by Ian Hamilton
“Do you want him to sit?” Lop asked.
“No. He won’t be here that long,” Ava said.
Tan trembled. Ava could only imagine the outcomes running through his head.
“Jimmy, do you have any family living outside Hong Kong?” she asked.
Tan nodded.
“Don’t make me guess.”
“I have a daughter living in Guangzhou and another one in Vancouver.”
“Good. Vancouver sounds perfect. Now, how long will it take you to brief Lop on the part of the business you run and get him up to speed on your men?”
“Why?”
Ava raised her right hand. “No questions. Just answers.”
“A day or two,” Tan stammered.
“Two days, then. I’ll give you two days. On the third day I want your ass on a plane to Vancouver. When you get there, stay there. You aren’t to come back here for any reason.”
“I have property, investments, businesses here. How —”
“Get rid of them, keep them, run them from Vancouver — I don’t care. Just don’t come back. If you do, Lop will bury you here.”
Tan glanced at Sammy Wing. Wing was staring at the wall. It was as if Tan didn’t exist anymore. “Okay. I’ll make it work,” he said.
“I thought you might,” she said. “Now I’d like you to go into the restaurant and wait for Lop. He won’t be long. Sonny will escort you.”
Lop released Tan’s elbow. Tan shook his arm and grimaced. “Get out,” Lop said, grabbing him by the collar and turning him towards the door.
“Jimmy, you’ll have some of our men for company until you actually get on the plane. So don’t get any ideas about doing something stupid,” Ava said to his back.
He swivelled towards her. “I have things to do, personal things. If you want me out of here in three days, how can I do them with those guys hanging around my neck?”
“Your wife and girlfriend will understand. And if they don’t, that’s too bad.”
He started to speak, but Sonny moved in front of him and stared down at him. Tan’s head dropped and he resumed his walk towards the kitchen exit.
“Take a seat, please,” Ava said to Lop.
He took a chair next to Wing, directly across from her. He sat ramrod straight, his hands intertwined and resting on the table. Ava noticed that his eyes weren’t blinking quite so fast, but now his shoulders seemed to be twitching.
“Now we need to talk about you,” she said to Sammy Wing.
“I’m not leaving Hong Kong unless it’s in a box,” Wing exclaimed.
“There’s no need to be so dramatic,” she said. “Xu is prepared to consider the events of the past few days the result of a misunderstanding. He thinks he could have been a bit more sensitive to the economic pressures you felt were imminent, and he thinks you would have been better served by going to Shanghai to discuss things with him face-to-face. Can you agree with that?”
“A misunderstanding?”
“Yes. Why not?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“He doesn’t see any reason why you shouldn’t keep running Wanchai.” She didn’t know who looked the more surprised, Wing, Suen, or Lop.
“What?” Wing said.
“You have the infrastructure and you have the street connections, and, I assume, the right police connections. Why would he want to disrupt one of the best markets for his products?”
“Then why did he dump Jimmy?”
“Lop will be replacing him. He is your new deputy Mountain Master. Xu is going to leave him here with about twenty of his men. They’ll make sure none of the local gangs try to take advantage of you in your current weakened state. They’ll make sure there isn’t a repeat of what happened yesterday. Can you live with that?”
“As a figurehead, a straw man?”
“Call it what you want. Lop will take over the day-to-day business. That will free you to spend some time thinking about how to make everyone even more money. Mind you, Sammy, Xu doesn’t want you making any decisions without consulting Lop.”
“I’ll be — what, a fucking servant?”
“Think of yourself as the chief executive officer and Lop as the chief operating officer.”
“And Xu?”
“He’s the new chairman of the Wanchai board. Though it will be better for everyone concerned if that’s kept between you and the people at this table. Xu doesn’t want his colleagues to get paranoid about his involvement, and we have your face to worry about.”
“Of course, my face — the little I have left.”
“Sammy, you need to adjust your sense of reality.”
“It was adjusted several hours ago . . . Okay, I’m CEO, Xu is chairman, and Lop is COO. Now, I don’t mean for this to sound negative,” Wing said, “but what actual experience does Lop have running a business like ours? Until six months ago I hadn’t even heard his name. Where does he come from?”
“Do you remember Fen Ying?” Suen asked.
“He worked for Xu’s father,” Wing said, almost startled by the interruption.
“Well, Lop is his son.”
“Shit. That apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Xu’s father urged Lop to join the People’s Liberation Army and arranged for him to attend military academy for officer training. He reached the rank of captain in the special operations force. You have heard of that force?”
“Who hasn’t?”
“About two years ago Xu decided he needed Lop’s talents and asked him to join the family in Shanghai. He agreed immediately. He’s been training a select group of our men. Our aim was to strengthen our defences, but as you saw last night, we are also quite capable when on the attack.”
Wing’s head swung towards Lop. “For you, taking us on must have been like fighting children,” he said.
Lop shrugged. “We take nothing for granted. A gun doesn’t know if there’s a trained professional holding it or a fat old man.”
“Sammy, Lop has Xu’s complete trust and I am assured that he is very capable. Do you agree to the proposal?” Ava said.
“What choice do I have?”
“You can say no.”
“I’m not a fool.”
“Then we have an understanding?”
“That’s a polite way of putting it,” Wing said.
“You may not be aware of it, but that’s how Xu likes to conduct all his affairs. There’s no reason why things have to be acrimonious.”
“Speaking of which,” Wing said, turning to Lop, “how many of my men are dead? How many are you still holding and what is going to happen with them?”
Lop looked at Suen and then at Ava.
“Tell him,” Ava said.
“Eleven men are dead. We have seventeen still under our control,” Lop said.
“The eleven are dead because they resisted,” Suen added.
“What are you going to do with the seventeen?” Wing asked.
“Do you anticipate anything but full co-operation from them?” Ava said.
“No. All most of them care about is that money finds its way into their pockets every week. Where it comes from isn’t a huge concern.”
“Where are the men being held?” she asked Suen and Lop.
“We took them all to a restaurant on Hennessey Road,” Lop said.
“Perfect. When Sammy and I have concluded our business here, Suen can take him there to tell them about the new arrangements, and then you can release them.”
Wing slid back his chair, placed his hands on the table, and started to push himself to his feet.
“Wait a minute, we aren’t finished yet,” Ava said. “I want to talk to you about the chairmanship.”
Wing froze, his bum just inches from the seat. “Xu wants my vote?”
&nbs
p; “He doesn’t have it?”
Wing tried to smile but his lips barely moved. “We’ll be sitting around a table together. There will be a show of hands. How can I not vote for my new silent partner?”
“What we really want to know is where you think the overall vote stands.”
“Xu doesn’t know?” Wing asked, sitting down again.
“He has a rough idea, but he also understands that people like to keep their options open.”
“Before last night, I think he was trailing Li.”
“Was?”
“He has my vote now, which means he and Li are probably tied — unless you’ve pissed off someone else over the last couple of days.”
“Not unless you have another friend like Li.”
“It isn’t smart to be detached from what’s going on in the south.”
“Well, Xu has a foothold here now and a reason to be more involved,” Ava said. “Tell me, if you thought Li was ahead in the vote, why did you try to kill Xu?”
“Shit, you already won. Why do you want to keep talking about yesterday?”
Ava ignored him. “Xu told me about the bombs in Shanghai, and now we’ve had knives and guns in Shenzhen.”
“The factory was bombed in Shanghai. Xu wasn’t the target.”
“Still, it seems that every time someone wants to damage his business or kill him, you’re involved.”
“Like you said, people keep their options open. We weren’t a hundred percent — maybe not even sixty percent — sure that the others would vote the way they said they would. We didn’t want to take the chance that Xu would win, or that if Xu lost he would take it out on the gangs that didn’t vote for him.”
Ava nodded, her face impassive. “So your best guess is that he and Li are tied now?”
“The gangs in Hong Kong, the New Territories, Macau, and Guangzhou support Li. Xu has Malaysia, Taiwan, and most of the mainland.”
“Who do you think might be persuaded to switch?”
Wing shrugged. “Off the top of my head, no one.”
“Really?”
“They all respect Li. They’ve known him for years. In their eyes, Xu is a new and maybe dangerous player, and they aren’t quite so committed to selling his goods.”
“They’re still peddling Li’s drugs, I assume.”
“For some of them that’s their main business.”
“A risky one.”
“Old habits die hard.”
“Especially a habit that’s backed by a reliable track record. None of them will budge?”
Wing grimaced and then shrugged.
“Would you talk to them on Xu’s behalf?” Ava asked.
“Is that a demand or a request?”
“A request.”
“I could, but I’m not sure what kind of credibility I’ll have with them. I mean, you can talk about ‘secret partner’ all you want, but the word will be out about what happened in Wanchai. Li, if no one else, will make sure of that.”
“Then what about Li?”
“You want Li to vote for him?”
“No, we were thinking maybe you could ask him to withdraw his candidacy.”
Wing shook his head in disbelief. “That’s crazy.”
“Maybe it was yesterday, but now I’m not so sure. I certainly think it’s something worth exploring.”
“Under what pretext?”
“He tried to kill us.”
“Who knows that?”
“He does, and he needs to understand that we do as well.”
“You know only because I told you.”
“We know that, and I’m sure he does too. He’s no fool. Do you think he believes you stayed quiet?”
“Believe what you want.”
Ava slowly leaned forward. “As you said, Li knows what happened to you last night. Maybe he’ll feel the need to make Xu a peace offering.”
“Guangzhou isn’t Wanchai, and Li has at least ten times more men than I do.”
“We can match him in numbers, and I know that our men are better trained than his,” Suen said.
“I don’t doubt anything you say; I just don’t know why you’re saying it. I don’t believe you’ll ever attack Li, and if I’m smart enough to figure that out, then so is he.”
“Humour me, Sammy. Call him and find out where his head is,” Ava said.
“I don’t have to call him to know that. He’ll be organizing support against Xu, and not just in Guangzhou. He’ll be calling all the societies that support him and enlisting their aid.”
Ava reached for the cup of tea that had been in front of her since she sat down. She sipped and then grimaced. “I hate cold tea,” she said.
Suen took the cup from her and threw the tea onto the floor. He poured a fresh cup. “This should be better, boss,” he said.
“Just leave it on the table,” she said, her eyes trained on Sammy Wing.
“This thing with Li — if I was you I’d leave it alone,” Wing said.
“Why?”
“He’s stubborn and extremely hard-headed. He’ll already have an idea, an opinion about what Xu did, why it was done, and what Xu is going to do next. Nothing I say will change him.”
“That attitude isn’t healthy for business.”
“He cares less about business than any of the other leaders. He’s an old man now. It’s all about power and prestige.”
“He has a huge market for Xu’s products. That must matter.”
“More to Xu and to some of Li’s people than to him.”
“Like who?”
“What?”
“His people. Which of them cares about the business?”
Wing shrugged, pressed his lips together, and slowly shook his giant head. Ava couldn’t tell if he didn’t have an answer or was just reluctant to give one.
“Give me a name,” she said.
“Well, Lam is the man who runs the day-to-day operations.”
“I’ve met him,” Suen said. “Tall, thin guy with long hair who likes wearing bright-coloured glasses.”
“Yeah,” Wing said.
“Does he have any influence with Li?” she asked.
“Some.”
“Then talk to him.”
“I know Xu wants me to do this, and I know it may be dumb to seem like I’m resisting, but I have to say there’s no one — not me, Lam, Gong Li, Mao Zedong, or God — who could persuade Li to withdraw his name for the chairmanship.”
Ava leaned back in her chair. Wing rubbed his eyes with his right hand, and Ava could see he was beginning to tire. The past twelve hours had taken their toll.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said. “And maybe we’ve done all we can here.” She turned to Suen. “I would like you to go with Lop, Sammy, and Tan. Make sure everyone understands that the game stays the same but there are some new players in it. Sammy, I expect you to introduce Lop as your new right-hand man.”
“Momentai.”
“And you’ll also be rooming with him or one of his men until the vote is over.”
“What!”
“Did you expect anything else?”
He grimaced. “I guess not.”
“Nothing has to change, Sammy. Xu wants you to understand that he’s not putting his hand in your pocket. What you earn, you keep. He does want you to pay Lop what Jimmy Tan would have made, and the rest of the men left here should get the traditional cut. He thinks that’s fair.”
“And the supply line will obviously be kept open.”
“You can count on that.”
“I figured I could.”
“Well then, we’re done for now. It would be nice to have the transition completed and business humming along by the time the election is over.”
“I’ll look after it,” Lop said
.
Ava looked at Sammy Wing. His face was impassive, his eyes focused on some spot above her head. His stillness struck her as odd. What was churning through his mind?
( 32 )
Ava pulled Suen aside as Lop escorted Sammy Wing out of the restaurant. “Please make sure Wing is never left alone until the election is over,” she said.
“Someone will be with him even if he’s crapping.”
“Good.”
“Will you call the boss to tell him how the meeting went?”
“I’ll try. I spoke to him this morning, but he’s weak and I don’t want to overtax him.”
“I’ll go over to the clinic later today, after things are completely settled in Wanchai,” Suen said. “My plan is to sleep there as long as the boss is there. Will you be coming too?”
“Not unless it’s really necessary. I have other business to look after, and besides, hospitals and clinics make me nervous.”
He looked down at her and smiled. “It’s nice to know that something does.”
They caught up with the others in the restaurant. Sonny moved behind Ava, trailing her several paces to the rear. Tan was at the entrance between two of Lop’s men. Andy and his wife stood nearby.
“You’re coming with us now,” Lop said to Tan. “You and Wing.”
Ava waited until the Shanghai group had dispersed before turning to Andy. He and Winnie bowed.
“Thanks, Andy,” Ava said, kissing him on the cheek. “I hope this is the last time I ever have to use your restaurant this way.”
“It’s the least I can do for you.”
“Andy, I have a favour to ask,” Sonny said. “I have to go and get the car. Could you stay with Ava until I come back?”
“Sure.”
“Do you want my gun?”
“I have one,” Andy said, patting his pocket.
“That isn’t necessary,” Ava said. “I’ll walk with you.”
“No, you can’t. Xu would kill me — or try to — if anything happened. It’s still too soon to take chances.”
As she watched Sonny’s back recede, Andy asked, “Everything okay?”