Nine Billion Dollar Heist
*Co-authored with the LivesInDreams and TRDancer*
Chapter 18: Cryptic Clues and Insurance Bets
"Were you watching me using the security cameras?" --Alice
RPOV
I stifled another laugh as I watched Felix lean over to Alice and whisper something in her ear, making Jasper's face screw up with the effort to not lean over and smack Felix for flirting with his girlfriend.
In fact, looking around the table, not one of us was actually in a good mood. Emmett was pissed because he had to be here with Felix, who was, of course, a prick, Edward was angry because of the conversation Felix had inflicted upon him on the way over to the casino, Bella was worried about Edward's head possibly exploding, and Alice wasn't appreciating Felix coming on to her.
And myself, well, I was just irritated by the fact that everyone else was irritated.
I subtly poked Edward under the table and whispered, "Are you paying attention or is your mind too consumed with anger?"
"Plus thirteen," he immediately replied in a hushed and evidently angry tone.
I chuckled to myself. "That was really out of line of him, what he said in the gigantic ass piece of black metal on wheels."
Edward ground his teeth together so hard that I heard the scraping noise. He had done the same thing in the vehicle, where Felix had been "calmly informing" us that he would be leading us, which lead to Edward having a typical Edwardian egotistical bitch fit and not so calmly informing Felix that "he was the leader of this crew, and he wouldn't be taken over by some prick!"
Emmett had greatly approved of the use of the word prick.
Everyone else (or at least me) just wanted them to shut the fuck up and get along, because they would be working together regardless of who 'led' us.
I didn't know about the rest of the Six Crew, but I wasn't going to be led around like some badly trained, high class puppy on a fancy leash.
I was more the independent, grown up dog.
If we must use dogs as metaphors, that is.
The fight (or very loud verbal exchange, to be politically correct) lasted the entire ride to the casino, and ended only when Edward slammed the door of Felix's too-monstrous-to-even-be-considered-a-limo vehicle directly in his face.
I couldn't stop laughing after that one, and had to hide behind Emmett to prevent glares of doom from Felix.
"No shit, Rose," Edward whispered sarcastically as we discreetly looked across the table rather than at each other.
I interestedly watched the dealer deal out more cards and silently counted to myself. Eight, plus thirteen. Four, plus fifteen. Three, plus sixteen. Three, plus seventeen. By the time all the cards were dealt, it was at plus thirty-three, and none of the cards dealt were tens.
That was one hot deck.
And it got even hotter when the dealer dealt himself an ace.
I looked around the table, but everyone seemed to be wrapped up in their thoughts. Of course, that meant nothing, considering my expression was currently completely blank, but no one was even contemplating their hand. I narrowed my eyes slightly and looked over at Edward, who was tapping his cards idly on the table and ignoring me again.
I checked my hand to see that I had a six and a three. Looking around, I saw people standing, taking hits, and, in the case of Jasper, splitting his threes. I frowned to myself and made an insurance bet, pushing my chips over to the marked place on the table, then waving my hand toward myself. The dealer smacked down a card in front of me. It was a nine. The count was now plus thirty-six, factoring in the other cards missing from the deck now.
I waved my hand again and got a three.
Twenty-one.
Fuck yes.
The dealer flipped over his hole card to reveal a queen. I silently cheered. That was a push, so I didn't lose any of my original bet, plus I got back twice my insurance bet. I neatly stacked my chips in front of me and smiled.
Edward blinked and looked at me. "Did you just win whereas I lost?" I checked his cards to see he had gone over twenty-one with two eights and a six.
"Yes, I did," I said, shrugging. "You didn't make an insurance bet."
Edward blinked blankly. "Uh..."
"Must not have been paying as much attention as you said you were," I teased.
He went back to staring at the table like the little emo boy he was, and Bella leaned over to console him, making me snort at their lovey-dovey ways.
Emmett was looking disdainfully at his six and seven, frowning, while behind him Felix was still whispering things in Alice's ear while she tried to deflect him by waving her cards coyly at Jasper, whose facial expression hadn't changed from its aggravated state.
"What didn't I do?" Emmett wondered aloud.
"Insurance bet, Emmy bear," I informed him.
He sighed. "I was too busy being annoyed to count properly, I guess."
I laughed at his sad puppy face. "It's not a big deal, the money goes to all of us anyway. Just start paying attention from now on."
"I will," he said, laughing sarcastically.
Edward suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around to see him looking worried.
"Did anyone ever figure out Felix's cryptic note?"
"No," I said, aggravated at the thought of that thing. "I mean, the word was Hawaiian. How does Hawaiian even relate to a number? It's totally nonsensical."
"Ooh, I have an idea!" Alice suddenly piped up from the other side of Emmett. She always had had super good hearing. She scrambled out of her chair hurriedly, obviously trying to get away from Felix and came over to me.
"You know how they offer Hawaiian punch here? Maybe the number is involved with that."
"Like, the cost?" I asked.
"Exactly. I'll go check what the price is." She skipped off in the blink of an eye, weaving her way through the various casino tables, toward the bar.
I turned back to the table and noted that Jasper looked considerably calmer with Alice away from Felix. I snickered at the glare he was still giving Felix.
I opted out of playing the next round and pulled out my iPhone, accessing the casino's WiFi easily and tapping into the feed of the security system that I had set up between my laptop and my phone. I switched it to the camera that was observing the bar and watched as she leaned across the bar and talked to the bartender, who said something back to her, then turned to get a drink. I assumed it was Hawaiian punch and was proved right when the bartender slid a small glass of blue punch over to Alice and she turned to walk back to our table.
I switched the feed to the regular camera, which was conveniently following Alice across the casino. I noticed that Alice looked worried and frowned to myself—hadn't she gotten the price?
She came up behind me and leaned over my shoulder, looking at my iPhone's screen, then straightening up and taking a sip of her Hawaiian punch. "Were you watching me using the security cameras?"
Smacking her in the arm, I said in a hushed tone, "Yeah. Keep it down."
"Right, right," she said, smirking.
"So?" I prompted.
She sighed. "It cost $1.07. How does that translate into a number that could possibly be the winners limit?"
I wrinkled my eyebrows and cursed Felix yet again. Douchebag, he totally fucking knows that it's impossible to figure out.
"I have no fucking idea," I muttered. Alice took another, larger sip of her punch and shrugged blankly. "You should have gotten me one of those."
"Yeah!" Emmett cheered, pulling a stack of chips toward himself.
"Did you win?" I asked pointlessly.
"Yup," he replied. "Twenty-one."
"Good job. Told you that you just had to pay attention."
"And you were right, yet again, dear Rosie."
"Of course I was," I said, winking.
Alice sighed and went back to sit next to Felix again, who immediately leaned over and whispered something in her ear, which made her immediately tense up and furiously whisper something back. The glare on Jasper's face increased, of course, and I nearly burst out laughing again—only this time it was because of the piece of hair sticking straight up from his forehead.
It made him look like a crazed unicorn.
Jasper the Unicorn.
I was about to point this out to Edward, maybe lighten him up a bit, since it seemed he'd lost again, but Felix interrupted me with a loud clearing of his throat.
"I'm disappointed that you haven't figured out the winner's limit yet," he announced. "I thought you much smarter than this."
"Why don't you just tell us what it is, for fuck's sake," Jasper growled.
Felix laughed good naturedly. "It is two thousand nine hundred and seventy one."
Bella made a squeaking noise that sounded like a suppressed gasp and Felix nodded. "Yes, you are very close to hitting it. Be glad I see fit to display mercy upon you."
The table shook violently as Edward stood up, fists clenched at his sides, and whisper shouted, "You know what, Mr I'm Too Good for These Younglings? No one would ever have been able to figure out your cryptic piece of bullshit anyway. That number isn't even related to the word Hawaiian. Are you on fucking crack?"
Felix seemed unmoved and calmly said, "Why don't we take this discussion outside the casino? We will have to be leaving anyhow, since Miss Bella is so close to the number. By ten, I believe, Miss Bella?"
Bella didn't answer.
Begrudgingly, we all stood and headed toward the exit, immediately pairing off, Alice literally hanging on to Jasper and fixing his hair (thank fucking God, every time I looked at him I almost died), and leaving Felix to trail behind us.
Once we were outside the casino, Edward immediately began to rant again. "So, what do you have to say for yourself? I honestly can't even speak to you, you're so—" He was cut off by Bella's hand on his arm and a warning look.
"The clue was easily solvable!" Felix retorted. "'Hawaiian' has two eyes. I figured you'd be capable of associating that with 'snake eyes,' as we are in a casino. That gives you the number two. It's the second week of June, so multiply two by four and you get your second number, eight. There are eight letters in Hawaiian, and eight players maximum on any given table at any given time. That's how you get the number sixty-four, and it was exactly sixty four degrees at one o seven this morning—one-o-seven being the price of the drink that you just purchased, Miss Alice. When you put those together in sequential order, you get two thousand eight hundred sixty-four, and then you add one-oh-seven to that, giving you your final total of money, two thousand nine hundred seventy one." He looked quite pleased with himself.
"That doesn't even make sense!" Edward yelled.
"Yes, it the fuck does, you all are just too fucking stupid to get it through your head!" Felix screamed back.
"Well—"
"Oh. My. God. Just shut up!" Alice interjected. "We will never get anything done if you two continue to go on and on like this. Bickering gets nothing done, haven't you ever been in elementary school?"
Felix and Edward were shell shocked, to say the least. I smirked in satisfaction.
"Alice is right," Bella piped up. "All this fighting will never get us anywhere. Felix, Edward, it's you two all the time, so I think you need to just sit down together and discuss this calmly and rationally. I know we all disagree from time to time, but you two take it to the next level, and this is how we resolve our issues—talking it out. There is no teamwork without communication. Got it?" She inhaled deeply and sighed, as if she had just let out everything she'd been holding in.
"But—" Edward started.
"No buts, Edward," Jasper said. "The girls are right. I say the rest of us take a cab back to the hotel while Felix and Edward take the..." he choked on the word for a moment, then continued "...limo, and discuss matters."
Go Unicorn Boy! I silently cheered.
"Have a true heart to heart!" Emmett piped up, eliciting a smack on the arm from me.
"You two," I said, "shoo. See you back at the hotel."
We all turned and walked away from the two, leaving them standing on the sidewalk in front of the casino, still shell shocked.
It was only when we reached the road and I was hailing us a cab that we heard the sounds of Felix and Edward yelling simultaneously at each other.
"That's going to be one scary blimp ride," Emmett commented.
We all nodded in agreement.
Dancer: HAPPY SIXTEENTH TO DREAM! Her birthday was this past Friday, and Jasper the Unicorn is her gift.
Please to be reviewing and telling Dream how awesome she is? Thanks.
Lenn: There once was a girl named Dream, who wasn't as young as she seemed. For one day she awoke, and said through a choke, "Holy fuck, dude, I've just turned sixteen."
Happy Birthday! Review and give Dreamy dear the love she deserves :D
DREAM: *dies of laughter* Jasper the Unicorn! Best thing ever! And Lenn amazing little rhyme thing!
So review and tell them two they are amazing!
