>>1785133You wave your hand over the roulette wheel. The credit chip embedded in your arm beeps. A thousand yen's just been transferred from your account to the casino's. It's that easy. You hem and haw and decide to put it all on black. It's your favourite color.
The wheel lights up, spins and spins. Holographic numbers dance in the air. You stare down Chrys across the table. The silver ball, also a hologram, clicks from red to black, red to black. Chrys smiles at you. Her lips are very thin.
The ball stops on black.
"Congratulations! Moto's not staying here at all, in fact. She's rented an apartment downtown, in the business district, near the stock exchange. I'm sending you the address and geographic coordinates. Or is that selenographic?"
That was easy. You stand up, shake Chrys' hand. As you turn to leave there's an apologetic cough from the doorway.
"Excuse me, ma'am? It seems your credit's been declined."
What's going on? The big security guard, who has one robot arm, is preventing you from leaving.
"You owe us a thousand New Yen," he says, checking the display on his wrist. "But it seems your account only has about twenty in it. Care to explain?"
This is nonsense. "I won three grand at the slot machines before," you say angrily.
"Our records show no sign of that, ma'am."
You half-turn to look at Chrys, who is clicking her tongue. "Naughty, naughty. Gambling more than you can afford to lose."
"The money was right there! It said so on the machine!"
"You shouldn't believe everything you read, dear. You'd be a terrible information broker."
"I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us, ma'am."
"Hold on, now." Chrys raises a hand. "We can work this out. Kanon, you must have something on your person worth at least a thousand yen. I'll buy it from you."
You frown. "What do you have in mind? I won't sell my client's secrets to just anyone."
"Please, darling, I know them all already. I was thinking about your clothes."
