get out of this place? It was a frickin’ maze.
“Hey,” somebody said to him.
Ethan glanced over. It was a man, maybe thirty, immaculately groomed and nicely dressed in a dark grey suit. “Yeah?”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
“Not really.” Ethan continued on his way, wherever that was. The man walked up next to him.
“I can fix your problem.”
“What problem?”
“You look like you’re sick to your stomach. You’ve got haunted eyes. It’s not an uncommon look around these parts. You lost more than you can afford.”
Ethan let out a snort. “You could say that.”
“How much?”
“None of your business.”
“Five hundred?”
“I wish.”
“A thousand?”
“I said it’s none of your business. I’m not interested in a high-interest loan, sorry.”
“It’s not a loan,” said the man. “It’s a game.”
“I’m all out of gambling money.”
“There’s no buy-in.”
“Then what’s the scam?”
The man smiled and extended his hand. “My name’s Rick Murray. I’m play-testing a game that could recoup all of your losses ten minutes from now. No financial risk to you whatsoever. You will not lose another penny. Maybe I misinterpreted your facial expression and body language, but you look like somebody who is truly desperate. Am I wrong?”
Ethan was silent for a moment. “No, you’re not wrong.”
“Then come with me.”
“Where?”
“My office.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. This is becoming kind of creepy, so if you truly want to help me out, you can direct me to the exit of this funhouse. Otherwise, I’m not interested.”
“Straight ahead, then left at the blackjack tables, keep going in that direction until you reach the wall, then take a right and go past the dollar slots until you see the exit to the left.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m not taking you down any dark alleys or luring you into a basement,” said Rick. “It’s a small office two buildings down. Totally safe. If I meant to do you harm, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you somewhere with cameras all over the place.”
“Still, it’s creepy. You have to admit that it’s creepy, right?”
“I won’t go so far as to use the word creepy. I will concede that it sounds like a scam. But I’ll also say that if I were going to prey upon somebody, I’d go after a big winner, not somebody who just lost his life savings. You look emotionally destroyed. I wouldn’t be able to squeeze any more money out of you.”
“Then it’s sex trafficking or something.”
“I feel like any response to that could be taken as an unintentional insult.”
“Like I said, I’m not interested. Thanks again for the directions.”
“Not a problem. I hope everything works out for you.”
Ethan started to walk away from him. Then he stopped.
If he was on high alert, if he didn’t walk into a torture dungeon, if he didn’t sign anything, if he didn’t hand over any credit cards or identification...why not see what the guy was offering? Barring waking up in a bathtub with his kidneys missing, how could things get worse?
He turned back toward Rick. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
“Perfect. Follow me.”
Ethan followed him out of the casino—his directions had been accurate—and out onto the sidewalk. They passed another casino, then arrived at the glass door of a place that looked like a fairly boring office building. He could see a front desk with a young receptionist seated behind a computer.
Rick pushed the door open and walked inside. This didn’t look like the kind of place where people’s organs were harvested and sold on the black market, so he went in after him.
“Hi, Mindy,” Rick said to the receptionist as they walked by her desk. She grinned at him. Definite affection between them but they weren’t sleeping together.
They walked across the small lobby. Rick opened another door, which led to an office that looked like a place where a low-level employee might sell insurance. As they went inside, Rick started to pull the door shut, then left it open. “Don’t want you to feel uncomfortable,” he said, sitting down behind the desk, which had a computer on it but little else. “Have a seat.”
Ethan sat down on the chair in front of the desk.
“Can I get you anything?” Rick asked. “Water? Coffee?”
“I’m fine.”
“May I ask your name?”
“Ethan Caustin.”
“Pleased to meet, you, Ethan. I’ll get right to it. I’m inviting you to participate in a game. After each round, you can decide if you want to keep going, or if you want to quit. If you quit, you get to keep your winnings. If you continue, the prizes get bigger and bigger. Now I need