"But Ivan? And how did Sergeyevich be sure that Mr. Hopkins was not lying? ”

Of course, he couldn't figure out if Hopkins was talking about it. "But he's been 'cornered' to the edge of a cliff, and he'll grab even a little grass—not to mention that the grass looks pretty sturdy." ”

***

"A million." Ivan said, the bookkeeper repeated his words loudly, Ivan waved his hand, and the waiter beside him took away the remaining fried fish and a mouthful of untouched vodka.

"All." Hopkins said.

Some of the gamblers who were ready to walk away because the gambling game had become boring returned to their original positions after a moment of hesitation, Catherine, Sasha and Beelzebub were still in the forefront, Catherine moved uneasily, as a female "sexual" who had been subjected to male "sexual" violence, she was very sensitive to the distance between people, the person behind her stood too close to her, so close that not only could you smell the strong perfume on his body, but also feel his heavy breathing - a subtle, hot wind swept the back of her ** neck, Catherine lowered her right elbow in an imperceptible manner, her right hand hanging down to the side of her thigh, her fingers bent back so that they could almost touch the trouser leg of the man behind her—she swore that if the fool behind her dared to bring them closer to each other, for example, to the extent that her fingers could touch his body directly, she would make the uninformed bastard feel the wonderful sensation of being pierced through his fingernails (toenails) with a myriad of fine needles.

Luckily, the guy behind her was polite, and perhaps he found his position a little awkward, and he moved a little behind the left, not much, but at least much better than before, Catherine glanced behind her shoulder out of the corner of her eye—it was a big man. Catherine's shoulders were only up to his chest.

Just as she was slightly distracted, the bookkeeper raised his hand. The start of a new gamble was announced. Catherine's attention was pulled back. She looked at the gambling money under Hopkins' arm with concern, the "milky" white "color" and gold "color" chips, and the dark green "color" banknotes, all of which were large denominations.

Perhaps the best thing about baccarat is that it can be decided in a very short period of time. The bookkeeper turned over Ivan's card: "Banker's seven," and Hopkins' card: "Side's five." The dealer wins. He used a small wooden pole described as a "whip" in casino code language to pull two million from Hopkins' pile of bets.

In the next game. Dr. Hopkins, who was called the "silver-gray 'gentleman' with the hair" in the whispers of the people, was out of luck, and the god of doom sat beside him instead of the god of luck, who always won when the dealer set small bets. but loses when the dealer sets a big bet. Ten million dollars sounds like a lot, but it is only a matter of three or four rounds to get it to disappear.

"Do you want to go on?" Ivan asked coldly, rubbing the neck of his female companion as if he were pinching a kitten, and the chips and cash piled up in front of him. "Your gambling book is worryingly thin."

Hopkins had less than 100,000 chips on hand, and even a minimum bet on Baccarat was not enough. He raised his hand, and the stall manager approached, holding a fine flat silver platter with pens and stacks of bills. After retrieving the bill, he brought back a whole small box of chips and a small box of cash.

"It's amazing," said Ivan, "licking" his lips, undisguised to his greed, his tongue fat and thick, with a reddish purple coating, "you're going to do a big job." Is that right? Mr? ”

"That's right." Hopkins said he crossed his fingers and placed a small box of chips and cash at his elbow.

Ivan instead rubbed the neck of his other female companion, his hands were not small, and the dark-haired girl was so thin that the head that could almost be covered by Ivan's hand swayed involuntarily with his force—she stared at the green and fluffy tabletop, her face expressionless, as if she could tell in it that a mushroom or something else was of interest to her.

"Then as you wish," said Ivan, "the bet this time is all." ”

The third baccarat table fell silent for a moment, in stark contrast to the noise of the roulette table (although the latter was not very loud), and the bookkeeper looked at the overseer, who nodded, and the two bookkeepers began to count Ivan's bets. They moved quickly, and a few minutes later, one of the bookkeepers announced that Ivan's current stake was 67 million (less than a fraction of 100,000).

"What about you?" The bookkeeper asked, making sure that the chips and cash in the two small boxes had exceeded seventy million.

"Follow up." Dr. Hopkins said.

The bookkeeper announced the news to the entire casino at an unprecedented pitch, as is the usual practice in casinos, like "lucky boys", and a game with amazing stakes is also a good thing to attract gamblers and attract people's attention.

Among the gamblers in the "Heavenly Sphere", there are many people who have lost hundreds of millions of yuan in one day or one night, but there are still very few people who bet 50 or 60 million in a game - people gathered with great interest, and some people made bets privately, betting on whether the northern Yankees would win or the newcomer would win.

There was one last deck of cards left in the dealer, and the bookkeeper dealt the dealer and the sideboard, and Hopkins asked for the outcard, followed by Ivan.

Catherine held her breath, she had never expected to see such a big gamble - the stakes piled on the table could almost buy two ability offenders who were within the top twenty on the "Agency" bounty list, Sasha and Beelzebub came closer, and the two boys hooked each other's little fingers.

Ivan turned over his cards first, and the card was an eight, and the female companion next to him looked nervous, Ivan cracked his mouth and turned over the remaining two cards nonchalantly - two queens, and the queen of hearts and the queen of spades looked up at the white satin lampshade above the table: "It's your turn, sir." He opened his nostrils wide and puffed, his tongue hanging out of his teeth, like a wolf that smelled flesh.

Hopkins flipped his card, the outs were fives, he turned over his first hole card, it was a three, what would be the next one? If it's not an ace, then Hopkins loses, even if it's a face card or a ten—the rule on the table is that the dealer wins if the dealer and the side have the same number of points.

The last card is turned over, and clubs ace.

"The dealer has eight," said the bookkeeper in that plain but clearly recognizable voice, "the next house has nine points, and the side house wins." ”

The onlookers cheered excitedly, and some cursed, and those who placed their bets on Ivan.

Ivanka sat in his seat, motionless, silent for a few seconds, as if trying to gather strength for the impending storm — and as he stood up, the overseer and bookkeeper followed suit, and Hopkins saw two guards squeeze in from the crowd. But he didn't make as much noise as people thought he would, and he didn't even mumble like he had when he lost 10 million at once, he just leaned forward with his hands on the table, and watched the three cards spread out in great detail.

"It shouldn't be like this." He said, holding up a hand to stop the bookkeeper from taking the chips from him: "I'm going to appeal," he sat back in his chair, "I suspect someone is cheating." ”

When someone questions the results of the gambling game, as long as the bet exceeds a certain amount, the casino will basically assist, verify or clarify - there are guards sitting on the high platform on both sides of the table, and there are supervisors on each table, he supervises both bookkeepers and gamblers, and the casino is full of monitoring probes, just next to the lounge, there are two sets of extremely advanced and careful instrumentsSuspects don't have to undress or be strapped to a polygraph, and it only takes a few minutes to prove their innocence – you can choose not to be screened at all, but then you'll have to take your share of the bet.

Ivan's appeal was accepted, and the guards and waiters began to disperse the crowd at the table, the dealer and the sideburner, as well as the bookkeeper and the supervisor, in short, the people sitting at the table could not leave for the time being.

Catherine turned her head to ask Sasha about the situation, and as she moved her body, something hard pressed against her back.

"Don't move." The man behind her said, "Otherwise, your best outcome is to spend the remaining fifty years in bed." ”

Sasha and Beelzebub had the same problem as her, small pistols could easily slip into the sleeves of their coats and even in the broad palms of their hands, and the other gamblers would not be able to detect what was going on under the control of the casino guards.

"You've won," Ivan said contentedly, "but our game can go on." ”

He took out an old-fashioned revolver from his coat pocket, a six-inch model, with a surface treated with imitation electroplating paint, as smooth and bright as a mirror, and a coffee-colored walnut handle with finger grooves and a very beautiful pattern.

"I like this type of gambling more," Ivan said, "more than Baccarat." He tapped the wheel with his right index finger, the wheel popped out of the barrel, the magazine was empty, Ivan 'felt' out of his pocket a yellow bullet, and stuffed it into the magazine: "We need six people, for the sake of fairness," he turned the wheel, "I already have three people here," he pointed to the two female companions beside him: "Dear sir, now you need to choose, the three people you brought with you - which two?" ”

Before Hopkins could give any response, Catherine took a step forward.

(To be continued)

n (one second to remember the world)