Chapter 9 of A Net Too Wide To Break His Fall, by Matt Boothman
I wrote this story chapter by chapter, without outlining first. It was an experiment in writing consistently, producing a chapter once a month, without fail, for the Foggy Outline newsletter. So don’t expect something polished or finished; but what it does have is momentum, and a fluidity that came from wanting to change things up enough to keep myself interested enough to write more.
If you’d be interested in a properly edited, fleshed out, finished version of this story, let me know!
“Lisaveta’s got the winning hand here,” said Callum, looking under her arm at a full house, jacks full of fives.
Vivian Hithercombe, seated two places to Lisaveta’s right and only holding three of a kind, showed no sign of having heard him. Neither did Lisaveta or the other players, but unlike Vivian, they weren’t bluffing – at least about that.
“But,” Callum went on, “if you bluff her she’s not going to call it. She’s still too wary about looking like she’s coming out against you, after last year.”
If Lisaveta’s ears were burning, she didn’t show it. But Callum, who’d had plenty of chances to study her when she thought no one was watching, could see in the way her thumb flipped the corner of her cards that she was still debating how to play this hand, waiting for her boss’s bid.
Carelessly, Vivian Hithercombe raised. She looked straight at Lisaveta, ignoring Big Anton sat between them and Callum at Lisaveta’s shoulder. She was well practised now at not letting her eyes stray to Callum in public, never letting on that there was someone in the room that only she could see.
“What’ll it be, Liss darling?” Vivian said. “Are you back in this game?”
Whenever Vivian did that, blanked him out of the scene, Callum’s heart stuttered. It had never happened, but maybe it was possible for him to fade back out of someone’s awareness again, even after they’d been introduced.
He’d started dressing to stand out from the background. To most people in the room, he blended no matter what he was wearing, so there was no need to actually try to look inconspicuous. The game was taking place at one of Vivian’s flashy events, which she threw regularly to launder income from her illegitimate businesses and to maintain her image as one of the idle mega-rich. Everyone from the highest roller to the most checked-out barfly was designed, tailored and styled, and if anyone besides Vivian had been able to see him, Callum would’ve been turning heads. It had tickled Vivian to have Autumn Wray Benjamin style him, without telling them more than his measurements and desire to stand out; one pet clothing another, like dress-up dolls. That worked for Callum. The suit he wore now reassured him that as long as he was in Vivian’s eyeline, she’d really have to work hard to pretend not to see him – and that if he could get the introduction he was gunning for, he’d make a memorable first impression.
Without meeting Vivian’s eye or making a sound, Lisaveta folded.
“Convinced?” he said, moving back around the table to Vivian. “She’s back in the fold. Nothing to worry about any more.” He tried not to let on just how much he wanted her to accept it.
“I can see I’ve nothing to worry about from any of you,” said Vivian, accepting her winnings from the dealer – without relish, as if it were simply her due. “Don’t feel any pressure to stay around for this hand, if there’s somewhere else you’d rather be.”
That was as much for Callum as for the other players. She was feeling satisfied, safe, in need of no assistance or assurance. She lifted a stack of chips and let them trickle one by one back down to the table.
Callum played his hand.
“I’d like to meet her properly,” he said.
A chip bounced off the top of the stack and rolled across the table.
Callum bit down the urge to follow up, to over-explain. Let Vivian fill in the blanks herself. He was willing to press, but only if necessary. He needed this intro, but there was no sense letting Vivian know that unless it was necessary.
He’d moved around the table to stand at Vivian’s shoulder, so she couldn’t get a read on his face without twisting in her seat, which would look like getting up the leave the table just after essentially dismissing all her competitors. She kept her eyes on the chips still in her fingers, but he could almost feel her proprioception radiating off the back of her head and the angle of her neck, pinging him like sonar, trying to blindly assess him for ulterior motives.
It was an innocent request. She knew her pet ghost wanted to expand his network, more anchor points tethering him to the world. She’d just acknowledged Lisaveta was harmless. There was no good reason to say no. There was no reason to suspect a thing.
Except that Callum was lying. Had been lying for months. Omitting all the evidence he’d found that Lisaveta was planning her exit anew, this time with added insurance. Giving false explanations for everything Lisaveta did that made Vivian suspicious.
Vivian didn’t trust many people, but she didn’t have much choice in Callum’s case; he could learn things she couldn’t independently verify. And until he’d resolved to help Autumn work against Vivian, his information had always been true. He’d done a lot of good for Vivian and a lot of harm to her enemies. That harm bought him cover for this lie. It had to.
“Actually,” said Vivian.
Lisaveta paused in the middle of rising from the table.
So did Big Anton and the other assorted lieutenants.
“One more hand.”
The dealer started shuffling. The players shuffled back into seats.
Callum swayed under a sudden wave of vertigo, as if he stood on the edge of a windswept cliff.
Vivian indicated an empty seat. “It’s about time you all met someone.”
Callum sank into the seat. He wanted more anchor points, more tethers. There was no good reason to say no.
“Liss, Anton, Evelyn, Benson,” said Vivian as the cards started flying, “let me introduce you all to Callum. I’ll front your buy-in, darling, don’t worry…”
As four sets of eyes blinked and focused on him where a moment before they’d only seen an empty seat, Callum felt radioactive in his flashy Autumn Wray Benjamin suit. The dealer dealt him in without missing a beat, weaving him into the game with the ally he hoped to recruit, the woman he hoped they could work together to destroy – and three of that woman’s most loyal and dangerous lieutenants.