Shadow Walker

Casino Party

The Casino loomed, a dazzling spectrum of light in Dec's optics. Triangular sheaths of glass, like shards of ice, formed the outer embryo of the building and reflected heat from its surrounds. It dazzled in its ever-changing temperatures, a chameleon of colour next to the stagnant heat imprints of the porous Victorian-style buildings around it.

Unmarked limousines congregated on the street, engine's idling, black shells trailing white streams of light where hot exhausts disappeared into the cool, black night. Men and women stepped onto the pavement, appearing in Dec's optics like orange faces floating atop nondescript bodies, marked only by small differences in clothing—the double layer of a vest, the slit in a floor-length gown.

Dec trailed Lazar into the foyer, gasping as lemon light billowed from between the sliding glass doors of the entrance. Inside, the room shone lime green, with watery tendrils of canary orange where warm air drifted from hidden climatisers in the floor and ceilings. Chandeliers hung in bright red circular patterns above their heads. A water feature glittered dark blue against the far wall. The rubber soles of Lazar's patent leather shoes left friction aquamarine footprints on the glossy marble floors.

They came to an abrupt halt beside a navy lift alcove. As they waited for the descending coffin to return from the viewing platform on the twenty-second storey, Dec stretched the neck of his shirt. Lazar considered him, his expression unreadable through his optics. As the lift pinged and the doors opened in a billow of dark blue, he said, "You're not getting hot feet, are you?"

Dec swiped a bead of sweat from his temple and stepped inside the lift. "I'm just not much of a fan of coffins."

"Interesting," Lazar said, touching the letter F for 'Function Room' on the touchpad next to the door, set one row to the right from the other floor buttons and holding it down until it gave another ping. When he released the button, the heat of his fingers left a fleeting orange fingerprint on the metal. "Claustrophobia is often a conditioned response to small spaces. What happened to you?"

Dec was saved from answering as the lift pinged again and a smooth voice wafted from speakers in the roof. "Two occupants detected. Please scan your palm pods on the sensor and place your index finger on the track pad provided."

A square section on the wall the size of a handspan glowed blue. Lazar leaned forward to scan his palm pod. Before Dec could do the same, Lazar gripped Dec's wrist and unclipped the magnetic tracking shield from it. "Keep this in your pocket during the party. You can put it back on once we leave."

Dec did as he was told, then scanned his palm pod and fingerprint. The lift gave another ping and instead of rising to the circular observatory where Dec had assumed the function would be held, dropped in one piston-smooth descent past the parking and basement levels, to an unmarked level below.

"Welcome Declan Hancock and Mobius Staedler," the elevator voice said once the lift slowed to a halt. "Please enjoy your stay at the Playford Casino."

"Your real name's Mobius?" Dec said as the doors slid open, unable to hide the amusement in his voice. "And you call yourself Lazar?"

"That is a story that could rival the one about how you became claustrophobic," came Lazar's response.

His comment wiped the smug curve off Dec's mouth. He wanted to know more, but was caught, mid-thought, by the sight of the room he'd just entered. At first, his brain struggled to interpret the input from his eyes. It was as though he'd been knocked off orbit and shot into a galaxy of stars. That, or he was feeling the affect of some very strong psychedelic drugs.

He blinked and focused. The room had been decorated with solar optics in mind. The ceiling had been heated around the optical spectrum of colours so that pinhole lights in the ceiling shone like stars. The drinks bar marbled neptune blue, spherical tables glowed mars red and venus yellow, and there, right at the centre of the solar system, a bright white fireball representing the sun had been created with boiling water bubbling over a large orb-shaped marble.