Free THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels) by Jake Needham

take his case right to the White House. That’s why I need you, too.”
    “Even if I could, what do you have that’s worth taking to the White House?” I asked.
    “If I tell you, I will have given up everything and gotten nothing in return. Would you do such a stupid thing, Mr. Shepherd?”
    No, of course I wouldn’t.
    “YOU’VE GOT TO GIVE me something,” I said after the silence stretched almost to the breaking point. “Tell me who you are. Tell me what you have that would make you important enough to be worth someone’s attention. You can’t ask me to buy a pig in a poke.”
    “What is—”
    “Never mind. Just give me something.”
    Freddy’s eyes rolled around for a moment as if they had suddenly become untethered from his face, and he smiled slightly.
    “Within a week,” he said, “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will announce that it attempted to arrest an American who was posing as a journalist but who actually entered the country as a spy. They will tell the world that this person was shot while trying to escape and is now dead. That will not be true, of course, but that will be what they say. This person is very much alive and being held captive in North Korea.”
    “North Korea?”
    Freddy kept smiling.
    “Are you Korean?”
    He said nothing.
    “Are you North Korean?”
    He still said nothing.
    I knew Macau had connections with what was fancifully known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Several DPRK banks operated in Macau, their only window on the west, and from time to time stories surfaced about them in connection with international arms sales or drug smuggling or one of the other black businesses that North Korea dabbled in to raise hard currency. I had also heard tales that the North Koreans trained their western spies in Macau so they could learn to mix with westerners before they were sent off to the United States or Europe, but I was less certain those stories were true.
    Was this guy a North Korean spy who was offering to come over and bring his knowledge of North Korea’s arms, currency, and drug smuggling with him? If he was, and if he was trusted enough to be posted here in Macau, he could well be the big fish he seemed to be claiming to be.
    “What do you want?” I asked.
    “I want to go to Hawaii.”
    “Doesn’t everyone?”
    “And when I am safely in Hawaii, I will tell you everything.”
    “Everything about what?”
    Freddy shook his head, but he didn’t say anything.
    “Look, Freddy, or whoever the hell you really are, that’s not the way this works. Nobody can do anything for you unless they understand what you have to offer. Nobody is going to set you up in Hawaii on the come. And telling me some bullshit that North Korea is going to announce anyway at some time in the future isn’t going to get it.”
    “I know that. I just told you to prove I have access to information.”
    “Yeah, well, but—”
    Freddy held up one hand, palm out like a traffic cop.
    “Wait until you hear the announcement. If you are satisfied after that I am important enough to be worth your attention, please call me and we will meet again.”
    He dipped into one trouser pocket and produced a white card about the size of a business card. When he handed it to me, I saw it wasn’t a business card at all. Only a plain white rectangle of cardboard with what appeared to be a telephone number written on it in black ink.
    “That is a mobile phone that has never been used and cannot be traced to me. But please be discreet. Leave a message saying you will be back in Macau at a certain time. We will meet here again exactly twelve hours after whatever time you give me.”
    “Is all this cloak and dagger stuff really necessary?”
    “Oh yes, Mr. Shepherd. All this and a lot more. I am taking a grave risk talking to you today. I have already put my life in your hands.”
    “So you can go to Hawaii.”
    Freddy smiled. “I hear it is very nice there.”
    “Nice enough to