'Flight number AF1240 from Paris is delayed by about 35 minutes. Expected time of landing 19.35', Barry & Harry hear to their dismay. With Granddad they are waiting in the airport's arrival hall.
'Darn, had we known, we could have played at least eight more deals. We were doing great', Barry complains. 'We had flattened them, especially because of that slam and...'

He is interrupted by a well groomed gentleman with an oriental appearance. 'Excuse me, I heard you discussing bridge. My name is Zia Mahmood and I'm waiting for my partner to arrive from Paris. This will take some more time, so I have been informed. Perhaps we can turn the delay into something a little more agreeable by playing a few deals?'
Granddad and the boys need no further encouragement, impressed as they are by the Pakistani bridge genius.
While Zia is dealing, Harry feels a tingling in the air, almost magic. From the expression on Barry's face he can see that his brother feels it too.

S/All		♠	J 3
		♥	9 7 6
		♦	Q J
		♣	A J 10 9 6 3
		♠	A K Q
		♥	A K Q 4
		♦	8 4 2
		♣	K 8 4

Harry leads the ♦7 (denying an honour in the suit) and on seeing dummy Zia is obviously shaken. The boys hear him muttering 'two of spades' and 'queen of clubs'.
Barry wins with the ♦K, cashes the ♦A and ♦10 and switches to the ♥5. Zia, with an expression as if he's seeing a pink elephant frolicking over the table, wins with the ♥Q. He takes of his glasses, rubs his eyes and then braces himself.
'I apologise for my eccentric behaviour', he says, 'but I just had a déjà vu. This deal strongly reminds me of a deal from the beginning of my career. But that's all nonsense, of course. Every deal is new. This is an instructive deal as well. Look...' — Zia shows his hand — '...the normal approach in clubs is to play the ♣AK from the top. True, I could try to find out some more about the distribution by cashing my major suit tricks. If West, who is known to have five diamonds, for instance would turn out to have four hearts and follow suit three times in spades, he would have a singleton in clubs. I would then cash the ♣A and take the marked finesse for the ♣Q over East.'
'But I don't have to take any risks', Zia continues, 'it's much more simple to start with the ♣K and, if the ♣Q hasn't dropped, finesse over West. This way I am sure to make my contract: either the finesse succeeds or East wins and he is harmless since he is out of diamonds.'
'A matter of technique really, not my forte by the way. I'm lucky that you...' — Zia gives Barry a friendly nod — '... had the bare ♦AK10, so West couldn't cash his diamonds.'
'So you play the ♣K and next a club to the ♣J?' Barry asks politely.
Zia nods, whereupon Barry, with a big grin, shows the ♣Q and the ♦3. Down one!
Zia walks off, looking flabbergasted. 'I'll never learn', the boys hear him mutter.
This was the whole deal:

S/All		♠	J 3
		♥	9 7 6
		♦	Q J
		♣	A J 10 9 6 3
♠	7 6 5 2			♠	10 9 8 4
♥	10 3 2			♥	J 8 5
♦	9 7 6 5			♦	A K 10 3
♣	7 2			♣	Q 5
		♠	A K Q
		♥	A K Q 4
		♦	8 4 2
		♣	K 8 4

'Why you didn't lead a spade, is beyond me but it did save us', Barry grins. 'On a spade lead Zia wouldn't have been able to find out about our distribution. He would have started by cashing the ♥AKQ. In the actual layout, with the suit 3-3, he would have been home and dry. After safely cashing the ♣AK he would even have made all thirteen tricks. By the way, if the heart suit had not been 3-3, he would have cashed the spades, in order to find out as much as possible about the distribution. Possibly that would tell him how to handle the club suit.'
'After your diamond lead, he couldn't safely cash the ♥AKQ first, since, if I would turn out to have four, the finesse for the ♣Q over you wouldn't be "safe" anymore. Anyway, he was convinced that I was out of diamonds, so that club finesse over you was "safe".'
Barry takes his time for some more grinning. Then he resumes: 'But why didn't you lead a spade?'
'My four-card diamond suit was stronger than my four-card spade suit', Harry explains, with a wild look in his eyes. But what in heaven's name made you not cash that fourth diamond?'
'Did you feel that tingling in the air?' is Barry's counter-question.
His brother nods to confirm.
Barry now addresses Granddad: 'Just now in the train you were reading an interview with Zia in an old bridge magazine.'
Granddad nods interestedly.
'After you had fallen asleep, I read the interview as well. It contained a deal from the beginning of Zia's career, with exactly identical NS-hands. Zia was South and the bidding was identical to ours. West led the ♠2, fourth best, so Zia knew the spade suit was 4-4. He cashed the ♥AKQ but, unlike in our deal, West had only two hearts: at the third heart trick he discarded a diamond. Zia knew now that West's distribution was 4-2-?-? and reasoned that West would have led a diamond if he would have had five diamonds. So West had fewer than five diamonds and therefore at least three clubs. And so, after cashing the ♣K, Zia finessed for the ♣Q over West. Successfully, since this was the full layout... then:

S/All		♠	J 3
		♥	9 7 6
		♦	Q J
		♣	A J 10 9 6 3
♠	7 6 5 2			♠	10 9 8 4
♥	10 3			♥	J 8 5 2
♦	9 7 6 5			♦	A K 10 3
♣	Q 7 2			♣	5
		♠	A K Q
		♥	A K Q 4
		♦	8 4 2
		♣	K 8 4