Dried Up: A Poker Boy Story Read online

  The deeper we got into the city, the drier the air got. We could not bring any kind of water with us. Plain drinking water was forbidden in a Silicon Sucker castles.

  These places were very, very dangerous to humans. I knew of one superhero who had managed three days in a Silicon Sucker castle negotiating with them on some land swap, but she had barely made it out alive.

  We reached the cavern floor and headed toward the huge center building. There was nothing ornate about it and no windows at all. It seemed more like a giant mound of sand. But it was the largest building and it did seem to be in the center of the cavern, which I was sure had some significance.

  We were led inside and into a large, domed room with no furniture of any kind. It seemed to be the very center of the large mound of sand that was this building.

  The floor was nothing but hard sand, warm under my bare feet, and the walls were brown like everything else in these underground cities. It looked like the special rooms weren’t any more decorated than any of the other rooms in this cavern.

  The Silicon Sucker who led us into the room indicated we should stand and wait and then he left.

  There was only one other door into the room, an archway on the other side. We both stood, facing that doorway, not talking.

  I could feel beads of sweat forming on my face and then drying away almost instantly.

  I always got scared inside these cities. After all, Silicon Suckers looked just like every alien I had seen in the movies. That fear was in very deep in all humans, more than likely from centuries around this race.

  Honestly, at the moment I was more scared than I had ever been before.

  If Laverne had only met the Great One once in thousands of years, why were we standing here?

  And how many ways could we make a mistake and never see the light of the desert above again?

  Suddenly, in front of us, a Silicon Sucker entered the room completely alone. As with all of them, he wore nothing, but he moved slower than the rest, and as he got closer to us, I could see his bright red eyes. And his face looked longer than the rest. But otherwise, besides the red eyes, I would have never been able to tell the Great One from any other Silicon Sucker.

  Patty and I both bowed to him and he returned the bow.

  “I thank you for this audience,” he said, his voice strong and commanding.

  “It is an honor to be asked,” I said.

  Patty and I both bowed again slightly.

  “We have brought gifts, if you would allow us.”

  He held up his hand for us to not move, and we both stood still.

  “I thank you for the gifts,” the Great One said, “but I must first talk to you about why I asked you here. My people find themselves in a problem of our own making.”

  Patty and I carefully said nothing.

  “It seems that the gifts you have brought us in the past, and the regular payment for the land we have exchanged, has brought us to a crisis point.”

  He paused and then looked down as if embarrassed.

  I knew he was talking about hot chocolate. Over the last few years I had brought his people six thermoses full. And for a piece of land they were getting ten thermoses every month. I knew that hot chocolate was a very powerful drug to the Silicon Suckers, but I couldn’t imagine it becoming a crisis.

  Then it hit me. A powerful drug!

  Could he be mad at me for getting his people hooked on hot chocolate? Had I created a drug problem in his perfectly ordered world? No wonder he wanted to only “talk” with me.

  But why had he also asked Patty to come along? Was it because she was special to me and he needed to take something special of mine for what I had done to his people?

  I would not allow that.

  The Great One looked up at me, the large unblinking red eyes clear.

  “Poker Boy,” he said, “I do not think you understand the value of your gracious gifts to my people. Your precious gifts give us life and energy. It gives us an excitement that we have not felt in many, many centuries.”

  I somehow managed to keep my mouth shut and just let him continue. I needed to be ready, if this turned very ugly, to jump Patty and I out of here quickly, or call for Lady Luck to come to our rescue.

  The Great One continued.

  “Your gifts have allowed me to walk out here without being carried and to stand here as a leader once again.”

  Now I was staring at him and my eyes suddenly felt like they were as wide as his were.

  “Our problem is that our numbers are increasing with the new vitality from your gifts and land payments. And each cycle the payment for the land is not enough to supply my people.”

  Suddenly the fear I had been feeling turned to barely-controlled panic.

  He wasn’t mad at me for bringing the gifts of hot chocolate. This was much, much worse.

  He needed more of it.

  Oh, crap. I couldn’t just offer it to him as a gift. I would insult him, and more than likely we would die where we stood.

  I needed to find a way, and find it quickly, to get the Silicon Suckers more hot chocolate and let the Great One feel as if he was paying a fair price.

  I nodded and somehow, keeping my voice from cracking in the dry air, I said, “A great leader worrying about the well-being of his people. It is an honor to be in your presence.”

  I took the pack from my shoulder and took out the three thermoses, holding them in my hands and not allowing even the pack to touch the ground.

  Beside me, Patty followed my lead and did the same.

  “For the honor of meeting with the Great One,” I said, “the leader of all Silicon Suckers, we have brought this special gift. I hope it will help while we work out a more lasting solution and a fair and equitable trade.”

  “I can only thank you for your generosity,” he said.

  Without any indication of a movement from the Great One, six other Silicon Suckers came out and each took one thermos and carried them away like carrying gold from the room.

  After they had left I spoke again.

  “May I be so bold as to ask how much of the precious substance is needed to supply the great beings of the race of Silicon Suckers with their needs?”

  He stared at me for a moment and I began to wonder if I had gone too far with my question.

  Then he said, “We would need four times the amount of your generous gift every moon cycle, plus the payment for the land we are already receiving.”

  I tried to look serious. Thirty-four thermoses full of hot chocolate. “That is a large amount,” I said. “But it is possible. But I must ask for something in return.”

  “Of course,” he said.

  I had an idea on what we might trade for, but I had to be very careful in presenting it.

  “My people are also in great need in this area for…” I stopped and looked pained. “…I am sorry, I cannot use such language in front of the Great One.”

  He motioned for me to continue.

  “We are in need of plain water. We are a very different people, with different needs. We must have plain water to survive. Is there an area in your lands which is not usable to your people because of too much plain water, that we might trade?”

  “Something important to my people in exchange for something important to your people,” he said.

  I only nodded. Thankfully he saw my purpose and I had not insulted him by asking for what was, in essence, poison to his people.

  “Poker Boy, there is a reason my people sing your praises.”

  “Thank you, Great One,” I said.

  A map of the area around Las Vegas appeared in the air between us. Some areas were colored in gold for Silicon Sucker lands. Black for human lands. Gray for land that neither party controlled.

  I knew the Silicon Suckers protected their own lands fiercely when needed, and no building was allowed within one hundred yards of any border to their property.

  Of course, no humans in Las Vegas government knew that. The map had been
formed by treaty decades before by the Gods of Land Use and the Silicon Suckers. The Gods in that area made sure nothing was allowed to be built on the Silicon Sucker lands.

  The Great One pointed to a small area colored red off to one side of the old Boulder Dam highway. It did not seem to be attached to any other area of Silicon Sucker lands.

  “We were forced to abandon a growing castle in this area due to large pools of the evil liquid under the area. I would like five times your most recent gift every moon cycle in trade for the entire area.”

  He had upped the amount expecting me to bargain. Again, I needed to not insult him by giving in too quickly.

  “Forty containers of the precious liquid every moon cycle?” I asked.

  He said simply, “Yes.”

  I pointed at the large area of red off the old highway. “My people will find much of what we need here?”

  “You will find much of the poison there,” he said.

  I didn’t want to tell him that the precious liquid he was asking for was based on the poison we called water.

  “Twenty-eight additional every moon cycle,” I said. “And if we find what we must look for on the land, we will increase the amount to forty total in twelve moon cycles.”

  He nodded. “Your terms are acceptable.”

  The red coloring of the land on the map turned to blue and then the map vanished.

  “The first payment will be delivered tomorrow morning,” I said, “to the area near the entrance to this castle at sunrise, and then at sunrise every moon cycle after.”

  The Great One bowed and Patty and I bowed also.

  “This exchange has given my people a new beginning,” he said. “It will allow my people to reproduce and spread and build many large new castles. You will both always be honored guests as long as I rule.”

  With that he turned and walked away.

  For a moment I felt the elation that we had survived the meeting. Then his last words came back strong, like someone was shouting them in my head.

  Hot chocolate helped these creatures have baby Silicon Suckers?

  Wow, I had not known that. No wonder I had never seen any children. I had never thought of it before.

  What had I just done?

  Patty and I followed a guide out of the building and back up the wall toward the entrance above. All the paths and tunnels teamed with Silicon Suckers, far, far more than I had ever seen before.

  Was all this population growth from just a few thermoses per month of hot chocolate?

  Oh, man, what would forty every month do?

  What had I done?

  Was I setting up a future war between mankind and Silicon Suckers? I sure hoped not.

  Outside, after Patty kissed me for a job well done and we put on our shoes in the already hot sun, I told her my worry.

  She just laughed in that way she does that makes me relax. It’s one of her very special superpowers I’m sure.

  Then she said, “I could really use a couple glasses of water and a large breakfast.”

  “You don’t think this is serious, do you?”

  “They don’t dare expand into our areas and fight with us.”

  “And why not?” I asked as I jumped us from the hot desert to our favorite booth in the air-conditioning of The Diner. I didn’t want to call for Stan and Laverne until I understood what Patty was saying.

  “There weren’t that many of them moving around last time I was down there,” I said as we slid into the booth, the cool vinyl seat feeling wonderful. “That’s only after six months of regular hot chocolate use. Imagine after a year?”

  Again Patty laughed. “Trust me, they have to treat us well.”

  “And why?” I asked as Madge headed our way with large glasses of water she must have had ready.

  “Because if they don’t,” Patty said, patting my hand on the table top like I was two years old, “we just cut off their supply of hot chocolate.”

  “Oh,” was all I could think to say.

  About the Author

  Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over 100 published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.

  Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

  Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He will soon be the executive editor for Fiction River.

  Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.