Jackpot

2

Millie Martindale boarded a plane in Washington, D.C., Thursday afternoon and was finally seeing the end of the trip more than twenty-four hours later as her CIA-chartered private plane landed in Macau. She sat at the back of the small plane. The rest of the seats were full of older white men representing both branches of Congress as well as the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Justice. She took the final sip of her bottled water, poured the rest of her trail mix into her mouth, then followed the others off the plane.

They moved quickly to another area of the Macau Business Aviation Center where they watched a private jet larger than their own land. A man, who looked almost exactly like the other men in her group, stepped off and joined them in the waiting area. Arrow Donaldson was the head of a giant telecom conglomerate, as well as the owner of a professional basketball team in Los Angeles and a casino conglomerate in China.

The testimony was scheduled to be given at the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong & Macau building, forty-five minutes away in Hong Kong, but their base of operations was in Macau due to unrest in Hong Kong. Millie also believed a big part of it was Arrow Donaldson wanting to show off the power and prestige he wielded in Macau. Arrow shook hands and patted backs with the government delegation, ignoring Millie.

Millie stuck out her hand and smiled pleasantly.

“I’m Millie Martindale. I work with Lance Cabot. He sent me to meet you.”

“Where’s Lance?” Arrow asked, not taking the hand Millie was offering.

Millie dropped her hand but kept her smile pasted in place, her eyes on Arrow.

“We’ve met before. I’m sure you don’t remember, but I was the lead on the initiative at your casinos with the Chinese government officials,” she said.

Arrow quickly moved in close to Millie, glaring at her.

“Shhhh. You never know who’s listening around here.”

“I know exactly who’s listening. That’s the point. I’m with the CIA.”

“I only ever talked to Lance about what we were doing at the casino. He never mentioned you.”

“Lance is the face of the operation, of course. He’s the director of the CIA. I’m the one who handles the details behind the scenes. Millie Martindale.”

Millie had been working with Lance Cabot on a task force in one of Arrow’s Chinese casinos to identify Chinese government workers with gambling problems and recruit them as U.S. spies. But Lance had reassigned her to this detail when Arrow approached Lance about bringing Li Feng to the U.S. to give testimony that could impact a new trade deal in the works between China and the U.S.

Li Feng was the chief financial officer and daughter of the founder of QuiTel, China’s largest telecom company. QuiTel was suspected of using the cell phone equipment they sold in the U.S. to spy on U.S. citizens and was supposed to have been blacklisted from doing business in the country. But the suspicions were just that — suspicions, however well-founded. And without proof of wrongdoing, the company had been granted an exemption to that ban for several years. The exemption was due to expire at the end of the week, but China wanted the exemption for QuiTel to be made permanent as part of the new deal. If the CFO were to testify that the spying was real, it would squash the exemption for good.

Millie and Lance knew Arrow stood to benefit financially by selling new equipment to replace the cheaper equipment that QuiTel provided, but they suspected Arrow had other plans behind the scenes with more sinister potential. It was Millie’s job to figure out what those plans were, and to stop them.

“I can’t believe Lance pawned something this important off on a secretary.”

This time Millie was the one who moved in closer to Arrow.

“I’m not a secretary, and I’m definitely not a pawn, Mr. Donaldson.”

She put her hand out one more time, this time without a smile. Arrow shook it limply.

“You better watch your moves, Millie Martindale,” Arrow said.

When Arrow walked away, Millie took a deep breath and exhaled. Lance had told her this would happen. Millie had been pushing Lance to give her more responsibility and this was the perfect chance. Arrow Donaldson had a reputation for having trouble dealing with people he believed were beneath him, especially women.

And if Arrow became angry or frustrated, he was bound to make a mistake, one that would let the CIA stop him before he did anything terrible. They had backup plans in place, of course, but Millie could already tell she was going to be able to crack Arrow Donaldson.

When her breathing returned to normal, Millie joined the rest of the group. Arrow was off to the side talking on his phone. He saw her watching him and she smiled. He put his phone in his suit coat pocket and came back toward the group.

“Li Feng will remain under my secure protection for another night,” Arrow said. “So why don’t you all head to your hotel to rest a bit and we’ll regroup for dinner this evening?”

“That’s not what we agreed to. That’s not what I agreed to. I want to see Li Feng now.”

“I just got off the phone with your boss and he agreed to it.”

“You talked to Lance?”

But Arrow had already moved on to his waiting vehicle, as had the rest of her group. She pulled out her cell phone to call Lance and demand to know why he’d sold her out.

“Sorry to give you no warning, Millie,” he said, when he came on the line. “I figured it would help our plan to throw him off-balance, and you needed to act unguardedly. He’s agreed to meet you at his stadium in a few minutes to show you how powerful he is and what kind of protection he can offer. Let him spout off and feel like a big man and keep your mouth shut. Let him think you’re a secretary who is no threat to him.”

Millie grumbled an acceptance and hung up her phone.