James Axler – Freedom Lost

However, sitting with Doc at your elbow came with a price, as J.B. was reminding himself.

“Alas, friends, but the fates have provided for us while spitting upon our unprotected brows simultaneously,” Doc was saying. “Normally the loss of John Barrymore’s spectacles would be the cause of dire calamities indeed. Now we are within the protected walls of a virtual village of shops, including that rarest of rarities, a genuine optician.”

“What wrong with this picture, Doc?” Mildred asked, her clear voice thick with annoyance.

“I was getting to that, Dr. Wyeth. No, unfortunately, we do not possess the necessary currency to purchase the needed services of the aforementioned ocular physician,” Doc said, and added, “So, we are fucked. Put succinctly.”

“Don’t say ‘fuck,’ Doc. It sounds all wrong coming out of your mouth,” Krysty protested.

“There’s always a way,” Ryan said. “We’re not out of ideas yet.”

Krysty squeezed Ryan’s knee. “I know that tone, and you know better than to even think of trying to walk in there and take a pair of eyeglasses for J.B.”

Ryan assumed a look of mock hurt. “You don’t think I could get away with it?”

“Mebbe, mebbe not. First J.B. would have to take the eye exam so we’ll know what kind of lenses he needs. He said the eye doc told him he needed jack up front before doing the examination.”

“Makes good sense. Payment in full before you get started, otherwise whoever it is you’re examining may decide he doesn’t like what you’ve got to say and bolt.”

“Even if you bullied Dr. Clarke into doing the exam, he’s got thousands of different kinds of glasses in his office. No telling which set of lenses J.B. needs,” Mildred added. “Besides, I kind of liked the guy.”

“Shit!” J.B. snorted. “The prices he’s charging are ridiculous.”

“That’s a carry-over from the good old days,” Mildred interjected. “Us doctors always demanded top pay for our services.”

“What we do now?” Jak asked.

“Pay the man what he wants, I guess,” Ryan said, polishing off the last of his portion of the powdered-eggs self-heat for his morning meal.

“Still think just go in, take them,” Jak muttered. “Take them all. Find a pair that works.”

Mildred threw up her hands. “Jak, the going rate is the going rate. Clarke’s talentsand his apparent ready supply of glassesare rarely found. I never met an eye doctor wandering around in Deathlands, have you?”

“Can’t say as I ever have,” Ryan said. “Where did you get your first pair of specs anyway, J.B.?”

“I was just a kid,” the Armorer began to say before a very small man stepped in front of him with an excited look.

“Pardon me, yes, I overhear you have a problem, no?” the unfamiliar voice piped up. “I have the answer, yes!”

Ryan’s hand shot out like a steel baton and grabbed the little man by the throat. The fellow was dressed to the nines in a tiny pair of dress shoes, green pants and matching jacket, bow tie and a dramatic black cape draped over his shoulders.

“You listening to our private conversations, runt?” Ryan said as the little man tried to pull away.

“Define listening, uh-huh. Air is free. Mall is open. I pass by, I hear. You no want people hearing, keep mouth shut, understand?”

J.B. gave a short bark of laughter at the dwarfs logic. “Yeah, Ryan, understand?”

Jak narrowed his ruby red eyes at the struggling dwarf.

“Your white-hair no like Lucas.”

“He doesn’t like eavesdroppers,” Mildred said. “Nor do I.”

“Is okay. I no like him, either,” the dwarf replied.

Ryan unclenched his hand and released the little man. “You planning on making some kind of point, Lucas? Or are you purposefully trying to piss one of us off enough to get yourself chilled?”

“Make you offer. Good money to be had. Mall credits enough to take care of any problems,” Lucas replied, adjusting his cape.

“Oh, yeah? How?”

“The pit. Combat in the pit, winner take all.”

“What, a fight?”

“In the pit, that’s right, yes, fight, yes. One against another. Two go in, one comes out. Beat the champion and the winner gets a shopping spree, up to a thousand mall creds on anything he wants to buy in Freedom. No blasters, blades or other nonprojectile hand weapons, yes. Anything goes.”