by Ian Hamilton
“Is that your way of asking if I’m going to start making calls when we’ve finished our conversation?”
“No, it’s my way of saying I trust that you won’t,” Uncle said. “I won’t be contacting the other Mountain Masters until everything I’ve told you is confirmed.”
“And you fully expect it will be.”
“I do.”
“So the die is cast,” Zhao said.
“It is. No more fake wars. We’re committed. This will make Wu a mortal enemy of Fanling, though he really was one already, just not in name. It might bring Man into the fray, but I don’t care if it does. We’ll take on both of them alone if we have to.”
“But you hope you don’t have to.”
“Of course I do. I don’t want to go to war with anyone at any time. It’s bad for business, it’s bad for the brotherhood, it’s bad for the people who depend on us for financial support. I think most of our colleagues understand that. How many of them that you know would embrace the idea of going to war?”
“Man, Yin, Wu, and probably Yeung.”
“Which leaves fifteen gangs that wouldn’t. The problem is that right now those fifteen have no way of preventing the other four from imposing their will on them.”
“I am coming to your meeting on Friday. This isn’t the time to pitch me on your coalition.”
Uncle laughed. “Sorry. I’ll wait until then.”
“My hope, my dear Uncle, is that your wait will be uneventful.”
“If you’re referring to Wu, I’m not worried. The police will hold him and his Red Pole until Saturday. And with them out of the picture, there’s not much chance of a Tai Wai response,” Uncle said. “Tell me, do you really think Man will do something on his own?”
“No. And I have to say I admire the way you’ve managed this,” Zhao said. “Although, to be blunt, you only have it managed until Wu is released.”
“If he’s held until the weekend, that’s all the time I need.”
“To do what?”
“I don’t know yet, but by Friday I’ll have figured it out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Uncle waited until seven before leaving his apartment. Zhang had called just before six to tell him things had gone smoothly at the warehouse. The police had found a substantial quantity of drugs, had identified the bound men as members of the Tai Wai Triad, and had just arrested Wu and Lam, his Red Pole.
“You’re convinced you can keep them in custody until the weekend?” Uncle asked.
“I might be able to do better than that,” Zhang said. “Legally we can’t hold them for longer than seventy-two hours without laying a charge. That takes us to Thursday morning. But if we lay the charge on Wednesday, we can hold them until they appear in front of a magistrate. And we can put that off for a few days, which, with the weekend intervening, would take us to the beginning of next week.”
After speaking to Zhang, Uncle phoned the executive committee, then Tse and more than half of the Mountain Masters in the New Territories. The committee members were understandably pleased to hear about Wu and Lam. The Mountain Masters’ initial reaction to the warehouse raid was nervousness about how Wu might respond. But when they were told he was in police custody and would be kept there for about a week, they relaxed. A week was a very long time in the life of a Mountain Master. Interestingly, no one was critical of Uncle for involving the police, and several complimented him for using them as a cover. All in all, it had been a very successful twelve hours, he thought as he exited his building.
Sonny was standing near the doorway. “You should be sleeping. It was a very late night,” Uncle said.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was too pumped,” Sonny said.
“The men did a great job,” Uncle said as he started walking towards Jia’s.
Sonny fell in behind him. “Wang is a smooth operator. He was so calm and confident it made us feel like we were in complete control. If there had been thirty of their men there, we still would have taken the place. I wish I was more like him.”
“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The important thing is to recognize what they are, and then maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses.”
“I’m not sure I have that many strengths,” Sonny said.
“That’s nonsense. In the past twenty-four hours your loyalty and courage were tested, and you showed me you have both,” said Uncle. “I also don’t know anyone else who could single-handedly take on three thugs with machetes.”
“That isn’t hard for me, because it doesn’t take any thinking.”
“The fact that it isn’t hard doesn’t make it any less impressive,” Uncle said. “And as for thinking, as I told you the other day, I’ll do that for both of us.”
A few minutes later they reached the stand where Uncle bought his newspapers. There was no mention of the drug raid on any of the front pages. Uncle was disappointed, but he expected there would be a story in the late editions. He bought his usual papers and continued on to Jia’s.
After breakfast, he and Sonny walked to the office. The four men at the entrance smiled when they saw them, and Uncle knew there would be a lot more smiles during the day. As much as he disliked admitting it, there weren’t many things better than a successful skirmish to lift everyone’s spirits.
“Hey, boss, there have been quite a few calls for you,” Mo said as Uncle entered the office. “I wrote them down.”
Uncle took Mo’s notes. Two Mountain Masters wanted him to phone them back, as did Man’s deputy, Chong. “I’m not calling him,” Uncle muttered. He reached for the phone to call Ng in Sai Kung. But before he could, it rang, and he saw the area code for Beijing displayed.
“This is Uncle,” he said.
“Good morning,” Liu Leji said. “I’ve just finalized my arrangements for the trip to Shenzhen.”
“I hope Wednesday still works.”
“It does. I will arrive on Wednesday morning. My aunt has reserved a private dining room for us at the Pearl Boat Restaurant. You should be there at six.”
“Will she and your wife be joining us?”
“Yes. And, as usual, you should bring Fong.”
“I have no issue with that if we’ll be talking about our normal, ongoing business,” said Uncle. “But there is that other matter you and I have been discussing.”
“You need to leave that in my hands,” Leji said. “Just be at the Pearl Boat at six.”
Uncle paused. He wasn’t accustomed to Leji being so abrupt, and he sensed that any further questions wouldn’t be welcomed. “Fine, I’ll see you at the Pearl Boat,” he said and hung up.
He went into the outer office and saw Fong arriving. Uncle waved him over. “We’re going to Shenzhen on Wednesday to meet with Liu Leji and his ladies for dinner.”
“I just met with them two weeks ago. Has something happened? Have I pissed off Ms. Gao again?”
“I am quite sure you haven’t. Leji doesn’t get to Shenzhen very often. I imagine he wants to take advantage of the opportunity. It will probably be social.”
“I should take the up-to-date financials with me just in case they want to get into them.”
“I think that’s a sensible idea.”
Uncle returned to his office and called Ng and the two Mountain Masters who had left messages. Ng was pleased and upbeat about the situation with Wu, while the other two seemed to be reserving judgement until they decided which way the wind was blowing. Uncle couldn’t blame them. They both headed smaller gangs, and keeping out of the squabble between Tai Wai and Fanling was smart until a clear winner became apparent.
While Uncle was making those calls, Hui arrived in the office. He and Mo huddled together and then, when Uncle hung up from his last call, Hui appeared in his doorway. “Do you want to see the numbers from yesterday?” he asked.
“Will they ru
in the good morning I’m having?” Uncle asked.
“No,” Hui said with a smile as he sat down in front of the desk. “Despite the disturbance at Dong’s, our betting shop receipts are up ten percent over the same weekend last year. Our night market sales are up over twenty-five percent. Those new knock-off purses Xu is making have really taken off, and the CDs and new clothing lines we’re producing in Shenzhen are really popular.”
“And we’re having a record year with the warehousing and transportation business in Shenzhen,” Uncle said. “If we can keep things stable until the year-end, we should be able to increase the monthly payments to the brothers and our dependants and add to the reserve fund. I would like to have enough cash in the fund to carry us for five years; that’s been a dream of mine for a long time. I never want to revisit the days when we were surviving from month to month.”
In theory, the White Paper Fan managed the gang’s money, but given Uncle’s experience in the same job, Hui was more of a co-manager. He had, for example, no involvement in the business with the Liu family. It had started before he took the position, but that wasn’t the main reason. Liu Huning’s wife, Ko Lan, was mistrustful by nature, and her husband’s ups and downs in the Communist Party — he had been stripped of senior positions several times and was sent to a labour camp for three years during the Cultural Revolution — had proven to her that being perpetually mistrustful was prudent.
For reasons Uncle didn’t totally understand, Ko Lan had made him an exception; she was completely open with him. Any major decision concerning the business was usually made by the two of them in consultation. Fong and Leji’s wife, Chen Meilin, were more involved on a day-to-day basis and might sit in when those decisions were being made, but their input was rarely solicited.
Xu had been the White Paper Fan when Uncle and Liu Leji first met, but he was working in Xiamen at the time, so Uncle had taken over his duties. When Xu left for Shanghai and Hui assumed the position, Uncle tried to insert Hui into the relationship with Ms. Ko, but she wanted nothing to do with him. “I represent my family. You represent your people. That’s how we’ll run this business,” she had said. “The more people who know about it, the more dangerous it is for all of us. I trust you and I can tolerate Fong. Let’s leave it at that.” So they had, and their relationship had lasted more than ten years without a major disruption or disagreement.
“By the way, Fong and I are going to Shenzhen on Wednesday to meet with Ms. Ko and Ms. Chan,” Uncle said to Hui. “It might be a good time to discuss making a transfer from those company accounts into our reserve fund. I don’t actually need anyone’s permission, but Ms. Ko appreciates the courtesy.”
“Do you want me to estimate what I think we could transfer from the accounts?” Hui asked.
“Yes, why don’t you do that.”
“I will. Now here are the numbers from yesterday,” Hui said, sliding some sheets of paper towards Uncle. As Uncle reached for them, his phone rang.
“Wei,” he answered.
“This is Chong. I called earlier. Didn’t you get my message?”
“I did, but I’ve been busy. In fact, I’m still busy. Besides, if your boss wants to talk to me, he should call me directly. Tell him I don’t appreciate his lack of respect,” Uncle replied and then hung up.
“Who was that?” Hui asked.
“Chong, Man’s deputy.”
“Man must be seething,” Hui said.
“He’s only going to get angrier every day Wu is in custody.”
“Boss, do you think it’s wise to goad him?” asked Hui.
“That isn’t my intention,” Uncle said matter-of-factly. “Wu is a more immediate threat. Keeping him and his Red Pole in jail lessens that threat. That’s my only objective. Hopefully it works and we get to the end of the week without another incident.”
“By the end of the week, do you mean keeping things quiet until you have your meeting?”
“Yes,” Uncle said, as his phone rang again. He looked at the incoming number. “It’s the same as Chong’s. Do you want to bet that this time it’s Man on the line?”
“You’re probably right. Do you want me to leave?”
“No,” Uncle said, picking up the receiver. “This is Uncle.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Man said in a tinny voice that sounded like he was whining.
“I’m doing a great many things, including having a meeting with my White Paper Fan. What is it I’ve done specifically that you object to?”
“You fucked over Wu. It’s one thing for the two of you to have disagreements, but you shouldn’t have gone after his business like that — and then made it worse by bringing the cops into it. Other gangs are going to suffer severe losses in the next few weeks because of what you did last night.”
“Wu tried to kill me. Do you think that’s the way two Mountain Masters should try to resolve a disagreement?”
“He says he didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“Try to kill you.”
“That’s bullshit. I spoke to the men he sent. They gave me their names.”
“They did that because they knew that was probably what you wanted to hear,” said Man.
“This conversation is verging on the ridiculous,” Uncle said. “Is there something serious you want to discuss, or are you just calling to complain that Wu got more than he deserved? You know damn well that if I’d killed him instead of simply hurting his business, few Mountain Masters would have blamed me.”
“You’re always so fucking smart, aren’t you. You don’t care who you piss off,” Man said.
“Since you seem to be pissed off already, let me give you another reason to be,” Uncle said. “This story you’re spinning about the Chinese government is crap. The Chinese have zero interest in harassing the triads. They have bigger problems to deal with than us. I’m telling anyone who’ll listen to ignore you, and so far I’m doing pretty well. You may have Yin and Yeung onside, but I’ll be shocked if you can find anyone else who believes a single word you say.”
The line went dead. “He hung up on me,” Uncle said to Hui.
“I’m not surprised.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The rest of the day was uneventful, and Uncle left the office before six. Sonny was waiting with the car. “Are you going back to the apartment?”
“Yes. Tian wanted me to join him at Dong’s, but I hardly slept last night.”
“It wouldn’t be any trouble for me to bring you food from Dong’s.”
“I’ll make do with my favourite, noodles with beef and XO sauce, from the Blind Emperor,” Uncle said. “I enjoy a variety of foods, but when I find something I really like, I can eat it every day — like Jia’s congee. I don’t know what that says about me.”
“You’re a man who knows what he likes.”
Uncle laughed. “Sonny, you’re becoming rather a diplomat.”
Sonny seemed uncertain if that was a compliment and said nothing.
“Don’t wait for me,” Uncle said when they reached the restaurant. “It takes a few minutes to prepare the noodles, and I usually have a beer while I wait. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I should stay until the guy who keeps the night watch gets here.”
“No, I insist you leave. Get some sleep.”
Uncle didn’t go inside the Blind Emperor until the car had driven away. Now that the danger of the previous day was behind him, he was again starting to feel slightly suffocated by Sonny’s constant presence.
The restaurant owner greeted him effusively. “Uncle, I’m so happy to see you. When my cooks told me what happened yesterday morning, I couldn’t believe it. This has always been a peaceful neighbourhood.”
“It still is. None of us need to be worried,” Uncle said. “Now, I want my noodles with beef, and I’ll take a San Mi
guel while you prepare it.”
“We’ll add extra beef tonight.”
“But not more XO sauce — I need to sleep.”
Uncle was carrying his beer over to a small table when he noticed a copy of the Oriental Daily News lying next to the cash register. “Can I borrow this?” he asked.
“You can keep it,” the owner said.
It was the afternoon edition of the newspaper, and the front page made Uncle smile. The headline read “Hong Kong Police Smash Triad Drug Ring in Tai Wai.” The story said that, after weeks of surveillance, the police had raided a warehouse in Tai Wai New Village that was the major distribution centre for cocaine in the New Territories. A police spokesman was quoted as saying that a large amount of the drug had been seized and a number of triad members had been arrested, including Wu Min, the gang’s leader.
Zhao was right. I did manage this well, Uncle thought. But he’s also right that it will stay managed only while Wu is in custody. All bets are off as soon as he’s out. Uncle took another sip of beer, then saw the owner coming towards him with a food container. He drained the bottle. “I’ll take two beers to go with the noodles,” he said.
Uncle stood in his kitchen to eat. It was his first meal since breakfast, and he quickly devoured the container’s entire contents. When he was finished, he carried a beer to his chair, lit a cigarette, and checked the phone for messages. He had just missed a call from Xu in Shanghai. Uncle had meant to phone him during the day, but something kept getting in the way. Xu’s message was short: “Phone me.”
When Xu lived in Fanling, the two men had been each other’s closest friend and confidant. Although now they spoke much less frequently, the friendship had endured. Xu owned a house in Shanghai’s French Concession. Uncle had visited him there several times. He had fond memories of sitting with Xu by a fishpond in the courtyard, the two men smoking and sharing stories. He called Xu’s home number.
“Wei,” Auntie Grace answered. She was now the Xu family housekeeper, after spending years as nanny to Xu’s son.
