The Red Pole of Macau

( 20 )

Ava walked with May to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and then she backed away when she saw the fuss the staff was making over their new guest. They would have carried May to her room if she’d asked.

“I’m going to go now,” Ava said. “I have a tremendous amount of preparation to do.”

“We’ll have dinner?”

“Sure,” Ava said, putting aside more than one misgiving. “Let’s make it around eight. Why don’t you choose a restaurant? I’ll call you around seven thirty.”

As Ava rode the elevator to the twenty-third floor it seemed to her that her days were taking on the shape of elevator rides. She’d started down at the lobby the day before with the offer sheet in her hand, and returned with it rendered meaningless and Simon To’s life at stake. This morning she’d started the day feeling down, full of doubt verging on desperation, and now she was up again: she had a chance, a real working chance to salvage this mess.

When she got to her room, she took off her shirt and slacks and put on a T-shirt and track pants. She grabbed her notebook and a bottle of water and sat down at the desk.

Phone calls — she had to make her phone calls first or she’d never be able to concentrate on planning anything. She made a quick list and then turned on her phone. Uncle and Amanda had left messages. Both were on her list, him at the top.

“I was waiting,” he said.

“Sorry, we just got back.”

“How did it go?”

“The alarm will be disconnected, effective today, through Sunday.”

“I am not surprised.”

“Uncle, she is very sharp, very shrewd.”

“No more than you.”

“No, she operates at a different level.”

“All you need is the time, experience, and opportunity.”

Ava let the compliment slide. “She got us a truck as well. It will be in Macau tomorrow.”

“How confident are you about this working?”

“As much as I can be. The people who built the gate tell me it won’t withstand what we can throw at it. I have to trust them.”

“So, things are considerably brighter than they were this morning.”

“Thanks to you.”

“When do you plan to make your move?”

“Friday morning, as close to dawn as possible.”

“That’s quick.”

“No option.”

“I gave Sonny the message about your gun. He has been talking to Carlo and I think things have been arranged.”

“Thanks again.”

“Now what?”

“I have a lot of planning to do, and I want to get at it.”

“Do you want to have dinner tonight?”

“May has asked me already. Do you want to join us?”

“No, I think it is better for the two of you to eat alone.”

Amanda was breathless when she answered her phone. “What a crazy day,” she began. “I ran all over Hong Kong looking for your map, and Michael kept calling me every hour, and I’ve just got off the MTR from Sha Tin.”

“You went to see Jessie.”

“I had to. When I spoke to her this morning, she was a basket case, and I was afraid she’d start calling Michael or go to the police or God knows what. So I hustled over to Sha Tin and spent a couple of hours trying to calm her. Her mother is terrific, you know. She believed everything we said the other night, but Jessie is not so gullible. She knows something is not right and kept hammering at me for details.”

“How is she now?”

“I have no idea. I’m going to call in a little while.”

“Look, call her right away. Tell her we’ve finalized our arrangements with the people in Macau and that the deal closes on Friday. In fact, tell her that Simon will be home for dinner Friday night.”

“Ava, are you sure about this?”

Well, if he’s not home by Friday he’s not coming home at all, Ava thought. Either way, maybe they could spare Jessie an additional day and a half of anguish. “Tell her he’ll be home Friday.”

“Ava, you’re going to Macau then, aren’t you.”

How much can I tell her? Ava thought. And then she realized there was probably not much that Amanda hadn’t figured out already. “I am, and it isn’t something I want you to discuss with anyone else — not Michael, not your father, not Jessie. I’m trusting you with this.”

“Do you have to do it this way? I mean, I know how you went in and got my father, so I know you’ve done it before, but is it really necessary?”

Ava switched gears. “I take it you got my map?”

“And I got the floor plans blown up.”

“Good. There’s one more thing I need you to do today. Do you know what a balaclava is?”

“Of course.”

“I need eight of them, black preferably. In fact, black most definitely.”

“Where will I find those?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking you to do it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“I need them by early tomorrow. Try to drop them off at the hotel, with the map and the plans, around nine o’clock.”

“We’re not seeing you tonight?”

“No, I have a heavy night of work ahead of me.”

“Okay. I’m going to call Jessie now.”

“Good girl,” Ava said, wondering if Amanda realized that neither of them had talked about Michael.

Carlo was next on her phone list. She debated whether it was too early to call, then finally did anyway. His voice was indistinct, the sounds of traffic and strange horns bellowing in the background. “I’m at the Aberdeen harbour with my cousin,” he yelled. “Let me go indoors to call back.”

As she waited she chose an empty page in her notebook and sketched the floor plans for Lok’s house from memory. She finished as the phone rang.

“We’re packing the boat, getting ready for it to leave tomorrow morning.”

“What time?”

“He’ll leave at dawn. That should get him into Macau Harbour before noon.”

“He’s sure the boat won’t get searched on the other side?”

“We wrapped everything in double layers of plastic and then put them in his bait bin. If someone wants to inspect the bin they’ll have to work their way through a metre of fish guts before they get to our goods.”

“You managed to collect everything already?”

“Everything. And we have some firepower, Ava.”

“Did you get my nine-millimetre?”

“Sonny dropped it off about an hour ago with the Cobray M11.”

“I didn’t ask for a Cobray.”

“It’s for him.”

“Sonny isn’t coming.”

“Then someone had better tell him, because he sure as hell thinks he is.”

Ava felt a flush of anger, then disappointment. Why hadn’t Uncle told her he intended to send Sonny along? “I’ll talk to him,” she said.

“Better you than me.”

She pushed the Sonny issue aside. “Can you reach Andy and all the other men tonight?”

“They’re on standby.”

“I want to meet at my hotel tomorrow morning — all of us — at, say, ten. Tell the guys to dress conservatively. Long-sleeved shirts, no shorts. Wait in the lobby and I’ll come and get you; I’m not sure where we’re going to meet yet . . . And you can give them another heads-up: we’re going over to Macau later tomorrow night, so whatever personal stuff needs to get done should get done now.”

“Okay, boss.”

“See you in the morning.”

She thought about calling Uncle, but she couldn’t imagine what she could say that wouldn’t sound childish. Having Sonny alongside would in fact be a godsend; she should be grateful rather than peevish. So she phoned the man himself.

In the ten years she’d known him, she doubted they’d had more than two or three conversations that went past “How are you?” and “Do you know where Uncle is?” He was Uncle’s creature, and had been for close to thirty years. “Sonny, it’s Ava.”

“How are you?”

“I’m good, Sonny. I just finished talking to Carlo, and he told me you’re coming to Macau with us.”

“If you want me.”

“Oh, I want you. I just wish Uncle had mentioned something to me.”

“He doesn’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m taking the next three days off — holidays. I’m free to do with them as I want.”

“Sonny, you need to tell him.”

“That’s not how he and I work.”

All of a sudden Ava felt like an outsider to a relationship she’d always thought she understood. “I wouldn’t know that.”

“That’s how it is.”

“He could still worry.”

“Ava, why do you think I’m going in the first place? He hasn’t slept in two nights. Lourdes says he’s been up, pacing the floors, making phone calls. He’s worried sick about you.”

“I can look after myself, Sonny.”

“You’ve never taken on the triad before, at least not so directly. When he was in the car with me yesterday, after you and he met at the Korean barbecue house, he was going on and on about Lok and his crew. And then he started to talk about the old days, when he was chairman and his opinion on anything mattered. He hasn’t talked about that in years. Did you know he served four terms?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“The societies elect a chairman every two years and the position is supposed to be for one term. He served four because they asked him to, not because he wanted it, and they asked him because he knew how to maintain harmony, to keep peace, balance among the societies. And when he finally stepped down and left the societies altogether to start the new business — the one he brought you into — I think he believed he had left a legacy. Except, of course, without him it turned to shit within six months.”

“He doesn’t talk to me about things like that, Sonny.”

“But you know. I know you know.”

“I know enough.”

“Then know this: that f*cking piece of crap Kao Lok has to pay for the disrespect he’s shown Uncle. He told me what was said, and I couldn’t believe it. There was a day when Lok wasn’t senior enough to wipe Uncle’s ass. I’m going to make sure when I’m done with him that he’ll be begging for the chance to do just that.”

“Sonny!” Ava yelled. “You stop right there. This is not about the disrespect shown to Uncle, terrible as that is. My brother’s business is at risk, my entire family’s well-being is at risk, and my brother’s partner’s life is at risk while his wife and baby sit in Sha Tin wondering if he’s ever coming home. That’s why we’re going to Macau.”

“I know that, but —”

“But nothing. Those are the only reasons we’re going to Macau,” Ava said. “Now, I want you with me, but you have to accept that I’m the boss and you’re going to have to do what you’re told. And what I’m telling you now, so there is no misunderstanding later, is that Lok is mine. And mine alone.”

The line went quiet.

“Can you accept that?” she said.

“Okay, Ava.”

“‘Okay, Ava’ what? I agree or I pretend to agree?”

“I agree.”

“We have a meeting tomorrow morning at ten o’clock at my hotel, all of us who are going. I would very much like you to be here. And Carlo and Andy look up to you. I would appreciate it if you could treat me with something close to the same respect you give Uncle.”

“That isn’t hard to do.”

“Thank you.”

“You know we love you, right?”

Where did that come from? she thought. “And I love both of you.”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

She was about to remind him about long sleeves and no shorts before she caught herself. She’d be surprised if he showed up in anything other than a suit.