Free Tampa Star (Blackfox Chronicles Book 1) by T.S. O'Neil Page A

thirty five dollars an ounce right now and that means that they have about 28,571 coins give or take and they weigh a grand total of 1812 pounds.”
    “ You’ve really done your homework!” Exclaimed Tommy as he disappeared into the small bedroom and returned with a rolled up document which he spread out on the linoleum kitchen table.
    “But so did I,” he continued.  “This is a floor plan of the casino floor on the ship. The bastard himself showed it to me while giving me a tour.”
    “How the hell did you manage that?”
    “It was easy, Cuz, the old Aussie bought a yacht with a Mack ENDM 405 engine—probably one of the most obscure and temperamental engines around—built in the early 40s. I think they
    made about 20 of them all told. Nobody on his staff could tune it.  He called and talked to the old man yesterday and he sent me over there. The next thing you know, I had that engine purring like a Bengal Tiger after eating a local peasant. See, one of the boats at the shipyard where I worked in Louisiana had the same type engine.  You could say I cut my teeth on it. The Aussie was so grateful he gave me the grand tour of his soon to be launched floating casino and I swiped the old marked up floor plan from a trashcan and stuffed it down my pant leg.”
    Char laughed and Tommy continued detailing his tour of the Star. “The bastard was so happy to get the engine on his yacht running, he was hard to shut up.  He told me the plan is to take all his investors and some other high rollers out on a trial run, feed them a high priced dinner, let them gamble a little on the cuff,  drink some high end booze, and try to wrench a few more thousand dollars out of them.”
    Tommy smiled impishly, but here is the best part, he continued, he is definitely going to display a million dollars in gold double eagles on the top of a slot machine in the center of the casino to lure in gamblers hoping for a whack at it!” 
    “Yeah, but how do you know the gold will be there for the trial run?” asked Char.
    “He told me that showing off the gold to his investors and to the high rollers was the key to a successful launch and that if they saw that he had that much just on show , he could easily convince them to kick in a few more thousand dollars!”
    Tommy pointed out the various areas on the floor plan—the card tables for Blackjack the private room for poker, the roulette wheels, and where the one armed bandits would be located.
    “But the real area of our interest is where they will hold the gold and that is right here,” he said, pointing to an area that seemed to be the focal point of the room— a raised area located in the center of the casino, so it would be visible from everywhere. “It will sit on a large one armed bandit that customers can play for a silver dollar.” 
    “So, they play with silver to win gold?”
    “Hey, don’t ask me, I didn’t design the payoff scheme, I think he just wants it there as a lure.  I wouldn’t be surprised that he set the odds so that the machine never pays off,” replied Tommy. He then brought out acetate covered nautical chart of the Florida Gulf Coast and spread it on the dining table. Tommy took a grease pencil and drew the probable course of the ship from Tampa Bay under the steel cantilever Sunshine Skyway Bridge, out through the straits and presumably, into deep water in the center of the Gulf.
    The two lane bridge was built in the early fifties, replacing a ferry from Point Pinellas to Piney Point. Loads of people had died jumping from that bridge since it was completed. Tommy figured that this was one of the worst ways to go as you had a few seconds to rethink that decision on the way down and from a height of over 150 feet; they must have hit like bags of sausages landing on concrete. He figured if this venture went wrong, he would choose another method to end his life rather than go back to prison.
    Tommy used the grease pencil to circle several inlets and bays