Heller sat down and looked at the crowd below.
I was quite surprised. There were quite a lot of people in the place, especially for early afternoon.
It was a pretty vast casino. Just below him were three roulette tables. They were running and, while not jammed, were not deserted either.
Heller turned and looked at the mezzanine around him. To his right and left were big square pillars, making the place he sat a sort of alcove at the rail. Behind him was a very wide, carpeted space. To his right, a corridor went from it deeper into the hotel. Directly behind him, another corridor stretched away, seemingly to bedrooms.
He had been carrying a case. He put it on the table and opened it. The first thing he took out seemed to be an adding machine. At least, it looked like one. He took off the bottom and there inside it lay his very ornate, silver-chased and engraved Llama.45 automatic! I blinked. Then I realized that, encased in the bottom of what was apparently an adding machine, the gun had not registered as a gun on the detectors at the New York heliport. He checked it and then put it in what appeared to be a back belt holster. He removed several clips from the adding machine and put them in his pocket.
That done, he pulled a package of black plastic garbage bags from his grip and put it on the table. Again I blinked. Did he think he was going to win so much money that he needed that many huge sacks that size to carry it? If he did, he'd have the whole Atlantic City Mafia to fight off en masse!
He set out a pad one could write on that made multiple copies. It had clamps on the bottom and he fixed it on his knee.
He opened then another case. A sign: Nikon. Where had I seen that before? Ah, Lynchburg. He had bought two scrap cameras and transferred the labels and this was one of them.
THE TIME-SIGHT!
He was unstrapping it and checking its battery. With its Nikon label, the Voltarian time-sight looked for all the world like an ancient 8mm motion-picture camera.
He turned to the rail, pointed it down at the first roulette wheel below and got to work.
There was a huge clock on the far wall of the casino, very futuristic, but it had a second hand. Heller would look into the eyepiece of the time-sight and then twiddle a knob, then glance at the clock and write something on the kneepad.
It required a trained eye to read that image in the time-sight and it took me several minutes before I could make out more than flashing dots. Then I could see numbers.
Heller was reading the winning numbers of that wheel for the rest of the afternoon and evening! And he was recording them to the exact second on the pad!
He couldn't lose!
Oh, the Atlantic City Mafia would kill him if he won the quantities he inevitably would!
Heller started on the second table's wheel. He was advancing the time-sight knob a minute or two at a time. He was writing without looking at the pad and he was doing it so fast I was missing most of the numbers.
Heller had finished the second wheel and was working on the third when voices sounded behind him.
He did not look around. He was almost finished.
I recognized Mamie Boomp's hoarse tones and very American accent. "The mayor? Oh, I had the date all right, dear. But his wife was raising so much hell with him, he couldn't do a thing. That's why you find me singing here in this dump. And if they don't come across with our pay tonight, there won't be any floor show. Bunch of hoods."
Heller had completed. He turned around. Before Krak could even introduce him, Mamie said, "So this is the sailor. Oh, man, you can pick 'em, Joy." To Heller she said, "How's the fleet?"
Heller said, "I hope okay." He courteously seated the girls at the table.
Mamie said, "So Bonbucks Teller worked out. Well, I'm really glad. I can't afford them myself. Maybe I ought to find me a sailor and settle down. Do they pay you well, these days, young feller?"
"I haven't seen any Fleet pay for quite a while," said Heller.
"Hey, that's no good," said Mamie. "That's two of us. If these hoods don't cough up... Oh, oh. We've got company."
Two very tough-looking men had come up to the table. One said, "What you doin' with that camera, sonny?"
Heller said, "It has no film in it."
The second tough mug said, "Can we see it?"
Heller opened it in front of them. "See? No film."
The mug said, "Well, put it away, kid. We don't allow no pictures in here. What's this? An adding machine?"
"I got a system," said Heller. "The numbers come in on the celestial spheres and I add them up."
The first tough mug let out a barking laugh and looked at the other one as though to say, here's another one. The second one said, "Well, figure out anything you like, kid. But put the machinery away. Have fun."
"Oh, I will," said Heller.
They walked off.
"Well, kids, I got to go on shortly. We only do two shows this afternoon and if we don't get paid, there won't be any tonight. Sailor, would you like to buy us some dinner around six?"
"I'd be charmed to," said the perfectly mannered Royal officer, getting up as she rose.
"I'll be on that stage way over there to the end of the hall," said Mamie. "So listen good."
She was gone and Heller sat back down.
"She's nice," said the Countess.
"You're nicer," said Heller. "Now, pay attention, dizzy dame. Here is your list. The times are by that big clock up there on the wall-the one with the gold cupids. Here is $1,000. Go down to that window and buy $1,000 worth of chips. Go to a table and put down your bet. Bet on whole numbers only. Never bet more than $285 at a time."
"Why?"
"The win on a whole number is thirty-five to one. Your winnings must not exceed more than $10,000 at a time. IRS takes note of who wins more than $10,000 and they record it, but up to that they don't. So every time you win, cash in your chips. Then go back to a different table and bet on a whole number."
"It is chicanery," said the Countess. "What is this list?"
"The winning numbers with their times for each of those three roulette wheels. For some reason, all play stops at 10:21 P. M. tonight on all wheels. But until then, those are the numbers that win. Now, here is a plastic bag. If your purse overflows, start using the bag. Ready?"
"And if we win enough money, we'll be that much closer to going home?" said the Countess.
"Right."
"Let's go," said the Countess.
She went directly to buy her chips but Heller– stuffing the rest of the garbage bags under his belt out of sight-checked his case at the cloakroom, bought some chips and then went to another table than the one the Countess was standing by.
She watched a couple of spins to see what the game was all about. She looked at her list for that table number, verified that it really had just come up with the numbers on her list, glanced at the time and then put $285 worth of chips on the next list number, 0.
"Round and round the little ball goes," said the man at the wheel. "Where she stops, nobody knows. All bets down."
The metallic sizzling of the ball slowed. It went into number 5, then with a clink, dropped into 0.
The croupier raked in all other bets than 0, tabbed it and shoved a stack of chips at the Countess.
She promptly picked them up, went over to the window and cashed them in. She dropped $9,975 into the sack. She was going to bypass her purse from the start.
Heller, at another table, had placed a bet on 13 and 13 came up. He took his chips and went over and cashed them in and dropped the money in his sack. He, too, was going to bypass inadequate things like pockets.
The Countess looked at the clock, went to a different table, looked at her list and bet on 5. It came up. She took her chips to the window and cashed them in. She dropped her second $9,975 into her sack.