The first meetings of the blackjack saboteurs, before Mary Ann’s recruitment, had been a complete failure. The Committee had wasted weeks on a wild goose chase involving gift-shop decks like the one Gabrielle had cracked open for Erica’s lecture. A bold plan. The two rounded corners on each card were all that distinguished recycled decks from the otherwise-identical real deal in play at the tables, thus preventing gift-shop customers from getting funny ideas. Without the canceling corners, cards could be furtively reintroduced in play by any close-up magic enthusiast to get a substantial—and very illegal—advantage over the house. So the committee had debated the possibility of acquiring noncanceled decks from collaborationist inmates at High Desert State (Nevada Department of Corrections, Clark County), the unwilling labor force in charge of the actual rounding out of the used cards for mass souvenir-market introduction. While, as it turned out, there was no shortage of SU members with close (sometimes very close) personal ties with more or less every prison in the state, the idea was voted against by the Board of Directors of Strike Modalities (the Board, for short) and officially ruled “dumb as fuck.” A bit too bold. Chances of saboteurs ending up themselves shaving aces of diamonds at High Desert State projected in the high 90s. The committee had gone back to work, looking for something more subtle.