Slot Shaming

 9/25

“Hey!” Gus spied the enormous figure of Bruno passing the open door of the surveillance suite and summoned him inside. Bruno sidled up behind his diminutive boss, who was perched on the edge of a stool like a budgie in front of a wall of monitors. Each screen depicted live footage of key areas of the casino's main floor. “Looks like Malone is up to his old tricks!” Gus tapped the central console. Bruno leaned in and then squinted, a puzzled look forming on his face. Malone was a notorious local swindler with a penchant for rigging slot machines, but the screen Gus was drawing his attention to showed an elegant young woman in a colourful form fitting dress sat at a row of slots.

“She's cheating?” Bruno frowned. His boss nodded and adjusted something on the screen's settings. The image changed and suddenly everything electronic within shot emitted a blue glow. “I see it.” Bruno exclaimed noticing the pistol shaped device in the woman's hand for the first time. “It's an electromagnetic trigger – exactly like the one Malone uses to stop the reels on the jackpot. But, I don't get it. Where is Malone? And who is the broad?”

“Watch.” Gus grinned like a Cheshire cat and dialled up the sensitivity of filter showing visible electromagnetic fields. Within seconds, the entire outline of the woman's body glowed blue like some kind of alien. “Do you see?” Gus asked. “It is some kind of realistic bodysuit device. That is Malone!”

“What the hell?!” Bruno's jaw dropped open. “But...he looks like a babe... Should I go grab him, boss?”

“Not yet,” Gus pressed his fingers together pensively. “First we send Bubbles.”

On the casino floor, Malone waved the magnetic device across the side of another slot machine and the siren of yet another jackpot rang out triumphantly. He grinned at the symbols all lined up and realised that this time he could see two of each. He blinked and then squeezed his eyes together. Even the facial muscles on this bodysuit felt real. It had been a convenient disguise - UltraReal bodysuits had vendors up and down the strip. Vegas was where people came to escape themselves after all. In his case, it was to escape his universally blacklisted face across every casino in town. He swayed on his stool and noticed for the first time that Bubbles the waitress had left him yet another gin and tonic. The high-roller treatment was nothing new to him, but that was seven now. Saluting his latest jackpot, he raised the glass to his plump lips as the room sloshed around him. A heavy, hairy hand fell onto his bare shoulder and spun him around. Through one half open eye he spotted a gold name-tag that read “Bruno”.

“Seems it's your lucky day!” the brute grinned cruelly. “Hurry!” He guided Malone up off his stool onto swaying legs. “You're due in the champagne room in five minutes. Lot's of horny guys just waiting for you to rub some of your luck off on them...”