Gentleman Jack looked at The Professor like he was mad (something The Professor was quite used to). Concern etched itself into Jack’s face around his permanently devilish grin. “You’re having me on,” he said.
The Professor shook his head without diverting his gaze from the strangers slowly moving through the street market out at the end of the alley. Out of the corner of his eye, did he see that smile falter for a second?
“Well alright, then,” said Jack as he darted down the alley, fingertips touching the damp brick, “Let’s see what these morons are made of.” Jack pulled from his haversack a corked bottle, which he uncorked with his teeth and took a splash into his mouth as he pocketed the cork. He was not making an effort to be quiet now, in fact he started singing:
Oh, any ol’ whore
Is enough of a score
As long as I’m not choosy,
But watch out for Big Betty,
She’s round, lumpy and wetty,
A mountain of a floozy!
And with that last line Jack launched himself into the midst of the seven. Leon couldn’t believe what he was seeing: Jack was pulling the Drunken Master, one of the oldest if not one of the least unobtrusive tricks in the book. Jack ran directly into one of the strangers, holding his bottle out at arm’s length and pushing it into the mans’s chest, saying, “Here!” and simply letting go of it, a move which counted on the reflexes of the mark. This mark’s reflexes were good indeed, The Professor noted: the bottle had not dropped even an inch before the mark’s fingers closed about its neck. That was some speed. Jack continued to push into the mark like an obnoxious drunk, backpedaling him a couple steps. That distraction, The Professor knew, was all Jack needed to dip into the man’s belt purse.
And then, somehow, they were all gone.
Jack and the seven strangers: gone. The crowd moved on as usual. But wait! Resting on the ground, upside down, was Gentleman Jack’s top hat. Nobody picked it up, the crowd walked around it. Was it bait? Only one way to find out. Leon didn’t feel very smart now, as he had to simply walk out into the alley and expose himself by picking up Jack’s hat, but he didn’t know what else to do, so there was nothing but to do it and be done with it. He strode out like he owned the place, picked up Jack’s hat and inspected it as if it were a newly found treasure, and placed it atop his own head. He strolled on for a bit, then ducked into a different alley.
What the hell just happened to Jack?
When he was about halfway back to the gang’s hideout, he paused to examine Jack’s top hat. Tucked inside the headband were a number of hidden implements and weapons of Jack’s, including several small rolls of hide for messages. But there was another roll, this of vellum, actual paper. And it was sealed with a wax seal The Professor recognized.
