The Grand Wheel

She clinked her glass against his before they drank. ‘Good health,’ she said. While Scarne merely sipped the malt whisky, she knocked hers straight back. ‘I’d never get through the afternoon without a pick-me-up,’ she explained cheerfully.

The door opened again, admitting a tall, lean man who walked with a slight slouch, head down. He ignored Cheyne and Cadence as he strode to the desk, where he sat down and quickly tapped something out on an integrator.

‘Jerry, this is Professor Scarne,’ Cadence said breathlessly.

Soma didn’t look up until he had finished what he was doing. Then eyes went from Scarne to Cadence and back again, calculatingly, as though suspicious of their being together.

‘Scarne. You got here, then.’ His hand went to a piece of desk equipment, depressing a key. He read out loud from the show plate. ‘Lessee … born in Minnesota, Earth. A ground town.’

‘Not everyone likes to live in a tower,’ Scarne interrupted him.

Soma didn’t seem to hear. ‘Your parents were cyb-clerks. Looks like they tried to give their son a start in life. You attended the University of Oceania, majored with honours in randomatics. Then you got drawn back to source, like a lot of randomaticians are: you became a full-time gambler. Your legit-type parents didn’t like that, did they? Still, it’s a professional hazard … the science of probability originally grew out of games of chance, didn’t it?’

‘I don’t see what my parents have got to do with anything,’ Scarne said stiffly. He hadn’t seen them for over a decade.

‘Ask any psychiatrist. Parents are the first cards you’re dealt. It’s in the Tarot, isn’t it? The Emperor, the Empress … Anyway, you haven’t made very good use of your talent. Drifting around solsystem … no concerted plan of action. Caught between two stools: science and gambling. Several times you’ve been in trouble for bad debts.’

‘I’ve always come out clean,’ Scarne said. He felt uncomfortable, being described in précis in front of the girl.

‘But that’s all you’ve done.’ Soma made a sudden, angry gesture. ‘Hell, if you’d used your abilities you could have had everything. Money, whatever you wanted. Entry into the Wheel. The Wheel really leaves it wide open for people like you – didn’t you know that? But only if you can find your own way. All these years you’ve stayed right there below the fifty-fifty line. You never got into even one weighted game.’

Scarne didn’t know what he was talking about. ‘I’m surprised you want to use me now, if I’m such a loser.’

Soma smiled sourly, contemptuously. ‘You’re a failure. But you’re not a loser. Losers we can’t use.’

‘Don’t be too hard on him, Jerry,’ Cadence said tentatively. ‘You’ll make him lose confidence.’

‘He’d better not be that delicate. All right, Scarne, you’re working for us now. For the time being you’re assigned to the Make-Out while we check your performance. This is a special club, not the usual kind. We have special games, games you probably never heard of, new games, special clientèle – private list only, some of them high-ranking Legit officials who’ve got the bug, even. You’ll be learning to play against them.’ He paused. ‘One question I’m told to ask: can you play Kabala?’

Scarne hesitated. ‘I think I probably could. I’ve studied the game, but I’ve never had an opportunity to play it.’

‘The report on you says the same.’ Soma made a note on his pad.

‘Will I be playing Kabala?’

‘Not here. Who knows, maybe Dom will want to try you out.’

Searne’s mind thrilled at mention of the name. Marguerite Dom – chairman of the Grand Wheel! It excited him to think he might actually be that close to what he wanted.

He coughed and spoke in an innocent tone. ‘Is this all you want me for, as a player? I had hoped to be introduced to the planning side of things. After all, I am a highly qualified randomatician.’

‘Is this all we want you for?’ Soma mimicked unpleasantly. He leaned forward, his vulpine face glaring at Scarne. ‘We moved on past the three-card trick a long time ago. Here on Earth there are people whose whole lives are games of chance organized by the Wheel. There are people playing games just to win a chance to get into bigger games. It’s a study of life itself. There are people who don’t even know that they are playing. There are people who have a life-game set up for them before they are even born.’ He leaned back. ‘Don’t tell me it’s belittling to be a Wheel player.’

‘I won’t.’ Soma was a typical Wheel operative, Scarne thought. He had that odd combination that made the Grand Wheel so frightening. Intelligence, ability, even a certain amount of scientific knowledge, but along with it all the whiff of the hoodlum, the sinister influence of past Wheel history.

Maybe the members of the mathematical cadre, academic randomaticians like himself, would be of a different sort, he told himself.

He decided to ask a question of his own. ‘Last night on Io I hit a jackpot on the muggers. I’m curious to know how it was done.’