This is Prompt No. 14-Greed

Mitchie had a hard time refraining from scowling at Nigel as he eyed the stack of money she had thrown onto the table. He licked his lips and smiled at Mitchie. "You're quite an adventurous fellow," he said, "aren't you?"

Mitchie knew that he was testing her, trying to make her back down, for whatever she put down, he would have to either match or exceed. She grinned back and answered easily, "Hiding under a rock never benefited anyone." "Hiding under an old house did, though," she thought dryly, wishing once again that she could be safely at the base, going through her tests again.

Nigel chuckled, but his actions now sounded forced to Mitchie. "No it didn't," he agreed. He motioned to Hank and said, "Shuffle the cards, Hank."

Seeing one of the men eyeing her glass of alcohol, Mitchie forced herself to take another sip of the horrid-tasting liquid. "How do people drink this for enjoyment?" she wondered, trying very hard not to make a face at the foul taste.

Though the room was full of people, Mitchie could barely hear any of the commotion going on. She looked up once and saw Caitlyn watching her. Mitchie gave her an almost imperceptible nod to let her know that she was alright and then turned back to the dealer at the table, Hank. She watched as he shuffled the cards, sometimes seeming to slip in his shuffling, and Mitchie realized that he was reshuffling the cards so that the right ones fell to Nigel.

"Would you cut?" Nigel asked politely, handing the stack of cards to Mitchie. She took the cards and split the deck in half. Nigel rearranged the two halves and started dealing, starting with the men on the other side of him.

When each person had been dealt five cards, Nigel sat back with his hand and nodded, throwing in a few notes. "Call," he said, indicating that he would match Mitchie's high bid.

Mitchie tried to refrain from rolling her eyes as she watched him cheat. His greed was making him sloppy, and Mitchie was sure that a couple other men not in his little group could see him slipping cards under the table because one young man opened his mouth and then closed it again, a frown on his face. She picked up her cards and tried hard to remember what the general had taught her.

With a pair of twos, a three, a seven, and a queen, Mitchie knew that she could never win. She looked around at the other men, trying to see if any of them would give away their emotions. Hank was stone faced, and when she looked his way, he scowled again at her, his hand creeping under the table to the gun belt he wore.

Mitchie quickly looked away. This was getting more and more dangerous. She looked up again and saw Caitlyn staring wide-eyed at her, a look of shock on her face. Apparently, things were not going as the UUS had planned. Mitchie bit her lip, focusing on the plays going on around the table. Even if this was going wrong, she would try and finish it the best she could. There was no way she was going to fail her first mission.

"The fourth division is rather small," Nigel repeated again, breaking the silence around the table as he put his cards face down and reached for his drink. "Why'd you get sent to that one?"

Mitchie put her hand into her breast pocket and pulled out a little worn book that had been given to her as a prop. "My father found this," she explained.

Nigel squinted, trying to see across the smoky table. "What is it?"

"It's a book of poems," Mitchie said, easily covering up the fact that there was nothing written on the pages within the little book. "He sent me off to become what he considered a 'real' man."

Nigel chortled. He looked Mitchie up and down and said, "Seems like you turned out alright. You still keep the book though?"

Mitchie nodded. "I like to read them out loud and think of Shania, my sweetheart." While she said it, Mitchie forced herself not to even crack a smile. She'd have to tell Shane about that later.

Nigel grinned and turned back to his cards. "Seems to me that the division near the south end of Georgia's the largest, at least the last time I heard."

His eyes seemed to pierce through Mitchie and she responded casually, "Maybe I should mosey on down to Georgia then."

She looked back down at her cards, feeling the weight of them in her hands and knowing that she would lose all the money she had been given if she didn't do something. Now that she had her information, she couldn't just put her cards down and fold. No, she had to keep going, but something was wrong. Even as she glanced down at her cards, she found that she couldn't see the numbers clearly. She blinked a few times, but her vision refused to clear up. A bright light went off somewhere, but Mitchie couldn't identify where it came from.

"Raise," someone said. Mitchie looked up, and the room started to spin. She gritted her teeth in an effort to keep herself together, and looked back down at her cards.

It was her turn now, and Mitchie lifted her head and looked Nigel straight in the eye. "Raise," she said.

It was time to cheat against the cheater.

A/N: Sorry this one took so long. I couldn't open the Doc Manager last night. :( Hope you enjoyed this!