Blood from a Trill (Part 1)

Posted on Tue Dec 22, 2015 @ 8:33pm by Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,538 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Box of Delights
Timeline: MD 9/2300

::ON::

Aleczandra looked around the Box of Delights. She didn’t see Yolanthe in the establishment. Juheni couldn’t recall seeing the woman at all in the last few days he had cased the establishment, but then things were always a bit fuzzy when he wasn’t in control of the body. He’d had enough influence, though, to make sure Aleczandra had stopped by every day after school.

Tonight she wouldn’t be recognized, however, was Juheni’s hope. She had used the colorizer to turn her hair black. She wore her normal eyeliner to make her eyes pop, but had done it up in a kind of Egyptian cat-eye look with blue shadow and had reddened her lips the bloodiest red she could find.

And she definitely wasn’t wearing her blue school girl minidress. Her current outfit was much more adult, a silvery sequin top that left her back completely bare and was held on by the thinnest of spaghetti straps at the neck and lower back. It had a low neckline to flash her tantalizing cleavage and combined with a very short pleated black skirt. Her boots had high heels and came up to her knees, a nice place to hide her knives and the syringe she would need to get the Trill’s blood.

The young woman caught the eye of several patrons as she walked in and scanned the club. She headed directly toward the gambling area where her mark would be working the dabo table. She ignored the occasional comment or inappropriate touch as she moved deftly through the crowd. Navigating crowds was one of Juheni’s specialties. He liked to get his marks in such an environment, where the chaotic press of the masses could hide the quick slip of a poisoned dagger into a kidney or lung and cover his withdrawal.

Zandra spotted her quarry and settled herself at the bar in his line of sight, angled so she could keep an eye on him.

“Martini,” she ordered. “Dirty. Three olives.”

The Bajoran behind the bar nodded and set about the task, adding ingredients and stirring them carefully. Then he pushed the drink across to her and offered her the credit padd for her thumb print.

At the dabo wheel, Ahjess was encouraging punters to bet large. He pulled his hair up into a pony tail, and then up again, so the tail was bunched up, keeping it off his face and neck. The Box was hot with the press of bodies and the tight, leather-like fabric he wore was uncomfortably warm, which might possibly have been the point, because he managed to make sweating look enticing, the ever unspoken promise that with a big enough win you could be taking more than chips away from the table.

The patrons huddled round. Many were women, but a few were men. No one seemed embarrassed about getting too close to the young man, about holding a touch a little too long, or accidentally brushing things that couldn't possibly be brushed by accident.

He took it all in his stride, deftly extricating himself to keep the table moving without embarrassing anyone, always encouraging, always suggesting and promising, but never delivering, much like the dabo wheel itself.

“Thank you,” Aleczandra told the bartender, pressing her thumb to pay for the drink. She sipped it as she studied the dabo table where Ahjess was working. While Juheni had been straight, most Joined Trill were eventually bi, and her eyes ran over the hard muscles of the young man, glistening in sweat. It was too bad she wouldn’t be able to complete the seduction, Juheni thought. But then this young girl was still a virgin. Maybe that was better left to Kinony to handle.

Aleczandra reached into her boot and pulled out a credchip. Earlier in the week Juheni had done a bit of fleecing in the Promenade, lifting a few pockets to make sure he was still in practice. She’d found a nerdy little hacker down at a seedy electronics store on the Promenade, and with a bit of flirting had gotten him to hack the security off the chips and dump them into a numbered account on a new chip so she had her own little untraceable stash now.

Aleczandra sauntered over to the concierge desk and handed over her chip. “Cash me for a thousand,” she said, waiting as the clerk confirmed the transaction and pushed over the Box’s personal chips.

“Thanks, luv.” Sliding the credchip into her top, she picked up her chips and headed for the dabo table.

Waiting for an opening, Aleczandra hip checked a skanky old cougar aside. “Get lost, bitch,” she hissed at the woman, and something in Aleczandra’s sharp blue eyes must have appeared dangerous, because the woman gathered up her chips and hurried off.

Aleczandra took her spot next to Ahjess and tossed him a smile and a flip of her raven hair. “Hey,” she said. “Think you could teach me how to play?” She batted her long lashes and gave him an innocent look. “My first time,” she said, a bit embarrassed. “But my boss gave me an expense account, so I figured I might try it. It looks fun!”

He flashed her a dazzling smile. "Well, step into my parlor..." He took a few of the low value chips and indicated the wheel. It had thirty-six divisions around the rim, twenty-seven of them had places for chips. "Drop your money there, and we spin the wheel." Putting the chips down on a space marked on the edge of the wheel, he took her hand, and used it to give the outer edge a push.

The three rings of the wheel started spinning, the outer and the inner ring went clockwise, and the middle ring went counter-clockwise. The colored symbols flashed round for a few seconds before starting to slow. "When they stop, your payout is based on what lines up with your spot. If everything matches, the same symbol, the same number of symbols, and the color, that’s Dabo. That’s the big one."

The wheel clicked to a halt. At Aleczandra's slot the outer ring showed a green triangle, three blue triangles and a gold circle. The other punters round the table made sounds of delight and disgust as their chips dropped into the table or Ahjess reached over to drop more chips onto their pile. Finally he dropped a single two-strip chip onto the young woman’s pile. "Technically it’s just chance, but you can split your bet across slots, or run on the side game, where you bet which symbols will come up on played slots the most. Keep watching. You'll pick it up."

“Sounds complicated!” Aleczandra said in her most distressed damsel voice. “I hope I do!” She made a point to lean over the table, brushing against him, to place her next bet. “Sorry,” she apologized with a flirty smile as she leaned back agiain. :”How long have you been doing this?” she asked him to make conversation, establish rapport.

Ahjess didn't flinch away from her, but neither did he take his eyes from the table, watching where the punters put down their bets, both on the wheel and on the side game. "About three years. Beats scrubbing out conduits or welding plating." The scramble to drop chips was slowing down. "Last bets please!" he called, and gave the wheel a shove.

The wheel spun, the lights flashed, the dials clicked slowly into place as they lost their momentum, and this time there was a blue circle and two little horned heads, one in the gold and one in red. People cheered, and he piled chips onto her slot, and then started pushing lots more out around the table where people who had bet on the side game had one big as well.

“Oh, yay! I won!” Aleczandra exclaimed, jumping up and down a little, bouncing enticingly. “You must be good luck!” she smiled, impulsively leaning in and kissing his cheek. She blushed. “I’m sorry. That must have been too forward,” she said apologetically, placing a hand on his muscled arm

He glanced at the young woman, taking in her hips and cleavage with the same speed and calculation he gave the chips laid out on the table. "If that's what you do when you win I'm just sad I can't rig the table." He turned back to the assembled players. "Place your bets please!"

Aleczandra giggled and eagerly placed another bet. “Well, maybe tonight will be lucky for both of us!” she said, using the crowd around the table as an excuse to press close against him as he spun the wheel.

The pressure was returned, so briefly as to be invisible to anyone else watching. "I get off at two," he murmured as he reached past her to give and collect chips lost on the spin. "Will your luck hold till then?"

“Oh, I think I can make it last,” Aleczandra purred quietly, flashing him a smile.

::OFF::

A JP between

Ahjess Denn
Dabo Boy
Box of Delights

Aleczandra (Juheni) Naqiis-Ryan
Former Orion Syndicate assassin
NPC Caleb Ryan

 

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