Jackpot

11

Teddy gave up trying to nap and drank all the coffee he could find in the suite instead. By the time Kevin Cushman called him back he felt great.

“I had to hack a Chinese government computer to get this. That was a first,” Kevin said.

“I’d really prefer not to hear about how you do what you do.”

“No. Right. I get it. That was just pretty cool. It was the first time I got to do that.”

“About the video,” Teddy said.

“Right. It’s definitely a fake also. And it turns out that both fakes bear the signatures of Bing-Wen Jo. His nickname is Bingo.”

“Like the dog?”

“Or the parlor game popular with older Americans. From what I can find, he started out creating fake adult movie clips, then rode the technology wave enough to make millions of dollars. When he discovered a way to make instant fake videos using video clips and photos, he thought it was going to be his big break.”

“I’m guessing his big break never showed up.”

“The Chinese government keeps quite a file on this guy, and it seems to indicate Bing-Wen Jo is as good at violence as he is with computers. HR records show Arrow Donaldson officially hired him for the security team at his casino, but online chatter and rumors suspect his real job is secretly helping Arrow with off-the-books projects.”

“Dale Gai told me about Arrow Donaldson. I’ll have to see what else she can tell me about him and Bingo.”

“Donaldson is a major Republican backer and likes to fund congressional candidates and presidential candidates who like to talk tough against China.”

Teddy saw the bigger picture. “He props up politicians who play the bad cop, so he can come in and act like the good cop and use his government connections to push things through. This is helpful. Thank you.”

“One other thing. I had to dig through a few complex identity layers to find the signatures that linked to Bing-Wen Jo. Anyone else looking at this would trace it back to a Chinese gangster named Sonny Ma.”

Teddy hung up and scratched the side of his head. This wasn’t great news, but it was more information than he’d had before. He’d long ago learned to appreciate having as much information as possible, even if it turned out to be hard information to swallow.

He still worried he had offended Kevin Cushman and wondered if there was a way to show his thanks without being over the top. He went back to his laptop and logged into one of his many bank accounts and bought a substantial amount of in-game currency for an online game that he knew Kevin liked to play, and transferred it to a profile he knew Kevin liked to use.

A few minutes later Teddy a got a text message on his phone from a number he didn’t recognize and suspected didn’t even really exist. It was a picture of a hand making a thumbs-up gesture. He knew it was from Kevin and he smiled.

While he had his phone in his hand, he decided to make another call to someone else who’d done him a number of favors over the years. Millie Martindale had started as an assistant to the president’s national security adviser and managed to use her intelligence, her looks, and a special dogged charm to work her way into a series of escalating positions of influence and action. Recently Teddy had used her to keep in touch with Lance Cabot while Teddy was undercover in Paris. Millie had sprouted roots in Lance’s office since then, and was making quite a name for herself.

“Hello,” Millie said.

“Me again,” Teddy said.

“I still don’t know your name.”

“I don’t believe that, but I appreciate you being discreet.”

“Who do I get to be a go-between with this time?”

“Nobody. I just need information.”

“How boring.”

“It’s not all international subterfuge and murdered terrorists.”

“You murdered the terrorist,” Millie said.

“And you took credit for it.”

“Not by choice.”

“You’ve been working with Lance Cabot lately, right?”

“Yes...”

“Do you know what Lance and the CIA might be doing with casinos and Chinese gangsters?”

“You’re not the only one I’m discreet with.”

“I can just hack into the CIA network again like I always do and find out myself. I just wanted to give you a chance to pay me back the favor for putting you in Lance’s office.”

“You can try to hack into the network. Keeping you out of it is one of the things he put me in charge of.”

“He got tired of trying to keep a dead man out of his computers?”

“Sorry. I have to go. Enjoy Macau.”

Millie hung up before Teddy could ask her how she knew he was in Macau.