Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW first edition: "The Grand Wheel - Cheyne Scarne was a gambler... and he took the big plunge when he bet his life to get to the inner circle of the Grand Wheel. Because the Wheel was the ultimate Syndicate - the final Mafia - that controlled all that was illegal in all the planets under human control. But Cheyne was not to know whether he had won or lost when he gained his point. Because the Wheel had plans for him. And they made him the historic offer he could not refuse. There was, it seemed, a similar gambling combine in the rest of the galaxy, bigger by far than the little group of stars held by Earthlings. And the Wheel wanted a cut in this. So Cheyne Scarne found himself selected to be humanity's own player in a game in which nobody knew the value of the cards and the rules of the game were infinitely variable!"