Presumably we aren't supposed to dwell on how Heller's bid to rip off the mob might have inconvenienced the other casinogoers.
And at this point, Heller finally notices that "tough mugs" - and yes, Hubbard consistently calls the casino's hired muscle that for several pages, even in consecutive sentences - have gotten into position to block off all the exits and escape routes. Even though he's literally spent the past couple of hours standing around, watching things unfold in the casino. I guess he got distracted by Tom-Tom and didn't spot the thugs boxing him in.
He tells Krak to start hiding the money, and she pitches the bags of cash down the laundry chute she found last chapter, while the casino's management continues to shuttle everyone else out. That's what casinos do, right, they shut down and evacuate everyone except the suspected cheaters? Not send a few security guards to escort them off the floor to a place they can have a little chat? Shut the whole place down after hours of getting gouged, that's the procedure.
And Gris, needless to say, is very happy that Heller is about to get beat up by the mob, who surely wouldn't kill him or anything, because that would get Gris in so much trouble. He's also pretty dismissive of Krak's idea of a hiding space, since anyone would think to look in the laundry for huge bags of stolen money, y'know? He's caught off guard when Krak jumps down the laundry chute after them, and sets about hiding the black trash bags in clean laundry bags.
And then Krak disappears for the next eight pages.
Now, we know that Gris has similar bugging equipment installed in Krak as he put in Heller, and even has a separate viewer so he can watch what both of them are doing at the same time. There's no interference cutting off her signal, and Gris doesn't even come up with an excuse to stop watching - he simply chooses to narrate only Heller's part of the next chapter or so.
Why? Because Hubbard wants to preserve a little bit of suspense by leaving Krak's condition in doubt, and to set up a reveal of how she evaded the mob for eight pages. Even though this makes no sense from a narrative standpoint. Gris could literally shift his eyes a few inches to the left and see what Krak's doing, but he won't because that would rob the chapter of a few droplets of excitement. The story-telling is smashing headfirst into the story.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating - the "Gris as narrator" thing Mission Earth has going for it is moderately creative but badly implemented and not worth the effort.
Let's have an unexciting shootout. Heller takes cover behind a couch, its plastic covering and thick upholstery surely proof against incoming fire. Some "tough mugs" tell him to give up. Would you like some witty banter?
"We know you got a gun. Throw it out here so we don't have to shoot you."
"You want the bullets, too?" said Heller.
"Of course," said the first man.
"Then have one," said Heller. He levelled [sic] the Taurus revolver he had taken off the waiter. He fired!
But not to kill, oddly enough. Heller will happily help a friend rig a parking garage to blow up three cars' worth of government agents on the assurance that they're all bad men, and will kickbox people to death with metal cleats instead of going for disabling blows, even chasing down a runner and snapping his back before boo-hooing about how violent these strange humans are. But here he shoots up the rug, the wall, and various expensive light fixtures instead of going for a kill-shot.
The soldiers of the Atlantic City mafia are thoroughly spooked by this couch-shielded menace, and not only flee for cover but do so without firing their weapons. In two pages of Heller causing property damage, there's only a single bullet of return fire, harmlessly absorbed by the couch.
While this is going on he can hear "Italian chatter" and nearby voices, as some casino guards talk about how they need to search the laundry room while some maniac shoots up the place just a hallway away. Heller doesn't use his button-radio to warn Krak to hide. A few paragraphs later he hears those guards report that they didn't find anything in the laundry room. Heller doesn't use his button-radio to check in with Krak, the love of his life. In fairness, Heller is pretty busy bringing down an enormous light fixture some 150 feet away. It was a tricky shot, alright? He had to compensate for "the drop of the relatively slow .45 bullet by placing the rear, fixed sight quite low" before firing. Man's gotta have his priorities straight.
At this point, the casino's owners realize that they were stupid enough to buy bulletproof furniture and design the place so that one man behind a couch on the mezzanine is completely untouchable save by a suicidal frontal assault, so someone turns on the PA system and explains that even if they can't reach Heller, he can't get his money out because every exit is guarded. So maybe he better talk to the capo.
At least Heller checks on Krak at the start of next chapter.
Back to Chapter Seven
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