Americans cared about was money. They would sell their worst enemy the keys to the castle as long as the price was right. It never ceased to amaze him how easily their national security apparatus could be circumvented.
After moving effortlessly through customs and immigration, he exited the Tom Bradley International terminal and headed for American Airlines’ domestic operations in Terminal 4. He had passed through LAX so many times that he knew it like the back of his hand.
He cleared security for Terminal 4 and, towing his wheel-aboard bag behind him, walked down the concourse to the American Airlines Admirals Club. His contact would not arrive for another hour, so Cheng availed himself of a hot shower, a shave, and something to eat. As much as he despised America and its decadent culture, there were some things the Americans got right. Of course all of these things came with a price—far outside the reach of the everyday man or woman.
The bartender asked if Cheng wanted a cocktail or glass of wine to go with his meal. The intelligence operative declined. He never drank when he was on assignment, and seldom even when he was at home. It dulled the senses and made you susceptible to all forms of entrapment or attack. He had only made one recent exception—when he had learned of his wife’s infidelity.
He should have anticipated it. Mi was a beautiful but weak woman. She had been a rising Chinese actress. Modeling jobs had led to bit parts in low-budget movies. From there the budgets had increased and so had the roles. She had graduated from playing the attractive girlfriend of mobsters and street thugs to roles of sensitivity, scope, and intelligence. But with fame had come temptation. In her case, it had been drugs, and drugs had been her downfall.
When Cheng had discovered her, she had hit bottom, twice, and was attempting for a third time to get back on her feet. Cheng was a handsome man in his own right, ten years her senior. He had seen all of her films. For him, it was love at first sight.
She had returned to her family in Nanjing. He had been there on business. She had stopped into her father’s restaurant to speak with him. Cheng had followed her home and arranged to “bump” into her the next day.
They dated for a year and he came to see her in Nanjing whenever possible. He knew important people in the city and made sure favors were done for her family. A small-time criminal enterprise had been shaking down her father. When he learned about it, he brought a stop to it immediately. The family loved him. They had no idea what he did for a living, only that he was a businessman who traveled often and brought them wonderful gifts. If Mi had any suspicions whatsoever, she never voiced them.
Her heart had been repeatedly broken in her painful rise to fledgling stardom and all along her subsequent fall. It had been torn from her chest again and again. Eventually, she had learned it was safer to feign love than to actually succumb to it.
She had wanted to love Cheng, but she couldn’t. It was as if the capacity to love no longer existed in her. She loved her family, though. That love had not been ground down and blown away. And they loved Cheng, or at least they loved what he did for them. In her way, she also loved what he did for them. But loving the deeds and loving the man were two different things.
There was something about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on. She didn’t want to call it evil, but she didn’t know what other word to use. It was cold and dark. She caught flashes of it from time to time and it frightened her.
Sometimes she chastised herself for feeling that way. She had never seen any outward acts that could specifically be described as evil, but there was something burning just below his surface that she was certain wasn’t good.
With her own heart a cold, dead thing that did nothing more than move blood through her body, she feigned love for Cheng. She did it for her family. She did it for herself. She still had her looks and Cheng wanted her. He was a good lover and he would provide for her and help protect and provide for her family. They dated and she agreed, with squeals of joy and