“With a new, high-tech twist,” Dino said.
Stone downloaded the security footage to a thumb drive for Teddy and told him they were heading back to the U.S. that night.
“The festival is almost over, and this is too much. But I want you to stay behind and find whoever is responsible. They tried to make our sons appear to be criminals.”
6
While Stone Barrington went with Dino, Peter, and Ben to have a final round of drinks with the film festival executives, he let Teddy use his suite at the Golden Desert. Teddy removed his watch and popped off a small magnetic disc that he attached to the back of the hotel phone. With the signal now scrambled, he called the basement of a home in Washington, D.C.
“It’s me,” Teddy said when Kevin Cushman, aka Warplord924, answered.
“Last time you said, ‘Do you know who this is?’” Kevin said.
“Last time I wasn’t in a hurry.”
“I like being in a hurry. It usually means fun trouble.”
Kevin Cushman lived with his mother and appeared on the surface to embody all of the characteristics of a lazy video-game-addicted man-baby. But underneath the layers of vintage T-shirts and nacho cheese dust was a man who made six figures as a computer security analyst and had done some covert and tricky work for Teddy in the past.
“I’m sending you a video. I need to know everything about it.”
“Video is new for you,” Kevin said.
“Nothing is new for me, but this is the first time I’ve had one I thought you could help with.”
“You don’t think I’m good enough to help you with other videos?”
“Believe it or not, people used to pride themselves in doing things for themselves.”
Kevin snorted.
“So you can help with video?”
“I mean, unless you’re about to put an old VCR tape in an envelope and mail it to me, I can help.”
“Why would I send you a VCR tape?” Teddy asked.
“Analog is all the rage now. Videotapes, vinyl records, paper books. All that stuff is making a comeback.”
Teddy ignored Kevin and opened a laptop Stone had left behind for him that had an encryption program on it that Teddy had designed himself, with some help from Kevin. He plugged in the thumb drive Ben had given him, ran the video through the encryption program, and then sent it to Kevin.
“Sent,” Teddy said. “You know how to get ahold of me.”
7
Stone Barrington returned from drinks while Teddy was still in his suite waiting for Kevin Cushman to call him back. The TV was turned to an international version of CNN and a bucket of ice was melting on the table next to the television. Teddy had his shoes off and was lying on the largest couch in the suite, about to fall asleep again, when Stone entered.
“I can come back when you’ve left if you need the place to yourself,” Teddy said, not moving from his position on the couch.
“Nonsense,” Stone said. “Were you having a drink with that melting ice or using it to nurse that knot on your head?”
“What knot on my head?”
Teddy put his hand up instinctively to his forehead and felt around until he hit a small soft patch that made him flinch when he touched it. He got off the couch and went into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.
“Did you fall off the bed when you were napping?” Stone asked.
“I wasn’t napping. I think that woman did this to me.”
Stone smiled widely.
“A woman. I see. So definitely no napping. Just bruising?”
“I wasn’t going to bed with her. It was Dale Gai. The woman Peter sent to come and find me in Hong Kong.”
“Why wouldn’t you go to bed with Dale Gai, if she were interested? There is nothing about her looks that would make any natural man turn away from her advances.”
“It’s not her looks that concern me, but her skills. I was sleeping in the airport lounge and she attacked me. Now it looks like she left a mark.”
Teddy could feel a ball of anger rising in his chest, but he couldn’t figure out why. This wasn’t the first time he’d been attacked, not even the first time he’d been attacked by a woman. And it did seem like it was all a misunderstanding. Still, he felt uncomfortable at how she had found his weak spots. And in his sleep-deprived state, Teddy didn’t like feeling uncomfortable.
“Are you okay?” Stone asked when Teddy started to wobble.
“Fine,” Teddy said. “I just need sleep.”
“I can’t offer sleep, but the drinks at the film festival lounge were terrible and I think we could both use a good steak to go with them.”
As Stone talked, there was a knock on the door and then Dino Bacchetti entered.
“There’s a party in our room and nobody invited me,” Dino said.
“No party, just some melting ice and a bruised movie producer,” Stone said.
Dino looked at the bruise on Teddy’s head and winced.
“You run into a wall or something?”
“Dale Gai punched him while he was sleeping in an airport lounge in Hong Kong,” Stone said.
“Is that some kind of new kinky thing I’m too old to know about?” Dino asked.
“It was just a misunderstanding.”
“We were going to go for steaks and real drinks,” Stone said.
“Now that sounds like a party,” Dino said.
The Oasis Grill sat at the top of the Golden Desert Casino and had dazzling views of the Cotai Strip, Macau’s newest strip of glittering casinos and resort hotels, which was the city’s latest attempt to turn Macau into a larger, richer copy of Las Vegas. The hotels along the strip were all owned by foreign investors, from the U.S. and Europe mostly, and included names familiar in Vegas like Sands, Caesars, and Wynn.
Teddy, Stone, and Dino ordered porterhouse steaks aged in Himalayan salt, along with doubles of Knob Creek and talked about the video and the blackmail letter. Dino was still fuming about it.
“It’ll be taken care of,” Stone said, waving with his drink hand in Teddy’s direction.
“I’ll call Millie Martindale,” Teddy said. “She’s been working with Lance Cabot on and off at the CIA. She might know more about this.”
“We know the video is fake, and doesn’t reflect what was actually happening at the time. Which means anybody who was watching the live security feed wouldn’t have seen anything out of the ordinary.”
“I’ll talk to casino security as well and see if there’s anything else they forgot to tell us.”
“Did Peter or Ben mention anything else?”
“They don’t run into this stuff in the U.S.,” Dino said. “We haven’t had gang activities on movie sets for decades.”
“There does seem to be an outlaw atmosphere here that’s probably too raw for good guys like Peter and Ben,” Teddy said.
“They just came over to help, and look what happened. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess,” Dino said.
Stone waved his hands to try and shut down the conversation.
“There’s no sense in being sad and gloomy. Our plane leaves in a few hours and our friend Teddy here will stay behind to find out what happened and make sure anyone responsible gets what’s coming to them.”
“You know who I am and what I do,” Teddy said. “Once I start, I’m not going to stop until I finish it my way.”
“We’ll have a drink waiting for you when you return. And maybe after this you can find a woman to pal around with who doesn’t leave you bruised.”
8
When the steaks were gone and the last round of Knob Creek finished, Stone and Dino decided against dessert. Stone called his driver to take them to the airport early, leaving Teddy by himself. He went back to the suite and saw a note from Stone on the coffee table letting him know that a friend had called about a movie and that Teddy would know how to get ahold of him.