The Spoilers / Juggernaut. Desmond Bagley

– I can’t see how he does it.’

      ‘I wouldn’t trust Johnny to play a fair game,’ said Warren. ‘What is it this time?’

      ‘It goes like this. We each have a coin, and we match coins. We don’t toss them, so the element of chance is eliminated as far as that goes – we each have control as to whether we show a head or a tail. Got that?’

      ‘It seems all right so far,’ said Warren cautiously.

      ‘Yes,’ said Tozier. ‘Now, if I show heads and he shows tails he pays me thirty pounds. If I show tails and he shows heads he pays me ten pounds.’

      Warren thought about it. ‘Those are two of the four possible occurrences.’

      ‘Right!’ said Tozier. ‘The other two occurrences are both heads or both tails. If either of those happen I pay him twenty pounds.’

      ‘Wait a minute,’ said Warren, and scribbled on a piece of paper. ‘There are four possible cases of which you can win two and he can win two. Taking all four cases as equal – which they are – if they all happen you will win forty pounds – and so will he. It seems a fair game to me.’ It also seemed a childish game but that he did not say.

      ‘Then why the hell is he winning?’ demanded Tozier. ‘I’m nearly a hundred pounds down already.’

      ‘You mean to say that you never win?’

      ‘Oh, no. I win games and so does he – but he wins more often. It’s a sort of see-saw, but he seems to have more weight than I have and my money tends to roll towards him. The thing that makes me wild is that I can’t figure the gimmick.’

      ‘Perhaps you’d better stop playing.’

      ‘Not until I find out how he does it,’ said Tozier determinedly. ‘The thing that gets me is that it isn’t as though he could ring in a double-headed penny – that wouldn’t help him. Hell, it would make it worse for him because then I’d know what he was calling and I’d act accordingly.’ He grinned. ‘I’m willing to go another hundred just to find the secret. It’s a profitable game – I could use it myself if I knew how.’

      ‘It seems as though you’ll have plenty of time to play,’ said Warren acidly. ‘We’re getting nowhere here.’

      ‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ said Tozier. ‘I’ve had an idea. What about that pharmaceutical place where Speering ordered his supplies? They’d deliver the stuff, wouldn’t they? So they must have an address somewhere in their records. All we have to do is to extract it somehow.’

      Warren looked at him wearily. ‘Are you suggesting a burglary?’

      ‘Something like that.’

      I’ve thought of it, too,’ admitted Warren. ‘But just tell me one thing. How the devil are we going to recognize what we want even if we see it? These people keep records in Persian, which is a foreign language to begin with, and in Arabic script which none of us can read. Could you sort it out, Andy?’

      ‘Hell, I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Tozier. ‘My colloquial Arabic isn’t bad but I can’t read the stuff.’ He looked up. ‘Do you mind if I talk to Johnny about this?’

      Warren hesitated. ‘Not as long as you stick to generalities. I don’t want him knowing too much.’

      ‘I won’t tell him more than he ought to know. But it’s about time he was put to work. He’s a good con man and if we can’t get the information in any other way then perhaps we can get it by Johnny’s fast talk.’

      So Tozier talked to Johnny Follet and Johnny listened. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Give me a couple of days and I’ll see what I can come up with.’ He disappeared into the streets of Tehran and they did not see him for four days. When he came back he reported to Tozier, ‘It can be done. It’ll take a bit of fooling around, but it can be done. You can have the information in less than a week.’

      II

      Follet’s plan was so diabolical that it raised the hairs on the back of Warren’s head. He said, ‘You’ve got an evil mind, Johnny.’

      ‘I guess so,’ said Follet insouciantly. ‘There’s a part for everyone – the more the merrier. But for Christ’s sake take it seriously; it’s got to look good and real.’

      Tell me more about this man.’

      ‘He’s assistant to the Chief Clerk in the Stores Department of the company. That means he issues goods against indents and keeps the books on quantities. He’s just the guy to have the information you need – or to be in a position to get it. There’s no money involved because he never handles it; all that is done by the main office. That’s a pity in a way because we lose a chance of really hooking him.’

      ‘Why don’t we just bribe him?’ asked Tozier.

      ‘Because the guy’s honest, that’s why – or a reasonable facsimile. Suppose we tried to bribe him and it didn’t take? He’d report to his bosses and the information would be whisked out of that office so fast that we wouldn’t get another chance at it. And they might tell the police and then we’d be in trouble.’

      ‘They might not tell the police,’ said Warren. ‘We don’t know how much this firm is involved with Speering, but it’s my guess that it’s in on the whole thing. It must be. Any firm issuing certain chemicals and equipment has a damned good idea of what they’ll be used for. It’s my guess that this crowd is in it up to its collective neck.’

      ‘What thing?’ asked Follet alertly.

      ‘Never mind, Johnny; carry on with what you were saying.’

      Follet shrugged. ‘This guy – Javid Raqi – is a bright boy. He speaks English well, he’s had a good education and he’s ambitious. I guess that chief clerk won’t last long with friend Javid on his heels. He has only one flaw – he’s a gambler.’

      Tozier smiled. ‘Your flaw, Johnny?’

      ‘Not mine,’ said Follet promptly. ‘He’s a sucker gambler. Now, that doesn’t mean he’s a fool. He’s learned to play poker – the guys working on the gas line taught him – and he’s a good player. I know because he’s gotten some of my dough right now, and I didn’t have to let him win it, either – he gouged it out of me like a pro. But it means he can be got at – he can be had; and once he’s been got at then we squeeze him goddam hard.’

      Warren wrinkled his nose distastefully. ‘I wish there were some other way of doing this.’

      ‘Never give a sucker an even break,’ said Follet, and turned to Tozier. ‘The whole scheme hinges on that videotape gadget. How well does it work?’

      ‘I have it set up in my room; it works very well.’

      ‘That I have to see for myself,’ said Follet. ‘Let’s all go up there.’

      They all went up to Tozier’s room and Tozier switched on the TV and pointed to the videotape machine. ‘There it is. It’s already connected to the TV set.’

      The machine looked very much like an ordinary tape recorder, although bulkier than most. The tape, however, was an inch wide and the reels were oversized. Follet bent down and examined it interestedly. ‘I’d like to get this just right; this gadget will take in everything – sight and sound both?’

      ‘That’s it,’ said Tozier.

      ‘How’s the quality?’

      ‘If you use the video-camera there’s a bit of blurring, particularly on movement, but if you take a taping of a TV programme then the reproduction is indistinguishable from the original.’ He looked at the TV screen. ‘I’ll show you now.’

      A man was speaking and his voice was heard as