by Duval Alex
The bidding started around the table. When it got to Zach, he said, ‘Raise 10,000 dollars.’ Jason heard Paige draw in a sharp breath.
‘Oh, yeah!’ Adam yelped loudly. Not exactly good tournament etiquette, but Jason was pretty sure everyone in the Malibu group was feeling the same way; Zach had finally made a decisive move.
‘He was just hanging back,’ Brad said, clearly relieved. ‘He probably has everyone’s tell nailed.’
‘OK, I thought I had all the vocabulary down. But “tell”?’ Maggie asked.
‘It’s something a player does, without realizing it, that tells what kind of hand he’s got going,’ Van Dyke explained. ‘Like an unconscious tick.’
‘John Malkovich had an awesome tell in Rounders,’ Adam joined in. ‘When he had a great hand, he’d pick up an Oreo cookie and twist it open right next to his ear, then eat each half.’
‘Never saw it,’ Van Dyke said.
‘No girls making out, I guess,’ Maggie teased.
‘Shut up, you guys. I want to watch Zach!’ Paige exclaimed.
The other players all called Zach’s bet.
‘If they “call”, it means they’re agreeing to match the highest bet of that round,’ Van Dyke whispered to Maggie. ‘At the end of the round of betting, they all have to have either called or folded.’
The dealer turned over the flop cards: queen of hearts, queen of clubs, eight of spades.
The pot was at $72,000 as the next round of bidding started. Marc bet $15,000. He must have liked what he saw in the flop. Yakamoto folded, as did Too Much Bling.
Sexy Actress called. Zach raised $15,000 without a moment’s hesitation, his eyes on Marc. Other Tuxedo Guy folded, but Marc saw Zach’s $15,000 raise, and raised another $15,000, answering Zach’s challenge.
‘Gotta say this for Marc, he has cojones,’ Van Dyke muttered.
Sexy Actress folded. Zach called.
‘Zach has cojones too. I’ve seen them,’ Paige answered. Now that Zach was clearly in the game, she’d gotten a little of her old sparkle back.
‘You’re bad,’ Erin told her.
Paige winked at her. Yeah, Paige was definitely feeling a little more hopeful.
When the round of betting ended, Zach, and Marc were the only ones still in. The pot was up to about $177,000.
The dealer flipped the turn card: jack of hearts.
‘A queen and a jack in the hole wouldn’t be bad,’ Brad observed.
Did Marc have those? Jason wondered, as he watched Marc bet 30 grand.
Zach, face expressionless, voice flat – the way they’d been the whole game – called. Marc looked surprised. Jason could tell he was trying to read Zach and failing.
The dealer flipped the river card: three of diamonds.
Marc eyeballed Zach, ‘Check.’
‘What’s he doing?’ Maggie asked.
‘He’s trying to figure out what Zach has, so he’s passed the betting to him,’ Van Dyke explained. ‘He still has the right to bet – or fold – after Zach bets.’
‘Raise 100,000 dollars,’ Zach said calmly. The crowd gasped.
‘That brings the pot up to about 337,000 dollars,’ Adam whispered. ‘They each have something like 90 grand of their own money on the line. That’s going to be a big bite for the loser.’
Now everything rested with Marc. Jason knew that Marc must be holding good cards to have played this far, but what did Zach have? And what would Marc do?
Marc watched Zach for a long time, but Zach’s face was expressionless. ‘Call,’ Marc said at last.
‘“Call” means matching the highest bet,’ Maggie muttered to herself, trying to keep all the info that had been thrown at her straight.
‘Since Marc called, Zach has to show his hand,’ Van Dyke told Maggie.
Zach flipped his cards face up on the table: eight of diamonds, eight of hearts.
‘Full house,’ Adam breathed happily. ‘Beat that, you freak.’
Marc shoved his cards into the center of the table without showing them, indicating that Zach had won. He’d just won a pot of – Jason did some quick math – something like $437,000. And Marc had just lost more than $180,000. He’d won a decent percentage of the earlier hands, but it still wasn’t going to be easy for Marc to recover from that.
‘Somebody get me some popcorn; I’m starting to enjoy the show,’ Adam said, when Zach won the next hand.
Jason started to feel like he was sucking in helium instead of air as the next two hands went to Zach too. He felt happy when Sexy Actress took one. Even Too Much Bling taking a pot felt kind of good. Money they got was money Marc didn’t have. They were helping to escort Marc right out of the game. Then he could take them to Sienna, and the Vegas trip would be back on track.
‘I know him,’ Paige mock bragged to the people sitting at the next table when Zach won another hand. ‘He took me to the prom. I’m serious.’
‘What’s Marc down to, anybody know?’ Brad asked. ‘He’s gotten a lot more cautious these last few rounds.’
‘He’s only got around 80,000 dollars left to play with,’ Erin answered.
‘Poor, poverty-stricken baby,’ Adam muttered as the dealer began to shuffle the cards.
‘It’s actually true,’ Jason said. ‘The bidding has been getting steep the last few hands. Marc could be out of the game soon.’
‘Ooh, then after we get Sienna back, can we go to the Star Trek Experience?’ Adam asked. ‘The Final Frontier Desserts at Quark’s Restaurant are supposed to be awesome.’
‘I’m sure Zach will be happy to take you there with his winnings,’ Jason answered, smiling at the image of Zach Lafrenière in the middle of that cheese-fest of a place. ‘You two could get your picture taken with a Klingon, or whatever.’ He returned his attention to the game, just in time to see Zach raise $15,000 in the round of bidding after the river. Marc went all in.
‘“All in”? Why can’t people just use regular language?’ Maggie complained.
‘That means he’s betting everything he’s got,’ Van Dyke said gleefully. ‘Now, if he loses this hand, he’s out of the game.’
‘Call,’ Too Much Bling said. He was the only one left in the hand besides Zach and Marc.
‘Call,’ Zach said too.
Too Much Bling flipped his cards: two of hearts, six of clubs.
The guy had been bluffing. A two and a six was an ‘always fold ’em’ hand in Texas Hold ’Em. It lost 90 per cent of the time, even with only four players. The community cards: six of hearts, eight of clubs, king of hearts, four of diamonds, jack of spades, had only given Too Much Bling a pair.
Zach flipped his cards next: king of diamonds, queen of hearts.
‘Do I see a king kong?’ Adam cried. ‘Yes, I see two kings for Zach. With a nice queen kicker if things get ugly.’
Maggie sighed. ‘“Kicker”?’
‘If Zach and Marc tie – like, in this case, if they both have a pair of kings – the winner’s decided by who has the higher card unused in their hand. That card’s called the “kicker”. Zach has a queen as his kicker,’ Jason told her.
Marc flipped his cards.
‘I am not seeing this,’ Brad groaned.
Marc had the king of clubs – with the ace of spades as a kicker. Aces high. He didn’t have nearly as many chips as Zach, but he’d just got himself back in the game.
‘Crap,’ muttered Van Dyke.
Paige nibbled nervously at one of her cuticles.
Jason glanced at his watch. Sienna had been gone more than 17 hours. Where was she? How was she being treated by Marc’s goons? It was killing him to sit here, sipping on a beer, not knowing what was happening to her, but it was all he could do. For now.
He forced his thoughts away from Sienna and back to the game – where he watched Marc take another pot.
‘I guess this would be the definition of a hot streak,’ Maggie said a half an hour later. Zach and Marc had reversed positions. Now Zach was down to about his last $70,000, and Marc was up to ove
r $500,000.
Marc had been winning a staggering amount of hands, and when he hadn’t won, he’d got himself out early, so he hadn’t lost much.
‘I feel like I’ve somehow been transported to Htrae,’ Adam said.
‘What?’ Jason asked, without looking away from the game.
‘Htrae. You know, Bizarro world. It’s “Earth” spelled backward. Backwards versions of the superheroes live there, like Batzarro, the World’s Worst Detective,’ Adam explained.
‘Never, ever mention the word Bizarro or Batzarro or that Hhht thing again unless you want to die a virgin,’ Belle told him.
‘Marc just won again.’ Erin rubbed at the monitor with a cocktail napkin, as if there had to be something wrong with the screen. Even without the close-up from the monitor, it was easy to see the large stacks of chips piling up in front of Marc.
‘This is wrong,’ Brad burst out. ‘Streak, or no streak, Lessard’s winning too many hands.’
Jason’s gut agreed that something was wrong.
As the dealer began to shuffle, Zach lifted his head briefly toward the gallery and raised his eyebrows.
‘Did you see that?’ Van Dyke asked. ‘Zach clearly thinks there’s something wrong, too.’
‘Could Marc have found a way to cheat?’ Belle asked.
‘The big and small blinds are going up,’ the dealer announced. ‘The big blind is now 10,000 dollars. The small blind is 5,000 dollars.’
‘Why don’t we double that?’ Marc suggested suddenly. ‘Let’s really get this game moving. I have a plane to catch.’ He looked up at the gallery too – and winked at Paige.
‘He’s cheating. Look at his face. He’s so sure he’s going to have me on that plane!’ Paige exclaimed. ‘I actually thought family honor meant something to him. I knew nothing else did, but I was sure that …’ Paige shook her head, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. ‘Obviously, he’ll do whatever he has to to get what he wants.’
I knew this would happen, Jason thought. I knew Marc Lessard couldn’t be trusted. He didn’t say it aloud. Paige was already hurting so much, he didn’t want to torture her.
Adam nudged Jason in the ribs. ‘Daddy has really good security in this place, don’t you think?’ he asked softly, nodding toward one of the many security cameras, this one mounted in the perfect position to view Zach’s cards.
‘Yeah,’ Jason answered. ‘I’m interested in the rest of Daddy’s security system. Let’s take a little field trip, see if we can find anything the director hasn’t caught.’ He and Adam stood up.
‘We’ll be back,’ Jason told the rest of the group. Then he had an idea. He turned to Erin. ‘Hey, Erin, would you come with us for a minute?’
She nodded, and the three of them quietly left the private room. ‘What’s up?’ she asked.
‘We think Marc might be using the casino security system to cheat,’ Jason explained. ‘We need to find a way into the surveillance center.’
‘And I’m here because …?’
Jason hesitated. His idea didn’t seem quite as great right now as it had inside the private room. ‘We’re not just going to be able to walk into the security area. We’re going to need a door code, or something …’ He hesitated again. ‘And, uh, sometimes a girl can have an easier time convincing someone to give out that kind of info.’
‘Totally,’ Adam jumped in. ‘Especially a hot girl. Agent Sydney Bristow wasn’t ashamed to use her hotness. She was genius smart and could handle any weapon, but, sometimes, what the mission needed was a short skirt and a pink wig.’
‘I left my pink wig in my other purse,’ Erin joked. ‘And my dress? Long, not short.’
‘You don’t need a wig; your hair is perfect,’ Adam told her. ‘And the dress is smokin’.’
‘I’m not really a flirty kind of girl. Let me go get Belle. She excels at “persuasion”.’ Erin took a step back toward the private room.
Jason stopped her. ‘We don’t have time. Zach’s hemorrhaging money. He’s not going to be able to stay in the game much longer.’
‘Hey, hey! Portly security type heading toward a staff-only door at three o’clock,’ Adam cut in. ‘Go, Agent Erin.’
Erin fluffed her hair. ‘Fine. But I still say you should have asked Belle.’
Jason and Adam pretended to be deep in conversation as they watched her head toward the security guy. She turned around and headed back to them less than a minute later.
‘OK, you didn’t need Belle. The code is’ – she held out her hand and read it off her palm – ‘060681. He gave it to me so I can visit him later.’
‘Cool,’ Jason said. ‘Now, will you go back in and tell the others that Adam and I are going to try and figure out how Marc’s cheating?’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me as your partner instead?’ Erin asked. ‘You saw how fast I got that code. I think I might actually be good at this “agent” thing.’
‘Adam’s feelings will be hurt if he doesn’t get to play, too,’ Jason told her.
‘OK. Be careful, you guys,’ she answered, getting serious.
‘Let’s do this,’ Adam said as Erin walked away.
Jason did a quick check of the hall. All clear. ‘OK, try and look staff-like,’ he said as they made their way toward the staff only door.
‘In these clothes I guess we’ll have to be managerial type staff,’ Adam commented.
Jason punched the numbers Erin had given him into the keypad next to the door. The lock opened with a click.
‘If we get caught back here, that’s pretty much it,’ Adam remarked as they entered the secure area and the door shut behind them. ‘It’s pretty much “go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars”.’
Sixteen
‘WE’RE PAST THE point of no return, that’s what I’m saying,’ Adam said, when they were deep into their exploration of the employee-only area. He paused at the end of the hallway, near the bathrooms. ‘Left or right?’
‘Which seems to have less potential for doom in your always optimistic opinion?’ Jason asked.
‘Left is lucky, I always say,’ Adam answered.
Jason turned right. ‘Come on.’
‘Why did you even ask?’ Adam complained. He cracked the first door they passed. ‘Another bean counter office.’ There’d been a whole row of them in the last hallway they’d gone down. ‘Guess there are a lot of beans to be counted in a casino.’
Jason opened the door on the opposite side. ‘Oh, sorry,’ he said, when a woman in a severe suit snapped her head toward him. ‘I was just looking for Bob. All these doors look the same.’ He shut the door quickly.
‘Bob?’ Adam mouthed at him as they continued hurriedly down the hall.
‘Every place has a “Bob”,’ Jason explained.
They did more door checks, and found more offices – all empty.
‘You still have the left-is-lucky feeling?’ Jason asked when the hall branched again.
‘Yeah,’ Adam replied, starting to turn right.
‘Let’s try it your way this time,’ Jason said, turning left. They found a couple of small conference rooms, a big conference room, a little kitchen, and – after a few more twists and turns in the staff-only maze – the security hub. It had to be. Behind the wall of shaded glass windows, Jason could see dozens of TV screens. He couldn’t make out the images, but they had to be feeds from all over the hotel and casino.
‘The door’s over here,’ Adam whispered. ‘And it’s locked. We need a key card to swipe it open.’
‘Remember the bathroom we saw, about two turns back, the one with the mop and bucket outside?’ Jason asked. Adam nodded. ‘Somebody was in the middle of cleaning back there – the mop would have been in a supply closet otherwise. I’m thinking whoever does the cleaning here probably has access to all the offices.’
‘So smart and so good looking. It just isn’t fair,’ Adam joked as they trotted back the way they’d come. The mop and bucket were still outside
the bathroom door.
Jason led the way into the men’s room. A sloshing sound inside one of the stalls gave away the location of the cleaning person. And – score! – a maroon Bonheur blazer lay on the padded bench next to the sinks. This was almost too easy. He hurried over to the blazer, praying there was a key card in one of the pockets.
Before he could check even one, the stall door swung open.
Adam leapt into action. ‘Do you have any of that Vamoose stuff?’ he asked the cleaning guy, using his body to block Jason from view. ‘You know, that powder that you sprinkle on puke when it gets on the carpet.’
‘Why do you need that?’ the guy asked, not sounding happy.
Jason fingered the pockets of the blazer as fast as he could. He felt something thin and hard. It was a key card. He jammed it into his own pocket. ‘We don’t need it right now,’ he told the cleaning guy, stepping up next to Adam. ‘It’s just that he has a nervous stomach, and it’s his first week on the job. He’s just a little worried there might be an incident.’
‘Don’t worry about it if you don’t have any. I’ll bring some from home. I buy in bulk,’ Adam said over his shoulder as he and Jason hurried out of the bathroom. They did a dorky high five as soon as the door was shut behind them, because the situation demanded it, then they tore back to the hub.
‘So, our plan is just to walk on in there?’ Adam asked.
‘You left out a crucial part,’ Jason told him. ‘Our plan is just to stealthily walk on in there.’ He slid the key card through the lock and held his finger to his lips as he stepped inside, holding the door open for Adam.
They quickly moved to the cover – the not-quite-enough-cover – of a nearby pillar. Jason scanned the room. The banks of TV monitors he’d spotted from outside seemed to form a big hexagon in the center. Jason could see three work stations on each of the sides visible to him from this angle. But each of the stations was empty. Weird. What was going on?
Well, Marc’s father does own the place, Jason reminded himself. Maybe Marc arranged to have most of the security force out of the way for a while. It’s not like he’d necessarily want tons of staff in on the fact that he was cheating in the poker tournament – if Jason and Adam were right about what was going on.