Mardock Scramble

As she was making her preparations, the choker undid itself. It turned inside out in midair, then settled on the shape of a golden mouse, who landed on the desk on two feet before yawning properly.

“We’ve still got plenty of time yet. I’d like to take a nap.” Not waiting for an answer from Balot, Oeufcoque jumped off the desk. He headed straight for the bed, jumped onto the pillow, and rolled over.

Balot followed him to the bed and poked him in his tummy.

–I’ve never seen you act so slovenly before.

She snarced him and laughed.

Oeufcoque shrugged his shoulders. Whatever, he seemed to say. He rolled over, face-up like a human, crossed his arms over his stomach, and stretched his legs out leisurely. Before long he was snoring gently.

Balot gazed at him and thought that he probably did need the sleep—he hadn’t yet recovered completely from his injuries. She decided to leave him alone and took a shower. Then she lay down to study the game rules the Doctor had given her, and before long she found herself feeling sleepy too. The time was just then six thirty. Balot snuggled under the covers next to Oeufcoque, whom she could sense beside her, scratching his belly. She was asleep in no time.

It was almost noon when she was awoken by a call from the Doctor. Oeufcoque was already awake and watching television. On mute—picture only. When she asked him if he could follow what was going on, he replied, “I’m practicing my lip reading.”

What a strange hobby, she thought for a moment, but of course he wasn’t doing it for fun. “It’s a good warm-up exercise for the job we’re about to go on,” Oeufcoque said, and he stepped down on the remote with a tiny foot to turn the picture off.

The two of them headed down to the motel restaurant, where the Doctor was waiting for them. There they had a meal and made their final arrangements. They reconfirmed their next course of action. Then there was a little test. Did Balot understand all the rules for all the main games? The rules themselves were fairly simple. They hadn’t targeted any of the more complicated games in the first place. The problem was that rules always ended up producing winners and losers.

–How much do we need to win? Balot asked, snarcing her Oeufcoque-choker.

The Doctor pursed his lips and pushed his glasses up. “We need to turn two thousand dollars into four million.”

It sounded like a wild dream. But the Doctor just shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I think you’ll understand once you actually start playing. The question is, how to find a way of winning for sure. If we can’t work one out then we’ll have to abandon the plan.”

–Do you really think we have a chance?

“So, uh, it’s not impossible, at least. It’s not as if we’re actually trying to make the money. All you have to do is make contact with the chips while sticking to the rules of the casino—do that and we’ve won. The regular punters are there to try and win themselves some money and experience the thrills of the casino, that’s why they handle the chips. What we want to handle is the golden yoke that’s hidden inside the chips. Without necessarily having to get the shell or egg white in the process…”

–How much money is a million dollars?

The Doctor paused to think. “Let’s see…”

“Don’t think of it as money.” Oeufcoque interrupted them in a small voice that only Balot and the Doctor could hear.

–What do you mean?

“He means that the chips we’re going after just happen to be worth four million dollars, and that’s what we’re calling them, but they’re really just chips to us. It’s not as if we’re actually going in there to try and win their cash from them. That’s why we might be able to breach their defenses, and it’s also why I feel that I can help with this plan. Also, even if our plan fails, as long as you’ve worked out the location of the chips, we could always try stealing them at a later date—although if Shell figures out what we’re up to we’ll struggle to find them before the trial is over. So we’re taking a big gamble before we even set foot in the casino. In other words, the time is now. This is our last real chance, and also our best,” said the Doctor.

Balot looked at the Doctor’s face as she answered,

–I understand. If the two of you think that we can do it, then I do too.

She was speaking the truth.

The Doctor smiled affectionately and opened up his PDA. “Right, time to get this plan on the road.” Much to Balot’s surprise he erased the memory on his PDA as he spoke. It was supposed to have contained all sorts of vital data. Who worked where, what they did, how the money came in, everything. Balot was shocked to see that all this had now been reduced to a blank screen.

“If we have all the info on us at the point that the casino starts taking an interest in us, we’d be thrown out the moment they discovered it. Not only that, they’d contact all the other casinos in the city on the spot. With our photographs. We’d never be able to set foot inside a casino again.” The Doctor’s face revealed that he considered this to be a fate worse than death.

–Will we be all right without it?

“If it comes to the crunch, all the data is still inside Oeufcoque. There’s no cause for concern.”

Suddenly the Doctor’s brow creased. “By the way, have you decided what you’ll call me?” he asked.

Balot looked a little troubled and shook her head.

“Well, why not try something out.”

–Brother?

She burst out laughing even before she finished the word.

“No good, I suppose,” the Doctor said, his face most serious. “How about Daddy?”

This time it was Balot who furrowed her brow.

–That doesn’t feel natural. No good.

“Hmm.”

–Uncle.

“You mean…?”

–It’ll be fine. I don’t thing there will be any misunderstandings.

“Fine. Henceforth I shall be known as your Uncle Easter.”

Balot couldn’t stop herself from bursting out laughing again, her shoulders shaking. She saw the Doctor looking discouraged and nodded her assent through her wordless laughter.

–Uncle Easter.

She repeated. The Doctor nodded too.

“It’s decided, then.”

Balot laughed again. But actually the term didn’t feel all that out of place. She looked at the Doctor and mimed combing her hair down. As if to say Sort yourself out.

–Could you at least dye all your hair the same color?

The Doctor shrugged, but he seemed to acquiesce.

–I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time, actually. Why do you dye your hair like that, anyway?

“One of the Three Magi—the professor whose brainchild Mardock Scramble was— seemed to favor that sort of hairstyle,” Oeufcoque butted in to explain.

“A complex layer of different hues. A hairstyle based authentically on chaos theory,” the Doctor explained, brushing his hair back.

–You must have really respected him.

“He was the one and only master I ever recognized, and he was also responsible for designing Oeufcoque. I