Chemmie

Within the next week he gave up all the rest of his chemmies: the wakers and dozers, the vim-pills, the breeze capsules. Bottle after bottle vanished down the recycling chute.

I'd picked up enough earlier to know that she was involved in some huge and maybe seriously dangerous deal involving several of the larger Central American countries her companies controlled and, whisper went, some nukes or chemmies, depending who you heard.

“You're walking in your sleep.” / She looked about in confusion, then crossed arms over her chest. “Oh, my.” / “You aren't on anything, are you?” / The confusion in her eyes gave way to indignation. “I'd never touch a chemmie during mission, sir.”

And then the opera would be over, the tourists go home from their mild game of chemmie, and as the hour approached one the heavy gamblers would gather, like communicants of some esoteric faith about to celebrate their ritual.

After 1960, when the Gaming Act legalised gambling, there was chemmie or roulette to go for at the Clermont Club above Annabel's in Berkeley Square or at Siegi's in Charles Street, at the Playboy Club in Park Lane, Apron Strings in Chelsea and anywhere else where his credit held.