Chapter 9
I felt like a super spy as I made my way to the elevator, and I walked along the very long hallway with more confidence than I’d felt in years. The elevator was empty when it arrived, which was a bit disappointing, but it gave me time to check my reflection in the mirror-like surface of the elevator wall. I found myself smiling at the man who looked back at me, and I had to admit, I wasn’t sure I’d ever looked this good. Francine and the nanobots had really given me a second lease on life, and I silently vowed there and then that I wouldn’t waste this opportunity.
When the elevator doors slid open, I nodded to a young couple waiting for the next elevator and then walked across the busy lobby and stepped out into the evening air of Las Vegas. Just in the short time I’d been inside, the Strip had become even busier, and I saw several very expensive cars whizz by in between a large number of cabs and more pedibikes than I would have believed possible to exist.
The sidewalks were packed so tightly that I had to push my way through on occasion, but I didn’t mind that one bit. The energy was infectious, and the atmosphere electric, and I found myself growing more and more excited as I took it all in.
I laughed out loud when I saw a very drunk couple stumble past me. The man wore a suit just like mine, only he had a very lopsided tie around his neck and a stain on his shirt which looked suspiciously like tomato sauce. The lady he was with tottered after him and grasped his hand tightly, more to keep herself upright than any other reason. She also had a very cheap veil on her head, which floated behind her as she stumbled after him. Eventually, the man gave up on trying to get her to keep up with him, so he scooped her up, much to her delight, and both of them laughed and whooped as they navigated their way along the sidewalk. I could smell the alcohol on their breaths as they passed by me, and I chuckled to myself as I continued on my way.
“They’re going to have a wicked hangover in the morning,” I said.
“Is it typical for humans to consume so much alcohol on their wedding day?” Francine asked.
“Well, I guess that depends on the couple,” I replied. “But I’m not even sure they knew each other before today. They may both wake up in the morning and have the shock of their lives.”
“Interesting,” the AI said. “It is my understanding that an emotional connection is required before marriage is considered, and yet, you are suggesting that the couple did not have time to form such a link.”
“Welcome to Vegas,” I chuckled.
“I like this place,” Francine said after a while. “It is very… thrilling.”
“Hell, yeah, that’s the spirit, Frankie,” I replied. “Do you wanna know what’s more thrilling, though?”
“Yes,” it replied.
“Winning a shit-ton of money,” I said as I arrived outside the first casino I had picked out for our visit.
Nefarium was one of the bigger casinos on the strip, and I gasped as I looked up at it. The black framework and etched silver diamonds were meant to resemble a dragon, and the thing really did look like some enormous magical creature that was about to devour everything else on the strip. The sign above the enormous front door was also in silver but was surrounded by a white neon light that made the sign almost too bright to read. There were two large men in suits out the front, both of which had earpieces in one ear, and I was fairly certain that they were part of the security detail on the casino’s payroll.
I walked through the huge glass doors and gawked at the gorgeous, dimly-lit entryway I had just stepped into. It was mostly dark colors and dim lighting with only the same silver diamond pattern to relieve the gloom. There was a vast check-in desk for the hotel to my left, an impressive sculpture of a dragon beneath a fire-red glass ceiling in front of me, and a hard-to-miss sign for the casino to my right. I joined the flow of people moving toward the sound of slot machines and poker chips, and stopped again when I passed beneath an iron archway that looked like something from the gates of hell.
I was at the top of a set of steps that led down to the casino floor. The banister was silver, and the glossy black stairs glittered with slivers of silver that glinted beneath the lights. A giant chandelier that looked like it had been designed by the same guy who did the glasswork for the Bellagio hung over the steps to create a bright spot in the casino while the rest of the area made do with the usual lights hidden in the ceiling. From the top of the steps, it all looked happy and wonderful, and the people lost in the various games were smiling and laughing.
“Well, what shall we start with?” I mused as I started down the steps.
Once I was in the thick of the action, it was easier to spot the reality of the casino. Most of the people weren’t laughing and cheering as they tested their luck, and almost all of them had a desperate look as they watched the dealer flip one more card or waited for the croupier to call the winning number. There was a long line of slot machines near the back, and the players had a dead-eyed look as they pulled the arms without pause.
I also noticed that very few people had put any effort into their appearances. I spotted a few men in wrinkled suits, and a handful of women in cocktail dresses, but most were in t-shirts and blue jeans, or even shorts. I stood out, but not for the reason I thought I would. I remembered the newlywed wearing the same suit and wondered if the gamblers on the floor would just assume I was there to get married.
“I believe we will need chips,” Francine said. “Unless you want to spend the night in front of the slot machines.”
“No, thanks,” I replied as I glanced at the line of zombies and shivered. “I see the exchange windows just over there.”
It was painful to cash in all of my money for the small, round, plastic chips that I was handed, but I knew it was for the greater good. The lady behind the counter looked at me with a mixture of concern for my sanity for cashing in that much money, but she also didn’t seem too surprised by the sum. I guessed that working in a place like this, she saw a lot of people come through that splashed their cash in the naive hopes that they would somehow win big.
I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t oblivious to the fact that it was a risk coming here to win the money I needed, but she’d probably heard it all before. Besides, how was I supposed to explain that I needed the money for the materials I needed to build a small robot army and then a spaceship? She’d write me off as a nutcase for sure.
Armed with my rack full of chips, I started to wander through the casino to see what games were offered. It was all well-organized with card games clumped together, roulette and craps next to that, and then the long lines of slot machines at the back. The place was packed, and even just walking between the tables was risky as I tried to avoid knocking into someone’s drink or tipping over a pile of chips.
It was amazing to me that so many people were willing to risk everything on a throw of the dice or the turn of a card, but I knew for a fact that none of them were here for reasons that were as important as mine. It was almost funny to think that the fate of the world relied on a few lucky wins in a Vegas casino, and I decided to leave that part out of my memoirs. If I survived the upcoming war long enough to write one, that was.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I whispered to Francine.
I jumped when I heard a roar by the slot machines. I spun around and saw a man as he slammed his fists down on the machine in fury, and then he stood up so fast that the seat fell over. Everybody in the surrounding area watched him as he swore loudly at the inanimate machine, and then he stormed off into the crowd of people. Clearly, he wasn’t having much luck today.
“Oh, man,” I whispered. “We gotta do better than that.”
“Agreed,” Francine replied.
I found myself lingering near the card games, and I stopped to watch a group of young men who were there for a bachelor party try to play poker against each other. The men were all drunk, and despite their best efforts, they kept collapsing into fits of laughter and name-calling. After a few hands, the guy who seemed to be the most sober held most of the money, and the group decided to move on. They stood up together, thanked the dealer, and then stumbled away from the table.
A new group of people swarmed in to take the place of the bros, and I moved on to the blackjack tables. This was a game I was more than a little familiar with, and after watching a couple of hands, I knew that I could hold my own against the other players.
“How does a game of blackjack sound?” I suggested.
“One moment,” the AI replied as it accessed every piece of information about blackjack that it needed within a matter of seconds. “Yes, that sounds satisfactory. The math is better than most other games of chance, and it is a simple task to count the cards.”
“Good,” I whispered as I walked over to the nearest table. “I can probably do okay on my own, but a helping hand wouldn’t hurt.”
“Understood,” the AI replied. “I will be able to count the cards and will be here if you need assistance.”
“Cool,” I said as I arrived beside the table and sat down.
To my left was a lady with a long, black ponytail and a lot of makeup on her face. She was probably very pretty beneath all the eyeshadow and blush, and I couldn’t understand why she wanted to hide her natural good looks beneath all that goop. The white corset-style top she had on revealed her collarbones, a sure sign she was actually thin and not just smooshing it all in with Spanx.
The person on the other side of me was a man in a faded orange collared shirt. He had flushed, red cheeks, and was quite a large guy, but I also noticed the expensive Rolex watch on his wrist and the designer alligator logo on his chest. He was a rich man, but one who dressed like an average Joe, or at least, what his idea of an average Joe would wear. And I could tell from the confidence that exuded from him in waves that he had probably won a lot of money already. I decided that he was my main ally as I scanned over the rest of the players, but I didn’t have much more time to judge any of them before the game began.
The dealer was quick with his hands and an excellent host for the duration of the game. He clearly enjoyed the energy that came along with having large amounts of money on the line, and he had a keen grin on his face as he watched the game unfold.
“Twenty-one,” I muttered to myself. “Come on, Will.”
The game was intense, and I was right about the man to my right with the Rolex. He was excellent at the game, and ruthless, too. He was cunning, clever, and played like a shark. However, I managed to stay focused, and I won with a twenty without any help from Francine. A ton of endorphins were released into my bloodstream as I gleefully collected my chips, and I tried to ignore the dirty looks from the table’s losing players as I looked smugly at my winnings. I had managed to win a few hundred dollars, which wasn’t bad considering it was my first game, and that I hadn’t actually made use of Francine’s card counting abilities.
I took my winnings and stood up from the table. I decided that, aside from skill, there had been a certain amount of luck involved in that game, and I didn’t want to push it by going for round two.
“That was fun,” I said once I was on my own and a far enough distance from the blackjack table.
“Congratulations on your win, Will,” the AI replied.
“Thanks,” I said. “Who knew all those blackjack games on my phone would come in handy?”
“Yes, your knowledge of play was impressive,” Francine said.
“You don’t sound all that excited,” I replied as I noticed the monotonous tone in the AI’s voice.
“In my opinion, we should avoid card games for the majority of the evening,” it said.
“How come?” I asked. “You can count cards. We could win a ton of different games.”
“The games take far too long for such little winnings,” Francine said. “I would suggest that you go for something that is quicker and that you are able to win much more money on.”
“Alright,” I sighed, but the AI did have a point since due to table limits the most we could win per hand in blackjack was around twelve thousand, and it would take a lot of winning hands to finance a spaceship. Winning that many times would raise serious suspicions that I was cheating, and I knew the Vegas ways of dealing with cheats were unpleasant. “We have to be careful, though. I don’t wanna get kicked out by anyone. At least, not until I’ve got what we came here for.”
“Correct,” the AI said. “You must be cautious.”
“So, what should we go for next?” I pondered as I meandered past the other games.
“What would you suggest?” the AI asked. “You are the one who has to do the gambling, not me. I am just here to make sure that you win, although you are already doing a good job of that on your own.”
“Thanks,” I said as I looked around.
My eyes landed on the slot machines near the back, and I made my way over. As I strolled by the machines, I could see that some were pretty basic, while others were branded and covered with various flashing graphics. There were various themes, from Wheel of Fortune to The Lord of the Rings, though the premise was always the same.
“What about the slot machines?” I asked.
“Those are far too random,” the AI said. “Even with my help, we could not guarantee a win.”
“True,” I replied. “And I didn’t come here to lose money. I guess craps is the same, isn’t it? It’s way too random for you to rig. I mean, you can’t guarantee how a pair of dice are going to land, can you?”
“Correct,” Francine replied. “Once you toss them I can calculate how they will land before they stop, but it will be too late to make a bet.”
“Hmm,” I sighed as I looked around.
Suddenly, there was a loud cheer somewhere to the left of me. I looked around and spotted a large group of people who had gathered around a man who was fist-pumping the air and celebrating something. With my curiosity fully piqued, I made my way over to the group to see which game he was playing.
“Ah,” I said. “Roulette.”
The man who was celebrating was with a group of his friends and had won quite a lot of money. He had put two thousand dollars on Red nine, from what I could see, and thanks to the 1:35 payout ratio the casino had, he was going to walk away with seventy grand in his pocket.
“This is for you, Stella!” he shouted as he grabbed the woman to his right and kissed her passionately. “Now I can give you the house you deserve!”
“I love you, baby!” she cried as she pulled him into a tight hug.
“Well,” I said as I watched the group celebrate the man’s winnings. “I think we’ve found our game. Can you work with this, Francine?”
“Definitely,” the AI replied. “According to the rules, a player may still bet while the wheel is moving. I will be able to calculate where the ball will land very quickly by looking at the ball’s velocity and the physics forces at work, so I expect we will be able to win a lot of money this way.”
“Perfect,” I said.
I waited for another guy to go before I had my turn. He lost a thousand dollars instantly and sulked as he trudged away from the table empty-handed. Clearly, the previous guy’s luck hadn’t carried over to him.
I smiled at the croupier running the wheel as I stepped up to the proverbial mark. He looked young, maybe twenty-five at most, but he seemed very much in control of the game. He politely greeted me, and then looked down at the quantity of chips I had with me. His eyebrows raised for a moment, and then he flashed me a winning smile.
“I’d like to play,” I said to him.
“Yes, of course, sir,” he said. “But, I can’t help but notice the chips you’ve brought with you.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m feeling lucky, I guess.”
“In that case, I’d recommend that you head over to that section, where the high rollers play,” he said as he pointed over to a roped-off, fancy section at the back of the room. “There’s a limit on the bets in this section of five grand.”
“Ohhhh,” I replied. “Well, thanks for the advice.”
“No problem, sir,” the croupier said with another smug grin.
“That croupier probably thinks he’s just earned the house a lot of money by sending me here,” I whispered as I walked over to the roped off high-roller area.
“Little does he know you have me on your side,” Francine said.
I walked right into the high-roller section without any problems. The guard at the entrance only had to glance down at the chips I had with me, and he let me in straight away.
I made my way over to the roulette wheel, where there was another croupier who seemed nice and like he was enjoying himself. The wheel was free, so I walked right up to him.
“Hi,” he said. “Are you looking to place a bet, sir?”
“I sure am,” I replied.
He looked down at my chips and an impressed look crossed his face. “I can see that,” he said. “How much would you like to bet?”
I took out some chips and set them down.
“One thousand,” I replied as I set the chips down. “For a warm-up.”
“Alright,” he said. “Here we go.”
He spun the wheel, and we both watched as the small, black ball clattered around inside the spinning arena. I waited patiently for the AI to tell me which slot to choose out of the array of red-and-black sections on the wheel, and the dealer watched me expectantly.
“Red twenty-three,” Francine said after just a few seconds.
“Red twenty-three,” I repeated to the croupier.
The croupier nodded as he moved my pile of chips to the Red twenty-three square, and then we both looked down and watched intently as the ball continued to bounce around the wheel.
The ball wavered a moment longer, and then fell into red twenty-three. A large cheer erupted from my body before I could stop it, and I jumped up and down a couple of times before I turned to the croupier, who also had a grin on his face.
“Congratulations, sir,” he said as he pushed the stack of chips to me. “That was an excellent guess. You just won thirty-five thousand dollars.”
“Wow,” I said as I attempted to regain my cool, calm, and collected composure after winning someone’s year’s wage in about thirty seconds. “Alright, um, I’d like to go again.”
“Wonderful,” he said. “How much would you like to put on it this time?”
“Uhhh… let me think about it.”
I took a deep breath and glanced down to the stack of chips in my hand. Francine had just proven to me that she could predict which number would come up, but I still had a bit of fear in my heart that I’d lose everything. As a business owner, I was used to making small bets about trucking routes, hiring people, and negotiating with clients, but I’d worked hard my whole life for my money, so I never was much of a gambler outside of work.
The thought of losing all this money suddenly ate at my stomach.
“Please have confidence,” Francine said in my head. “We won’t lose.”
I nodded to myself and then considered the other side of the coin.
If I kept winning, then I’d surely get the attention of all the wrong people.
As I thought through various stories I’d heard about gamblers getting arrested or kicked out of casinos for “cheating,” I realized that I could only really make one more winning bet. If I won this, I’d make millions of dollars, and I’d have to walk away, since winning too many times in a row at roulette would indicate to the casino that I was cheating for sure, and even the odds of winning twice in a row would probably make the casino suspicious.
I needed just enough money to pay for all of Francine’s repairs and parts, so I knew what I had to do.
I took a deep breath and set all my chips down on the table.
“Are you sure, sir?” he asked. “That’s quite a lot of money for one bet.”
“Eighty-five grand,” I replied. “Spin it.”
“Alright,” he said reluctantly as he prepared himself to clean up the mess he clearly thought I would be in after my probable loss on his station.
“I almost forgot,” I said as I passed him a one hundred dollar chip. “Here.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said with a huge smile on his face and a sudden, newfound enthusiasm for my next round. “Should I spin the wheel again, then?”
“Hell, yeah,” I replied.
“You are about to be the luckiest person he has ever met,” Francine said in my head.
As the wheel spun, I looked away for a moment and noticed that a burly meatloaf of a man that was just a few meters away at the back of the room. He was obviously one of the guards that worked here, just like the men on the door, but this one looked meaner. He had a beard but no hair on top of his head, and his large face permanently rested in a scowl. I noticed the large, sharp rings on his fingers, which were more like batons than actual human appendages. I could imagine the rings made it hurt like a motherfucker if he punched anyone, but I also assumed that that was the desired effect. He sauntered a little closer to the wheel, and I made a mental note to keep an eye on his movements. Although, for the most part, I figured that he was just making sure that I didn’t blame the croupier for any losses, especially considering the amount of money I’d just put on this bet, even though I knew there wouldn’t be any.
I looked back at the ball, time slowed, and I waited impatiently for Francine’s verdict. I drummed my fingers on the table and chewed my lip, and the croupier looked expectantly at me to place my bet on where it would land,
“Black seventeen,” the AI said after the wheel had spun for a few seconds.
“Black seventeen,” I said to the croupier.
He nodded, moved my chips, and looked nervously back down at the ball.
It was close to stopping now, and I could feel both the croupier and me hold our breaths as it eventually came to a halt. For a moment, the ball balanced on the small lip between the black seventeen and the red thirty-four, and I felt my entire body tense up while we waited to see which way it would drop. My palms felt clammy, my mouth felt dry, and it felt as though the world had suddenly gone into slow motion as I watched it teeter from one direction to the other. Had Francine got the calculations wrong? Had I just lost eighty-five grand? Was the whole plan ruined?
Eventually, the ball chose a square. Sure enough, it landed square in black seventeen, and I felt the buzz that only winning something like this could give a person.
Only times three million.
“Yes!” I cheered. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“That’s… incredible,” the man said. “How did you know it would land there?”
“I didn’t!” I lied as I danced around.
“This is unbelievable,” the croupier gasped and he looked at me like I was some kind of God. “Twice in a row… That’s just shy of three million!”
It turned out that a couple of others thought it was pretty unbelievable as well. Another muscly man had come to stand beside his meaty colleague, and they had made their way over to the roulette wheel as the crowd had started to grow. They glared at me continuously, and their scowls got deeper after my second win until I could hardly see their eyes under their heavy eyebrows.
“Your winnings will be wired over to you by the cashier, sir,” the croupier said. “The cashier will provide you with the tax documentation.”
“Thank you very much,” I replied as I tipped him.
“Sir?” he said.
“Yeah?” I replied.
“My associates over there work for the pit boss,” he whispered as he avoided eye contact with the two meatheads watching us. “I know you’re on a roll, but those aren’t very nice men. I think it might be a good idea for you to… call it a day.”
“I think you might be right,” I replied as I nodded at him. “Thanks for your help, man.” We both knew full well what the croupier had risked by just saying that to me, and I appreciated his consideration for me.
“No problem,” he said. “And congratulations again, sir.”
I smiled at him, handed him another hundred-dollar tip, and then I walked away from the wheel almost three million dollars richer.
It was an amazing feeling, and even with the guards’ eyes burning holes through the back of my head as I started to walk back toward the exit, I couldn’t help but smile about the outcome of the evening. Besides, the AI’s suit and gun that I had on me provided me with a bit of comfort as well.
“Are we leaving already?” Francine asked.
“Yeah, I think I’ve overstayed my welcome here,” I replied as I quickly glanced behind me and saw the two men on my tail.
“Well, we have managed to win approximately three million dollars this evening, and then we can add on your blackjack winnings and the leftover chips,” the AI said. “That is a very healthy sum of money, Will. It is much more than I thought we would win here.”
“Sure is,” I chirped.
I went over to one of the cashiers and arranged for the wire transfer and the tax documentation. I had most of the winnings added to my bank account, but I took about ten thousand in cash for things we needed to purchase more immediately. Once that was done, I was about to head over to the door when a cluster of four men caught my eye.
Two of them were the two guards who had witnessed my success on the roulette wheel, one was one of the guards from the front door, but the fourth was a small man in a suit that was two sizes too small for him. He smoked an expensive cigar despite the no-smoking rule in the building, and he stared at me with an icy glare. I had a feeling that he was pretty high up in the Nefarium food chain, and he didn’t look at all pleased about my presence in the casino. The guards had clearly filled him in on my impossible luck, and he snarled at me as I skirted past them and stepped out into the Strip.
I turned back once I was a short distance away from Nefarium, and I saw the three guards walk out of the doors and turn in my direction.
“Shit,” I said. “Houston, I think we might have a problem.”