Soul of a Gambler

Preface II - "To The Victor"

The locked crate felt heavy in his hold, stolen Blackwatch weapons always weighed heavy with the blood they had spilled. He wasn't like the others in his employ, the strong and tough scum of the street who he pulled along with what amounted to a coin on a string. He swung his hips, following with his arms and using the centripetal force of the motion to lift the case and hurl it into the hold of their getaway craft with the others. Two hundred cases, or was it one hundred fifty? Did it matter? The weapons inside were not only Blackwatch, but they also had no opportunity to get to the hands of either their rightful owners, through repossession, or into the hands of anyone--other than him--who would misuse them.

"Jax! You finished? Let's get this show on the road!" A gruff man who's face was mostly gray beard leaned out the boxy attack-helicopter style canopy of the band's cargo ship, aviator-style sunglasses shining in the early-morning sunlight.

"Damn near. Our buyer 'gonna be real pleased with these." Jax turned to watch his eclectic team loading the last of their 'merchandise' as any good manager would. He stroked his chin-length goatee and ran a hand over his face up to his slicked-back blonde hair. He debated lighting himself a smoke, one of the good ones, today deserved a good one. Jax was a betting man though, and often times shown to be a damn good one both in and out of the back alley dice games and hands of cards in the opulent casinos. If he took the time to light up and sit through the time it took to really enjoy one of 'the good ones' his pilot would probably leave him behind.

So instead he gripped the well-worn metal on the side of the ship and hoisted himself into the cramped portion of the hold reserved for the team as his bulky and quiet associates loaded up the last of the spoils. When the final stacks of crates were tied and battened down, his four team members climbed in with him, tilting the even distribution of the weight as little as they could while they took the optimal seating positions out of courtesy for the pilot.

Jax rapped his knuckles against the wall behind him, sitting with his legs spread and a smile on his face. The others kept quiet, their limbs huddled together like they were waiting in anxious anticipation for some unknown threat. The doors to the cargo bay slid shut, briefly plunging the five into darkness until the dim amber of the hold light came on. Jax couldn't help but smile as his head filled with the howl of engines, and his rear was shaken by the vibrations of take off. In twenty minutes they would all be rich, and thoughts of everything he was going to buy and everywhere he was going to go drifted vividly through his head.

He pulled his olive-drab duster close to himself as a defense against the cold of the bay, and he was quietly thankful that their course kept them inside the atmosphere. Space was a special type of cold he never wanted to feel firsthand. He tried making conversation with the others, though these men of action were also men of few words. So instead they flew in uncomfortable silence, with only the roaring engine and whipping wind to keep their attention. Jax fell asleep, exhausted from the fighting only an hour earlier.

The feeling of the top of your head striking cold metal is never a fun thing. Less so is it a fun thing to wake up to, but that's what brought Jax back to the real world just as soon as he had left it. The others clung to the cases and the ribbons of the ratchet straps holding them to the bay floor to try and stabilize against the suddenly and violently erratic flight of their pilot.

The aircraft tilted upward and Jax tumbled back end over end across the hard floor, a rivet at the join between two panels slashed his forehead, drawing a line of warm blood that flowed around his eyebrow and down his gaunt cheek. He eventually caught in a corner created by a pile of loot and the wall opposite the bay door. He regained his bearing enough to press two fingers to the bloodied Bit-com in his ear.