by Ian Hamilton
“Your pistol and a submachine gun are in my bag. Cho has an SMG in his.”
“Is everyone else armed?” Chow asked.
Xu and the massage parlour operator nodded.
“Does everyone know the plan?”
“All I told them is that we have a problem and need their help,” Fong said.
Chow smiled, pleased that the men had so willingly shown their loyalty. “The situation is simple enough. The Tai Po gang has decided to shut down our gambling operations and is holding some of our men hostage, including Wang. Our first job is to free Wang. He’s at the Lucky Eight mah-jong parlour, and that’s where we’re headed.”
“How many Tai Po men?” Cho asked.
“About a dozen.”
“We’re only six.”
“We’re meeting more men on the way. We’re also going to have more firepower and the element of surprise on our side,” Chow said. “I don’t want to say anything else until our whole group is together.”
“Then let’s get going,” Fong said.
Chow led the way. When they neared the corner where he’d told Wang’s men he’d meet them, there were now four men looking towards him. “Thanks for coming,” he said as he approached. “Does everyone have a weapon?”
“We all do,” the tall man said.
“What’s the plan?” Xu asked.
“Can I have the pistol?” Chow said to Fong.
Fong reached into his bag and passed it to him. Chow stuck it into his right-hand jacket pocket.
“The plan is to go to the Lucky Eight mah-jong parlour, get Wang out of there, and open the place for business,” Chow said. “The problem is that some triads from Tai Po are controlling it and holding Wang. They’ve formed a wall in front of the place and are preventing anyone from getting in or out. We’re going to take down that wall.”
Chow saw the men glance at each other, and a couple of them shuffled their feet. “There is no reason to look uncomfortable,” he said. “I’m not suggesting we go charging at them. I want to do this in a way that stops them from reacting until it’s too late to do anything, and in a way that hopefully avoids violence. We don’t want the police to get involved, and if there’s much gunplay, they will be. So we need to be smarter than the guys from Tai Po.”
“How are we going to do all that?” Fong asked.
“Like this,” Chow said, and then proceeded to explain how he wanted the operation to be run.
“What if they don’t co-operate? What if they want to fight?” Fong said when Chow had finished.
“Then there will be a fight and we’ll take our chances with the cops. There’s no backing down. There’s no walking away. Does anyone have a problem with that?”
“I think we’re all good,” Fong said, looking at each man in turn. None of them indicated otherwise.
“In that case, let’s go free Wang.”
As they approached the betting shop, Chow saw that the crowd had grown and had become more agitated. Those were all positive signs in his mind. He stepped into the middle of the throng while his men spread out. He waited until he was sure they were all in place, then held up his arm and began to ease his way towards the men blocking the entrance to the Lucky Eight. He stopped just short of the man with the machete and then looked left and right to make sure everyone was in place. When he could see them all, he stepped directly in front of the Tai Po triad.
“Hey, remember me?” Chow said. “Any chance of getting inside yet?”
“Fuck off.”
“Pardon?” Chow said, putting his hand in his jacket pocket and moving even closer.
“I said fuck off.”
Chow pressed forward, slid the gun from his pocket, and dug the barrel into the man’s belly. “Make one move and I’ll shoot you right here and now,” he said.
The man stared at him in disbelief, then looked to his right as if expecting help. The Tai Po men on that side had three pistols and a submachine gun trained on them. He looked left and saw a similar sight.
“We could take you all out in ten seconds,” Chow said. “But we’d rather not, and I’m sure you feel the same way.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing. Now I’d like you to drop the machete and for the rest of your group to drop their weapons. Do you want to tell them, or should I?”
The man seemed distracted, his eyes shifting in all directions. Chow tensed as he sensed this wouldn’t be ending as peaceably as he’d hoped. “Drop the machete,” he repeated.
The man nodded, and then Chow saw the arm holding the machete twitch and the steel blade suddenly start rising into a striking position. Without a second thought, he lowered his gun and fired. The bullet ripped into the man’s inner thigh, near his genitals. The machete fell from his hand and the man’s body followed it to the ground. He writhed in pain, his knees pulled up and his arms wrapped around his legs.
Chow picked up the weapon and waved it at the Tai Po men. “All of you, hand over your weapons. If you don’t, we’ll shoot you one by one. I don’t think I shot off his balls, but I came close. Maybe I can do better with a second chance. Does anyone want to try me?”
In a matter of seconds the Fanling men were in possession of all the Tai Po guns and knives.
“Was this guy in charge?” Chow asked, pointing the machete at the prostrate body.
“No, I am,” a tall, lean man said.
“What’s your name?”
“Li.”
“Where are you from?”
Li hesitated.
“I’m not going to ask again.”
“Tai Po.”
“Well, Mr. Li from Tai Po, here’s what we’re going to do,” Chow said. “We’re going into the parlour and you’re going to tell the guy in there with the gun to hand it over. If he doesn’t, I’ll shoot you and then him.”
“That won’t be necessary. We’ll co-operate,” Li said. Then he motioned to the man on the ground. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Just like you didn’t have to bring an armed gang to Fanling and attempt to take over our businesses. Let’s go inside,” Chow said, prodding him with the gun. He shouted to Xu, “Come with us.”
The men at the table stood up as soon as the door opened. Chow, Xu, and Li entered the room. “Hand over your gun to the guy you’ve been guarding,” Li said to the man.
“Do you know who he is?” Chow said, pointing to Wang.
“No. Should I?”
Wang took the gun from the man, stuck it into his waistband, and came towards them. Without acknowledging Chow and without uttering a word, he drove his fist into Li’s face. Chow heard a crack and saw blood spatter. Li fell back and almost keeled over.
“I know that must have felt good, but that’s enough,” Chow said.
Wang rubbed his fist. “I’m over it now.”
“Is there a room in this place where we can lock up these guys, plus another ten or so that are outside?” Chow asked.
“There’s a supply room in the back.”
“Any windows? Any way for them to get out?”
“No, they’d have to come through the door, but you can lock it.”
“We can also leave a couple of guys with guns outside the door just in case.”
Li removed his hand from his bloody nose. “The man you shot needs a doctor. He needs treatment. You can’t put him in a supply room. We’re not animals.”
Chow turned to Wang. “Is there a local doctor we can use? One who knows how to keep his mouth shut?”
“There’s one five minutes from here.”
“Then let’s get that guy into a cab with one of your men from outside and send him to see the doctor. Your man shouldn’t leave his side. When the guy is fixed, he should bring him back here,” Chow said, and then looked at Li
. “We’re not animals either.”
“I’ll do that in a minute,” Wang said. “First you need to tell me what the hell has been going on this morning.”
“It looks like Tai Po is trying to take over our gambling operations, and maybe more than that,” Chow said. “Tian called me to say Dong’s has been shut down, and we haven’t been able to make contact with the other shops.”
“How many places did you target?” Wang said to Li.
“I don’t know. I had nothing to do with the planning of this. I was told to come here and just make sure no one went in or out.”
“Told by whom?”
“Tan, our Red Pole.”
“That fucker,” Wang said, and then shook his head. “I blame myself for this. I shouldn’t have spread our men so thinly.”
“You can only do so much with what you have,” Chow said. “Speaking of which, how many forty-niners can you get to join us in the next half-hour?”
“There were two here with me, but they took off.”
“They’re outside now. They came with us and they were terrific.”
“That’s good to hear; I was ready to beat the shit out of both of them,” Wang said. He paused as he thought. “There are about ten more in the vicinity.”
“We’ll need them all.”
“What are we going to do?”
“After we’ve put these guys in the supply room, we need to open up Lucky Eight and get back to business. We’ll leave two guards. They can double as security,” Chow said. “Then I want to head directly to Dong’s. There’s an even bigger Tai Po crew there, but if we take the same approach, and if they have any respect for submachine guns, we should be able to take back control.”
“What is Ren saying about all this?”
“I have no idea. He’s in Hong Kong. The police picked him up early this morning for questioning. He should be released this afternoon.”
“So he doesn’t know what’s going on?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I talked to Pang. He told me he talked to Ren’s lawyer and the lawyer briefed Ren.”
“Do we know how Ren reacted? Did he say anything through the lawyer?”
“According to Pang, Ren’s instructions were for us to stay calm and do nothing until he gets back to Fanling this afternoon. Pang said Ren and Tso would sort things out.”
“Doing nothing isn’t exactly what you just did.”
“The instructions were shit.”
“He’s still the boss.”
“Maybe I misunderstood what I was told,” Chow said. “That’s the problem with second- and third-hand conversations — things get misconstrued. Besides, if Ren is serious about negotiating, I thought it would be better if we were the ones holding hostages.”
“I can’t argue with your logic,” Wang said, and then shook his head. “I can’t remember the last time I felt so stupid and useless. At least now we have a chance to turn this thing around.”
“Are you ready to go to Dong’s?”
“Am I ever,” Wang said. “Do we need to let Pang know what’s gone down?”
“No, not until we’re completely finished.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Xu, stay here with Li until we send in the other men. Once they’re in the supply room and we have the guards in place, I’d like you to come to Dong’s.”
“Sure thing, Uncle.”
Chow and Wang had begun to walk towards the door when Wang stopped. “How come there aren’t any cops here?” he asked. “I’ve just noticed there isn’t a single one. I thought the crowd outside would have caught their attention, and if not that, then your gunshot.”
“I talked to my friends in the police department. I managed to convince them to allow our Fanling gang to resolve our differences with Tai Po on our own, without any outside interference. As long as we maintain public order, they’ll leave us alone until the end of the day. And nothing I know of will maintain public order better than getting our betting shops open.”
“Uncle, you are one smart son of a bitch.”
“Thank you, Wang.”
“And I’d forgotten what a tough son of a bitch you are too,” Wang said. “It’s good to see that all those years of working in the office haven’t softened you.”
( 25 )
They rode in cars from the Lucky Eight to Dong’s Restaurant, but they got out about half a kilometre away and walked the rest of the distance. They heard the crowd at the same time they caught sight of it. It was larger than the one at the Lucky Eight and appeared to be even more agitated. Chow looked at his watch. It was twelve-thirty, and post time for the first race at Happy Valley was one o’clock. No wonder the gamblers were restless.
They had agreed to use the same strategy as at the Lucky Eight. As soon as they reached the crowd, the men spread out and began to work their way towards the line of Tai Po men blocking the entrance to Dong’s. Wang was five metres to Chow’s immediate right, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, but as they neared the restaurant he stopped and said, “Uncle, that’s Min in the middle of the Tai Po group. He’s Tan’s assistant. He’ll recognize me for sure, and he might know you.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met him. He doesn’t look familiar.”
“Okay, but I’m going to hang back until you can put a gun in his belly.”
Chow nodded and continued to fight his way through the men standing shoulder to shoulder as they complained about the closed betting shop.
Min was short and broad-shouldered and had tattoos on his bare arms and down the side of his neck. Chow cleared the crowd and approached him. Min stared at him with eyes that were narrow slits. “What do you think you’re doing?” he said.
“I want to place a bet. Why is the shop not open?”
“It’s closed.”
“Until when?”
“Until we’re told it isn’t.”
“And who will tell you that?”
“None of your fucking business.”
“But this is my business,” Chow said, taking two quick steps forward and pressing the gun into Min’s side. “I’m Chow. I’m with the Fanling gang. Please don’t move or try anything silly. We have all your men covered.”
“You should believe him,” Wang said, moving into their line of sight. “He will shoot.”
Min looked at Wang and then back at Chow, his face registering confusion. “What’s going on?”
“How can you ask that, you asshole?” Wang said. “You’ve shut down our businesses, you’re on our turf, and we’re real close to having a war.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Min said. “I was told to put men around this place, the Lucky Eight mah-jong parlour, the Red Sun Restaurant, and your betting shop in Shek Wu Hui, and that’s what I did. You need to talk to your bosses — whoever they are these days. They’ll explain.”
“What do our bosses have to do with this? I spoke to one of them a few hours ago, and he knew nothing about this,” Chow said.
“I don’t know who’s talking to who, and I don’t care. I was told to put men around these four places and make sure no one went in or out, and that’s what I did.”
“We’ve just come from the Lucky Eight. Your men were holding me prisoner there,” Wang said. “And you’re holding Tian inside Dong’s.”
“Like I said, I was told not to let anyone in or out. Were you inside when my men arrived?”
“Yes.”
“Then that explains it. My men follow orders, just like I do,” Min said. “You know what it’s like. The bosses tell us the absolute minimum and we tell our men even less. We expect them to do exactly what they’re told. They don’t need explanations and we don’t want them to start thinking for themselves. I’m sorry if you got caught up in it, but you know how it works.”
“How what works? T
his is our territory. You have no right to be here,” Wang said.
“I was told we were coming here to provide protection,” Min said.
“Are you crazy? Protection from what? From whom?”
“I don’t know and I didn’t ask. Like I said, I was given an order to seal off these businesses until I’m told they can open.”
“Well, whoever or whatever we’re supposed to be protected from, we obviously don’t need it anymore. So why don’t you tell your men to drop their weapons,” Chow said.
“Are you sure about that?” Min asked.
“Just tell them to do it,” said Wang.
Min stared at Wang. Wang stared back, unblinking, his jaw clenched.
“Put your weapons down,” Min shouted to his men.
“Collect them and take them back to my car,” Wang said to one of his forty-niners, and then turned back to Min. “Now tell your men to stand by that bakery over there. I’ll send some men to keep them company. No one is leaving here yet, and that includes you. We need to talk.”
“Sure,” Min said, and then spoke to his men.
As he was doing so, Chow stepped past him and went into the restaurant. Tian and five other men were waiting for him. “You’re open for business again,” Chow said. “But this crowd is going to be crazy. Do you need help?”
“We can handle them,” Tian said, and smiled. “I knew you’d get here sooner or later.”
“Sit over there,” Wang said as he entered with Min.
The two men went to a corner table. Chow joined them.
“So what’s this crap about you being sent here to protect us?” Wang said.
“That’s what I was told. I can’t tell you anything more than that because I don’t know anything else.”
“And it was Tan who told you that, correct?” Chow said.
“Yeah.”
“If someone or something was a threat to Fanling, why wouldn’t he call me? I’m the Red Pole,” Wang said.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask your bosses. Or you can talk to Tan.”
“I intend to.”
“In the meantime, can my men and I leave?”
Wang looked at Chow. “What do you think?”