The Red Pole of Macau

( 17 )

Her father had returned to her dreams. They were alone, stuck in the middle of a city that neither of them recognized. They needed help — she wasn’t sure why — and he asked Ava to try to call someone on her cell. She tried and tried and kept failing, every time hitting a wrong key, missing a number, dialling the wrong area code, while her father became increasingly frustrated and angry with her.

She woke with a start, happy to get away from him. It was nearly six o’clock, and she thought about rolling over and going back to sleep, except that her mind was already churning and she knew she wouldn’t be able to drift off again.

She had turned off her cellphone the night before when she went to dinner with Uncle, and now she turned it on. Her brother had called twice; so had her father and her mother as well. She could only imagine the kind of conversations between Michael and her father that would have brought her mother into the picture.

It was early evening in Toronto, too early for dinner, so Ava called the house. “Ava, I’m so glad you called,” Jennie Lee said.

“What’s going on?”

“I should be asking that question.”

“Why?”

“Daddy has been talking to Michael, and he’s so worried that he wants to cut short his stay here and fly back to Hong Kong.”

“What is Michael telling him?”

“Nothing, that’s the problem. He just keeps saying not to worry, that things are getting worked out, except when Daddy asks what’s getting worked out, Michael doesn’t give him a straight answer.”

“Mummy, tell Daddy there is no reason for him to come to Hong Kong. There’s a business dispute and that’s all. I’m working on it with Michael and I think we’ll have it resolved in a day or two. Now listen to me. I don’t want to discuss this with Daddy myself. Michael and I are working as a team, and I don’t want him to think that I went behind his back to Daddy, and I’m sure that’s why he hasn’t gone to Daddy himself. So just tell Daddy that the two kids are on the same page and that he has to step back and let us work out this problem on our own.”

“Is that true?”

“Mummy, stop it.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to Daddy.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Ava made herself an instant coffee and then went to get the newspapers that were at the door. Her mother would handle Marcus, and Michael could wait.

She scanned the Tribune and the Morning Post, had another coffee, and then headed for the bathroom. I’m stalling, she thought. I’m not ready to start thinking about Simon To again.

Showered and dressed in a black Giordano T-shirt and Adidas track pants, she sat at the computer and logged into her email. She had cheery messages from Mimi and Maria, and she wondered how it could be so easy for them to be happy. She felt a touch of jealousy, and then guilt for feeling that way. It wasn’t their fault they were happy.

As she worked at the computer, she kept glancing at the gate specifications next to her on the table. She was about to reach for them when her cellphone rang and Uncle’s name appeared on the screen.

“I hope I did not wake you,” he said.

“No, I’ve been up for a while, and in fact I’ve been waiting for a chance to call you.”

“Me too, I have been waiting,” he said. “Do you want to meet me for congee?”

“Sure.”

“There is a place next to the McDonald’s near Ocean Terminal, the one just off the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry terminal. How soon can you be there?”

“Half an hour.”

She took the specifications with her, intending to look at them on the ferry, but it was such a beautiful morning she spent the ten-minute trip looking at the sun rising over Kowloon on one side and illuminating the Hong Kong skyline on the other.

As usual, Uncle was already sipping tea when she walked into the restaurant. She kissed him on the forehead and then sat down across from him. “Let us order. I am very hungry this morning,” he said.

Ava’s mother made congee — rice porridge — nearly every morning. There were many ways to eat it — with salted duck eggs, bamboo shoots, pickled tofu — but Ava’s mother liked to add just white pepper and a touch of soy sauce, and they always had a plate of you tiao — fried bread sticks — for dipping. And that is what Ava ordered, along with a coffee, which she knew would be instant. Uncle added an order of salted duck eggs.

“I spoke to the Wongs in Wuhan last night,” he said when the waitress left.

“Why?”

“I could not sleep.”

“So you called Wuhan? I didn’t realize you had become such friends.”

He looked across the table at her. “I could not sleep because I kept thinking about your problem in Macau, and about how I could help. There was a time, when I was chairman, when being chairman meant something, that I could have picked up the phone, made one call, and your problem would have disappeared. Those days are gone. But it occurred to me that maybe there was one person who could still make that kind of call.”

“Wong Changxing?”

“No. I spoke to May Ling.”

“Uncle, please —”

“No, Ava, you need to listen to me. You are a practical girl. Now be practical.”

She knew he was right. “Okay, go on.”

“Now, I did not know for sure if May could help or not until I explained the situation to her. So I told her everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, absolutely everything. This is not a woman you keep secrets from when you are asking her for help. Besides, there is not much she has not seen or done . . . as you know. So I told her everything, including the fact that I thought you were determined to go ahead regardless of the danger. Her reaction was very calm. She said she thought she might be able to do something but she would need to make some phone calls. I told her to call me in the morning, and she said no, she would make the calls right away. She called me back in less than half an hour,” Uncle said. “I told you, Ava, the woman has guanxi.”

“She has connections to the triad? How is that possible?”

“It is not possible. I have told you, no one can control that anymore.”

“So who did she talk to?”

“Her friend the General. The one we met at the house in Wuhan. He spoke to a friend, another general — they are old classmates.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Macau is a Special Administrative Region and has a certain autonomy, like Hong Kong, from China. But when it comes to matters of foreign affairs and defence, those are run by the Chinese. A senior general attached to the Guangzhou Military Region, which controls Macau, is the friend of a friend.”

“What are you saying?”

“Your problem with the police — I think he can make it disappear.”

“How?”

“The Security Force and the directorates are paramilitary, and when all is said and done, they know who they are accountable to, and they are smart enough to know who to be most afraid of. They will not say no to a very specific and, on the surface, very minor request from the General. At the end of the day he is the boss, and when the boss asks for a personal favour, they are going to say yes.”

“What favour?”

“That they stand off, ignore any alarm that comes from Lok’s house.”

“The General told May Ling he could make that happen?”

“He did.”

“Couldn’t he do more? Couldn’t he tell them to go in and get Simon?”

“You are always so quick,” Uncle said with a little smile. “I asked the very same question, but it gets complicated. The General does not mind telling them to stand off for a few days, but he does not want to attach himself directly to what is basically a local police issue. There are rings within rings here, Ava. How many other gangs are the police tied into? If they move on Lok, what will happen to the trust they have built with the others? How much are the police kicking back to the army? The General wants to help May, but he is not about to piss off the Security Force and cut off his own cash flow.”

“How long would they stand off?”

“Ask for as much time as you want.”

“That might mean I have to tell them when I’m going in.”

“Does that worry you?”

“People gossip. It wouldn’t take very much for some cop to give Lok a heads-up.”

Their food arrived and both of them went quiet. It wasn’t until the waiter was out of hearing range that Uncle continued. “Discuss that with the General when you meet him.”

“Meet him?”

“This cannot to be finalized over the phone. May is going to have to meet with him, and I just assumed you would want to be there.”

“Uncle, I haven’t agreed to this.”

“No, but you will,” he said. “Now look, our food is here and will quickly get cold. Let us eat.”

They ate in silence. Ava concentrated on her congee, only looking away from it when she reached for more fried bread. Occasionally she caught Uncle glancing at her, a little smile playing across his face. The truth was, she wasn’t the least bit unhappy. Her mind was racing again. If the alarm problem disappeared, the only other major obstacle was the gate.

“I want the help. What do I have to do to make it happen?” she asked as their bowls were cleared.

“Call May Ling.”

“And what do I say to her?”

“‘Thank you.”

“Could you please call her for me on your phone?” she said.

For a man who had lived in the same Kowloon apartment for more than forty years, employed the same Filipina housekeeper for more than thirty, and owned the same television for more than twenty, Uncle was surprisingly up-to-date with his mobile — even though it was an Eye Phone rather than an iPhone and had cost him only fifty dollars at a Kowloon night-market stall.

“May, this is Uncle,” he began. “Yes, she is here with me and I have explained about the generals.” He looked at Ava. “I am going to pass the phone to her now.”

“Hello, May Ling,” Ava said, taking the phone.

There was a long hesitation from Wuhan. When May Ling spoke, her voice had a tiny tremor in it. “Ava, is everything going to be okay between us now?”

“I think there is that chance,” Ava said slowly.

She saw the glance Uncle shot at her and ignored him. She wasn’t about to concede everything, not yet.

“This problem you have — General Feng can help.”

“If he can, I won’t be able to thank him enough, and I won’t be able to thank you enough.”

“Uncle said you have a tight time frame.”

“Two days, maybe three.”

“Then we need to meet with him as quickly as we can. I spoke to him this morning and he’s at the garrison in Guangzhou, but he’s prepared to meet with us in Zhuhai. I’m holding a reservation on the eleven o’clock flight to Hong Kong. How long would it take us to get to Zhuhai from there?”

She’s booked a flight already. Am I that easy to predict? Ava thought. “It’s right next door to Macau, so maybe no more than two or three hours from the time you land.”

“If I schedule a meeting for four?”

“That should work.”

“I’ll call him now and phone you back to confirm. I can call your mobile, yes?”

“I’m going to be tied up this morning. I’d prefer if you could call Uncle. Please.”

She handed the phone back to Uncle. “May, how are you arriving?” he asked. He listened and then said, “I will meet you at Chek Lap Kok and I will reserve a helicopter at the ferry terminal . . . I agree, the sooner we get the two of you to Zhuhai the better.”

Ava stood as if to leave, triggering a look of concern on his face. I have to use the restroom, she mouthed.

When she returned, he was still on the phone, and she wondered what more he might have to say to May Ling. He saw the question in her eyes and covered the mouthpiece. “I am talking to Carlo,” he said.

She waited until he had finished and then asked, “What was that about?”

“I told him you were going to need more help, and to contact his friends and have them on standby. I told Andy the same thing about his brother-in-law. I said you would call them later, once you had a schedule in mind.”

“Thanks. How much do I pay them?”

“Five thousand each per day, with maybe some kind of bonus thrown in if things go well. You should pay Carlo and Andy a bit extra, for having brought the others on board.”

“Will I have to supply them with anything?”

“Weapons?”

“Yes.”

“They will have their own.”

“How will we get them to Macau? We can’t carry them on a ferry.”

“Give Carlo that job; he will figure it out. But make sure he does it as early as possible. You want to know that everything you need is there before you leave Hong Kong.”

“I’ll need something for myself.”

“What do you want?”

“A nine-millimetre pistol. A Kahr if you can get it.”

“I’ll look after it today.”

Her attention wandered as she began to make a mental list of everything that needed to get done, and as she did, it seemed to her the time frame might be too tight. She didn’t even have a plan yet, just some rough ideas, and she couldn’t brief the men without a concrete strategy. Then there was the gate. She was going to need a truck and a driver, and she didn’t have a clue about what to get or where or how to go about it. Michael is going to have to ask for an extension, she thought.

“Do you want to go to the airport with me to meet May?” Uncle asked.

“No, I don’t have that kind of time. Besides, I don’t intend to suck up to her. I’ll meet her at the ferry terminal. You can call me when she gets in and confirm what time the helicopter will leave.”

He shrugged, and Ava could tell he wasn’t pleased with her remark about May Ling. “I’ll be polite enough when I see her,” she added.

“So now what are you going to do?”

“I hardly know where to start. I need to sit down and make some notes and get myself organized.”

“Then go and do that. May’s flight should be in at one. I will call from the airport and we will arrange to meet at the ferry terminal.”

“Uncle, I can’t thank you enough for all of this.”

He pressed the palms of his hands together and raised them, the tips of his fingers resting against his lips. His eyes searched her face. “I wish so much that none of it was necessary.”

“I don’t know what else can be done.”

“Ava, you do understand that Lok and Wu are not men who capitulate. Even if you surprise them, even if by chance you outnumber them, their initial reaction to any threat will be violent.”

“I have assumed that.”

“And Ava, if you are successful, and if you can do it without a bloodbath — have you given any thought about what you are going to do with the two of them?”

“No,” she said softly.

“It is something that needs consideration. These are not men who forget.”