Jackpot

56

Millie knew exactly where Li Feng would be going. Without the ability to draw on her family name and connections, she would need to consult the criminal underground. The only criminal underground she suspected Li Feng knew about would be the pawnshop near the casino. And since Li Feng wouldn’t want to risk being seen by anyone, she’d keep her travels to alleys and the more out-of-the-way paths.

The cab dropped Millie off at the pawnshop, and she worked her way back toward the safe house, hoping to catch Li Feng off guard. Her plan paid off. Several blocks later, Millie spotted her quarry coming out of a restaurant. Millie sped up her pace.

The sting of seeing Sonny Ma and his pathetic dismissal of her anger at him was still raging inside Li Feng as she made her way through the darker and more anonymous parts of Macau.

Ziggy Peng had been right to question her elaborate plan that she could now admit was also silly. As she wandered the streets, her anger increasing rather than dissipating, she thought about killing Sonny Ma. Ziggy Peng had been dismissive of her and had whined about every aspect of her plan. She had no more patience for pathetic men to do her bidding for her. She would kill Sonny Ma herself.

She ducked into a small café to get something to eat. She expected that the combination of food and the clarity that she would be the one to kill Sonny Ma would put her at ease, but all it did was raise more questions in her mind. It was taking everything she had and all of her concentration to just stay in the shadows and not get recognized on the street. This was only reinforced in her mind when she stepped out of the café and back into the alley and was accosted by a street thug. It was a dirty kid who had an inch or so on her and was about twenty pounds heavier. He pressed her against the wall with his arm against her throat and his other hand over her mouth.

“Money, now. No mouth,” the thug said.

She shook her head and tried to speak.

“I don’t have any money,” she mumbled through the thug’s hand.

She heard a click and felt a prick against her neck as the thug held a switchblade to her throat. A second person appeared from the shadow, probably an accomplice. Li Feng was certain she was about to die.

“Saia daqui agora,” the second person said in Portuguese. Li Feng knew that meant Get out of here now.

“Saia daqui agora,” Millie said, feeling more comfortable with her Portuguese than her Mandarin at the moment.

The thug dropped his arm from Li Feng and scrambled away.

Putting one hand over the small wound on her neck, Li Feng looked at her rescuer.

“My name is Millie Martindale. I’m with the CIA and I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“You’d be dead right now if I wasn’t following you.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I was the one who was supposed to be protecting you when you testified before the U.S. government.”

“Brilliant job. Thank you.”

“Without your testimony, I’m worried that Arrow Donaldson sees you as a loose end. I can protect you. I can get you a new identity and get you out of this country if you testify on the record against Arrow Donaldson.”

“I have business in Macau beyond Arrow Donaldson.”

Millie reached into her back pocket and pulled out a pair of zip ties and held them up.

“I can arrest you now and you get nothing.”

Li Feng also took a more upright stance and flicked her wrist to show that she was now holding the switchblade knife she’d taken from her attacker.

“Come and get me.”

Millie raised her hands in surrender and backed away as Li Feng came away from the wall, knife first. Li Feng turned and backed down the alley, then finally turned and ran.