Sonny Ma nodded as Teddy spoke.
“I was thinking the same thing. I have no desire for fame. I only agreed to this film because I thought it would lend legitimacy to the expansion of my business into casino technology. But it’s done the opposite.”
“It sounds like we’re in agreement then,” Teddy said.
The others in the room didn’t look like they were in agreement on anything. They murmured and sighed and grumbled and finally one of them said, “Canceling isn’t really an option. We would lose all of our money, and the film business in Macau would be even more tainted than it is now. We would never recover.”
Unfortunately, Teddy knew they were right. And the festival had partnered with Centurion, and with Peter and Ben. He couldn’t walk away and leave them in such dire straits.
He paced across the room, then back, thinking.
“Then maybe we should be the ones to kill Sonny Ma,” Teddy said.
A collective gasp rose up, and Teddy would have smiled if the situation weren’t so serious. Only Sonny Ma himself was oddly tranquil, seeing where Teddy was going.
“I don’t believe our American friend is suggesting an actual murder,” Sonny Ma said, looking toward Teddy. “I hope. I believe he is suggesting we do what we all do best: play make-believe.”
“We can stage a publicity stunt, a fake assassination, playing off Sonny Ma’s reputation. After it’s revealed that he wasn’t really killed, he can talk about how the thought of being murdered was always at the back of his mind when he was involved with crime, and that’s why he’s determined to continue going legitimate.”
The spokesman for the organizers looked back to the group, who seemed to be recovering from their shock.
“Much is at stake,” the young man in the yellow suit said. “This is not just fun and entertainment. This is the image of the party. The image of China is at stake.”
Teddy nodded and resisted the urge to stroke the sides of his head in contemplation. They were right again, and as an outsider, Teddy was never going to be able to answer those concerns. But he knew who could help.
“Let me discuss this with Dale Gai. We’ll return when we have fully formulated a plan.”
“Yes. Dale Gai. Good. This is good.”
Sonny Ma didn’t seem as confident, so Teddy waved him over to a private corner of the room.
“I realize this is not ideal for you,” Teddy said, “but it’s the one chance we have of taking care of a number of problems all at once. Li Feng will not go away and provide the U.S. government the evidence it needs to convict Arrow Donaldson until she sees you dead. With Li Feng gone, and Arrow Donaldson back in the U.S. facing criminal charges, your path to success with your online casino empire will be free and clear.”
“Arrow’s operation has been a frustrating irritant to my business.”
“I’ll control as much of this as I can. I’ll fit you with a protective vest padded with blood squibs that I’ll explode by remote. I will direct Li Feng’s effort to find a hitman toward me in disguise so that we don’t risk someone else trying to kill you.”
“I had no idea of the level of Li Feng’s hatred of me until she came to my mother’s house yesterday and went mad.”
“Wait, Li Feng came to visit you? Was she with Arrow Donaldson?”
“She was alone.”
Teddy processed that new information.
“Dale Gai and I will protect you, and at the end of this you’ll be set up well for success. And I’ll have all the pieces in place to punish those who smeared the good name of my friends.”
Teddy left Sonny to find Dale. On the way he called Millie Martindale.
“Li Feng escaped from Arrow somehow, and visited Sonny Ma.”
Teddy heard a muffled string of curse words and then, “Thank you,” before Millie quickly hung up.
54
Arrow knew something was wrong the moment his driver pulled up to the safe house. Everything looked in order from the outside, but Arrow’s driver had been skittish the entire drive.
“What happened?” Arrow asked when they arrived.
“Happened where? Here? Everything looks fine.”
Arrow slammed his door shut and rushed inside the house. Li Feng was nowhere to be found. The driver was behind him in the doorway, and Arrow grabbed him by the front of his suit and threw him against the nearest wall.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Arrow punched him in the chest and in the gut.
“What did you do with her?”
The driver was curled on the ground crying, muffling his words.
“She beat me,” he said.
“She attacked you, so you let her go?”
The driver nodded his head.
“She said she would only be gone for a few minutes. She just wanted to get some fresh air.”
Arrow kept his rage in check. Killing this man would be hard to clean up, and would get Arrow no closer to finding Li Feng. He went into the kitchen, grabbed a towel, and threw it to the driver on the floor.
“Did she say where she was going?”
“No, but she gave me her cell phone number so I could get ahold of her if I needed her.”
Arrow had no doubt the number Li Feng had given this man was a fake, but he tried it anyway.
“It’s disconnected. She gave you a fake number.”
The driver coughed and took a deep breath before talking.
“I’m not an idiot. I checked first. It’s a secure phone that can’t be traced or receive calls. But you can send texts.”
“Send her one. Tell her to come back.”
While the driver sent a text message, Arrow called Bingo as a backup.
“Li Feng escaped,” Arrow said. “Find her and bring her to the bunker. Alive.”
“That lunatic is going to kill her,” the driver said, struggling to stand up.
“He’ll do what I tell him to do.”
“He blames her for his family getting sent to the camps. He wants her dead, and you just let him know she’s out from under your protection.”
“Just because you are not loyal to me doesn’t mean others are disloyal as well.”
Arrow had thought the same thing about Bingo, but Li Feng’s death would put a target on Bingo as much as it would on Arrow. When the heat blew over on all of this, Arrow would reward Bingo appropriately and all would be forgiven.
55
Teddy was pleased to find Dale Gai still at the safe house where he’d left her. He was less worried that the police would have tracked her to the off-the-books cabin and more worried that she might have left on her own, deciding she didn’t need Teddy’s help.
Dale was having tea and reading a book. She looked more relaxed than Teddy had seen her in their short time together. If he’d been a different person, he might have felt bad for dragging her back into the mess he was in. He sat down and had water instead of tea and gave Dale a brief summary of his meeting with Sonny Ma and the film festival organizers. When he was done, she was smiling mischievously.
“So, it seems the men in Macau continue to fail miserably,” she said.
“A harsh judgment, but not wrong,” Teddy said, somewhat abashed.
“And now you expect the women to come in and fix everything?”
“Not all the women, no, just one. You.”
“What about your friend from the CIA?”
“How do you know about her?”
“Such a silly question to ask,” Dale said. “It makes me wonder if you are as smart as I once thought you might be.”
“I’ve been mistaken for a lot of things over the years, but smart isn’t usually one of them.”
Dale Gai cocked her head to the side and sipped on her tea. Teddy suspected she was trying to figure out what to make of him, and how much of herself and her life in Macau to risk to help him.