She sat into the plush leather chair and simply stared at the banker. The two of them had only one language in common, English, and she made sure the man thought her English skills were marginal at best.
“What are you doing here?” Ravi Singh asked her. Then the banker got up and went to the large windows overlooking the lobby area. He started to close the shades, but then must have thought better of it and left them open.
The woman rubbed the side of her neck where the larger woman had choked her. But her real pain was along the left side of her jaw where the woman had hit her. “You met with American?”
The banker came back and sat behind his desk. “Yes, of course.”
“What you tell him?”
Mister Singh looked nervous. “Just what I was told to tell him. What do you think?”
“I hear this man dangerous,” she said. Actually, her employer had said the man could snap her neck like a chicken and then go out for curry and beer like nothing happened.
The banker’s bushy brows furled. “What happened to you? Did you get in a fight?”
“Never mind me. Did you give the man jump drive?”
“Of course. Reluctantly.”
“You sell it?”
“Absolutely.”
She nodded approval. Her employer would be happy now, even though she had exposed herself to this man’s girlfriend. But the plan would work even better if the man made it all the way to Bangkok.
Satisfied, she got up and left the banker alone. Part of her wished her employer had allowed her to beat up that man. She hated bankers.
11
Jake and Alexandra got back to their hotel and settled in for the afternoon. Alexandra was obviously tired from going to bed so late the night before, and perhaps from the adrenalin rush during the fight with the Asian woman. After she washed up a bit, she crawled onto the bed and nearly immediately went to sleep.
With her heavy breathing in the background, Jake pulled out the jump drive he had gotten from the banker, Ravi Singh. There was just one folder on the drive, and that only contained a couple of files. One file showed the original transfer of money into an account owned by Bill Remington — the money coming from the same accounts that had placed money in his friend Chad Hunter’s account in Belize, implicating him in the supposedly accidental shoot down of a Chinese satellite. But of course Jake had already disavowed that action, exonerating his old friend. Although this part of Remington’s indiscretion was already known, including the transfer of money to this Singapore account, there was some interesting data here. For instance, it showed a pattern of cash withdrawals that coincided with what Ravi Singh had told him. The banker had personally removed the money, placed it into Remington’s safe deposit box, and then delivered this cash to a tailor in Bangkok, Thailand. One of the files showed the banker’s travel tickets, where he had flown to Bangkok and back in the same day on three separate occasions in the past month. This was all before the American government had found out about the account and frozen the assets.
He transferred the files to his laptop after encrypting the files. Then Jake got off the laptop and shoved the thumb drive into his left cargo pants pocket.
Jake glanced at the sleeping beauty on the bed and checked his watch. He had fifteen minutes. Reluctantly he left his gun and extra magazine on the table next to the other one that Alexandra had carried. He couldn’t take it where he was going.
As he quietly left the room on the fifty-fifth floor, he slowly made his way down to the elevators. He would be leaving Singapore in the morning and if he didn’t at least see his old friend, she would be really pissed when she found out.
Attached to the Sands Hotel where he stayed was a massive casino. It was one of the reasons Jake had stayed here in the first place. But to get into the casino, Jake had to show the entrance security his passport and then go through an airport-like metal detector — his reason for not bringing his gun.
Jake wandered through the casino, which at this time of the afternoon was not very busy. He wasn’t a huge gambler. The odds were always in the favor of the house. But he wasn’t there to gamble. He was there to see an old friend.
Chang Su had been a friend of his for many years. The two of them first met when Jake was on a mission in China years ago, when he stopped the transfer of laser technology from getting into the hands of the communist Chinese government. Jake had gotten Chang Su out of China and she had lived with him for more than a year at his apartment in Innsbruck, Austria. Although they had been lovers, Jake knew that her heart was really never in it. He guessed she had been grateful for him saving her life, and over time that had worn off. Eventually the cold of Austria had become too much for her, and the pull of Asia had been too strong.
When he saw her at one of the roulette tables, wearing a red vest over a white silk shirt, she looked…happy. He almost walked away. The last thing he wanted to do was get her mixed up in his current situation. Sure he had considered having her translate the Chinese parts of the data he had gotten from the banker in Taiwan. But it was better to let Kurt Jenkins handle that. Just as he thought he might let her be, she caught Jake looking at her and her eyes, her most expressive feature, brightened even more.
Chang Su let the current ball finish bouncing, collected the chips and paid a few small payouts, and then turned the table over to another croupier.
She nodded her head for Jake to follow her. He couldn’t help checking out her tiny body as she walked away from him. His mind went back to his apartment in Austria and a montage of times they had made love.
When they finally reached a nearly-empty bar area off to one side, she finally turned and gave Jake a big hug. As she pulled away, she wiped tears from both eyes.
They took seats at a table across from each other.
He waited for her to speak first.
“What are you doing here, Jake?” she asked. For the first time he saw the colorful braces on her teeth. If she had had one flaw, it was her imperfect teeth. But now the braces made her look like she was still in high school. She had not aged a day.
“It’s business,” Jake said. “I can’t say any more.”
She shook her head. “I understand. How long will you be here?”
“Just tonight,” he said. He wished he had more time after seeing her again.
“We should go out tonight then.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“It’s slow today. I could say I’m sick.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought she might want to rekindle what they had in the past.
“I’m sorry. I’m with someone.”
She looked disappointed. “It’s Toni, right?”
“No. Toni was murdered recently.”
Shock crossed her face, and Jake realized he shouldn’t have been so blunt. He explained what had happened to Toni, and how the two of them had never gotten back together.
“I’m so sorry, Jake. But you were still friends.”
“Of course.” He didn’t want to mention the fact that Toni had given birth to Jake’s son years ago and failed to tell him. Jake was still trying to deal with that recent revelation.
“Then who?” she asked.
“You’ve met her in Austria. Alexandra.”
“Oh, she is very beautiful. I hope you are finally happy.”
“Well, we’re still trying to figure things out.” He explained what he could, that Alexandra was becoming his partner. Nothing else. “How are you doing?”
She hesitated to consider the question. “I’m happy. I like my job here. Singapore is a beautiful city. Very warm.”
“It is that. Too hot for me.” Jake had kept his eyes open for anything unusual and when he finally saw something out of place, he knew he had to move fast to keep Chang Su safe. “I have to go. Is your number the same?”