The Mountain Master of Sha Tin, page 7
“How is Lop?”
“I called the clinic while I was waiting for you at the airport and managed to talk to Doctor Liu. He thinks Lop is out of danger but he still wants to keep a close eye on him for the next few days.”
“Lop’s surviving the attack does make things a bit less tense,” Ava said. “What about Andy? Was he able to find out anything that might help us?”
“No. Word has spread about his connection to you. They’ve shut him out.”
“And there’s nothing being said on the street?”
“Right now it’s as tight as a drum.”
“That might not be a bad thing,” Ava said. “The fewer people involved, even on the margins, the easier it might be to come to some kind of arrangement.”
“Is Xu really prepared to deal with Sammy? Ko doesn’t think that will ever happen. He’s primed to fight.”
“Then it’s a good thing Ko isn’t making those decisions.”
“But boss, we’re not going to the meeting unarmed, are we?”
“No.”
“Good. I fired my Cobray M11 last week. It’s ready to go.”
“Do you still have that nine-millimetre Beretta I used when we went to Macau?”
“I do.”
“I’m going to take it to the meeting. It will fit nicely into my bag.”
“I’ll clean and load it tonight.”
They drove onto the Tsing Ma Bridge, which connected the airport to Hong Kong. The bridge spanned the Ma Wan Channel some two hundred metres below. Ava looked down at the armada of ships of all types coming and going from Hong Kong harbour — one of the busiest in the world. It was a sight she never tired of. It always made her feel like she was returning home, or at least returning to her second home.
“I have some idea of what I’m dealing with when it comes to Sammy, but I don’t know anything about Carter Wing other than what you told me on the phone,” Ava said. “How old is he?”
“Mid-thirties, I’d guess.”
“That’s young for a Mountain Master.”
“Uncle was as young or younger when he took over Fanling,” Sonny said, and then quickly added, “But I’m not comparing them.”
“I know you’re not,” Ava said. “You told me Carter is aggressive. What did you mean by that?”
“I’ve seen him but I’ve never met him, so everything I’m telling you is second-hand.”
“I understand. Go ahead.”
“Well, he’s always been very pushy, the kind of guy who does more than he’s asked and more than he’s expected to do. He was a Blue Lantern — a trainee — for about half the normal time before taking the Thirty-Six Oaths and becoming a forty-niner, a sworn triad. He worked for the Red Pole for a few years, and I was told he collected more protection money than any other two forty-niners put together. But he wasn’t just tough; he was also smart, and he knew how to get along with the bosses. It didn’t hurt that Sammy was his uncle. I’m sure Sammy kept an eye on him and helped him whenever he could. That wouldn’t have gone unnoticed among the senior guys in the Sha Tin gang.”
“Why was he in the Sha Tin gang? Sammy’s turf was always Wanchai. Why didn’t Carter join him there?”
“Carter’s father was part of the Sha Tin gang. He never made it to the top, but he was assistant Vanguard when he died.”
“How did he die?”
“He was shot.”
“By whom?”
“One of the Kowloon gangs tried to muscle in on the bookmaking operations around Sha Tin Racecourse. When the Sha Tin guys tried to run them off, there was a firestorm. This was at least fifteen years ago. As I remember it, at least four or five guys died. Carter’s father was one of them.”
“Uncle was never attached to Kowloon, was he?” Ava asked.
“No, he operated strictly in and around Fanling. Xu’s father was in Fanling as well, until he went back to Shanghai.”
“So there shouldn’t be any personal animosity towards Xu or his family in that regard.”
“Only as it relates to Sammy getting dumped.”
“Technically, Sammy didn’t get dumped. Xu left him in place as Mountain Master.”
“That’s not how Sammy sees it. And for that matter, Ava, that’s not how the majority of the Hong Kong triads see it. Carter for sure doesn’t.”
“I guess that’s understandable, if regrettable,” Ava said. “When did Carter rise beyond being a forty-niner?”
“About seven or eight years ago he became assistant Red Pole, and then Straw Sandal. Andy told me that people were surprised when he became the Sandal, because it’s a job with a lot of talking attached to it and not much action. But he must have done it well enough, because he was eventually named Vanguard, and that’s only one step away from Mountain Master.”
“And he became Mountain Master about six months ago?”
“Yep.”
“What happened to the old one?”
“He retired, supposedly, but I was told that Carter — with the support of the rest of the executive — shoved him out the door.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Not that much, but it was better than the guy getting shot — which has happened more often than anyone wants to admit.”
“That speaks well for Carter, I guess,” Ava said. “But you said he’s been really aggressive since taking over. How so?”
“I’ve heard that he’s fanatical about getting a cut from all the action generated by Sha Tin Racecourse. I mean, the track is obviously in Sha Tin, but it’s normal for other gangs to make book on the Happy Valley and Sha Tin races. Carter is demanding a piece of every dollar bet on the Sha Tin races. It’s a crazy request, but I’ve been told some of the smaller gangs are sending him money,” Sonny said. “And Ko told me that Carter has been trying to bypass the normal supply lines for all kinds of goods. He wants to deal directly with the sources. That’s a problem, because over the years insectionidual gangs have developed expertise and contacts in certain areas and act as the main supplier to other gangs.”
“Like Xu does with his mobile devices and software?”
“Exactly, but now Carter wants to deal directly. What’s worse is that he’s going behind the backs of the other gangs, directly to their factories, and either offering the factories a little more money or threatening them.”
“The gangs are tolerating this?”
“For now,” Sonny said. “There’s a reluctance to start anything that would draw attention to the fact that gangs are squabbling. These days the cops deal roughly with anyone who steps out of line. Carter, I think, is taking advantage of that. He acts like he doesn’t give a shit, and as long as the others aren’t willing to take him on, he’ll keep doing what he’s doing.”
“It sounds to me like that’s the strategy he and Sammy are using against Xu. They’re banking on the fact that he won’t retaliate.”
“I think you’re right,” Sonny said.
They had crossed the Tsing Ma Bridge and were now on Route 8, headed in the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui, on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour. Sonny was a superb driver. Even as he was explaining the workings of Carter Wing’s Sha Tin gang, he never seemed distracted and the car was always under perfect control. Traffic bunched up as they neared the Western Harbour Crossing, one of the tunnels that ran under the harbour to Hong Kong Island.
As Sonny brought the car to a momentary halt, Ava asked, “What does Carter look like?”
“Like a young Sammy.”
“Really? I’ve only known a short, fat, old Sammy, and in the years I’ve known him he’s gotten progressively fatter.”
“Physically, Carter isn’t exactly impressive either. He’s about five foot six, and while he isn’t as round as Sammy, he’s definitely headed in that direction.”
The car kept inching forward and finally reached the tunnel toll booths. Sonny paid the HK$65 fee and started into the tunnel, which was a bit longer than a kilometre. A few minutes later they were on Hong Kong Island, and five minutes after that, Sonny pulled up in front of the Mandarin Oriental.
“Welcome back, Ms. Lee,” the doorman said as she stepped out of the car.
Ava wasn’t surprised to be remembered. She had stayed at the hotel countless times over the years, including three months when Uncle was ill and several times with May Ling, who was an extravagant tipper. She had always tipped well herself, but May put her to shame. “Thanks,” she said to the doorman, and then turned to Sonny. “I’ll call Sammy as soon as I’m settled. I’ll let you know right away what the arrangements are, and then you can pass on the word to Andy, Carlo, and Ko.”
Sonny smiled and said, “It’s kind of like the old days.”
“Sonny, those are the days I’ve been trying to get away from,” she said.
( 8 )
Ava’s suite on the twenty-second floor gave her a clear view of Victoria Harbour and part of the spectacular Hong Kong skyline. The view was one of the reasons she liked the hotel; another was the selection of first-class restaurants on the top floor, three floors above her. The one thing Ava never did when she was at the Mandarin was stay on the twenty-fourth floor, because it was from there that Leslie Cheung, a Cantopop superstar, had jumped to the sidewalk below. His suicide was tragic, and it hit Ava particularly hard. Cheung was homosexual, and whether that contributed to the depression that triggered his jump or not, the twenty-fourth floor was completely off-limits for Ava; she even closed her eyes in the elevator as she passed it.
As always, the first thing she did when she reached the room was unpack her bag and freshen up in the bathroom. The previous week in Beijing had been stressful, and no sooner had she resolved the problem there than Xu’s illness and Sammy Wing’s power play had landed at her feet. She needed at least one night to herself, she thought as she looked into the bathroom mirror, one night free from carrying the weight of other people’s problems. But before she could get to that, there were still things to do.
Ava took a black Moleskine notebook from her Louis Vuitton bag and sat at the desk. It was an old habit. During her years working with Uncle, she had kept a record of every job in an identical notebook. When the case was concluded, the notebook went into a safety deposit box at her bank in Toronto. Her friends found it amusing that she still used pen and paper rather than a digital device to store valuable information, but for her there was more involved than storage. The act of writing something down secured it in her memory in a way that a device couldn’t, and she also used it to assist her thought process. Her observations about people and situations filled the pages of the Moleskines, and inevitably, as the jobs progressed, there were also lists of options and the pros and cons that came with them.
She opened the new Moleskine and wrote across the top of the first page: Sammy and Carter Wing, Sha Tin and Wanchai. She then proceeded to summarize the events of the past few days and concluded by recording Sonny’s observations about Carter Wing. When that was done, she sat back and muttered, “Fai, Suen, Sammy, and Sonny.” Those were the calls she had to make, in the order she was going to make them. When those were done, the only thing she wanted to worry about was where to have dinner.
“Hi, babe. How was your flight?” Fai answered.
“It was uneventful, just the way I like them. I’m at the hotel for the evening. I’ll have dinner upstairs but I’ll be in my room for the rest of the night after that,” Ava said. “I hope things are going okay for you there.”
“Auntie Grace and I went for another walk this afternoon, and we’ve just finished dinner. She’s insisting that we watch one of my old movies. She has most of them on DVD.”
“She is a difficult woman to say no to.”
“I know, so I’ll give in. I just don’t want to watch one of the depressing ones.”
“City Girls is good.”
“Ava, my character dies at the end!”
“Yes, but until she does it isn’t too much of a tear-jerker.”
“I’ll sort it out with Auntie Grace,” Fai said. “How is Hong Kong? How is Lop?”
“It sounds like he’s going to survive, but for the rest of it, I don’t know yet. We’ll have some kind of a meeting tomorrow and I’ll have a better idea of what’s what when it’s over. I’m obviously hoping that it goes well enough that I can get back to Shanghai tomorrow night, or perhaps the day after.”
“Do what you have to do and don’t worry about us.”
“Speaking of worrying, has Suen been in touch with Auntie Grace about Xu?”
“He phoned early this afternoon, and then again an hour ago. According to him, Xu has recovered sufficiently and could be out of isolation by tomorrow. The doctor said even if he is, though, they’ll want to keep him under observation for a few days after that.”
“Auntie Grace must be happy.”
“Oh yes. She’s been grinning for the last hour.”
“Give her a hug for me,” Ava said. “Now I’ve got to make some other calls before I can eat.”
“Phone me later if you have a chance. It’s going to feel strange climbing into an empty bed.”
“That makes two of us. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Ava ended the call with a sigh and realized — almost with surprise — that she already missed Fai. The intensity of the week they’d spent together in Beijing had left an emotional mark. She shook her head to clear it. Let’s get on with things, she thought as she called Suen.
His phone rang five times and then prompted her to leave a message. She hesitated and then said in a rush. “I spoke to Fai, so I know about Xu’s condition. Lop seems to be doing okay. I won’t be meeting with Sammy tonight, so I’ll call you in the morning once things are set.”
She sat back in the desk chair. Sammy was next on her mental list. Ava glanced at the Moleskine and the notes she’d made earlier. She had underlined a sentence that read, We can’t let them believe for even an instant that they can push us around. With that in mind, she called him.
“Are you in Hong Kong?” Sammy asked before the second ring.
“I am,” she said, not bothered by his abruptness.
“Are you ready to meet?”
“Tomorrow morning. Mid-morning suits me best.”
“Tonight is better for us.”
“We’re not prepared, and there’s no point in meeting until we are. So that means tomorrow morning.”
“You aren’t worried about Xu’s men?”
“There’s nothing I can do about those men. They’re under your control,” Ava said. “All I can tell you is that we’re not prepared to meet tonight and suggest that you don’t do anything stupid in the interim.”
“Fuck off, Ava.”
“There’s no reason to be abusive, Sammy. You know I’m always honest with you.”
He didn’t respond right away, and Ava braced herself for more cursing. Instead Sammy eventually said, “Give me a minute.”
Ava waited, unable to hear anything on the other end of the connection. Then she heard someone breathing hard.
“We can make tomorrow morning work,” Sammy said.
“Who were you talking to? Your nephew Carter?”
“What does it matter?”
“I assumed you were but I wasn’t sure — and I’m still not sure — which of you is pulling the strings.”
“You’re starting to push my limits,” Sammy said.
“Sorry, Sammy, I couldn’t help myself,” Ava said. “I’ll be more polite tomorrow. And thanks, by the way, for agreeing to meet then.”
“We want to meet in Sha Tin.”
“I have no objections to Sha Tin, but it’s a big city, so don’t expect me to go to some out-of-the-way hole-in-the-wall.”
“Is a restaurant in New Town Plaza public enough for you?”
“I know the Plaza, but there have to be at least fifty restaurants in it.”
“We’ll meet you at Maxim’s Palace; it’s on the eighth level,” Sammy said. “It seats about six hundred people, so you don’t have to worry about being alone with us. We’ll see you there at eleven, the start of the dim sum rush. But don’t worry, we’ll book a table.”
“I won’t be by myself.”
“I didn’t think you would be.”
“Sonny will be with me, and most likely Ko.”
“Sonny Kwok?”
“Do you know any other Sonny?”
“No, but I’d forgotten how close you were,” Sammy Wing said. “I’m surprised Suen won’t be there.”
“Xu doesn’t think he needs to involve him yet.”
“That man has a lot of faith in you.”
A sarcastic retort crossed Ava’s mind, but she let it go. “Tomorrow morning, Maxim’s Palace, eighth level, New Town Plaza, at eleven. See you then,” she said.
She finished the call with a sense of satisfaction. If anyone had been uncomfortable, it was Sammy. Her intention hadn’t been to rattle him, only to make him realize things wouldn’t be one-sided, and she thought she had accomplished that. She phoned Sonny next.
“Boss,” he said.
“I just spoke with Sammy. We’re on for tomorrow morning at eleven, at Maxim’s Palace in New Town Plaza in Sha Tin. He claims it can seat six hundred people.”
“I have heard of the place. I don’t know how large it is, but a restaurant in the Plaza is certain to be public.”
“I still don’t want us to go unarmed.”
“We won’t.”
“I told Sammy you’d be with me, and I think we should bring Ko as well. He is the man in charge of Wanchai right now, so it makes sense that he should be there.”
“You aren’t worried that he might act like he actually is in charge?”
“I’ll get Suen to talk to him. We can’t be speaking with two voices. Suen will make sure Ko understands how the meeting should be conducted.”
