course he hadn’t actually disappeared. What he had done was put on a long robe and a mask and joined the chorus, but the effect was still breathtaking.
Similarly, if one knows one is being followed, the adornment of a loud Hawaiian shirt is not only done to make oneself easier to spot; it’s to train the people following you to look for the shirt.
After ditching said shirt, I crawled a few yards—half the people were on their hands and knees by then—and stood. Looking around, I spotted several members of the casino security pulling guests away from the piles of money, with some guests acting extremely unhappy about this. And with my pants and jacket and uncomfortable shoes, I could pass as one of them.
I grabbed the lightest person I could find—an elderly woman who was holding eight hundred dollars in her teeth and another grand in her hands—and pulled her off the floor. She grunted in disapproval, but as she was unwilling to speak and risk losing the cash in her mouth, I was spared any expletives she might have otherwise shared. I dragged her to the entrance, which was what all of the real security guards were doing.
When I turned around, I found myself somewhat face-to-face with one of the FBI tails. There was twenty feet between us, and a complicated ocean of humanity in that twenty feet, but for a few seconds I was certain he knew exactly who he was looking at.
Then he looked away, put his finger to his ear, and started shaking his head, which is something people still do when they’re talking to someone who can’t see them because the telephonic age hasn’t quite drummed out eons of non-verbal behavior. Seeing people gesture while on the phone is almost as entertaining.
I really wanted that earpiece thing he was listening to, but it didn’t seem like it was worth the risk to get it. To do it right, I’d have to get behind him, and then I’d feel a little silly since he was standing in front of one of the exits. Getting around him would be the difficult part; taking the earpiece was easy, but once I was there, what would be the point?
I pushed my way toward his exit, looking for signs that he was tracking me, but he was still looking for someone in a loud Hawaiian shirt, so I wasn’t registering. I ended up brushing right past him. If there were cameras recording this, he was going to be getting hell from someone once they’d sorted it all out.
Outside, I didn’t waste any time. The blazer I traded with a kid who looked to be about my height and who, more importantly, was heading in the opposite direction as me and was wearing an oversized Hard Rock Café shirt that covered up the bulk of the money on my torso. And then I walked as quickly as I could without drawing any undue attention.
Ten minutes and several blocks later, I found Mike leaning against the rear fender of his car in the alley next to the coffee shop, holding a walkie-talkie.
Mike was shaking his head. “Jesus. You sure know how to make an exit.”
“Have they figured out I left yet?” I asked, more urgently than I’d intended. It was a terrifyingly long walk to the car.
“No clue; they’re checking the room now. It’ll take ‘em hours to dissect the footage and figure out what happened.”
I opened the car door. “Let’s assume they’re more competent than that and get the hell out of here.”
* * *
From the archives of Silenus the Elder. Text corrected and translated by Ariadne
AND SO IT CAME ABOUT THAT SILENUS THE ELDER DID FIRST ENCOUNTER THE GOD UPON A PERILOUS SEAWARD JOURNEY OF MANY LEAGUES AND GREAT DANGERS.
THE MIGHTY SILENUS, BEAUTEOUS AND PROUD, ENVY OF ALL MEN AND BEASTS AND ADVISOR TO KINGS, COUNSEL TO THE GREATEST OF WARRIORS AND TO THE MEANEST OF COMMON MEN, WAS IN FLIGHT. AS ORDAINED BY THE GODS THEMSELVES, THE GREAT WISDOMS WHICH DID POUR FROM THE NIMBLE TONGUE OF SILENUS ONE DAY GREATLY OFFENDED THE SLUGGISH EARS OF THE PERGAMON KING.
SILENUS BOOKED HASTY PASSAGE ABOARD THE FIRST
Similarly, if one knows one is being followed, the adornment of a loud Hawaiian shirt is not only done to make oneself easier to spot; it’s to train the people following you to look for the shirt.
After ditching said shirt, I crawled a few yards—half the people were on their hands and knees by then—and stood. Looking around, I spotted several members of the casino security pulling guests away from the piles of money, with some guests acting extremely unhappy about this. And with my pants and jacket and uncomfortable shoes, I could pass as one of them.
I grabbed the lightest person I could find—an elderly woman who was holding eight hundred dollars in her teeth and another grand in her hands—and pulled her off the floor. She grunted in disapproval, but as she was unwilling to speak and risk losing the cash in her mouth, I was spared any expletives she might have otherwise shared. I dragged her to the entrance, which was what all of the real security guards were doing.
When I turned around, I found myself somewhat face-to-face with one of the FBI tails. There was twenty feet between us, and a complicated ocean of humanity in that twenty feet, but for a few seconds I was certain he knew exactly who he was looking at.
Then he looked away, put his finger to his ear, and started shaking his head, which is something people still do when they’re talking to someone who can’t see them because the telephonic age hasn’t quite drummed out eons of non-verbal behavior. Seeing people gesture while on the phone is almost as entertaining.
I really wanted that earpiece thing he was listening to, but it didn’t seem like it was worth the risk to get it. To do it right, I’d have to get behind him, and then I’d feel a little silly since he was standing in front of one of the exits. Getting around him would be the difficult part; taking the earpiece was easy, but once I was there, what would be the point?
I pushed my way toward his exit, looking for signs that he was tracking me, but he was still looking for someone in a loud Hawaiian shirt, so I wasn’t registering. I ended up brushing right past him. If there were cameras recording this, he was going to be getting hell from someone once they’d sorted it all out.
Outside, I didn’t waste any time. The blazer I traded with a kid who looked to be about my height and who, more importantly, was heading in the opposite direction as me and was wearing an oversized Hard Rock Café shirt that covered up the bulk of the money on my torso. And then I walked as quickly as I could without drawing any undue attention.
Ten minutes and several blocks later, I found Mike leaning against the rear fender of his car in the alley next to the coffee shop, holding a walkie-talkie.
Mike was shaking his head. “Jesus. You sure know how to make an exit.”
“Have they figured out I left yet?” I asked, more urgently than I’d intended. It was a terrifyingly long walk to the car.
“No clue; they’re checking the room now. It’ll take ‘em hours to dissect the footage and figure out what happened.”
I opened the car door. “Let’s assume they’re more competent than that and get the hell out of here.”
* * *
From the archives of Silenus the Elder. Text corrected and translated by Ariadne
AND SO IT CAME ABOUT THAT SILENUS THE ELDER DID FIRST ENCOUNTER THE GOD UPON A PERILOUS SEAWARD JOURNEY OF MANY LEAGUES AND GREAT DANGERS.
THE MIGHTY SILENUS, BEAUTEOUS AND PROUD, ENVY OF ALL MEN AND BEASTS AND ADVISOR TO KINGS, COUNSEL TO THE GREATEST OF WARRIORS AND TO THE MEANEST OF COMMON MEN, WAS IN FLIGHT. AS ORDAINED BY THE GODS THEMSELVES, THE GREAT WISDOMS WHICH DID POUR FROM THE NIMBLE TONGUE OF SILENUS ONE DAY GREATLY OFFENDED THE SLUGGISH EARS OF THE PERGAMON KING.
SILENUS BOOKED HASTY PASSAGE ABOARD THE FIRST
Similar Books
