Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Read online

[ I have two Bentans. They have done very well on this world as well as on the other vacation worlds and aren't subject to blackmail in large things. They have a new racial pride since they have done so well on these worlds, but were recently enough pirates and other types like that. They could look sheepish if you caught them at some illegal act. Very unlikely they'd put anyone on the commission who might embarrass them, and anyone who was subject to anything would refuse the job. They are much more concerned with racial perceptions by others than they are about personal things. We have Farr Hoep, female, and Kri Pelg, male. ]

  "I doubt a Bentan would be in on it. Not really their style. They'd like power, not things. This is, apparently, only to get money. Nobody's made any power plays."

  [ There's one Larsip. Morf. Male. They can be blackmailed for being caught in theft, but this would only add to the shame and make it worse. A Larsip would just commit suicide. That would end it. ]

  "I agree. It's not the Larsip. We've cut our suspects to half the number we started with, and have only been here two hours!"

  [ If you ignore the eighty million others on this world who might be involved. Next is a Swaz. Clarr Fat Niht. I've never heard of a Swaz being involved in crime except a small personal violence here and there. He could be a hit man, but that's about it. I'll contact TR and ask if it knows of anything that would make a Swaz subject to blackmail – just to be mean! ]

  "I can hear Tab scream if we even consider a Swaz. I'll have to tell him there are three major serious suspects, and one is a Swaz. I can suggest he seems the logical choice. He'll scream bloody murder!"

  [ Tab's a robot. Get serious. ]

  "Tab's also as protective as hell about the Swaz. This'll be fun!"

  [ Humff! Next is a Ternz. Sex unknown. Sard Duc Flesch. Very unlikely, but they are subject to blackmail, as we learned from Tab's Feach thing. ]

  "That's one. Sard Flesch."

  [ Now you really get to have some fun. The next is also a sex unknown. It's a Singee named Glorp Pludd. ]

  Z couldn't help it. He broke out laughing. The Singee looked like huge frogs and had names like that. It reminded Z of the sounds made when a frog jumped into a pond.

  "Hee! Well, I'd say no Singee ... hunh, hunh ... is a crook of any type. Period." Z giggled. "I can't help it! I know they're very intelligent and very good people, buh, buh, heeeee!"

  [ You're purely disgusting! At least you've learned to control yourself when we're around them. We are left with the very strong possibility that if there IS someone crooked on the commission, it's Sard Flesch. That also tells us it isn't too bad yet because, once a certain point is reached, a Ternz would report it and take the knocks. They will go so far and not one centimeter further. ]

  "Well, we can put a floater tail on Sard Flesch, but there's no one on the commission who's involved. Not on this one. If there's a problem like that it's with the VWPA, itself. Not the cops working on the thing, but their superiors. We'll have to see who the bureaucrats are. These worlds are sinking back into a bureaucratic mess again. It always seems to happen. Maita gives them the machines, but they keep finding ways to get around it."

  "Maita agrees it'll have to crack down," T6 agreed over the floater. "If this thing can be shown to be a result of crooked bureaucrats and you can expose all about it, the people will see to it the machines run it all again. They know they have a good thing here and they know how easy it would be to lose it from such silliness. Nothing will destroy business faster than a bad reputation.

  "Tab reports it has found a Tlessarian military brain on some place called Killit. It has a lot of plutonium aboard and is in a population center, so don't be surprised if Maita and I have to leave without notice.

  "Maita says you know the risks with those brain things. It's inputting your several experiences with them now. It would appear they tend more toward cleverness than any actual great intelligence, but the insane feature to the programing adds cunning, which adds to the danger in dealing with them."

  [ Yo! Those brains are more important than this. They could destroy a whole section of space. ]

  "We'll handle it here if you go," Z promised. "Just let us know and keep us informed. TR and Tab know just how dangerous those things can be. TR was almost destroyed by one."

  "I see that," T6 replied. "The damned things are really something with misdirection, aren't they? They also seem to have rather a penchant for setting traps and for a lot of distractive techniques that can be reversed against them."

  They talked a bit about Tab's situation, then went to the game room nearest the restaurant. Z noted that T6 tended to talk a lot like a college professor, and Thing said it would take a little more time for it to learn their less-structured methods. They would play the games a bit, then get a good meal, then go to some of the other casinos to become better known. The very best restaurants here couldn't begin to supply the foods the crew were used to, as Maita could produce anything from any world on its atomic architect. Most of their meals featured things from a variety of planets that would be so expensive to obtain in a restaurant, even on these worlds, it was unthinkable.

  Maita could prepare foods without the various poisons in them that were natural from world to world, so here they would have to choose from menus designed for the individual physiology. They wouldn't have any such menu for Thing. Z could imagine how nervous that would make them, but the floater could test the foods to find what Thing could eat.

  Z could eat anything the Maitans or the Kheth ate and most of what the Feach and Swaz could eat. Thing could eat much of the things Z could. There were exceptions to any rule.

  They went to the main casino room to find only a few people at the gaming tables at this time. The world was so beautiful most spent the light hours outside. The main part of the gambling wouldn't start until after dark.

  Z played the roulette. Thing studied the first three spins (All of which Z lost money on), then placed ten thousand credits on each of the largest winners. It was very rare for anyone to bet them because the odds were so highly stacked against them hitting. They paid a hundred to one.

  The Nineth woman spinning the wheel shook her head and spun.

  Orange gold star. One hundred to one.

  Thing stacked the chits carefully on its floater, saluted with a tentacle, and went over to the Demon Trap game. Z followed.

  "HOW did you do that?!" Z cried when they were out of hearing. "The odds of hitting any of those numbers you played was over ten thousand to one against!"

  [ She spins that wheel about three thousand one hundred and twenty times per shift. It's such a routine to her she spins once with a certain force, then again with a harder one. She doesn't realize she's doing it. I watched two spins before you bet and the three after your bets. It was really rather easy. I had a better than fifty-fifty chance the star would be hit and a good chance one of the others would be hit if she figured why I bet the star and changed her force. Obviously, she didn't figure it. She has spun twice since we left. This spin will be black six and next green nine or blue nine. ]

  Z watched the spins and saw the black six come up, then yellow nine. It had missed by one slot.

  [ Hmm. It must be near the end of her shift. She's tiring. If you can get over there before she spins bet silver ship at twenty five to one. ]

  Z waited and they watched the silver ship come up.

  "It's basic mathematics," Z decided. "You just happen to be a particularly good mathematician. I'll tell Maita. Maybe it can work out something a bit more difficult to figure, though I doubt anyone else in the galaxy could figure it that close."

  [ Make a machine to figure it. Make a machine that spins the wheel at random speeds and the largest bettor calls when to stop the motor. It's not important, because gamblers use such silly systems. If someone would watch that wheel for an hour and bets patterns they can win more than lose. The pattern is complicated, so very few would tend to waste the time. ]

  Z sat at one side of the Demon Trap board and bet
two thousand credits against the house. He was good at the game and won six hundred credits.

  Thing went to the Stars and Comets game and started at a half credit a point against the house machine. By the time Z finished his game, there was a crowd watching Thing ringing up points. It was up by nearly thirty thousand points over the house and the machine was actually slowing down to try to counter the attack. It had a total of sixty two points. There were fifty thousand points per game, and most played for no more than a ten percent per point. The gambler paid four of whatever he was playing for. If it was a tennie, the house paid a tennie a point. A very skillful player could sometimes rack up as much as fifteen thousand points. The average player didn't get more than a hundred points.

  There was a large sign on the machine saying the odds were the player would lose forty percent of whatever they bet.

  When Thing left the table it had won forty five thousand four hundred and thirty three credits. They were stacked along the edge of the floater in neat rows, along with the fortune it won on the roulette. They could be certain anyone who hadn't heard of them from the credit rating would definitely hear of them from the credits they were taking from the hotel. A winner of that magnitude was rare.

  The meal was delicious, if less than they were used to, and they took their time eating it, then they headed for the casino farther along the street.

  Place Your Bet, Take Your Chances

  Thing was at the Wheel of Chance, just watching. Several patrons came in and told what happened at the Hot Spot, so a crowd was hanging not far out, but weren't getting too close – yet.

  Z played Demon Trap, then went to the dice table. He won at Demon Trap, which had an element of skill, and lost some of it at the dice. When Thing suddenly plopped down five thousand credits on each of four forty-to-one slots a murmur went through the watchers and they moved closer. As only one bet could be placed on any one slot, others, in some gambler's illogic, raced to play the big wins on other wheels.

  Z grinned to himself and went to the table to stand beside Thing's floater. One big slot won on a nearby wheel, but only on a bet of two hundred credits. A murmur of disappointment sounded as Thing drew back to watch again.

  "Tough," Z said. "Your system isn't doing so well, it seems."

  [ I'd think you'd know a setup when you saw it. Didn't Earth have a lot of these kinds of things? ]

  They waited two more spins, then Thing moved to place twenty thousand credits on the orange flag at sixty-to-one. Everyone came closer, the woman at the wheel, a Mome, grinned to herself, waited for the rest of the bets, and spun.

  Orange flag. Thing collected one million two hundred thousand credits, stacked the ten thousand credit chits along the front of the floater, and drew back. Z grinned and suggested they go to another casino before they broke the bank here. On the way down the street, Z asked how Thing had figured it at that wheel.

  They turned in their chits, payed the ten percent flat tax on winnings (The tax money went to education on Sentah, to University, and to Hospital), and deposited the rest of the money into their joint account.

  The vacation worlds supported both University and Hospital, and were also known for the best normal educational systems in the empire on the revenues raised by the games.

  [ It was quite simple. She heard I watched and won at the Hot Spot and was warned that I had some kind of rhythm system, so was instructed to vary her rhythms and strength of throw on the wheel push. I played the first, knowing I could possibly win if she broke the rhythm in either of two ways. She grinned, telling me I was anticipated, which was what I wanted to know. I also noted how she varied the push, so simply figured in that information at the critical time. I almost bet several slots, but wanted to show her she wasn't quite so clever as she thought she was. What are your plans with this moving around? Won't our quarry come to us if we continue to win this way? ]

  "Yes, but they'd be suspicious. They'll think we have hidden observers to catch them if we're agents, so will watch us for awhile to see who else is always around. If no one else seems to be particularly interested outside of the gamblers they already know they'll feel safer. I want to be approached for a private game," I answered. "I'll hang around you and insist that you be included in the invitations, which is what they'll want in any case. That'll serve several ends. The floater can detect cheating and can give you the information while your own talents can make you a big winner.

  "I'll go for the game I always knew as poker. Sooner or later the big wheeler-dealers in that syndicate are going to try to get some of your millions back. They'll really get steamed if you win anymore."

  [ I'll play Stars and Comets for enough to break them. Maybe a fifty point game at a million a point? If I can beat Maita I can certainly beat any of these! I'll even play against a machine, but the house limit is a thousand a point on a twenty point game. You pay five thousand for the game. It's rare for anyone to make five points against the machines. ]

  "No person is going to play against you for those stakes!"

  [ To the contrary. They will if they don't see me play against a machine first. I have to refuse small stakes, because I'm only going to be able to play one game. ]

  Z nodded, and they went into the Royale. Thing won only a hundred thousand credits there, and Z won three thousand, himself, with a lucky game of Sticks or Stones. He was able to save sticks and drew a firestarter at a critical moment, so was able to burn the supports from the stones to win. It was a fast-moving game and was strictly a matter of chance. It was very popular and was generally played for the maximum, as Z had played it.

  They went to two more places, then back to the hotel, where they spoke with T6, who updated them about Tab, who was holding his own.

  T6 and Maita were to meet at a nearby system where the TTH14 would be installed. There would be no further contact for a few days except through the public fastcom.

  They stayed in the hotel rooms the rest of the day, then went sightseeing the following morning. They both wanted to see what kinds of changes had taken place in the years since they were on the planet. It was still being built according to the original plan. It was truly a beautiful place. There were some very expensive shops where they spent some money as tourists were known to generally do, had lunch in another city, spent the afternoon in a town on the next continent, and flew back for dinner at the Hot Spot. They went back to their room, where the com system showed they had received several calls, but no one had left a message.

  The floater also located two listening devices in the rooms as they entered. Expected. They were careful about what they said there. There was also a fiberoptic bead in one wall, which Z innocently hung a coat over. He opted to wear clothing here, because it was so much easier to conceal the devices he wanted to carry under clothes, though Maita had installed a recorder inside his chest to reproduce every sound made near him for a total of twenty eight days. At that time the device would have to be removed and the cartridge replaced. The medical machines did that in minutes.

  A woman came to ask if they had any laundry, so they put a tag on her in the form of a very small bit of traceable material she would never know about. It would show only where she went for the next seventy minutes, then would evaporate. Thing answered the door and knew immediately she was there because their visual pickup was behind the coat, not because the hotel wanted any laundry. It was customary to place all laundry in the receptacle by the door to be picked up at regular times. This was an obvious ruse.

  Thing turned to ask Z about laundry as it placed the chemical tracer.

  She went along the hall until Thing closed the door, then came back to enter the room from which the fiberoptic bug was being watched next door to their suite.

  They then went to the casinos again, where they again won a fair amount of money and where Z let several people know he liked poker in private games and was getting tired of the casinos.

  They returned to their hotel room to find the coat now hung on another
hook across the room from where they left it. That told them someone who worked for the hotel was definitely working with whoever bugged the room before. There simply wasn't anyway anyone else could get their hands on the electronic key. Those code keys weren't copied by any technology anyone here had use of. Only a very complicated machine could open the doors. There was no such machine around, except for Thing's floater. The keys had tracers built-in, and each one was located at all times on a computer at the hotel.

  Z decided to make an issue of sorts of the fact the coat was moved, so asked Thing why the coat was over there.

  [ How would I know, With? I've been with you the entire time. ]

  Z looked puzzled, then asked why the coat would be moved. He began to study the hook, then the wall under the area.

  "Ahha! There's a spy optic here! Call hotel security! I want to know what's going on! Those things are illegal! I'll really have someone's hide over this!

  "Why would anyone want to spy on us?"

  [ I suppose because I won a little money. I'll call security. They'll stop it. The hotel will not tolerate any such thing here. It could ruin their reputation. ]

  Security came and Z innocently pointed out the optic bead and explained about the moved coat. The security man immediately called the computer, then called more security to come to the room. Z asked why all the excitement?

  "We have to get into that room, we have to find who put the thing there!" the security man said. "We have to know how anyone got into your room. That is very important to the hotel. It's supposed to be impossible for anyone unauthorized to get into a room here.

  "Do you have any particular reason to believe the optic bead wasn't already there when you arrived?"

  [ I told With it was suspicious when a maid came for laundry. You have the box for that. I was suspicious from that moment. ]

  Z then told the security man about the woman coming to ask for their laundry soon after the coat was hung. He had to describe the woman. The security man insisted it definitely wasn't an employee of the hotel.