The Greatest Enigma

18. Return

The plane back to England seemed to take longer than the one to Africa. It was probably because Wolfsbane had nothing to do. Roulette and Cypher were playing Rummy. They had kindly asked her if she wanted to join in but she told them she wanted to catch up on her sleep. That was a lie. She didn't know how to play.

E was sitting on his own on the laptop. She wandered over to him.

"You allowed to do that?" she asked quietly.

E looked up surprised.

"Do what?" he asked innocently.

"Google at 40,000 feet"

He smiled, "I'm a Yahoo man myself"

She grinned back. "Just when I thought we could be friends..."

He laughed and his attention turned once again to the computer screen.

"I'm just looking at a headquarters"

"Cool", she nodded. Then she frowned and pointed to another tab. "The lottery? Thinking of trying your luck?"

"Not me", he answered and then called over his shoulder, "Roulette, it's a triple rollover".

"Ok. I'll get one as soon as we land" he called back.

"You know the odds of winning are like, a million to one?" Wolfsbane asked him.

"Actually the odds are 1 in 13,983,816" E informed her.

"You're really going to waste your money on that?" she asked Roulette.

"No...I'm going to spend £1 on £17.8million" he explained.

"But how can you be so sure you're going to win?"

"It's the luck of the balls" he told her.

"That makes no sense". Wolfsbane retorted.

"Wolfsbane, Roulette wasn't recruited just to give Cypher something to do in his breaks" E said.

"Really?" Cypher called. E ignored him.

"I believe he has a gift" E continued.

"Gift? Like my wolf-thing?"

"I reckon that's more of a curse really. Mine is much better" Roulette cried.

Wolfsbane glared at him until he covered his face with his cards.

"What kind of gift?" she asked E.

"Luck"

"Luck? Luck isn't a gift. It a random chance" she told him.

"Think of a number between 1 and 1.000,000.000.000."

"Darn my lucky number's 1.000.000.000.001"

"Fine pick any number"

"Ok"

"Don't say it aloud and watch" E nodded to Roulette, who immidiately lay his cards face down mimed to Cypher that he was watching him and picked up a dart. Wolfsbane barely registered the movement of his hand as the dart flew into the dart board on the opposite side of the plane. Cypher, Roulette, E and Wolfsbane all crowded around the board. The dart had landed on the six.

"What was your number?" E asked her.

"Six" she replied.

E smiled and waved Roulette away.

"But that was just luck!" Wolfbane cried.

"Exactly my point" E told her.

"But what if I'd picked a mumber that wasn't on the dart board?" she aksed him.

"Well, that would have been unlucky..."