That plan hadn’t worked because no one was taking her calls anymore now that the testimony was off. She wasted too much precious time trying to pull that together, and now her only option was to go to the premiere herself and try to talk to Li Feng one more time.
The car that picked Li Feng up was not as fancy as she’d hoped, but she got in anyway and heard the thunk of the locks before she noticed Arrow sitting in the front passenger seat. She tried to escape, but the door wouldn’t budge.
“We’re here to keep you safe,” Arrow said. “And we brought you a new dress.”
Arrow handed her the dress they’d picked up from the boutique back to her.
“You can change in the car. We won’t look.”
She hesitated, but as the car pulled away from the pawnshop, she started undressing.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“What I promised. You’ll get to see Sonny Ma killed, and then we’ll escort you to the airport with your new identity and send you off on your new future in the U.S.”
“Really?” She remained unconvinced.
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be in the trunk of this car instead of the back seat,” Arrow said.
63
The Macau Tower shopping center had a glossy, high-end look most of the time, but the glass and chrome and marble had been covered with velvet and jewels and gold for this event. Li Feng strode into the lobby with a confident swagger, her dress clinging tightly to her body and her sword swaying with her hips. She saw Sonny Ma across the room and went to him as if she were his co-guest of honor.
The look on his face as she approached him was almost worth the effort itself. His eyes flickered back and forth looking for an exit, but she remained calm and tried to project an image of professionalism and not of crazy murder. For her to have the best shot of being as close as possible to this man when he died, she needed to charm him and stay close to him early on, even if the sickness in her stomach from it became unbearable. He seemed uncomfortable as well but wasn’t backing away.
“I apologize for my behavior the last time we saw each other,” she said, putting her hand on his arm as she spoke.
He flinched, but then quickly relaxed his arm instead of pulling it away when he realized she wasn’t trying to grab him.
“We hadn’t seen each other in many years,” Sonny Ma said. “It was never going to be easy.”
She tried to calm her burning anger so that she didn’t waste her opportunity to give Sonny Ma his proper comeuppance. If she was ever going to be an actress, she was going to need to have precise control of her emotions. Her role this evening demanded her to be conciliatory, and she would play the role brilliantly.
“The world is changing, and I see you changing; I thought that maybe I could change, too.”
She saw a spark in Sonny Ma’s eyes and a flicker of a smile as she spoke.
“You still can. This new enterprise can be a fresh start for both of us. You could come work for me and help me build this new face of gambling in Macau.”
The acid burned in her stomach as Li Feng choked back a biting response to Sonny Ma’s insulting offer. She had no interest in being stuck in cubicles and boardrooms, or worse, being a trophy for Sonny Ma to parade around at boring functions.
Li Feng noticed the crowd that had been spread across the entire complex was now quickly collapsing in on them as everyone realized that Sonny Ma was in the room. Some even seemed to recognize Li Feng. She played her role well and was receiving the sort of attention she craved. It felt as good as she could have ever dreamed it would feel. It felt wonderful, but she needed to move him up to the area for the premiere so she could remain close to Sonny.
“Won’t you escort me up to the premiere?” she asked.
He agreed, even though he still seemed skeptical. The entire way, she kept expecting someone to stop them and confiscate her sword. But she was lucky that so many festival attendees were wearing costumes with fake weaponry of their own. Alongside the others, hers didn’t look out of place, and nobody bothered her about it.
Bingo hung up with Arrow Donaldson and smashed his phone. He was not going to back off of Li Feng. She would have Sonny Ma killed, laugh at the man’s demise, and then be rewarded with a new identity for success in the United States. He would keep to his plan and go to Macau Tower and kill Li Feng.
The Tower still took his breath away every time he saw it, but this time it was even more breathtaking because it would make it very difficult to keep an eye on Li Feng. Bingo saw Sonny Ma first because the giant man dominated any room he was in, but he was startled to see Li Feng there with Sonny Ma, and holding a sword. Was this it? Was she going to kill him herself? The window disappeared as quickly as it had opened as the crowd noticed the two of them and quickly swarmed the pair, making it impossible for Bingo to make a move.
64
Back in the green room, Teddy found Dale briefing part of the security team on what was about to happen. Teddy listened as she commanded the conversation and conveyed the danger and process of their plan without divulging details that could compromise anyone involved. When she was done and everyone went out to their stations, Teddy approached her.
“It sounds like everything up here is wrapped up as much as possible,” he said, “which is good because Li Feng just arrived carrying a sword.”
“There’s a whole sea of people down there wearing swords,” Dale said. “It’s Sonny Ma’s trademark.”
“I figured there would be plenty of fake swords, but I didn’t think Li Feng was the sword type.”
“She’s currently chatting with Sonny Ma — peaceably, it seems — who, it seems, will be escorting her to her seat at the premiere.”
“That’s... interesting.”
“And right before I came up here, I saw Bingo arrive as well. It’s a fifty-fifty guess whether he’s here as Li Feng’s backup hitman, or on a mission to kill her.”
“The plan will still work if Bingo shoots Sonny Ma instead of you, correct?”
“Yes. My way is safer, because my gun is loaded with blanks, but as long as Bingo doesn’t shoot him in the head it should be fine.”
“What if Li Feng uses her sword?”
“Same thing, as long as she doesn’t go for the head.”
“It sounds like we should rethink security around Sonny Ma’s head,” Dale said.
“I’ll talk to security and make sure they keep an eye on Bingo,” Teddy said. “They need to lure him in but stop him before he tries to kill anyone.”
Li Feng reveled in the attention as she made her way through the lower level of the shopping and cinema complex with Sonny Ma. Though she knew most eyes were on the man the premiere was honoring, it was only a matter of time before she stole the spotlight.
When they reached the top floor and the premiere auditorium, she saw Sonny Ma gesture subtly to the ushers that his guest required a seat with him. The crew deftly made the necessary adjustments, and the couple sat down.
“The attention is intoxicating,” Li Feng said. “How can you not crave this every day?”
“The kind of attention I used to attract was more dangerous than this. People used to try and kill me if they had my attention. I think the odds of someone trying to kill me at a gala like this are much smaller.”
“Don’t you worry with all of the swords around?”