Finale, p.21
Finale, page 21
“Ava has been kidnapped by Wan’s gang in Kota Kinabalu. They are demanding the equivalent of half a million U.S. dollars as a ransom,” Uncle said as calmly as he could. “Ava’s friend May Ling — who is in Kota with her — is negotiating with them as we speak.”
“Negotiating what exactly?” Xu asked, exhibiting calm.
“I asked her to stall for time, and to insist that Ava and the money be exchanged simultaneously.”
“That isn’t how these things usually work,” Suen said, glancing nervously at Xu.
“I am aware that sometimes the money is paid before the hostage is released, but just as often the money is paid and then the hostage is killed,” said Uncle.
“Even if the hostage and ransom-payers swear not to go to the cops, some of the gangs who do this shit won’t take the chance. Their best protection is to make sure there are no witnesses,” said Suen.
“I understand their reasoning,” Uncle said. “I also understand that they can’t be trusted to hold up their end of any agreement. So paying them a ransom and then hoping that they will release Ava is not something I am prepared to do.”
“Do those fuckers know who they’re dealing with?” Sonny asked.
“I have no idea what Ava told them, but even if she told them about me, what weight would that carry? They have probably never heard of me, and if they have, they’ll know I’ve been out of the game for years.”
“I can’t imagine they haven’t heard of Xu,” Suen said. “If Wan knew that you had his support, that might make a difference.”
“It might, but how do we deliver that message to a man who doesn’t use a phone?” Uncle asked.
“Maybe he needs to be told in person,” Xu said, and then looked at Suen. “We were told that Wan has about thirty men in his gang. How many of our men would you need to bring them to heel?”
“I could probably get by with ten of our best.”
“Then take fifteen. How soon can you have them organized and ready to go?”
“I would need three or four hours.”
Xu nodded and took out his phone. He hit a number, waited for a few seconds, and said, “Feng, I’m sorry to bother you at home, but I need you to do something for me. I’m sending Suen and fifteen of our men to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to sort out a problem, and I need to get them there as quickly as possible. How long will it take you to charter a plane?”
Uncle could hear Feng say something but couldn’t make out the words.
“Yes, I would like them to go tonight, and I don’t care about the expense,” Xu continued. “Call me back when it’s done.”
Uncle stared at him. “Xu, this is more than I had any right to expect. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“It is too soon for thanks. Let’s wait until we get Ava out of Wan’s clutches,” said Xu, turning to Suen. “Start rounding up your men and weapons.”
“Yes, sir,” said Suen.
“I want to go with them,” Sonny said to Uncle.
“Is that a problem?” Uncle asked Xu.
“Of course not. I’m sure Suen will be pleased to have him along.”
“I don’t have a gun with me,” Sonny said.
“I’ll get you one,” said Suen.
“Taking weapons onto a plane won’t be a problem?” Uncle asked Xu.
“We fly most of our phones to market on private planes, and we have developed a strong working relationship with the customs officials at the airport. There won’t be a problem there, and they will make sure we don’t have a problem when we land.”
Uncle shook his head. “That’s an amazing business model you’ve created.”
“Making partners of government officials — even indirectly — is a strategy I learned from my father, and he told me he learned it from you.”
“I —” Uncle began, then stopped when his phone rang. “May, did you speak to Kang? Did you convince them to wait?”
“Yes, they’ll wait until tomorrow morning. The banks open at ten. They want their money by eleven,” she said, her voice breaking.
“Did you discuss the exchange with them?”
“Yes, and Kang didn’t say no, but he sort of brushed it off by saying they wouldn’t commit to anything until they knew for certain that we had the cash.”
“I expected something like that,” Uncle said. “What about Ava? Did they let you speak to her?”
“Oh, Uncle,” she sobbed suddenly.
“What!”
“All they let her say was, ‘This is Ava and I’m okay.’ Kang sent me a photo of her,” she said, her crying intensifying.
“Have they hurt her?” he asked, rising to his feet.
“She was tied to a chair in what looked like a warehouse.”
“But have they hurt her?”
“Her eyes were blindfolded, and there was blood on her face, but she looked determined not to give in,” May said, then hesitated.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
May sobbed again and blurted, “Her blouse is open, and a breast is exposed. I can’t help thinking the worst.”
Uncle felt his heart skip a beat and his stomach contract. He reached down and put his hand on the back of the chair to steady himself. “May, we are sending a crew to Borneo tonight. Sonny is going with them. These aren’t men to mess with. They will get Ava, and they will make those bastards pay for any harm they have done to her.”
“We can’t lose her.”
“We won’t.”
“What should I do now?”
“Wait in the hotel. We’ll contact you when this is over and Ava is free.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to sleep. I can’t get that photo out of my mind.”
“Just tell yourself that things are going to work out,” he said.
“I’ll try.”
Uncle ended the call, and then saw that Xu, Sonny, and Suen were staring at him intently. “Ava seems to be okay,” he said slowly.
“But you mentioned ‘harm.’ Have they hurt her?” asked Xu.
The image of Ava tied to a chair leapt into Uncle’s mind, and he felt his head get even lighter. “Do whatever it takes to get her back. I don’t care if you have to kill them all to do it.”
“You know there’s nothing we won’t do,” Sonny said. “We’ll get her back, boss.”
Uncle nodded, lifted his hand from the back of the chair, and took two faltering steps in the direction of the bathroom before his legs gave way. He blacked out before he hit the floor.
( 12 )
Uncle was confused. He thought he might be in a dream. He could hear voices, some of them familiar, but when he tried to see who was speaking, he couldn’t open his eyes. And when he tried to call out, he couldn’t make a sound. He was pretty sure he was lying on his back, but couldn’t understand why he felt like he was being lifted into the air.
When he was finally able to open his eyes, he quickly closed them again to shut out the glare of an overhead light. He waited for a few seconds and tried again, covering his eyes with the back of a wrist from which an IV tube protruded. “Where am I?” he asked hoarsely. There was no answer.
He lay like that for several minutes until he heard a door open. He lifted his wrist from his eyes and saw a nurse walking towards him. “Where am I?” he asked.
“The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon,” she said.
“How did I get here?”
“Doctor Parker should be the one to explain that to you,” she said. “He asked me to call him if . . . rather, when you woke.”
“Then please tell him I’m awake,” Uncle said, surprised at the effort it took.
He closed his eyes again and started to drift away, his mind filled with random and unconnected thoughts.
“Mr. Chow . . . Uncle,” a voice said.
His eyelids were heavy, and he had to force them open. Doctor Parker stood by the side of the bed.
“I recognize you, and I know where I am, but I don’t remember how I got here,” Uncle said.
“You were flown here from Shanghai very early this morning in a private plane. You were accompanied by a friend and attended to by a very capable nurse.”
“Which friend?”
“His name is Xu. He is still in Hong Kong. I’m to call him once we know your situation.”
“What is that situation?”
Parker placed a hand on the bed. “I’m afraid it isn’t very good. I thought we were going to lose you. Mr. Xu explained that you might have overdone things physically in Shanghai, and on top of that, you suffered some kind of emotional blow. Those things, combined with your cancer, brought on a stroke that has damaged your heart.”
“Ava — my granddaughter . . .” Uncle said, as memories began to surface.
“Yes, Mr. Xu said it involved her.”
“What’s the time?” Uncle asked.
“Just after eight a.m.”
A memory intruded of Sonny and Suen going to Borneo, and then Uncle realized he couldn’t be sure they had gone. Had they found a plane? If they had, when had they left, how long was the flight, had they landed, and most important, what were they doing now? Had they found Ava?
“Where is Xu?” he asked.
“He told me he was going to check into the Peninsula Hotel.”
“I need to talk to him,” he said to Parker.
“I’d prefer that you didn’t. I’m worried what the additional stress might do,” Parker said. “Besides, Mr. Xu told me that you were waiting for news on the subject that triggered your stroke, and he promised to call me the moment he heard anything. I assure you that I haven’t missed any calls from him, and that the moment I hear from him I’ll pass along his news.”
“They have to be there by now,” Uncle muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing, but if you don’t hear from Xu in the next hour, could you please call him for me?”
“Yes, I can do that,” Parker said. “Now you need to rest.”
Uncle took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, he could feel his body’s energy draining away. His eyes started to close, and he fought to keep them open. He needed to stay awake, he thought, suddenly fearful that his next sleep could be his last.
He lay still, not moving a muscle, his body disconnected from his brain, and his brain slowly circulated memories of Gui-San and Ava. Despite his best efforts, he did eventually fall asleep, but woke when the nurse came to change his IV bag.
“What’s in there?” he asked.
“You need hydration, plus there are some painkillers and a mild sedative.”
“What’s the time?”
“It isn’t quite nine.”
When had time ever passed so slowly, he wondered. “Could you ask Doctor Parker to come see me?” he asked.
The nurse hesitated, then turned and said, “There’s no need for that. Here he is now.”
Parker smiled as he approached the bed. “I just called Mr. Xu. He said to tell you that the men have landed; the project is well underway; and that the initial results are encouraging.”
“Ava?”
“He didn’t mention her specifically.”
“Thank you anyway.”
“Now rest. All this worry is not doing you any good.”
Xu wouldn’t lie about that, Uncle thought, not even if Xu was doing it to protect him from bad news. So things had to be going well. And why wouldn’t they? The local gangsters would be no match for Suen’s men, and an unleashed, angry Sonny was a fearsome sight. They would find her, he told himself, and they would rescue her. Then the image that May had implanted in his head of Ava tied to a chair with her shirt undone flooded over him. Oh God, let that be all they did to her, he thought, as tears began trickling down his cheeks.
Suddenly, a pain erupted in his chest that caused him to gasp. It took minutes for the pain to subside, and even then it didn’t disappear completely. He considered calling for the nurse, but to what end? It didn’t matter now. All he needed was to last a few more hours, he thought as he fell asleep again.
When he awoke, Parker stood over him.
“Did you talk to Xu again?” he asked.
“No, I did one better. I spoke to your granddaughter,” Parker said. “Ava called the hospital and was put through to me.”
“What did she say?”
“A great many things — she’s safe and she intends to return to Hong Kong as quickly as possible. She wants you to be here when she arrives,” Parker said. “And of course, she wanted me to tell you she loves you.”
Uncle sighed so deeply that he found it difficult to find a return breath.
“I know that’s the news you wanted to hear, and I hope it eases some of the stress you’ve been experiencing.”
Uncle nodded. “Thank you,” he whispered.
He felt an overpowering sense of relief wash over him, followed by a pain in his chest. Uncle closed his eyes.
( EPILOGUE )
Uncle couldn’t remember leaving the hospital, but when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in front of Dong’s Restaurant in Fanling.
The door was closed, and he couldn’t see past it, but he could hear voices. He turned the handle and stepped inside, to be met immediately by Dong.
“We were wondering when you would get here. Let me take you to your table,” Dong said.
The restaurant was busy, and there was a surprisingly large number of familiar faces, including some people Uncle hadn’t seen in years.
“Come and sit with us,” one of his former Mountain Masters said.
Uncle stared at him, confused because he thought the man was dead. After a slight pause, he started to follow Dong again towards the rear of the restaurant.
“Tian is here, and your old friend Xu,” Dong said. “They are anxious to see you.”
“Did Xu come all the way from Shanghai?” Uncle asked.
“I’m not sure. He didn’t say.”
“Chow,” a voice shouted.
Uncle froze.
“Chow, I am over here.”
Uncle looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Gui-San waving at him from the corner. He walked towards her with his heart racing.
“How did you know to meet me here?” he asked.
She smiled.
Acknowledgements
The Uncle books were initially conceived as a trilogy, but as I completed the third book in the series — Fortune — it became clear to me that I couldn’t leave Uncle’s story unfinished. Fortunately, my publisher agreed that a fourth book was appropriate. But knowing I wanted to write a fourth Uncle novel and actually writing it were two different things.
My first thought was to write Finale in three separate sections, spanning roughly ten years and mirroring the Ava Lee books, The Dragon Head of Hong Kong, The Scottish Banker of Surabaya, and The Two Sisters of Borneo. It was a hefty manuscript, and ultimately felt like too slow a read. My editor Doug Richmond and I talked it over, and I made the decision to discard over one hundred pages — nearly all related to The Dragon Head — and to build some of the backstory into the other two sections. That gave us the book you’ve just read.
The other challenge was deciding how precisely I should mirror The Scottish Banker and The Two Sisters. The events in those books were seen through Ava’s eyes, while in Finale they are seen through Uncle’s. I decided to maintain the plots and all their details but made some adjustments to dialogue and reinterpreted the characters’ emotional reactions. My rationale was that no two people experience or remember things the same, and that Uncle’s recollection of a conversation with Ava might well be different than hers.
So that is the background to this book.
A huge thanks, as always, to Doug for his editorial and emotional support, and to House of Anansi for continuing to believe in my work.
Finale went to fewer first readers than usual, only because I had so many doubts about the manuscript and didn’t feel quite ready to share it. But my first reader of first readers, my wife Lorraine, did provide her usual insightful input. And my friend Robin Spano accurately pinpointed many weaknesses in the first draft. A big thanks and a hug to each of them.
IAN HAMILTON is the acclaimed author of fourteen books in the Ava Lee series, four in the Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung series, and the standalone novel Bonnie Jack. His books have been shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Arthur Ellis Award, the Barry Award, and the Lambda Literary Prize, and are national bestsellers. bbc Culture named Hamilton one of the ten mystery/crime writers from the last thirty years who should be on your bookshelf. The Ava Lee series is being adapted for television.
Contents
Prologue
PART ONE ( 1 )
( 2 )
( 3 )
( 4 )
( 5 )
( 6 )
( 7 )
( 8 )
( 9 )
( 10 )
( 11 )
( 12 )
( 13 )
( 14 )
( 15 )
( 16 )
( 17 )
( 18 )
( 19 )
( 20 )
( 21 )
( 22 )
( 23 )
( 24 )
PART TWO ( 1 )
( 2 )
( 3 )
( 4 )
( 5 )
( 6 )
( 7 )
( 8 )
( 9 )
( 10 )
( 11 )
( 12 )
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
“Negotiating what exactly?” Xu asked, exhibiting calm.
“I asked her to stall for time, and to insist that Ava and the money be exchanged simultaneously.”
“That isn’t how these things usually work,” Suen said, glancing nervously at Xu.
“I am aware that sometimes the money is paid before the hostage is released, but just as often the money is paid and then the hostage is killed,” said Uncle.
“Even if the hostage and ransom-payers swear not to go to the cops, some of the gangs who do this shit won’t take the chance. Their best protection is to make sure there are no witnesses,” said Suen.
“I understand their reasoning,” Uncle said. “I also understand that they can’t be trusted to hold up their end of any agreement. So paying them a ransom and then hoping that they will release Ava is not something I am prepared to do.”
“Do those fuckers know who they’re dealing with?” Sonny asked.
“I have no idea what Ava told them, but even if she told them about me, what weight would that carry? They have probably never heard of me, and if they have, they’ll know I’ve been out of the game for years.”
“I can’t imagine they haven’t heard of Xu,” Suen said. “If Wan knew that you had his support, that might make a difference.”
“It might, but how do we deliver that message to a man who doesn’t use a phone?” Uncle asked.
“Maybe he needs to be told in person,” Xu said, and then looked at Suen. “We were told that Wan has about thirty men in his gang. How many of our men would you need to bring them to heel?”
“I could probably get by with ten of our best.”
“Then take fifteen. How soon can you have them organized and ready to go?”
“I would need three or four hours.”
Xu nodded and took out his phone. He hit a number, waited for a few seconds, and said, “Feng, I’m sorry to bother you at home, but I need you to do something for me. I’m sending Suen and fifteen of our men to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to sort out a problem, and I need to get them there as quickly as possible. How long will it take you to charter a plane?”
Uncle could hear Feng say something but couldn’t make out the words.
“Yes, I would like them to go tonight, and I don’t care about the expense,” Xu continued. “Call me back when it’s done.”
Uncle stared at him. “Xu, this is more than I had any right to expect. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“It is too soon for thanks. Let’s wait until we get Ava out of Wan’s clutches,” said Xu, turning to Suen. “Start rounding up your men and weapons.”
“Yes, sir,” said Suen.
“I want to go with them,” Sonny said to Uncle.
“Is that a problem?” Uncle asked Xu.
“Of course not. I’m sure Suen will be pleased to have him along.”
“I don’t have a gun with me,” Sonny said.
“I’ll get you one,” said Suen.
“Taking weapons onto a plane won’t be a problem?” Uncle asked Xu.
“We fly most of our phones to market on private planes, and we have developed a strong working relationship with the customs officials at the airport. There won’t be a problem there, and they will make sure we don’t have a problem when we land.”
Uncle shook his head. “That’s an amazing business model you’ve created.”
“Making partners of government officials — even indirectly — is a strategy I learned from my father, and he told me he learned it from you.”
“I —” Uncle began, then stopped when his phone rang. “May, did you speak to Kang? Did you convince them to wait?”
“Yes, they’ll wait until tomorrow morning. The banks open at ten. They want their money by eleven,” she said, her voice breaking.
“Did you discuss the exchange with them?”
“Yes, and Kang didn’t say no, but he sort of brushed it off by saying they wouldn’t commit to anything until they knew for certain that we had the cash.”
“I expected something like that,” Uncle said. “What about Ava? Did they let you speak to her?”
“Oh, Uncle,” she sobbed suddenly.
“What!”
“All they let her say was, ‘This is Ava and I’m okay.’ Kang sent me a photo of her,” she said, her crying intensifying.
“Have they hurt her?” he asked, rising to his feet.
“She was tied to a chair in what looked like a warehouse.”
“But have they hurt her?”
“Her eyes were blindfolded, and there was blood on her face, but she looked determined not to give in,” May said, then hesitated.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
May sobbed again and blurted, “Her blouse is open, and a breast is exposed. I can’t help thinking the worst.”
Uncle felt his heart skip a beat and his stomach contract. He reached down and put his hand on the back of the chair to steady himself. “May, we are sending a crew to Borneo tonight. Sonny is going with them. These aren’t men to mess with. They will get Ava, and they will make those bastards pay for any harm they have done to her.”
“We can’t lose her.”
“We won’t.”
“What should I do now?”
“Wait in the hotel. We’ll contact you when this is over and Ava is free.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to sleep. I can’t get that photo out of my mind.”
“Just tell yourself that things are going to work out,” he said.
“I’ll try.”
Uncle ended the call, and then saw that Xu, Sonny, and Suen were staring at him intently. “Ava seems to be okay,” he said slowly.
“But you mentioned ‘harm.’ Have they hurt her?” asked Xu.
The image of Ava tied to a chair leapt into Uncle’s mind, and he felt his head get even lighter. “Do whatever it takes to get her back. I don’t care if you have to kill them all to do it.”
“You know there’s nothing we won’t do,” Sonny said. “We’ll get her back, boss.”
Uncle nodded, lifted his hand from the back of the chair, and took two faltering steps in the direction of the bathroom before his legs gave way. He blacked out before he hit the floor.
( 12 )
Uncle was confused. He thought he might be in a dream. He could hear voices, some of them familiar, but when he tried to see who was speaking, he couldn’t open his eyes. And when he tried to call out, he couldn’t make a sound. He was pretty sure he was lying on his back, but couldn’t understand why he felt like he was being lifted into the air.
When he was finally able to open his eyes, he quickly closed them again to shut out the glare of an overhead light. He waited for a few seconds and tried again, covering his eyes with the back of a wrist from which an IV tube protruded. “Where am I?” he asked hoarsely. There was no answer.
He lay like that for several minutes until he heard a door open. He lifted his wrist from his eyes and saw a nurse walking towards him. “Where am I?” he asked.
“The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon,” she said.
“How did I get here?”
“Doctor Parker should be the one to explain that to you,” she said. “He asked me to call him if . . . rather, when you woke.”
“Then please tell him I’m awake,” Uncle said, surprised at the effort it took.
He closed his eyes again and started to drift away, his mind filled with random and unconnected thoughts.
“Mr. Chow . . . Uncle,” a voice said.
His eyelids were heavy, and he had to force them open. Doctor Parker stood by the side of the bed.
“I recognize you, and I know where I am, but I don’t remember how I got here,” Uncle said.
“You were flown here from Shanghai very early this morning in a private plane. You were accompanied by a friend and attended to by a very capable nurse.”
“Which friend?”
“His name is Xu. He is still in Hong Kong. I’m to call him once we know your situation.”
“What is that situation?”
Parker placed a hand on the bed. “I’m afraid it isn’t very good. I thought we were going to lose you. Mr. Xu explained that you might have overdone things physically in Shanghai, and on top of that, you suffered some kind of emotional blow. Those things, combined with your cancer, brought on a stroke that has damaged your heart.”
“Ava — my granddaughter . . .” Uncle said, as memories began to surface.
“Yes, Mr. Xu said it involved her.”
“What’s the time?” Uncle asked.
“Just after eight a.m.”
A memory intruded of Sonny and Suen going to Borneo, and then Uncle realized he couldn’t be sure they had gone. Had they found a plane? If they had, when had they left, how long was the flight, had they landed, and most important, what were they doing now? Had they found Ava?
“Where is Xu?” he asked.
“He told me he was going to check into the Peninsula Hotel.”
“I need to talk to him,” he said to Parker.
“I’d prefer that you didn’t. I’m worried what the additional stress might do,” Parker said. “Besides, Mr. Xu told me that you were waiting for news on the subject that triggered your stroke, and he promised to call me the moment he heard anything. I assure you that I haven’t missed any calls from him, and that the moment I hear from him I’ll pass along his news.”
“They have to be there by now,” Uncle muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing, but if you don’t hear from Xu in the next hour, could you please call him for me?”
“Yes, I can do that,” Parker said. “Now you need to rest.”
Uncle took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, he could feel his body’s energy draining away. His eyes started to close, and he fought to keep them open. He needed to stay awake, he thought, suddenly fearful that his next sleep could be his last.
He lay still, not moving a muscle, his body disconnected from his brain, and his brain slowly circulated memories of Gui-San and Ava. Despite his best efforts, he did eventually fall asleep, but woke when the nurse came to change his IV bag.
“What’s in there?” he asked.
“You need hydration, plus there are some painkillers and a mild sedative.”
“What’s the time?”
“It isn’t quite nine.”
When had time ever passed so slowly, he wondered. “Could you ask Doctor Parker to come see me?” he asked.
The nurse hesitated, then turned and said, “There’s no need for that. Here he is now.”
Parker smiled as he approached the bed. “I just called Mr. Xu. He said to tell you that the men have landed; the project is well underway; and that the initial results are encouraging.”
“Ava?”
“He didn’t mention her specifically.”
“Thank you anyway.”
“Now rest. All this worry is not doing you any good.”
Xu wouldn’t lie about that, Uncle thought, not even if Xu was doing it to protect him from bad news. So things had to be going well. And why wouldn’t they? The local gangsters would be no match for Suen’s men, and an unleashed, angry Sonny was a fearsome sight. They would find her, he told himself, and they would rescue her. Then the image that May had implanted in his head of Ava tied to a chair with her shirt undone flooded over him. Oh God, let that be all they did to her, he thought, as tears began trickling down his cheeks.
Suddenly, a pain erupted in his chest that caused him to gasp. It took minutes for the pain to subside, and even then it didn’t disappear completely. He considered calling for the nurse, but to what end? It didn’t matter now. All he needed was to last a few more hours, he thought as he fell asleep again.
When he awoke, Parker stood over him.
“Did you talk to Xu again?” he asked.
“No, I did one better. I spoke to your granddaughter,” Parker said. “Ava called the hospital and was put through to me.”
“What did she say?”
“A great many things — she’s safe and she intends to return to Hong Kong as quickly as possible. She wants you to be here when she arrives,” Parker said. “And of course, she wanted me to tell you she loves you.”
Uncle sighed so deeply that he found it difficult to find a return breath.
“I know that’s the news you wanted to hear, and I hope it eases some of the stress you’ve been experiencing.”
Uncle nodded. “Thank you,” he whispered.
He felt an overpowering sense of relief wash over him, followed by a pain in his chest. Uncle closed his eyes.
( EPILOGUE )
Uncle couldn’t remember leaving the hospital, but when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in front of Dong’s Restaurant in Fanling.
The door was closed, and he couldn’t see past it, but he could hear voices. He turned the handle and stepped inside, to be met immediately by Dong.
“We were wondering when you would get here. Let me take you to your table,” Dong said.
The restaurant was busy, and there was a surprisingly large number of familiar faces, including some people Uncle hadn’t seen in years.
“Come and sit with us,” one of his former Mountain Masters said.
Uncle stared at him, confused because he thought the man was dead. After a slight pause, he started to follow Dong again towards the rear of the restaurant.
“Tian is here, and your old friend Xu,” Dong said. “They are anxious to see you.”
“Did Xu come all the way from Shanghai?” Uncle asked.
“I’m not sure. He didn’t say.”
“Chow,” a voice shouted.
Uncle froze.
“Chow, I am over here.”
Uncle looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Gui-San waving at him from the corner. He walked towards her with his heart racing.
“How did you know to meet me here?” he asked.
She smiled.
Acknowledgements
The Uncle books were initially conceived as a trilogy, but as I completed the third book in the series — Fortune — it became clear to me that I couldn’t leave Uncle’s story unfinished. Fortunately, my publisher agreed that a fourth book was appropriate. But knowing I wanted to write a fourth Uncle novel and actually writing it were two different things.
My first thought was to write Finale in three separate sections, spanning roughly ten years and mirroring the Ava Lee books, The Dragon Head of Hong Kong, The Scottish Banker of Surabaya, and The Two Sisters of Borneo. It was a hefty manuscript, and ultimately felt like too slow a read. My editor Doug Richmond and I talked it over, and I made the decision to discard over one hundred pages — nearly all related to The Dragon Head — and to build some of the backstory into the other two sections. That gave us the book you’ve just read.
The other challenge was deciding how precisely I should mirror The Scottish Banker and The Two Sisters. The events in those books were seen through Ava’s eyes, while in Finale they are seen through Uncle’s. I decided to maintain the plots and all their details but made some adjustments to dialogue and reinterpreted the characters’ emotional reactions. My rationale was that no two people experience or remember things the same, and that Uncle’s recollection of a conversation with Ava might well be different than hers.
So that is the background to this book.
A huge thanks, as always, to Doug for his editorial and emotional support, and to House of Anansi for continuing to believe in my work.
Finale went to fewer first readers than usual, only because I had so many doubts about the manuscript and didn’t feel quite ready to share it. But my first reader of first readers, my wife Lorraine, did provide her usual insightful input. And my friend Robin Spano accurately pinpointed many weaknesses in the first draft. A big thanks and a hug to each of them.
IAN HAMILTON is the acclaimed author of fourteen books in the Ava Lee series, four in the Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung series, and the standalone novel Bonnie Jack. His books have been shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Arthur Ellis Award, the Barry Award, and the Lambda Literary Prize, and are national bestsellers. bbc Culture named Hamilton one of the ten mystery/crime writers from the last thirty years who should be on your bookshelf. The Ava Lee series is being adapted for television.
Contents
Prologue
PART ONE ( 1 )
( 2 )
( 3 )
( 4 )
( 5 )
( 6 )
( 7 )
( 8 )
( 9 )
( 10 )
( 11 )
( 12 )
( 13 )
( 14 )
( 15 )
( 16 )
( 17 )
( 18 )
( 19 )
( 20 )
( 21 )
( 22 )
( 23 )
( 24 )
PART TWO ( 1 )
( 2 )
( 3 )
( 4 )
( 5 )
( 6 )
( 7 )
( 8 )
( 9 )
( 10 )
( 11 )
( 12 )
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
