Thlasoval made the rounds, then; did everything he could to impede the outward flow of cash, finding that there wasn’t much of anything he could do. He beckoned his assistant.
‘This is bad, Althagar, believe me,’ he said. ‘And I simply can’t figure any part of it … unless …’ His voice died away. ‘You said it. I can’t, either. Unless it’s them two chessplayers in there, and I’ll buy it that it ain’t, I haven’t even got a guess … unless there could be some Lensmen mixed up in it
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somewhere. They could do just about anything.’
‘Lenstnen? Rocket-juice! There aren’t any—we spy-ray everybody that comes in.’
‘Outside, maybe, peeking in. Or some other snoopers, maybe, somewhere?’
‘I can’t see it. We’ve had Lensmen in here dozens of times, for one reason or another, business and social both, and they’ve always shot straight pool. Besides, all they’re getting is money, and what in all eleven hells of Telemanchia would the Patrol want of our money? If they wanted us for anything they’d come and get us, but they wouldn’t give a cockeyed tinker’s damn for our money. They’ve already got all the money there is!’
‘That’s so, too. Money … hm, money in gobs and slathers … Oh, you think … the Mob? D’ya s’pose it’s got so big for its britches it thinks it can take us on?’
‘I wouldn’t think they could be that silly. It’s a lot more reasonable, though, than that the Patrol would be horsing around this way.’
‘But how? Great Kalastho, how?’
‘How do I know? Snoopers, as you said—or perceivers, or any other ringers they could ring in on us.’
‘Nuts!’ the assistant retorted. ‘Just who do you figure as ringers? The Vegian isn’t a snooper, she’s just a gambling fool. No Chickladorian was ever a snooper, or a perceiver either, and these people are just about all regular customers. And everybody’s winning. So just where does that put you?’
‘Up the creek—I know. But dammit, there’s got to be snoopery or some other funny stuff somewhere in this!’
‘Uh-uh. Did you ever hear of a perceiver who could read a deck or spot a gimmick from half a block away?’
‘No, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. But what stops me is what can we do about it? If the Mob is forted up in that hotel across the street or somewhere beside or behind us … there isn’t a damn thing we can do. They’d have more gunnies than we could send in, even if we knew exactly where they were, and we can’t send a young army barging around without anything but a flimsy suspicion to go on—the lawmen would throw us in the clink in nothing flat … Besides, this Mob idea isn’t exactly solid, either. How’d they get their cut from all these people? Especially the Vegian?’
‘The Vegian, probably not; the rest, probably so. They could
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have passed the word around that this is the big day. Anybody’d split fifty-fifty on a cold sure thing.’
‘Uh-uh. I won’t buy that, either. I’d’ve known about it— somebody would have leaked. No matter how you figure it, it doesn’t add up.’
‘Well, then?’
‘Only one thing we can do. Close down. While you’re doing that I’ll go shoot in a Class A Double Prime Urgent to top brass.’
Hence Vesta’s croupier soon announced to his clientele that all betting was off, at least until the following day. All guests would please leave the building as soon as possible.
For a couple of minutes Vesta simply could not take in the import of the announcement. She was stunned. Then:
‘Whee … yow … ow … erow!’ she yowled, at the top of her not inconsiderable voice. ‘I’ve won … I’ve won … I’VE WON!’ She quieted down a little, still shell-shocked, then looked around and ran toward the nearest familiar face, which was that of the assistant manager. ‘Oh, senor Althagar, do you actually want me to quit while I’m ahead? Why, I never heard of such a thing
—it certainly never happened to me before! And I’m going to stop gambling entirely—I’ll never get such a thrill as this again if I live a million years!’ ‘You’re so right, Miss Vesta—you never will.’ Althagar smiled
—as though he had just eaten three lemons without sugar, to be sure, but it was still a smile. ‘It’s not that we want you to quit, but simply that we can’t pay any more losses. Right now I am most powerfully psychic, so take my advice, my dear, and stop.’
‘I’m going to—honestly, I am.’ Vesta straightened out the thick sheaf of bills she held in her right hand, noticing that they were all ten-thousands. She dug around in her bulging pouch; had to dig halfway to the bottom before she could find anything smaller. With a startled gasp she crammed the handful of bills in on top of the others and managed, just barely, to close and lock the pouch. ‘Oh, I’ve got to fly—I must find my boss and tell him all about this!’
‘Would you like an armed escort to your hotel?’
‘That won’t be necessary, thanks. I’m going to take a copter direct to the ship.’
And she did.
It was not until the crowd was almost all gone that either
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Thlasoval or Althagar even thought of the two chess-players. Then one signalled the other and they went together to the private room, into it, and up to the chess-table. To the casual eye, neither player had moved. The board, too, showed comparatively little change; at least, the carnage anticipated by Thlasoval had not materialized.
Althagar coughed discreetly; then again, a little louder. ‘Sir and madam, please …’ he began.
‘I told you they’d be ‘dead to the world,’ Thlasoval said; and, bending over, lifted one side of the board. Oh, very gently, and not nearly enough to dislodge any one of the pieces, but the tiny action produced disproportionately large results. Both players started as though a bomb had exploded beside them, and Joan uttered a half-stifled scream. With visible efforts, they brought themselves down from the heights to the there and the then. Cloud stretched prodigiously; and Joan, emulating him, had to bring one hand down to cover a jaw-cracking yawn.
‘Excuse me, Grand Master Janowick and Commander Cloud, but the Club is being closed for repairs and we must ask you to leave the building.’
‘Closed?’ Joan parroted, stupidly, and:
‘For repairs?’ Cloud added, with equal brilliance.
‘Closed. For repairs.’ Thlasoval repeated, firmly. Then, seeing that his guests were coming back to life quite nicely, he offered Joan his arm and started for the door.
‘Oh, yes, Grand Master Janowick,’ he said en route. ‘May I ask why you refused the Commander’s queen?’
‘He would have gained such an advantage in position as to mate in twelve moves.’
‘I see … thanks.’ He didn’t, at all, but he had to say something. ‘I wonder … would it be possible for me to find out how this game comes out?’
‘Why, I suppose so.’ Joan thought for a moment. ‘Certainly. If you’ll give me your card I’ll send you a tape of it after we finish.’*
* A few months later, Joan did send him the full game, which white of course won. Thlasoval studied it in secret for over five years; and then, deciding correctly that he never would be able to understand its terrifically complex strategy, he destroyed the tape. It is perhaps superfluous to all that this game was never published. E.E.S.
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The two Patrolmen boarded a copter. Joan looked subdued, almost forlorn. Cloud took her hand and squeezed it gently.
‘Don’t take it so hard, Joan,’ he thought. He found it remarkably easy to send to her now; in fact, telepathy was easier and simpler and more natural than talking. ‘We had it to do.’
‘I suppose so; but it was a dirty, slimy, stinking, filthy trick, Storm. I’m ashamed … I feel soiled.”
‘I know how you feel. I’m not so happy about the thing, either. But when you think of thionite, and what that stuff means…?’
‘That’s true, of course … and they stole the money in the first place … Not that two wrongs, or even three or four, make a right… but it does help.’
She cheered up a little, but she was not yet her usual self when they boarded the Vortex Blaster II.
Vesta met them just inside the lock. ‘Oh, chief, I won—I won!’ she shrieked, tail waving frantically in air. ‘Where’d you go after the club closed? I looked all over for you—do you know how much I won, Captain Nealcloud?’
‘Haven’t any idea. How much?’
‘One million seven hundred sixty two thousand eight hundred and ten credits! Yow-wow-yow!’
‘Whew!’ Cloud whistled in amazement. ‘And you’re figuring on giving it all back to ’em tomorrow?”
‘I … I haven’t quite decided.’ Vesta sobered instantly. ‘What do you think, chief?”