“We’re going to hold off sounding the alarm until we’ve had a chance to check things out firsthand,” the commander continued, almost to himself. “Fortunately Tusk-anini’s alertness has provided us with a list of exactly who we have to be watching.” He tapped the stack of records with a smile. “Lieutenant Rembrandt, be sure this entire list and the complete files of everyone on the list get passed to Mother. In the meantime, I’ll get busy and do a detailed check on one Huey Martin.”
“What if it turns out that he is crooked, sir?” Armstrong said. “Him and the people he’s been hiring?”
“Then we lower the boom on him,” Phule said grimly. “But not until just before the grand opening. If he is a part of a bigger scheme, we’ll let him think it’s working, then pull the rug out when it’s too late to switch to an alternate plan.”
“But we can’t wait that long to dump everybody on the list,” Rembrandt protested. “The casino couldn’t find that many replacements on such short notice.”
“They can’t, but we can,” the commander responded with a grimace. “It’s going to hurt a little, though. I’ll have to reopen negotiations with Tullie for him and his instructors to stay on as a stopgap reserve-and I just gave him a rough time for the sake of a cheap laugh.” He shook his head ruefully. “I just love negotiating contracts with someone who’s already annoyed at me.”
“Maybe you could wait to talk to him, sir,” Armstrong suggested. “Maybe it would be easier after he’s had a chance to forget about the last round … and you’ve had a chance to get some sleep.”