“Sure. Of course. Whatever you need.”
As Agents Parks and Malmon left her to begin interviewing her colleagues, a white van pulled into the lot and a group of black-clad men and women emerged and began putting on gloves and pulling out bags of gear. An evidence collection team from the CIA. After efficient preparation, the group swarmed Millie’s SUV and pushed her agents into the waiting hands of Parks and Malmon. Millie wondered if there was a similar team combing through the penthouse they’d left behind. She marveled again at how this response team had been pulled together so quickly.
As she watched the OIG agents and the evidence team do their work, Millie was happy that no one seemed interested in her for the time being. She had one contact who couldn’t be controlled by anyone. She stepped back further out of view, and called a man most people in the Agency still thought was dead.
“You asked me about Macau earlier,” she said when he answered.
“I don’t work that way.”
“What way is that, might I ask?”
“I like mutually beneficial relationships.”
Millie stopped to think. If she involved this man, accepted help from him, there’d be a price to pay, and no turning back.
She didn’t like it at all, but Millie Martindale was out of options.
“A woman died.”
“Women die every day. Why should I care?”
“This one was pretending to be Li Feng.”
“Pretend I don’t know who that is.”
“Should I also pretend you don’t know who Arrow Donaldson is? Should I pretend you don’t know who Lance Cabot is?”
“We both know that’s ridiculous.”
“You called me, remember. And I assume you haven’t tried to break into the CIA database yet because I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“I’d be smarter than that.”
Millie sighed, realizing what he meant. “I’m guessing you called a certain basement in Washington, D.C., and found out everything you needed to know.”
“I’m very resourceful.”
Millie had had just about enough of the patronizing banter and it looked like her time to herself in the parking lot was drawing to a close. The evidence team was loading their gear back into their van, and Agents Parks and Malmon were starting to eye her every so often as they finished talking to her team.
“We’re both in Macau and you probably thought it was for separate reasons,” Millie said. “But I’d be willing to bet that we’re both here for the same reason and that it has something to do with Arrow Donaldson.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds.
Then: “I’ll call you back in a few minutes and we’ll tell each other everything we know.”
He hung up before Millie could call him a liar.
Arrow Donaldson sat in the back of a dark sedan watching the chaos unfold in the parking lot of the warehouse complex, where the GPS tracer in the drone wreckage had led him. It had been a stroke of dumb luck that the CIA’s inspector general already had agents in Macau due to suspicions arising from their fishing expedition in his casino with Lance Cabot. But Arrow was not a man to just rely on dumb luck. He knew how to harness good fortune, to amplify it, and to manipulate it. His driver handed him a satellite phone.
“I’m watching it now, Senator. The timing was perfect. Yes. I know about that. The rest will take care of itself. Thank you.”
He handed the phone back to his driver. Then he said, “Take me to the bunker.”
20
Dale and Teddy escaped the Golden Desert Casino through a series of tunnels and passages that hotel security used to get VIPs in and out of the casino without being spotted by fans or anyone else who might make their lives difficult. Once again, Teddy noticed Dale navigated the situation better than any assistant should be expected to. He wondered how many times she’d been in these tunnels herself and under what circumstances.
They exited the casino in the back near the power plant and trash maintenance area. The air was thick with an acrid smell and Teddy choked a bit when he emerged into the air. Small clusters of workers were about, but no one seemed to take notice of them. They walked around toward the front of the casino where Teddy followed Dale onto a bus. She paid the fare for them both and guided Teddy toward the back.
It clearly wasn’t Dale Gai’s first time in those clandestine tunnels, and he had to wonder if their use was part of her regular job duties, or if she’d practiced a contingency plan for this kind of escape. In either case, it didn’t do anything to calm his misgivings about her. He still didn’t fully trust Dale Gai.
They were quiet as the bus made its way down the length of the Cotai Strip toward Coloane Village. Eventually, Dale said, “This was always the end of my plan. Where should we go next?”
Before Teddy could answer, his phone rang, and the screen told him it was Millie Martindale on the other end. They went back and forth about what they knew and how they could help each other. While Teddy was talking, the bus came to a stop and Teddy saw a sign that triggered an idea. He told Millie he would call her back, then he motioned for Dale to follow him off the bus.
Teddy pointed to a sign when they were off the bus to explain his thinking.
“I don’t read Chinese as well as I used to, but my Portuguese is still good, and I believe that sign is for the film festival. Right?”
“Very good,” Dale said.
“I’ve been so caught up thinking about this video that I haven’t looked more into the shakedown and protection aspect of this thing.”
“Okay,” Dale said, with a mix of confusion and condescension.
“Peter said his film set was attacked before they got the letter with the video.”
Dale nodded, but this time her face lit up as she realized where Teddy was going with all of this.
“You want to go to the film set?”
It was Teddy’s turn to nod this time.
“I should have thought of that,” Dale said.
“Neither of us is at the top of our game, it seems, but we’re still better than everyone else who can help, so let’s not get down on ourselves too much.”
“They were shooting all over town, but the production offices are just down the road here as a matter of fact,” Dale said.
“Can we walk it?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes.”
“Okay,” Teddy said.
The walk was nice as the area was slightly less crowded and noisy than the main strip. This area was mostly upscale spa resorts without any gambling, as well as other businesses native to residential areas such as grocery stores and home goods stores. The production offices for Peter and Ben’s Macau joint venture were in a two-story building detached from a small shopping mall designed more like something from the French Quarter in New Orleans than the more gleaming and modern buildings closer to the casinos.
As they made their way inside, Teddy was pleased to notice a small plaque with the Centurion Studios name and logo on it. It made him feel at home. It also gave him an idea of what to do next and how to investigate without appearing too suspicious. He sat down behind one of the desks in the office, put his feet up, and leaned back casually.
“I’m an employee of Centurion Studios,” he said.
“Right. Billy Barnett.”
Looking around the office, Teddy’s unease with the situation dissipated. Peter and Ben had worked in that office to help make the film industry of Macau better. They could easily have piggybacked onto the more successful Chinese or Hong Kong film markets if they’d wanted to break into the continent, but they’d gone with Macau because Macau needed more help. At their hearts, Peter and Ben were good guys. Teddy would find a way to make sure their good deed didn’t end up punishing them.