“That’s some pickup line.”
Slyde was halfway down the hallway, hustling toward the elevators. If Slyde got on and the doors closed, Mags knew she’d never see him again.
“Got to run. Been a pleasure,” she said.
Waters shoved a business card into her hand.
“Call me anytime,” the Hollywood producer said.
Thirty-Six
“Look, he’s waking up,” Misty said.
Billy spent a moment getting his bearings. He was lying on a couch in the sky palace with his crew assembled around him. John Legend played on the room’s sound system, the volume loud enough to make it impossible for the hidden mikes to make out their conversation.
“Are those crazy bastards gone?” he asked.
“They split a while ago,” Misty said. “You had us worried. I was going to call the house doctor, but Travis said not to, that it would set off too many alarms.”
Billy took a moment to wipe the caked blood from his nostrils. Getting punched in the face was an occupational hazard, and he checked for broken bones or chipped teeth. Everything felt normal except for the swelling above his upper lip. He could live with that.
He shifted his attention to his crew. Cory and Morris looked like scared rabbits, while Travis and Misty showed more concern than fear. Pepper was still AWOL, and he wondered if she’d gotten hitched to Tommy Wang in one of the town’s el cheapo wedding chapels.
“Any word from Pepper?” he asked.
No one replied. Of all the problems he was dealing with, Pepper could wait.
Travis said, “Your jaw’s swollen. Misty’s got pain pills for you to take.”
Misty handed him four Ibuprofen and a glass of water. Billy downed the pain pills and leaned his head back on the cushion.
“Hey, Billy, listen. We think it’s time to get out of Dodge,” Travis said. “Can we do that without blowing your cover?”
Billy thought about it. If they left Carnivale early, he could wire the casino the money he’d lost at blackjack. It would be a hit to his bank account, but his false identity would remain intact, and Carnivale’s management would be none the wiser.
He started to tell Travis yes, then killed the words coming out of his mouth.
“We can’t leave,” he said.
Travis’s face crashed. “How come?”
“We have new partners. I don’t think they’d like us leaving before the job’s done.”
“You struck a deal with those guys?”
“Keep your voice down. The reasons those guys didn’t whack you is because I agreed to give them a piece of the action. If they don’t collect, they’ll go to the police and give them the folder they printed off Gabe’s computer that explains the scam.”
“So we’re stuck.”
“Afraid so. We can’t bail.”
Travis looked defeated. The big man found a chair and dropped himself into it. “Those guys are killers. It’s just a matter of time before they take us out.”
“That’s not going to happen. When the job’s over, I’ll deal with them,” Billy said.
“How you going to do that?”
“I said, keep your voice down.”
“Does it matter at this point, Billy?”
It was starting to feel like a mutiny. If Travis bailed, the others would also leave, and the scam would fall apart. Worse, they’d probably stop working for Billy and join other crews in town that scammed casinos, of which there were many. Billy was not about to let that happen. The crew was his baby, and he would do whatever was necessary to keep them together, even if that meant telling them things about himself that he’d preferred not come out. Pushing himself to his feet, he went to the bar and grabbed a handful of cold beers out of the fridge for the guys and a wine spritzer for Misty.
“Let’s take this outside,” he said.
The pool area had a coffee table and five chairs made of cast iron so they wouldn’t blow away. Billy passed the drinks around. The wind was blowing from the northwest, and screams from the Stratosphere’s death-defying rooftop rides filled the air.
“I’m about to tell you some stuff that can’t be repeated,” he said.
“Got it,” Travis said.
Cory and Morris sipped their beers and nodded agreement.
“This conversation won’t go any further,” Misty said. “Now, tell us how you’re going to stop these motherfuckers from murdering us after the job’s over.”
Misty had never been one to beat around the bush. Billy removed his wallet and placed it on the table. The billfold had a hidden compartment, and he folded it back and removed a stiff white business card. The card had the United States Department of Justice’s distinct blue and gold seal, which included the words Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Misty got to see the card first. “Well, lookie here. Ken Shapiro, Special Agent, Las Vegas Field Office. He even gave you his private cell number. You know this guy?”
Billy acknowledged that he did indeed know an FBI agent named Ken Shapiro.
The others examined the card as well. Travis handed it back.
“What’s the connection?” the big man asked.
“I did a job for the FBI,” Billy said. “A gang of North Korean cheats was ripping off casinos in town. The scam required that a dealer be involved. The dealer got caught and offered to rat out his partners in exchange for immunity. The North Koreans didn’t like that, so they slit the dealer’s throat. Shapiro contacted me and asked that I help the bureau figure out how the scam worked, so they could nail the North Koreans and put them away.”
“Did you?”
Billy nodded. Part of the cheater’s code specified that a cheat never expose another cheat to the law. Billy had broken the code, and he needed to explain to his crew why.
“You were in the military, weren’t you?” Billy asked.
“Army. I did a tour of Iraq,” Travis replied.
“My father served in Vietnam, and my grandfather was in Korea. I grew up believing that if your country comes calling, you should say yes. Shapiro told me the North Koreans’ blackjack scam was bringing in a million bucks a week and that the money was being sent directly back to the mother country. It was enough money for that little fucker with the funny haircut to build a nuclear bomb. When I heard that, I decided I’d better help him. Later that night, I went in disguise to a casino and watched the North Koreans in action.”
“They could have killed you,” Misty said.
“I played the Iggy. They didn’t have a clue.”
“So what was the scam? Is it something we can use?” Cory asked.
“The North Koreans were marking the edges of all the high-valued cards with luminous paint,” Billy said. “One of the gang had a camera with a red filter in the sleeve of his jacket. After the decks were shuffled, the dealer placed the cards on the table, and the guy with the camera took a high resolution shot of the cards, and the filter picked up the luminous marks.
“The picture was sent to a computer across town, where another member of the gang analyzed it and determined when the high-valued cards would be dealt. This information was sent to the gang through inner-canal earpieces, and they bet accordingly.”
“You said the dealer was involved. How?” Travis asked.
“The dealer’s job was to give the camera enough time to take a clear picture,” Billy said. “That required stalling on the dealer’s part. It was the scam’s only flaw. The FBI busted the North Koreans the next day. They also nailed the guy with the computer and found information on other gangs cheating the Native American reservation casinos. It put a real dent in Kim’s bankroll. And for that act of selfless patriotism, Shapiro told me to call him if I ever had an emergency.”