Jackpot

60

When Teddy and Dale were sure that Li Feng was gone, they left their table at the karaoke bar and went outside where they checked again to make sure Li Feng wasn’t hanging around to try and follow them. Teddy thought Dale was being overly paranoid, but she knew this area and the people better than Teddy, so he deferred to her expertise. While Teddy was agreeing with her, Dale motioned for a passing car to stop for them. It was a private car, not a taxi.

“You already arranged this, didn’t you?” Teddy asked.

She shrugged and got into the back seat of the car. Teddy hated sitting in the front seat for security and personality reasons, so he squeezed into the small back seat next to Dale. Their legs were touching and as they shifted into positions as comfortable as they were able to find, their pants legs shimmied up and there was a moment where they were touching each other ankle to ankle and skin to skin and Teddy felt an electric burst in his chest.

He could tell Dale felt it, too, and he simultaneously wanted to sink further into the seat and get closer to her while also jumping out of the car and getting as far away from her as possible. This certainly wasn’t the first time Teddy had gone from suspicion to fireworks with a woman, but it was the first time since his wife that it felt that way.

Dale was still making small talk with the driver when they arrived at Macau Tower. Teddy was grateful she didn’t seem to care that he was oblivious to the conversation. The Tower was striking in its height and gloss. It didn’t have the old-world charm of some of the other buildings, but it wasn’t as garish as the casino towers and the newer additions to the skyline. The concrete tower was topped with a glistening orb of chrome and emerald green glass that looked like the prime jewel on top of a massive scepter.

“The cinema has three screens. The premiere will be held at the top of the Tower, on the largest movie screen in all of China,” Dale said, when it seemed like she was certain Teddy was actually listening again.

Dale led the way from the car through the small luxury shopping center at the base of the Tower and then up the elevator to the top of the Tower. Each step, and each new aspect of the environment Teddy saw made him more and more nervous about how he would be able to pull this off. He never doubted that he would be able to make it work, and having someone of Dale Gai’s skill and passion working with him made him even more certain. But the margin of error was going to be even slimmer than it normally was and the price of failure would be even more catastrophic than normal.

If this went sideways, not only would Teddy and Dale both likely die but also the relationship between the United States and China would explode. The best-case scenario under those circumstances would be a return to another Cold War. Worst-case scenario was another world war.

“Did you see the glass bridge and the bungee jumping setup?” Dale asked as Teddy looked around.

“I don’t like anything about this,” Teddy said.

“The fates wouldn’t bring the two of us together for any ordinary fake murder-for-hire plot, now would they?” she said with a wry smile. “Two people like us require an exceptional intervention.”

“The exceptional part will be if we manage to get out of this alive.”