28
"Okay, I get why you did it," Yim said as she sagged off her feet onto the couch.
It was a long road that started with me getting hoisted, again. I'd have to break that bad habit of hers.
Nevertheless, once I explained my reasoning she chilled right out.
Phoebe said, "Well, while that's scary as fuck, since that's pretty much precisely what you were going for, I'll have to admit it was a slick way to get around the rules. By this time tomorrow every competitor still in the game will know you're willing to get yourself disqualified killing people who don't play nice with you. I gotta say, I don't think anyone's ever managed to get that kind of message across in season. I wish I could see what the broadcasters are making of it. I'll bet the bookies are shitting themselves trying to figure out if your idea will actually work."
"I'd say it has a decent chance," Pala said, waving a hand idly from her place on the far side of the couch Yim was sitting on. "Even the trainers are scared of Taz at this point. When competitors ask them for advice, most of them will probably encourage their people to play along with you just on the off chance you weren't bluffing."
"I wasn't bluffing," I said, conscious of the fact that even now everything being said was also being monitored and recorded. If there was a leak anywhere in SDM, word of this would get out if I admitted it was anything but the stone cold truth. "Anyone who gets in my way assumes room temperature."
Pala gave me a long, steady look, then nodded and said, "Well, in that sort of situation none of us would be there to stop you, so let's just hope everyone else got the message and plays along."
MAN she's slick, I thought, looking at her with an easy grin. Not only did she catch my meaning, she warned everyone else not to press the point.
Phoebe was nodding, but Astra was staring at me with ruby-red eyes open so wide I wondered if her species was subject to terror heart attacks like some birds and goats.
Yim obviously caught the message as she said, "All that aside, you really don't intend to make any alliances? I know we told you the chances were good you'd be betrayed, but that doesn't necessarily happen right away, like in the first event. Most of these teams don't break up until the last quarter of the season when it gets down to making the hard decisions."
"The only reason those decisions are hard is because the people making them are dumb enough to form alliances in the first place."
"The only reason those alliances get made is because people who don't make them almost never get far enough to make the tough decisions."
I pointed at Yim and said, "Almost never."
"You just better hope you're the exception that proves the rule," she dryly replied.
"I don't hope. Hope is for suckers. I work," I said with quiet conviction. "And speaking of which, what's next? There's most of a week before the next event and I don't intend to spend that time sitting on my ass."
To my vague surprise, Yim didn't have an immediate answer for me. Instead, she looked at Pala, who shrugged. Yim then met my eye and said, "Actually ... this is the part where you feast, fuck, and essentially have a good time."
I blinked at her, twice, and she frowned and said, "I'm serious! Enjoyment is part of the game!"
"Is it worth score?" I asked.
"Not ... specifically," Yim said, obviously hedging. "At the end of the week — just before the next event — there's an audience vote that awards a flat amount to the top twenty based on where you fall in terms of popularity. The more people that like you, the higher the award. Those who don't make the top twenty get nothing."
"Well, no sense chasing that. Any other ways to get score?" I asked.
Yim's ears drooped and she lowered her head, then yelped as Pala smacked her shoulder and said, "None of that! You're his trainer, answer his question!"
"He asked me if there's a way to get score, I tell him, he blows me off!" Yim said in what was practically a whine. "What am I supposed to do?!"
"What other ways are there for him to score during down time?" Pala said, asking a painfully obvious leading question.
Yim's eyes wandered, then she opened her mouth to answer but actually let out a startled yip when Pala said, "Him, not me!"
Looking chastened, Yim faced me and said, "Technically, you can gain score by ... getting SDM staff to vouch for you."
"Now we're talking. How do I convince them to do that?" I asked.
"Um ... generally, you fuck them," she said, glancing away. "If they like you best out of all the others who've propositioned them, they vouch for you."
I gave her a long, steady look, and eventually she threw up her hands and said, "Why do you think I didn't mention it?!"
"Because you don't think in terms of what can be done, only what has been done," I said sourly. "But that's okay. Fortunately for me, I'm used to lateral thinking."
"You are not — under any circumstances — to threaten the staff!" Yim barked.
When I furrowed my brow at her, she bared her teeth at me and said, "I mean it!"
"Why the hell would I threaten them?" I asked.
"I think that's the dumbest question you've asked yet," Yim shot back, staring hard at me.
I rolled my eyes in momentary thought, then held up both hands in surrender as I said, "Okay, yeah, I suppose I can see where you're coming from on this one, but I really don't intend to threaten anyone."
"So ... what then?" Yim asked.
"Well, this is essentially about convincing the staff to vouch for me. They'll only do that if they like me. So far so good?"
When Yim gave me the long slow blink, I said, "Well, that's easy then. It's time I got to work."