Jackpot

47

Teddy didn’t trust a single word that came out of Arrow Donaldson’s mouth; he suspected Arrow felt the same way about him. As long as they both kept up the illusion that they were working with each other, there was always the chance that it could net a benefit for Teddy. It also gave him an opportunity to keep tabs on Arrow without looking too conspicuous.

But Dale Gai didn’t have the luxury of waiting around while Teddy played games with Arrow. She might have already been swept away to some kind of prison camp where Teddy wouldn’t be able to save her without making an international incident out of it. But he wasn’t going to rest until he’d made every effort he could to prove that he wouldn’t leave her behind.

When he returned to Stone Barrington’s suite, he called the festival organizers and asked if they could spare a local actress for him to use for some promo work. Jee Go showed up fifteen minutes later at Teddy’s door, took his money, and let him disguise her without questions. He told her very little about what was going to happen, because he wanted her surprise and confusion to be genuine. His only preparatory comment was “You’re going to have to trust me.”

When they arrived at the police station, Teddy checked through his pockets to make sure he had everything he needed. Then he grabbed his decoy by the arm and dragged her to the information desk.

Teddy was happy to see that someone was behind the desk other than the fat young man who’d been there the last time. That was the first, and most important, roadblock to bypass for Teddy’s plan to work. He was suddenly feeling much more confident in his success and that fed his performance for the surrounding audience of officers and bystanders.

“I’ve captured this escaped fugitive and risked my life to get her off the streets and I would like a reward for my effort,” Teddy said, to no one in particular.

The actress looked up at him and, probably for the first time, realized her situation wasn’t as rosy as she’d been led to believe. She tried to pull away and the realism was great enough that the skinny old clerk behind the glassed-in desk seemed to suddenly register what was going on.

“What did you say?” the woman asked Teddy.

“This is Dale Gai, a wanted murder suspect who escaped from your custody. I found her and have brought her back. I’d like to claim my reward.”

The actress was really putting up a fight by that point, yelling in Chinese, presumably protesting Teddy’s story.

The skinny old clerk was typing furiously into an old computer terminal and had a rotating look of confusion, horror, and irritation on her face. Teddy waited patiently and managed to keep his impostor under control.

“I don’t show anywhere that anyone by that name has escaped,” the clerk said.

“They’re not going to put that kind of stuff in the computer for just anybody to find,” Teddy said.

The actress continued yelling at an escalating pitch. Teddy sensed that causing a scene by getting the girl and the clerk riled up would help further his plan. It seemed to be working. The clerk looked increasingly desperate to find information to corroborate what Teddy was telling her.

She was on the phone for a few seconds screaming at someone on the other end, and then it seemed like she spent another few seconds being screamed at in turn.

“This office is supposed to be the law-and-order headquarters for this region and I spend a lot of money in Macau every year and that’s going to come to an abrupt end right now if I can’t be assured that murderers won’t be running the streets because the police can’t keep track of who’s in jail and who isn’t.”

“I’m really sorry, sir, but Dale Gai is still in our system. I can see that her status was last updated fifteen minutes ago. It shows her still in this building.”

Teddy pushed the actress forward toward the clerk.

“Tell her who you are,” Teddy said.

The actress looked back at Teddy and fell silent, fuming. The clerk seemed to be at a crossroads internally.

Teddy suspected he needed a bit more of a distraction to push her over the edge into the action he needed next for his plan. Turning away from the desk, Teddy instead addressed the pockets of bystanders in the station, ranting and raving about what a scam the police were and how poorly treated he was as a foreigner and a tourist with vital money to spend in the country.

His speech didn’t do much to rile up anyone looking on, and it wasn’t persuasive enough for the clerk to leave her post. Teddy was analyzing the situation and evaluating possible moves. The plan had always been a long shot, and it appeared he was back to square one. Then fate intervened when a cluster of uniformed officers walked by with the real Dale Gai in tow.

“See. Right there. That’s Dale Gai,” the clerk said.

Before she could say anything further, Teddy used a customized shooter in his belt buckle to deploy a burst of mild tear gas in the area around Dale. That gave Teddy a brief opening to grab her and the actress each by an arm, and push them outside the police station. They were finally able to flag down a taxi a few blocks later. Dale and the actress were still coughing at even the minor irritant in the spray he’d used, but they didn’t need to like him right then. They were all safe and he’d kept his word.