Chapters 19-24

Chapters 19-21: Kevin sometimes talked to Teri Pollack on the phone, but the longer time Kevin didn't spend in Vegas, the more he realized that the only thing Teri and him had in common was Las Vegas! Kevin and his team went to a new resort/casino. The team situated themselves quickly. Jill called Kevin over to a table and after Kevin won seventeen thousand dollars, he saw Jill with her hands through her hair! A man in a suit approached him and had a word with Mr. Chow (a.k.a Kevin). Kevin was no longer permitted to play blackjack at their casino and was almost back-roomed. He ran out of the casino but caught a glimpse of a tall, man with weathered cheeks, narrow, ice-blue eyes, and silver hair. The team had two-way emergency beeper and Martinez was in his suite. He wasn't aware of what happened to Kevin and also of the loud beeping of his beeper! Three burly men busted into Martinez's suite and told him to report to the casino manager downstairs. Martinez knew the drill and what to say to the manager. Martinez was taught by Micky himself. Martinez was able to leave the casino but was never welcome there again. The team decided to try another casino. They didn't want to become dinosaurs. So, Kevin and Martinez checked into the Rio under assumed names. At midnight, Kevin was called to a hot table by Martinez. The pit boss looked up, saw Kevin, and immediately strode over to Kevin and told him that his money was no good here. The pit boss even called Kevin by the imposter name Kevin had used at the new resort/casino! The MIT blackjack team decided to go to their home turf-- a casino they'd been tearing up for more than a year. After Kevin was playing very well, a pit boss came and told Kevin that he wasn't welcome here anymore! The team played some more at the MGM Grand and Andrew Tay noticed something very weird going on. There was a cowboy with a plastic ear piece in his ear at Tay's table! Tay was chatting with a beautiful woman. Kevin found out that the woman seduced information out of Tay. When Kevin followed her, he saw her chatting with the guy with narrow blue eyes and silver hair. Kevin's heart missed a beat and he rapidly disappeared into the casino. This was not a coincidence. The MIT blackjack team had been made.

Chapters 22-24: The MIT blackjack team had a meeting and Fisher presented Martinez in a fat "suit." Martinez had transformed from a 150 pound man to a 300 pound gargantuan! Over the past few days, Fisher and Martinez had been meeting with Hollywood's top make-up artists. The team had purchased some of the highest quality disguises--prosthetics, wigs, hair coloring, skin dye--all for only a small fortune. The team played at the Pyramid's casino. Martinez entered his VIP suite upstairs and took out the hidden duffel bag filled with $400,000 in mostly cash. He took out chips from his pockets and added it to the stash. It was his job this time to keep the duffel bag. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door from the hotel security. Martinez took the duffel bag with him and hid in the bathtub of his suite. The door was kicked open and three guards yanked off the bath curtain. Martinez saw three angry faces staring down at him. "I guess this looks pretty strange," Martinez said nervously. The guards searched his duffel bag and didn't find any chips from this casino. The pit boss shouted, "You think you're fooling anyone with that idiotic mustache? You got five minutes to get out of our hotel, college boy. And tell your friends--if we ever catch any of you in here again, you're going to wish you never set foot out of Boston. We'll be back to make sure you're gone. If we find you in here, maybe we'll erase all the tape from our cameras. Maybe you weren't in the casino tonight, maybe you never came back to your room. Maybe you just f**king disappeared."

$$Connections/Thoughts$$

• I've seen a pyramid before but I never knew that pyramids could be casinos!
• Just like the MIT blackjack team, I've dressed up to try and look like a different person. Also, just like them, people could see through my disguise.