“Not to be a dick, Davis, but we both know you’re circling the drain at the agency. I’m offering you a chance to prove to everyone that you were right.”

Whatever fantasies Davis had of telling everyone he worked with to go screw themselves suddenly evaporated.

“This thing your offering—is it real?”

“It will be,” Knight assured him.

Despite his best instincts, Davis could feel Knight reeling him in. Knight was slippery, but was he any slipperier than other sources the CIA relied on?

“Which terror group?”

“Whichever one you want.”

Davis could sense that the deal was Faustian in nature, but he was desperate. “When would I get it?”

“How soon can you be in Hong Kong?”

Though Davis didn’t know what deal the devil was offering, he proceeded to log on to his internal CIA computer, looking out the window to make sure no one was watching.

“What’s that phone number you need located?”

CHAPTER 44 THE FATE OF DOGS

CHAPTER 44
THE FATE OF DOGS

macau

As slot machines dinged all around him, Cobus approached the money cage on the floor of the Wynn Casino. He presented a large stack of chips he had just collected from the triad’s accounts-payable department in the private poker room. The casino offered the option of paying out in Macanese patacas, the yuan of mainland China, or Hong Kong dollars. Like most international gamblers, Cobus preferred the Hong Kong dollar because it was the most fungible. In fact, many Chinese gamblers came to Macau with their yuan purely because it was one of the most efficient and untraceable ways to move their newly gotten wealth out of mainland China.

The teller handed Cobus a brick of Hong Kong dollars, which he stuffed in his jacket before leaving the casino. He made his way across the street, checking his six as he passed beneath the giant glowing pineapple tower of the Grand Lisboa Casino. The casino was a former triad haunt from the time when men like the Sky Dragon ran the city, before they were forced into exile and their gambling rackets were taken over by men like Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn.

Cobus knew that the area around the Grand Lisboa was still a popular hangout for the vestiges of the triad clans. This posed a particular risk to Cobus, who was already constantly on edge since both Wan and Wan’s rivals had cause to put him down.