Street Mind

"What?!" Dan began to probe Li. Li was learning how to block him out a little bit, but not to the point where Dan was completely pushed out. Yet. "So, he knows Tangsoodo, has been in some streetfights growing up around here in high school, joined the Army reserves to pay for college, then moved up to Oxon Hill." Dan continued probing. "He's basically a nice guy but he's little bent, and he likes fighting as a sport. He could have been a boxer if he wanted to but his mom and grandmom made him go to school. And...." The car had cut off and Li was waiting to open the door at this point of the mental probe. Dan was shocked once he picked up the next thought. "He doesn't even know that he's fighting tonight!"

Li opened the cardoor. Dan left the car from his side. They slammed the doors on the Caddilac simultaneously. "He ain't the type to fight for money. He's down here because I told him this was a seminar on pressure points and combat fightin'. But since your people ain't payin' him that much downtown. I doubt he'll leave once he hears that the loser gets five hundred."

"Why it gotta be whitey, man?" said Dan defensive.

Li cut him the "oh please" look.

The two of them made their way through the crowd gathering outside to an even thicker crowd inside the building. Nigel, one of Li's twenty-something cousins, must have been a little telepathic. Either that, or even a blind man could read the outrage on Lincoln's face.

The place was packed. Too packed for Li's purposes. The video crew barely had enough room to record. It was smokey, noisy, and a fire hazard.

"Now-now-now-now Lee, hole on a minute, now!" stuttered a scared Nigel. "Look man, we doubled the ticket prices to two hundred a head, and these niggaz and crackers was still rolling up in here!"

Li's anger turned to a smile. "Damn, I guess folks is gettin; desperate for a fight since they banned boxing two months ago because it was too violent. Man, I heard those Trillon Mom Marchers are like a cult nowadays! How much we get, youngboy?"

Shnooky walked up almost on cue. She was a sexy, dark skinned cousin of Li's with thick breasts, big hips, suitable waist, and soft, thick kinky hair. Li always did wish they weren't cousins, or at least, not so closely related. "Look here Lee-Lee, is this Whiteboy?" she asked poking Dan in the chest. "Well he better be as good as y'all say he is, 'cause your cousin back there in the kitchen is pissed!" Dan was too entranced with lust. He couldn't keep his eyes off the older woman's body long enough to read her or anyone else in the room.

"Who pissed? Cedric?" asked Li.

"Yeah, Lee, he mad wit' chuh," answered Nigel. "He back dere readin' one of them karate books to keep call. Some Zen thang or other. It don't take Einstein or Jackson to figure out he was set up to fight." "Jackson" was a young black man who was the Einstein of the 21st and 22nd century. "He mad, but he said he'll do it if the price is right, and if all you got to do is like boxing. He ain't tryin' to have to really hurt nobody or get hurt."

"You know he and Elizabeth just had a baby?" informed Snooky. "He named her Claudia, after his mamma."

"We ain't got time for chit-chat now, Snooks," Li ordered. "Just get him out here when the time come!"

Li took off his hat and pulled a cordless mic out of his pocke. Dan was surprised he had the mic on him. Even a telepath could underestimate Levi's love for being the showman and entertainer.