Poker

He'd been on the right track when he'd first thought bridge but poker was quicker, less likely to be populated by early adopters of bio-DNA, and a sport that combined statistics and reading his opponents.

He asked Siri to turn up any big money poker tournaments anywhere within a couple of hundred miles of Dallas and she reported that a major tournament was scheduled that weekend in an Oklahoma Indian casino.

Rick hadn't played poker since college and even then it had been five card draw... often for clothes rather than for money. Time to bone up on the strategy and statistics of modern Texas Hold'em.

He downloaded an eBook from Amazon and set himself to studying. Not unexpectedly, the impound lot was in no hurry to deliver his car. They made up excuses, charged him a ridiculous amount of money, and then claimed they were shutting down and he'd have to come back the following day. With, of course, an additional five hundred dollar fee for the additional day in impound.

Considering that his car was also his home and he needed every penny for the buy-in at the poker tournament, that wasn't acceptable. "I'm sitting here until I get my car," Rick said. "If you want to go home, that's on you but I assure you I'll be going through the lot and finding my car if there's nobody else here. I suggest it'll be easier if you give me my car and we can all go home."

They groaned, mansplained, threatened to call the cops, and basically tried every unethical trick invented to get their extra day's impound fee but Rick crossed his arms and reviewed poker odds.

An hour after the posted closing time, a minimum wage worker pulled up. "Damn, brother. Your car stinks like shit."

It did, too. Thanks to Dallas's summer heat, the blood and sweat and whatever else bio-DNA had expressed from his pores had turned into something even grosser. Still, it was his car. Even better, the remaining bio-DNA pills were still under the front seat where he'd put them. If the cops had found them, he would still be in jail either on some trumped-up drug charge if they couldn't figure out what they were or for stealing if bio-DNA corporate got involved.