“They’re all play swords, I suspect. But these people all love me here.”
“We’ve both had servants and staff to wait on us, but this feels different,” Li Feng said. “Like they’re making our lives easier because they love us and respect us, not because they’re family servants or spies.”
“I’ve grown fond of taking care of myself. I like doing things around the house for my mother and I like working in the garden in my building. Could you ever have imagined me gardening?”
They both laughed and Li Feng felt at ease for the first time all night.
“You should join me,” Li Feng said. “We could be the power couple of the Chinese entertainment scene. We could even go over to the U.S.”
The goodwill and wavering commitment that had been building through the conversation died right there as Sonny Ma went silent and turned away from her. Li Feng refused to return to a life behind a desk. It seemed Sonny Ma could not help her after all.
As the ceremony began, Li Feng looked around to avoid having to look at Sonny. She saw Arrow’s right-hand man, Bing-Wen Jo, and then spotted the hitman who called himself Zosima. Were they both here to kill Sonny Ma? She was feeling better about her chances. Maybe they would all kill each other, and she could truly be free and in the clear.
When her attention came back around to Sonny Ma, she noticed he was standing and holding his hand out for her.
“Join me on stage. This talk has been wonderful and has made me appreciate where I’m from and where I’m going. Enjoy the spotlight you so desperately crave.”
She didn’t know why he was doing this, and the tone in his voice was more ominous than collegial. But with two men in the audience likely there to kill him, she wouldn’t have to see to the deed herself, and if she was on stage when it happened she would seem like the least likely suspect. She might even be able to harness the attention to give her a boost in her new career.
Li Feng unhooked the sword from its sash around her waist and left it on her seat, then she joined Sonny Ma on stage.
65
Bingo did not expect Sonny Ma to bring Li Feng up onto the stage. He’d found a seat a few rows back from the stage, and from there he could see Dale Gai in the second row with some of the uniformed security personnel. She was talking to a garish man who looked like one of the Russian gangsters that had been coming to Macau lately looking to stir up interest in their own budding gambling city of Artem. Could Arrow Donaldson be looking to expand his own empire to Russia? Is that what Dale Gai had been involved in?
His curiosity about the mystery Russian man was squashed when he saw Li Feng on stage next to Sonny Ma. The lights shone bright on her, and the same rage and depression he’d experienced looking through the screen on his drone when he killed her decoy came rushing back. This was his chance to make it all right. He would kill Li Feng. He would kill Sonny Ma.
Bingo reached down to the gun clipped to the back of his pants and slipped it out. Two of the security guards on the edge of the auditorium seemed to notice him and one of them moved slightly toward Bingo, but no one tried to stop him as he approached the second row and Dale Gai.
Teddy was surprised when Li Feng joined Sonny Ma on stage, but it didn’t change the plan. In fact, Teddy was quite pleased because he would have easy access to detain Li Feng after the shooting without having to hunt her down. Teddy made sure the gun in his hand was ready, and he stood to fire.
As Bingo reached Dale Gai’s row, he noticed two things. First, he saw the sword Li Feng had been carrying was lying on the seat she’d vacated. The second thing he noticed was that the mystery Russian man sitting next to Dale was about to shoot Sonny Ma.
The Russian fired three times and Sonny Ma’s chest exploded. In the chaos that erupted, Bingo put his gun away and grabbed the sword so he could chop Li Feng’s head off like the demon that she was.
The blood from Sonny Ma’s chest soaked Li Feng, and she was delighted. This was the role she was meant to play, the grieving old friend. She wailed as Sonny’s body fell on top of hers, her dress ripping on the way down. She couldn’t have choreographed the moment any better herself.
To most in the room, she’d appear as much a victim as Sonny Ma. She could not imagine a more perfect ending to her plan. Sonny Ma murdered in front of his fans, and she would be fawned over as a witness and a grieving friend rather than investigated as a suspect. There would be talk-show appearances and interviews and photo shoots.
While Sonny fell to the ground and her Russian hitman looked to escape, Li Feng noticed Bingo charging the stage with her sword. Sonny Ma was already dead. She smiled again at that thought, and only when it was too late did she realize why Bingo was coming toward the stage.
Arrow Donaldson had lied to her. He wasn’t going to keep his end of the deal. He wanted her dead.
After shooting Sonny Ma, Teddy thought his part was over. When he saw Bingo pass him in the aisle of the theater then grab the sword Li Feng left behind, Teddy knew he still had more work to do. With Sonny Ma apparently dead, the only other target Teddy saw on stage was Li Feng. Teddy hoped to get to the stage before Bingo, but he wasn’t going to make it in time.
Teddy was about to scream for Li Feng to move. Then at the last second, Sonny Ma stood up and dived in front of the sword. He collapsed back to the ground, and Teddy had to decide which villain he was going to try and capture.
66
The crowd in the movie theater panicked and people were pushing toward the exits, but the security personnel was doing an admirable job of keeping everyone as calm and orderly as possible. Teddy decided to pursue Bingo rather than Li Feng, but he wasn’t going to be able to do much with a gun loaded with blanks. Bingo had been stunned briefly after the impact of his sword hitting the Kevlar vest on Sonny Ma, but he was getting back to his feet. Once again, Teddy found himself without a viable weapon when he needed one. He tossed the gun to the ground and looked to see if Dale Gai was able to help, but she was tending to Li Feng, who had been pushed off the stage during the commotion.
Bingo ran from the theater to the surrounding walkway where he ran smack into a crowd of screaming people. Teddy was right behind him and in one swift motion, pulled his sport coat off and slung it around Bingo, stopping his movement temporarily.
“It’s not too late to surrender,” Teddy said. “I can protect you if you turn on Arrow Donaldson.”
Bingo grunted and pulled his way out of Teddy’s improvised straitjacket. He brought the sword back up to Teddy’s face, but Bingo didn’t seem as comfortable with the sword as Teddy thought he was and used that to his advantage. Teddy went after Bingo barehanded and was able to survive longer than most would against someone like Bingo, but he wasn’t going to get far without a weapon.
Teddy struck Bingo in the throat with his hand and took advantage of Bingo’s loss of breath to knee him in the groin. The sword dropped to the ground and Teddy picked it up. He wasn’t comfortable with the weird weight, balance, and dull blade of the ornamental sword, either. Bingo scored a free shot to the side of Teddy’s head that disoriented him. While Teddy crumpled to the floor, Bingo made a run for it.
While Teddy recovered from the cheap hit from Bingo, he noticed the police were making their way up to the top level. Teddy didn’t have the time or the interest to deal with the police at that moment, so he slipped into the men’s room and stripped off the Russian hitman clothes and revealed tacky tourist clothes underneath. He hadn’t seen too many Russian tourists in Macau, but he’d seen enough to know he wouldn’t stick out in the crowds.