Read Online Witch World by Christopher Pike - Free Book Online Page A

scan everyone in the world without their knowledge?”
    “They act like they do. But in the developing world, it’s hard. Too many people and not enough roads to reach them all. But West World might go for it.”
    “That seems to scare you.”
    “A lot of things about this technology scare me.”
    “Russ, if you don’t like this company, if you don’t trust them, why do you work for them?”
    He reached over and turned off the picture of my DNA. He took his time answering. “Because by working for them, I remain in a position where I might be able to stop them from abusing the scanner.”
    “Are you high up in the company?”
    He glanced out the window. “You think I’m too young, I can’t be very high up. Unless I happen to be related to the founder.”
    He had read my mind exactly. “Are you?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “Let’s just say I’m deeply involved in the firm. But I don’t want you sharing that info with your friends from school.”
    “Why tell me if you don’t want me to share it? How do you know you can trust me?”
    “Because I know they won’t give a damn who I work for. Not when they see your bag of money. All they’ll care about is how I win at twenty-two.”
    “Twenty-one.”
    “Huh?”
    “You said twenty-two. The game is twenty-one.”
    He stopped smiling and stood in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. For a moment I was sure he was going to kiss me. I had already decided I would let him. He was cute enough and I owed Jimmy nothing.
    Nothing except months of pain.
    “How would you like to learn to play twenty-two?” he asked.
    “Don’t be silly—there’s no such game.”
    “My friends and I play it all the time. It’s the same game, really, it just has a few extra rules.” He added, “It might help you understand how I win at twenty-one.”
    “You’re joking.”
    “I’m not.”
    “Aren’t you tired of playing cards?”
    He checked his watch. “It’s just after one. I have an early meeting. I have to be in bed by two. But we could play for a little while.” He added, “I’d enjoy it.”
    Once again, who was I to argue with a man who wanted to pay for my college education?
    Russ, to my surprise, had six decks of cards handy. They were new decks, still wrapped in plastic. He opened them and spread them out on the dining-room table. He shuffled them as quickly and smoothly as any dealer; he was a regular pro.
    He took twelve packets of cash from the bag. Each one contained fifty one hundred dollar bills—five grand. Looking at the money, touching it, made my heart pound. It was mine, I kept thinking, all mine.
    Unless I lost it playing twenty-two. Russ wanted to use the cash to play. He told me so in a serious tone. He kept thirty grand and gave me thirty.
    “Since there’s only two of us and you don’t know all the rules, I’ll play the part of the dealer,” he said.
    “What do you mean, all the rules? I don’t know any of the rules.”
    “I told you, they’re almost identical to blackjack. The big difference is the winning hand is twenty-two, not twenty-one. And the value of two cards is slightly different. In twenty-two, the queen of diamonds and the queen of hearts are worth eleven points rather than ten. In this game, if you get both those cards at the start, you have the equivalent of blackjack, or a natural. You immediately get paid twice your bet.”
    “Not one and a half times your bet?”
    “No. The reason is it’s a harder hand to get than twenty-one.”
    “Because all the picture cards aren’t worth eleven?”
    “Exactly. In blackjack, the best card to get at the start is an ace—that’s how you get blackjack. But in twenty-two, an ace is no longer an important card.”
    “Is an ace still worth one or eleven?”
    “An ace is only worth one point, nothing else.” Russ paused. “By the way, twenty-two isn’t called blackjack. It’s known as the red queen.”
    “Because the queen of diamonds and the queen of hearts are