Land of confusion

 “Fortune’s Observer?” said Perdito slowly.  “Like, your job is to look after the money here too?”

“No,” said Pech.  He sighed.  “I was hoping they’d send someone who knew a little more about our industry, actually.  It’s sort of complicated if you don’t know anything about the magic of chance.”  His voice raised just a touch hopefully at the end, but Rafael and Sylvie both shook their heads.  “Ah, I see.  Then… the casino is licensed, obviously, and that means that there’s a duty to make sure that nothing is messing with chance or probability in here.”

“Right,” said Sylvie, nodding.  Rafael squinted at Pech.  “No,” he said. “Nothing can change the probability of an outcome, but you can change the outcomes instead.”

“No,” said Pech carefully.  “That’s the easy explanation they give you until you start studying it.  There are things that can change probabilities, and they’re all pretty dangerous.  Do either of you have a certification in Chimerics?”

Sylvie and Rafael exchanged glances and Rafael whispered, moving his lips as little as possible, “Is this for real?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Pech as though Rafael had spoken out loud.  “Oh dear.  Have either of you heard of the Sendyon’s Scorpion?  No?  Well, this is a creature that can change probabilities.  They’re not common in this country as they like heat and aridity, but people keep importing them to try and cheat in casinos and at poker tables and they’re a vile pest to exterminate when they get loose.  Mostly because they change the chance of you catching them when they know you’re hunting for them.  What should be a certainty becomes a fraught situation where the scorpion has all the advantages you should have and you have the disadvantages it should have.”

“Ok,” said Rafael.  Sylvie nodded thoughtfully.  “I’ve heard of that,” she said.  “There was one captured in Oldham last week, I think.”

Pech smiled, showing his coffee stained teeth again.  “Yes,” he said.  There was an unspoken ‘well done’ behind his words that Sylvie and Rafael picked up on anyway.  Pech yawned.

“Anyway,” he said, covering his mouth with his hand too late.  “Fortune’s Observer is a legally mandated role that the casino must fill, and it must ensure that there’s nothing affecting probability or chance within a 50m radius of the external walls of the casino itself.  That’s my main job.”

“Which you’re not doing if no-one’s winning, right?”

Sylvie punched Rafael’s shoulder; it wasn’t a hard punch but it wasn’t playful either.

“There are better ways to phrase it than that,” she said. “Just because you didn’t like the security guards doesn’t mean you have to take it out on the rest of us.”

“It’s fine,” said Pech, holding up a hand.  Rafael noticed that his fingers were webbed.

“The guard was a jerk,” said Rafael.  “Not the one who spoke to us.” Sylvie’s hackles subsided and she looked curious.  “The other one, the silent one. He was up to something.”

“It’s fine,” said Pech again, sounding slightly puzzled.

“Maybe,” said Sylvie, ignoring him.  “But do we even have a crime here yet?  There’s nothing to actually accuse him of, you know.”

“Up to what?” asked Pech, realising that he wasn’t getting any attention.

“Wish I knew,” said Rafael.  “He makes my palms itch though, so he’s definitely up to something.”

“Can you question him?”

Now Sylvie looked surprised.  “I guess?” she said.  “I mean, it would help to have a reason but… I suppose we could just ‘talk to everyone’.  Why?”

“We’ve got a room,” said Pech.  “There’s an observation room that looks into it.  The security team use it when we need to talk to someone we’ve caught cheating.  I can watch you talk to him and see if he’s connected with the problems we’re having.  I mean, I’ve been looking for answers all day now and not found any so I’m going to take any help I can get.”

Rafael shrugged and looked over at Sylvie.  “If it’ll help,” he said.  “I mean, I really don’t know why we’re here or what we can go.  It seems like we don’t even really know much about this place either.  It’s just a land of confusion.”

“Can we do this now?” asked Pech.  He yawned again.  “Only it really has been a very long day for me so far.”

“Sure,” said Sylvie.  “Let’s go look at this room and then we’ll find the guard.  Oh, by the way, what’s the thing you have in entrance?”

“Thing?”  Pech opened the door to his office and ushered them out.

“Yeah, the five kilothaum presence.”