Joe made a prayer. ‘Oh my Lord of Infinite Numbers, come down to us now. Grace us, your pitiful calculators, with your generous presence. Oh my master, oh my Dominus! Come down to bless these, my simple bones of offering, my humblest of chances. Oh my darkest fractal, may these my pitiful tokens be forever graced with your winning spirit. Open all channels…’
Little good it did him.
PLAY THE RULES
11a. The AnnoDominoes shall be allowed to protect their identity at any reasonable cost.
11b. No player may attempt to infiltrate the dominoes.
11c. Neither the game nor the players are above the law.
11d. (Addendum) The game is deemed more above the law than the players.
Play to win
Big Eddie and Little Celia were holed up in paradise, if paradise is a rundown, abandoned house in Cheetham Hill. Eddie had found the place on his wanderings. They had to keep moving, until he could prove his thoughts about Celia. He found a nice little hole on the main road. A very nice little hole, just his size too. Trouble was, it was already occupied by some thin sliver of a loser. Short work for a man like Big Eddie Irwell. So, a hole. Big enough for both Eddie and Celia. Good position too, right outside the Jewish supermarket. Lots of punies to be caught, mid-flight.
And now a house to go with the hole. Backstreet bliss, it was; due for demolition, but fine for all that. They had a row of them to choose from. No. 27 was the best, with its ‘PLAY TO WIN’ graffiti scrawled across the door; a real mess inside, tiled with creamy bones, but they cleaned it up nice. Even better, tins of pseudosoup in the cupboard, tins of astrobeans. No gas, no electric, but candles and an old camping stove. Best of all, a radio; an antique transistor job, no sound, abandoned. Just a battery that needed changing, and there were batteries in a clock. And who needs a clock when you’ve got the dominoes?
Imagine, their very own radio.
Pigs in blurbjuice. With two bones, one each, and Lady Cookie Luck dancing to a standstill…
That’s the way! That’s the way!
That’s the way the cookie crumbles!—Blurbflies
Tommy Tumbler crying, ‘A two, a blank. A two-and-a-blank!’
Celia started screaming.
Play to win
No such luck over in Hackle’s house, but at least the game was captured on video and hard disk, ready for deep analysis.
‘I can’t believe it!’ screamed Dopejack. ‘Another fucking half- blank.’
‘Stop complaining,’ said Benny. The university paid for your chances. You lost nothing.’
‘It’s the principle. And that’s two blanks in the last, what is it?’
‘Four games,’ replied Benny. ‘You know what Hackle’s gonna say?’
‘The Joker Bone’s getting closer?’
‘OK,’ said Joe, ‘so we move quickly.’ He paused then and looked around at his team. ‘I hereby declare open the first ever meeting of the Dark Fractal Society.’
‘What?’ This from Dopejack, his face reflecting from the computer screen.
That’s our name.’
‘Who decides this?’
‘Joe Crocus does,’ declared Benny. ‘He’s the master of the group.’
‘I thought Max Hackle was the master?’ said Dopejack. ‘And I’m not too keen on Dark Fractal, actually.’
‘Why not?’ asked Benny.
‘It sucks.’
‘So you’ll just have to make do.’
‘It sucks its own dick.’
‘That’s right,’ said Jazir, ‘it’s a recursive equation, always doubling back on itself. Perfect! Well chosen, Joe.’
‘You would like it.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Nothing. What’s wrong with the Strange Attractors? That’s all I’m asking.’
‘And who made that up, I wonder?’ asked Jazir.
‘I did. Last night in bed.’
‘Is that all you do in bed, DJ? Make up names.’ Jazir gave Daisy the eye at this.
Daisy Love, as always, kept her thoughts to herself.
‘I don’t have to put up with this, Joe,’ said Dopejack.
Joe Crocus made a sweeping motion. ‘Children, please! We are gathered together, in order to make the dominoes surrender. We are the Dark Fractals. No more questions. Give me answers. Open all channels; connect to everything. Give me your info. Dopejack, that includes you. We have a new member today. Ms Love. Bring her up to date.’
Dopejack gave in to the pressure, pressed some keys on the computer and brought up a window. ‘OK, what we’ve got so far. The bones were introduced on the first of May, last year. Here’s a list of winning numbers, so far. Here’s their logo. The famous dancing domino. It’s now the twenty-sixth of Feb. On the twenty- third of April they’re going national. That gives us seven games at the Manchester odds.’