yield. It probably wouldn’t begin to knock your building down, or even cause major damage by itself. But around the explosive core is something radioactive — medical-grade material, or low-level uranium, most likely. If those go off, they will contaminate the buildings — everything — and everybody — in them. Nobody will be able to come back into any of the casinos for a long time, and nothing in them will be salvageable.”
Locke didn’t know if dirty bombs worked exactly that way or not, but the story sounded both plausible and dramatic, and that was all that mattered. Besides, it was highly unlikely that the casino manager was any kind of expert in radiation poisoning and contamination.
Locke let the manager get there ahead of him, and it didn’t take him long. “Our money! We’ve got to get it out, to a safe place!”
The idea of sixty million dollars that nobody could touch, much less spend? What a horrible idea to a casino manager!
“Yes, sir. Get your guards to help my men. We’ll move all the cash and credit tabs to a secure location and come back to find the bomb. We’ll force the terrorists to tell us eventually, but we might not have much time —”
“Yes, yes, of course. Wong!”
The head of the casino’s security hurried to where Locke and the manager stood. “Go with the colonel — there’s a radioactive bomb here, we need to get our money out, now!”
“And have your people evacuate the building,” Locke said. “If that bomb goes off, everybody in here could be contaminated.”
Wong pulled his walkie-talkie and began speaking rapidly into it.
Pure genius, Locke thought. The best plan he’d ever come up with.
“Where will you take the funds?” the manager asked.
Locke pretended to think. “There is a small steamship in the harbor that belongs to the People, a cargo freighter used for Army supplies. It will be easier to guard with water all around it, and the river is upwind from the casinos. If there is an explosion at one of the casinos, the money will be safer there than anywhere else. We’ll take it to that ship. Your security chief will stay with it.”
“Yes, yes. Hurry!”
The freighter was a red-herring — the money would indeed go up a ladder on the starboard side — but without pause, it would go down another ramp on the port side, where a trio of fast boats would be waiting. These in turn would go but a short distance to a makeshift airfield where much faster airplanes were standing by.
Wong the security man would be clouted on the head and dumped into the bay, as would the other security people invited along to allay even the most remote suspicion. The boats would be roaring away as soon as they were unloaded, and the freighter rigged with explosives — nothing radioactive, just enough to make a very large bang and to sink it — and when eventually someone came looking for their money, the freighter would blow up.
After transferring the money to the aircraft, the empty boats would head for Taiwan. These might or might not escape detection, and too bad for the men running them if they did not.
The money by then would be flying along just over the sea, in stealth-gear-ensheathed airplanes painted to match the sky from below and the water from above.
All of this had been put together like a fine Swiss watch, every cog in place, jewels at every friction point, as slick as a film of oil on glass.
Wu had a hundred men in the operation, hand-picked and trained, and loyal to him, most of whom believed they would receive a quarter of a million U.S. dollars each for their help in the heist. In truth, ninety of them — including the twenty or so who played the role of terrorists — would get jacketed metal machine-gun bullets instead of money. Of the ten survivors, most thought
Greed was a wonderful motivator.
Wu would dispatch those last two, and then there would be none.
Well, save for Locke, and he had no intention of turning his back on anybody. He had his own plan. He would divert a portion of the money for himself — for there would be
By the time whichever authority in charge got it all sorted out, Wu would be in Taipei, and Locke halfway to somewhere far, far away, the first leg of several flights and passport changes to leave a cold trail behind him.
Locke’s plan was so bold, nobody had ever considered it before. And, as everyone knew, fortune favored the bold…
Locke went to direct his team, who would be helped in the theft by the casino’s own guards and the blessing of its manager. In a few moments, Army trucks full of money were going to roll through the streets of Macao, with the enthusiastic assistance of those who were unknowingly being robbed.
Pure genius. No doubt about it…
40
“Sir, it looks as if Wu’s men are clearing roads in the direction of the docks. Some from each casino. There also appears to be some kind of activity around a small freighter in the harbor.”
Kent frowned. “He’s planning to escape on a
“No, sir, it isn’t,” Fernandez said. “All this, just to get blown out of the water by the Chinese Navy? He’s got to have something else up his sleeve.”
“My guess is he does. Go get first squad on the way back to our aircraft and float it out where they can see what’s going on. Tell the CIA guy to get the cars here now, then load up second and third squads and get them rolling, radios on opchan alpha. Get us some other watercraft.”
“Yes, sir.” Fernandez started talking into his radio, issuing orders.
Kent considered his options. Julio was right, the money wasn’t important — let the Chinese worry about that. What they needed was Wu, and they needed to get him and get away before any of the locals figured out what was going on and who they were. They had to move quickly.
“Captain, which casino is Wu in?”
“The House of Good Fortune.”
“Get fourth squad and let’s go. Three cars. We are going to have to run and gun. No time for anything else.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kent grabbed a tactical radio unit and made sure it was tuned to the right opchan. He’d have to make it up as he went along. Sometimes that was the best battle plan you could manage. You had to make do with what you had.
“All squads, listen up. Here’s what we are going to do… ”
41
