THIRD DEAL

First Round - Practice Round
Third Deal - Shuffling, Method One

Spades wasn’t sure what to expect on the other side of the door, but for some reason she felt a comforting lack of surprise at a hallway that stretched on forever under florescent lights, lined with doors on either side. The place seemed to have a preoccupation with white and doors. “What is with all the doors in this place anyway? Got something to hide?”
“Yes, in fact. Another question that for now goes beyond the red tape. I think from now on you should just assume that every question like that is going to have red tape all over it. I’ll tell you anything you need and can know,” Joker smiled once again, safe with the knowledge that all Agent Spades could see was the back of his head.
“Whatever. How long is this crap going to take anyway? Regardless of whether I’m ‘really Brogan O’Hart’ or not, my family’s going to be looking for me.” Spades retorted, and came out from it with a sore nose as she ran into the back of Joker, who had stopped dead in his tracks.
“Well, I can’t answer your question once again except for it shouldn’t take long enough for them to notice… But I am glad you brought that up because I forgot to tell you about something,” He turned around to face her and Spades could see how intensely serious he was about what he was saying; his expression was almost scary with the impersonal addition of the sunglasses. Not that she could see him properly from behind her own. “I almost forgot to tell you of one policy you must adhere to at all costs. As I said before, we here at C.A.R.D. need to maintain a level of secrecy. It is imperative that you don’t tell anyone about anything you have seen, heard, or done today-"
“What about what I’ve said and felt?”
“This isn’t a time for being a smart arse. We have ways to sort things out if you do impart information onto others, but let me just say this won’t make the punishment you will suffer any less severe,”
Realising she’d hit a nerve, but quite happy with a sense of revenge she was getting, Spades interjected once more. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”
“Only in such a way that we will separate you from your life as Brogan O’Hart without giving you a second to tie up any loose ends. You will be able to leave C.A.R.D. but only under heavy surveillance, and never to where you have been calling ‘home’. Until our mission with you is complete, you will be monitored at all times. You will have no privacy. You will do what we tell you when we tell you and should you refuse to comply then we will not hesitate to stop you leaving C.A.R.D. at all,” he turned away from Spades again, ready to walk off. “Do you understand that much?”
Spades said nothing. Joker began to walk again and she followed silently, stewing angrily as her attitude had been challenged. Finally she could bear it no longer and spoke up again. “I don’t like lying.”
“You’ll learn.”

Quiet overcame the two as their footsteps echoed in the hallway. As the shining white floor gleamed up at Spades from under the strides of her boots, her anger only built up inside of her. She thought of how she had been suddenly whisked away by the talking cat, how she had been given no answers, how she had to lie; something she had never been able to do even when she wanted to, how they expected her to buy into all this without getting angry and confused. She began to wonder if what was happening to her now was much worse than the punishment Joker had proposed. A sharp pain in her nose interrupted her thoughts. She had run into the back of her jailer once again. “Ow, I know you’re a bastard from what you’ve said so far, but do you have to keep stopping like that?”
“Yes, I do,” she stopped rubbing her nose, and saw that Joker was opening one of the doors, trying to conceal a sarcastic smile on his face. “Here we are, thirty-ninth door on the right side. Remember that.”

Following behind, Spades was amazed as they entered the first coloured room she had seen all day, where there weren’t monitors, keyboards or humming computers, she could see where the wall and floor were a dark green. An entire wall was covered with a control panel underneath a window that looked into yet another white room, though this one had a grey grid running from the floors up the walls and onto the roof. Unlike the blinding fluorescents in the other room, the lighting was too dark for her too keep her sunglasses on. Hooking them onto the front of her singlet, she was disappointed to find that Joker was sitting down in a comfortable green leather chair without making any motions to remove his own glasses.

“This is the briefing room and that,” Joker motioned to the white room as Spades sat in a chair nearby. “Is the training simulation room. More or less, this is where you will come every time we get in contact with you – I’ll tell you how we do that in a second, let me finish – so we don’t have to come and get you from the waiting room every time. Now contacting you. When we want you to come here, your locket will glow and beep. Unless we send one of the Cheshire Cats out to you, take hold of the locket and say ‘Applying for transfer, precinct number 20081988, subject The Ace, to precinct number 1. Please compute’ and you should arrive in the waiting room. Come straight here; don’t even think of touching the doors in the waiting room. The code to get out to the hallway is 732HC,”
“Whoa wait a minute, backtrack. I get all of what you said there and some of even explained what the hell Roll was on about before we got here. What I got from that was that there’s more Cheshire Cats than Roll?”
“There are indeed. Now…” getting up out of his chair, Joker moved over to the nearest monitor, and pressed a key on the keyboard under it. The screen changed from displaying numbers and confusing statistics to a picture of Agent Spades, the text ‘SIMULATION ONE’ and under that numbers running horizontally across the screen in five orderly lines.
“Where do you get all these pictures of me?” “Sure,”
“Anyway, I’m going to put you into your first training simulation. The computer that works it is very well programmed, and picks out the area and situation for you. Your job, is to assess the situation, and take the best method of action,” Joker tapped some more keys and moved over to the control panel in front of the window, Spades more interested now than annoyed in tow.
“Right… So what is this? Like that virtual reality stuff you see on TV? Why the big room? It’s kind of a wank from the looks of it if you ask me,”
“You’ll see. Just go in the room and stop complaining because I’m not asking your opinion. I’ll start up the simulation for you as soon as this is ready” Joker was now concentrating more on the control panel than the now disgruntled again Agent Spades, but rather than argue she decided to go into the room, not complaining as requested. She turned to the window to see that he had now put on a headset and microphone, and was surprised to hear his voice in her ears seconds after. “One thing about your earrings. They’re communication devices, I can talk to you through them and if you grab onto both of them you can talk back to me. Just no complaining or I’ll put you on mute.”
Spades reached up to her lower lobes and pressed on the studs in each of them, she felt that they were shaped like a spades symbol, as if it couldn’t get anymore obvious as to whom she was. “Right. I’m not complaining, but is it normal for me to feel like a fucking dickhead when I’m holding my ears like this?”
“It is indeed. Now don’t get freaked out about this, but I’m about to disappear. Don’t talk to me unless you need to.” “You disappeared in the other room before how is this any diff-“ Spades’ hands left her ears and she was left slack jawed as around her the room began to melt.

At the control panel, Joker began to press buttons quickly configuring this and adjusting that, when there was a light padding sound that told him a cat was in the room. “What are you here for?”
“The Coin has just reported in. He’s confirmed that the subject he’s been watching is one of the four,”
“Brilliant. Bring her in,” Joker pressed down a button on the control panel and talked into the microphone on his headset. “Agent Spades, you’re going to have to hang tight in there for a bit. Stay put and figure out what’s going on around you. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Before she could answer back with yet another smart arsed response, Joker took the headset off and placed it on the control panel. He looked to Roll who simply stared back for a few seconds before vanishing, and then left the room.

Inside the training simulation room, Agent Spades was less than impressed.

END THIRD DEAL
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