Mardock Scramble

Two sevens and an even number of eights remained in the deck: a card order designed to prevent an instant victory for the player. The third seven only appeared due to the skill of the dealer and the judgment of the player, both of them exceptional. The three cards known as the “Glory Sevens” sat before Balot’s eyes. Between diamonds on the left and on the right pulsed the seven of hearts.

Their suits as red as blood. In truth, the three cards were blood. Not spilled blood, tragic and bereft of hope. But blood shed in spirit during their long battle.

To properly respond—to give her one-hundred-percent answer—was not only her own personal goal, it was merited.

–Even money.

Ashley gulped. His hand, prepared to reveal his hole card as soon as she stayed, trembled in midair.

It was the choice to throw away the blackjack payout. And the path to the minimum guaranteed winnings.

“You want to throw away a six-million-dollar payout? You know that’s a difference of four million dollars!”

Balot sat motionless.

The Doctor’s hands shook on the back of her chair.

Next to him, Bell Wing closed her eyes, then opened them again when the moment of silence had passed.

“I never thought you’d be able to throw away a chance of winning six million dollars. I miscalculated. I am utterly defeated. Now I’ve seen courage. I’ve seen humility. For the first time, I’ve seen somebody beat me completely.”

He slowly lowered his hovering hand to the table.

Suddenly, Balot’s vision clouded, and she could no longer see.

Tears filled her eyes. They wouldn’t stop. Their warmth flowed down her cheeks and, mixed with the thin layer of silver powder on her skin, fell to the table. As it all spilled, her only thought was, I did this. She had climbed the last step of the stairway to heaven and jumped into space. There she set foot on a new stairway—one entirely her own.

She was frightened. Her body shook. She summoned the courage to take one step forward.

Only later did she realize she had been crying endless tears. And from her trance, she spoke to her rival. How she had won. Why she had been able to win.

–I was trapped in a car when people came to save me. Like your brother, I too have died.

Ashley sighed.

“You’re like a mermaid.” He shrugged. “You remind me of the story of the fish who exchanged her voice for a pair of legs to walk on land. Even if she did end up dissolving into foam, she was a brave woman. Even though each step felt like a sword passing through her, she walked the land because she wanted to know the truth.”

He turned the hole card. Balot couldn’t see anything through her tears.

“I didn’t think this card would be defeated.”

–I can’t see it.

“It doesn’t matter. You won. A perfect victory.”

Two cards rose through the haze, symbolic of the man before her.

The ace and the jack of spades. The strongest blackjack—the one-eyed jack.

Chapter 11

CONNECTING ROD

01

Everyone waited patiently for Balot to finish wiping her face with the cloth.

Ashley didn’t even ask what she intended to do for the next game. Neither did he collect the cards in preparation for the shuffle. He just waited for her.

When Balot eventually finished wiping the tears from her face and looked up, there was Ashley, holding out the box. The box full of golden chips.

Those on the floor watched in stunned silence as Balot reached for the box and took a golden chip, one with the OctoberCorp emblem etched on its face. When Ashley said, And now please choose your other one, the whole crowd seemed about to faint. Balot checked for the last OctoberCorp emblem—the final piece of the puzzle—and once she’d located it, she gingerly took the chip into her care along with the other three.

“Perhaps you might be able to share with me—only if it suits you, that is—just what it is about these chips that you’re seeking?” Ashley said as he placed the box—now deprived of a third of its golden luster—back into place.

Balot casually slipped the chips into her glove—as if they were unimportant—and answered him.

–I made the trade too, I think. Like the mermaid with the sorceress. So that I would be able to walk, in a manner of speaking.

“So that’s what you’re aiming for, is it? To be able to walk properly?”

–I think so.

Ashley nodded, greatly impressed. Or so it seemed, but then he frowned.

It wasn’t Balot’s fault, though—indeed, his sudden change of demeanor was nothing to do with her and everything to do with the barrage of words that were now assaulting his ears through his earpiece. Balot knew immediately who was haranguing him so—not so much from the voice, but from the words themselves.