He was setting up a new victim and Snake's eye narrowed as he shifted position for a different view of the worker than he had last round. The cards went down and Snake heard nothing he just watched intently. That's when he saw it, the slight of hand as the man shoved a card up his sleeve and produced another. No one would catch it but Plissken's senses were honed for gunfights, the subtle and he caught it.
The magician called up for another player. People backed away in awe and Snake pushed his way to the front.
"I'll play a round." Snake commented off handedly as he tossed his cigarette aside.
"What's your bet?"
Snake looked past the man at the pile of shit, stolen shit in Snake's mind that was stacked nearly knee deep in the back of the pick-up. His eye caught on one thing. It was an automatic rifle, USPF issue, hard to steal. He wanted it.
"Got a deal for you. I win you give me anything I want out of your stash. You win you can have anything I got on me, all of it if you want." Snake wasn't going to lose and if he did there was always a pistol to the head. That was sure to get his message across.
The man's eyes rested on Plissken's gunbelt, the handmade brushed metal and custom revolvers nestled in their place. Snake nodded, conceding to give them over if he lost.
"All I got to do is pick out the right card?" Snake asked.
"Yes. Just pull the right card." The man responded.
The man started his show, hands fluttering around, shuffling cards, fucking with things on the table. Plissken ignored it and kept his eye locked on the cards. He held up the three cards, the queen of hearts was the card you had to draw from the table. The three cards were spread out and shuffled. Snake ignored the shuffling. It didn't matter.
The man stopped and looked up at Plissken. "Where's the queen?"
Snake looked over the cards as if debating which one to choose. He knew where his card was, up the man's right sleeve. The man waited impatiently for Plissken to choose. Snake closed his eye and held his hand over the cards as if trying to do magic himself. People gasped but Snake was listening for the man across the table to move. He shifted his right hand and Snake's hand snapped out grabbing his wrist with an iron grip.
The man squirmed and cried out. Snake glared at him and snatched the card from his sleeve. Snake held the card up to show the crowd. Dissent erupted behind him and Snake let the man go. Snake sauntered past him and headed for the truck. He grabbed the rifle and smiling took the bottle of booze he spotted in the back. Before wandering off. The noise behind him wasn't something he wanted to see. That crowd would probably leave little left of that man. Maybe he would survive and learn his lesson. Snake might have made another enemy. He had so many of them it didn't matter any longer.
Plissken had his reasons for calling the man out. He could careless if someone was taking advantage of general stupidity. He did however feel disgust when someone used a simple child's trick to do it. Magic was always a lame hoax. Snake had only to put the pressure on and expose the fraud.
