Rising Tiger by Trevor Scott

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