EscapePod. Episode 110. Gifting the Saxon Knight, by Cooper C. Vilms. Hello and welcome to Escape Pod, your weekly science fiction podcast. I'm Valerie Valdez, your host for this episode.

Our story this week is Gifting the Zaxonite by Cooper C. Wilms. This is an escape pod original.

Cooper lives in Minnesota with his wife and newborn daughter.

Our narrator, Eric Valdez, is a sound mixer, performer, and creative human, like you.

He leaves with his family in a cozy house made of puns, coffee, and chaos.

Catch him making up silly songs on Saturdays on Twitch.tv slash the Kids Are Asleep,

or stare and wonder while he anxiously avoids posting on Blue Sky at Intensely Airy.

Now, get ready for a con man to meet his ultimate mark, because it's story time. Grifting the Saxonite By Cooper C. Wilms

Read by Eric Valdez.

Of all the cons in his little black book,

Trevor McKay liked his current grift the best.

Smallfish stunts like his Spanish de bloune Gambit were always foolproof and reliable for a week of food and booze,

but there was no challenge to it.

His slot machine repairman scam raked in the dough and let him flex his interpestpian,

but the security at the casinos would inevitably

recognize his face. But the stranded Saxonite, as he had come to know it, made him proud

to call himself not just a con man, but a con artist.

He twisted his cigarette into the bar's ashtray and raised his bourbon to his lips.

His mark had to be a particular breed of man, isolated, desperate, willing to believe.

He scanned the room and took short, silent sips.

He passed over the trio of soldiers in flirtatious conversation with a waitress and ignored the man by the turquoise inlaid jukebox that clearly owned the black sportsster out front.

But there, in the back, with the thick Buddy Holly glasses and the beat-up pork pie, was the perfect target.

...