Page 270 of Roberto

Then she crouched behind the desk for cover.

I turned to face the open door.

I didn’t have to wait long.

96

Iexpected Lau and Han –

But Xi, Gota, and half a dozen of their men rushed to the open doorway, too.

Everyone but Lau was brandishing a gun –

And all of those guns were pointed at me.

I intentionally left the Smith & Wesson on the desk. I didn’t want to give them a reason to open fire.

“You,”Lau seethed the instant he saw me. I had never seen such rage and malevolence on his face before.

I held up the detonator in my hand so everyone could see the green light. “Before anyone makes any rash decisions, there are two things you should know.”

“What the fuck isthat?!”Gota snarled.

“A detonator for a block of C4, set to a dead man’s switch,” I said.

Lau looked over at the desk where Mei-ling was peeking out.

If looks could kill, she would have been incinerated.

“That’s right – she didn’t tell youeverythingI bought on the black market,” I said, unable to keep myself from gloating just atiny bit.“If any of you shoot me, I’ll let go of this detonator, the C4 will explode, and we’ll all die together.”

“You’re bluffing,” Gota sneered.

I looked at Gota, but I said, “Mr. Han?”

There was a long pause…

And then Han said quietly, “He doesn’t bluff.”

So hedidremember our night at the casino.

Gota’s face went slack with shock.

Most of the lower-level gangsters looked like they were about to shit their pants.

Han scowled –

But Lau?

Lau smirked like he was amused.

“You said I should know two things,” he said. “What is the second?”

“I just transferred 250 million dollars’ worth of Bitcoin from the Syndicate’saccount to one of my own.”

Lau’s smirk quickly faded.

“So if you shoot me,” I continued, “not only will you die, but you’ll never get your money back. Although I suppose you won’t really care, since you’ll be dead.”

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