by Ian Hamilton
“Who are your customers?”
“You’d be surprised at how big the demand is. One of the largest duty-free companies in Europe just became a customer.”
“They know your perfumes are counterfeit?”
“We took them on a tour of the factory.”
“Won’t the real brands catch on?”
“That isn’t my problem. I have to assume the company will find a way to integrate our products into their system and program their sales data to disguise how much of it they’re selling.”
The Mercedes reached the French Concession, a neighbourhood that abutted central Shanghai. In 1849 the area had been ceded to the French in an international settlement. They had constructed a replica of a French town with broad, tree-lined avenues, shops, and houses. Xu lived in a small brick house in the middle of a narrow lane lined on both sides with stone walls. Xu owned other houses on the lane, and fruit carts positioned at either end were manned twenty-four hours a day by his men. It was in many ways his private enclave.
As they drove towards the house, Ava couldn’t help but notice that developers had started to worm their way into the Concession. There seemed to be fewer trees and more highrises under construction than she remembered. She mentioned it to Xu and he shrugged.
“The construction has actually slowed a bit in the neighbourhood. It will never be as pretty as it was five or ten years ago, but I think we’ve been able to stop the development.”
They reached the lane and turned left. The driver stopped the car at the fruit cart and Suen had a quick chat with the man there. The car then drove slowly down the lane, its side mirrors threatening to scrape the stone walls. The wooden gate opened just as they arrived. Two men on security detail nodded as the Mercedes eased past.
Ava saw Auntie Grace standing at the door to the house. She was tiny, grey-haired, and dressed in a plain black Mandarin jacket and pants.
At five foot three, Ava rarely towered over anyone, but she had to bend down to kiss the older woman on both cheeks.
“You look tired,” Auntie Grace said.
“I just arrived today and I didn’t have a chance to nap or eat.”
“The noodles and snow pea tips are ready, and I even have a bed if you want one.”
“You’re too kind.”
“You shouldn’t feel obliged to say that. I feel like you’re part of my family now, and some things should be expected,” Auntie Grace said with a smile. “Mind you, the other side of the coin is that I have the right to criticize if I think it’s warranted.”
Ava looked at her and saw there was a little tension behind the smile. Auntie Grace’s comment was loaded with questions that she could either ignore or answer. She chose to answer. “I’m happy to be part of the family, and of course I could use any advice and wisdom you want to impart.”
Auntie Grace reached for Ava’s hand and squeezed. “I keep telling Xu that he should persuade you to move to Shanghai.”
“One thing at a time,” Xu said. “Right now we need to eat.”
They went to the kitchen and sat on wooden folding chairs at a small round portable table. Two empty plates, chopsticks, a bowl of chilis, and a pepper shaker were set out on the table. As soon as they sat, Auntie Grace filled two bowls from her woks. The first contained noodles with beef, spring onions, and what smelled like XO sauce. The second held snow pea tips fried in garlic and oil. The mouth-watering aromas were overpowering. Ava found that her chopsticks almost had a mind of their own as they dug into the dishes.
“What do you want to drink?” Auntie Grace asked.
“Tea, please,” Ava said.
“My whisky,” Xu said.
They ate quietly for about ten minutes. The only word spoken was “Thanks” when their drinks were poured.
When they had finished, they pushed their plates into the centre of the table. Xu half-filled his glass with whisky and said, “I’m going outside for a smoke. Do you want to join me?”
“Sure,” Ava said, accustomed to his after-dinner routine. She turned towards Auntie Grace, who hadn’t left the stove. “That was a wonderful meal.”
“I just wish he wouldn’t end it by smoking.”
“I told you, Auntie, I’ll stop in the new year,” Xu said.
“You’ve been saying that for five years.”
“I didn’t say which new year.”
She flicked a tea towel in his direction. “Take your whisky and go for your smoke before I get really angry.”
They sat by the fish pond. It was dark. The full moon was barely visible through what was either a bank of clouds or a smoggy haze. Ava guessed it was smog. “So, your business is going well?” she said.
“Yes, but evidently yours isn’t. What’s the problem?”
“PÖ.”
“Really? I thought London was another success.”
“Maybe too much of one.”
“How is that possible?”
“After the show we flew to Milan to meet with a luxury fashion conglomerate. We naively thought they might be interested in some kind of joint venture. Instead, the only offer they made was to buy Three Sisters completely out of PÖ. We said no. They didn’t like our answer and now they seem determined to destroy us.”
“How?”
“By poisoning our reputation within the trade and by telling existing and potential customers that their brands and the PÖ brand can’t co-exist in stores.”
“Forcing the customers to choose one or the other?”
“Precisely, and it isn’t exactly a fair fight. As it stands, we won’t be able to add any new business in the foreseeable future and we’re having problems hanging on to what we do have.”
“Who would want to do that?”
“VLG.”
“Dominic Ventola?”
“Yes.”
“Personally?”
“Unfortunately, very personally.”
“Shit,” Xu said. “I’m wearing one of his suits.”
( 19 )
Xu listened attentively as Ava described in detail how the London show, the trip to Milan, and the meetings with Raffi Pandolfo and Dominic Ventola had gone. When she was finished, he lit another cigarette and said, “When you mentioned trouble with business, I had no idea it was something of this magnitude. But what I don’t understand is why a company that size would go to all that trouble over a startup like PÖ.”
“I don’t really know. Ventola says he’s simply eliminating possible future competition, but I think that’s bullshit. His partner, Raffi Pandolfo, said that he doesn’t handle people saying no to him very well. Or maybe we offended him in some other way and he’s coming after us just because he can.”
“Well, whether it’s personal or not, the end result is the same, and he’s thrown the full weight of the company against you.”
“That’s true enough.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked. He put his cigarette butt in a tomato can filled with water that was beside his chair and which Auntie Grace refused to empty. “You could try to bypass the system by opening your own stores.”
“It’s far too soon for that. We could maybe justify a flagship store in Shanghai, but we don’t have the reputation or an extensive enough line to go anywhere else. Besides, going the bricks-and-mortar route would cost a fortune.”
“You could try to wait him out. People have short memories. Six months from now you could revisit the potential and existing customers you’ve lost.”
“We will also have lost all the momentum we built in Shanghai and London. I don’t want people to forget us. I want to be front of mind. Right now we are, even if it’s because Ventola has decided to make us an issue. I think we’re better off staying on everyone’s radar rather than retreating into silence.”
“You very obviously have something in mind that I can’t guess.”
“I do, but what I don’t know is if it’s workable,” Ava said. “I told our team that I think it is, but some of that was just bravado
. I don’t want them getting discouraged, so I’m trying to keep their spirits up.”
“But there is some kind of plan and an objective that underscores the bravado?”
“The objective is to force Ventola to publicly apologize to Clark and for VLG to withdraw its opposition to our entry into the European and North American marketplaces,” Ava said. She glanced at Xu to gauge his reaction to what even she knew sounded far-fetched.
“That’s certainly ambitious.” His face was impassive. “How do you propose to get to that point?”
“Well,” Ava said, drawing a deep breath, “we need to hurt their business. We need to cause them so much aggravation and cost them so much money that playing nice with us will be a small price to pay for a return to civility.”
“Ava, I don’t doubt your intentions and your determination, but how can you possibly have that kind of impact on a company as large as VLG?”
“For starters, we pretend that they’re small.”
“What?”
“It’s like I told the team. VLG is huge only if you think of it as one giant corporation. In reality it’s made up of fifty or sixty separate companies, each with its own brands, markets, and distribution systems. If we can identify and isolate those businesses, our project immediately becomes less imposing.”
“Except, even as stand-alone businesses, those brands have great reputations and strongholds in the market.”
“And according to Raffi Pandolfo, Asia might now be their most important market.”
“There you are.”
“Exactly, here we are. He also told me that Asia, and China in particular, has become an increasingly important source of supplies for them.”
“Supplies of what?”
“I don’t know yet but I’m going to find out, as well as where their products are made. That’s what Amanda and the others are working on right now. And while they’re doing that, May Ling is figuring out what goods they’re exporting into the Asian market and how they’re shipped, warehoused, and distributed.”
Xu smiled and slowly shook his head. “You intend to screw up their lines of supply and their importing, don’t you.”
“Yes,” Ava said. “What do you think?”
“It’s a clever concept, and it might really hurt some of the companies they own.”
“I need more than just some companies. And I’m going to need help, especially your help, to make it happen.”
“I would think that May Ling and the woman who runs your Shanghai logistics company would be useful.”
“Suki Chan’s influence is centred in Shanghai and May’s in Hubei province. I think we’ll need to go further afield.”
“You know I’ll do what I can.”
“Hong Kong and Guangzhou are major entry and exit points for these kinds of goods.”
“Lop has very strong contacts in Hong Kong, and no one is more powerful in Guangzhou than Lam.”
Ava knew Lop Ying and Ban Lam well. Lop had been an officer in the Special Services Unit of the PLA before joining Xu’s gang as Red Pole. After a dispute with Sammy Wing, the head of the triads in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong, Xu had assumed control of that gang and placed Lop in charge. Lam was the Mountain Master —the gang leader —in Guangzhou, and owed his ascendancy to that position in part to contributions from Ava and Xu.
“Can I still count on them?” she asked.
“Of course. Lop will do whatever I ask, and Lam owes you and me some big favours. I think Lam may be particularly pleased to have a chance to help you.”
“How about the rest of China?”
“I can make calls.”
“Would you be prepared to make some to outside the country?”
“We have good contacts and working relationships in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. We’re not as strongly connected elsewhere, and I don’t want to request any favours from the Yakuza —they have a tendency to backfire on us.”
“I guess we don’t need Japan to make an impact.”
Xu’s smile turned into a broad grin. “Uncle told me more than once that you have an incredibly nimble mind. He said that what makes it particularly special is that you combine an accountant’s focus on order and detail with the ability to see the bigger picture in an imaginative way. He called it ‘structured flair.’ I’ve seen it twice now, with the triad election and the Tsai family crisis, but I don’t think even those schemes were as audacious as what you think you can pull off this time.”
“‘Think’ is the operative word. In fact, it might be more accurate to say ‘hope.’ There’s a lot of data to collect, and until we have it I have no idea what will be possible,” Ava said quietly, surprised again by how openly Uncle had discussed his opinions of her with Xu. It reinforced how close they’d been. What did it say about her relationship with Uncle that he’d never once mentioned Xu?
“How long will it take to get the first pieces of information?”
“Unless I’m badly mistaken, May and Amanda are working on it already. I expect to get an initial blast tomorrow.”
“Then how quickly will you act?”
“As fast as possible.”
“Depending on what you want me to do and where you want it done, I might not be able to move at the pace you want.”
“I’m not going to be unreasonable.”
“Thanks, boss.” He smiled.
“I thought I was called xiao lao ban around here.”
“Who told you that?”
“One of your men —Wen, I think. It was at your house after we resolved the Tsai family problem. He called for the car and said xiao lao ban, the ‘little boss,’ was leaving. I asked Auntie Grace who called me that and she said everyone did, including you when I wasn’t around.”
“Do you mind?”
“Auntie Grace said I should take it as a compliment.”
“And so you should.”
“I will, especially if it helps me get the action I want.”
( 20 )
Despite being fatigued, Ava woke at two in the morning and after a bathroom run had to force herself to go back to sleep. She woke up again at five. Her body was in a time zone somewhere between Toronto and London and wasn’t about to be persuaded otherwise.
She made a coffee and carried it to the window. She looked out onto the gardens below, where the grass and leaves were glistening under the lights. What she could see of the Bund was quiet. She figured that if she dressed quickly she’d be able to get in a run. She finished the coffee and hurried to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her hair. She put on a sports bra, T-shirt, tights, her Adidas jacket and pants, and a Toronto Blue Jays cap and headed downstairs.
“How is the air quality right now?” she asked the concierge. Morning was always the worst time for pollution.
“It should be okay. It rained about two hours ago and there’s a brisk west wind. Those usually help improve it.”
She stepped out of the hotel and crossed the street to reach the promenade, which ran for fifteen hundred metres along the length of the Bund. The concierge had been correct about the wind. It was a brisk westerly that blew directly against Ava as she turned right and began to run. She went past the China Everbright Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the Peace Hotel, and the Shanghai Customs House, and then she reached No. 1, The Bund —the former home of the China Pacific Insurance Company. It had taken her more than seven minutes to negotiate the distance, but with the wind at her back she retraced her steps in six. She ran without any interference from pedestrians; she could count on one hand the number of times that had been the case on the Bund. She made a mental note of the time but knew the weather had to be a contributing factor. Whatever the cause, it was a treat to be able to go back and forth without breaking stride or having to dodge around people walking.
As she ran she thought about VLG and her plans. When she had woken at two it was the first thing on her mind, and she had still been considering strategies whe
n she fell back to sleep. She had a firm idea about what she wanted to do, but she couldn’t do anything without hard information, and that meant waiting for Gillian and May Ling. She decided to call both of them after eight o’clock.
“How was the air?” the concierge asked when she walked past him in the lobby.
“Good enough.”
“There was a time when I didn’t have to ask that question.”
“I guess you can’t stop progress.”
“In China, progress is going to kill the lot of us,” he said. “May I ask where you’re from?”
“I live in Canada.”
“The cleanest air in the world.”
“If it isn’t, it’s close,” Ava said. She took off her cap and walked to the elevator.
She made another coffee and sat at the desk to check emails. Maria continued her silence, but Ava’s friend Mimi, her sister, Marian, and Jennie Lee had all sent messages. She answered them all and then looked at her phone. May had called rather late to say that Suki was excited by their request for her help and had already plunged into the project. She had also texted Tremendous progress already. There was no news from Gillian or Amanda. Ava headed for the bathroom to shower, encouraged about how the day would unfold.
She called May’s room at ten after eight. “I hope it isn’t too early,” she said when she heard her friend’s groggy voice.
“I didn’t get to bed until after three. Suki kept me and some of her staff working until two on our project.”
“I saw your text.”
“It was fantastic what they could find out in such a short time.”
“Do you want to share your information over breakfast?”
“Sure, but I’ll need at least half an hour to put myself together.”
“I’ll give you an hour and meet you in the Lobby.”
“I’ve got pages of printouts.”
“Bring them with you,” Ava said.
“That Suki is such a character,” May said. “I met her at a bar near the office, but I barely had a chance to explain our problem and what information we needed before she had me and a couple of her staff back at the office making phone calls and working the computers. You would think it’s her business that’s being threatened.”
