He waited a few moments, and then said, "Here, let me show you something."
"What?"
"Come over to the table. Here." He took a handful of copper centiunit pieces from his pocket, moved her books and slide rule over, and arranged the coins in a square, four by four, only with one corner missing. Now he took a smaller, silver deciunit and put it on the table about a foot from the missing corner. "Shoot it into the gap there," he said.
She put her forefinger on the silver disk, was still, and then snapped her finger. The silver circle shot across the foot of white marble, hit the corner, and two pieces of copper bounced away from the other side of the square. She looked at him, questioningly.
"It's a gambling game, called Randomax. It's getting sort of popular in the army."
"Random for random numbers, max for matrix?"
"You've heard of it?"
"Just guessing."
"Tomar wanted you to know about it. He said you might be interested in some of its aspects."
"Tomar?"