"Kevin O'Donnel Jr. - The Hand is Quicker" - читать интересную книгу автора (O'Donnell Jr Kevin)

"Yes, sir?"
"Harry, what was the matter with those dice?"
"Nothing, sir."
The big man's expression became considerably less serene as he leaned forward slightly in his chair.
"What do you mean, 'nothing'?"
"What I said, sir. There is nothing wrong with the dice. They are the casino's own issue, and they
have not been tampered with. We have been rolling them ever since you picked them up, and we are
getting only the standard, expected series."
"Harry, there's gotta be something wrong with 'em." I smiled discreetly at the note of frustration in
his voice.
"Sir, we just reached the 360th roll. Everything seems normal. The dice are fine." The flunky's voice
was cool, tinged with a noticeable streak of triumph.
"All right. Thanks anyway." He lifted his finger from the button it had been depressing, and raised his
face to me. His expression was still polite, but the cold glitter deep within his eyes warned me to press
my advantage no further.
"Mr. Jones," he said at length, "our technical department says you were using honest dice. Their
implicit conclusion was that you won honestly. Mr. Jones, I do notтАФI cannotтАФagree with that
conclusion. I've been shooting craps, and running crap games, since I started grade school, and I can
recognize a cheater when I see one in action." He put both hands flat on the desktop and bent forward
some more, as if daring me to deny his accusation. I thought I might as well give it a try.
"But if the diceтАФ"
"Damn it!" he exploded. "I don't give a damn about the dice. So they're honestтАФthen you have some
kind of illegal throw or something. But you shouldn't have been able to win that much money the way you
won it. I don't like it, Jones, I don't like it at all!" He paused to rein in his temper, and then stood up. "Mr.
Jones, I'm going to have to ask you to leave this casino. I don't know how you're cheating, but you are,
and we can't afford to have your kind around here. SoтАФpick up what you've won at the cashier's
window, then get out."
I had slipped out of the easy chair and turned for the door when he spoke again. "Mr. Jones."
I looked over my shoulder at him. "Yes?"
"I'm calling the other casino managers to warn them about youтАФyou'll never be allowed in any casino
here in Vegas again, not if I have anything to say about it."
"Thanks loads," I grunted, and made my way to the money office.
I cursed myself thoroughly as I walked through the crowded casino. Here I'd had the perfect life
within reachтАФall play for pay and no work at allтАФand because I'd wanted to get it a little quicker than I
knew was safe I'd gotten caught. And now the good life was being taken away from me. Idiot! All that
talent and no place to use it. Fool!
As I recall, my talentтАФmy telekinetic abilityтАФstarted to show itself shortly after I hit puberty. What a
mess that made of me. It's bad enough to go through the normal miseries of acne and voice change and
unfulfillable sex drive, but to have something like this that I had to keep hidden from everyoneтАФit's lucky
I didn't suicide out around age sixteen. I guess I was a little luckier than I could have been, thoughтАФI'd
been a sci-fi reader since I was ten, and I knew that I had to keep quiet about what I could do. I shudder
every time I think what it would have been like if the Defense DepartmentтАФor worse yet, some crazy
university professorтАФhad learned about my power and had requisitioned me.
No, I'd been cagey. I'd stayed shut up in my room, trying to develop my talent as best I could. I'd
found out a lot about it too, for a kid who was teaching himself. I could use it in either of two ways: as if I
had another body that I could remote control, or as if I were within the object I was TKing. The only
limitations that I discovered were that I had to be in sight of what I was working on, and that I couldn't
do with TK what I couldn't do with my real bodyтАФI mean, I could make an ashtray seem to fly across
the room, all right, but I was only "picking it up" with my invisible body and carrying it. If I got inside that
ashtray, about all I could do would be to rock it, to tilt "my" weight first this way, then that. That's what