"Look," he shrilled, "let's go back over a little recent arena history.
Less than a year ago you were a second-rater fighting at the state
fairs. You went to Mars to watch the Interplanetary Meet which is held
once every decade to decide interplanetary affairs. The ship carrying
Terra's gladiators was lost in space and you were tossed in as an
emergency replacement."
"Sure," I said. "The first time a Terran ever won an Interplanetary
Meet."
He whistled disgustedly, "The first time a Terran ever lasted more than
five minutes."
"Well?" I said proudly.
He pointed a few fingers at me. "BY A FLUKE! By using a lot of ideas
you got from that quotation spouting girl friend of yours, you won by a
fluke! Among other things, you _played possum_, as you called it, under
a heap of corpses until all the others were either killed or wounded
and then got up and finished them off. The fans throughout the system
are still screaming about that."
"Well, I'm still champ," I said truculently. "I licked them once,
and...."
"Aw, shut up," he shrilled. He whirled about and started for the door.
"I'll see what I can do."
* * * * *
I didn't know what he meant by that, but I shrugged and rang for
my breakfast. The twinge of conscience I felt inside, I manfully
suppressed. I suppose that I really knew he was right, but I'd been
getting a good deal of ego-boo the past months and it was hard--almost
impossible, in fact--not to listen to it.
By noon the dealcoholizer had completed its work and I felt more or
less normal. I suppose I should have been worrying about the bout with
the Centaurian, but I wasn't. Not particularly. I was worrying about
Suzi.
Suzi worked for a chain of publications as a female sports reporter
covering the gladiator meets from the woman's angle. What she wanted
to do was write books about primitive culture, and for years that had
been the barrier between us. She couldn't stand the fact that I wasn't
particularly interested in the ancients and spent half the time we
had together in trying to fill me with the lore she thought the big
interest in life. She'd even given me my professional name, explaining
that the original Jak Dempsi was one of the outstanding gladiators in
ancient times.
At any rate, I knew where she usually had her lunch and made my way
there, hoping to be able to patch things up. She'd promised to marry
me, after I'd won the championship for Earth, and if there was anything
I could do about it, I was going to see her hold to the engagement.
The Interplanetary Viziscreen Service, the I.V.S., occupies a building
in Neuve Los Angeles nearly as large as Spacenter. Almost all of the
I.V.S. people eat in the Auto Cafe, and it was there I made my way.
Soft music was playing as I entered and looked over the three acre
expanse of tables. Of course, I didn't have to check them all--Suzi
always sat in the sport section with perhaps a few hundred others.
The soft pleasant dining music cut off abruptly and the autorch started
blaring out an earsplitting tune that brought back enough of my
headache to make me grimace.
Several thousand heads came up and looked toward the entrance where I
stood. A movement started somewhere or other and before you knew it,
everybody in the place was standing on his feet and slapping his hands
like crazy.
Everybody but two.
I could spot them now. Suzi and Alger Wilde were sitting at a table in
the sport section. I made my way toward them.
* * * * *
Alger Wilde, I might as well explain here, is a _makron_ from the
word _glorm_, if you'll pardon my language. He's been trying, in his
smirking way, to get in with Suzi for almost as many years as I have,
and until I won the championship was doing at least as well as I. His
strong point was the fact that he was even further around the corner
in regard to the ancients than was Suzi. They could sit and talk for
hours about the primitive comic books and other cultural matters that
the average person had no interest in whatsoever.
I still didn't know what all the clapping was about, and I still didn't
like the raucous music, but I ignored it all and made my way toward
their table, rehearsing to myself what I was going to say to Suzi.
When I got nearer, the two of them, self-consciously, also came to
their feet and both made with feeble applause to the extent of clapping
their hands together once or twice.