so don't ask.
You pervert.
If you think Lau was having a
bad night, it was nothing compared to the night the casino on the bottom floor
was about to have. Jet had been downstairs playing a late night game of craps.
He had stepped out for just a couple of minutes to use the bathroom. In that
time, three masked gunmen ran in, killed two guards, robbed the cash register,
and left. Con artists are common at casinos but robberies are a wee bit more
rare. It left
The next day, Lau sat at a
table next to a breakfast buffet, waiting for Jet. He didn't have to wait long.
The two of them loaded up their trays and sat down. "So where are the
girls?" asked Jet.
"I think they're watching
some Elvis impersonator," replied Lau. "Jet, you have just got to
keep Ed on a leash. Faye and I have hardly had one minute to ourselves since
the wedding."
"I'm not sure how to
explain that to Ed without hurting her feelings," replied Jet. "Say,
did you hear about last night?"
"No, what happened?"
"The casino got robbed and
two guards were killed. All of this happened while I was in the can."
"No, Jet."
"What?"
Lau sighed. "I know what
you're about to say and the answer is no. I'm not hunting for any casino
bandits on my honeymoon."
"It might help make up for
some of our gambling losses," replied Jet. "No offense Lau, but I've
seen dogs that could play a better game of poker than you."
"Maybe I should have let
Faye go ahead and switch the dice at the craps table," said Lau.
"Honestly, I was never a gambling man."
"Look, while the girls are
out anyway, what harm could it do just to look around a little?"
"There's no such thing as
looking around a little when dealing with the black dog," replied Lau.
"Then you know how
persistent I can be," replied Jet with a grin.
Lau sighed. "Before you go
dragging me all over town to look for these guys, can I at least eat my
breakfast before it gets cold?" In reply, Jet started eating his own food.
The people at this hotel really knew how to cook.
After breakfast, the two of
them asked at the cashier's window if anyone was around who had been there last
night and witnessed the robbery. The cashier didn't know. Just then, a security
guard approached. "You two aren't cops, are you?" he asked.
"Wait, you guys are bounty hunters. If you think it would help, I could
show you some security footage from last night."
The guard escorted them
upstairs to the security office, where a bunch of other guards were huddled
around monitors, watching everything that went on in the casino. Like I said,
plenty of people try to swindle casinos. The guard put a disk into a computer
that contained the footage from the robbery. Jet studied it carefully.
"As you can see, the
problem is that these guys had masks and gloves on, so we don't have their
faces or fingerprints," said the guard.
"You knew one of the
guards that died, didn't you?" asked Lau.
"Is it that obvious?"
asked the guard.
"Well you were
exceptionally eager to cooperate," replied Lau. "See anything
helpful, Jet?"
Jet zoomed in a little closer.
"Here we go," he said to himself. "These guys shouldn't have
worn short sleeves. This one has a tattoo. Kind of funny looking, isn't
it?"
Lau took a look at the tattoo
on the arm of one of the robbers. "Looks like Greek letters," he
replied. "Maybe these guys belong to a college fraternity."
"Gees, the frat world must
have changed a lot since I was in college," remarked the guard. "We
just got drunk a lot and put the dean's car in the courtyard of the
administrative building."
"Excuse me
gentleman," came the voice of a guard behind them. "Does this belong
to you?" He was holding Ed by the arm.
"Oh Ed, what did you
do?" groaned Jet.
"Edward didn't do
anything!" she replied angrily as she shook herself loose from the guard's
grip.
"Sir, we tend to frown on
persons under the age of twenty-one being on the gaming floor," said the
guard. "When we spotted her, she claimed she was thirty-five."
"In dog years,
maybe," grinned Lau.
"Well Edward was on a
winning streak," she bragged. "Edward found a slot machine that was
paying off big time!"
"That figures,"
replied Jet. "The only one of us to have any luck, and she's too young to
gamble. I thought you were with Faye."
"Faye Faye went to look
for Lau," said Ed.
"Uh oh!" replied Lau.
"I think I'd better go see what she's up to." He walked out leaving
Ed and Jet alone with the security team.
"So, does she get to keep
what she won?" asked Jet hopefully.
It didn't take Lau very long to
find Faye. She was sitting by herself, next to a giant aquarium in the lobby
that was full of sharks. She looked lonely. Lau sat down next to her and
started rubbing her back. "What's wrong, sweetie?" he asked.
"Let's go somewhere right
now, just the two of us," she replied. "And I don't want to go to
another casino." Lau put his hand on her forehead. "What are you
doing?"
"Checking to see if you
have a fever," he replied. "Unless I just heard wrong, you just said
you didn't want to go to a casino." Faye smiled and elbowed him in the
ribs playfully. "Ow, careful, that's where you kicked me last night. It's
still a little sensitive."
The two of them went to a
botanical garden on the north side of town. Well, at least it was quiet.
Boring, but quiet, and no Jet or Ed. "I hope you don't get nailed for
contributing to the delinquency of a minor," said Lau.
"What do you mean?"
"After you ditched Ed, she
decided to go try her hand at the slot machines," replied Lau. "She
was actually winning when security finally caught her."
Faye laughed out loud at that.
"So what were you and Jet doing before that?" she asked.
"Oh, Jet's convinced he
can make up for our gambling losses if we catch the guys who robbed the
casino," replied Lau. "If he wants to get those guys, he can do it
without me. Hey, what's wrong with you?" Lau had noticed a sudden look of
concern on Faye's face.
"Something's been bugging
me. It's just that we're married now...and...well I married you because I love
the person you are," stammered Faye. "It's just, I never wanted to
ask you about the person you were. It didn't matter...but it does. There's just
so many things I've been curious about. And not just about you either. Never
mind, I'm sorry, just forget I said anything."
There was a long and awkward
pause. "You want to know about my syndicate days?" asked Lau. Faye
nodded. "Well that's not a time in my life that I'm exactly proud of. I
don't know how Spike felt about it afterwards, but I don't like to think about
it."
"You murdered
people?" asked Faye quietly.
Lau hung his head. "You
have a right to know. Yeah, I did. My main job was to provide security for the Clan's
drug dealers. If someone messed with one of them, I'd mess with that person.
Mostly I'd just threaten or occasionally beat on someone. In all that time, I
only murdered three people. I feel like crap about all three, if that's any
consolation."
"It is, but why did you do
it?"
"One of them was a White
Tiger. It was tit for tat. He shot one of our dealers, so Vicious ordered me to
get him back. The second guy killed the three year old daughter of a friend of
mine. The third guy I feel the worst about. He was a syndicate guy who ran down
a dealer of ours with his car. But he didn't mean to. He was driving drunk and
hit one of them by accident. Not only that, our guy survived. But the Van made
me kill him anyway. I should have told those old farts to shove it. You know
that if I could do it all over again, I never would have joined the Red Dragons
in the first place. But I was young and stupid, and I was terrified of
suffering to put two cents together, the way my dad did."
"Thank you," replied
Faye. "I don't think any less of you. I just had to know. We should have
talked about this before we got married. I shouldn't have rushed things so
much."
"Maybe that's the real
reason we haven't enjoyed ourselves," said Lau.
"Yeah, but let's just keep
blaming Jet and Ed," replied Faye.
At that moment, Jet and Ed were
searching the computer for any local college fraternities whose letters matched
those on the robber's tattoo. They came up empty. "Oh man, I hope these
guys aren't from out of state," groaned Jet.
"Maybe the robber men were
Greek and those letters were their names," offered Ed. She tried to see if
the letters worked out to form any names but came up empty again. "Nope.
Silly Edward, why would robber men come all the way from Greece to rob a Las
Vegas casino?"
"Or maybe it's a fraternal
organization and not a college frat," said Jet. "You know, some cops
belong to fraternal lodges and some of them moonlight as security. I
wonder..."
Across town, Faye and Lau
walked back towards their hotel. "Lau, not to beat a dead horse here, but
while we're on the subject, I was hoping you could tell me a little something
about Spike," said Faye.
"I could tell you more
than a little something," replied Lau. "I knew the guy very well for
years."
"What I don't get is the
whole thing with him and Julia and Vicious," replied Faye. "I don't
mean to knock your brother-in-law, but I can't understand what Spike or Julia
ever saw in the guy."
"It's a long story,"
replied Lau. "Spike and Vicious had been friends since childhood. They met
in juvenile hall on Tharsis. Spike was an orphan who had been running away from
foster homes for years. He was a street kid, so he made a living selling drugs.
He ended up getting caught."
"And Vicious?"
"Vicious was a sad
story," said Lau. "His mom was a real loser. She was a junkie and a
nymphomaniac. His mom's reputation made him an easy target for bullies as a
kid. And the fact that his hair went gray before he was even thirteen didn't
help either. He got into a fight at school one day and accidentally killed a
kid. So he got sent to juvie for manslaughter. He and Spike ended up being
roommates and when they got out, they started their own street gang."
"How did they get involved
with the syndicate?" asked Faye.
"When they were eighteen,
they were recruited by Mao Yenrai. He was looking for young blood. The old
guard wasn't getting any younger and the elders were already in their eighties.
Mao basically founded the new guard. Vicious and Spike were the leaders of that
group. They were partners and would constantly be sent out after rival
syndicates.
"Then when they were about
twenty-three and I was twenty-two, Julia showed up. Vicious was walking home
from a bar one night and saw her arguing with her boyfriend. He called her
something rather unflattering and she actually beat the crap out of him.
Vicious was impressed and offered to walk her home. She said yes to make her
boyfriend jealous. The two of them ended up dating. He thought she was amazing
and ended up showing a her softer side of himself that hardly anyone ever saw.
But even then, he was still a brutal person where other people were concerned
and as much as she loved him, it kind of turned her off."
"So how did she wind up
with Spike?" asked Faye.
"Vicious hardly ever
discussed his personal life. For example, I was the only one he would talk to
about his sister. And he never told anyone much about Julia, except that he was
seeing someone. Then one night he was playing billiards with me and a couple
guys from the neighborhood when Spike walked in. He took one look at her and
thought she was really something else. Vicious had her doing some negotiating
work for the new guard. One day when she was leaving headquarters, Julia and
Spike got stuck in an elevator together for nearly four hours when it
malfunctioned. I don't know what they talked about in there, but that's when
the betrayal started. Spike and Julia started seeing one another behind
Vicious's back. This went on for about a month. Then someone must have ratted
them out to Vicious and he decided to surprise them by waiting for them outside
Spike's apartment. He caught her and Spike coming back from an amusement park.
He got mad and tried to kill Spike. If the cops hadn't broken up that fight,
I'm sure they would have killed each other that night."
"Did they still work
together after that?" asked Faye.
"No. They hated each
other's guts after that. Mao split the new guard in half. He had Spike head one
team with Lin as his lieutenant, and Vicious head another one with me as his
lieutenant. The whole thing broke Mao's heart. It was always tense at headquarters
and we all hated it. Spike was my friend but I felt like if I hung out with him
anymore, I was being disloyal to my brother-in-law so the two of us lost touch.
Then one day Spike was dispatched to bust in on a meeting of some White Tigers
at a local church and kill them. He got shot up pretty bad. I heard he stumbled
over to Julia's place after it happened. But he made it look like he'd been
taken out of the church in an amubulance which then exploded. I guess he set
the whole thing up to fake his own death. Not long after that, Julia
disappeared too."
"I could never get him to
tell me anywhere near that much," said Faye. "Just one more thing,
and this is going to sound kind of dumb. How did he lose his eye?"
"You knew about
that?" replied Lau in surprise. "He suffered a mishap with a grenade.
I think it really affected him. When people asked Spike why his eyes were two
different colors, he always went around saying that one eye saw the past but he
never told anyone that the eye was fake. I'm amazed he told you. I guess he
really trusted you."
Back at the hotel, Ed found
exactly what she was looking for. "Here we go, local fraternal order of
police. Yup, that's where the letters come from."
"So I was right,"
said Jet. "It must have been some of the guards who work here. Of course.
They of all people would know this place better than anyone. Man, killing your
own colleagues is about as low as you can get."
"Should we call Lau and
Faye?" asked Ed.
"No," replied Jet.
"Let's give them some time to themselves. It is their honeymoon after all
and we haven't given them any time alone."
"You can give us some time
alone later," said Faye as she and Lau approached from behind. "I'm
bored stiff and for once I don't feel like gambling. So what have you got on
these guys?"
"We think these guys were
actually off-duty cops," replied Jet. "One of them had an FOP tattoo
on his arm and the security here does consist of off-duty cops."
The security team at the casino
wore short-sleeve shirts. Jet, Faye, and Lau went around casually watching them
to see if any of them had FOP tattoos. A couple of them did, but the tattoos
were the wrong color. They waited until the shift changed and then went looking
again. Still nothing. "Well it couldn't have been the late shift,"
said Jet. "That's when the robbery was pulled off. They would have been on
duty then."
"Maybe it was someone
behind the scenes," suggested Faye. "They usually watch casinos like
a hawk for people like me. Hmmm, that gives me an idea here."
A few minutes later...
"Wahoo, Ed wins again!" exclaimed Ed as she found yet another slot
machine on the casino floor that was paying off. Sure enough, her presence once
again attracted the attention of security.
"Hey kid, I thought I told
you never to come back here!" Ed was taken back up to the security office.
"OK kid, you sit here until we contact your parents."
Ed ignored the guard and began
to wander around the room humming to herself. She looked at the arms of the
various guards, who were too busy watching their monitors to notice her. None
of them had tattoos. Then Ed noticed one of them who had on long sleeves. She
ran up and tore off his left sleeve with her teeth before he could stop her.
Sure enough, he had the right tattoo.
"Kid, are you crazy?"
"Mmm, fabric tasty!"
replied Ed.
"This is why I don't have
any kids," said the guard who brought her in.
Just then, Jet came in.
"Now Ed, what have I told you about eating fabric?"
"It'll spoil Ed's
appetite?"
"Something like that. Now
come along. And don't let me catch you gambling again. By the way guys, do I
get to keep what she won this time?"
The next day, that off-duty cop
with the tattoo was on traffic patrol in his squad car. As he was driving
through the neon-illuminated streets of Las Vegas, he noticed a car in front of
him that was weaving all over the place. He turned on his lights and pulled the
car over. Lau stumbled out.
"Excuse me sir, but have
you been drinking tonight?" asked the cop.
"Well ocifer, I mean
officer, that's a long story," replied Lau who was doing his best to sound
roaring drunk. "But I'm not to drive to drunk. Really. Why are there three
of you all the sudden?"
"OK pal, you know the
drill, put your head back and stick your arms out and try to touch your nose.
Eyes closed."
Lau made several attempts to
touch his nose but the closest he ever got was his chin. "Well I bet I
could touch your nose," he replied as he did just that.
"Now cut that out!"
yelled the cop. "You're under arrest for DUI..."
"...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E,"
interrupted Lau as he fell to the pavement laughing. The cop sighed and reached
for his handcuffs only to find they were missing. "Hey, what the..."
"Looking for these?"
asked Faye who was standing behind him, holding his cuffs. "Here, you can
have them back." Before the cop had a chance to react, she quickly
handcuffed him with his own cuffs. Lau emerged behind him and grabbed the cop's
gun from his holster. Jet emerged from a nearby parked car.
"He's probably got another
one on him somewhere," he warned. Sure enough, the guy had an ankle
holster as well. Just then, three other police units showed up. You didn't
think that a bystander would just sit back and watch a cop on duty get
handcuffed and unarmed by a bunch of strangers and not call the police, did
you?
"Gentleman, I present your
casino robber," announced Jet, as the other cops approached. "I'll
take my bounty right now."
The cop confessed to the whole
thing and told detectives who his accomplices were. The Las Vegas police
wouldn't offer a bounty for the other two, but paid ten million for the guy
they had caught. Back on the casino floor, Jet, Faye and Lau had an enormous
streak of luck. Lau stayed away from poker and stuck to roulette, Faye made a
killing at the blackjack table, and Jet cleaned house playing craps. All of
them walked away with some huge gains.
Later on, the three sat in a
restaurant a few feet away from the casino entrance. "We've still got
three days left on this vacation," said Jet. "I'll switch hotels and
me and Ed will stay out of your hair for the rest of the time."
"Say, where is Ed right
now?" asked Lau.
"Kid, I told you three
times not to come back here!" came the voice of a guard from the direction
of the casino.
Jet groaned. "Aw, Ed! You
guys remind me to call that 800 number for her. I think she's becoming a
gambling addict." He walked away towards the casino. "Hey, you damn
well better let me keep her winnings this time!"
Faye and Lau just smiled and
clicked their wineglasses together.
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner
jak981125@catholic.org
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is
just fanfiction.