Knight swerved in and out of traffic on the snarled, narrow streets. Shortly after he hung up with Davis, Davis had uploaded a pin with the last known location of Cobus’s phone. Knight looked down at the map to check Cobus’s location, nearly rear-ending the car in front of him. He had already narrowly avoided collisions outside a McDonald’s and a sixteenth-century temple as he made his way into Macau. Now he couldn’t be more than a hundred yards away from the pin’s location. The fact that Cobus hadn’t moved in the past ten minutes made him easier to track but was also a cause for concern.

Ahead, Knight saw the flashing lights of ambulances and police cars gathered outside the dog track. His stomach sank as he parked his car and stepped out.

Knight approached an ambulance, trying not to draw attention to himself as he scanned the scene. A police officer intercepted him.

“I’m looking for a friend,” Knight told the officer. The officer said to stand back. “Official police business.”

Angling for a view over the cop’s shoulder, he spotted paramedics moving without urgency as they transported a covered body out of the stadium.

No, it can’t be.

Knight spun about and saw a second body already loaded into the open back of the ambulance. A paramedic had a resuscitator mask pressed to the patient’s face as another paramedic performed chest compressions. Though he couldn’t see the man’s face, Knight recognized the tattoos on the tan, muscular arm dangling off the stretcher.

The sight of Cobus clinging to life tore through his heart like a bullet. Knight felt the blood draining to his feet and buckled over, sensing he was about to throw up. Oh my God, he thought, what have I done?

Thirty minutes later, the lock on Cobus’s safe house shattered and the door burst inward. Knight was the only one besides Cobus who knew about the apartment, but soon others—both triads and law enforcement—would connect the dots of the South African’s double life and come turn the place inside out.

Buzzing with cortisol and adrenaline from his fight-or-flight response, Knight rifled through the drawers in Cobus’s desk. As he examined their contents, he was shocked at how comprehensive the man’s intelligence gathering had been. Cobus had a complete organizational chart for the Sun Yee On triad featuring Sky Dragon, Henry Lee, and Wan Koi, as well as other soldiers with odd titles like Straw Sandal, White Paper Fan, and the lower-ranking Blue Lanterns. There were also reams of shipping manifests, photos, and copious notes he had taken on every aspect of the triad’s operation. Knight was generally uncharitable with praise, but he was impressed by the professional nature of the investigation.