‘Who messed up last time?’
‘OK, we do it right this time.’
‘Right on the nail, you lucky bleeder, you.’ Eddie embraced her and almost smothered her with his joy. ‘We wait till midnight. I take it to the pay-out shack myself—’
‘I’m going with you, Eddie.’
‘No. Too dangerous. I can’t afford to lose you.’
‘I can’t afford to lose the winnings.’
‘What do you take me for?’
‘A cad and a scoundrel and a cheat and a liar.’
‘Fair enough, but I’m on your side this time.’ Celia extricated herself from his grip. ‘I swear, if you cheat on me…’
‘Sweet Celia, as if—’
‘I’ll never play again. Do you hear me?’
‘All ears.’
Play to win
‘OK. That’s Daisy sorted out. Here’s the workload for the rest of you.’ Joe Crocus was standing before his charges, giving orders. ‘Benny, you carry on with the DNA analysis of the blurbjuice.’
‘I can help him, boss,’ said Jazir.
‘I’m fine on my own, thanks Jaz. I’ve got some ideas I want to try.’
‘Your job, Jazir, is to break open a bone.’
‘He can’t do that,’ said Dopejack. ‘Nobody can do that.’
‘Fuck off, Dopey. I can do it.’
‘He’s done it on screen, DJ. Let him try in real life.’
‘Waste of time.’
‘Dopejack, I don’t want arguments. I want work. You will break further into the security system. That’s an order.’
Dopejack mumbled something.
‘I could do that better,’ said Jazir.
‘Shouldn’t he be working tonight?’ put in Dopejack. ‘Serving up slop?’
‘I’ve got my priorities right.’
‘And I haven’t?’
‘Doesn’t feel like it to me, Dopey. Feels like you’re just causing trouble.’ Jazir turned to Joe. ‘I can do anything he can do, but better.’
‘Basically, I’ve had it!’ Dopejack stood up, grabbed his disks and his coat. ‘I work alone from now on.’
The door slammed behind him.
‘Here endeth the first meeting,’ whispered Benny.
‘He’ll be back,’ said Joe.
‘No loss.’ Jazir, of course.
Joe left them then; Jazir and Daisy and Benny. Benny was already taking out a freshly killed blurbfly, which he went at with a knife. Jazir told Daisy that he did have to go to work now, and that his father would shout at him for being late, but maybe he could come up after the shift to see her?
Daisy said yes.
‘Daisy said yes!’ shouted Benny, giving them both the wicked eye.
‘You fuck off as well,’ said Jazir, around a smile.
Daisy said, ‘You should tell your father you’re being tutored by Professor Max Hackle, of the university.’
‘I might just do that.’
Jazir gave Daisy a kiss, to which Benny made a smacking noise. Jazir left.
Daisy and Benny. ‘Where’s Joe gone?’ Daisy asked.
‘Off to see Max in his study. Interim report.’
Daisy left.
Benny, alone, working the blurbjuice.
Daisy in the study, apologizing to Hackle and Joe for interrupting them. ‘That’s quite all right, Ms Love. Please, sit down.’
‘Yeah,’ said Joe. ‘Stop fidgeting.’
There was a television in the corner, frozen in the two-blank dance. Daisy stared at it, embarrassed.
‘Joe was just telling me about your good work. I cannot emphasize the importance of finding this natural player.’
‘It will give us the edge,’ added Joe.
Daisy nodded.
‘So…’ Hackle looked at her intently, ‘What is it you want?’
‘Your domino won tonight, sir.’
‘Ah yes, the good old two-blank. You know, old Malthorpe used to call me that at school. Two-Blank, come here. Two- Blank do this. Two-Blank, fuck off. I didn’t mind, it was better than my real name. Which is Maxwell, by the way. The Maximus, I’m afraid, is a Sixties leftover.’
‘Did Malthorpe call you Two-Blank later on, sir? When you were doing the magazine?’
Hackle and Joe shared a smile. ‘Well, well. More good work from our newest recruit.’ This from Max.
‘Oh, she’s good. She’s bloody good.’ This from Joe.
‘My father was there with you.’
‘That he was. Special consultant. The title hardly befits the vision he brought to the project.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Ah, those days. We were so excited. The late Sixties, Joe. You were a little too young to enjoy them, I imagine. And Daisy, of course, totally missed out. We really did believe we were making a difference, changing the world by publishing an alternative maths mag.’ He laughed wildly, at himself this time, shaking his head slowly. ‘Foolish, I know, but still… it was a good dream. To carry on the lessons of Miss Geraldine Sayer. It was not to be, alas. In 1979, I believe it was, the group split up.’