The Results of the Eighth Race
“The rail starter did not win. Repeat. The number-one dog did not win. Nor did number two. Repeat. Nor did the number two.â€
Laurie Silverberg took his eyes off the receiver for just a moment to be sure the tape-recorder was working. There were two people taking notes as well, but experience had made him pessimistic.
“Number-three hound finished behind the number two, but not in order. Repeat. The number-three….â€
Laurie leaned back in his chair and allowed himself to relax. Everything was in working order. Reception was clear. It should be – the satellite was almost directly overhead. The radio was working, the tape-recorder was working and the notes, he knew, would be accurate.
“Should be a breeze this time,†he said to no one in particular, but almost loud enough to distract his wife’s attention to the next burst of transmission.
“The five dog ran…--ng r—“
The garbled sounds brought Laurie to his feet immediately. On repeat, the sound was no better.
“…dog…strong….â€
“Not again!†Laurie grabbed the dial to change frequencies.
“Wait!†His wife, Sue, put her hand quickly but gently over his. She was one of the note-takers and as familiar with the reception problems at Neewakik Station as anyone. “It’s a blip, I’m sure of it!â€
The next two seconds were long ones, but it turned out she was right. The interruption was only temporary. When the next sentence came booming from the receiver, it did so with total clarity.
“The four dog was not last and did not finish just before or after the one. Repeat….â€
Laurie’s look of chagrin and gratitude moved from Sue to Rick Parker, but neither of them noticed. It was Rick’s radio in the Department of Northern Affairs office that they were using. He and Sue had their attention fully turned to it.
“The number-two dog closed in the stretch but did not finish next to the number four.â€
By the time the repeat concluded, Laurie had relaxed again. The rest of the results for the eighth race were obviously going to come in smoothly. He walked over to the coffee-maker in the corner to put some distance between himself and the action. Although he was the mastermind of the network, the things he needed to make it work – the radio, the satellite, the postal system – these were the traitors. Somehow he always felt they worked better, the farther he kept himself from them.
The “network†was a product of Laurie’s inventive mind, and a bit of serendipity. The result was legal – or at least not necessarily illegal – off-track betting.
Because of the radio communication these high-flying Anik satellites made possible, the little weather stations and church missions and oil exploration camps of the far north had become a kind of single community in which none of the inhabitants had ever met face to face. Except Laurie. He was a doctor and health officer for an area about the size of France and Germany combined. He traveled throughout the area by plane, boat, and snowmobile, and in his spare time monitored the network.
It worked simply. From the South – anything below the 60th parallel was “the South†– every Sunday between 0700 and 1000 GMT, a former patient of Laurie’s who was a racetrack fan and an air-traffic controller – in that order – broadcast the results of the second, fifth and eighth races run the previous day at the dog track near his Florida apartment. As well, he gave the entries for the next week.
With the aid of Rick Parker’s radio – not to mention his considerable math and computer skills – the participants in Laurie’s network generated their own odds and their own betting pool. Within an hour after the results came in, the bettors would hear their results in turn, in a general transmission from the Neewakik Station. Winners got their money in the mail.
What kept the authorities at bay was Laurie’s rigorous insistence that any profits in the pool go to health care, and the unique method of transmitting the results from Florida. To broadcast, in the clear, which dogs came first, second or third would have been of questionable legality. Hence, the enigmatic messages that were now so fully occupying everyone’s attention at Neewakik Station.
A sputter from the coffee-maker startled Laurie for a second, but did not distract him from the final transmission, which was:
“The rail starter did not finish last.â€
In the brief silence that took over, everyone stretched. Sue Silverberg gathered her notes and began to stick each one onto the bulletin board above her.
“We got it all,†she said, “except for the blip in the eighth race.â€
Laurie peered at the notes. “Do you think we can raise Florida for a repeat?†he asked Rick Parker.
“Not necessary, I’d say,†Sue put in before Rick could answer. “I think we’ve got enough.â€
Sue believes she can determine the results of the eighth race, despite the missing piece. Is this overconfidence or is it possible?
