The Odds - Jeff Strand Page 0,49
this game are extremely rich and they have a lot of free time. They’ll find you. The longer it takes, the worse it’ll be when they do. I don’t think I need to get into the graphic details. Let’s just say that when they find the four of you, you’ll be the last to go.”
“I get what you’re saying,” said Ethan. “But as you may recall, apparently some scary drug dealers have been told that I stole a briefcase of cocaine from them. If they show up to my house wanting it back, I’m not sure I’m any better off than if I just flee.”
“You’re better off because...” Rick cleared his throat. “I may have gone a little rogue. Which means that you have somebody on the inside who’s sympathetic to your plight. I can give you information. Increase your odds of success.”
Ethan took a lick of his ice cream cone. “Give me an example.”
“They aren’t real drug dealers. They’re actors.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Let me be very clear—they’re still dangerous. They’ll behave the way real-life angry drug dealers would behave in this scenario. We want the game to be as real as possible, but stealing an actual briefcase full of cocaine from actual drug dealers and framing you for it would’ve been too difficult and unpredictable.”
“But you’re saying that I’ll still have homicidal actors coming to my house?”
Rick nodded. “Not technically homicidal, but yes. The thing is, nowhere in the rules does it say you have to sit back and take it. You’re not allowed to go to the authorities. You’re not allowed to tell anybody you’re in this game. You are allowed to take steps to defend yourself. I can give you a number to call where you can hire a couple of men to make this particular problem go away.”
“Are you telling me to hire hit men?”
“No. I’m suggesting it.”
“How has my life gotten to the point where I’m talking about hiring hit men?”
“They’re not cheap, but the money you won in the arm-breaking challenge will cover it. They’ll kill the actors quickly and quietly, and take the bodies away. You don’t have to do a thing.”
“Sounds like they offer top-notch service. So what’s an appropriate tip for a professional assassin? Fifteen percent or twenty?”
“Would you like the number or not?” Rick asked.
“Yes, I would. Thank you.”
“I’m going to help you as much as I can. If you’re willing to work with me and play along, we may be able to get through to the end of the game.”
“Okay,” said Ethan. “I have a pretty good bullshit detector, and I think you’re being honest with me. I’m not saying we won’t run off again, but I’ll go home for now.”
“Perfect.”
“Thanks for the ice cream.”
“Anytime.”
“Can I borrow your phone to call Jenny?”
Ethan picked up Jenny and the kids, then parked at a different restaurant next door. Patrick and Tim stayed in the car while Ethan and Jenny got out to talk. Their children needed to be kept more or less in the loop of what was going on, but the discussion of hiring hit men seemed to belong in the “less” category.
“How’d it go?” Jenny asked.
“I think I have to trust him. He’s promised to feed me inside information so I can get through the next challenges. We should go home and play along.”
“What about the people coming to kill us?”
“Yeah. We should talk about that. It turns out they aren’t real drug dealers, they’re actors pretending to be drug dealers, but they’re every bit as deadly. Rick gave me a number I can call to hire somebody to make that problem, uh, stop being a problem.”
“He told you to hire a hit man?” Jenny asked.
“Yes.”
Jenny said nothing for a very long time.
“Do you think we should do it?” she finally asked.
“Maybe.”
“How much does something like that cost?”
“A lot. It will probably wipe out most of the money I won.”
“Do we want to spend that much?”
“I don’t know,” said Ethan. “I mean, I guess we could comparison shop.”
“What I mean is that we’re in a terrible situation right now,” said Jenny. “Worst-case scenario, we’ll need—well, no, the worst case scenario is we all die. Second worst-case scenario is we’ll have to pay somebody for new identities. Even if it doesn’t go quite that far, we may desperately need that money to keep ourselves alive.”
“I understand that. But we have a more pressing concern than buying new identities.”
Again, Jenny said nothing for a very long time.
“Should we pay somebody to