Jackpot

49

Li Feng thought she found her moment to strike Sonny Ma when she saw him leaving the hotel. She watched as he managed to bypass the throngs of fans and media, but then she lost him. She’d escaped her security detail enough growing up though to put herself in Sonny Ma’s mind-set and think about where he might be. A few blocks later she spotted him again in a back alley. He didn’t seem as aware of his surroundings as she would have expected him to be, but she stayed well behind him just in case. Another few blocks later, Li Feng realized he hadn’t just left the hotel for a quick meal or fresh air. He was heading toward his mother’s house.

Sonny Ma’s mother lived in a retirement complex called the 24 Diamonds, super luxury villas a few blocks off the Cotai Strip. Security was tight at the complex, and each resident had access to a fleet of diamond-encrusted Rolls-Royces to drive them around, making entry on her own virtually impossible for Li Feng. Luckily, she had been friends growing up with the man who developed the property.

Ten minutes later, she was riding in one of the diamond-encrusted Rolls on her way to help set up a surprise birthday party for Mrs. Ma, or so she’d told her old friend. Inside the villa, she was greeted at the door by the largest man she’d ever seen in her life.

“I’m a family friend,” Li Feng said. “I’ve come for a visit.”

“Ma’am is resting now. I just gave her tea and pills.”

So this man was a nurse as well as security. She suspected that was Sonny Ma’s doing. All of this had been paid for with his money, the fortune he’d made in his tech business.

As she looked around the entryway of the villa, Sonny Ma appeared from a back room and joined his mother’s nurse/guard. Li Feng froze.

“It’s good to see you, Li Feng,” he said. “Would you join us in the tearoom?”

She nodded in astonishment and followed him through the massive villa to what seemed to be the most ornate room in the house. The ceiling was all glass, and there were plants growing along the walls, as well as a beautiful tree right in the middle of the room. Li Feng felt like she was outside in a private garden. A servant entered with a tray of tea and egg tarts, and after serving the tea left as quietly as she’d come.

Sonny Ma and Li Feng were alone together for the first time in more than a decade.

“I see what you’ve become publicly,” Sonny Ma said, “and wonder what could have been if we’d had different childhoods.”

“Our childhoods were an illusion,” Li Feng spat out. “You stole my destiny.”

“You are a billionaire executive with power and prestige. All I could have offered you was a life of crime and desperation.”

“A life that leads to a home like this is worth a little desperation. And it would have been a life of my own.”

“You speak like a silly child, Li Feng. I would give all my money to trade for what you have.”

“Yet you are a legend,” she replied, bitterly. “And you control your own destiny.”

“Can you truly be so naïve? Your father came to me, told me to keep you away from that life. He’s a more powerful man than I could ever become and has the backing of the government! If I’d ignored him, he would have come after me, or my family. Your anger is not with me. Your anger is with your family. Your anger is with your country.”

“I was naïve, it seems, to believe that you would never back down. That you would help me fight for the life I wanted.”

With that, Li Feng turned on her heel and stormed out of the bungalow.

Millie had just entered the lobby of the Golden Desert Casino when her cell phone rang. It was Quentin.

“The preliminary analysis came back on the drone that killed your decoy,” he said. While the drone itself was still in transit to the lab, Quentin had been able to send the techs at Quantico the data he’d pulled from its hard drive.

“And?”

“From everything they could see, it has the signatures of a local gangster named Sonny Ma. They’ll be able to get more off the physical wreckage, but this should be enough to give you some direction in your investigation until I get back.”

“Thank you so much, Quentin. This is great.”

“You know, they have labs in Macau that could have analyzed this in a timelier fashion,” Quentin said.

“But I don’t trust them as much as I trust you.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Quentin said, laughing. “I’ve got to go. Have fun saving the world.”