The Red Pole of Macau

( 18 )

It was rush hour and the Star Ferry was as crowded as an MTR train. She couldn’t find a seat and found herself wedged against an outside rail, barely able to turn her head to look at the skyline. Time was beginning to weigh on her, and she was annoyed that she hadn’t been more precise with Michael in pinning down what the four days he had negotiated actually meant. Was Lok counting from the day of the call? If he was, they were already into the third. Talking to Michael moved to the top of her must-do list.

Then there was the gate, and the truck. She’d have to talk to the guy at Citadel again, try to pry more information out of him. Then it occurred to her — he was in Zhuhai. She could go to see him.

When she got to her room, she went directly to the desk, opened her notebook, and began writing. As she did, she realized just how ill-formed her earlier thought process had been. Removing the cops from the scene made all the difference in the world. What it came down to was her ability to organize a plan properly, to control it, to take as many elements of luck out of it as she could.

She called Michael at the apartment. He sounded tired, depressed. Without offering explanation she said, “I need you to talk to Lok today. Wait until you get the photo, then call him and tell him you need to start making arrangements for exchanging the money for Simon. Ask him if he has a place in mind. He’ll try to tell you that he’ll release Simon once he has the funds. Tell him that won’t do. You want to make an actual physical exchange, and you insist that it happen in a public place.”

“Ava, you have the money?” he asked, brightening.

“We’ll talk about that later. Just concentrate on what I’m telling you now. I expect Lok will fudge it, say that he needs time to think about it, and that’s fine. What I really want to do is fix the day, the time. Today is Wednesday. For us the ideal situation would be to do it on Saturday afternoon. So tell him you want to do it Saturday and see if you can get him to buy in to that. If you can’t, then it has to be Friday. And Michael, it cannot — I repeat, cannot — be any sooner than Friday afternoon, because I don’t think I’ll have control of the money until then.”

“I think Friday is what we agreed to anyway,” he said.

“But get me one more day if you can.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Now, you don’t fix the location until you fix the day. I think the lobby of one of the new hotels would be perfect, so suggest the Four Seasons or the Venetian, someplace with good internal security.”

“All right. If he’s getting his blood money, he shouldn’t care.”

“Good. Now, I’m at the hotel this morning and then I have to go to China this afternoon, but I’ll be back tonight. Call me on my cell the moment you have a day for me. Now let me talk to Amanda.”

“She’s not here; she went to work. She wanted to stay but I sort of pushed her out the door. Call her mobile.”

Ava called her number. Amanda picked up right away. “I was hoping you’d call.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m okay. Michael is a bit droopy, and I was worried about you last night — you seemed down.”

“Last night was last night. Do you have time to do something for me today?”

“I’ll make the time.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m at the office.”

“Later I’d like you to drop by the concierge desk at the Mandarin and pick up the floor plans. I’ll have left them there. Take them to a print shop and get them blown up as big as you can. Then find a map of Coloane, as detailed as possible, and blow up the entire southern area. Concentrate on Coloane Peak and everything around it.”

“Then what?”

“Bring them to me first thing tomorrow morning at the hotel.”

“Will do.”

Ava hung up and dialled Carlo’s number. He sounded as tired as Michael, though she guessed it wasn’t from stress. “Uncle said he talked to you,” she said.

“My two friends are in already.”

“They don’t know what I’m paying.”

“They don’t need to.”

“Everyone has weapons, right?”

“How much firepower do you think we’re going to need?”

“As much as they have and can carry, and they’re going to have to move quickly, so take that into account.”

“All right.”

“Carlo, Uncle said you could get everything we need to Macau ahead of time. Can you?”

“Yeah, sure. I have a cousin who’s a day-boat fisherman. He’s constantly back and forth between here and there. He can take the stuff over, no problem.”

“I’d like to get it there tomorrow and then have him wait for us to arrive. That might take another day or two. Will he be okay with that? I mean, I’ll pay him whatever he wants.”

“It’s better than fishing for a living.”

Ava checked her notes. “You’ll need to round up the weapons today, then, and get them to your cousin. Uncle said Andy and his brother-in-law are in as well, so you need to touch base with him. Organize it from his end. And Uncle’s getting a gun for me and said he’d have it today. I’m going to be in China for most of the afternoon and early evening, so I need to leave it to you to collect it for me.”

“No problem.”

“Tomorrow we’re going to have to meet — all of us, I mean — to go over the plan. I have to find a place and set a time. I’ll call you when I know, and then you can give the other guys and Andy a heads-up. Just make sure everyone leaves the next two to three days completely open. And let them know I’m paying as of today. I’ll guarantee at least four days’ work at five thousand a day for the men, and ten thousand a day for you and Andy.”

“That’s too much.”

She ignored him, her attention focused on the notebook, certain she had forgotten to tell him something. And there it was. “We’ll need a ram for the front doors. They’re wooden.”

“I have a Cobra ram. It can open any wood door in about five seconds.”

“Give that to your cousin as well, and throw in a large crowbar, a dozen sets of handcuffs, and a couple of rolls of duct tape.”

“With the ram, we won’t need the crowbar.”

“Add one anyway.”

The line went quiet, and Ava wondered if Carlo had hung up on her. “Hey, you still there?” she asked.

“I was just writing things down, and I don’t write that fast,” he said.

“Take your time.”

“Okay, I’m done,” he finally said. “I’ll get on this stuff right away, and you won’t hear from me unless I have a problem.”

“That’s the way I like it.”

“And, Ava,” he said carefully, “Andy was a bit nervous yesterday when we talked about this job. If you hadn’t been involved, we might have backed out. You didn’t seem too hot to trot either, to be honest. But you seem more upbeat today. Did something happen?”

“Yes. I went from thinking this might work to thinking this will definitely f*cking work.”

“I’ll let Andy know.”

“I appreciate that, and everything else.” She closed the phone.

Ava stood up, walked to the window, and stretched. It was a glorious day. Victoria Harbour was as beautiful as she had ever seen it. She checked her watch and calculated whether she had time to squeeze in a quick run in the park. It would be cutting it close, but all she had left to do was call the Citadel Company in Zhuhai, and then it would be a matter of waiting and thinking. Then her phone rang.

“May just called me from the Wuhan airport,” Uncle said. “She got an earlier flight, so she will be in by noon.”

“That’s good. Phone me when you pick her up and I’ll head over to the Macau ferry terminal.”

“I did reserve a helicopter. Go directly to that wing and we will meet you there.”

So much for a run, she thought as she called Zhuhai. “I got the specifications, thank you, but I’m not exactly technical and I’m having some problems understanding them. Fortunately I’m going to be in Zhuhai this afternoon, and I’m wondering if I could drop in to go over them with you. Where is your office?”


“We’re in the Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, but I’m afraid dropping in may not be possible. We have a very strict company policy about visitors.”

“Our chairwoman is going to be with me — Wong May Ling, the wife of Wong Changxiang. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.”


“Who hasn’t heard of him? He is the man behind your project?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll talk to my boss. Let’s see if he’ll agree.”

“You can also tell him that Madam Wong is in Zhuhai to meet with General Feng from the Guangzhou Military Region headquarters. Ask your boss if he needs a recommendation from the General, because if he does, we’ll get it.”

“You know what, I’ll talk to my boss, but I think it will be okay for you to visit. Let’s just plan on it, shall we?”

“Somewhere between three and four?”

“My name is Su, I am director of sales. You are Ms. Lee, right? I’ll leave passes for you and Madam Wong at the security entrance.”

Guanxi, Ava thought as she hung up.