Claira St. Sure walked stiffly out of the hospital and winced at the bright September sun.

“Eleven stitches.” she told Kai, although he’d already heard.  Her voice was blurry.

“All things considering, that’s not too bad.”

After War Games, Claira had been taken straight to the nearest hospital and was treated for blood loss and exhaustion.  One of her lower front teeth was broken, probably at the hands of Alceo Dentari when he kicked her head into the cage, and her blurry voice was the result of a jaw full of Novocain. 

He led her to a rental car and eased himself into the driver’s seat.

“I know you’re not supposed to talk much while you’re on Novocain” he said as he popped the lock on her door.  “So just listen to me for a while.”

She nodded, and leaned her head back.  There was a white bandage gracing her forehead, covering the stitches.

“You ascended to the next level of the game that night in the cage.  Losing to Christian Light, no matter how magnificent the match was or how well you performed, was a setback.  Not much of one, as I’ve said all along, he’s one of the greatest of all time, but you did drop the match and the league leader spot.”

“Then, you won War Games.  And let me say, thank you for the Zer Soze to Alceo Dentari, it was almost as nice watching it as it would have been to do it myself.  But back to you – you won.”

Kai had had all of the night to think about what he wanted to say to his client.

“On the other hand, you had luck.  I don’t believe a word that comes out of the mouth of a family-beater like Jimmy Kort, he obviously knew what had happened the second Edward White hit you from behind.  But with that team in shambles, Yoshikazu YAZ made a stupid decision, and evened the sides.  So don’t go thinking that you’re better than any five guys from Evolution League, either.”

“But back to the first side, this is where your standing changes for good.  Before, you were a rookie on a reckless run.  Good, and dangerous, but less of a threat than the top tier wrestlers.  Now, you’re the person who against all odds pulled out a War Games win.  Evolution League is going to hate you personally.  They’re going to be afraid of you, personally.”

“And they’ll be working overboard to try and keep you out of the finale.”

“Heidi Christenson is the only person in Evolution League who’s a match for anyone in Heritage.  I don’t know what Heidi’s thinking right now, I don’t know if she’d even want to win the tournament, but you’re going to have a job to do.”

“You’re going to have to beat Edward White.”

Kai glanced to the side and looked at Claira.  She blinked, slow and hard.

“It’s not my way to overlook anyone, but at the same time, I am going to deliberately overlook Cancer Jiles.  He’s a man who knows how to win a match, but he’s also a hedonist, and he’s more likely than most anyone else in Defiance to sacrifice his personal glory to maintain his current Edward White supported lifestyle of champagne, caviar, and crystal and amber bongs.  And if he does advance, he doesn’t have a mat game to speak of, just remember to keep your cool and you can twist him apart.’

“Edward White, however, works from a playbook very similar to my own.  He arranges the situation ahead of time to his advantage.  His way of doing so is a bit less subtle than mine, though.  Rather than work through pawns, proxies and subtle manipulation of people’s emotions, he prefers cash, bribes, and the admittedly formidable threat of overwhelming fiscal power.”

“Listen, sometime, to any of his exchanges with Jeff Andrews.  Jeff Andrews gets Edward White.  Conversely, White gets Andrews, when so many people insist on treating Jeff as the George W. Bush of professional wrestling.  When you listen to White describe the finer points of arguing over tractor maintenance, as silly as it sounds at first, that is how the man thinks, and he’s going to act and react in the ring with that exact mindset.”

“He will look to accomplish the most he can with the least amount of effort expended.  In the short term, that doesn’t mean he’ll be looking to avoid a fight.  Even masterminds have to occasionally do something to dust off their chops and prove themselves a viable physical threat, even if it means stepping directly into the firefight themselves – keep that in mind.”

“And I don’t know, to be honest, whether Edward White is going to look at this match against you as something he needs to do to prove himself, or something he needs to make sure does as little damage as possible to him.  What I do know, is that he won’t be trying to do both at the same time.  Even if he has the braggadocio to claim that’s what he’s doing, he’s way too smart to actually do it.”

“As for how you stop a person like Edward White.  There’s no surefire way.  They’ll often have multiple contingency plans.  But something I’ve always found that worked pretty well is to not worry about the plots and schemes at all.  Don’t worry about outwitting Ed White, or staying ahead of his game.”

“Worry about kicking the hell out of him and getting yourself and all of Heritage League some revenge in the ring.”

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