Jackpot

30

Teddy woke up the next morning in Stone Barrington’s suite at the Grand Desert and decided to act more like Stone without the disguise. He brewed a cup of coffee from the above-average machine in the suite to hold him over until the room service tray arrived with even better coffee, scrambled eggs, fruit, assorted breakfast meats, and a truly decadent French toast and Belgian waffle blend. He ate it all, saving the waffle for the end, then took his English language newspaper out on the balcony with another cup of coffee.

The newspaper was mostly bland and geared toward those in Macau on business rather than pleasure. Teddy wasn’t in town for either, so he sipped his coffee and watched the city come to life below him. When he found himself contemplating a life of travel and luxury with little responsibility, he called Dale Gai and told her to meet him at the production office.

Dale was already there when Teddy arrived, and he was surprised to find himself irritated that she always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Teddy never considered himself particularly petty, but these days he rarely found himself in the presence of anyone whose skills approached his.

Teddy had been spending too much time in L.A., where everyone analyzed everything to death. It seemed like that was creeping into his own mind as well.

“You look refreshed, like a tourist,” Dale said when she saw Teddy.

“It’s the hotel coffee and waffles.”

“It looks good on you.”

“It wouldn’t if I ate like this every day. I’d be so large you’d have to roll me around town.”

“I heard you had quite the adventure the other night with our friend Bing-Wen Jo.”

“Were you spying on me?”

“I work in security for one of the biggest casinos in Macau. I’d be angry if I didn’t hear about the American movie producer drunkenly playing baccarat with one of the town’s most notorious criminals.”

“You better never let Arrow Donaldson hear you refer to his casino as one of the biggest in the city.”

“If I’m lucky, Arrow Donaldson won’t hear me refer to anything. Ever. Tell me what you two talked about during your card game.”

“We didn’t talk much. He just zoned out and didn’t give me anything useful.”

“You ordered lemon tea for him,” Dale said.

“Just because it’s a casino doesn’t mean people need to drink alcohol all of the time.”

Teddy didn’t bother asking how or why she knew what he had ordered for Bingo. It was obvious that Teddy had piqued her interest; even when he wasn’t around her, she was paying attention to what he was doing. He’d need to remember that.

“You’re right. It’s probably just a coincidence that lemon tea also happens to be one of the best natural antidotes to tranquilizers.”

“I’ll pretend not to find it odd that you know that as long as you pretend not to be interested in how I know that.”

“I’m more interested in why someone would be using tranquilizers to get information from a dangerous criminal in the first place.”

“Believe it or not, there are people who don’t see violence as the answer to every problem,” Teddy said.

“Regardless of the tools or the reasoning, what were the results?”

“As I said, nothing during the card game. But he came back to my room in the middle of the night.”

“He had himself a change of heart?”

“I don’t think so. I think he’s being directed by someone higher up behind the scenes, and for some reason he decided telling me the truth provided him a strategic advantage. He told me a very interesting story about Sonny Ma.”

Teddy gave her the full report of what Bingo had told him. She nodded approvingly as he spoke.

“That does make sense,” she said.

Teddy unlocked the office and led Dale inside. She took a seat in front of the desk, but before Teddy could join her, he heard motorcycles approaching and looked out the window. By the time he noticed that two motorcycles were headed straight for the window, he was already prepping for an attack. His first instinct was to get Dale out of harm’s way, but she was already out of her seat and headed for the door. Teddy looked around, yet again, for a weapon and noticed Dale wasn’t having the same issue. She pulled an attack baton from a pocket in her jumpsuit and ran toward the motorcycles.

Each motorcycle had two riders. The driver of the one closest to Dale was the largest man Teddy had ever seen. Dale snapped the baton out to its full length, then expertly launched it into the spokes of the motorcycle next to her.

The bike came to an abrupt and violent stop, tossing off the passenger in the back. The big driver showed surprising grace and agility, tucking himself into a landing and rolling back onto his feet in a few compact moves.

Teddy was out of the office by then, wielding a metal curtain rod inspired by Dale’s baton. He took on the giant man while Dale took on the other riders. The other motorcycle was circling back toward Dale, and as the bike came at her, she stepped to the side just enough to avoid being hit and grabbed on to the rider in the back. She used his body to pull herself onto the motorcycle, while pushing him off like an old-time movie cowboy.

Dale reached around the waist of the remaining rider, grabbed the handlebars over his hands, and squeezed the brakes, aiming the motorcycle directly at the other two riders. The collision knocked them all to the ground, but Dale was prepared for the impact. With an agile twist she launched herself away from the bike and tucked her body into a roll, popped back up, and dusted herself off to go help Teddy with the giant.

The big man was strong and stubborn and could take a hit well. Teddy knew how to box, but those moves weren’t working against a man who didn’t seem to feel pain. Teddy wondered if he was high on drugs or adrenaline. He tried a variety of martial arts moves that had more of an effect, but not enough to bring the big man down.

Out of violent options, Teddy found his greatest success with a series of ballroom dance moves. Along with the lethal training the CIA provided, they also provided social training to help their operatives blend into any situation. On one mission, Teddy had been sent into an east African country run by an enormous female warlord who loved to dance. One of the Agency’s instructors had taught Teddy how to lead a dance partner twice his size and still look graceful. The skills translated almost exactly to maneuvering this giant man into enough walls and sharp objects to keep him from beating Teddy to death. He was giving Teddy everything he could handle when Dale joined them.

While Teddy continued attacking from the front, Dale snuck in a few nasty shots to the big man’s kidneys and gonads from behind. She finished by jumping on the man’s shoulders like an aggressive toddler, swinging her belt around his neck, and pulling it tight. When the giant finally fell to the ground unconscious, Teddy checked to make sure the giant was still breathing. Then he looked to see who else was left. All the other punks had run away scared, but not before lighting the office on fire.

Teddy and Dale rushed into the building to try and put out the flames, but the massive stacks of papers in the office and the age of the building itself caused the conflagration to spread. They quickly made the decision together that they didn’t want to be around to answer questions about what they’d been up to when the fire services and police arrived. So after yelling as much as they could for everyone to get out, they walked away.