Chương 664: Chapter Forty-Five - 57,646,075,230,342,400,000

"Respect is complicated. For some, respect means bowing to the greater authority. It doesn't matter if the corporate drone bossing you around is an incompetent idiot, you're not following orders because it comes from the person, but be cause it comes from the position. The military figured this out a long time ago. You respect a wild animal because it can unleash violence on you at any moment. You respect friends and family, because they see and treat you like a person.

Then you meet a Samurai, and suddenly you're respecting them because they're the combination of all three. A wild animal with a badge, one that somehow still sees people as people... as long as they're respected." --Most Popular Rumbler Post of July 2038 The inside of the Velvet Wheel was... okay, I had to admit it, the place was impressive. The lobby opened up to a narrow room with a tall ceiling leading to a long desk.

There were X-ray scanners and luggage checking machines, like some sort of airport, but spruced up a little to look a bit fancier and less industrial. Past those machines--which we sidestepped because there was no way that Nya and I wouldn't set them all off--was a corridor that opened up into the actual main lobby. The space was...

I think the word is 'palatial?' It was a massive room, with golden pillars rising up to a ceiling several floors above ringed by balconies. Thick carpet on the ground, with a complicated pattern woven into it. There was an arched ceiling above that opened up to a bright blue sky, with just a few fluffy clouds scrolling by. There was enough marble to outmass a megabuilding, it looked like. Mostly white or some creamy beige, but there were some areas with wooden floors.

I blinked up at a chandelier that had to be as large around as the Bastion and covered in long crystal spires.

"Pretty," I said.

"Bit much," Nya said. That was true. There was some attempt to make the space tasteful, but the sheer amount of wealthiness oozing off of everything made that attempt... kind of a massive failure. My eye was drawn to one side. The room looked like it continued to both sides, actually, curving slightly. So maybe it went all the way around? A huge tunnel through the main part of the 'wheel' of the casino. There were tables to the side, and people sitting behind them with cards in hands and chips in front of them.

They were playing against silver-and-gold skinned androids. Probably droids that were several generations younger than the nanny bots we had at the orphanage.

"This way," the guard who'd greeted us said. I jumped a bit, then followed after him. He led us right across the room, then up to an escalator to the side. We were followed by some twenty-odd dudes from security who formed a cordon around us.

"Nice place," I said as we rode the escalator up. It has glass sides, so I got a nice view of the sprawling floor filled with rows and rows of slot machines.

"How many people are here?"

"That's not something we advertise," the guard said.

"Nya counted!" Nya said.

"There's sixteen thousand people playing with the machines, and about half as many at the card tables. And there's shows going on, movies... there's a pool on the roof too."

"That's a lot of folk," I said.

"Yup," Nya said.

"A lot of people doing drugs, oh, and there's a whorehouse on the entire top floor ring. It's mostly sexbots though." She made a face.

"Nya wonders if the non-bot workers are all legal?" The guard was starting to look a bit sweaty, which was strange, the escalator didn't require any effort to climb.

"The Velvet Wheel is a well-regarded and legally operated establishment," he said.

"I've seen shit you wouldn't believe, and it was all legal," I said.

"That tends to mean less than jack shit when you can pay enough to change what is and ain't legal."

"I'm afraid that philosophy is above my pay-grade," he said. Nya snorted at that, but it did seem like it was the end of that particular line of discussion. I did note, as he led us along, that the amount of security wasn't nearly as insane deeper in. There were cameras all over, and they were designed to be obvious, but there wasn't an armed guard at every corner. So, the tighter security was meant for the exterior of the wheel? I supposed that the people here liked feeling safe.

We passed a few rows of slot machines, and I was impressed and a little disturbed to see that there were so many people using them. There was definitely some weird age-skewing going on, however. The only people playing slots were super old. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The people that weren't quite ancient yet? They were playing other kinds of games.

I saw old-timers sitting in booths playing old-school FPSs, rhythm games, and what looked like really expensive gacha games. I supposed that slot machines were going the way of the dodo, but people were still willing to throw their credits away on other shit. The place didn't look like it was having a hard time extracting money out of people's pockets, basically. Guard... man, whose name I still hadn't asked for or looked up, guided us to a tunnel. This had to be one of the 'spokes' I'd seen from above.

It was glass-walled, looking down onto some rather nice gardens and outdoor recreation areas below. They were almost all roofed, but the sense that we were higher than everything was still neat. A few windows in the ceiling allowed us to see the tower in the centre of the 'wheel' growing larger.

"So, what's the tower in the middle of the wheel called?" I asked.

"The Axel Tower," the guard said.

"Huh... well, no points for creativity, but I suppose that works," I muttered. Nya placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close.

"Stray Cat, we can't complain about style stuff."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Cat... we are dressed like cats. We cannot criticise. I was told this by a very close friend, and I think it's true." Nya had weird ideas. I didn't care how I looked, I would always reserve the right to bitch about stuff. We made it to the end of the tunnel without much of a fuss, even though the entire cordon of security dudes had to waddle in tighter behind us. They looked kinda goofy, all walking together while trying to look nonchalant. We crossed paths with some... gamblers, I supposed.

They were quick to shove themselves to the side and keep out of the way. On making it to the end of the tunnel, we entered another room, though this one at least had a ceiling that was at a reasonable height.

"This way," guard dude said. We moved to an elevator, and three other guards accompanied us within. It made for an awkward ride up some ten floors, and when we came out, there were more guards.

"Holy shit, you've got more security here than some banks, I swear," I muttered.

"Banks are not guarded that well anymore," Nya said.

"It's all digitized, so there's nothing to protect, really."

"I mean, I guess," I said. This much firepower could have been useful during the incursion. Or did they just hire a lot of security right after, when the going rate for PMCs dropped? I didn't get an answer to that. Not before we made it to a meeting room. One side of the room had a glass wall, overlooking part of the Velvet Wheel below, and the centre was taken up by a long, all-wooden table surrounded by high-backed business chairs.

"Mister Veaux would like you to wait for him here," the guard said.

"Oh oh," Nya said.

"What?" I asked.

"Nya knows this one. He's gonna make us wait a long, long time. It's never fun." I blinked. Was that the plan? If so, that was a stupid fucking plan. I looked around, then spotted a pitcher of water on the table surrounded by glass cups. I walked over, took one of the cups, and dropped it onto the floor. It exploded, bits of glass skittering across the ground.

"That's one hundred credit's worth of damage," I said to the guard. He was staring blank-faced at me, but the others in the room had jumped at the loud crack of glass shattering. They were glancing at each other now, trying to decide what to do, I supposed.

"In a minute, I'll do two hundred credits worth," I said.

"Then four... then eight? I'm not good at math, should I have started with a bigger number?"

"No, nya thinks that starting low is reasonable. You're going to double every minute?"

"That was the plan, but like, if he's ten minutes late, that's only... uh... fuck, I dunno, a few thousad credits of damage? That's nothing, right? He could have us waiting here for an hour and it still might not hurt his wallet." I picked up a second cup. It was probably worth more than a hundred credits, actually, but I was willing to ballpark things a bit.

"Nya feels like maybe she should make sure you spend more time in school."

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"Do you know what 'exponential' means?" Nya asked.

"No. But I don't need to. Mister Veaux might wanna know though, because I think we're up to two hundred credits now." I held the cup up to shoulder height, then let it slip through my fingers. Mister Veaux showed up before I'd gotten to the pitcher, though he looked a bit sweaty and out of breath.

"H-hello," he said, then he cleared his throat.

"Hello, and welcome to the Velvet Wheel, the finest casino in all of North America. How can we help you this fine evening?"