The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,64

his others. Ten thousand dollars. Calling the last bet . . .

And raising it. Another ten thousand in neatly ordered chips joined the first pile. ‘Raise ten,’ he said.

Nair threw in, as did Cau. Adam’s turn. Was Zykov bluffing?

Yes.

He was sure of it. The Russian had almost imperceptibly raised his defences.

Almost imperceptibly.

Bianca made the tiniest movement with her little finger, pressing the tip of her fingernail against the table. Twice. Two bleeps would have just come through Holly Jo’s headset, passing on the Englishwoman’s belief that Zykov was bluffing. In a moment Holly Jo would relay that to him through the earwig.

But he didn’t need that help any more. He could now tame the bear for himself.

‘Bianca thinks he’s bluffing,’ Holly Jo told him redundantly.

Adam looked back up at Zykov, allowing his smirk to fade slightly. Satisfaction in his opponent’s eyes. Then it returned in full force. ‘I think I’ll see your ten,’ he said, nudging chips into the pot, ‘and raise you . . . twenty.’ A flick of his forefinger, and another stack clinked across the baize.

The Russian’s stony poker face cracked. His lips tightened, eyes narrowing in anger. Then he managed – with evident effort – to bring himself back under control.

Bianca’s bet. In a normal game, Adam could tell that she would have dropped out. But she was playing to lose. ‘Call,’ she said with reluctance, thirty thousand of her own joining the pot.

Back to Zykov. ‘Call,’ he growled.

Showdown. Adam had been the last to raise, so went first. He turned over his hole card. Seven. Three of a kind. Bianca had the option to ‘muck’ her hand, simply giving up without turning over her hole card, but instead opted to give Levon’s card-counting program more data. Jack of diamonds. One pair of fours, that was all.

Zykov’s turn. The reveal of Bianca’s card increased the probability that his hole card was a heart. Had Adam misjudged him? He watched, tension rising, as the arms dealer put his fingers on the last card . . .

And with a barely contained snarl of anger shoved it away, unturned, with the rest. Without a fifth heart, all he had was a king high. Worthless.

Adam grinned at him. ‘Well now,’ he said, sweeping the pot across the table to join the rest of his chips, ‘looks like I just bought myself a new Porsche. Thanks, everyone.’

The other players glowered at him, while Zykov was positively seething. ‘There is still a lot to play for,’ he said through his teeth.

‘There sure is.’ Adam cracked his knuckles. ‘Let’s get on with it, shall we?’

Play continued. Before long, players started to drop out. Nair was first to leave, going all in with a bluff that he held a full house – but Adam already knew via Holly Jo that Bianca held one of the two cards he needed, the tiny camera in her earring having revealed her hole card to the team. His own hole card was the other. The Indian ended up with nothing but two pair, losing everything to Adam.

Another Chinese player, Hong, departed next, followed by a rotund South African called Lumbano. Five players remaining, then four as Cau finally threw in the towel. Bianca stayed, having the benefit of Levon’s program herself, and trying to make sure that if she lost any large bets, they were to her secret partner.

Zykov; a taciturn Korean named Pak; Bianca; Adam. Adam already had over a million dollars in chips before him, more than half the total buy-in. Zykov had the next-largest reserve, arranged in neat towers as if trying to build a protective wall. Bianca’s stacks were shrinking quickly, and Pak was almost out of money; on the next game he dropped out, having no choice but to go all in with three of a kind. Unluckily for him, Zykov had a straight, and that was the end of the Korean’s night.

Adam and Bianca had both folded early on, recognising that Zykov was not bluffing about having a strong hand. ‘Well, this is cosy, isn’t it?’ said Adam. ‘Just the three of us. Of course, three’s a crowd, so . . .’ He waved a dismissive hand at Bianca’s shrunken reserves. ‘You might as well just slide that across to me right now, Bianca. Save some time.’

‘The night isn’t over yet,’ she snapped back.

‘Try to make it soon, though,’ said Tony through the earwig. ‘Everything’s set up for the crash – John and his team are in position, and Lau’s got the