She paused to check her watch again.
“Now, in about thirteen minutes, a sleeping program we’ve had planted in that computer is going to cut in and change the odds for that cluster of slots down to one in fifty. Then I think we’ll see some excitement.”
“You mean they’re all going to start paying out? At ten million dollars a pop?” Even Stilman’s legendary calm was shattered as he gaped openly at Maxine.
“Realistically I’m afraid it will only work a few times before they pull the plug,” she said. “The way I see it, the first jackpot will cause a stir, and the management will try to play it up big for the publicity. The second will startle them, but they’ll still try to maintain a generous front.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“When the third jackpot hits, however, they’ll know there’s something wrong and shut down the system. Of course, that decision takes time, both to make and to initiate. If we’re lucky, we should hit one, maybe two more jackpots before they can put a stop to it.”
“Thirty to fifty million dollars,” Stilman said, saying the words in a soft, almost reverent voice.
“Before you ask,” Max added with a smile, “those are, of course, our people manning the key machines right now. No sense letting all that money fall into the wrong hands.”
“At ten thousand dollars a minute,” Laverna put in.
Max blinked. “What’s that, Laverna?”
“Five fifty-dollar tokens per pull, times ten machines, times at least four pulls a minute, is ten thousand dollars a minute they’re pumping into those machines by my count,” her aide clarified. “I assume they’re only playing minimum bets until the right time comes, but even if they only play for ten minutes after the flag goes up, that’s one hundred thousand dollars they’ll be going through.”