The King of Shanghai (15 page)

“I told Carlo that I would meet with you alone. When he called me back, he said you were okay with that.” She felt Carlo stiffen behind her and wondered if he had misled her. If he had, she had enough reason to turn and walk out of the restaurant.

“I was,” Wing said. “I just don’t see how having Jimmy sit in should make that much of a difference.”

“Look, I don’t know what you want with me. I agreed to sit with you out of appreciation for the help you gave Uncle last year and out of respect for Carlo. But if you can’t honour a simple agreement, I don’t feel obliged to stay.”

Wing reached down and extracted a toothpick from the jar on the table. He closed his eyes and jabbed the pick between his lower middle teeth. “Jimmy, go wait outside,” he said.

As Carlo and Jimmy moved away from the table, Sammy Wing smiled. “Now will you sit?”

Ava chose the chair directly across from him. “I’m sorry if I seemed rude,” she said. “But I have no idea why you want to speak to me, and whatever it is, I prefer that it be between the two of us.”

“Are you always this cautious?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I am as well, which is why I’ve lasted this long. It’s also why I wanted to meet with you in person. There are — Oh, forgive me, I haven’t offered you anything to eat or drink yet.”

“I don’t want to eat. Tea is fine to drink.”

He raised his hand in the air, his eyes not leaving her.
They aren’t unkind eyes
, she thought.

“Yes, Sammy?” a voice said.

Ava looked at the restaurant owner, a man she had met many times while in the company of Uncle. He ignored her, all his attention focused on Wing.

“Tea for the lady.”

“Jasmine,” Ava said.

Wing lowered himself back onto his chair. It disappeared under his bulk. “How was Shanghai?” he asked.

“It’s a wonderful city.”

“I mean, how was your business in Shanghai?”

“Mr. Wing, I’m not sure why my business there — or anywhere else — is of any interest to you.”

“Please, call me Sammy,” he said.

“Sammy, what is going on here?”

“Ah, your tea is here,” he said, reaching for the bottle of Sing Tao in front of him. The owner hovered, a pot in one hand, a cup in the other.

When they were alone again, Wing wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt and then leaned ever so slightly towards her. The move, though not particularly abrupt or intrusive, caught her off guard, and she flinched.

“Have you heard of Li Kai?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think I have,” she said, gathering herself.

“He thought you might remember him. He runs Guangzhou. Jackie Leung contracted his gang to kill you.”

“I only knew the name Li and the name Ko. Ko was the one they sent to do the job.”

“But Li called him off before he could.”

Ava began to correct him and then stopped. What did it matter if Li’s message hadn’t got to Ko before he tried to kill her? What did it matter that she’d fought him off, and another thug? This had nothing to do with the reality of the past. “I think you’re implying that I owe Li a debt of gratitude for cancelling the contract — one that he initially and readily agreed to — only after his contractor ended up floating face down in Victoria Harbour.”

Wing shrugged. “He had other choices.”

“At the time there was only one that made any sense. I can’t give him credit for doing what best served his interests.”

“We all value our self-interest, don’t we? It would be a strange and unpredictable world if we didn’t. I’m sure you aren’t any different than the rest of us when it comes to that. I know for a fact that Uncle wasn’t — except maybe when it came to you. He put you ahead of most things in his life. That was never clearer to me than when he asked me to help find and put away that pig Jackie Leung.”

“I’m told he paid you well enough to do that.”

“That was just the business side of things. The hard part for him was asking me in the first place. We had fallen out years before. There was, I admit, bad blood between us — mistrust, a taste for revenge — but he put all that aside and came to me, cap in hand, to ask me to help him find Leung. Now, I could have said no. I could have taken the opportunity to make him squirm. Instead I greeted him as an old colleague. I shook his hand and I agreed to do what he asked. The fact that I took money for it was a way for him to save face and not be so openly beholden to me.”

“That’s your story,” Ava said quietly.

“That’s what happened.”

“And I have no way of knowing otherwise.”

“Why would I lie?”

“Why do men breathe?”

“Are you always so skeptical?”

“It reduces disappointment.”

“You’re too young to be so skeptical and cynical.”

“Uncle taught me that you can’t be enough of either.”

“Like your friend in Shanghai?”

“I’m not aware that I have a particular friend in Shanghai,” Ava said quickly, and reached for her tea.

“He’s a problem, you know.”

“I don’t know who you’re referring to.”

Wing leaned in closer. Ava found herself staring at the part in his hair: the roots were grey.

“He’s not just a friend anymore, is he. I hear he’s become a business partner,” Wing said.

Ava felt her face twitch. She took a deep breath as she tried to regain her composure, the word
how
dancing on her lips. Instead she said, “I’m still waiting for the name of this friend and business partner.”

Wing sat back with a slight smile on his face. “I know you’re surprised that I know and that I knew so fast, but that’s the way it is in my world. People you think are friends may not be. People you think are enemies may have only your best interest at heart. It isn’t always easy to sort things out, even for the most experienced of us. I’m sorry for you if Xu betrayed your trust, but that’s the nature of the man.”

“Why am I here?” Ava said.

“Did you know that he’s running for chairman of the societies?” Wing wielded the toothpick again, covering his mouth with his hand, his eyes never leaving Ava. “Li Kai is running as well,” he said through the hand. “It’s going to come down to the two of them. I support Li, but I’m prepared to live with whatever the result is. The problem is that your friend has decided to sabotage the democratic process.”

“I beg your pardon?” Ava said. “Democratic process?”

He shrugged and placed the toothpick on the table. “We vote. The majority rules. What would you call it?”

“It’s beyond definition.”

“You’re being cynical again. Frankly, I don’t think it suits you. I think if you heard me out you might agree with me.”

Ava shook her head. “Mr. Wing, why did you invite me here?”

“I need you to talk to your friend.”

“Since you seem to know him so well, why don’t you speak to him yourself?”

“I’ve tried. Li, myself, and others have tried, but he bobs and weaves. He’s a hard man to pin down. He tells you what you want to hear and then goes off and does whatever he wants. The problem may be — and I’m being kind here — that he doesn’t listen very well. When we talk to him, it’s as if he thinks every word is designed to mislead and undermine him. He’s programmed to disbelieve. We’re all very frustrated with him, and in our business frustration sometimes leads to overreaction. I would like to avoid that.”

“That’s hardly my concern.”

“Ms. Lee — Ava, we need to find someone he’ll actually listen to. My opinion is that you could be that person.”

“And why would I volunteer to do that?”

“Who mentioned volunteering? I will pay you, and I will pay a lot.”

“To do what exactly?”

“I want you to listen to me and then I want you to reason with Xu. We need an honest broker.”

“You overestimate my talents. And you’re making some very large assumptions about my relationship with Xu. I’m afraid I would disappoint.”

“I’m prepared to take that chance.”

“Mr. Wing, what I said about my talents and my relationship to Xu was also my way of politely telling you that I want nothing to do with any of this.”

“We’ll pay you well to make the effort.”

“I don’t need or want your money.”

Wing closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and breathed deeply and audibly through his nose. He looked to Ava like an angry man, and she braced herself for a tirade and readied herself to leave the restaurant.

Wing’s eyes opened, the light seemingly gone from them. “You remind me of Uncle,” he said in a whisper.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t mean it as a compliment.”

( 18 )

They sat quietly, looking at each other across the table. The moment lasted not much more than ten seconds, but it was a heavy silence, filled with discomfort.

“I apologize if I offended you with my remark about Uncle,” Wing said finally.

“Accepted,” she said.

“Now please, may I take a few minutes to explain why someone has to talk to Xu?” Wing said.

“I’ve already made my position clear.”

“I know, but you should understand the depth of the consequences of this situation in which we find ourselves.”

“Why?”

“Because if something unfortunate — terribly unfortunate — should happen, it might be important for you to understand the circumstances that led to it.”

“I don’t think I want to hear any more,” Ava said, rising from her seat.

“Wait. Please, I’m not trying to be anything but honest with you,” Wing said.

“But you don’t speak plainly. What the hell does ‘terribly unfortunate’ imply?”

“Nothing that need be inevitable.”

Ava shook her head. Every instinct she had was telling her to leave. But then what? Like it or not, now she needed to know. “Explain to me the circumstances that you’ve alluded to,” she said as she lowered herself back onto the chair.

“Thank you.”

“What are the circumstances?” she repeated.

“He is very clever, your friend. We all understand that, and many of us have benefited from it. And the fact that he spent the past year or two scheming with Uncle only advanced his education.”

“Scheming?”

“Sorry. Let me say that he’s taken Uncle’s counsel for the past year or so and it has helped contribute to his growing success. Are you more comfortable with that description?”

“Go on.”

“The first thing you need to understand is that Xu has made us all a lot of money. He understood very quickly the profits that can be made from software, electronic devices, and designer fashion labels, and most of us went along for the ride. And why not? The profits are almost as good as they are with drugs, and they come without the headaches we have to endure with most of the other traditional businesses, like prostitution and gambling. The fact is, the police don’t really care that much if you’re ripping off some big American or European corporation. Once in a while they’ll raid one of our street markets or shopping centres, but we usually get some notice. We load up the vendors with old inventory for the police to seize and make a big splash in the media as they destroy it.” He laughed. “My man Jimmy says that letting the police grab that inventory is almost cheaper than having to truck it to a dump and get rid of it ourselves.”

“So he’s making you money and doing it in a way that keeps the police off your backs. That’s a hell of a problem to have.”

“
Momentai
. But a problem I do have is that your friend is manufacturing the majority of the goods we’re selling.”

“You said you were making all kinds of money.”

“True, but what happens if the supply dries up?”

“Has that happened?”

“No, not yet.”

“So what makes you think it’s a possibility?”

He shrugged. “You have to understand that there’s more involved here than just the supply line. As that business grew over the past few years, we began to move away from our more traditional pursuits. We let them go or we pushed them down to the bottom rungs of our gangs. It will be very hard, if not impossible, to rebuild what we had if your friend decides to play god.”

“Is he playing god?”

“I think he’s testing the idea.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Shipments that were always on time are now sometimes late. Orders that were always filled properly now come up short.”

“Perhaps demand is outstripping supply.”

“That seems a logical explanation, but I’m attentive, and I’ve noticed that people who support him for chairman don’t have those kinds of problems.”

“How would you know?”

“There’s talk.”

“It sounds more like gossip.”

He smiled. “Exactly. We gossip like young girls, except it isn’t boys we talk about. It’s about how much product reaches who and when,” he said. “We have created — and it’s our own fault — a dependency on those products. It’s much like a drug addiction. All we can think about is when the next shipment will be coming in, because we know the one on hand will soon be gone.”

“Why didn’t you create alternative supply lines?”

“Ah, an excellent question.”

“So you didn’t.”

“My excuse is that my dependency snuck up on me. One day selling software and iPhones was a sideline, six months later it was half my business, and now . . . I don’t want to tell you. The world moves so fast today that even the Triads can’t keep up with it.”

“Xu does.”

“Yes. I give him full credit for that. He has the technology, the engineers, and the factories, and he keeps buying more, hiring more, and building more. We tried to figure out how he did it but we couldn’t. Oh, here and there we found an alternative supply, but there was never enough product and, truthfully, the quality was never good enough.”

“It sounds to me as if you need to accommodate him until you’re in a position where your need isn’t so great.”

“We’ve tried.”

“My understanding is that the attempts to accommodate came only after threats and violence didn’t work.”

Wing sat back, his hands folded across his belly. “I was told you’re smart. I know Uncle wouldn’t have felt the way he did about you unless that was the case. I mean, I know there were rumours that you kept his bones warm, but I never believed them. That kind of behaviour wasn’t typical of his character. He was a man who kept everything separate — he would never mix business and pleasure. So he kept you by his side for business, and for you and him to be partners for ten years speaks well of your intelligence and abilities. So I’m going to believe you’ll act as smart as I think you are.”

“Is that meant to be a compliment?”

“Only if you’re smart enough to understand that Xu can’t have everything.”

“Everything?”

“He can’t ransom his way to becoming chairman. It doesn’t work. The end result, I mean. It’s one thing for him to have economic leverage over us and to use it as any gang leader would, to further the interests of his own people. It’s another thing to combine that leverage with the prestige and powers and perks that come with the chairmanship. He could — he would have us all by the throat.” His hands went to his knees and he leaned forward, the smile disappearing. “He must drop his attempts to become chairman.”

“You still haven’t told me why.”

He looked hard at her across the table, any hint of conviviality gone. “The chairman mediates,” Wing said. “Eighteen organizations form our brotherhood, and from time to time there are territorial disputes, arguments about payments or financing, disagreements about who has the right to do what. The chairman is the man who decides who is right.”

“Is the decision binding?”

“Yes, at least as long as everyone wants to stay in the family.”

“If they don’t?”

“When the chairman makes a decision, he communicates it to everyone and we proceed accordingly. It’s possible that a gang might choose to ignore a ruling that went against them and try to go their own way, but they would very quickly find themselves cut off from the brotherhood. As a punishment, isolation can be very powerful. As formidable as any one gang may be — even Xu’s — none of them would last very long without the support of the brotherhood’s infrastructure.”

“I see.”

“It’s a practice that goes back hundreds of years. No one, not even me or Xu, would go against it without expecting the consequences to be dire.”

“Why do think Xu would not be even-handed if he was chairman?”

Wing pressed his hands against the seat of his chair and pushed. Slowly, painfully, he rose to his feet. “He might have no reason to be. He already has enough economic power, and now he’s in the process of building a small army in Shanghai.”

“Don’t exaggerate.”

“That episode in Borneo — there was no need for it. He just wanted to show us that he has the gun-power. It’s been quite some time since any gang attacked another like that.”

“He saved my life there.”

“And I saved your life here.”

“So why should I take sides?”

“Because there isn’t any other choice. We can’t let him have the kind of absolute control he seems to want. Either you’ll talk to Xu and get him to step down or we’ll do everything we can to stop him.”

“How do you expect him to react to a threat like that?”

“That depends on how you tell him. He doesn’t need the chairmanship; he has enough influence and power. He talks and talks about preserving the societies but he’s doing everything he can to cut the guts out of every society but his own. In Xu’s perfect world, only Shanghai matters. The rest of us are peasants working for the king.”

“Then vote against him, and get the gangs who feel the way you do to do the same.”

“It’s an open vote.”

“What are you saying? That people are scared to vote against him because he’ll withhold product as punishment?”

“That’s how he’s already acting. It can’t go on like this.”

Ava shook her head. “You keep talking about things that are beyond my knowledge.”

Wing hovered over her, his eyes now tiny slits. He wiped the sweat from his face with a paper napkin and let it drop to the floor. “You need to understand that when I speak of consequences, they would not be restricted to Xu alone,” he said. “Our reach would extend to people who consider him a friend, and even more surely, to those who are his partners.”

“Just a minute —” Ava said as Wing brushed past her and lumbered towards the door without looking back.