Beelzebub quickly mentally calculated, and with the original 10 million bets, Ivan, who had won several games in a row, already had a capital of about 50 million, while Hopkins's bets hovered around 15 million. /top/ On the surface, the "Blue Shoulder" Ivan has a big advantage, but in reality, it's just a matter of one or two bets - if the bookmaker's bet is still 10 million or more.

The bookkeeper raised his hand: "One hundred thousand." ”

The onlookers involuntarily "revealed" a strange look, in their eyes, just because of a loss, immediately did not hesitate to pull the bet to the lowest amount? Sergeyevich didn't have the guts, he still had a lot of chips and cash right in the middle of the green tweed table, and he didn't have to be so conservative - it directly affected the show's excitement, and a few guys hiding in the crowd whistled contemptuously. Ivan? Sergeyevich was indifferent to this, his elbows resting on the edge of the table, as square and stubby as a toy robot, his pale fingers crossed and his thumbs up, and when the bookkeeper finished dealing the cards, he first flipped his own cards, and then watched the bookkeeper flip Hopkins's cards - for some reason, this time the stakes were small, but still only Hopkins was the only one.

"The dealer is six," the bookkeeper announced in that flat, straightforward, and indifferent tone: "The next house is eight, and the next house wins." He swung his pole and drew ten pure gold chips from the mountain of chips.

Next, Ivan's announced bets were high and low, but the highest was only one million, he and Hopkins each won and lost, and on the whole, Hopkins had a relatively large chance of winning, and the reason why it was not as good as Ivan. It's just because the latter had gotten too much oil and water from other siderooms before. Ivan, after losing twice in a row, lowered the stakes to 100,000 for the sixth time. People began to whisper.

"Hmm. He's going to decouple. Beelzebub said.

"How?" Catherine clutched at the railing standing in front of her, the place where she rubbed repeatedly was as bright as a mirror from the silk glove.

"Ivan? Sergeyevich is not an idiot," Beelzebub said, "I think he found out where Mr. Hopkins really is, and most of today's gamble was against Hopkins and Sean behind him. Battier—I think his original plan was to inflict a dumb loss on Mr. Battier—and nothing could be more painful. I mean, not only jumped out of the trap. And managed to bury the trap-digging man - the problem is ......" He observed the people around Ivan: "Lady Luck doesn't seem to want to sit next to him all the time, notice, he 'revealed' a very surprised expression when he lost the ten million." It's like seeing a fish lying on a plate jump into the sea and walk away...... After this. He had been tempting, he wasn't sure he was going to win, and conversely, if he hadn't lowered his bets at the right time, he would probably have lost all of his money by now. ”

"Ivan is a cautious man, after discovering that things are out of his control. He'll brake in time. Sasha said: "He has won enough today. ”

"Banker's nine." The bookkeeper said, turning the ten golden chips back into the hill.

Dr. Hopkins easily caught a hint of chagrin that quickly swept over Ivan's eyes. He regretted that he had not invested more chips, his stubby fingers were raised, Ivan first "rubbed" his lower eye sockets, and then pushed his "temples", he turned his neck, so that the bones made a Gragra sound, he seemed to have lost interest in the game, but there were still three decks of washed cards, and he had to play at least these three decks of cards, otherwise no one would want to sit at the table where he was the dealer.

Ivan stretched out a finger, and the waiter beside him immediately leaned down to listen to the command, and soon, he brought a plate of spicy fried herring and a large glass of clear and transparent "liquid", Hopkins's keen nose opened slightly, and he smelled the soft aroma of "milky" oil, the authentic vanilla vodka.

As a seasoned gambler, Ivan certainly doesn't let alcohol numb his brain and nerves during his gambling, and the spicy fried herring is a special snack that is not eaten immediately when it is served to guests, and you have to wait five or six minutes for the squeaky lemon sauce poured over the herring to penetrate the flesh of the fish thoroughly - but you can't let it go too long, and after a few minutes, the cold herring will become soft and tough, and it will not taste good at all.

Obviously, Ivan was quick to make a decision, and Hopkins could imagine that he would continue to make the minimum bet for the next three cards, and it was good to win, but it didn't matter much if he lost. He just waited for the game to end.

When the bookkeeper dealt the cards again, Hopkins stretched out his fingers, which were much longer than Ivan's, and did not have heavy sweat "hair", and placed on the green table like a painted model of plaster or marble, and the playing cards with dark gold "color" on the bottom lay quietly low in the center of his wrist.

"Any questions?" Ivan said: "My hand? Hopkins looked at his hand for a short time, so to speak, he just let his eyes linger on the ring for a moment, but the ring tattooed on the finger can be said to be a very sensitive sign.

"This ring feels a little familiar to me." Hopkins said, looking at his card: "I think I saw this style of ring more than ten years ago, and it was also tattooed on the finger." He nodded to the bookkeeper: "Out." Then he turned to Ivan: "Slightly different, that ring has four horizontal thorns - you see, your ring has only three horizontal thorns." ”

Ivan's face suddenly was a little unpleasant, he refused to hit, the bookkeeper turned over the cards according to his request, five points, Hopkins was six, Hopkins won, Ivan looked absent-mindedly waved his hand, signaling the bookkeeper to start the next game as soon as possible: "Is it in Las Vegas?" ”

"Where else could it be?" Hopkins slowly stacked the ten tight chips.

"That shouldn't be me."

"It's not you, though that's a northerner." "He was a young man at the time, with a soft beard and hair, brown eyes, and a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, which he said was the mark of an angel's kiss," Hopkins said. His lucky charms. ”

"It's rather a beacon left by the devil," Ivan muttered under his breath, "but he's got a lot of money from here and goes back......"

"I gotta say. Contrary. Compare to you. His luck was terrible. Hopkins turned over his cards, and this time it was Ivan who won, but Ivan's mind seemed to be out of it: "Didn't he win so much that he almost closed the casino?" Ivan glanced anxiously at his glass. A large part of the spicy fried herring had turned dark brown, and he pinched one of them. Put it in your mouth and chew loudly.

"Unless there is a second Mr. Cow in the world (as the Northern saying goes, the cow is called Cloven)." The bookkeeper dealt Hopkins a new card: "A stubborn calf indeed." "He lost all his money, his watches, his jewelry, and his clothes, except for the one he wore on him, and he walked out of the casino bare-bottomed." ”

"How much did he lose?" The cards were dealt, but Ivan was in no hurry to look at his cards.

"One million and seven million."

"Impossible!" "He doesn't have that much money," Ivan said. ”

"But he can pay for it." Hopkins said.

Ivan stared at Hopkins. His eyes were dark and glittering with an unknown meaning: "You seem to know this very well. Mr. Hopkins. ”

"There's nothing surprising about that," Hopkins replied, "and I'm the one who won him." ”

***

Sean looking at the surveillance screen. Battier laughed heartily.

The bookkeeper and the casino superintendent asked Ivan? Is Sergeyevich going to play the next game, Ivan? Sergeyevich hesitated, but agreed.

"May I ask?" I don't know when I will return to Sean. The red-haired Judas beside Battier said curiously, "Who is Mr. Cloven?" "It's like a big person.

"A northerner," Battier said, still with that chilling grin on his face, "You may not be familiar with him, he hasn't been in Las Vegas in more than a decade — but maybe in a few years, you'll see his name — and he's at the top of our list." ”

"He's the son of the current head of the North, an energetic, ambitious, and thoughtful troublemaker," Battier stretched out his little finger and scratched his chin: "His father and Ivan? Sergeyevich's father competed for the position of leader together, and as you can see, the Klovin family won, Ivan's father died, and he was sent to the margins, but in the past two years, the Ivan faction began to stir up again - so, Klovin found him again and gave him this errand, which is a good errand, dear, safe, not easy to make mistakes, and can also raise a lot of money for himself with 'good luck'. ”

"Did Cloven really lose to Hopkins?"

"I don't know." "Hopkins is a willful and shy fellow, and if anyone knows him too well, he'll be upset and want to figure it out—oh, you wouldn't want to know his solution," said the owner of the Paradise Palace casino. He made a vulgar and dangerous gesture: "Maybe he won, maybe he didn't even see Cloven, but it doesn't matter, the point is Ivan, you see, he believed." ”

Judas frowned, and as he did so, a small fold rose in his forehead, forming a pair of shallow dimples above the eye sockets, like a little baby, very cute.

It doesn't matter if Clovin loses or wins, the point is, according to Hopkins, not only did he not win, but he also owed a lot of money to the Las Vegas casinos — a decade ago Las Vegas wasn't as quiet as it is now, and the Northern gangsters were desperate to rush in and get a piece of the pie — and of course, they lost. Think about it, my dear child, a member of the Northern Gangster, who went to Las Vegas to gamble alone at that critical moment, and ended up with a "bankrupt" property and a pocket of bills, he couldn't get any more money from anywhere else, and the casino wouldn't allow him to continue to owe until he repaid the bills, so how did he end up with a large sum of money back to the North? Battier shrugged: "More than ten years ago, the battle here was fierce, and almost every northern family had lost the lives of their relatives and friends here - if Clovin really did something, those families would not spare him, even his father would have been unlucky." ”

"Of course," said Battier, after eating a small caviar butter biscuit with relish, "provided that, Ivan? Sergeyevich was able to get his hands on evidence of this. ”

(To be continued)

n (one second to remember the world)