The sarcasm went unnoticed. “Got friends?”
Dean and Jak exchanged brief questioning looks. What a stupe question.
“Of course. Lots.”
The guard looked as though he thought the pair facing him were retarded. “Let me rephrase the question. Got friends here in the mall?”
“Yeah, back at the Freedom Center Station complex.”
“No, no. I mean friends who have played in here before?”
“In the vid arcade? No.”
“Then you don’t have memberships.”
“No, I don’t suppose we do,” Dean said. “How do we go about getting one?”
“You got the jack, you get the membership.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Dean asked, glancing over at Jak. “Everything in Freedom costs money.”
The guard nodded. “For a new boy, you wise up fast.”
“Come on,” Jak said, tugging at the hem of Dean’s new T-shirt. “Fuck him. We got jack, you see.”
“We’ll be back.”
“I’ll be here. My shift goes on all night till closing.”
JAK SAT DOWN on the dirty toilet seat and tried to ignore the pungent odor that had taken up residence in the grimy bathroom located at the far end of the mall corridor past the vid arcade. For all of the technological marvels that were encased and preserved within Freedom’s walls, working public toilets weren’t among them.
“Smell worse Doc,” Jak said.
“Sorry, didn’t know you were going to take a dump,” Dean noted, holding his nose and backing away against the dirty mirror over the nonworking sink across from the open stall. “Here’s a helpful hint, though. I think you’re supposed to pull your pants down first and then go about your business.”
“Smart ass. Keep watch,” the albino youth said.
Dean leaned back against the bathroom door with his full weight. “No one’s coming in. The smell would keep them out.”
“Like you stop them.”
Dean half watched Jak and half read some of the graffiti scrawled on the back of the bathroom door he was guarding. Most of the comments were sexual in nature involving male-female, male-male, male-mutie and, most disturbingly, male-animal. He was about to ask Jak to voice an opinion on how he’d personally dealt with the subject of interspecies romances back in Louisiana when the albino suddenly earned his full, unwavering attention.
Jak had crossed one leg over his other thigh so he could reach out and touch the bottom of his right combat boot. He now ran his nimble fingers along the edge of the boot near the heel until he felt what he was obviously looking for.
“Feet hurt?” Dean asked.
Jak’s fine white hair swung as he moved his head down for a better look at the sole of the boot. “Not yet,” he said. “Will kick shit out you, asking questions.”
“Hell of a place to do a boot repair,” Dean muttered, turning back to reading the pornographic messages on the door.
“Boot’s fine.”
“Doc would hate these,” Dean mused, gesturing to the door. “Dumb asses can’t even spell girl right.”
Finally Jak got fed up with trying to accomplish his feat by hand, and took out one of his throwing knives from a hiding place in his camou jacket, running the sharp blade along the sole of his right boot, barely cutting back the surface. The layer of black rubber peeled away like a piece of masking tape. Putting the knife back in its hiding place, he took one edge of the tread and pulled back until he revealed a second layer.
Hidden between the layers were four thin, flat golden wafers. The pale-skinned albino flashed them at Dean like a hand of playing cards.
“Jak! I didn’t know you had a stash!” Dean breathed, all of his swagger gone. He was seriously impressed by Jak’s revelation.
“Weren’t supposed know,” the older boy replied. “Not much stash, unless kept secret.” Jak went on to explain that he’d thought he’d have to give the cash up when they entered Freedom, but Ryan’s victory over the sec droid had taken care of all the immediate financial worries.
“Have these long time,” he said.
“More willpower than me. I’d have spent it when I got it,” Dean replied.
The albino used a fingernail to flick the four wafers into the palm of his other waiting hand, stacking them into a thicker whole. He looked up at Dean and smirked as the gold glinted in the bare white light bulb of the bathroom.