“Talk to me.”
“No way. Pei Exotics is off the menu.”
“I’ve got a ten-million-dollar claim riding on this. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Can’t do it. There’s an ongoing investigation.” Willmore would let the fly dance on the water and draw in the cutthroat trout.
“Even if I told you I have a client who tried to insure a red-tailed boa?” Knight countered, baiting a hook of his own.
“Give me a break. Boas are Appendix Two.” A listing on CITES Appendix Two meant that trade in a species was legal but regulated. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was the international treaty governing animal trade. Animals listed on CITES Appendix One were the real action—the so-called big-game hunting of conservation. These were creatures on the brink of extinction, and where Fish and Wildlife agents like Willmore made their bones.
“You’ll have to do better than that, my man,” Willmore scoffed.
“What if I told you the boa had heroin stitched inside it? Came through a dealer in Orlando.”
Willmore grinned in spite of himself. Knight knew his audience. He also knew that federal prosecutors hated wasting precious resources on cases involving animals. Even prosecuting Appendix One cases entailed a lot of arm-twisting in the US Attorney’s Office. This meant that the one thing better than a case involving Appendix One animals was a case that overlapped with narcotics or some other crime that prosecutors actually did care about.
“Who’s the dealer?”
“You’d have to leave my client out of the investigation.”
“This better be legit.”
“Have I ever given you a bad lead?”
Willmore checked to make sure no one was listening, then spoke softly. “Deal. Pei Exotic Pets is a front company run by a guy named Wan Koi. He’s the Red Pole of the Sun Yee On triad.”
“Red Pole?” Knight asked.
Willmore didn’t need to pull up Wan Koi’s file. He’d been tracking the bastard for years. “It means he’s the head muscle of the most powerful crime syndicate in Asia. The dude is a grade-A dirtbag. DEA and Interpol both want a piece of him. He’s into everything from amphetamines to sex trafficking. We’d love to nail his ass, but we’ve got no extradition treaty with China, and he would never set foot outside Macau.”
“Do you know if they’re in the tiger game?”
“They’re into anything you can put on a cargo ship. Animals, drugs, people—you name it.”
“Thanks for the intel, brother. I’ll text you the name of that snake dealer.”
As the call drew to a close, Willmore began to have second thoughts about the thread he had offered Knight. He leaned forward on his elbows, lowering his voice. “Randall, be careful. People who interfere with the triads’ operation have a tendency to get dismembered.”
Willmore waited for a response.
“Randall, you still there?”
CHAPTER 12
LEE
hong kong
Henry Lee looked sharp in his slim-fitting suit, which moved flawlessly with his runner’s body as he ushered the American executives into the sitting area of his palatial modern suite. Out the window and across the water, the vaulting high-rises of Kowloon framed Victoria Harbor.