"Dat's raht!" said the second. "Dat casino owes you money! Tinkin' 'bout it, every casino in town owes you money. But de Grand! De tables over dere are rigged! I'm tellin' ya! Gotta be! No one loses dat much. It ain't maddymatically plausible."
"I tink it's 'bout time I got my money back," the first one said like he was explaining the obvious. "An' if dey ain't fort-comin' to a good customah, like yours trooley 'ere, we'll jus' rip de place apart, how's dat?"
The others cheered, slamming claws together.
"Okay okay listen!" said Zana quickly. "How about holding off a bit before you go in and rearrange any furniture. Like say, for eight weeks?"
The Ughurzoid laughed a little, then stopped.
"Why would we wanna do dat?" he snarled to her face.
"Well, for the simple reason that an operation that size takes serious planning, right? I mean, you need blueprints, floor plans, a carefully worked-out schedule, a couple of destruction tests in a mock-up casino somewhere really far out in the desert. These things take time. You'll want to synchronize your watches. And pack some lunchboxes. A thermos of hot drink of your choice. We're off season, don't forget."
"Perhaps I don' wanna wait!" he shouted, eyeball to eyeball. Zana leaned back, carefully puffing out through her nose, avoiding to highlight any opinion about his insectoid breath. With a cold calculating chuckle he added, "Besides, I kinda like de advantage of surprise, know wha' I mean? Takin' it as it comes."
"But you lost it as it went," Rivqua said. "Have you forgotten? So you might want to consider the advantage of interest."
"Huh?"
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