Bond. “Except at your game, you crook!-5 1/2 per cent at Roulette. Up to 17 per cent at Bingo and the Wheel of Fortune, and 15-20 per cent at the slots. Not bad for the House, hn? Every year eleven million customers play Mr Spang and his friends at those odds. Take two hundred dollars as an average sucker’s capital, and you can work out for yourself how much stays in Vegas over a year’s play.”
Bond put the pencil and the piece of paper away in his pocket. “Thanks for the documentation, Felix. But you seem to forget that I am not going to this place for a holiday.”
“Okay, damn you,” said Leiter resignedly, “but don’t you go fooling around in Vegas. It’s a big operation they’ve got there and they won’t stand for any monkey tricks.” Leiter leant across the table. “Let me tell you. The other day there was one of these dealers. Blackjack, I think it was. Decided to go into business for himself. Slipped a few bills into his pocket one evening during the play. Well, they spotted him. Next day some innocent guy is driving into town from Boulder City, and he spots something pink sticking up out of the desert. Couldn’t be a cactus or anything, so he stops and has himself a look.” Leiter prodded Bond’s chest with a finger. “My friend, that pink thing sticking up was an arm. And the hand at the top of the arm was holding a full deck of cards, fanned out. The cops came with spades and dug around and there was the rest of the guy under the ground at the other end of the arm. That was the dealer. They’d blown the back of his head off and buried him. The fancy work with the arm and the cards was just to warn the others. Now how d’ya like that?”
“Not bad,” said Bond.
The dinner came and they started to eat.
“Mark you,” said Leiter between mouthfuls of broiled lobster. “The dealer should have known better than get caught with his duke in the tambourine. They’ve got a good trick in these Vegas casinos. Take a look at the ceiling lights. Very modern. Just holes in the ceiling with the light beamed through on to the tables. They throw a very strong light with no sideways glare to upset the customers. Take another look and you’ll see there’s no light coming from the alternate holes. They just seem to be there to make a pattern.” Leiter slowly shook his head from side to side. “Not so, my friend. Up on the floor above, there’s a television camera on a dolly that moves around the floor taking an occasional peek through those empty holes. Kind of a spot-check on the play. If they’re wondering about one of the dealers, or about one of the players, they’ll take a picture of the whole of one session at that particular table and every damn card or throw will be watched by the guys sitting quietly upstairs. Smart, hn? These dumps are wired for everything except smell. But the dealers know it, and this guy just hoped the camera was looking somewhere else. Fatal error. Too bad.”
Bond smiled at Leiter. “I’ll watch out,” he promised. “But don’t forget I’ve somehow got to get another step down the pipeline. To the tap at the end of it. In fact, I’ve got to get right up close to your friend Mr Seraffimo Spang. I can’t do that by just sending up my card. And I’ll tell you something else, Felix.” Bond’s voice was deliberate. “I’ve suddenly taken against the brothers Spang. I didn’t like those two men in hoods. The way the man hit that fat Negro. The boiling mud. I wouldn’t have minded so much if he’d just beaten the jockey up-ordinary cops-and-robbers stuff. But that mud showed a nasty mind. And I took against Pissaro and Budd. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve just taken against all of them.” Bond’s voice was apologetic. “Thought I ought to warn you.”
“Okay,” Leiter pushed away his empty plate. “I’ll be around and try and pick up the bits. And I’ll tell Ernie to keep an eye on you. But don’t think you can ask for a lawyer or the British Consul if you get in bad with the Mob. Only law firm out there’s called Smith and Wesson.” He banged on the table with his hook. “Better have one last Bourbon and branch-water. It’s desert where you’re going. Dry as a bone and hotter’n hell at this time of year. No rivers, so no branches to get the water out of. You’ll be drinking it with soda and then mopping it off your forehead. It’ll be one-twenty in the shade out there. Only there isn’t any shade.”