One of the Gang

1. 
   

   Sky tips his hat to the lady. "Miss." Then to the man he says, "Mr. Voinovich, my name is Masterson, from Chicago. You don't know me, but you might just need me.
   
   "Scarface sends his compliments, and so does Al. I'm lucky I found you, and you're lucky I did. May I come in? I have a proposition for you."
2. Voinovich squints at Sky; he's not sure he trusts this fast-talking stranger.
   
   "Well don't leave the man hanging in the hall, Nick," says the woman on the bed, standing up. "Offer him a drink."
   
   "C'mon in," says Voinovich. "Bourbon okay?"
   
   "Ah hope so; it's all we've got!" says the woman boisterously. She's had a few already. "You said something about a proposition, Mr. Masterson?"
3. Sky saunters in, takes the bourbon, and compliments it. "Think of it as a wager, sir. Here I am, in desperate need of cash, and not in good standing with my boss, who, as you may or may not know, has some influence in this area, and some policemen who also jump when he says 'frog'.
   
   "It so happens that I owe a man a large debt, but, as a gentleman of the honorifical type, I always make good on my markers. Sky Masterson, they call me, because on account of the sky is the limit with me.
   
   "Now I happen to know, on account of a fortune telling type Active what works for Al, where youse guys was likely to strike it lucky next, and I thought to myself a simple mathematical calcification would have to apply.
   
   "On the one hand, if I was to squeal like a rat to the cops, what good would that do me? The wanted posters on you only have a small amount.
   
   "On the other of my two hands, if I was to make myself serviceable to youse, and youse guys cut me in for a sweet amount of the looting, that is more in keeping with my businessific nature, and it helpifies me. You win, I win, we both win, we shakes hands and I am welch free on my marker.
   
   "And if I say a word in the right ear, the cops look the other way when they looks for youse. Got it?
   
   "I happen myself to be the proud possessor of a very special and rarish talent called Ace. When cops shoot at me, they miss. When I want to break into a place, I find a way in. When I get into a fight or take a shot with a smoke wagon, I am apt to hit and sure to shoot straight.
   
   "I am so lucky that I came here betting you need one more man for this job, and that I am him.
   
   "I am what everyone of the crooked persuasion needs, which is your good luck charm. Forty seven arrests and no convictions. "
   
   Sky gives the lady a particularly dazzling smile, wishing, for once, that he was a mouth.

Voinovich tugs his ponytail in bewilderment. The lady laughs.

"Why, Sky, you are just exactly what the doctor ordered. You MUST be an Ace!" she says.

"We are not in the same league with the Chicago mob," Voinovich cautions. "We're strictly self-employed."

"Which doesn't mean we can't take advice from a pro, does it?" says the lady, touching Voinovich on the arm. "Go on, Nick, introduce us."

"Well, Sky Masterson, this is Christine Tane," Nick says. "Christine, this is Sky from Chicago, I guess."

Christine puts the bottle in front of Sky for a refill, and offers her own glass.

"We've been planning to strike it lucky in this burg, but that bank's a corker. A regular twelve-seventeen!" she says. "Vault by Brinks, seven armed guards in the day and four at night, and combination locks on all the deposit boxes! Can you IMAGINE?"

"I can freeze the hinges off the boxes, but it takes a while," says Voinovich. "And there are near a hundred of them. The police here respond quickly to things; our main problem is that any getaway vehicle can be roadblocked easily. So we're planning to use the train tracks on Seventh Street, board a train, then jump it at a crossroads where we have a car waiting. But that's a lot of different missions -- hit the bank, steal the train, change to the car. A lot of things to go wrong. And there are only the five of us. So, yes, Mr. Masterson, I agree with Christine. You've come at exactly the right time."

"It's almost TOO perfect!" Christine enthuses. "But then, you're an Ace."

A short, peppery man with red hair bursts in from the connecting room. He's smoking a cigar.

"We're out of mixers ... well then there now! And who'd this be?"

"Scorchy, meet Sky Masterson, the answer to all our prayers," says Voinovich. "Mr. Masterson, this is Scorchy Muldoon. He's been stringing along with us since Texas."

"What a thing to say, Nick!" says Christine. "Scorchy's one of us now, all the way!"

"Pleased tameetcha," says Scorchy, offering a hand.

Out of the other room comes a thin, pale girl with long jet-black hair. She takes in everything with huge violet eyes, without saying a word.

Christine nudges Voinoivich.

"And this is Shara Lemmon," Voinovich says. "We just met her a week or ten days ago. Shara, this is Mr. Sky Masterson. He's going to be helping us on this job."

"What's his Power?" Scorchy wants to know.

"Ace," says Christine, then frowns in puzzlement. "Mostly," she adds.

"Are you going to activate him, Christine?" says Shara.

"He's already active, I think," Christine replies. "Has to be. He found us, didn't he?"

"If we're going to take you on, Mr. Masterson,  it has to be unanimous," says Voinovich. "Scorchy, run down to the kitchen and get Oscar, okay?"

"Aye-aye, your majesty!" says Scorchy, throwing a comical salute. "I'll pick up some soda an' bitters while I'm about it."

He leaves through room 307. That leaves Voinovich, Christine Tane and Shara Lemmon looking at Sky.