Jackpot

31

As they walked back to the casino from the production office, Dale was quiet and contemplative. Not one to pry into anyone else’s feelings, thus minimizing the risk he’d be asked about his own, Teddy kept quiet, though he assumed the same thing was bothering them both. There was more than just a protection racket going on.

He recognized the motorcycle attack as the work of amateurs rather than a triad. And someone with Dale’s skills, and likely experience, would have to be blind not to have come to the same conclusion. Mixed with what he had heard from Millie about Li Feng, and the fact that Bingo’s midnight trip to his hotel room for the “antidote” seemed staged, Teddy suspected it was all related. Knowing that there were extra layers to whatever trouble was brewing in Macau, Teddy thought the time had come for him to find out who Dale Gai really was.

“You’re obviously more than a secretary,” Teddy said after several blocks.

“I never said I wasn’t.”

“You haven’t really said anything.”

“No more and no less than you.”

“Point taken,” Teddy said. “But I know who I am, and I know what side I’m on.”

“Do you? A man like you, a man who is more than a movie producer, likely only cares about one side: his own.”

“My side right here and right now is the side of Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti and Centurion Studios. They’re good men doing good work and they’re being punished for it. That doesn’t sit right with me.”

“It doesn’t sit right with me, either. That’s why I’ve been helping.”

Teddy slowed his walk and looked her over. She seemed genuine. But, of all people, Teddy knew how much appearances could deceive.

“There are so many unknowns and so many moving pieces in this game that I find myself looking for the simplest answers, the easiest explanations,” Teddy said. “And the simplest explanation is that you’re a spy for Arrow Donaldson and you’ve been assigned to keep an eye on me and make sure I don’t get in the way of what’s really going on.”

“You disappoint me, Billy Barnett.”

“I don’t live my life defined by disappointments, my own or anyone else’s.”

“You know life isn’t simple. Answers aren’t simple. You aren’t simple.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I know you as much as you think you know me,” Dale said. “Everything you think I am, I used to be. I was a spy and a killer, and I was good at it. But I got out. I wanted to travel without having a target to kill, and I wanted to spend some of the money I earned.”

“Then why are you here, working at the casino?”

“I like to gamble. It’s fun. And I like the Golden Desert. It’s my home. And my home is rotten.”

“Arrow Donaldson?”

Dale nodded.

“He let the CIA in to do their spying, to identify powerful Chinese nationals with gambling problems, who they could turn. And he’s made deals with criminal organizations to shore up his funding during the economic slowdown. I just want to clear it all out.”

“Seems like pretending to be a secretary is a terrible way to get anything done.”

She shrugged.

“Maybe it’s just my cover until I find a way to rob him from the inside.”

“That might be the most honest thing you’ve said to me so far,” Teddy said.

“If that’s what you think, I’m not sure we can keep working together.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m not going to tell you everything about me. And I already know you haven’t told me everything about you,” Dale said, letting that last part hang in the air for an uncomfortable amount of time. “But I’ve done what I can to show you what side I’m on. You’ll have to make up your own mind about whether or not I can be trusted.”