Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (34 page)

[ We've had
enough fun for one afternoon. I'm hungry. Let's eat and go to one
of the casinos Narmel is supposed to own part of and break the
bank. They will wonder why we are challenging them in such a manner
and will feel they must respond, somehow. It should be fun. ]

"Unless they
decide the best thing to do is to shoot us down in a crowd!" Z
replied. "It's worth a try, but the floater will have to be very
careful.

"We'll go to T
Six later. They can wonder how our ship got here when we took a
commercial flight. I want them to have a lot of questions. Sooner
or later they're going to have to grab us to find some
answers."

They ate a
decent meal, went to their room, where the floater said there was a
visual and audial bug behind the mirror, cleaned up, and went
out.

They first went
to the Palace of Gems, but felt it wasn't big enough or gaudy
enough to be part of the criminal chain. The Lucky Gormn was, as
Thing put it, [ Purely atrocious! It's totally, absolutely
tasteless! Great exploding galaxies! Who could possibly be this
completely classless! It makes you want to puke! ]

The place was
filled with people and was busy on all the games and machines.
Thing couldn't understand why, so Z pointed out that people without
proper funds or those who weren't allowed to gamble in the empire's
casinos were all who were there. Their cards would be rejected in
any other places.

"These are the
people with only a few credits or those who're chancing their jobs
or those who'll steal or worse for money to gamble. They gamble on
credit here. The highest legal interest rate in the empire is seven
point five percent. They pay twenty five percent per ten days or
something here."

[ But how can
they lend money to people who can't pay it back? Even a crook can
see an investment without any collateral whatever is a good way to
lose! How do they keep from going bankrupt? ]

"Oh, they pay
it back. If they don't pay it back with the interest at the time
they are supposed to they get hurt. A few broken bones will
convince them to pay."

[ If they don't
have the money they can't pay. It doesn't make any sense! This is
unsecured loans, at best, and stupid – also at best! It doesn't
make any sense! It's against every principle of economics. ]

"If they don't
have money they can steal it or kill someone for it. That's the
sort of thing that was objected to so strongly when people wanted
to open up areas for gambling back on Earth. I said from the first
this sort of thing was inevitable here. We have to stomp hell out
of these and make an example of them or it'll steadily get worse.
Let them know the empire will crush the types who do this and
they'll stay at the fringes. It's not possible to stop it
altogether, but I opted to open these worlds because this way we'll
always know pretty much where the problem is and we can keep it
under control."

[ Control! We
have to stamp it out! You can't control illogic! It'll just spread
if we don't entirely eliminate it! Use your head! ]

"Thing, that
can never happen. It's best it stays here where we can minimize it
and watch it. If we do away with the vacation worlds it'll become
small business on thousands of worlds and a lot of innocent people
will be hurt. Doing away with these worlds will punish the ninety
five percent of innocent customers who come here for relaxation and
fun for the acts of the five percent. Some few innocent people are
hurt here, but not too many. The ones who suffer most are the
families of compulsive gamblers. We can keep the compulsives out
because they seldom have the funds to come here in the first place
– or did. These people we're fighting will lend them the money to
come here because they can then collect stolen funds or worse from
those thousands of planets. This does spread, but only when it
can't be controlled. If we stop this here we'll go a long way
toward ensuring another few years of relative inactivity of that
element. It'll recur on a regular basis, but we can learn what to
have the machines look for this time and it won't ever get this far
again before we come to stop it."

[ I think I see
what you're saying. I should have learned from the Immins there are
going to be those types and they are going to try their schemes. I
see there are two Jornians hanging about those stairs over there. I
don't have any doubt whatever we are the focus of their attention.
]

Z looked at the
two and saw there were two Zurn at the base of the stairway, in
addition.

"The local boss
is up there. Shall we cost him a lot of money? That should get his
attention!"

[ I would think
these types running an illegal place would simply refuse to pay if
you win too much. That would be a rather simple way to protect
their so-called investment! ]

"That, they can
NEVER try." Z laughed. "It would show the suckers they haven't even
the low chances to make their killing they thought they did. They
wouldn't borrow anymore money and they wouldn't gamble here. There
are rules of economics, even in places like this, albeit stupid
rules.

"You'll find
the wheels are fixed, the dice are loaded, and the cards are
marked, at best."

[ That should
make it far easier to win. They have to use a drag brake on the
wheel to make it work at all. I can easily calculate that. I can
figure any game they try to fix. The fixing can work both ways!
]

"The underslot
is filled. The wheel simply can't stop on the really big winners.
They might depend on the skill of the attendant or a drag brake on
the twenty five to one slots. They'll have house limits. You'll
have to get them waived."

[ If they think
they can cheat me they'll waive the limits. I'll play the game on
them they played on you at poker. I begin to understand those
novels. I finally believe what you always say about these people.
The easiest people to con are the con artists! There are no more
gullible people in the galaxy! ]

Thing went to a
row of wheels and watched them all. It went to one of them and bet
the ten to one and lost. It then bet a five to one and won, then a
twenty to one and lost. It always bet the house limit of five
hundred credits, so it was ahead.

It noticed that
when it won all the wheels were soon filled with people placing
their bets. A nearby woman was asked what was happening. She said
she heard the wheels were getting hot. Z explained what she
meant.

One of the
Jornians came to stand nearby to watch as Thing bet three numbers,
all of which lost.

[ Let's go
someplace else, With. I can't win here if all I can bet is a lousy
five hundred! I don't see why you wanted to come in. Just because
the place is here isn't enough to make me want to play. There are
hundreds of places we haven't been yet where I can have some fun.
]

“
If you
have the funds, the house limits can be raised or even removed,"
the Jornian said smoothly. "We only have the limits so people won't
be tempted to wager more than they can pay. Gamblers generally tend
to overspend."

Thing waved the
empire unlimited credit voucher in front of the Jornian, who
couldn't believe his eyes. The fellow who had been tailing them was
trying desperately to get his attention, but the floater kept
getting in his way. Z sidled over to him and said he remembered
him. He had asked where some club was of him.

"Why all the
waving?" Z asked. "Some kind of luck thing?"

"Er, no, I'm
trying to catch my friend's eye over there but, er, SHE won't look
over this way," he replied. "Uh, is that the, er, Mentan who won
all the money on Sentah?"

"Oh, you heard
about that? I see our reputation has preceded us! We're going to
win as much here, too. Tec has that half-assed idiot begging it to
bet more money. Tec says the wheel is fixed – it said that to me.
It wouldn't tell the jerk it has mumblefrd vision and can see the
wheel move toward the side about a thousandth of a millimeter when
the brake goes on. We were going to leave to find an honest place,
but Tec will show this idiot that people who try to cheat us pay
for the honor of learning a lesson. This won't be the first place
Tec cleans to the centime bin!"

"What? What
kind of vision did you say?!" he snapped sharply. "What is that?
Something like telescopic vision or something?"

"Something that
sounds like mumblfrd," Z said confidentially. "A Mentan can see a
movement of less than a hundred thousandth of a millimeter. Add
that to the fact it can figure mathematical equations better than
any machine in the empire and you've got an unbeatable combination
if there ever was one!"

"But those
wheels wobble enough for even me to see!" he cried, sweating. "What
difference would that little bit make?"

"It has
something to do with the wheel wobbling against the pattern or
something. I don't pretend to know what it's about for a second.
It's sort of a combination of the special vision and the math
thing. It looks like the crooked rockslug has talked Tec into
making one very big bet. Let's watch! This should be fun!"

"I, er, have
to, uh, meet someone," the Bentan protested as he walked off toward
the stairs. Z figured he would catch all kinds of hell for not
telling the floorwalker Thing was the Mentan they were watching so
carefully.

Thing moved to
the wheel to the right of the one he had been playing before and
placed the voucher on the board.

[ Five million
on green asteroid at four to one. ]

The man behind
the wheel stared at the guarantee chit in awe, then looked toward
the grinning floorwalker, who nodded it was okay. The man was
shaking as he spun the wheel. Everyone could see him stamping his
foot on something repeatedly, but nothing was happening.

"Mightiest Kleevish!" a Larslip woman suddenly screamed
right at Z's ear, making him fear she'd ruptured his eardrum.
"It's
green
asteroid
! That thing
won
twenty
million credits
!”

The people
began to press tighter and tighter, so Thing picked up the voucher
and hovered over the board.

[ Actually it's
only fifteen million. I bet five. You can't consider the original
bet as part of the winnings. ]

Z made his way
his way out of the crowd and to the base of the stairs. The noise
was deafening. A Jornian flew out of a door at the head of the
stairs and ran down to stare at Thing floating above the wheel. It
was Narmel. His back was to Z.

"You seem to
have the worst kind of luck when Tec is around," Z greeted. "It
just took your crooked wheel for twenty million credits!"

Narmel turned
to stare at Z as the Bentan follower came down the stairs.

"Dir refused to
look at me!" he whined. "I tried to signal to him, but he wouldn't
even look at me! He was so busy being smart! He wouldn't pay me no
attention! Ask this guy here! He even asked me what the hell I was
doing, waving like a fool!

"Dir wouldn't
pay me no mind! I done my job! I tried to warn him! It weren't my
fault! Ask this guy!"

"Is that what
you were doing?" Z asked innocently. "All that waving and shaking
your head?

"Hell, that
floorwalker was begging Tec to bet the wheel, no limit. Tec said
this place is crooked and we were on our way out when that jerk
insisted Tec bet the wheel big. This guy looked like he was going
to have a heart attack! So that's what the waving was all
about!

"I guess if I'd
have known you were here I would've figured the place was crooked,
Narmel! Seems you don't do anything honest if there's a crooked way
to do it! I'll tell Tec to take the money and donate it to
Hospital."

"He can't
donate what he hasn't got!" Narmel snarled. "We'll pay house limit
and that's that!"

"Well, Tec has
this neat recorder on the floater that has everything the
floorwalker said and did," Z replied as silkily as Narmel's usual
voice. "A machine is called an incorruptible witness. We'll see how
many customers are in this joint in half an hour. Then we'll take
it to the Vacation Worlds Police Agency. If they won't act we'll
take it to EC if we have to go there ourselves, in person. We can
damned well afford the trip!

"I heard a
woman talk about borrowing money at twenty five percent, rolled
over every ten days! From this establishment! That's on the
machine, too! I think maybe EC will get into this place like
glefflts in a frgenmellon!

"Think about
it! If we don't have our money in ten minutes I'll assume you're
calling my bluff. What if I'm not bluffing?"

Z turned his
back and went toward the crowd. He called the floater over and told
Thing what he had said and done.

[ We'll wait
exactly nine more minutes. We have to make it absolutely definite
to these types that we do NOT bluff! ]

Narmel called
the floorwalker over and argued, then went to the wheel to argue.
Thing had planted a microtransmitter under the board. They could
hear the whole exchange.

"...but the
damned wire broke! I know that thing figured the math ratios and
could maybe figure where the wheel would stop from where it
started. I hit the brake enough to make it miss by a slot or two
and the damned wire broke! It ain't no fault of mine if the damned
wire broke! I ain't the one stood there and begged that thing to
bet everything it had on the damned wheel! I ain't responsible for
none of this crap!"

[ The floater
did a sonic on the wire. It will look like it frayed and broke up
near the brake pad. ]

"The Mentan has
some weird kind of eyes that can see the wheel move just a
millionth of a millimeter or something!" their tail interjected.
"That With character told me he was already leavin' because the
damned Mentan could see when the brakes was put on. Dir was
standin' there keepin' on begging the damned thing to bet
everything it had!