Black Market Merchant

Lisa and Zane walked slowly around weaving between the overpriced market stalls. Eyeing the patrons and people starting to funnel into the buildings main entrance, Lisa explained to Zane that they needed someone gullible enough to bet on Lisa's fight. Especially considering that most everyone here was rich and the small sum she had to bet with was probably laughable to them.

"We should avoid the people that are clearly way too rich." Lisa explained. "They might seem dumb and frivolous, but they definitely know enough to stay that rich. Look for someone drinking a lot, that argues about anything or is just sitting around by themselves. They are more likely to take up betting with someone, as they can be easier to persuade biased on loneliness and pride."

They eventually ended up passing a kiosk that was displaying the fights that were going to be taking place. The kiosk was flipping between the different fights in numerical order displaying those that were going to participate. Just as Jackson had mentioned before, today was a tournament day. Many fighters would be here and even more spectators to boot. Just as the two were passing by the kiosk switched images, and something caught her eye. Lisa abruptly stopped and stared intently at it. Her expression darkened noticeably into disapproval.

"What's the matter Boss?" Zane asked seeing her serious expression.

"My picture is on here." Lisa replied pouting at it. "I look terrible!"

"Eh, really?" Zane looked at the picture. It was from the time Lisa fought the Skinner and she appeared to be waving at the crowd. "What's wrong with it?"

"You don't get it? My hair looks messy, my face is completely plain looking, and I look just… bleh!" Lisa replied angrily. She tightened her fist and waved it at the picture. "Whoever took my photo, without my permission, is going to find themselves dead in a ditch somewhere! I can't stand photos of me. Especially candid ones!"

Zane scratched his head while looking at it again. "I really don't see a problem with it."

"Gah, you just don't see it. Men are stupid." Lisa grumbled and started to walk away with a huff. As she did, she grabbed Zane by the collar and dragged him along behind her.

"Hey! Relax, I can follow you. No need to pull me." Zane said trying to regain his footing. He grabbed Lisa’s wrist in a futile attempt to lessen the pain.

Leaving the Kiosk behind, the two found themselves near the entrance to the Arena's fighting stage. Inside people were gathering together before the first fight of the day. The betting booths, off to the side of the hallway entrance, were starting to form little flocks of potential betters looking at the odds being displayed on wall mounted televisions behind.

"Putting that nasty picture aside, Zane here is what you've got to bet on me with." Lisa, still grumpy, said slapping a handful of cash in Zane's hand. "$300 is all I can spare. Benny is going to have the rest of it. Of which is not that much either."

"Three hundred!" Zane remarked looking down at the roll of cash in his hand. He likely hadn’t ever seen that much money in one place before. At least that was the vibe Lisa was feeling coming from him biased on his expression.

Lisa smirked inwardly, "This might be the job I gave him; however, this is actually a test! If he tries to just leave with the money, then he was useless, and my time was wasted. Yet if he does what I ask of him, then he is going to become a decent asset."

Then she spoke to him. "I will be leaving you now. I need to find Sadie and start warming up. Go and find someone that will take on the bet." She looked over the crowds of people quickly. "Maybe try that guy over there?" She said pointing to an older man with an ornately carved cane sitting by himself on a lobby bench.

"Why him?" Zane asked tearing his eyes away from the money in his hand.

"Hmm, intuition." Lisa replied. "He just fits my profile of a betting man."

Before Zane could ask her anything else, Lisa turned and disappeared, mingling into the growing crowd. Zane looked back at the money now tightly gripped in his hand. The soft green cash felt nice on his rough hand.

"I could get so much stuff with this cash. I bet even Garret never had this much on him before. I could live like a king on my side of the river for a while." Zane thought to himself. "However, that marketplace, the prices were so insanely high and that alone makes me wonder. Boss Lisa probably wants to be able to have that much one day and that's probably why she's given me the task to make money from bets. If I make her the money, then I'll probably end up benefiting too!"

The thought of making even more money, more than he ever imagined, was definitely tempting. However, he had seen her opponent. That Golem man was no pushover. Though Boss Lisa had shown the slight upper hand in their first encounter; it was the powerful counter attack, that sent her flying, that really worried him. If Golem had used that ability from the start, could she have won? How could she hope to beat a monster like him?

Zane wandered towards the closest betting booth. On the back wall was a large television displaying the betting ratios of the matches. Along with that ratio, the statistics of the Fighters were also on a rotational display. Though he didn't know how to interpret the ratio to know how that ratio was even formulated, which annoyed him. He could, however, tell that Lisa's numbers were by far much smaller than her opponents. The ratio for Queens fight was 16:3, in Golems favor.

"Let's see, three hundred multiplied by sixteen is $4,800!" Zane remarked in disbelief at his own guess for the ratio. The temptation to bet on Lisa at the booth right then was very tempting and he nearly did. But he recalled that Lisa specifically said to bet on her with someone else, not at the booths. Why? He didn't yet understand.

Zane looked back at the older man still sitting on the bench. Zane sighed and thought to himself, "I can try with him first, but if he doesn't want to, I'll just bet here."

Zane left the betting booth and casually walked over to the old man’s bench. The man was very nicely dressed in a light gray suite and matching pants. The quality was like nothing he had seen before. In fact, most of the people here were dressed far more superior compared to his ragged and worn clothes. Until now he considered that his cloths were in the best condition than those filthy scraps the townspeople had on. For the first time in a while, Zane felt genuinely dirty. Tossing those thoughts aside, he sat down on the other end of the old man’s bench.

"Excuse me Mr., but I seem to have noticed that you’re by yourself here. Aren't you interested in all the people and fights that are going on? I sure am. This is my first time here. How about yourself?" Zane spoke to the man trying to start a feeble conversation.

The well-dressed man didn't even look his way and just kept watching the crowds as they bustled by. Zane cringed inwardly. He felt as if he had come on way to strong and now the man probably thought he was a weirdo.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to come on to you like that." Zane muttered and started to get up.

The older man stuck out his cane and stopped Zane from getting up. "You're not a normal attender to these events. That is clear. From your cloths I can see that you're low on money. You are a betting man, aren't you?"

"Y-Yes." Zane replied a bit unsure of his intentions. "I do have a bet I want to make."

"Just one bet?" The man turned to peer sideways at Zane with one skeptical eye. "I think your betting on many things, but you don't even realize you are."

Zane shrugged. "You got me there. I don't even really understand how I ended up doing all this."

The older man looked back at the crowds going by and twiddled the tip of his long gray mustache. "This bet, tell me, how much confidence do you have in it?"

"Well, I'd say it’s 50/50." Zane said scratching his head.

"Seriously?" The older man said lowing his head dramatically onto the end of his cane. "You mean that you call yourself a betting man, but have no confidence in your own bet? Young man strive to be better than that. I'll show you what I mean."

The older man reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small device. Taping a button on its surface a holographic image appeared. Zane was fascinated by such a sight. Never before had he seen something as technologically advanced as this in this backwoods town.

"Here is a list of all my bets for today. As you can see not all of them are with money." The older man said and pointed at a specific bet. "I bet myself that I would be challenged with a new better before the matches begin and here you are! Now I'll eat sushi rather than curry tonight."

Zane nodded as if he was understanding what the man was talking about. All the while he inwardly thought to himself, "What is sushi and curry?" Then scanning the rest of the holo-display, he saw two numbers that shocked him. "$80,000 dollar bet on Coyote beating Ace! $120,000 dollar bet on Golem to beat Queen?! How can you afford that much on just bets alone?"

"Haha, actually these bets aren't really all that high. I just didn't see anything that interested me to bet more." The older man replied as he clearly was enjoying Zane's plight.

"Well, if you can afford this much, then could you bet against me for $300?" Zane asked holding up the cash that he had hidden in his pocket.

"Well, I don't see why not? If it will help you to be a better betting man, than yes." The older man replied giving a nod.

"I will bet all this on Queen beating Golem then. She's my boss after all and it would be shameful if I didn't bet on her." Zane said.

"I accept." The older man said extending his hand towards Zane. "My name is Dino McMathers, Chairman of Luxury Sporting Vehicles Corp."

"I am Zane, uh, just Zane." Zane replied taking the man’s hand.

The two shook hands and McMathers stood up heavily on his cane. "Well, we better be going to get good seats. You said this was your first time here, right?"

Zane nodded ‘yes’ in reply.

"Well than, come join me in my booth. It has an amazing view and I'll introduce you to some other betting men and women. Perhaps you'll pick up on something to help you from the experience." Dino McMathers said giving a broad grin.

Zane though for a moment. Lisa hadn't told him to join up with her or the others, just make bets. As long as he met back up with her and explained where he went, she would probably understand. Besides thing were getting interesting.

"That's a generous offer. I'll come join you." Zane said getting up to follow him.

"Great! You will enjoy this for sure." McMathers said cheerily as the two headed towards the Arena entrance together.