It seemed Li Feng wasn’t Sonny Ma’s only detractor in town. Teddy slipped her a bill from his tip stash.
“Thank you. I’m sure I can find my way from there.”
The suite of rooms the festival occupied were AS bland as Teddy had expected they would be. He’d been in hundreds of these kinds of suites in multiple countries on multiple continents, and in every case the hospitality and business suites had the same banal executive scheme.
“Good. You’re here,” Dale Gai said, popping her head out of one of the doors at the far end of the suite. “I wondered how long it would take.”
Teddy blinked for a moment. “Nobody knew I was coming here,” Teddy said. He was more than a little irritated at finding himself one step behind this woman yet again.
Dale waved him in and pointed to a large dining table where the festival organizers were congregated.
“You might fool most people as unpredictable or stealthy,” she said, pouring him a drink from the bar set at the back of the room. “But to someone who isn’t distracted by your flash or your... image, you’re quite predictable.”
“I need to find out who this ‘someone’ is.”
She laughed as she handed him the drink. They sat down next to each other at the end of the table, opposite the organizers. Across from them were three women and two men, all but one of them Asian. Dale introduced Teddy and then motioned for him to talk when it was his turn.
“I need to meet with Sonny Ma,” Teddy said, watching their reactions as he talked to gauge how much of the truth he needed to give them to get what he needed.
“You’re with Centurion Studios,” said a tall woman in a pale yellow suit and comically large glasses.
“Yes. I work with Peter and Ben.”
“Who are now back in the U.S.,” the two men said, almost at the same time.
This was great. It seemed like they were hoping Teddy could fill in for Peter and Ben. Teddy could work with that.
“Right. Something came up and they had to go back. I was in Hong Kong and they asked me if I could come over and help.”
“You were in Hong Kong making a movie?” the woman in the suit asked.
“I was on a layover. Waiting to fly back to the U.S. Just scouting locations all over for Peter and Ben.”
“You mentioned something about talking with Sonny Ma,” Dale said.
He cocked an eyebrow at her, then turned back to the others.
“He’s very important to this event, and I know he was very important to Peter and Ben. I want to make sure he feels taken care of.”
“Very good,” the woman in the suit said. The others nodded. “That’s what we were hoping to hear. Dale Gai will take you to the room where he is waiting to talk to you.”
“Oh she will now, will she?”
The organizers all looked at each other, confused. Teddy wondered if he’d just undone all of the good work, but Dale quickly jumped in and ended the meeting amicably before Teddy could ruin it any further. He kept his composure and managed to wait until they were well out of earshot of the others before he stopped her and asked her what she’d been up to after she left him alone to deal with the police about the burning production office.
“That’s none of your business, and I couldn’t tell you the truth even if I wanted to,” she said.
37
The first thing Teddy noticed when Sonny Ma opened the door to his suite was that he was enormous. He filled nearly the entire doorway. The second thing he noticed was that Dale didn’t seem surprised at all. She knew more about Sonny Ma than she’d let on. Teddy was frustrated that he still found himself breaking down her every move and her every word, comparing himself to her or analyzing her actions. When this was all over, he was looking forward to getting back to L.A. where he more rarely had trouble separating friend from foe.
Dale made the introductions and Sonny Ma welcomed them into the suite. Teddy had been in the homes and hotel rooms of powerful and dangerous people who had no trouble feigning kindness and generosity, but Teddy was caught off guard by Sonny Ma’s seemingly genuine openness. And it wasn’t just directed at Dale.
“Peter and Ben were so great here for the city,” Sonny said to Teddy, handing him a glass of Chinese whiskey. “I hope we can find a way for you to do the same.”
Teddy took the drink, a dark amber color rather than the traditionally clear Chinese baijiu, and toasted their host.
“I’d love to have a bottle of this sent to my friend Stone Barrington,” Teddy said. “Peter’s father. What is it?”
“It’s a new whiskey, created and distilled in Scotland, then aged here in ancient clay pots instead of wooden barrels. I’ll have a bottle sent to your room.”
Teddy had no doubt that Sonny Ma would get the bottle to the right room without any further information from Teddy. He took another drink and then another before slowing his sips and sitting down in an ornamental chair across from the small matching couch where Dale and Sonny sat.
“I hope the organizers and my... compatriot here have let you in on the other reasons I wanted to talk with you,” Teddy said.
“Other than movies and fine whiskey?”
Teddy held back a frown, not wanting to give his true motivations away before he was ready. Sonny smiled and took a large drink of his own whiskey.
“Not everyone likes me. Many want me dead. But many more want me to make another movie where I fight with swords and jump off of buildings into helicopters. No man is a star to everyone.”
“Is that because you can’t help getting back into the criminal game?”
“There are many things I have trouble denying myself, but criminal activity is not one of them,” Sonny replied, seeming unoffended by Teddy’s unsubtle probing.
“Someone is trying to make it look like you’re reviving your gangster empire again.”
Sonny didn’t hide his frown as he reached for the whiskey decanter, passing it over for a bottle of water instead. Teddy also took a bottle of water and sipped on it as he recounted what he’d learned so far. Dale sat quietly, listening.
Teddy continued. “Can you think of who might want to set you up?”
Sonny exhaled loudly. “It is, I suspect, a woman I knew when we were younger. A woman named Li Feng.”
“We suspected as much,” Teddy said. “Tell us everything you can.”
“Before I was a thief and a crook and then a movie star, I was a child. And I was friends with Li Feng. Our parents were important, and we went to a school where everyone’s parents were important.”
“How do you go from a school like that to a criminal empire?”
Sonny Ma gave Teddy a look of derision and contempt.
“The better question is how anyone who goes to a school like that doesn’t end up running a criminal empire.”
“Excellent point,” Teddy said. “I guess some businesses are just more upfront than others about their criminality.”
“Like Arrow Donaldson’s businesses?” Sonny said. “Li Feng does not have the power on her own to wage a campaign against my reputation like this. Someone is helping her.”
“Her family is quite powerful. Why could they not help her?”
“Her family is one of the most corrupt criminal empires in China, but they wish me no harm. I am a national treasure. They would ruin their own reputation by ruining mine.”
“Does Arrow Donaldson have any reason to hate you?”
Sonny Ma shrugged.
“I told you already that many men hate me. Arrow Donaldson may be one of them.”
“This doesn’t seem to worry you much,” Teddy said. “Under normal circumstances I would bid you a fond farewell and go on my way, leaving you to fight your own battles.”