The Last Card and the Real Heist
Action!
But Leo’s final card was...
The last card Leo turned over was the queen of spades, and that meant Leo, too, had completed a queen straight flush. James’s hand had been beaten by rank.
This is my chance...
Even knowing full well that he was about to lose, James threw out a huge bet.
“Raise five hundred thousand.”
“...All in.”
Leo went all in, and without missing a breath James called.
“Call!”
Then he flipped over his own hand and said, “Ten-high straight flush. Ha! I got lucky.”
“Sorry about that. This side has...”
Leo turned his cards over one by one.
“A queen of spades.”
The queen of spades led the way, followed by the jack, ten, nine, and eight of spades, lined up in perfect order.
“Ah... no way...”
James let out a long, disappointed sigh, while Tony glanced at the chips James still had left and said, “You might as well get up now.”
“...No. It’s not over yet.”
Leo’s all-in had blown away a million dollars in chips, but James still had nearly eight hundred thousand dollars’ worth in his hands.
“When you’re young, you never know when to stop. That’s when you ought to listen to your elders.”
“Haha. You’re giving me courage.”
Despite Tony’s concern, James kept the game going with a brazen grin.
“......”
But it did not take long for James to end up flat broke. One loss after another, first to Leo, then to Rene and Felix in turn, had stripped him bare.
“Would you like to rebuy?”
“...No. I don’t have the funds anymore.”
James couldn’t quite tear himself away, still aching over the loss, but the dealer kept looking at him. If he had no chips left, it was time to stand up and leave. The silent pressure was unmistakable.
“Haa... damn it. I had bad luck.”
It was not luck, but a rigged result. Still, James kept looking back over his shoulder several times with a face full of regret before finally heading outside.
“......”
Kent, who had been watching everything from the security room through the cameras, was waiting to greet James.
“Leaving already?”
“...Seems like tonight just wasn’t my night. I may have gotten too greedy calling this a VIP room. I lost my head over the size of the chips.”
“Oh dear...”
Kent replied in a suitably disappointed tone, but inside he was thinking something entirely different.
The plan worked. I won’t be seeing that bastard in this casino again.
Watching him play tonight, it hadn’t looked as though he’d cheated up to now, but eliminating the variable was satisfying enough.
“Mr. James. We’ll see you at your next performance, I trust?”
He thought that, since James had lost all his money, he would return to his magic show.
“...No. I’m done with performances. I’m going to forget all this and go traveling for a while.”
“Ah, the audience will be waiting for James’s show.”
“There are plenty of card magicians besides me. Especially in Las Vegas, isn’t there no shortage of talented people?”
“That is true.”
After exchanging farewells with Kent, James’s steps through the casino corridor were heavy.
“Haa. To lose everything...”
His deep sigh continued, but his face was far more alive than before.
If I’ve lost everything, then maybe it’s time to take everything.
The mana stretching from James’s hand swept over the surroundings like a precise radar, searching for its designated target.
Mana trace confirmed.
The poker game up to this point had been nothing more than amusement to James, and also a cover for what he was doing now.
Location fixed. Connect. Mana converge.
Every time James came to a casino, he exchanged cash for chips and planted his mana in the money. It had all been preparation for today.
Open the response gate.
Mana rippled through the trailer he had prepared fifty miles away.
Illusion deployed. ...Teleportation action!
Fwoosh!
At that instant, the cash in the casino’s secret vault, waiting to be deposited in the bank, vanished without a trace. The money that had disappeared from the casino vault was pouring into James’s trailer in a roaring cascade. At a glance, it was far more than five million dollars.
Winning money at a casino through poker is insane.
James knew all too well that making money gambling in a casino was nearly impossible. Worse, he was already known as a card magician with telekinetic powers, so if he won money, suspicion was unavoidable.
A card magician making money at a card game? Not a chance.
The casino dealers were always watching his cards with suspicious eyes. There was no way they could miss it.
But this is something no one can predict.
Aside from Colt, no one knew that James had the ability to take money with long-range magic. That was why even Colt, who had no important mission today, had needed to be included in the plan.
Step.
James had stripped the casino bare, and yet he still walked out looking dejected. His whole act was being captured by the casino surveillance cameras.
“Yawn.”
He strolled down the street with a tired-looking yawn.
The next target is...
There was no need to run the same poker game again in order to rob another casino. He had already built a sufficient alibi. That did not mean he intended to stop with just one target.
Where are you?
Once again, James’s palm swept mana across the area like a radar.
Found you. The trace of my mana.
Thanks to the casinos clustered tightly together in Las Vegas, James found his next target without having to walk far. They were the same casinos he had toured with Colt over the past few days. His exchanged cash was there, too.
Mana trace confirmed. Location fixed. Connect. Mana converge. Open the response gate.
Once he found the mana, the next step was obvious.
Illusion deployed. Teleportation action!
Then the same operation repeated.
...Action!
...Action!
...Action!
After repeating the same work at five casinos, James staggered for a moment and caught himself against the wall.
Thud.
...Damn it. Too much mana used... I’m running dry.
“Huff. Phew.”
He had even set up a magic circle to make teleportation easier, but no matter how you looked at it, this was still high-grade magic, and the mana consumption was no joke.
More than mana, my mental stamina... ngh.
Mana could somehow be replenished, but the mental strain used to execute magic was not something that could be easily recovered.
The last one...
The final casino in the plan still remained, but he did not think he could execute one more teleport.
...No, impossible. If I pass out on the street, the whole plan falls apart. Forget it.
After a moment to steady his breathing, James headed for the place he had promised Colt. Thanks to James’s lack of mental stamina, one casino had escaped disaster.
* * *
Creaaak.
James struggled open the restaurant door and found Colt sitting inside, tapping one leg anxiously.
“Colt.”
“Whoa, you made it!”
“Order something. I’m starving.”
“...So how did it go?”
James said with a worn-out face, “...I lost everything. All of it. Everything I had.”
“What?”
That was exactly what Colt had feared when he saw how drained James looked.
“I’m just glad you didn’t play with me. They were all good. The VIP room is a stage for pros. A beginner like me never stood a chance.”
“......”
Colt felt the world go dark at the sight of James’s failure, something that had seemed impossible for him.
“D-damn it...”
“Just order me a strong coffee first. I feel dizzy.”
“...Can you even put coffee in your mouth right now?”
Colt, who had been imagining a happy future with the huge sum they’d make today, was more than a little crushed.
“Then should I just starve?”
“Haa.”
Colt shook his head but still brought coffee for James, who had lost every cent he owned.
“Colt.”
“What.”
“I’ll pay back the hundred thousand dollars I borrowed from you soon.”
“...Forget the hundred thousand for now. We need to get your magic show booked again first.”
Since today had failed, he assumed the only thing left was the same old routine. But at those words, James, still limp with exhaustion, let out a faint laugh.
“Pfft.”
“You lose everything and you’re still laughing?”
“You really are someone I can trust, Colt. That’s exactly why I like you.”
“You like me because I told you to pay me back later? I’m starting to feel sick just thinking about hosting again at the show.”
Performing had once been something he couldn’t do because there was no opportunity, but now that he had resolved to escape it, the thought of going back made him want to retch.
“Don’t book the show. Let’s just take the trailer we bought and travel.”
“...What?”
Traveling was the kind of plan you made after a job succeeded.
“With no money, how are we supposed to travel? You’re not leaving here. Travel is over.”
“......”
With half-lidded eyes, James looked around and said in a low voice, “...We lost the poker game, but the real plan worked.”
“!”
Colt’s startled voice stumbled over itself.
“W-what in the world were you planning that...”
“Shh. Stop talking nonsense and order some food already. I need to eat and then sleep for a bit. I’m completely wiped out.”
“Ah, got it.”
“Colt. You said I could call you whatever I wanted now, right? It worked out, didn’t it?”
“Col...”
After eating what Colt brought him, James got into the car and collapsed the moment his head hit the seat.
“Hup. Phew.”
“Just what kind of plan did you hide from me, too?”
Vrooom.
Colt’s car drove out of downtown Las Vegas and, as planned, headed for the place where they had hidden the trailer.
* * *
James opened his eyes in the car.
“Yawn.”
“Finally awake?”
The place they had reached while James slept was the valley where they had hidden the trailer.
“What. You stayed beside me the whole time? The trailer?”
He was checking whether Colt had gone into the trailer.
“You told me not to go over there.”
“Whoa. Trustworthy Colt, as expected.”
Because of that, James got the chance to shock him.
Colt’s probably going to lose his mind.
“Since it doesn’t matter anymore, let’s go to the trailer together.”
James opened the car door and stepped outside, and Colt followed after him shouting, “Hey! You have to tell me what your real plan was!”
“You’ll see.”
James swung open the unlocked trailer door, but he could not step inside.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
That was because bundles of bills spilled out the moment he opened it.
“Ghk!”
“Huh. Did I set the gate too close to the door?”
It was the result of five consecutive teleports piling the cash all the way up to the trailer entrance.
“A-all of this...”
“That’s right. The result of our plan, and the fruit of its success.”
“C-can I scream?”
“As much as you want.”
At James’s permission, Colt clenched both fists and shouted, “I’m rich!!”
“Hahaha.”
James laughed with him, savoring the moment of Colt’s joy.
After laughing and jumping around for a while, Colt looked at the wall of cash blocking the trailer entrance and asked, “Wow. Just how much is all this?”
“I don’t know either. I only brought what fit the range.”
He had checked it through mana, but he could not predict the exact amount. Still, he had known the day the cash would be transported from the casino.
The bank transport was tomorrow. Before that, it’s only natural for the vault to be full.
That was why James had set the operation for today. He had not intended to do all this just to get a few million dollars.
James picked up one bundle of bills from the floor and tossed it inside.
Thump.
But he had thrown it too close, and the bundle rolled right back out of the trailer.
“Get it inside quickly. We need to sort it out in here. It’ll be a disaster if someone sees this.”
Even though there was no one around, they still had to be careful.
“Call!”
Colt hurriedly started tossing the bundles inside, and James stood there with his arms folded, waiting.
“Ah!”
Colt suddenly stopped what he was doing and turned to James, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Hey. If you do it, it’ll be done in no time, right?”
He had realized James’s magic could put all the bills inside without using his hands. It was the kind of magic he usually used without being asked.
“...I’m completely drained. I used it to move these from the casino all the way here.”
“So that’s why you looked wiped out?”
“Yeah. So today, Colt, I need you to do the heavy lifting. Sorry.”
“If that’s the reason, then I guess it can’t be helped.”
Once Colt had cleared the entrance a little, James picked up a single hundred-dollar bill that had fallen to the ground.
“Good work, Colt. This is your tip.”
“Tch. Isn’t that tip a little too small?”
“I’m not really the sort who wastes money.”
James said that as he stepped over the bundles and into the trailer.
“Hurry up and come in. Close the door.”
“Call, call!”
The result from inside looked different from the view outside.
“Whoa. There’s really a lot.”
“Did we get too greedy?”
“Greedy? What are you talking about! It’s perfect.”
That was the same man who had just said there was a lot.
“Heh. Let’s start stacking it properly.”
This time James pitched in with one arm too. He picked out the bundled bills and passed them back, while Colt took them and stacked them neatly.
Even as Colt sweated buckets, the smile never left his face.
“Hehehe.”
“Heh.”
Just seeing Colt happy made James feel as though today’s ordeal had been repaid.
Colt did look after me all this time.
He had argued against the claim that Colt had raised him, but in emotional matters James had leaned on Colt a great deal. The reason he had managed to keep going after Andrew died and he lost his purpose was also thanks to Colt.
After his parents died, James had never given his heart to anyone, but Colt was, as he had said, someone he could trust.
Though from a woman’s point of view, he’s definitely not someone you should trust...
Still, because of Colt, James had been able to live by forgetting the wounds that had stayed lodged in his chest.
Seeing Colt so happy at the sight of money made James feel as though he had paid back a little of that debt.
Live easy, Colt.
---