by Ian Hamilton
Without noticing, she had finished the small bottle of wine. She went to the bar and took out its twin. She knew she should eat, but she had no appetite.
She resumed her position at the window. Wing, she decided, was clever. The threats directed at Xu were just posturing. Xu sat in his safe haven in Shanghai, surrounded by his men, and had already proved himself capable of repelling attacks. The women, though, were completely vulnerable. She doubted that Wing would stoop to physically harming them, but that still left a wide range of options he could use to terrorize and damage them. She could imagine his goons warning their clients about the dangers of doing business with them, late-night threatening phone calls, cars and houses spray-painted with obscenities. Maybe May was beyond their reach in Wuhan, but Ava didn’t doubt that they could reach her in Toronto, and she knew for certain they could make life a living hell for Amanda in Hong Kong and for Chi-Tze wherever she was. How much abuse could those two young women tolerate? Not much, Ava guessed. The beatings in Borneo had damaged their psyches as much as their bodies.
They were leverage, she thought once more. Wing had probed, looking for a crack in Xu’s armour. The women were it — or so he believed.
How did he know we were in Shanghai? How did he know about the business arrangement? The questions came at her again, but this time with more urgency. The only two people who could answer them were Wing and Xu, and she knew that at least one of them wouldn’t tell her. She reached for her cellphone.
“Wei,” Xu said after his mobile rang twice.
“We have a problem,” Ava said.
“Ava? You did not receive the money?”
“More like I wish we hadn’t.”
“I do not understand.”
She drew a deep breath. “I’m in Hong Kong. I just met with Sammy Wing.”
“I did not know you were in Hong Kong. And why would you meet with Wing?”
“An old friend asked me to do it as a favour. I saw no harm in it.”
“What did Wing want?”
“First of all, he wanted to know how I enjoyed my visit to Shanghai. And then he asked me why I had become a business partner with you.”
The line went quiet. Uncle would have known from the terse, clipped way she had spoken that she was furious. If Xu lied to her, that control would vanish. “What are you telling me?” he said quietly.
“He knows about the money,” she said.
“You are certain?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you how he knows?” Xu asked calmly.
“No.”
“I did not think he would. I will have to find that out from this end.”
“Xu, this was supposed to be a confidential arrangement.”
“It is — was. There are only five people other than us who know anything about it. They are all part of my organization. Someone has let this out through some slip of the tongue . . . or maybe not a slip. Either way, I will find out who did it.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” Ava said, more loudly than she had intended.
“I am sorry. I regret if it has caused you any embarrassment or inconvenience.”
“That’s the least of my worries.”
“How so?”
“Wing threatened me.”
“With what?”
“He wasn’t specific, but then he didn’t have to be. He just made it clear that I and my partners and our business could be a target of his displeasure. He knows I know the kind of shit he can throw our way.”
“Why? Have you ever done anything to offend him?”
“Nothing at all, except for the fact that we’re in business with you,” she said.
“Why would he care about that?”
“He doesn’t. He wants you to withdraw from the election for the chairmanship. He said that he and Li Kai from Guangzhou don’t want you to become chairman. He said you already have too much power. He said they’ll do whatever it takes to stop you. His animosity is directed entirely at you, but since he can’t get to you, he’s threatening to come after us. We are convenient, we are reachable, we are easy to intimidate. He obviously figures that I’ll come to you and you will feel compelled to do something about this situation.”
“My running for the chairmanship is not what this is all about,” he said softly.
She sipped her wine. “I’m listening.”
“They want more of my product and they want to buy into my businesses.”
“So you told me when I was with you in Shanghai.”
“Well, now they obviously think they have found a different way to get what they want.”
“Then why bring up the chairmanship?”
“They will be talking to all the other gangs, but just about the chairmanship, about how I will use it to expand my base and my markets. They will not say a word about wanting a piece of my action. Opposing me for chairman is simply a cover.”
“And threatening me and my partners?”
“He thinks that I will step in and cut a deal to prevent that.”
Ava waited. She was not about to ask.
“Let me go and make some phone calls,” he said. “I want to find out who said what to whom, and I will make sure it never happens again. And then I will call Sammy Wing.”
( 20 )
Ava didn’t move from the window. She needed a distraction, and the activity on and around the harbour, even at night, always held her interest. But after a few minutes of watching boats move across the water, her mind started to wander. In her head she replayed her conversation with Xu and found her anger returning. He had misled them, or at least overstated the amount of discretion he could command. Now she found herself doubting that he had the power to make things right. If he didn’t, then what?
She would talk to May. Between the two of them they might be able to find a solution — even if they had to come up with the money to honour their commitments.
Her cellphone rang. She glanced at the incoming number and saw that it was May. “Hey,” Ava said.
“How is Hong Kong?” May asked, her voice full of enthusiasm.
“Same as ever.”
“I wish you were here in Beijing.”
“Me too.”
“I wanted to call before I join Suki and Zhang and some of his senior people for dinner. It will be a late night, I think — everyone is in a mood to celebrate. Zhang has built a tremendous business here, and we’re so damn lucky he has no family to hand it off to and that he adores Suki. The only downside is that he doesn’t want to stay in it much longer. He’s in his seventies, and he says he’s ready to spend the rest of his days chasing young women in Thailand,” she said, laughing.
“With the money he’ll be getting, he can capture whoever he chooses to go after.”
“He’s agreed to stay for another twelve months,” May said. “Suki will have to find someone to take over the day-to-day running of the business. Zhang hasn’t set up much of a support system, and Suki’s opinion is that the people who are in place won’t be able to keep up when he’s gone.”
“Does she have anyone in Shanghai she can transfer?”
“No. She runs her business the way he runs his,” May said. “I may have to pull in someone from Wuhan.”
“And if you do that, how will Changxing react?”
“He’ll complain, and then I’ll mother him until he gets over it.”
“May,” Ava said.
“Yes?”
“We need to hire more people for our business. We should tell Amanda to start recruiting more of those bright young things she went to school with.”
“I know. How exciting is that?”
“Probably more than I can handle right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing,” Ava said.
May paused, and
Ava wondered if her friend sensed her discomfort. “Is that all?” May asked.
Should I tell her? Ava thought. If she did, what purpose would it serve except to spread anxiety?
“Yes, that’s all,” Ava said. “I’ll call the lawyers in the morning and get them started on things.”
“Good. Now I have to get on the phone to Wuhan before going to dinner. I still have a business there that needs my attention, and a husband who needs it even more.”
“Stay in touch.”
Ava put down the phone, reached for her wine, and then was overcome with hunger. She debated going upstairs to Man Wah, but if Xu called she didn’t want to have a conversation with him in the middle of a restaurant. She wandered over to the desk, read the room service menu, and ordered a bowl of hot and sour soup, Cantonese fried noodles with barbecued pork, shrimp, and scallops, and a plate of steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. She glanced at the room bar and asked for two small bottles of wine to be brought with her food.
She threw herself on the bed and turned on the television. The Jade Network was airing Life Is Beautiful, a soap opera set in the Ming Dynasty that revolved around the love life of a perpetually confused king. It was one of her mother’s favourites, and despite its being almost slapstick at times, Ava found herself enjoying it. The episode ended just as her doorbell rang.
A waiter rolled her meal into the room and set it up near the window. She tipped him, opened another bottle of wine as soon as he left, and settled in to eat with another episode of Life Is Beautiful for company. When she finished her meal, she pushed the cart back into the hallway. She was thinking about taking a shower and getting ready for bed when her cellphone rang.
“This is Xu,” he said.
“That was fast.”
“I found out what happened.”
“Yes?”
“I have an accountant named Deng who supervises the books of many of the firms attached to the co-operative. He has a cousin who works for the gang in Tianjin, also an accountant. Evidently, during the course of a conversation with his cousin the day we transferred the money, he mentioned that we had found a wonderful way to put the co-operative’s money to work. He is not sure if your actual names came up, but he does remember mentioning Three Sisters. It was in passing, he said. He did not think anything of it.”
“And he told you all this voluntarily?”
“I asked him the question; he answered it. My people understand that there is no value in trying to hide things from me. The truth always emerges, and they know that the severity of the repercussions is in direct relation to the amount of trouble I have to go through to get it.”
“I see.”
“I made Deng phone his cousin and I listened in on their conversation. The cousin said he had told his boss, who is the White Paper Fan, about our investment. From there it was obviously passed to the top. Deng thinks, in unfortunate hindsight, that the Tianjin gang is tight with Guangzhou.”
“Yes, very unfortunate.”
“What do you want me to do with him?”
“With Deng?”
“Yes.”
“What would you normally do?”
“Nothing. It is at least partially my fault for not stressing strongly enough that the information had to be kept in-house. He is very loyal and normally tight-lipped.”
“Then do nothing.”
Ava heard someone shouting in the background over Xu’s phone. “Wait a second,” he said, and the line went quiet. She imagined he was covering the mouthpiece with his hand. “That was Auntie. One of my men walked into the house without taking off his shoes.”
“So we know how the information leaked. But you still haven’t said how you’re going to handle the fallout.”
“I talked to Sammy Wing,” he said.
“That’s a start.”
“Yes, and only a start. It was a five-minute conversation.”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”
“It is not as bad as you think. I asked him to meet with me. I told him that face-to-face we can sort things out. He agreed to the meeting. And truthfully, it is about time I did something like this. We cannot keep taking potshots at each other from a distance. It is neither healthy nor productive.”
“You mentioned that Guangzhou knows about us as well. Does that mean Li Kai has to be involved?”
“I am meeting with Sammy only. There was no suggestion from his side that Li would take part. Still, I do assume that Sammy is talking for both of them, and whatever concessions I give to Sammy, Li will eventually expect.”
“What about the chairmanship?”
“It was not discussed and I did not expect it to be. As I told you, this is about money.”
“When is the meeting?”
“Tomorrow. “
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me yet. All we have done is agree to meet.”
“Where?”
“He wanted me to go to Hong Kong. I wanted him to fly to Shanghai. We decided that a neutral site would have to do. We chose Shenzhen.”
“That’s so close to Hong Kong.”
“Yes, but it is neutral enough.”
“So, tomorrow?”
“Yes, I am flying there in the morning. We are scheduled to meet with Wing at one.”
“We?”
“Yes, you and me. That is another reason I did not object to Shenzhen. I thought it would make it easier for you.”
“Xu, why would Wing want me at the meeting?”
“He does not care one way or another. I am the one who insisted. I want you to see and hear that I am sincere in my efforts to make things right with him. I have an offer to make to him that is more than fair. It should pacify him and Li.”
“If he doesn’t think it is fair?”
“Then I have a sweetener. I will get an agreement.”
Ava had been sitting on the corner of the bed during their talk. Now she stood and walked to the window. “Where is the meeting location?”
“I insisted on a public place. Wing chose the Imperial Manor Restaurant. It’s on Nongyuan Road, in the Futian district.”
“Xu, do you trust Wing?”
“What do you mean?”
“They attacked you in Shanghai.”
“They attacked the factory and not me personally. There is an agreement — unwritten, but an agreement all the same — that no Dragon Head will ever personally attack or order an attack on another. It is a code that has not been violated in my lifetime. So I am not worried.”
“I see,” Ava said.
“So, will you be at the Imperial Manor in Futian?”
Ava, who had been to Shenzhen more times than she liked to remember, knew the area. “I will do the best I can. If I come, I’ll have Sonny drive me.”
“He cannot come into the restaurant. That is the deal. Just Wing, his man Jimmy Tan, you, and me.”
“You’ll travel alone?”
“No, I am bringing Suen. He can hang around outside with Sonny.”
Ava sighed. “Okay. I want this resolved more than I hate going to Shenzhen. Barring any other crisis in my life, I’ll see you at the restaurant tomorrow.”
( 21 )
Ava and Sonny took the train from Hung Hom to the Lok Ma Chau MTR station, just across the river from Shenzhen. It was Sonny’s choice to take the train, which surprised her. When she had phoned him the night before to say she needed him to drive her across the border, he hesitated and then asked if she really wanted to take the car.
“Is that a problem?” she asked.
“The lineups at the border are completely unpredictable. We could be waiting hours to get through, and then when we do, we’ll have to contend with the Shenzhen traffic. There are always traffic jams, and worse than that, no one there knows how to drive — and th
at’s not a joke. I read in Sing Tao last year that Shenzhen has a million unlicensed drivers. They drive like they’re in bumper cars.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Where’s your meeting?”
“Futian.”
“The train from Hung Hom goes directly to the station there. A forty-five-minute ride, tops. Do you have a Hong Kong ID card?”
“Yes.”
“We get out of the train, swipe the card, and we’re in Shenzhen. We can catch a cab from the station to wherever you’re going.”
“The meeting starts at one, but I want to be there a few hours earlier.”
He didn’t ask why. Sonny had worked with Ava enough times to understand that she liked to be prepared for anything, and being early sometimes prevented nasty surprises. “I’ll pick you up at the hotel at nine. I’ll park at Hung Hom. We should get to your meeting place by eleven.”
They reached Hung Hom at nine thirty. As they walked from the parking lot to the station, Ava was aware that they made an odd couple: diminutive Ava and the hulking Sonny. In Borneo Ava at one point had found herself standing between Sonny and the even larger Suen. She had never felt quite so small. As if conscious of the height disparity, on the way to the station Sonny walked a couple of paces behind her, his eyes flitting in all directions.
Ava bought two first-class tickets for the nine-fifty train, which left the station on time. Hong Kong trains always seem to leave on time, Ava thought. “You know, I met Uncle for the very first time because of a case in Shenzhen,” she said as the train headed north on its thirty-kilometre trip towards the Pearl River Delta.
“I remember. I was still working for him in Fanling. He hadn’t cut off all his old connections yet. He told me he had a crew in Shenzhen chasing down a debt and they had run into you. They had no idea how to handle you.”
