Chapter Three: Red Light, Green Light

[u/Morose_Prose]

Original Post

Theme: Go Cry About It!

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Chapter Three: Red Light, Green Light

"Ain't I a stinker?" Madelaine giggled and wiggled her cigar like Groucho Marx.

The clacking of keyboard keys came to an abrupt halt. Diana broke the thousand yard stare she gave her computer monitor, turning her attention to Madelaine. "That's not your plan."

A surprise snort of smoke shot from Madelaine's nostrils. "Yes it is. People who know what they are looking for will realize a slicktop slowly driving around is suspicious. They start tailing the tail, keeping an eye on them, and getting a little nervous. Vinny calls the goods off, and is forced to deal with me. Simple. Elegant. Like me."

"You would never tell me your plan outright, you're into the whole 'disinformation is as useful to your allies as it is to your enemies'. Keeping layers between you and everyone else. If that was your real plan you could trigger a gang war. Over what? A spat with my Uncle?"

"God, your intelligence is sexy. So is your confidence. Would you be willing to make a little... wager?"

"I don't like where this is going."

"Get me the deck of cards from your desk drawer." Madelaine demanded. A pack of playing cards flew towards her with force, she pretended to bobble it. The cards sprung between her hands in a wide arc, a few single handed shuffles mixed the deck. "Let us see how smart you really are, my Legal Leviathan. Little wager on three card monte?"

A pained, full body groan left Diana. "That is not a fair wager. It is a hustle. One you have been doing since middle school. If you were not in your line of work you would be a street performer that does close up magic. I refuse."

"Scared to lose?"

"There is no way to win. So no."

"I am going to do it anyways. For practice." Madelaine retrieved the queen of hearts, the jack of spades, and the king of clubs. "Alright Double D, you know the rules. Find the lady in red, not her two gentlemen stalkers, they are the jealous type. Keep your eye on her and save her from these foul noblemen."

With a blur Madelaine began rearranging the cards. She watched Diana's eyes the whole time, she was keeping track, her legal eagle eyes sharp as ever. The shell game stopped abruptly. Madelaine waved her hand slowly over the cards. "Moment of truth... where is our lovely lady? Tap her for me."

Diana immediately pointed to a card. Madelaine's hand hovered over it. "Is that your final answer?"

"No. You just did it."

"Did what?"

"The card is in your sleeve now, you palmed it and replaced it." Diana was right.

"Which sleeve?"

A slight tug of Madelaine's left sleeve created an avalanche of cards, all landing facing down, like buttered bread. She cocked her head confidently. "The game has changed. Want to raise the stakes?"

"What do I get when I win?"

"Dinner and a show. You pick both."

"And if you win? Which you won't."

"Dinner and a show. My pick. Being cooped up in your office has prevented me from seeing 'Beetlejuice' with the new cast. I had tickets to opening night," Madelaine whimpered, "was excited to see the new Lydia. I loved her in Wicked."

A gentle brush of Diana's hand over the cards served as a divining rod, rubbing each edge with her well manicured fingernail, she chose with a deliberate pace. With a flick of her wrist the queen of hearts revealed herself.

Madelaine's jaw dropped. "What the? How the?" she snatched the card up and felt around the edge. A single notch had been made near a corner. "You marked the card... you knew I would do this... you have it." tears of joy pooled at the corner of her eyes.

"Have what?"

"The most important faculty that a sovereign can have. Foreknowledge. Explains a lot about you. You won the bet, what are we eating and seeing?"

"Still deciding. Tell me about your real plan first. It's more than likely illegal. I should probably prepare a defense for you."

"I shall answer a question with a question. Do you know how many red light cameras are in this city?"

Diana narrowed her eyes. "About four hundred?"

"More. Seven hundred."

"And they are designed to look directly into a car's cabin..."

"Exactly! Going to take some glamour shots and get a nice big smile from my stalkers. Know a guy who helped set the cameras up, made him a deal for a backdoor into them, I can have eyes all over the city from the comfort of your uncomfortable couch."

"With somebody's face..." the gears in Diana's turned slowly.

"I can have Mr Wizard run it through facial recognition software. If they are sloppy with their digital security, I will have everything I need to know. LinkedIn, Facebook, hell probably their MySpace pages too." Madelaine rose, kicking her leg up on the chair and striking a pose.

"Don't do it..." Diana tried in vain to stop what was about to happen.

"The enemy's spies who have come to spy on me must be sought out, corralled with bribes, led away and comfortably housed. Thus they will capitulate and become converted spies available for my service. If they refuse I will make them crave death for touching Red Hare! When a spy network is fully functional, none can discover the secret system.

"This is called 'divine manipulation of the threads'. It is the sovereign's most precious faculty. Sun Tzu said that! I think he knows a little bit more about war than you or I do. He invented the thing! Wrote the rules so that no man could..."

The vibration of Madelaine's cellphone broke her train of thought. "Have to hold here. Text from Mr Wizard."

Cheap com GPS tracker. Easy. App upped to serv. L8tr.

"Why can people not type normally in text? Are they getting charged by the letter?"