Reflection, page 17
part #2 of The Infected - Mirror Man Series
“Lannie?” He waved, in case she couldn’t see him, being near the ring in the center. That and short enough to be missed behind chairs.
“Here! What may I do for you today?” The woman had a nice Scottish accent. What she looked like, other than having some gray in her long red hair was impossible for him to tell. Well, the parts were all there. She had freckles, and pale skin. Other than that, he felt like he was literally looking at a herd of cattle, trying to tell one of them in the crowd from the next one. Worse, at least when he’d been human, that kind of thing hadn’t been as hard for him to manage as this felt.
Trundling a bit, while still moving quickly, on his hind legs, something occurred to him.
Ysidril were meant to walk on all sixes. They seemed ungainly, because they were basically pretending to be human for the rest of them. Given that, they could probably move a lot faster if they did it the way nature intended. Not that he was going to take that up, in particular. Not unless he needed to run. In that case he needed to head straight to the closest shiny object, since that would be faster for him by far than fleeing on foot ever could be.
Still, he hurried to the woman, since she was in charge.
“Hello! I’m Gary. Sally told me to get with you on the concessions. Something about new people pulling their weight… or increasing sales, even if you normally keep them high? One of those. Take your pick.” He was too high pitched but was still trying for charming.
The lady smiled at him.
“I get a choice? Both are good but I have to think that increasing sales would be the real point. Let’s do that one?”
He nodded then, as the others, including at least six more people he couldn’t possibly know, all came in at once. Lannie seemed nearly shocked.
Gary let it all seemed planned.
“Well then. Let’s do that? Where do we start?”
Chapter six
It was funny, what set the different people into a funk when it came to working. Almost everyone there was willing to help set up the food and drinks. Even to help run the full bar that was going on along the back wall. They didn’t have a vast kitchen, though there really were treats like hot dogs, hamburgers, fries and onion rings. Soft drinks as well as roasted peanuts, for some reason.
Like it was a ball game for the family, instead of an underground fighting pit for deranged gamblers to get their jollies in.
A few of the new people grumbled a bit about the work, since they were fighters, not amusement park workers. Gary could see that one pretty clearly. The thing was, they were supposed to be helping their crew separate the idiots from their money by selling things. They were going to have a confined audience to pass off overpriced drinks and food to, which had to make it easier. Plus, the people there would be used to the idea of people selling them things at real events.
That took a bit of work but also some tricks. Like looking professional and making sure that people knew who to go to for the food and drinks.
Lannie, being clever, had hats for them all to wear. Stupid looking blue and red ball caps that had staff written on the front in large white letters. Almost half the people refused to wear them outright, with the other half standing around seeming pleased about that idea. As if it was too much to ask for them to do.
Gary rolled four pairs of eyes, which was disorienting to say the least. For a moment he actually felt like he was going to fall over, forcing him to close the things. That got attention as he snorted a bit. Apparently, that worked to make him sound angry enough that almost everyone paid attention.
“No! We’re all working this bit and we’ll do it right. That means we need to work on our patter, have the things we’re selling ready to go on short notice and that we wear the uniform that will help us separate these people from their money! So wear the darned hats and stop whining about it! Sure, they look stupid. We do that so the audience will feel like they’re better than we are, even as they buy things that will destroy their liver and make them fat. It’s camouflage, not an insult. Now, let’s get those passed out and see about that patter? Like in a ball park or a stadium.” They had the seating for it.
Oddly, only about a quarter of the people there knew what he meant. Lannie got it, so smiled as people actually took the hats and grudgingly put them on. Rather brilliantly she didn’t comment on what he’d said, otherwise, letting him take the lead, since that would mean she could dump the heat on him later as well, if anyone complained about it.
Since Gary wasn’t going to be there in a half a year to deal with the bad feelings, that worked for him. No one tried to hit him or anything, so whatever their first modes were, none of them seemed to be blasted by pure rage or anger. That was good to see. Otherwise it would be hard to work that night.
Almost as a joke Lannie passed him a white plastic tray-box with a blue webbing neck strap that was loaded with nothing at all. It would be good for carrying almost anything they had, however. Glancing at the red haired pale woman, who seemed to be a bit older, as in about fifty or so, he nodded.
“What am I selling?”
Almost chuckling she shrugged.
“How about peanuts first? That’s our lowest seller, so anything we can do to pick that up will help.”
“Right, let me…” Then, holding the white plastic box with his lower hands, speaking in his piping voice, Gary tried his best to be loud. He wasn’t very, which hadn’t been a thing he’d noticed before. He could speak all right, but yelling came out as just a bit louder than his speaking voice.
“Get your peanuts here! Fresh roasted peanuts, hot and savory. Just like yer granma would have made if you hadn’t been such a rotten little kid. Get yer peanuts, best around! If you miss out on this, yer cheatin’ yourself. Treat yourself right with some fresh roasted peanuts only…” He had to stop then, as everyone looked at him. “How much does a bag go for?”
Lannie didn't even have to look at anything then, answering off the top of her head.
“Four dollars a bag.”
“Only a measly four dollars a bag! Hand me a five, leave a dollar for a tip and it’s still a better deal than you get anywhere else! Get yer fresh roasted peanuts!”
It was funny, since most of the people chuckled at him. It wasn’t until one of them, a man that he didn’t know, who might have been Mick from earlier given his slightly pearl colored skin and bald head, spoke from the back.
“Great, now I want peanuts.”
Which was the point.
Gary nodded.
“It doesn’t really matter what you’re saying, the point is to let people know that you have what they want. Even if they didn't know they wanted it.” It was pretty much how about half of all cons started. He wasn’t a confidence man, of course. That didn't mean he hadn’t picked up a trick or two from some of his friends over the years. Most of the tricks they used weren’t even that hard to manage really.
You offered people what they wanted, pretended to give it to them then got more from them than they wanted to give at the end. Sales was pretty close to that, except that a good salesman made sure their customer was happy after the whole thing was done. It cut into the profit margin but was safer in the end.
Interestingly, Lannie took over then and pointed at Price. He flared blue a bit as she did it but already had the silly hat on. He got a box as well.
The woman didn’t give him a lot to go on.
“Beer. Solo cups, five dollars each.”
The man looked away, possibly being puzzled, then nodded.
“Um… Well…” Then he froze for a bit. Long enough people were looking for him to get angry or upset.
“We got your beer over here! So fresh from the tap it still has a head on it! Drown your thirst while it’s still cold and tasty. We got your beer! Only five per cup!”
He ran through it a few times and then everyone else had to go. It didn’t take that long, though by the end of their practice for the evening it was time to actually start making the food and getting the supplies ready. That wasn’t hard, since Lannie tried to do it all herself.
Which meant Gary waved at half the people.
“We’ll take this in shifts. Every time someone comes back with a tray we want a new one going out full, so keep an eye out and make sure you know the prices for what you’re selling. When in doubt get with Lannie on it. Or…” He looked at the board behind the little concession area and nodded. “Or me. I have it memorized. How do you want us to do this, Lannie?” She was the boss, after all.
The woman glanced at him, then winked.
“That’s a good plan. I need a hot dog, fry and burger station. We also need a dedicated runner for the mixed drinks. Who…” She hesitated then, as if she expected people to give her problems on that kind of thing.
It was a good way to get with the high rollers. Which meant they could use that to get a camera close to them. He didn’t have one on, being not up to speed on the technology well enough yet.
“Price, why don’t you do that for tonight. I’d do it, but I won’t be able to remember faces, so that’s out. That’s my first mode, not me being lazy.” He tried to sound a bit defensive about it. No one even looked at him funny, however. Probably meaning the word had gone out on that already.
Lannie just nodded.
“That works. Thanks, Gary. Silver, would you work back here with me? You can make the food.” That seemed a little off, until the lady with the silver hair nodded.
“Getting me away from all the new people out front. Thanks, Lannie. Sure, I can put some things together. I have all that MacDonald’s experience to fall back on from when I was sixteen.”
That it seemed was true of a few of the others, even if no one had known it before. They got the first part of the food handling then, having experience, with the rest of them being out on high pressure sales.
Price was going to be doing the fancy drinks, which would allow him to be all over the floor, both before and during the show. Each of them had a camera on them, except for Gary, since the truth was that he didn't know how to use one of them yet. It hadn’t sounded hard but Cindy had figured that he could run other parts of the game without a problem.
Nancy probably would have to take hers off, if she were really going to be wearing very little for her new job of the evening.
If the others had thought to get their cams on them, he didn't know. It wasn’t as if they could have a chat about it there. If Price did have his, then he could get close ups of a lot of faces. That meant it would be up to Gary to watch the rest of the operations that night. To see how the fights were run and all that.
That and make it seem like he was a great worker who cared about making money, more than being nosey. So far, he’d been bossy and annoying no doubt. No one had put him through a wall for it. Probably because he was wearing a suit. That kind of thing really did work to influence people into thinking you were in charge.
It was probably why Ronaldo wore one, after all. It was a trick that worked even when people knew you were doing it.
Lannie had him out on the floor as things were filling up, carrying cups of beer, cola and bottles of water. He ran a spiel first thing, using his upper hands to point at what he had, since he really wasn’t all that loud.
“Get a drink before you sit! It’s easier that way. Get two and you won’t have to get up halfway through the fight! Prices so good you might want to get some to take home with you later!” They weren’t that good, being about twice what they would have cost in the store. Still, as people moved into the seats, they stopped in the aisle about a quarter of the time to pass him a few bucks. Some even tipped, when he called out his little bit about no need for carrying annoying coins around if they did.
Which meant he was back to the stand, sold out, in the first ten minutes. Lannie just stared at him, then made up a second tray. There was no one free to go out yet, it seemed.
“That was fast! Here, I loaded more beer on this time. Let me know what goes fastest?”
That, it turned out was the water. It all sold though. On his third trip he had two boxes of things, one stacked on the other, the one in his bottom hands being clear plastic bottles.
“Still cold and always fresh! You’re gonna get thirsty, so get an extra bottle now, before they run out!”
People had to pass things around, like at a ball park, by about nine, when the first fight was going to start. The place wasn’t full, and the sales people all got waved back in, before the first fight. The house lights dimmed for that, and a sound like a drumroll started to play over the loud speakers.
The voice that came fairly boomed. It was very clear though. Enough to sound forced, meaning it was probably Ronaldo. Two men in shorts went into the ring in the center of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen. We have two new fighters here tonight. In the black trunks with the golden skin is Nigel Bacus. In the Purple and gold we have Kid Lewis! This is an Infected match up, so for your own safety please respect the ten-foot zone around the cage. We will begin the fight in three minutes. You have three minutes to make your bets.” There was a pause then and people actually got up from their seat, trying to get to the small booth off to the righthand side of the room. There were three people inside of it. With Sally and Ronaldo being two of them. At least there was a black fellow in a dapper suit who had been on a microphone and a two headed giant woman. The other person could have been anyone. They were beige, more or less.
The fighters just stood, glaring at each other. There was no one else in the ring with them. No managers, or even a referee. That seemed off, since it sounded like they had rounds. At two minutes and fifty-five seconds a woman in very little clothing, walked into the ring holding a cardboard sign that had a black one one it with a white background.
She was nearly falling out of her bikini top and the bottoms were what the kids called thongs, he thought. She was showing a whole lot of flesh at least.
Then, Ronaldo came back on over the loud speaker.
“The fight will begin in thirty seconds. All bets are in for round one. Fighters, are you ready?” That got a choppy wave from the gold colored man and a smoother one from the other. “Ring girl out. Let’s all give a big hand to Nancy!” That got some hooting, since people did seem to like attractive women.
It also killed time.
“In ten. Fighters, remember, no eye gouging or groin strikes. No powers that will impact the audience. Five minutes on the clock. When the bell rings, stop and go back to your designated corner. Ready… Fight!”
The men didn’t slam into each other with a desire to kill or anything. In fact, even if Gary wasn’t that much of a fight fan, it seemed a little bit lack luster at first. It was kind of clear that the whole thing was going to be about Nigel the gold man dodging energy attacks from Kid Lewis, while the Kid there tried just as desperately not to let the other man close with him.
From the pace of the moves, Nigel had an edge as far as speed went. It wasn’t that incredible to see but it was real enough to make it an even fight.
No one got too bored, since real shots were exchanged. When the gray beams of light hit the golden man, who shone like metal, they knocked him down with a meaty thunk.
The first round went to Lewis due to that. When they stopped, Ronaldo opened the betting booth back up, so that everyone could have a second chance at placing their bets, now that they knew a bit more. It was a bit of a mess, though gave Gary an idea.
The second round was more of the same, but in the nearly five minutes they had for bets and people to find their seats again between rounds, he got everyone out on the floor with loaded food and drink trays.
“Get yer hot dogs! Hots dogs here on your way back to your seat! Get a drink so you can yell louder!”
They were all calling things out like that, going back in with partially empty trays as soon as the betting was over.
In the fourth round, just after Nancy left, getting more applause for being so cute, Nigel moved in first thing, took the other man down and started to beat the crud out of him. It wasn’t elegant, just fast and hard. Kid Lewis did manage to fight back, mainly hitting the other fellow with beams of grayness. They worked, so it wasn’t just a one-sided beating or anything.
The trouble there seemed to be that they were both getting tired. Nigel slowed down a whole lot in the fifth round, and when he was hit, the beams didn’t do the same kind of damage as in the first two rounds. In the end Nigel moved in, and simply hit Kid in the head a few times, knocking him out. He started to move in to keep fighting, when Ronaldo spoke.
“We have a winner! Nigel Baaaacuuuus!”
There wasn’t a lot of cheering, at first. Not until Gary started clapping and chanting his name. That got ten other people to do it. Most of them on the concessions crew. It was infectious though, meaning that after the first five or so seconds of them all doing it, half the room was.
The few hundred people there even cheered for the man when he waved. Nancy moved in… To help get Kid Lewis out of the ring. Then it needed to be cleaned up, which meant a person he didn't recognize running in to do that.
Looking around, he nodded.
“Let’s get back out there. Ten minutes before the next fight? That’s ten minutes to get these hungry and thirsty people to part with that money they don’t need!”
Taking his own advice, he hit the floor pretty hard. One of the people there, a man in a suit, waved him over. Waving what looked like a twenty.
“Boy! Can I get a scotch? Neat, if possible?” The tone wasn’t actually that snotty sounding, for all that he’d been called a boy. It was probably just that he was three and a half feet tall at the moment that had done it, rather than harkening back to the day of servants as a true underclass.
“Right away! Price! Over here!” He pointed with one arm and waved another, as the black and glowing blue man moved over faster than most would have managed at a run.
“A scotch, neat, for this gentleman.” That got a nod, with their fighter running back to fill that order, as Gary pushed more water and red solo cups of overpriced beer. No one complained about it.
