by Dan Kelly
“Wow, you’ve been a busy guy, Sarge. I sure wish we knew what the brother looks like.”
“I asked Sam if he had a picture of him, but he didn’t.”
Proud of his brother in-law Bill said, “Boy, when you dig, you dig. Great job, Chuck. We sure have a lot to chew on. What I don’t understand about all of this though is what’s with the handprint on the sky loft? It’s obvious now that the brother was able to plant a phony handprint on the sky loft pane. I remember reading something about duplicating finger prints using some kind of latex material, but I thought that only happened in spy novels and detective stories. If he hadn’t left that print, the name Carducci would never have come up.”
“From what my brother Nate and Sam Ferguson have told us, it’s a pretty sure bet that the surviving brother has slipped his clutch. His mental gears aren’t meshing properly and his reasons for doing things are more than a little off center. I think he left the print because this was a way for him to include his dead brother in his plan for revenge. His remarkable ability to change his appearance accounts for the picture on the driver’s license. There must have been a picture of his brother in the paper, probably in the obituary section, and he used that to make his disguise for the picture on the driver’s license. This guy wants to bring me down as payback for what he perceives as a dereliction of duty by my brother. To this guy, what he’s doing is tit for tat, an injustice for an injustice.”
“Well, guys, at least now we have a much better idea about the motive behind what’s been going on at the Palladian Palace. I’ll stay in touch. The line goes dead and Bill says, “Now what?”
Red hesitates, but only for a second. “It’s time for me to make a move. I’m going to tender my resignation effective immediately. My staying here any longer is only going to put the casino’s reputation in more jeopardy and when I’m ultimately let go a lot of people who have been loyal to me will probably be let go also. If I offer to go quietly and quickly, perhaps I can prevent anyone else from losing their job. This Chameleon won’t go away unless I do, so I’ll give him what he wants.”
“Oh, come on, Red. You can’t do this. You love casino life. What will you do?”
“Maybe I’ll go back to Chicago for a while and drive that hack again, just until I decide what would be a good next step for me. I don’t know. One thing is for sure though, my staying here isn’t doing anyone any good.”
Red decided to keep mum about the offer he had from Rex Spaulding. “I’m going to accept it, but the longer I can keep everyone in the dark about where I’m going the harder it will be for the Chameleon to find me. Hopefully, during that time a plan can be devised to cage this whacko.”
About mid-afternoon, Red called Rex Spaulding and accepted his offer and a few minutes later tendered his resignation to Wayne Worthington. By six in the evening, Red had tossed his personal belongings into a few cartons and split.
Chapter 11
At nine-thirty the next morning, the sun is blazing away and the temperature and humidity are climbing into the stratosphere. Red and Rex meet at the top of the Floating Fantasies gangway where Rex has been talking with a giant of a man. He’s six feet nine or ten if he’s an inch, blonde haired, blue eyed, looks Scandinavian and every inch of him is packed with muscle. Even his muscles have muscles. He looks as mean as a guy who’s put all of his money in a slot machine, won nothing, walked away and sees the very next guy who steps up to play hit the jackpot. As one would expect, the timbre of his voice was deep, but he is soft spoken and has a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Red, I’d like you to meet the captain of the Floating Fantasies, Popeye Petersen.”
“Oh, come on now. You’ve got to be kidding me. Thor I could believe, but Popeye?”
The big man breaks out into a big affable smile and says, “My birth certificate says Paul Petersen, but my friends in high school slapped me with the nickname because of my size and it stuck. Oh, I also happen to love spinach.”
The two men shake hands with Red wincing in anticipation of having his hand crushed, but it didn’t happen. It seems this guy is one of those gentle giants you occasionally hear about.
“Red, I’ve clued the captain in on what has been going on at the Palladian Palace and warned him about the likelihood that this guy will follow you here. He’s been around the block a few times and will do everything he can to help you nail this lizard if he comes crawling around here.”
“Well, lizard is an apt description of him as he is an expert at disguise. We’ve dubbed him the Chameleon because of this ability. I’ve got a lot of new information to share with both of you when you’ve got the time.”
“We’ve got the time now. Popeye, will you please take Red to his office while I go round up his staff? We can get the introductions over with and bring everyone with a need to know up to date right off the bat.”
“Will do, Rex. Follow me, Red.”
When Red walks into his new office, he is completely bowled over. Elegant hardly begins to describe it. Phrases like bodaciously exquisite, captivatingly beautiful, ubiquitous quality, richly furnished, colorfully coordinated flash through his mind, but fall far from the mark. This is truly something else and something he certainly didn’t expect. “Wow” is all Red is able to blurt out.
“Popeye explains, “You’ll learn early on that Rex takes very good care of the people who work for him and give him their all.”
Red was still staring bug eyed at his new base of operations and had the urge to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The deep mahogany wood furniture coupled with the rich leather and colorful fabric throughout the room and the beautiful artwork that hung on the walls was overwhelming. At one end of the huge room was a large circular conference table with fifteen ornate high backed soft leather chairs situated around it. As he was slowly spinning around, trying to take it all in, the huge double doors to the office opened and a group of about a dozen people led by Rex walked in.
“Well, what do you think of your new office, Red?”
“It’s amazing, Rex. It’s not only exceptionally impressive; I think it’s also going to be very conducive to getting my gray matter in gear to get the job done.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. That’s what having an office like this is all about. Let’s start out by breaking in your new conference room table with the introductions of your staff and you bringing us up to date on this Chameleon character.”
When Rex finishes with the introductions and Red with the Chameleon briefing, Rex stands and says, “I’ve got to get a move on. I have to fly back to Dallas this afternoon for some important meetings. As of now, when it comes to the maintenance, sailing and overall safe operation of this ship, Captain Petersen calls the shots. When it comes to the business end of things, Red Borman has the helm. Are there any questions? No? Then I’m out of here. Red, Popeye will give you all my personal contact info in Dallas. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Now I’ll leave you two to get the ball rolling.” With that, Rex hightails it out of the office, leaving Red and Popeye to do their thing. Spaulding is definitely not going to be a micro manager.
Rex’s departure leaves a nervous quietness in the room which Red figures he better dispel ASAP if he wants to start out on the right foot. Red stand’s and says, “What I’m sensing now I never want to sense again when any of you are in my or Captain Petersen’s presence. We are all part of the same team and synergism will be the key ingredient of any success we achieve. Synergism can not coexist with nervousness and apprehension about our ideas and feelings. Popeye and I don’t bite. We’re regular people just like you with a job to do. We will fall flat on our faces if we don’t have your full support and participation. Is there anybody in this room that can’t buy into this kind of program?” No? Great! Then everybody relax.
“It’s not going to take any of you very long to realize that I’m not a meeting person. If I must have one, I will quickly call it, quickly conduct it and quickly adjourn
it. You can consider this our first meeting. I want each of you as the head of your department to prepare a game plan and agenda for out first six months of operation along with a list of associated costs and have this information on my desk by this Friday morning at nine o’clock. I will review your proposals and get back to you on an individual basis regarding implementation. Any questions?”
After a brief pause and not hearing any he continues with, “If you have any in the future or wish to discuss anything with me, I have an open door policy. Feel free to approach me face-to-face, via phone, e-mail, carrier pigeon, telegraph, by whatever means works best for you. If you really want to win me over on something, I’m a sucker for Hershey’s Kisses. This meeting is adjourned. I told you I was quick.” Red was relieved to see a lot of smiling faces when his staff filed out of his office.
“Well, Popeye, I think our first meeting went as well as could be expected.”
“You did what you had to do. You put them at ease and got everybody on board.”
“How do you feel about me coming on board, Popeye?”
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t sign on to pilot a guy with a target on his chest up and down the Mississippi River. The Chameleon is definitely a few bricks shy of a full load and is liable to try anything to settle his score with my brother without a shred of conscious to slow him down. It could be dangerous hanging around me.”
“Red, for thirty of my forty-seven years I’ve been a merchant marine and during that time I’ve known a dangerous time or two. I’ve learned that it’s not the danger that can hurt you, but the carelessness. I promised Rex that I’d work with you to catch this guy and cover your back in the process if this nut comes snooping around here and I keep my promises, so it’s time now for you to relax.”
“Okay, Popeye, I will and thanks. I’m hoping the Chameleon won’t find out that I’m no longer at the Palladian Palace and have hired on here until we can come up with something that will effectively prevent him from cheating and discourage him from pulling another robbery.”
Popeye leaves to put together his game plan, agenda and budget for the Friday deadline and Red starts to dwell on a tenable plan to upset the Chameleon’s applecart whenever it shows up.
Chapter 12
The next few weeks go by without incident, but Red is completely stymied when it comes to hatching a scheme to put the Chameleon behind bars. He did arrange to have dice scanners installed at all of the crap tables as well as magnetic field detectors at all of the roulette tables, but could come up with nothing to detect any counterfeit chips that the Chameleon might put into play.
It was Rex Spaulding’s son who came up with a solution to the counterfeit chip problem. He’s a college junior, majoring in the physical sciences and is in the middle of experiments involving the use of ultraviolet light. During dinner one evening with his family, Rex expressed his concern over the lack of a reliable means of detecting counterfeit chips at the gaming tables.
His son told him about an experiment he was engaged in involving certain birds, crustaceans and other life forms that reflect specific colors and patterns only when subjected to ultraviolet light. These colors can not be seen by the human eye, but can be detected by other life forms and special equipment. He has been working on grinding the feathers and shells of these life forms into a powder and then converting the powder into an adhesive spray which can not be detected by sight, touch or odor and be extremely durable.
Rex eagerly asked him where he was with this experiment and his son told him he was ready to present the results to his professor for a final grade. Rex is well aware that ultraviolet light is used in conjunction with special printing methods to protect against forgery of currency and critical documents, but what his son has come up with eliminates the need for any special printing, so should be reasonably cost effective.
Rex has contacts in many industries all over the globe and arranged for a company to manufacture the spray in sufficient quantities to meet his needs on the Floating Fantasies. Rex had special canopy lights installed over all of the gaming tables, which in addition to providing normal lighting also emit ultraviolet light. The canopies are equipped with special collector plates that pick up the reflections generated by the ultraviolet light and transmit them to the same monitors in the security room that are tied into the highly sophisticated security cameras placed above the gaming tables. If any chips are put on a gaming table that haven’t been sprayed, they will stand out like watermelons in a pile of marshmallows.
Red is sitting in his new fancy office and with every minute that goes by without the Chameleon trying something his sense of disaster approaching increases dramatically. He’s comfortable with the security measures he’s put in place regarding the gaming tables, but he knows he’s dealing with a formidable enemy who is determined to bring him down. It’s strictly a matter of when he will strike again, not if.
Chapter 13
Another three months go by without incident then utter chaos spreads its tentacles throughout the Floating Fantasies cash flow operation. What ensues is completely unanticipated because it was believed to be impossible.
The first sign of Chameleon linked trouble shows itself in the wide spread malfunctioning of a majority of the slot machines. They start paying out when they shouldn’t, the amounts ranging from a few dollars to hundreds, and not paying out when they should or paying out much smaller amounts than indicated. Somehow the slots’ computers have been accessed and tampered with.
The second sign comes with intermittent total blackouts aboard the Floating Fantasies, interrupting gaming operations and making it extremely difficult for anyone to see where they are going.
The third and most serious sign comes with the notification by the bank that has their operating account, an account that usually has balances in the high six figures, that it has sprung a major leak. Apparently, someone has hacked into their account and made several big dollar transfers to a couple of banks in Vaduz, Liechtenstein; Bank Alpinum and Bank Pasche.
Although he has no proof, Red is convinced the Chameleon is behind all that is happening. It is now quite obvious to him that the Chameleon has not been idle since Red left the Palladian Palace. Somehow, he found out early on where Red had moved to and immediately set to work on putting together this assault on the Floating Fantasies since it would take a fair amount of time to set something like this in motion.
What is most astounding is that all three actions took place on the same day and, therefore, have had a greater impact on all involved than if they had occurred separately on different days. Red is clearly rattled, but not so much so that he can’t come up with a plausible possibility. “Perhaps this is what the Chameleon wants, hoping that Rex will be so overwhelmed and fearful that he will fire me immediately.
“I’d better call a meeting right away of all department heads, Popeye and Rex to address this mess and to develop some counter measures or Rex might begin to regret his promise to stand by me and show me the door. Maybe I should start reacquainting myself with the sights and streets of Chicago just in case my tenure here proves to be a short one. Ah! Nuts! Nuts! Nuts!
Chapter 14
It takes about an hour to get all the department heads and Popeye into his office and another half hour to locate Rex in Dallas and get him linked in on the video conferencing equipment.
“Good afternoon, everyone. All of you know that I’m not a meeting person and for me to call a special meeting there has to be a damn good reason, Well, I’ve got a humdinger.
“To put it bluntly, the Chameleon is back on the scene and he’s brought a heap of trouble with him. Some of you are aware that we’ve experienced some weird happenings this morning while others are completely in the dark. I’ll begin with a rundown of what has been going on so everybody is in the loop and then open things up for a discussion on what our options are and how we should react.”
When Red finishes with his description of the morning’s event
s, there is a stunned silence. The enormity of the extent to which the Chameleon has been able to invade their operation is mind boggling. Rex is the first to speak up.
