That was once again taking command of the conversation, and his attitude carried it along. These guys were plebes, and I was money. I didn’t need them, they needed me.

“Hey, Hill, the card tricks are nice, I like the theme, and I’m sure the boss would hire her just for them,” he said, trying real hard not to look me up and down. The Rockettes worked out of here, after all. “But we got good dealers. She’s got style, but that’s not about the casino, that’s about her.”

“That’s it exactly. Glad you understand, Ligganto,” Mr. Hill confirmed with a wave of his cigar. “She’s the best card dealer in the whole damn world. Moreover, she’s a Powered dealer.” He stuck his cigar back in, taking a puff, still not smiling, and if anything, getting even more grimly serious. “Here is the point. Let’s throw out her style, her looks, the magic. She runs a Clean Table.”

As a security guy, that was very important. Ligganto took note. “How clean?” he had to ask.

“Powered can’t cheat there. Psions can’t cheat there. Weird Science Schmot Guys can’t cheat there. Sorcerers can’t cheat there. Rich guys who can buy all of them can’t cheat there.” Mr. Hill sat slowly back in his chair. “Now, you want to tell me what a dealer who can run a clean table in the face of all those people is worth?”

Ligganto was quiet for a few breaths, thinking of that. “If she can run a Clean Table for folks like that, we can start moving in on the private games. We can’t touch them now, because we can’t guarantee clean games. There’s just too much competition in that set, they’re all trying to pull one over on one another.

“If we can guarantee a clean game, yeah, that’s worth something.”

Mr. Hill grinned, and waved his cigar in my direction. “You can’t. She can. You can host her, give her a preferred venue, promote her, and she can work out of a room.

“There is absolutely no chance of you getting her to sign an exclusive contract, as she’s going to be in demand in Europe and the Orient, as well as back on The Coast. But you can make a verbal contract here that if she’s in Jersey, she’ll deal at the Resort, and if the other casinos want a piece of the action, they gotta come to you for permission.

“If you wanna pass on the action, that’s fine, we’ll walk.” He shrugged again with the attitude of someone who had seen money come, money go, and it wasn’t going to change how he did things.

He was VERY good at that, given how stony his face was at the best of times.

Ligganto was immediately tempted. The idea of a clean table appealed to the security side of him. “Is there any way she can prove that?” he had to ask. “What’s the trick?”

The Mountain snapped his fingers, and I stepped forwards. “The key to a clean game is to eliminate spying and having a clean deck. That’s all, and that’s it. However, standard technology simply cannot keep up with the number of approaches to breaking the rules that way. Doing so requires someone who is Powered, or multiple people with multiple senses and control who can shut down any attempts to do the same.

“Having multiple people entails a greater security risk by fixing the person instead of the game, as well as raising the cost, and thus is untenable.

“One dealer, one enforcer is all a clean table should have. I have the clean deck. I have the defenses against manipulation by external forces, and trying to do that to Mr. Hill is very unwise. Mr. Hill might be subverted or bought by those with adequate power or wealth, and is aware of this, but he is not the dealer and he cannot fix the game.

“I am under no obligation to retain him as my enforcer if he should attempt to pressure me to fix the game. If the game is not clean, then this endeavor is useless.

“If you like, Mr. Ligganto, you can bring in any number of observers you believe are skilled at catching cheating, and I will cheat right in front of them, and they will not be able to catch me doing it.

“Likewise, you can bring in experts at cheating, and have them try to get away with it. I will catch them every time.

“My table will be clean, despite the efforts of those who think themselves above such rules when they sit at it.”

He stared at me, and I stared back.

He blinked first. He wasn’t my equal.

“This I gotta see.” It was both an imperative and a curiosity. “I got a table in the next room we use to vet dealers. You good with that?”

I pulled out a sealed deck, popped it open with one finger, and the cards slid out into my opposite hand, fanning perfectly as they did so. “Of course.”

His lips pursed at the sight, but he said nothing.

--------

“You remember your suits?” I asked casually. Mr. O’Bannon, Mr. Ligganto, and two spotters who worked the floor and cameras nodded as I flipped over the piles of eight cards in front of them.

All of their faces changed when the deuce through nines were arrayed perfectly in front of them.

They had seen me shuffle multiple times, very complexly. There was simply no way that could be done when I’d dealt the piles out so quickly and casually.

I went back around and turned over their five-card hands.

Four tens, ace of his suit. Four jacks and ace. Four queens and ace. Four kings and ace.

I gathered up all the cards with supernatural ease and speed, flowing through my fingers into position, and I began to shuffle and exchange them around with quiet ease and literally inhuman dexterity. They found it mesmerizing just watching my hands working the cards.

“Would you like me to do it again?” I asked, setting down the cards. “Perhaps one of you would like to cut?”

The older spotter, a Mr. Dykstra, raised his hand. I set the cards down in front of him, and he split them about two-thirds. I stacked them back up, and the second spotter raised his hand abruptly. I lifted an eyebrow, and he split them in the middle.

“Gentlemen?” I asked, holding out the deck to the last two, who demurred.

I turned the deck over and swept it out in front of them.

It was perfectly split up by number and by suit. I hadn’t even bothered to shuffle it again. Their faces all got very long looking at it.

“Anything?” Ligganto asked his men, who slowly shook their heads.

“I can’t feel anything at work, and I can’t see her doing anything,” sighed Mr. Booter, an English fellow watching me with sharp, suspicious eyes. “Those are good hands of yours, Miss.”

“A compliment from a Core user,” I replied, and he stiffened somewhat. “As is Mr. Dykstra.” I flicked out the seven of clubs and the nine of hearts. “Do these cards have some significance to you?”

They both glanced at one another. They’d psi-Marked both cards, leaving a subtle whisper of psignature on them. It was just a test, but in a real game, they’d progressively Mark and be able to track face cards, and rapidly know what cards were where. The only way to stop it was to purge the deck, or not re-use the cards.

“So, you can tell the cards are Marked,” Booter noted. “What does that mean? Can you tell who Marked one card, and prove it?”

“A moment.” I collapsed the cards backwards into a deck, and expediently shuffled them around again, mesmerizing them with my hands once more.

A holo-card bearing all four suits materialized on my hand, came down on the deck. “Gentlemen, the Deck is now Sealed.” I shuffled it one more time, and spread it out in front of me face-down. I pulled out two cards in front of the two spotters, who both frowned.

There was a spark on my fingers, and both men yelped suddenly, twitching back.

“The answer to your question is ‘yes’. In such a situation, I will typically issue one warning, and then the enforcer removes the cheater from the game. I can also Burn the deck and begin anew, but typically there is no real need.”

I turned over both cards. The three of clubs and queen of spades were in front of them, and if the men had long faces before, they really frowned now.

“The instant I Sealed the deck, all the cards were randomized, and even I lost track of what cards were where.

“As you have noticed, I have preternatural control over the cards, and awareness of the cards themselves. You cannot manipulate the cards without me being aware of it.” I reassembled the deck, and placed it on the table in front of me. “They will try, of course. But my deck is clean, and my game will be the same.”

“So, you’re saying that if you don’t Seal the deck, you know where all the cards are at any moment, and can deal anyone what you want to?” Ligganto asked quickly. The cards had changed underneath the Marks on them, which was a nice way to flip a finger on a cheater, especially when I purged them and both men jumped.

“That is absolutely correct.” I turned the deck over, and it was a perfectly random hodgepodge of cards when I spread them. I gathered them together, shuffled them, and laid it out.

It was perfectly divided by suits, exactly as if it had come from the case. They all shook their heads at the sight.

“Why you using those common decks?” sniffed Dykstra, waving at the cards with the classic blue print pattern. “Low quality stuff.”

“Probability sifters and diviners,” I replied easily, and he blinked. “Someone trying to use magic or psychic ability to divine what cards are next will find their efforts dispersed across every single deck of similar cards on the planet.

“High-quality decks are fewer in number, and the casinos tend to burn or modify their decks once they are done with them.

“The decks I use have been printed in the minimum of the hundreds of thousands of times, and I prefer the millions.”

I eyed the four men, who were kind of gaping at me. “This is not a consideration for normal people at all. I am not dealing for normal people, gentlemen. I am dealing for very powerful people who will be quite happy to cheat at levels that you are completely unaware of and have no hope of stopping.

“When I say I run a Clean Table at that level, it is not something to be claimed lightly at all.”

“Damn,” O’Bannon muttered, looking at the cards, things a poor grandmother down in the Bronx might use to play solitaire, or a bunch of guys getting together for poker night. “Common cards because some guy’s gonna try and predict the next card?”

“His efforts will get dispersed across millions of decks. The feedback can be, mmm, overwhelming. Abrupt nosebleeds, at the very least.” I riffled the cards from one hand to the other absently. “I am Dealing far above your league, gentlemen, but I am giving you the opportunity to cater to that league... because there is absolutely no one out there who is doing so now.

“I think the simple fact that the most powerful, dangerous, clever, and intelligent players in the world will come here for a Clean Game should be sufficient to gain your patronage. What opportunities arise from that are a different matter, but for those people, money is not an object.”