Confidence Game

In a neon‑lit underworld where Earth’s streets mingle with alien tourists, a weary drifter teams up with an enigmatic, frail man known only as Doc. Their uneasy alliance is driven by a whispered promise: tonight the Moon will be reached, and a silver ship bearing untold wealth will pass them by. The narrator’s desperate need to keep Doc alive pushes them into the shadows of a gritty city that never sleeps.

They slip into a rundown flophouse, bargaining cheap quarters for a cramped room while Martian wanderers watch from the doorway. Inside, the air hums with the feverish chatter of winos and the unsettling notion of a “memory jump” that seems to bind the two men together in ways they can’t control. As Doc trembles and the narrator wrestles with both his own frailty and the looming danger, the night promises a gamble that could cost them more than just a few coins.