THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels) (22 page)

Freddy was a little afraid he was being too obvious about checking out a route to the door, but Pine didn’t appear to notice. Could he get off the couch and out the door before Pine caught up with him? And if he could, how far was it to a stairwell? He sure as hell wasn’t going to press the elevator button and stand around waiting for an elevator to show up. Pine looked athletic, and Freddy really didn’t fancy his chances of outrunning him, but what else was he going to do? Even if he only had one chance in ten to make it, he had to try. Sitting here on this couch he had exactly no chances in ten.

“You look jumpy, Freddy. You shouldn’t be. Everything is going to be fine.”

Freddy nodded, but he said nothing. He was too busy imagining himself vaulting over the end of the couch, sprinting half a dozen steps to the door, and plunging out into the hallway. Maybe he should start screaming the moment he opened the door. What could it hurt? Perhaps he would even attract enough attention to get the guy to run.

“I only want to talk to you, Freddy.”

Freddy nodded again and tried to steady his breathing. Over the arm of the couch, six quick steps to the door, outside, and down the hall. How hard could that be?

“You do know who I really am and why I’m here, don’t you, Freddy?”

Another nod. A deep breath.

“Your brother asked me to talk to you.”

Another deep breath.

“He’s not happy about you meeting with Shepherd.”

Fuck it,
Freddy thought.
Go!

The vault over the arm of the couch was harder than he expected. His thigh caught on something and he fell into a table. A lamp and an ashtray thumped onto the carpet. At least he fell in the direction of the door.

Righting himself, he pumped his legs as fast as he could, but out of the corner of his eye he was dimly aware that Harry Pine hadn’t moved from his chair. He hadn’t even uncrossed his legs. Freddy didn’t understand that. It didn’t make much sense that Pine wouldn’t even bother chasing him, but he wasn’t going to stick around a while and ask him why he wasn’t.

Freddy’s hand hit the handle and he jerked the door open. He plunged through it and out into the hallway.

That was when he found out why Pine hadn’t bothered to get out of his chair.

THE TWO MEN WAITING
outside dragged Freddy back into the suite and dumped him on the couch more or less exactly where he had been sitting before.

“You’re being an asshole, Freddy.” Pine shook his head. “Don’t be an asshole.”

Freddy nodded. That was exactly what he felt like. A complete asshole. “You sent those two guys to the Ah-Ma temple. You tried to kill me when I met Shepherd there.”

“They were only supposed to scare you. Or at least scare Shepherd. Who they scared didn’t really matter. The point was to stop your meetings and put an end to this silly idea you have of seeking asylum in the United States.” Pine sighed heavily, uncrossed his legs, and crossed them back the other way. “If I had wanted you dead, Freddy, you’d be dead. My guys don’t miss, except on purpose.”

Freddy was slowly settling into a state of resignation. He had made his bed and now he was lying in it. His dream of going to America was over and he was in the hands of his brother. All that mattered now was what his brother intended to do with him. Nothing he could say would make any difference.

“Why do you want to go over to the Americans, Freddy?”

“You should know. You’re an American, aren’t you?”

“Oh man, I really hate people thinking I’m an American. It’s the damned accent, isn’t it?” Pine grinned. “I’m Canadian. At least I think I am. I’ve been so many things that I have a little trouble now remembering what I was when I started out. Hell, maybe I am an American. Who knows?”

Freddy started to say something about loyalty to the land of one’s birth, but it occurred to him that was a pretty silly thing to be coming out of his mouth so he said nothing.

“So have you figured out who I really am now, Freddy?”

Freddy shrugged.

“Come on, man. Pay attention. I told you I was a Canadian. I work for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard—”

“You’re the guy they call the Canadian?” Freddy interrupted.

“You thought the Canadian was like the boogeyman, didn’t you? Just a made-up story used to frighten the children.”

Pine grinned and shook his head.

“Nope, I’m real. And, unfortunately for you, right now I’m sitting here in this hotel suite where you thought nobody knew you were.”

There had been stories around for years that the DPRK had extensive operations in Macau, that Macau was effectively the center of all of the DPRK’s international undertakings. And the sexiest of those rumors was that the DPRK’s operations in Macau were actually run by a foreigner everybody called the Canadian.

Freddy believed the first part of the story since he did know some of the things the DPRK was doing in Macau, even if he had nothing to do with them, but he thought the part about some mysterious figure called the Canadian running everything was only a fairy tale the DPRK put around to make them seem more organized and international than they actually were. Could it really be true?

“I do a lot of things for your motherland here in Macau, Freddy. I run some commercial enterprises, I handle banking operations, I sell a few bombs and rockets here and there. I even supervise preparation of the men and women the DPRK sends here to be prepared for insertion into the US and Europe as active intelligence agents. But right now you shouldn’t be thinking about any of that. One of the other things I do is keep an eye on you, friend. That’s what you really should be thinking about.”

“You’ve been following me?”

“Don’t be silly. I don’t do shit like that. At least not personally.” Pine gestured at the two goons who had dragged Freddy back into the suite when he made his absurd break for freedom. “That’s why I’ve got guys like this working for me.”

Now that Freddy looked at the men more carefully, he realized they did look a bit Korean, only not that much. They looked somehow generically Asian, like the gunmen who had come after him at the Ah-Ma temple. That did seem weird, now that he thought about it.

“We’ve got a doctor here who touches our people up a little,” Pine explained, since he could easily see what Freddy was thinking. “A nip here and a tuck there, and in the US or Europe they can pass for anything from a Chinese to a Thai. No point in going around letting their faces advertise who they really are, is there?”

Freddy wished he had thought of that, he really did. If he had, he might be on some beach in Hawaii right now.

PINE LOOKED AROUND THE
hotel suite for a moment like a man contemplating the possibility of buying it, but eventually he shifted his attention back to Freddy.

“What did you offer the Americans in return for that house in Hawaii?”

Freddy looked at the floor.

“You don’t really have anything to give them, do you? You could probably tell them about a couple of our Macau front companies, but that’s about it, isn’t it? Of course, they don’t know that. You were running a little con on the Yanks, weren’t you, Freddy? I got to admit I admire you for having the balls to do that. I really do.”

Freddy kept his face empty and stayed silent.

“But of course you understand it would still be a problem for your brother if you really did go over to the Americans. Jesus, can you imagine how silly that would make him look?”

“Get to the point. What happens now?”

“Ah well, that’s the real question, isn’t it?”

Pine got to his feet and Freddy lifted his hands and flinched away from him.

“Jesus, Freddy, relax, would you? You’re going to turn me into a nervous wreck.”

Pine walked over to the window and stared out at the Sands for a moment. The garish neon forms leapt and danced over the building in a sad parody of fun and good cheer while inside the casino relentlessly drained the pockets of rich and poor alike.

“Here’s my problem, Freddy. I got orders today to kill you.”

Turning away from the window, Pine saw that Freddy’s face had gone slack and he had sunk back into the couch. He looked like a blow up doll after somebody had let the air out.

“Take it easy, man. I’m not going to do that. At least not right now.”

Freddy looked up. His expression said that he expected a trick of some kind. He was dealing with the DPRK. Everything was some kind of a trick, even if they had sometimes forgotten how the trick worked.

“The order came through channels and I can’t be absolutely sure where it originated. If somebody high up is figuring I have too much influence and wants to cut my throat, they could have sent me an order to kill the brother of the big guy without the big guy knowing about it. Then, when he finds out…well, you could imagine what would happen to me. On the other hand, if the order to kill you did come from the big guy and I don’t kill you, that would go even worse for me. You do see my problem here, don’t you?”

Pine looked at Freddy and raised his eyebrows as if he actually expected Freddy to voice his opinion on the dilemma he was facing. Freddy tried to remain still, but his head, almost as if it were operating independently of Freddy’s conscious thoughts, nodded anyway.

“Yeah,” Pine nodded back, “that’s what I thought. So here’s what I’ve decided to do…”

Pine returned to the chair where he had been sitting and resumed his previous posture. Leaning back, legs crossed, slight smile.

“You’re going to go with these two gentlemen to a place we’ve prepared for you. We’re going to keep you there until I can confirm who wants you killed and who doesn’t. If the Little Leader gives you a thumbs down, I promise we’ll get it over with as painlessly as we can. If he gives you a thumbs up, we’ll turn you loose and you’re on your own. Sound fair?”

Freddy nodded again. He hated himself for doing it, but he did it anyway.

“Oh, one more thing. I know you won’t give them any trouble when you’re leaving the hotel, will you?”

Freddy shook his head.

“Good. I didn’t think you would. Still, to be on the safe side, we’re going to give you a little shot to relax you. Nothing heavy duty. It will look like my friends here are helping out a buddy who had a little too much to drink.”

Pine pointed his forefinger at one of the goons, who quickly stepped forward and produced a packaged hypodermic needle from his coat pocket. He opened the package, popped the cap off the needle, and went into the familiar ritual of turning the barrel of the hypodermic upright and tapping against it to force out any air bubbles.

Freddy thought about resisting. How did he know what they were really shooting him up with? Perhaps this was how they intended to kill him and they were trying to keep him calm. The more he thought about it, the more he supposed it didn’t matter. Pine had been right about one thing. If his brother wanted him dead, he was going to be killed. Here, later, sometime. Whenever they wanted really. In the end, what could he do about it?

Freddy pushed up his left sleeve and stoically stared straight ahead. If he was going to be dead, maybe this was even the best way for it to happen.

It only took a minute before whatever was in the hypodermic to hit him. At first he felt dizzy. Then he simply fell into a black hole. The last thing he remembered was hearing the sound of Harry Pine’s voice from somewhere very far away.

“I need a fucking drink,” Pine was saying.

HARRY PINE WAS ALONE.
I ran straight into him walking into the mezzanine bar just as I was leaving it to follow Archie to the elevators and then upstairs to the room where Freddy was presumably registered. Pine looked like a man in serious need of a drink.

What the hell was he doing here anyway? Was he following me around Macau for some reason? No, that didn’t make any sense. Why would some guy who reads construction contracts for a living want to follow me?

Still, it was an odd coincidence all the same that Pine kept turning up wherever I went. If coincidence was what it really was. I wouldn’t have been particularly happy to see Pine anywhere or any time, but right here and right now it was absolutely the last thing I wanted.

““Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “We’re going to have to stop meeting like this, Jack. People will talk.”

“Sorry, Harry,” I muttered. “I’m with somebody. Can’t talk.”

“Hey, man, what’s your hurry? Who is she anyway?”

I kept walking.

“Slow down,” Pine called out. “Let me buy you a drink.”

I didn’t slow down, didn’t even look back. I only lifted my right hand and wiggled it in a sort of wave that Pine could see over my shoulder. As far as I was concerned, he could interpret that wave any damn way he wanted.

All the way to the elevators, I could feel Pine’s eyes on my back. And somehow I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was smiling at me.

ARCHIE AND I RODE
up to the eighteenth floor without speaking. When the doors opened, I saw that 1801 was all the way down at the end of the hallway. I figured that gave us a good forty-five seconds to come up with a clever plan. Maybe a whole minute. Unless of course Archie already had a clever plan he hadn’t gotten around to telling me about yet.

“What are we going to do?” I asked as we started down the corridor.

“Knock on the door. See if anyone answers.”

So much for Archie having a clever plan.

ARCHIE KNOCKED ON THE
door, just like he said he was going to. In fact, he knocked twice, hard, but no one answered. Either the room was empty, or Freddy didn’t want to see anybody.

“Now what?” I asked, ever helpful.

Archie pulled out his wallet and extracted a silver card that looked to be made of heavy plastic. It was about the same size as a credit card, and that’s what I would have thought it was if I hadn’t noticed that it had nothing printed on either side.

Archie slipped the silver card into the slot on the top of the electronic lock, a little light on the side turned green, and the door to room 1801 clicked open.

“You have a key to Freddy’s room?”