by Moulton, CD
The place was filled with people and was busy on all the games and machines. Thing couldn't understand why, so Z pointed out that people without proper funds or those who weren't allowed to gamble in the empire's casinos were all who were there. Their cards would be rejected in any other places.
"These are the people with only a few credits or those who're chancing their jobs or those who'll steal or worse for money to gamble. They gamble on credit here. The highest legal interest rate in the empire is seven point five percent. They pay twenty five percent per ten days or something here."
[ But how can they lend money to people who can't pay it back? Even a crook can see an investment without any collateral whatever is a good way to lose! How do they keep from going bankrupt? ]
"Oh, they pay it back. If they don't pay it back with the interest at the time they are supposed to they get hurt. A few broken bones will convince them to pay."
[ If they don't have the money they can't pay. It doesn't make any sense! This is unsecured loans, at best, and stupid – also at best! It doesn't make any sense! It's against every principle of economics. ]
"If they don't have money they can steal it or kill someone for it. That's the sort of thing that was objected to so strongly when people wanted to open up areas for gambling back on Earth. I said from the first this sort of thing was inevitable here. We have to stomp hell out of these and make an example of them or it'll steadily get worse. Let them know the empire will crush the types who do this and they'll stay at the fringes. It's not possible to stop it altogether, but I opted to open these worlds because this way we'll always know pretty much where the problem is and we can keep it under control."
[ Control! We have to stamp it out! You can't control illogic! It'll just spread if we don't entirely eliminate it! Use your head! ]
"Thing, that can never happen. It's best it stays here where we can minimize it and watch it. If we do away with the vacation worlds it'll become small business on thousands of worlds and a lot of innocent people will be hurt. Doing away with these worlds will punish the ninety five percent of innocent customers who come here for relaxation and fun for the acts of the five percent. Some few innocent people are hurt here, but not too many. The ones who suffer most are the families of compulsive gamblers. We can keep the compulsives out because they seldom have the funds to come here in the first place – or did. These people we're fighting will lend them the money to come here because they can then collect stolen funds or worse from those thousands of planets. This does spread, but only when it can't be controlled. If we stop this here we'll go a long way toward ensuring another few years of relative inactivity of that element. It'll recur on a regular basis, but we can learn what to have the machines look for this time and it won't ever get this far again before we come to stop it."
[ I think I see what you're saying. I should have learned from the Immins there are going to be those types and they are going to try their schemes. I see there are two Jornians hanging about those stairs over there. I don't have any doubt whatever we are the focus of their attention. ]
Z looked at the two and saw there were two Zurn at the base of the stairway, in addition.
"The local boss is up there. Shall we cost him a lot of money? That should get his attention!"
[ I would think these types running an illegal place would simply refuse to pay if you win too much. That would be a rather simple way to protect their so-called investment! ]
"That, they can NEVER try." Z laughed. "It would show the suckers they haven't even the low chances to make their killing they thought they did. They wouldn't borrow anymore money and they wouldn't gamble here. There are rules of economics, even in places like this, albeit stupid rules.
"You'll find the wheels are fixed, the dice are loaded, and the cards are marked, at best."
[ That should make it far easier to win. They have to use a drag brake on the wheel to make it work at all. I can easily calculate that. I can figure any game they try to fix. The fixing can work both ways! ]
"The underslot is filled. The wheel simply can't stop on the really big winners. They might depend on the skill of the attendant or a drag brake on the twenty five to one slots. They'll have house limits. You'll have to get them waived."
[ If they think they can cheat me they'll waive the limits. I'll play the game on them they played on you at poker. I begin to understand those novels. I finally believe what you always say about these people. The easiest people to con are the con artists! There are no more gullible people in the galaxy! ]
Thing went to a row of wheels and watched them all. It went to one of them and bet the ten to one and lost. It then bet a five to one and won, then a twenty to one and lost. It always bet the house limit of five hundred credits, so it was ahead.
It noticed that when it won all the wheels were soon filled with people placing their bets. A nearby woman was asked what was happening. She said she heard the wheels were getting hot. Z explained what she meant.
One of the Jornians came to stand nearby to watch as Thing bet three numbers, all of which lost.
[ Let's go someplace else, With. I can't win here if all I can bet is a lousy five hundred! I don't see why you wanted to come in. Just because the place is here isn't enough to make me want to play. There are hundreds of places we haven't been yet where I can have some fun. ]
“If you have the funds, the house limits can be raised or even removed," the Jornian said smoothly. "We only have the limits so people won't be tempted to wager more than they can pay. Gamblers generally tend to overspend."
Thing waved the empire unlimited credit voucher in front of the Jornian, who couldn't believe his eyes. The fellow who had been tailing them was trying desperately to get his attention, but the floater kept getting in his way. Z sidled over to him and said he remembered him. He had asked where some club was of him.
"Why all the waving?" Z asked. "Some kind of luck thing?"
"Er, no, I'm trying to catch my friend's eye over there but, er, SHE won't look over this way," he replied. "Uh, is that the, er, Mentan who won all the money on Sentah?"
"Oh, you heard about that? I see our reputation has preceded us! We're going to win as much here, too. Tec has that half-assed idiot begging it to bet more money. Tec says the wheel is fixed – it said that to me. It wouldn't tell the jerk it has mumblefrd vision and can see the wheel move toward the side about a thousandth of a millimeter when the brake goes on. We were going to leave to find an honest place, but Tec will show this idiot that people who try to cheat us pay for the honor of learning a lesson. This won't be the first place Tec cleans to the centime bin!"
"What? What kind of vision did you say?!" he snapped sharply. "What is that? Something like telescopic vision or something?"
"Something that sounds like mumblfrd," Z said confidentially. "A Mentan can see a movement of less than a hundred thousandth of a millimeter. Add that to the fact it can figure mathematical equations better than any machine in the empire and you've got an unbeatable combination if there ever was one!"
"But those wheels wobble enough for even me to see!" he cried, sweating. "What difference would that little bit make?"
"It has something to do with the wheel wobbling against the pattern or something. I don't pretend to know what it's about for a second. It's sort of a combination of the special vision and the math thing. It looks like the crooked rockslug has talked Tec into making one very big bet. Let's watch! This should be fun!"
"I, er, have to, uh, meet someone," the Bentan protested as he walked off toward the stairs. Z figured he would catch all kinds of hell for not telling the floorwalker Thing was the Mentan they were watching so carefully.
Thing moved to the wheel to the right of the one he had been playing before and placed the voucher on the board.
[ Five million on green asteroid at four to one. ]
The man behind the wheel stared at the guarantee chit in awe, then looked toward the grinning floorwalker, who nodded it was ok
ay. The man was shaking as he spun the wheel. Everyone could see him stamping his foot on something repeatedly, but nothing was happening.
"Mightiest Kleevish!" a Larslip woman suddenly screamed right at Z's ear, making him fear she'd ruptured his eardrum. "It's green asteroid! That thing won twenty million credits!”
The people began to press tighter and tighter, so Thing picked up the voucher and hovered over the board.
[ Actually it's only fifteen million. I bet five. You can't consider the original bet as part of the winnings. ]
Z made his way his way out of the crowd and to the base of the stairs. The noise was deafening. A Jornian flew out of a door at the head of the stairs and ran down to stare at Thing floating above the wheel. It was Narmel. His back was to Z.
"You seem to have the worst kind of luck when Tec is around," Z greeted. "It just took your crooked wheel for twenty million credits!"
Narmel turned to stare at Z as the Bentan follower came down the stairs.
"Dir refused to look at me!" he whined. "I tried to signal to him, but he wouldn't even look at me! He was so busy being smart! He wouldn't pay me no attention! Ask this guy here! He even asked me what the hell I was doing, waving like a fool!
"Dir wouldn't pay me no mind! I done my job! I tried to warn him! It weren't my fault! Ask this guy!"
"Is that what you were doing?" Z asked innocently. "All that waving and shaking your head?
"Hell, that floorwalker was begging Tec to bet the wheel, no limit. Tec said this place is crooked and we were on our way out when that jerk insisted Tec bet the wheel big. This guy looked like he was going to have a heart attack! So that's what the waving was all about!
"I guess if I'd have known you were here I would've figured the place was crooked, Narmel! Seems you don't do anything honest if there's a crooked way to do it! I'll tell Tec to take the money and donate it to Hospital."
"He can't donate what he hasn't got!" Narmel snarled. "We'll pay house limit and that's that!"
"Well, Tec has this neat recorder on the floater that has everything the floorwalker said and did," Z replied as silkily as Narmel's usual voice. "A machine is called an incorruptible witness. We'll see how many customers are in this joint in half an hour. Then we'll take it to the Vacation Worlds Police Agency. If they won't act we'll take it to EC if we have to go there ourselves, in person. We can damned well afford the trip!
"I heard a woman talk about borrowing money at twenty five percent, rolled over every ten days! From this establishment! That's on the machine, too! I think maybe EC will get into this place like glefflts in a frgenmellon!
"Think about it! If we don't have our money in ten minutes I'll assume you're calling my bluff. What if I'm not bluffing?"
Z turned his back and went toward the crowd. He called the floater over and told Thing what he had said and done.
[ We'll wait exactly nine more minutes. We have to make it absolutely definite to these types that we do NOT bluff! ]
Narmel called the floorwalker over and argued, then went to the wheel to argue. Thing had planted a microtransmitter under the board. They could hear the whole exchange.
"...but the damned wire broke! I know that thing figured the math ratios and could maybe figure where the wheel would stop from where it started. I hit the brake enough to make it miss by a slot or two and the damned wire broke! It ain't no fault of mine if the damned wire broke! I ain't the one stood there and begged that thing to bet everything it had on the damned wheel! I ain't responsible for none of this crap!"
[ The floater did a sonic on the wire. It will look like it frayed and broke up near the brake pad. ]
"The Mentan has some weird kind of eyes that can see the wheel move just a millionth of a millimeter or something!" their tail interjected. "That With character told me he was already leavin' because the damned Mentan could see when the brakes was put on. Dir was standin' there keepin' on begging the damned thing to bet everything it had!
"Good ol' Dir refused to pay me no mind! I was standin' there waving like some kind of fool! You heard that Maitan guy say he thought I was havin' a heart attack by the way I was wavin'! It ain't none of my fault, neither! Good ol' reliable Dir wouldn't even look! Everbody in the place saw I was waving like a fool 'cept him!"
"You ARE a fool!" Dir snapped.
"Hah! I didn't cost the place no twenty million!" the Bentan yelled. "I guess that shows who's a fool!"
"Stop it!" Narmel demanded. "You're both fools! I'm surrounded by fools! You don't have to explain this to Eed!
"Exactly what did you say to the Mentan, Dir? Did you really beg it to bet?"
"I only gave the standard line we always give those kinds of marks," Dir replied. "I told him he could bet anything he wanted and the wheel wasn't fixed, that we were inspected by the empire. I said the house would cover any side bet. Standard stuff to a standard mark!"
"You damned idiot!" Narmel cried. "You're the mark! You stupid slug! He recorded the whole thing! If we don't pay he'll turn it over to the VWPA! Neel can't cover us here! Idiot!"
"It weren't my fault!" the Bentan wailed. "I tried to tell him!"
"Nobody suggested it was your fault," Narmel said. "There won't be any sticker (Scapegoat) here. Dir cost the organization fifteen million credits. We don't have fifteen million credits. We’ll have to borrow it from another business – from three other businesses. The whole chain will be hurt. All we can do is stall them. We're going to have to pay.
"I want the two of them dead, but I want no chance it can be traced to me or to this operation. Is that clear? We will pay and THEN they die! Understood? We'll have to pay them or their heirs to stay in business, but they should be easier to deal with than the empire or the VWPA. I've already had one run-in with those two!"
He came back to where Z was standing with Thing on the floater hovering overhead.
"I'll give you a bank draft for the money," he said. "It will have to be collected. It will be no sooner than noon tomorrow before you can cash it. We don't keep that kind of money on the premises."
[ Oh, that should be no problem. You can make the draft out to Hospital and I'll deposit it directly to their account. It won't be necessary to have the actual funds for ten days that way. ]
Narmel glared at Thing, then made out a bank draft. Payable to Hospital.
Z and Thing arrived back at the hotel, deposited the draft in the bank station to the account of Hospital, then went to find T6. The floater was in constant contact with it since it landed and Thing and Z were truly happy to be with a close friend again. T6 took the floater into its shop section – brand new. Maita recently installed it – where it was fitted with the access unit that would interface with and read any of the machines of the empire, as well as most others. It had flex pins and flex sockets to fit anything. T6 could read all the necessary currents and micro-voltages, resistances, and inductance values and match almost instantly. It became part of the system, letting it access anything in it, no matter what secrecy codes had been installed.
While it was working on that it opened the fastcom channels to Maita that TR had developed to use by only the crew, Theron, and Searcher. Everyone could now be brought fully up to date.
*Why haven't you taken this information to the VWPA? You have proof of hundreds of violations now. They will close the place down within the hour. We can't allow this to continue for one more minute!*
"That's the last thing we want, Maita," Z cautioned. "We want to find out a hell of a lot more than we know so far about this operation and who's involved. Closing down one crooked club won't accomplish anything. They'll simply spread the operation among the other branches and continue as usual. I want that bank draft paid to Hospital before we do anything to give them an excuse not to pay it – besides, we now know someone named Neels on the VWPA is part of the deal. Narmel let that slip when we were listening through the bug! We'll want to know who else is involved in that and any other policing agency. If we close them down now we lose all
the really important leaders and very little would be accomplished. I told Thing the scam would just be spread to a lot of other worlds. We have to get the bigshots here, then we can worry about closing that place. Remember that we don't even know which other clubs HERE are part of this – yet!"
[ We know Narmel has a boss. His name is Eed. We don't know if he's the top or if there are more above him. We don't know what other clubs are in on it. We don't know how they exert influence on the empire casinos. We don't know a lot more than we do know, Maita. Z's right. We have to let this go on while we find the information we have to find. It wouldn't do any good to stop this one little operation. We have to get the big boss. ]
"I say we have to allow the attempt to be made on our lives. We can then use the legitimate excuse of murder and can begin putting some of those people on the probe. You can put an anti-gangster law on the court books. Call it 'conspiracy to cause deaths through direct felonious acts' and make it capital. That way the murder doesn't have to actually take place, it only has to be attempted. If there's strong probable cause the would-be murderer was hired he can be put on the probe. If two or more persons are known by that person to be behind the hiring, then the murderer escapes capital punishment and the conspirators are put under capital sentence, can be put on the probe and, if they were in turn working under orders, the process can be repeated until the top boss is found.
"Make the law in organized crime cases different than in the normal law cases in that the one who attempts the murder under direct orders from a higher-up escapes execution and the one who hires or orders them doesn't. That legitimizes use of the probe. It can save any but the very top boss, who must face execution. The logic being it's ultimately at THAT person's hands the murder was ever attempted. It leaves us a way to trace right to the top.
"Believe me, Maita. Nothing else will work against the kind of thing we're fighting. It's either that or we.... I've got it!
