#hallucinative-pasithea

Glancing at his watch, he figured the knockout drug must have kicked in by now. He’d already had to have the attendant exceed the suggested dosage, twice, due to this woman’s tolerance level. It wasn’t until the her head was completely limp against her chair that Demetri risked leaning over her, pretending to reach for the window’s blind. With no response, he pulled down the screen. Just to double check, he slipped his hand under her wrist to let it fall into her lap. He paused for only a moment to look over her face, so serene and relaxed. Then the moment passed when his Minh grabbed the case.

Ariadne piped up from her seat. “Come on, Arthur. We’ve got a job to do.” Demetri had an alias for every business he explored in, and this one was no different. In the world of extraction via dreaming, he was known solely as Arthur.

Since this was Dem Arthur’s first run as extractor after having been the point man for so long, while the IVs were slipped into four arms, he mentally ran through the plan again.

Step one: find a team. Since most of his old team had disbanded after the Fischer job landed in L.A., he was stuck to find a new one. Since this job was mostly routine to the ones he ran with Dom back in the day, he only needed the basic team of three. Thankfully, Ariadne was always willing to build mazes in the dream world, and she just happened to know a guy perfect for the job of point man: Minh, her adopted brother. Due to his inexperience, he was staying in reality for this go.

Step two: make sure the entire train is full to almost capacity. To do that, they had to get the employer to buy out the train’s private cabins, which they were happy to do if it meant success.

Step three: because the train is full to capacity, all private cabins have to be shared, allowing access to the target. Access of course meant also being able to drug any beverages the target orders, so of course that meant paying off the attendant. Done and done.

Step four: a little trickier - he had to get access to the information. How he was going to do that exactly was more along the lines of improvisation. His architect had decided to build a maze in the form of a 1920’s based casino with an expansive vault under the main floor. Maybe she had some adoration for the era, he had no clue. All he knew was that it was expansive enough to conduct the job without getting caught by the projections or found out. Hopefully.

Instantly, Arthur/Demetri found himself in a casino lobby, buying some chips. With a quick scan, he saw his architect nod at him from the slots. She had visual on the target, but he couldn’t see her. How could he not see her? I mean, his line of sight was practically -

“Cashing in.” A woman spoke up from beside him at the counter, drawing his attention back around. It was the target, dressed in a glitzy flapper dress and headband.

The stats practically scrolled over his vision.: Paige Willows, 28, research indicated no tactical training (though it had been wrong before), modest secretary at a mom-and-pop newspaper company from upstate New York that believed she’d won some surprise all-expense-paid trip to some favorite destination of hers.  

Why this woman was considered a threat to his employer, he was drawing a blank. But, he did have a job to do, and if she was cashing out, she’ll realize there’s no outside world for her to go to.

“Already? But the night is still young,” chirped the perky receptionist. Dem could almost kiss her.

“Yeah. If I don’t stop now, I’ll be hooked all night.”

“Would that be a bad thing?” With a quick glance, he counted the stacks of chips she was cashing in. There were three green stacks, seven purple stacks, one stack of blue, and two more yellow. “You’re obviously doing really well tonight.”

Paige turned to him, her expression a combination of curiosity and excitement. “Yeah, I am, aren’t I? It’s almost like the chips are falling in my lap.”

“Well, you can always cash some of the chips and keep playing with the rest. That way, no matter if you lose from here out, you’ll still have made a profit.”

His target paused and her eyebrows knitted together as she thought about what he said. “Hmmm… That’s not a bad idea. Then I’ll just cash these in.” She pushed the green and blue stacks across the counter, keeping the others close. “Thanks!”

“You’re very welcome.” The receptionist pushed a stack of ten blues in his direction, and he headed towards the gambling floor. With a jerk of his head, Ariadne shifted locations. Since this was the architect’s dream, she was to keep an eye on the target and watch out for the projections while he got the job done.

On his way to the vault, Dem passed by the roulette table and dropped all his chips on thirteen, one of the few numbers without a bet. He slipped past the bartender and through the kitchen until he reached the stairs leading down. Heading down various hallways and random doors, he finally reached this huge wall safe with a digital keypad.

It needed six digits. The chip stacks only had four.  And how was he supposed to figure out the order? She must have had some training for it to be this complex of a combination.

Wait! All the numbers were associated with a color, so maybe color-coordinated, in order of the rainbow? That sounded stupid but it might just work. But he was still missing two numbers….

Ah, what the hell.

He pushed on the keypad with his thumb: 2 for the yellow chips, 3 for the green, 1 for her blue, 13 for the bet he placed with his own blue chips, and 7 for the purple.

Surprisingly, the vault door opened. Inside was a stack of paper as tall as his knees. He almost went for them until he saw the other corner. There were several pairs of shoes, old, worn out and out of fashion, just a few sizes too small for Paige Willows.