The Wrong Bettor: Crain Dalton, #2

By Richard Stooker

Dr. Pennell just wants his son back home. But Crain Dalton discovers the mob wants the boy to entertain the bigshots by playing a virtual reality game for the ultimate stakes -- his own life.

Even doctors with a trunk of hidden cash suffer when their teenage son hangs out at the local casino and takes a hooker for a girlfriend. A nice, suburban gal who will act out your most perverted fantasies.

Can Crain find Don Pennell in time to save him?

In craps, a wrong bettor puts their money down on Don't Pass and Don't Come. Most gamblers hate wrong bettors for bringing bad luck to the table, because wrong bettors win when everybody else loses.

In the near-future, computer games evolve to total virtual reality. Players experience an altered reality, and spectators can share the game with them.

Gladiators no longer need physical, complicated arenas, stadiums, or games areas. They battle through sophisticated networks.

Winner makes a boatload of cash.

Loser dies.

While crime bosses, politicians, and the idle rich watch . . . and place their bets.

In The Wrong Bettor we see the future of the economic decay of the recession, combined with high tech advances -- not pretty.

Unavailable for over 30 years, until now, The Wrong Bettor originally appeared in the ARCHON 7 PROGRAM BOOK, July 1983.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: In Dreams Extreme Press
• Release date: Sep 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516371556

Book preview

The Wrong Bettor

Richard Stooker

Dr. Pennell just wants his son back home. But Crain Dalton discovers the mob wants the boy to entertain the bigshots by playing a virtual reality game for the ultimate stakes -- his own life. Even doctors with a trunk of hidden cash suffer when their teenage son hangs out at the local casino and takes a hooker for a girlfriend. Can Crain find Don Pennell in time to save him?

The Wrong Bettor Copyright © 1983-2012 by Richard Stooker, In Dreams Extreme Press, and Gold Egg Investing LLC.

Originally published The ARCHON 7 PROGRAM BOOK July 1983

Cover, book, and graphic design Copyright © 2012 by Richard Stooker, In Dreams Extreme Press, and Gold Egg Investing, LLC.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Published by In Dreams Extreme Press

http://www.InDreamsExtreme.com/

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between characters in this story and real-life people, alive or dead, is strictly coincidental.

The Wrong Bettor

The Central City Shopping Center in North St. Louis County took its name from the Central Hardware Store that originally occupied part of its space. The Central Hardware company was discarded from play during one of the great corporate shuffles many years ago and never picked up. The international super conglomerate card game continued on Wall Street, and new businesses moved into Central City.

I parked by a boarded-up storefront smeared with obscene graffiti. I went to an unmarked door, rang the buzzer and looked up at the tiny lens of the concealed closed-circuit TV. I want some action, I said.

The door swung open. A hard