Free Wild Cards 13 : Card Sharks by George R.R. Martin Page A

defiant or was just too scared. Anyhow, I turned around and yelled her name. 
    "Here!" Her voice was distant and muffled, but a knocking sound was much sharper.
    I rat down a long carpeted hallway. "Fleur! It's Chuck!"
    "I'm locked in! Over here!" She pounded on her door again.
    I fumbled with the knob, but it required a key. "Troll!"
    His footsteps pounded down the hall toward me. 
    "Look out, Fleur! Back up!" I stepped aside and Troll simply crashed into the door, smashing it down.
    Fleur stood in the middle of the room, staring at Troll in horror.
    "Cone on!" I darted inside and grabbed her arm. "Have you got the money? For tonight?"
    "No I couldn't get to the bank." She snatched up her purse.
    I dragged her out and pulled her down the hall.
    Chetah was still jumping around in front of the servants, but Henry had started toward us. He stopped, though, when he saw Troll coming back. Fleur looked away from him as I drew her past him toward the front door.
    "Whore!" Henry yelled. "Filthy whore - joker's whore!"
    ***
    We stopped at her bank in the neighborhood. She acted like she was in a trance, quivering and sweating but doing everything she had to do. Once she had the cash, we took Fleur back to Jokertown on the subway, of course. I kept an eye on her wristwatch. We would just barely make her appointment.
    Back in Jokertown, I thanked Cheetah and Troll. They took the hint and got lost. I led Fleur quickly up the sidewalk in the waning light. She clung to me, crying quietly.
    "What happened? Did your father find out?"
    Her voice was tight. "Not exactly. But he was real mad that I was out the other night - he checked up on me and found out that I wasn't at my girlfriend's after all. When I started to leave yesterday, he locked me in."
    "Now I've really done it - he saw you with jokers."
    When we reached the rear of the club, Waffle was pacing restlessly by the back door. He looked like a human-shaped cookie cut-out of a waffle in both texture and color, and in his very flat shape. He wore a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his brown, waffled shoulders, and blue dungarees with the cuffs rolled up over white socks and dirty tennis shoes.
    "Gimme the dough," said Waffle.
    She handed me five one-hundred dollar bills. I held them out.
    Waffle snatched them. "All right, follow me."
    We followed him. He led us up a back alley and then opened a small unmarked door. He went inside first. This door opened on a narrow hallway. I shut it behind us.
    Waffle opened an interior door. "They're here, Doc."
    The elderly man who appeared was of Chinese descent, short and stocky like Peter Choy, with receding black hair and a deeply lined face. He wore a long white lab coat. His otherwise human face had a long duck beak. "I'm just Doc," he said calmly. "My nickname is Peking Doc. You don't need to tell me your name."
    "Hi," said Fleur, in a whisper, as she stared at his beak.
    Doc turned to me. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, young man. Now, don't worry. I'll give your friend something to make her drowsy and everything will be fine. But it will be an hour before she wakes up and two hours before she's herself again. I'll have to ask you to remain in the next room." He pointed.
    "All right," I said, turning to Fleur. "Uh - good luck."
    "She'll be fine." Doc held open another door and gestured for Fleur to precede him.
    She gave me a terrified glance and stiffly walked through it.
    Waffle slipped past me and left by the back door. I went into the room Doc had pointed out. It was dark until I switched on a corner lamp. Then I picked up copies of Reader's Digest to look for the funny stuff.
    Nearly an hour passed. Suddenly I wondered if Matt Rainey had accomplished anything today. I decided to find out, despite what Doc had said, and slipped outside, making sure that the door would not lock behind me. Then I ran to the nearest newsstand and snatched up a copy of the New York Mirror , tossing coins onto the counter. I hurried back to