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

  Others came to find the adjoining room shouldn't have anyone in it. The passkey was used at a certain moment that indicated it could only have been used by one certain employee. It was a Bentan male. He was questioned, but took a fine and ten days detention rather than say who had hired him to move the coat.

  [ Well, we didn't learn too much there. The sonic bugs also were being monitored in that room. I thought you'd never steer that security man to the sonic bugs! ]

  Z laughed. They discussed several possible options before sleeping. They decided to simply keep trying until they were invited into a private game. That would be the act that tipped the hand of the leaders of the organization. Those kinds of people would never let the loss of so much money go. They would try to find a way to get their own cut. It was in their nature.

  In the morning they acted like tourists again for awhile. Z noted they were being followed, then Thing kept one eye focused on the follower. Literally. Its eyes worked independently. They made some friends among the Bentans, Feach, and Acnians on Sentah, then went to an island where only the very wealthiest people lived. They made friends with a Vendan couple there and, as it was getting late, took a room in a very exclusive hotel. There was no casino-type gambling on the island. They spent the evening with the Vendan couple, then went to their rooms early.

  They got a call inviting them to a friendly game at a private home. It was to be a low-stakes game played only for fun.

  [ Why did you accept that, Z? The thing we want is not small stakes. ]

  "They want to see how we play or they're simply some friendly people. If they play honestly, we play honestly. If not, we sucker them."

  [ What do you mean? Use my talents to beat them? ]

  "No. We lose. Big. Even for a small stakes game."

  [ I think I see. We will then automatically be invited into the big game. They will decide they can get the money that way. We can make certain they lose more than they can afford. ]

  "You got it, pal! We clean them out! They'll then try to either make a deal or kill us."

  They waited for the car to take them to a large private estate where they spent a rather pleasant evening for a few hours. The game was honest, and no one won very much. Z was puzzled as to why they were invited, but decided to just wait. There had to be something behind it. They weren't known here on the island, and the Vendan friends didn't gamble except on sports exhibitions. They weren't invited for no reason to the home of strangers.

  When they were back in their hotel rooms and the floater had determined there were no devices, Z asked Thing if it had picked up anything.

  [ The Kordth, Marmum, watched very carefully how you played. He seemed uncertain at first, but became very smug toward the end. It was clear to the empathic talent he's dishonest. He was lying about many of the things he spoke of during and after the game and definitely had ulterior motives all along. I won't even pretend that I understand. Why didn't he attempt to actually test your abilities at the game? ]

  "Ah! He was only seeing if we could play the game and how honest we were. I played a few of those hands stupidly. That was deliberate. I played like one who's a fairly good player, but who thinks he's very good. He feels smug because I'm the type who's easy to cheat.

  "I think we'll get another invitation. It'll be the big one!"

  [ Why here? Why not back at the Hot Spot? ]

  "That's why we were being followed. If we were being watched by the police for any reason they never would've contacted us. No one else came here after us, so we aren't being watched by the police, nor are we working with them. Either thing could put them into a rough spot. Now they think they can get their million and a half back and can also get more. Maybe we'll be able to get them into the position we want them in. We have to find some way to communicate during a game."

  [ I can use the floater to pulse your recorder. Do you feel that? It's the thing we implanted during the Shirom Rhotep thing. You said then I'd find ways to use it. ]

  There was a slight tingling inside of Z's chest for a split second.

  "That's right! It's the thing you used on the Dojek thing (Book eighteen: Anomaly). I said at the time you'd find ways to shock me with it for the rest of my life!"

  They worked out a system of pulses to tell which player was doing what. It was a little complicated, but not really much. Z wouldn't forget.

  Just before they checked out of the hotel in the morning they received a call from Marmum. "We're having a little private game at my home this evening. I felt you may like to join us, as the group we played with last evening won't be able to attend. We could use two or three more players."

  Z hummed and hawed, then said he really appreciated the offer, but small stakes games like that were nothing more than social meetings. He felt he could find things more to his liking at Port City.

  "Oh! This group plays for unlimited stakes!" Marmum replied, laughing. "This is a game, not merely a social gathering. Some of these players are very serious about gambling. I wouldn't try to fool you. They're good – even professionals. I saw how you played last evening and feel that you wouldn't be out of your element in a serious game. You know your way around the game table!"

  Z projected an image of almost drooling. He (too) quickly accepted the invitation, but said he would want his Mentan friend to come along, but the Mentan didn't care much for poker.

  "My good friend, Cloffit, enjoys board games. She is very good at several," Marmum said. "Does your friend enjoy them?"

  "Tec is considered a genius at board games. You were honest enough to tell me there will be professionals in the card game, so I'll tell you Tec can beat machines in Stars and Comets. It has never been beaten by any person on Gromidge or Krnsthsh! It's the local champion there. I have to say there are some good players out there!"

  "Well!" Marmum cried. "Cloffit fancies herself better than any of the casino machines. They should have an interesting game."

  They talked for a moment more while Z gave them the impression he was very good at poker "back home," and that this was his first time to play the "big games" of the vacation planets.

  Thing seemed puzzled again. [ What was that all about? Gromidge is an agricultural world, and Krnsthsh hardly has any population. No one there would know much about gambling or games! Surely they will see that no one from there would know much about ... ah-ha!]

  "That should make you an easy mark. I'm just a hick in the big city. I'll be easy to fleece!"

  [ I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but that's nothing new! Let's go to the ocean. I want to see what's going on underneath. ]

  Z could tell when Thing was getting exasperated. It started using contractions, something it seldom did in normal conversation because Maita was almost always translating. Now that the floater was handling the speech directly it could change the program that much.

  They spent the remainder of the day with Thing staying about a kilometer deep in the ocean and Z exploring some of the natural forests. They went back to the hotel, checked out the communication systems, programmed the machines in the hotel to show that Tec and Tar With Fethrz had unlimited funds on deposit in the Bank of Sentah. Z decided to add information suggesting the funds were from owning a large spice farming business on Krnsthsh. Spices are among the most expensive items in interstellar trade. No one would know much about that out-of-the-way planet. They didn't get people from those planets on the vacation worlds – or not the casino parts, anyhow.

  Thing accessed all they had from the floater's information. They spent a few days on the planet once a few years back, so could speak with some real knowledge if they had to.

  They had a good meal in the hotel restaurant, though Z was in the mood for a typical meal they enjoyed on Maita or at home.

  "I would like amaranth bread with Klernsch butter, lightly toasted. Gorneth greens, tomatoes, sherpith slices, and Arvth cheese dressing with Koonig blue wine for an aperitif. The main course would be oormf root lightly fried in Klernsc
h butter and soya sauce, with smooth Darkin cheese bits. Maybe baby peas and button mushrooms in a mild cheddar sauce and Sarnnee steak medium rare, with shallots, chives, kippit, foesch, and kleemers. Brandy and tartberry shortcake for dessert."

  [ You are spoiled purely rotten! That meal here would cost at least a million credits! It does sound tremendously good, though. I'm as spoiled as you when it comes to eating well. ]

  They spent the time between ordering the meal and receiving it trying to find what would be the most expensive possible meal imaginable on Sentah. Z's original choice was almost as much as they could find, so they decided they would have that as soon as they were back aboard Maita.

  They then took the car that was sent for them – or Z did. He said Tec would ride the floater and would be there before the car. The driver was amazed when they drove into the estate to find Thing waiting. He told the others there about the floater.

  [ What possible difference does my transportation make? I must have the floater near me to translate my speech. I could hardly participate in the games without being able to communicate. ]

  "It's just so unexpected," Marmum said. "We thought it would be something, uh, convenient ... for you in the casinos."

  "Oh, it's only a gravitic floater," Z dismissed. "It can fly at really wild speeds so long as it's in a gravity field. It has the translator for Tec, too. Tec can't move around too well on smooth floors and such. It uses the floater all the time. It's Zeenan, so it won't ever fail."

  Marmum inspected the floater a bit, but couldn't see anything except a transportation device and translator, but he didn't know what he was looking at. There was actually a lot of stuff on that floater that would scare that bunch half to death if they knew about it.

  "Uh, I don't think Cloffit will want to play if you use the calculators on this thing," Marmum protested.

  [ I will play Stars and Comets from the standard seat and the floater will stay up in the corner or something. It only means we can't talk while we play. I never sit on the floater at home when I play. That will be alright. ]

  Thing would have the little caller for the floater hanging off of its eyestalks. Only Z and it would know that the tiny box gave Thing full communications with the floater's computers and many communications devices – and with the very sophisticated weapons also contained on it. That communication was through the empathic talent. It was entirely silent.

  "Shall we go inside to the game?" Marmum asked.

  Games People Play

  The Cordth race are mammals, are about two meters in height, look not unlike a cross between a Terran and a Bentan, like to wear their hair quite long, are rather more blunt-featured than Terrans, but less than Bentans, and tend to carry a layer of fat like the Bentans. They have teeth more like the Terrans and eyes like the Bentans. Their fingers are somewhat short and blunt, like the Bentans, but their ears are more like the Terrans. To Z, they looked like fat seedy hippies from Earth in the period starting a few years before he was abducted.

  Thing, of course, saw very little difference in Bentans and Cordth and Terrans, though it could spot the major racial traits quickly enough.

  Marmum introduced Cloffit and Keal, two Cordth females, and Tenn, a Cordth male, Gor Wahth Be, a Bentan male, and Narmel, a Jornian male Marmum said was from Tltle. This was the first time Z or Thing had ever met a Jornian, and both were somewhat curious. He showed primarily mammalian racial traits, was K-form and not too different from Terrans, was just a slight bit taller than the rest of the group, was rather thin and hairless except on the top of the head. That looked shaven around the sides to Z. He had long thin fingers and toes and wore only a sort of loose cover cloth which, more than anything else, set him apart from most people Z had seen on Sentah. People here seemed to dress extravagantly. Tltle was the vacation world where little or no clothing was worn by most.

  "Narmel resides on Tltle at the moment," Marmum said, noticing the attention the Jornian was getting from Z. "He comes here and goes to Bypass and Netdel quite often. He owns certain interests in some casinos on each world. He is major owner of the Hot Spot where you stay at Port City."

  [ How strange you would know where we are staying on Sentah. I was under the impression the casinos were owned by the empire on all of the vacation worlds. It is a bit unexpected you know of our arrangements there. ]

  Thing decided to bring some of this out in the open from the first. It would save a lot of later sparring and small lies and subterfuges.

  "Uh!" Marmum exploded. "You see, uh...."

  "The empire owns the land and buildings, but various private individuals own a few of the businesses, themselves," Narmel interjected in a silky sibilant voice. "The empire has much too much to do to have to worry about the small details of such things. Governments aren't efficient in business, as a general rule, and Maita knows that better than us normal citizens."

  [ Tell that to Hospital, Library, and University. Cloffit, I understand you are quite good at Stars and Comets. Do you play Intrigue or straight board? ]

  "I play Intrigue or Strategy," she replied. "I would rather play Strategy, because it takes several hours and you can play for very large sums. I do think it is so much more fun if there is a lot of money on the game, don't you?"

  [ I play for the mental exercise. I have funds enough that gambling holds little excitement. I never gamble. ]

  "Oh, no?" Narmel asked even more silkily. "I heard you won considerably at several places in Port City. More than a million credits from my own establishment."

  [ The wheel isn't gambling. There is a very simple system of calculations to ensure that one wins. With enjoys gambling, meaning I often must earn enough to indulge his passion for the cards. One night alone at a private little party at Castle Drove he lost two and a half million, so you can see how ONE of us must have skill at something. ]

  "Oh, then you won't play Strategy for money?" Cloffit asked, showing a tendency to want to pout.

  [ Stars and Comets is a game of mathematical skill. It isn't gambling. I admit I am very good at it and welcome the chance to play for the very highest stakes. In a case like that the money is incentive to enjoy. It's definitely NOT a matter of chance! The game is one of skill and strategy. ]

  "Are you a good loser?" Cloffit asked innocently.

  [ Certainly! If someone is more skilled than I at the game I can learn from them. To have negative emotional responses to a teacher is unconscionable. It's always my greatest hope that my adversary in the game is better than I so I can become better, myself. One learns very little when one wins too regularly. There is no real incentive to improve. ]

  "Ha-ha!" Marmum said lightly, and with a slight sneer. "You'll love Cloffit then! She's easily the best player in the vacation worlds!"

  "Tec is going to do the teaching, I assure you," Z replied. "I came to play poker. I may not be nearly as good at cards as Tec is at board games, but it'll make enough to offset any losses of my own!"

  [ These are friendly games. I think we should establish limits before we begin. That will ensure that they remain friendly. We must ascertain that any sums lost are not more than the participants can afford to lose. I do not wish to cause any undue stress to anyone because of simple entertainment. ]

  "Oh, Tec!" Z cried. "You know perfectly well we have unlimited funds. I'm sure these people wouldn't bet more than they can afford, either!"

  [ It is for the majority to decide. I vote we establish limits both in bets and in time. You know how you are, With. You played for three whole days and nights on Perfect Three! It wasn't the only time. ]

  "Well, let's set a time limit at dawnlight," Marmum agreed. "You and Cloffit set your limit for that game you're playing. I don't pretend to understand it. You can play for points or the game or whatever. My funds are substantial. I will guarantee any losses by Cloffit – though it will be the other end up! No limits on our little game?"

  They all agreed to that. Thing went to the board and slid into the seat, taking the "caller
" from its floater. Cloffit sat at the other side of the board and pulled her play board out. The holovid screen above the table lit to show the opening sequence. Thing drew out its own play board and studied the setup as the floater moved to hover over the set. Z felt several quick pulses on the internal recorder and assumed thing wanted to test. It worked fine.

  As the card players were being shown to their seats, Cloffit said, "Ten thousand point Strategy at a limit of ... what?"

  [ Oh, I don't care. One thousand per point? ]

  She could barely suppress her glee as she agreed.

  "With, you sit here," Marmum said. "I'll sit across (one short tingle), and Narmel (Long tingle) can sit here. Tenn (Short long) can sit there, and Gor (Long short) will take the other. Keal will serve refreshments before you go?"

  Keal nodded and went for a tray.

  Thing had given Z the code for each as Marmum seated them, so the code would work well enough. Thing would give the empathic read as soon as something started.

  A quick "bip!" would mean the person was looking at a good hand while "Bip! Bip!" meant a bad hand. There were other signals.

  On the first three hands Z broke about even. The signals were interpreted. They deliberately held him to a close thing. The next hand, he won, though Tenn and Narmel both had better hands. He then got fair cards, bet heavily and lost, then again and won. Each hand the stakes got higher and higher.

  This was an easy one to figure. Play it back and forth for awhile, slowly increasing the stakes. Play some very good hands up and play some close ones to get a gambler's excitement at a high point, then go for the big bundle. The way the cards were suddenly going it was obvious he was being dealt exactly the hands they wanted him to have. Thing sent the long-short-long bip that meant the floater had spotted them changing the deck.

  Cloffit was making little exclamations lately that got louder and more disbelieving. She was obviously getting more and more nervous. When Z glanced over at them at one time she cried, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" She had less than ten chips while Thing had several of hundred, at least.