Finale, p.17
Finale, page 17
“I beg your pardon,” Ava said, her surprise audible.
Uncle hesitated and wondered if he had spoken out of turn. What the hell, he thought, and asked, “Have you spoken to May Ling since the wedding?”
“She’s sitting right in front of me. Why do you ask?”
“Changxing.”
“What about him?”
“He called me a few hours ago to see how I was doing. But what he really wanted was to ask if you had discussed some business problem with me that he thought you and May were having in Borneo.”
“Why would he do that?” she asked.
Uncle could hear annoyance in her voice, but knew it wasn’t directed at him. “I don’t know.”
“Well, it’s true, there is a problem, but it has nothing to do with him.”
“Or me, and I made that clear,” Uncle said. “But he did infer a lot of money might be involved, and that you and May might be exposed.”
“It does involve a lot of money, and there is substantial risk.”
“Can you sort things out?”
“Maybe. May and Amanda are getting ready to leave for Borneo, but part of our problem is in the Netherlands, and I should go there. Now that I know your plans, I will try to leave for Amsterdam tonight if I can get a flight.”
“Ava, you do not have to tell me, but how much money do you stand to lose personally?”
“The business could lose between twenty and thirty million U.S. dollars,” she said without hesitation.
“No wonder Changxing was so eager for details.”
“We have the money.”
“Still.”
“Uncle, I’m fine.”
“That may be true, but it doesn’t stop me worrying about you and your future,” he said. “Look, when you get back from Amsterdam, I want you to meet with my lawyer, Peter Hutchinson. I know I have gone over the basics of my will with you, but I would like Peter to lay out all the details. There are a few provisions that I have not described. You need to be aware of them, and Hutchinson will be only too pleased to answer any questions you have about anything in my will.”
“Okay,” Ava said with a hint of reluctance. “But I have to settle this business in Borneo first. I’ll meet with him as soon as that’s done and I’m back in Hong Kong.”
“Thank you, Ava.”
“Uncle, I have to go now. May and I have to get organized before we leave,” she said. “I will be available to you any time, night or day, so if there’s a change in your plans or if there are any problems, I want you to let me know right away. You are my number one priority.”
Uncle felt tears well in his eyes as he put down the phone. Was there a luckier man in Hong Kong?
( 4 )
Parker came to see him the next morning at eleven.
“How did you sleep?” the doctor asked.
“Very well.”
“I saw that you ate breakfast this morning. Was there any unpleasant reaction?”
“None, I feel fine.”
“And now, the most important question of all,” Parker said. “How did you do with the races at Sha Tin yesterday?”
Uncle grimaced. “I had the worst day I’ve had in years. I didn’t win a single race, and the harder I tried to recoup, the worse my luck seemed to get.”
“Well, I can’t make up for that, but I can give you some good news: you’re free to go home if you still want to go.”
“You know I do, and you also know I intend to go to Shanghai as soon as possible.”
“I’m not crazy about that idea, but I won’t stand in your way as long as you promise to practise moderation in all things.”
“You have my word, doctor.”
“Then I’ll tell the nurses you’re free to go.”
Uncle phoned Sonny as soon as Parker left the room. “Come and get me,” he said.
His next call was to Shanghai. Xu’s housekeeper answered the phone, and although she was younger than Uncle, he referred to her as everyone else did. “Auntie Grace, it is Uncle. I’d like to speak to Xu if he’s available.”
“For you he is always available. Wait just a minute,” she said.
“Uncle, how are you?” Xu asked less than a minute later.
“I’m ready to travel. I’m thinking I’ll come to Shanghai either tonight or tomorrow. What works best for you?”
“I have a meeting tonight that I shouldn’t cancel, so tomorrow is best.”
“Then tomorrow it is.”
“Call me with your flight details. My day is relatively open so I should be able to meet you at the airport,” Xu said. “I will book a suite for you at the Peninsula. Will Sonny be with you?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll get him a room as well.”
“That’s perfect. See you tomorrow,” said Uncle.
He thought about calling his travel agent, but suddenly felt weary. He lay back on the bed to wait for Sonny. He decided he would also take it easy when he got back to the apartment. His trips to Shanghai were usually busy with meetings and visits to Xu’s various businesses. He was intimately familiar with everything Xu had done, was doing, and planned to do. His advice wasn’t always taken, but it was never dismissed out of hand.
How many more trips will there be to Shanghai? He had asked that question many times over the past several weeks, and wishful thinking aside, the answer was that this was probably going to be the last. Xu knew that Uncle hadn’t been feeling terrific, but not that he was seriously ill. That would have to be made clear. Once it was, Uncle would speak to Xu about Ava, and if that went well — and he saw no reason it wouldn’t — he would talk to her about Xu when he got back to Hong Kong.
“Hey, boss,” Sonny said from the doorway.
“How did you get here so soon?” Uncle asked.
“No faster than normal.”
Uncle blinked, then realized he had been daydreaming. “Of course not. Let’s get me out of here.”
Fifteen minutes later Uncle sat in the back seat of the Mercedes for the short trip to his apartment.
“We are going to Shanghai tomorrow. I’ll book the one o’clock flight. You can pick me up around ten,” Uncle said as Sonny eased the car into traffic.
“How long will we be there?”
“Two days, maybe three. It will depend on what Xu has planned, and I have some things I need to discuss with him.”
“Have you told Ava you’re going?”
“Yes, and as it turns out, she won’t be in Hong Kong for the next few days anyway. She and May have a business problem that needs to be addressed. Ava is planning to go to Amsterdam, and may even have left last night.”
“It sounds funny to hear you speak about Ava and May as partners,” said Sonny.
“Does it bother you?”
“To be honest, it kind of scares me,” Sonny said, glancing in the rear-view mirror at Uncle. “We’ve always been a great team.”
“Are you afraid that when I’m gone Ava will move on?”
“She’ll have May Ling and Amanda Yee.”
“Has Ava discussed her plans with you?” Uncle asked.
“No.”
“I’m surprised, because she talked to me,” he said. “She made it clear that she wants you to work for her.”
“She’s going to move to Hong Kong?”
“No, but she expects to spend time here. When she is in town, she’ll want you to do for her what you have been doing for me,” said Uncle, and then saw a look of confusion cross Sonny’s face. “And when she’s not here, she told me that she would like you to drive for her father, and her half-brother Michael. She would also like you to keep a protective eye on them and Amanda Yee. She doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in Macau.”
“She hasn’t mentioned a word of this to me,” Sonny said, sounding not quite convinced.
“I am sure she’s just been waiting for the right moment. Maybe she thought talking about it too soon would be bad luck where I’m concerned,” Uncle said. “I’ll tell her we had this conversation and that she should talk to you directly.”
“It is good to know she has plans for me, but there’s no need for her to tell me about them just yet,” said Sonny. “You are going to be around for a long time.”
Uncle started to reply and then caught himself. With or without him, the world would keep moving. The best he could do was to leave a legacy, and what greater legacy could there be than the bridges he had built between the people who were most important in his life.
( 5 )
The Cathay Pacific flight landed in Shanghai the next day on schedule, and when Uncle and Sonny walked through the arrivals door at Hongqiao International Airport, he saw Xu waiting for them. There was a large crowd, but Xu was easy to identify in a black suit and a white shirt with a silk black tie. He had started wearing those clothes after becoming Mountain Master. Uncle hadn’t known how to react. In one way it was a compliment, but in another he was afraid Xu would be mocked for copying the way Uncle dressed. He needn’t have worried. Xu had such an air of sophistication and purpose about him that it defied anything but respect in return.
“Uncle, so good to see you. It has been too long,” Xu said, stepping forward with his hand extended.
Uncle held it for longer than any handshake demanded. He looked up at his protégé and smiled. Xu was close to six foot, lean, and like his father had a thick head of hair that he wore slicked back. He had inherited his looks, however, from his mother. Whereas Xu the elder’s face had been almost round, with a pug nose and a small chin, the younger Xu’s was more sharply defined, with a thin nose, a square jaw, and sharp cheekbones. It would have been a harsh face, if not for his large eyes that were generally soft and welcoming but could turn ice-cold if the situation demanded it.
“Good to see you too,” Uncle said, and then nodded at the man who stood next to Xu. He was a few inches taller than Sonny and as thick across the chest. His name was Suen, Xu’s Red Pole — the man who ran the gang’s troops on the ground.
“You’re looking well,” Xu said.
“Looks can be deceiving,” said Uncle.
Xu shook his head. “Don’t alarm me. I can’t afford to lose you.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Uncle said, noticing that Sonny was avoiding looking at them. “What is our itinerary?”
“I’ll tell you about it when we get to the car,” said Xu.
The four men made their way through the throng in the arrivals hall. Suen and Sonny walked side by side in front, forming a moving wall. The car was on the sixth level of a parking garage, and Uncle was grateful there was an elevator. As much as he thought he had been conserving his energy all day, he suspected it wouldn’t take much to tire him.
Xu’s car was a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class and was typically driven by a forty-niner, but there was no sign of a driver. Suen opened the back doors for Uncle and Xu, opened the trunk for Sonny to stow the bags, then climbed into the driver’s seat with Sonny sitting next to him.
Uncle knew it was only a twenty-kilometre drive from the airport to the Peninsula Hotel, which was located on the world-famous Bund, but he also knew Shanghai traffic was unpredictable. Their ride could take anywhere from fifteen minutes to more than an hour.
“I wanted you to come to the house for dinner tonight, but Yan — the Mountain Master from Wuxi — has been pushing for a meeting. I’ve been putting him off,” Xu said as they left the garage. “I wasn’t sure how long you planned to stay, and since tomorrow night I have a long-standing commitment with Fu from Suzhou, I thought I’d try to fit in Yan tonight. Are you okay with that?”
“What does Yan want?”
“Marketing and distribution support,” said Xu. “He’s making knock-off handbags and shoes, but there’s stiff competition from the other gangs, and he’s hoping to tap into our network.”
Uncle nodded. “Fine, we’ll meet.”
“I thought, since you are at the Peninsula, we could eat at Yi Long Court. I had dinner there last month and it was terrific.”
“In terms of food, it makes no difference to me where we eat, but I do like the idea of being at the hotel.”
“Good, and then tomorrow we’ll go to Nantong. I want you to see the new phone factory, and meet some of the technical people we hired away from Apple. They are telling me that we should be getting into laptop computers, but I’m a bit concerned that it may raise our profile too much. The last thing we need is to attract unnecessary government attention.”
“As I remember it, you have partners from government in that factory.”
“We do, but they are very nervous these days.”
“Why?”
“The Premier has launched another anti-corruption campaign, and he has turned the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection loose again. They are targeting his political rivals but they tend to cast their net quite wide. No one knows who could get caught up in it. And once you’re caught, there is no way to extract yourself. Even if you have done nothing, they’ll find something for you to confess to.”
“Then why consider laptops?”
“The profit margins are twice those of phones.”
They were nearing the Huangpu River and traffic became stop-and-go. “I think I’d like to rest when we get to the hotel,” Uncle said.
“Of course, we’ll see you checked in and I’ll come back later. Our dinner reservation is at seven, so I’ll be at the hotel by quarter to the hour.”
It was almost five by the time Uncle reached his suite. He unpacked the small bag he’d brought and thought briefly about napping before deciding he wasn’t really that tired. He opened a bottle of water and was about to turn on the television when there was a knock at the door. He looked through the eyehole and saw Sonny.
“Is there a problem?” he asked, opening the door.
“I tried to call your cell, but it isn’t on,” Sonny said. “I just opened mine and it has a message from Ava. She says she has been trying to reach you. She sounds worried.”
“I haven’t had my phone on since I left the apartment,” Uncle said, immediately angry at himself. “Did she say why she was calling?”
“No, only that she was trying to reach you and couldn’t. She told me to tell you to call her as soon as possible. I’m sure there’s a message on your phone as well. Maybe it has more detail.”
“I’ll check,” Uncle said. “If I need you, I’ll let you know.”
Uncle went immediately to his jacket and found his phone in a pocket. There was only one message. It had been left at two, when Uncle was in the air, which made him feel slightly less irresponsible. He sat on a couch to listen to it.
“Uncle, this is Ava. I’m at the airport in Amsterdam. I need to speak to you. I’d love to hear from you in the next half hour or so, but if that’s not possible, please keep your phone on,” she said.
She sounded distressed. Surely not being able to contact him couldn’t be the cause of it. Had something gone wrong on her trip? Had May run into further problems in Borneo? He thought of these scenarios in quick succession as he called her number — only to be immediately put through to her voicemail. She’s in mid-air, he thought, as he said, “I got your message. My phone has been off most of the day. I’m sorry about that. Call me when you can. I’ll make sure I’m available. And by the way, I’m feeling fine, if that’s one of your concerns.”
I shouldn’t have made that last comment, he thought as he put down the phone. It made him appear self-absorbed when whatever was causing her distress probably had nothing to do with him. He finished drinking the water and walked to the window that overlooked the Huangpu River. The Peninsula was one of fifty-two buildings that comprised the Bund. They were an eclectic mix that included colonial architecture as well as a large number of buildings — like the Peninsula — designed in the art deco style. They were part of old Shanghai, and one of the few areas to survive the determination of successive city governments to tear down everything that had existed pre-Mao and replace them with something newer, shinier, and larger.
Uncle had seen massive changes in China during his lifetime. He had witnessed first-hand the rapid growth of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone from a sleepy market town with a population of thirty-five thousand to a world-class economic powerhouse with over ten million residents. But even that didn’t compare to what had gone on in Shanghai. When Xu the elder had first resettled there, Pudong — the side of the Huangpu River across from the Bund — was mainly farmland. Now Pudong’s Lujiazui district was home to thirty skyscrapers and towers that took turns being China’s tallest building. The most recent addition was the Shanghai Tower, which — at 632 metres and with 128 storeys — was now the second tallest in the world. As astounding to Uncle was the city’s population explosion. In 1990 it was about nine million, and now it was twenty-four million, and it was predicted to soar past thirty million in a few years. If nothing else, that size provided Xu with endless opportunities to make money, and to stay under the radar while he did.
Uncle remained at the window for several minutes, staring at the Huangpu and its surroundings, before moving back into the living room. He turned on the television and went back and forth between news programs and a variety show. Nothing really held his attention as his mind wandered between Ava and the conversation he needed to have with Xu.
At six-forty, he left the room and took the elevator to the lobby. When he emerged, he saw Xu talking to a short, stout man wearing a grey suit, a white shirt, and a blue Gucci tie. Uncle guessed he was Yan, and couldn’t help but wonder if the tie was a knock-off. Off to one side, Suen stood with a man Uncle recognized as one of Xu’s forty-niners, and two other men he assumed were with Yan. The contrast between Xu’s and Yan’s men was striking. Xu did not like his men to be visibly tattooed, have outlandish hairstyles, or dress in a manner that drew attention to themselves. Dressed in slacks and polo shirts and with their hair cropped short, Suen and the Shanghai forty-niner typified the look Xu wanted. Yan’s men, on the other hand, wore jeans and T-shirts, and both were heavily tattooed.
