“I see two things happening here, Kren. In the first place, you did not have enough proper information with regards to your fencing abilities, and those of others. That will not happen again. Second, you have not stopped to think out the mathematics and the psychology of gambling. In this area, you already have the mathematical tools that you need, although you have not used them, and Dol and I can assist you with everything else. With our help, you can formulate a game plan that can optimize your winnings.”
“I would welcome your help.”
“And we are eager to give it, since it automatically lets us in on your game plan,” Bronki said.
At this point, the door gong sounded.
“That will be the party snack I ordered,” Dol said. “But in my excitement, I forgot that while I am now rich, I don’t have any money. All of my wagers were in currency, and I was afraid to bring that much money home by myself. That, and I don’t have anyplace safe here to put a million Ke, once I do get it home.” Using Bronki’s safe simply never occurred to any of them. No Mitchegai would trust another to that extent.
“Put the child on my bill,” Bronki said to the delivery porters. Turning to Kren and Dol, she said, “Monday, we’ll order a pair of safes, one for each of you. You can pay me for it all later, at the usual interest rates. We should discuss insurance then, as well. But for now, shall I bring out the branding irons? Or the knives? Both?”
* * *
“They said that you wanted to see me, sir?” Kren said walking into the director’s office.
“Yes. You did a fine job on Saturday. For a first time freshman to win at two events is almost unheard of.”
“It should have been three, sir.”
“True. But that problem has been taken care of. I’ll be running the javelin team personally until a replacement can be found. As I was saying, you did well. Do you realize that your accuracy score broke the planetary amateur record?”
“Yes, sir. I felt that it was necessary to do so, in case anyone following me was sandbagging.”
“Fine. But you broke a planetary record, something that usually happens once in a dozen years, and then you didn’t show up for the awards ceremony on Sunday. I had to accept the award for you, in your name. I had to make excuses for you, in public, and I didn’t like it. But here it is,” he said, throwing the large, platinum medal across his desk, followed by three smaller ones, two of gold and one of copper. “The other three are for fencing, accuracy, and distance. Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that on me again! Why didn’t you come?”
“Because nobody told me that I was invited?”
The director buried his face in his hands. “Kren, you are stupid.”
“Our university lost the meet, sir.”
“I am aware of that.”
“We lost it by three points. Had you permitted me to take Bo’s place, I could have defeated his opponent easily, gaining us five points. I saw the fool fight, after all. Had you done it my way, we would have won,” Kren said.
“You are still stupid. You do not know how to take all of the factors into account.”
“No, sir. I am ignorant, and ignorance has the advantage of being curable. Actually, I spent Sunday working out a game plan for the rest of the season. I would seem to be in a unique position in that I am sufficiently skillful so as to be able to control the outcome of three separate competitions. I can win when I want to, or let someone else do so if I feel that it is to my advantage.”
“I see. And assuming that you are really that good, what do you plan to do about it?” the director asked.
“There are a dozen and eleven more games on our calendar this year, plus the championships. I intend to win typically one event at each of them, and lose the other two, to keep the odds up. Then I will win all three events at the championships. Next Saturday’s games with the University of Badja will see me win the distance event, setting a new record by a few inches.”
“Just make damned sure that you show up for the award ceremonies! Okay, Kren, if you can actually make this program work, I’ll let you do it your way. But if you fail to meet your predictions just once, I’ll take charge directly, understood? And I’ll expect you to tell me—privately!—which event you will win by the Tuesday before the game, at the latest.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Okay. Dik’s waiting. Go practice with her. Then at javelin practice, you’ll work on throwing exactly two inches farther than the record.”
After Kren left, the director decided that he wouldn’t tell anyone about Kren’s predictions, but would use that information himself. The alumnae would be satisfied to know when they should bet on someone else.
From the outer office, he could soon be heard to say on the phone, “Naw, I think that the kid was just lucky! Look at the pattern. He got four golds on the first round! How could you call that anything but luck? And then by the last round he got tired and completely fell apart! Me, I’d put my money on someone else, Dala.”
And on another call, “Well, the kid did real well at the fencing meet, no doubt about that, but I’ve done an analysis of the pattern of the opponents he went up against. Now, it was an honest draw, I’m sure of it, but strange statistical things sometimes happen! The very best players were paired up for the first three rounds! Kren only had to beat one of them! Everybody else he went up against was a third rater. I tell you that if I was fixing the draw to make sure that Kren won, I couldn’t have done any better than what he got Saturday. Me, I’d put my money on someone else, next game.”
* * *
After a vigorous bout, Kren said, “Coach, what actually happened to the former Master of Javelins?”
“Good question. Nobody seems to know for sure. The director didn’t fire her, although I think he meant to. Trying to sandbag from a central position is really dumb. But nobody’s seen the girl since Saturday night. Maybe she was smart enough to just run away. Or maybe she ran into somebody who lost a lot of money on the distance competition.”
“Or maybe she ran into the director.” Kren laughed.
“That is a possibility best not voiced aloud. On guard!”
After another heart thumping session in which Kren won, Dik said, “Damn, but you’re good! I’ll be betting another pile of money on you next Saturday.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, Coach. I have a feeling that I might have a bad day. I might do well in the distance competition, though.”
* * *
The team flew away in three fusion-powered, jumbo jet planes on Friday afternoon, heading for the University of Badja, a few thousand miles away.
Like everything else on any Mitchegai planet, even the airport was underground. There were big doorways at the ends of all of the runways, but otherwise, grass covered everything.
Kren asked for and got a window seat.
The view was lovely. It was green.
As he predicted, he lost at both the fencing and the accuracy competitions, but set a new planetary record in the distance throw, three inches beyond the previous one. Not trying anything fancy, he just made his first throw good, and then did worse on the next two.
He was awarded three more medals, platinum, gold, and silver, which he didn’t much care about, but stood patiently as they were hung around his neck. He wondered why the fans got so excited about this sort of thing.
And he increased his net worth to over eight million.
* * *
“I think that it is time that we discussed Kodo,” Bronki said to Kren in her living room, on Thursday night.
“Very good. I want to know everything about Kodo.”
“Telling you everything about Kodo would take years. He is old, almost as old as I am, and almost as well educated. Like me, he wears the rainbow belt. Currently, he is the director of the College of Architecture, here at the university, and has many successful business intrests around the city. Once, I considered him to be a good friend. A thousand years ago, we were partners on several ventures, but the friendship grew sour, and we drifted apart. Our mutual animosity has steadily increased, and now he has tried to have me killed. This is not permissible behavior, and he will have to die.”