The Red Pole of Macau

( 25 )

May Ling had changed clothes and was now dressed in black slacks and a black raw linen blouse. Her mood was also different. She was quiet, almost withdrawn. After getting monosyllabic replies to some simple questions, Ava retreated into her own silence.

They were on the hydrofoil and halfway to Macau when May said, “I’m incredibly nervous.”

“Me too,” Ava said.

“You don’t look it.”

Ava gazed out the window at the churning sea. “Inside I’m doing flip-flops. I work hard at staying positive, but doubts always creep into my head. And the longer the wait, the more they occur to me.”

“And what can go wrong here?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Is that you being superstitious?”

“Maybe.”

May said, “When Song called me to say he’d arrived in Macau, this situation became very, very real to me. I mean, before that I understood what we were doing, but it was outside me. When I talked to Song, I thought, ‘We’re actually going to Macau, and we’re actually going through with this. I’ve brought a truck and a driver all the way from Wuhan to start what could be a mini war.’”

“We’re going to Macau to save a man’s life — that’s what you need to think,” Ava said. “It will be over soon enough.”

“What are your plans when we land?”

“I’ll pick up our SUV and then we’ll locate Song and drive to the house. You did tell him what is expected of him?”

“I did, in detail. His only worry was damaging the truck. Have you thought of that?”

“Of what?”

“The truck. What if it gets disabled?”

“We’ll leave it there. The driver can ride back with us. If the authorities get involved, you tell them it was a stolen vehicle. I’m sure the police in Wuhan will back you up.”

May Ling looked thoughtful and Ava knew she had something else to say, but both fell silent again.

This was Ava’s fourth trip to Macau in four days, and she wondered if the immigration officer would comment. He barely glanced at her passport as he waved her through. Ava led May towards the car rental area.

The company had put the two SUVs aside for her. She did the paperwork and left her credit card number for both. All Sonny had to do when he arrived was show his driver’s licence. As she turned to leave, May said, “I was thinking, maybe I should rent a car for myself.”

“Why do you need a car?”

“You were just going to leave me at the hotel?”

“That was the idea.”

“What about the second truck driver?”

And then Ava realized she hadn’t thought about their accommodation. “Geez, I forgot about that. We need to get them a room at the hotel.”

“I know them, and they won’t leave the truck. Besides, it has its own sleeping quarters.”

“Then surely he won’t mind being on his own for a few hours after we leave.”

“I was thinking that if I rented a car,” May said slowly, “he could drive me out to Coloane with you in the morning. I really don’t want to stay at the hotel by myself. I mean, I’ve come this far and I would like to see this through.”

“You aren’t seriously suggesting that you come to the house with us?”

May flicked her hand at Ava. “Of course not. I just want to be close at hand. When you were going over the map this morning, you pointed to where the main road meets the side road that leads to the house. We could park there at the intersection, act as lookouts. I mean, Ava, you wouldn’t want to be in the house and have someone unexpectedly drop in on you. Geng — that’s the other driver’s name — and I can watch the road and give you a warning if anyone turns up.”

She’s going to be pissed at me if I leave her at the hotel, Ava thought. “Let’s decide after we go to Coloane. I want to make sure there’s a place to park the car without attracting unnecessary attention.”

“Fair enough,” May said, in a way that suggested she knew she had prevailed.

“Now call Song and find out exactly where he is.”

May phoned him as they walked to the SUV. “They’re at Fisherman’s Wharf. The truck is parked outside the Rocks Hotel and they’re inside having some lunch in the café.”

“Tell them we’ll be there in five minutes.”

Ava drove south, following the seacoast on her left. The road ran right onto the wharf, which was still a real working place. She passed about thirty fishing boats moored in the harbour, their nets and buoys and traps littering the area. The hotel was at the far end, a five-storey structure that looked a couple of hundred years old.

“There they are,” May said as they parked, pointing to two middle-aged men emerging from the hotel. Dressed in jeans and T-shirts that were stretched across their big bellies, they were alternately smoking and picking at their teeth.

The two women climbed out of the SUV. “Hi, I’m Ava,” she said, extending her hand as she walked towards them. The men didn’t look her in the eye, their handshakes tentative.

“I’m Geng,” one said. Song didn’t say a word.

“We’re going to drive to Coloane so you can see the job you have to do in the morning. We’ll take my SUV,” Ava said.

“Are you sure about Song?” Ava asked May as they walked to the car.

“They’re intimidated, that’s all. And a bit shy around the big boss and her friend.”

“I hope that doesn’t carry over into the way he drives.”

“It won’t, and by the way, there’s the truck.”

It was parked against the far wall of the hotel, the top of its red cab almost reaching the second-floor window. The front was flat and had a grille at the bottom topped by another grille with Volvo slashed diagonally across it. A sheet of red metal separated the upper grille from the window, which was topped by a metal awning. If there had been a driver inside the cab, Ava wasn’t sure she would have been able to see him. “What a monster. I’ve never seen anything that size,” Ava said.

“I think it should do the trick,” said May.

The two men hung back when they reached the car, unsure about which seats to take. “Sit in the back,” Ava said.

Ava took the Macau–Taipa Bridge out of the city to the causeway. The men were quiet. May tried to engage them in conversation, asking about the drive from Wuhan, and then gave up when all they seemed able to say was “No problem.”

“My God, this is really beautiful. Who would have thought this existed here,” May said when Ava reached southern Coloane and started the drive along the coastline, the sea shimmering to their right, the peak and the head of A-Ma looming on the left.

Ava drove past the turnoff to the house and stopped on the shoulder. She pointed back. “That’s the road we’re going to take,” she said. “It’s curvy for the first bit, but the last hundred metres are relatively straight. When we get to the end, you’ll see the house and the gate. The problem is, there’s two hundred metres of open space between the end of the road and the gate, so we can’t hang around too long. When we’re finished, we’ll climb the peak to visit A-Ma. From the top you can get another view.”

While Ava was speaking, May was looking around. “There seems to be all kinds of room to park a car and not attract attention. I mean, we could be here to watch the sun come up over the sea.”

“Seems to be,” Ava said.

She did a U-turn and drove down the side road. Both men in the back leaned forward. The route was more winding and narrow than she remembered. Maybe it’s the difference between driving a Toyota and an SUV, she thought. She couldn’t go more than thirty kilometres an hour, and she realized that the truck would have to drive even more slowly. When the road straightened to the right, she eased the car up to fifty but then had to brake when they neared the opening.

“I’m going to creep forward,” she said.

“Why don’t we get out and walk to the end,” May said. “We can hide behind those trees. No one should see us.”

“Great idea,” Ava said.

The four of them moved forward, hugging the treeline to the right. From their vantage point they could see three-quarters of the gate, its left side blanketed by the wall. They stood there for several minutes. Then Song said, “If I come down this road at any speed and then take the fastest direct run at the gate, I’m not going to be able to hit it dead-on. I’ll hit it at an angle, on the right side there, and there’s a chance the truck — the back end of it, anyway — will smash into the wall. Remember, this isn’t a family car that I can turn and spin any way I want. Once the truck is up to speed I don’t have much control.”

“You would still take down the gate, right?”

“I think so, but Madam Wong said the plan was for you to follow me in your cars.”

“Yes.”

“My fear is that the back end will hit the wall, and if it does, the truck could block the way into the house. You might not be able to drive through. Look,” he said, picking up a stick. In the sand he drew an outline of the wall and the gate and then dragged the stick to the point of impact. “See, if I hit it there, the right side of the truck hits the wall. When it does, it will bounce left, like that.”

Ava looked at his crude drawing. It made sense, and a feeling of apprehension crept into her belly as she tried to figure out the consequences.

“Song is right,” Geng said, looking at May. “The truck would hit the wall and end up wedged in the gate. You would probably have to leave it there, and that is a very expensive vehicle.”

“I don’t care about losing a truck,” May snapped. “All we care about right now is the gate.”

“Are you sure it would be wedged in?” Ava asked.

“It could jackknife, roll over, anything. I can’t be sure exactly how it would react, except that it probably wouldn’t be something you would want,” Song said.

“What would you suggest we do?”

“The best thing is for me to hit the gate flush in the middle, head-on.”

“How would you do that?”

He drew another line in the sand. “I would have to take a hard right from here and then manoeuvre my truck around until it was facing the gate.”

“How long would that take?”

“A couple of minutes.”

“But then you’re running at it from a standing start. What kind of speed can you generate?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

“Then you need to guess.”

“Sixty kilometres an hour, maybe a bit more.”

“Is that fast enough to take the gate down cleanly?”

Song hesitated and looked at his driving partner. Geng nodded. “We think so,” Song said.

“What are you going to do?” May asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Ava said. “Tell me, Song, how much noise does that truck make? I mean, if you have to spend a few minutes manoeuvring it into place?”

“It’s a truck,” Song said.

“And you’re outside in the middle of nowhere, with no other sounds,” Geng added.

“Shit,” Ava said. “Well, I’m going to have to think about this.”

“It’s all the same to me,” Song said. “I’ll do whatever you decide.”

“Thanks,” Ava said. “Now, do you want to go up to the peak?”

“I don’t need to. I’ve seen everything I need to see,” said Song.

“Okay, we’ll head back to Macau.”

She backed the car up the road to the main highway, her mind now on the gate. When she reached the junction, May tapped her on the arm and pointed towards the sea. “I could park a car there on the shoulder and then sit on the seawall. It would be a nice way to start the day.”

“All right, May, go rent a car.”

There was no more talk about the gate on the drive back to Macau, although Ava could hear the two men whispering in the back and see their hands moving to form various angles.

They dropped off Song and Geng at the truck, May telling them to be ready the next morning for a five-thirty departure. Then she added, “No drinking, no women, no gambling.”

Ava drove to the ferry terminal, where May could rent a car, and then headed for the Kingsway Hotel. As she pulled into valet parking, Carlo and his two friends were getting out of a taxi, their bags in hand. Ava joined them and they walked into the lobby together. Carlo had a phone pressed to his ear. Sonny, he mouthed.

Ava held out her hand and Carlo passed her the phone. “It’s Ava. Where are you?”

“On the ferry. Andy and his brother-in-law are with me.”

“I made all the arrangements for the SUV. All you have to do is show them a licence.”

“Thanks, and Carlo just told me that he and I are bunking together.”

“So you should be set.”

“We’re having dinner together — the guys.”

“I won’t join you.”

“Carlo said you wouldn’t.”

“I need head space. I can’t switch on and off as quickly as you can.”

“You don’t have to explain.”

No, I don’t, she thought. “So I’ll see you in the lobby at five,” she said.

“Five.”

She handed the phone back to Carlo, who promptly closed it.

“Have you been to the boat?” Ava asked.

“We just came from there.”

“And?”

“Perfect.”