Looking back at her I offered a reassuring smile as I rephrased my original question. “Well would you like to accompany your man of mystery to the bar for another martini?” As I spoke I stood and extended my arm to her.
She gracefully accepted my proffered arm, using it to assist herself to rise. Once she was on her feet she enveloped my arm within her own and smiled her assent as she whispered “I’d be delighted to join you for another martini.” Arm in arm we made our way to Simon to place our order.
After receiving our drinks we returned to our table to enjoy them, mine once again scrubbed clean of any intoxicants. We sat there watching Dempsey’s men work to clear the room. They did it with amazing quickness and efficiency, removing the remaining tables and all but ten of the chairs, including the two we were currently using. As we sipped at our drinks I kept noticing that Bella was surprised by the furniture’s removal. Was this another piece of the puzzle? “Is there anything wrong with the tables being removed?”
“No,” she began with a shake of her head. “My uncle is a very organized man. He is a poster child for the saying, ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ But as much as he tries to vary himself he is a person of habit. So I was just trying to reason out why he had all of the tables removed when he has never done so in the past.”
“Maybe he has something special in mind for the final table.” I offered in an attempt to relax her already jumpy mind.
Even as she started to nod her head in assent, I could tell that while she wasn’t satisfied with the explanation, she was willing to accept it all the same. She glanced over at me and replied, “That’s got to be it.”
I didn’t want to admit that personally, I was very unsatisfied with my explanation. She, however, was eager to forget her worries and content to let herself believe in the rationale of my suggestions, which was probably for the best as she was already rather on edge. I wish I had been able to follow her lead but I was unable to keep a million different thoughts from running through my mind. The more I had been able to calm her nerves, the more uneasy I had become. I couldn’t say why I was so determined to figure out what was prompting all the drastic changes in Dempsey’s typical routine. But with all the odd behavior mounting up, I was having a hard time convincing myself that nothing abnormal was going on. And I had a sinking suspicion that I was at the center of it all.
As the break wore on my body started losing its fight with exhaustion. Why was Dempsey normally so opposed to a break? He had to know how a break would affect the players. If it hadn’t been so haphazard I would have congratulated Dempsey on his tactics, rather than question them. As the adrenaline in my system began to wane my exhaustion grew by leaps and bounds. I quickly made another dose of adrenaline and took it as quickly and discretely as I could. I had to keep myself going; the end was almost within my grasp. Fortunately, just as I hit my biological snooze button I noticed some of Dempsey’s goons carrying in the final table.
Looking carefully at the table both Bella and I were unable to notice anything that distinguished it from the ones that had been removed. Nothing looked different. This new table could very well have been any one of the three that had already been taken out, almost an hour ago, when the break first began. However, I had a bad feeling that this unscheduled break was the result of Dempsey’s desire to have this specific table house the ten final players.
Once the table and our chips were positioned Dempsey again strolled into the center of the arena. This time he didn’t need to silence anyone. “Ladies and gentlemen we have our battleground, please allow me to introduce the combatants.”
With a flourish of his hand he listed off the ten who had made it through the night. One by one we collected our chips from the men standing to one side of the table and took our seats. Fortunately, I wasn’t introduced last so I was able to claim the empty chair next to Bella. At least I knew I would have some pleasant conversation between hands. When I sat down I took a moment to study the table for anything unusual. I was convinced that there had to be something special about it. Why else would Dempsey break such a fine tradition of his? Despite my quick and casual search I couldn’t find anything that screamed ‘I’m different. Look at me.’ But before I could try to take a deeper look, Patrick sat down, thereby completing the table. I decided to shelve the questions for the moment and follow the same advice I had given Bella. It was time to ignore the differences and focus on how I was going to win this tournament.
Chapter 11