“On a Saturday?” John looked at his mother.
“If the man wants to keep his position on Monday, he’ll work this weekend. Yes John, by tomorrow morning.”
“But, won’t that raise Richard’s suspicion?” Lauren took the list her mother offered.
Catherine looked at Tang who re-entered the room. “Yes Tang, what is it?”
“I thought you should know, Richard arrived in Macao and is a guest of Mr. Lem. Sources indicate he’s to meet with the gambling consortium.”
“Interesting. Very well. Have the chauffeur bring the car around. I’d like you to come with me Tang and please have Mr. Lau meet us at the hospital regarding today’s article.”
“Yes, Mrs. Choi. Will there be anything else?”
“No, Tang, thank you.”
Tang bowed and left. He saw the direction Mrs. Choi was about to take, and agreed with the course being set by her. Where Richard had sought to create a confusing sense of disorder and obstacles, she was intent on pulling the family together to confront the man directly.
“I must visit George. Remember your objective and keep working.” Catherine moved toward the door.
“I don’t know Mom, this looks hopeless,” said John.
“Wrong, John. It isn’t hopeless, just difficult. I know Richard has been doing something and we must find the trail. Enough chatter, get to work.” Catherine left the room.
Lauren and John exchanged glances. John didn’t know what to say and neither did Rebecca who temporarily, left the room at Lauren’s request so they could talk.
“John, are you angry?” Lauren saw John had a disgusted look about him.
“Why should I be angry? My uncle has given his company to his daughter, while totally forgetting his son in California, or me, his nephew.”
“You’re angry.”
“Yeah. I guess I am but not with you Lauren. I’m angry with Uncle George.”
“Uncle. That sounds so weird coming from you.”
“You know the rules and I don’t want to talk.” John looked helplessly at the paper.
“I’m sorry for what has happened. You know, I never thought I’d admit this, but I’ve missed you and your practical jokes.”
John let out a soft chuckle. “You’ve missed my jokes?”
“Yes! You always took the blame even when it was my fault, when we were kids. Remember the time with my clothes.” They began laughing.
“Yeah. It was nasty of me to hide all of them, huh?”
“Yeah, but you were wonderful most of the time.” Lauren sensed the tension.
“Do you think you’ll be able to beat Richard?” John looked at her quizzically.
“I intend to if you’re willing to help me. I really need your help right now.”
“Anything for you.”
“You still haven’t said anything about Dad.”
“What’s there to say? Besides, you got a track record of successes that I don’t. Right? Let’s see. You were successful at re-building the hotel chain. You have the Oxford education, Dad’s blessing, and support from your mom and me. What do I have? I’ll tell you. I have nothing. I’m not even alive. In fact, according to Dad and the rest, I’m just a distant relative not entitled to more than hospitality as befits a visiting guest. Look Lauren, if Richard is behind all this, you must take him down. Don’t worry about me.”
“I feel bad things aren’t working between you and Dad.”
“They never really did. I never thought about Richard before, but lately, I’ve been wondering why he was always so nice to me and looking out for my best interests. You know what your slow brother found out?”
“Don’t put yourself down John.”
“You know what I found?” John saw Lauren shrug her shoulders. “I’ll tell you. Between Dad and Richard, I don’t know who’s been using, or controlling me more.”
“Oh that’s good John, very good.” Lauren applauded. “Keep pitying yourself and looking outside for the cause of your trouble. When you finish looking and find nothing, go look in the mirror. You just might see you are the real cause of problems in your life.”
“Me?!?!”
“Yeah you! You’re responsible for how you live your life and what you do. If you’re foolish enough to follow someone else’s dictates, then don’t go and blame them for using you. And don’t seek revenge either. If you don’t like it, then change the situation, or yourself. It's that simple. All I’ve ever heard is how this person should’ve done this and this person didn’t do that. Take control of yourself, your life! We’ve important things to do here and I’ve got to pull together enough to disable Richard. Gonna help?”
“Lauren? Where do we begin?” John, exasperated, looked at her with pleading eyes just as Rebecca returned with even more boxes and a funny looking, short, balding man.
Lauren came around from her side of the table and opened one book. It was a printout of the company’s main general ledger with a full listing of all sub ledger transactions. Lauren showed John how to evaluate the information. He was amazed at her in depth knowledge of what each account meant. It made him feel humble and threatened at the same time, for she was able to understand the complexity, but he didn’t because he had never taken the time to learn. His pride was hurt but his consciousness was raised. He decided, besides trying to help Lauren, he was going to listen intently, and learn what was needed to run a company. John didn’t realize it, but he had begun to mature.
After many hours, Catherine returned to the apartment and checked in on their progress. She saw piles of coffee cups and dirty plates in one corner, John sitting on the floor surrounded by paper print outs, Lauren and Mr. Ping reviewing journal entries and Rebecca working away at a calculator. They looked tired and miserable, but determined. At times, they took brief naps to restore their spirit, but none went to bed to get a full night’s sleep.
Saturday morning arrived and Catherine once again went into the dining room to find everyone where she had left them the night before, except for John, who was sleeping curled up in the corner with her favorite cashmere throw. He must have heard their chatting because he woke up. Things looked grim as the day progressed and more bankers arrived with more boxes of records. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find anything. Pressure and stress were evident on their faces as their Saturday lunch was brought into the room.
Tang reported Richard was still in Macao, but had requested the helicopter pick him up at ten Sunday night. He looked at Lauren and John struggling with the piles of paperwork. John was a young man he looked upon as a younger brother. To see him surrounded by paper and looking more than a bit overwhelmed, as he tried to decipher the accounts, impressed him. Then he saw Catherine with all her regality and the mindless worker bees, fearing to do more than what was asked. Something in him stirred. He knew things people didn’t think he knew. After all, he worked for this family for nearly his entire adult life and being distantly related to Richard, through the Vanguard, he was privy to certain conversations. He stood clutching the Post with its vicious article assaulting his character. True, George assured him he knew it was false, but he felt George had said that out of love for Lauren. He was being framed by Richard, the clever puppet master.
Catherine picked up something on Tang’s face. “What is it Tang?”
Chapter Forty -One
Richard returned to his Macao hotel room on Sunday evening, only to find a message waiting that the helicopter was out of service and would not be available for his use. He was incensed. He wanted, needed, to return to Hong Kong tonight, he thought. He was further distressed to learn the last ferry had already left with nothing available till the morning, which caused his face to turn a deep crimson. Instinctively, he felt something was up with the Choi women and began making a series of phone calls only to be further annoyed that at ten in the evening, no one was home. Bankers, brokers, secretaries, board members, no matter whom he called, no one was to be found. Finally, he located his secretary.
Richard never picked up that her voice sounded nervous. Her fear stemmed from the man who stood over her shoulder, listening to each word she spoke with a knife at her throat. One wrong word and her throat would be slit from ear-to-ear. There was no question in her mind. Her responses to Richard were really Tang’s. When the conversation with Richard was over, Tang hung up the phone by depressing the buttons with his knife. To make sure no further calls were made, he slit the telephone cord and gave her a very strong warning about what it would cost her if she tried to reach Richard, or go to work the rest of the week. He gave her enough money to cover a weeks pay and get the phone fixed. He made her drink a glass of water which he had spiked with a sleeping powder. She drank obediently, and was soon sleeping in her chair.
Richard boarded the ferry angry he had to travel with the rest of humanity. It was an insufferable two hours and when they finally docked; he made sure he was the first one off the boat. He had read the South China Morning Post from cover-to-cover both yesterday and today. There was no follow up article. Some fool had requested the senior editors’ approval to print the damn thing and the editor squashed it, according to one of his men. When he confronted Lem, all the man would say was that it was a minor setback and not to worry. Lem also told him something was up and mentioned that the Choi women had been talking to bankers all weekend. Richard knew he needed to go straight to the office. He wondered, for only a moment, if he should visit George, but given George had refused to talk to him on his last two visits that seemed a hopeless course of action. He pushed another man out of his way and got into the first red taxi he saw, ignoring the slew of curses that followed after him.
Arriving at the Choi corporate headquarters, Richard was astonished to find the private elevator was out of service and he would have to take the public elevators. Squeezing into the car with the deluge of other office workers, he was pushed and shoved about as people entered and exited the elevator, making his ride quite miserable. At the forty-ninth floor, the floor below the penthouse, the elevator came to a sudden halt and the doors opened. Given the symbolic number for an everyday soldier within the Society was forty-nine and that Richard was very much aware of this fact, he took it as an affront to be forced to enter the offices on that floor.
Lauren sat in her father’s chair in his office, watching on the close circuit monitor Richard’s every movement, from when he entered the building and so forth. She wanted Richard to feel as miserable as she felt with the roadblocks he had put in place. She couldn’t do much outside the organization, but within it, she could control Richard’s movements and make him feel manipulated. It was Tang’s idea to make Richard get off on the forty-ninth floor. She didn’t understand his reasoning, but made it happen for him.
Tang, through Lauren, was reminding Richard on behalf of George that like a forty-nine, the number associated with the everyday tong soldier, he had to obey the rules. That even though Richard was of much higher rank, a 438, he could quickly be dropped down to a 49 just as his privilege with the elevator had been suddenly dropped.
Richard didn’t recognize the receptionist and figured she was new. He tried ignoring her as he walked directly to the glass door, which he discovered to his horror, was locked.
“Excuse me sir,” the young lady said in Cantonese. “Excuse me. Sir? You cannot go in unless you are announced.”
“I am Mr. Richard Cheng. Open this door.”
The receptionist looked at several lists, including the company directory. “Well, I see there is a Mr. Cheng working here, but as I have never met him, I cannot assume you are him.”
Richard walked over and placed both hands on her desk as he leaned forward. “Miss, if you want to keep your job, you had better open this door, now!”
“I’m sorry sir but you must be announced before I let you in. Who is it that you wish to see? Oh, excuse me,” she said as she answered the phone and buzzed in two women clerks. Richard tried to get in with them, but the door closed faster than expected. “Mr. Cheng, was it?”
“I demand you open this door.”
“Unless you can show me corporate identification, or tell me whom you have an appointment with, I can’t let you in,” she said with the utmost politeness.
Richard thought the receptionist had an irritating smile. “You get Ms. Choi on the phone and you tell her Mr. Cheng is here.”
“I’ll phone her secretary for you, sir. Please have a seat.”
“I do not wish to sit. Get her on the phone, immediately.” Richard banged on her desk.
The receptionist phoned Rebecca, who was with Lauren watching Richard on the monitors hidden in her father’s antique black lacquer cabinet.
“Well?” Richard demanded.
“She’ll be right down, sir.”
Richard didn’t like the silly games Lauren was playing and vowed they’d cost her. No, he thought, not Lauren. Tang? George? Something was up. He didn’t feel comfortable.
“Richard?” Rebecca said ignoring Richard’s eyes that focused upon her at the mention of his first name. She knew he preferred Mr. Cheng and purposely said Richard to annoy him. “Sorry to have kept you waiting. Sally, this is Mr. Cheng, one of the officers of the corporation. Next time, please let him in directly.”
“Yes, Miss. Have a good day, sir.”
“I want her fired,” said Richard.
“I’ll take your request to Ms. Choi, Richard, but you cannot fire her for doing her job.”
“Mr. Cheng, if you please.”
“Very well, Richard. I’ll use Mr. Cheng in the future.” They climbed the stairs leading to the private offices.
“Where is Lauren?” Richard said.
“Ms. Choi is in her office and cannot be disturbed. She would like to meet with you after her board meeting. One other thing, your secretary, will not be in today and I have taken the liberty of hiring a temp to fill in until she returns. His name is Ted. Please, excuse me.”
“There are no board meetings scheduled. Tell Ms. Choi after I make some phone calls, I will see her in my office,” muttered Richard.
“I’m sorry sir, but she cannot take any meetings until after this morning's board meeting as there are more pressing issues for her to attend to at this time.”
“Really? A board meeting? What board meeting? I’m on the board of directors and haven’t been informed of any board meeting.”
“I don’t believe so, Mr. Cheng. I have the full list of board members here as I had to call everyone over the weekend. Your name is not on the list; therefore, you are not on the board.”
“This is an outrage. I demand to see Ms. Choi at once.”
“Ms. Choi is busy and will see you after the board meet- -”
“And, just what is Ms. Choi so busy doing that she cannot see me?”
“I’m not at liberty to say, sir. Please, excuse me, I must return to my office.”
“Bitch,” muttered Richard under his breath as he walked away in the opposite direction to his office. He needed to use a phone fast. He saw the small man sitting at his secretary's desk.
“Good morning, sir, are you Richard?” The young man said in English.
“Good morning. Well, Ted, it’s already nine-fifteen and we have a great deal of business to accomplish, so lets get to it. First, get my secretary on the phone, next Mr. Chen, and then Kwang. Have you reviewed my schedule for the day, yet?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t read anything here, sir.”
“What?”
“Everything’s in Chinese. I can’t read Chinese and look. I tried typing up a list of to do things, but even this typewriter is in Chinese.”
“Aren’t you Chinese?”
“No, sir.”
“No.” Richard looked at Ted who appeared to be Asian.
“What are you then?”
“British, but my family was from here originally. I came back to see if I’d like it here.”
“Amazing.”
“Yeah
, it is.”
“What did they tell you that you’d be doing today?”
“Answering the phone and getting you tea.”
“Can you take dictation or type?”
“I can write fast in English and I can type, but only if it's on lettered keyboard. I’m afraid I don’t know what these characters mean.”
“You’re no use to me. You’re dismissed.”
“I’m sorry sir, but you can’t dismiss me.”
“What?”
“You see, Ms. Choi hired me for the week to be your assistant. She said you would probably be mad that you didn’t get to choose your own secretary, but not to worry that you couldn’t fire me.”
“And why can’t I fire you?”
“Because, she said you have no power and don’t do a real job here.”
“She said that?”
“Yes sir.”
“Bitch!” Richard entered his office, slamming the door behind him hard.
Ted started laughing, lit a cigarette and phoned Rebecca at the other end of the hall. “Hello, Becky,” he said in perfect Mandarin. “I did as you said and he’s fuming. Ah, hah. Yes. Nine-fifty exactly. I’ll do it. Yeah, yeah, I’ll get paid big bucks. For you sweetheart, anything. Bye.” He hung up and wrote himself a note using Chinese script before putting it in his pocket.
Lauren looked out the window as Rebecca put down the phone. “Richard’s angry.”
“Let him be angry,” said John. “After what we uncovered in the books, I’m surprised he’s still alive. Don’t forget what he’s done Lauren,” John looked at a melancholy Lauren. “What did Dad say?”
“He didn’t say much. He just thought it was the right direction and would support our actions. He wanted me to make sure Tang was at the meeting for support. I know you’re right John, but I always trusted Richard.”
The Dragon Within His Shadow Page 24