The King of Shanghai (17 page)

( 21 )

Ava and Sonny took the train from Hung Hom to the Lok Ma Chau MTR station, just across the river from Shenzhen. It was Sonny’s choice to take the train, which surprised her. When she had phoned him the night before to say she needed him to drive her across the border, he hesitated and then asked if she really wanted to take the car.

“Is that a problem?” she asked.

“The lineups at the border are completely unpredictable. We could be waiting hours to get through, and then when we do, we’ll have to contend with the Shenzhen traffic. There are always traffic jams, and worse than that, no one there knows how to drive — and that’s not a joke. I read in
Sing Tao
last year that Shenzhen has a million unlicensed drivers. They drive like they’re in bumper cars.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Where’s your meeting?”

“Futian.”

“The train from Hung Hom goes directly to the station there. A forty-five-minute ride, tops. Do you have a Hong Kong ID card?”

“Yes.”

“We get out of the train, swipe the card, and we’re in Shenzhen. We can catch a cab from the station to wherever you’re going.”

“The meeting starts at one, but I want to be there a few hours earlier.”

He didn’t ask why. Sonny had worked with Ava enough times to understand that she liked to be prepared for anything, and being early sometimes prevented nasty surprises. “I’ll pick you up at the hotel at nine. I’ll park at Hung Hom. We should get to your meeting place by eleven.”

They reached Hung Hom at nine thirty. As they walked from the parking lot to the station, Ava was aware that they made an odd couple: diminutive Ava and the hulking Sonny. In Borneo Ava at one point had found herself standing between Sonny and the even larger Suen. She had never felt quite so small. As if conscious of the height disparity, on the way to the station Sonny walked a couple of paces behind her, his eyes flitting in all directions.

Ava bought two first-class tickets for the nine-fifty train, which left the station on time.
Hong Kong trains always seem to leave on time
, Ava thought. “You know, I met Uncle for the very first time because of a case in Shenzhen,” she said as the train headed north on its thirty-kilometre trip towards the Pearl River Delta.

“I remember. I was still working for him in Fanling. He hadn’t cut off all his old connections yet. He told me he had a crew in Shenzhen chasing down a debt and they had run into you. They had no idea how to handle you.”

“Or me them.”

“I heard you wrapped them around your finger,” he said, smiling.

“They felt sorry for me.”

“And then you managed to get enough money out of the guy to look after everyone. That’s when Uncle said, ‘I need to meet that girl.’”

“And the rest is history.”

“Shenzhen was smaller then,” he said.

“Still had to be five or six million people.”

“Yeah, and now it’s over fifteen million.”

“What a place.”

“I knew it before it became the first special economic zone. It was the late seventies and I was dating a girl from there. It was all farmland and fishing villages back then — maybe a couple of hundred thousand people spread across the entire area. And it was pretty, with Shenzhen Bay on the coast and all rolling hills and orchards inland. Shit, what a change. I don’t think there’s a hill left.”

“I’ve never seen anything but the ugly side of it,” Ava said. “I’ve been there five or six times. I don’t know why those thieves thought it was a good place to hide; it never really worked out for them. But every time I came, there were two more skyscrapers, another highway, another industrial park filled with factories that weren’t built to code and were prone to blowing up or falling down.”

“Half an hour from Hong Kong but a world away,” Sonny said.

“Sonny, that is profound.”

He smiled. “Uncle used to say that. He never got over his hatred of the Communists. Whenever he heard people talking about Shenzhen as a symbol of the new China, he would start ranting.”

“I never heard him rant.”

“Did you ever say Shenzhen is a symbol of the new China?”

“No.”

“Then that’s why.”

The train arrived at Lok Ma Chau on schedule. They got a taxi and drove to Nongyuan Road. The ride took them through neighbourhoods that were a mixture of soaring apartment buildings and commercial towers. Nothing was small in Shenzhen. The architecture wasn’t quite as boxy as Ava remembered, but even the odd design gem couldn’t take away the oppressive feeling inspired by the line of buildings looming over the highway.

The restaurant was in the middle of a block of shops and eateries that ran down both sides of the street. Every building was the same height and every façade was the same distance from the street. Only the store signs and windows offered any visual variety.

It was just past eleven when they got out of the cab in front of the restaurant. Ava scanned the street. “There’s a coffee shop that has some decent sightlines,” she said, pointing across the street and to the right.

“I’ll meet you there in a while. I want to take a walk,” Sonny said.

Ava nodded. She knew he would walk down and around several blocks. In all her years with Uncle, she couldn’t remember him going to a meeting with Sonny where Sonny didn’t case the area. At first she thought he was being overly cautious, but after a meeting in Sha Tin went sideways and they had to make a hurried early exit, she never questioned his preparation again. Her insistence on arriving early for meetings mirrored that caution. People who were supposed to be alone arrived with henchmen. Secure locations turned out to be anything but. The only thing she ever wasted by arriving early was time. And the thing she saved more than once was her well-being.

The coffee shop had a rack of Chinese newspapers. She picked up three and then bought a black coffee. She sat at a table near the window that gave her a clear view of the Imperial Manor and most of the street. She had read one newspaper and was on her second coffee when Sonny entered the shop. He nodded at her, ordered a tea, and then sat at another table with a slightly different view.

The street was busy with a steady stream of traffic, both automotive and pedestrian. By twelve they had seen nothing out of the ordinary. At twelve fifteen a black BMW with tinted windows parked almost directly in front of the Imperial Manor. The driver’s window opened just far enough for a cigarette butt to be flicked out.

“Can you see anyone in the BMW?” she asked Sonny.

“No.”

After five minutes had passed, she thought about asking Sonny to take a walk past the car. Just as she was about to, the BMW pulled away from the curb and drove down the street.

The coffee shop was filling with the lunch crowd, and Ava saw the manager eyeing her and Sonny with their empty cups. Just as it looked as if he was about to approach them, Ava caught sight of a black Range Rover pulling up in front of the Imperial Manor. Xu stepped out of the passenger side and Suen from the driver’s. They looked around and then Suen accompanied his boss inside.

“There’s Xu and Suen. I’m going over to the restaurant now,” she said.

“I’ll go with you,” Sonny said.

As they crossed the street, Ava saw a panel truck in a no-parking zone beside a raised manhole surrounded by orange cones, almost directly across from them. Five men stood over the manhole. The truck had no markings. The men were wearing blue safety helmets and yellow fluorescent vests. Ava saw two of them turn when she and Sonny approached. One of them looked startled. He had a row of rings in each of his ears.

When they were well past them, Ava said, “I think I know one of those guys.”

“How?” Sonny asked.

“I think his name is Ko. If it is, he works for Li. He was the one they sent to London to kill me.”

Sonny stopped and looked back quickly towards the workmen. “Three of them are wearing running shoes. What kind of maintenance workers wear sneakers?”

Ava turned and stared at them. They were focused on the manhole, chatting among themselves. The man with the earrings was in profile, and now his resemblance to Ko didn’t seem so apparent. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. It might not be Ko, and running shoes may be what workers wear here. But tell Suen about them all the same,” she said.

“Speaking of Suen . . .” Sonny said, pointing ahead.

The big man was in front of the Imperial Manor, leaning against the Range Rover. When he saw them, he straightened up.

“Hey,” Sonny said, extending his hand.

“Good to see you,” Suen said, then lowered his head in Ava’s direction. “The boss is inside already. I went in for a few minutes — it looks clear.”

“Well, I guess I’ll join him. You two boys behave yourselves out here, okay?”

“We will,” Suen said.

“Sonny, just a word,” Ava said, motioning for him to join her near the door. “Your phone is on, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Mine too. If you see anything suspicious out here, you call me right away.”

“Count on it.”

Ava squeezed his arm, turned, and walked into the restaurant. She was instantly enveloped in an aromatic cloud of garlic and ginger.
They’re cooking seafood
, she thought, then saw the row of tanks full of geoduck and Manila clams, spiny lobsters, crabs, shrimp, eels,
garoupa
, and snappers. “I’m here to meet with Mr. Wing,” she said to the hostess.

“You have a private room in the back. Let me show you the way.”

The restaurant was full, and Ava had to fight off hunger pangs as she walked past tables loaded with steamed and fried seafood.

The private room wasn’t much more than a cubicle with enough space for one circular table. Xu sat in a chair against the back wall so that the door was in his direct line of sight. He was wearing his usual black suit, white shirt, and black tie. He stood when he saw her. “I am glad you decided to come,
mei mei
,” he said.

“It was hard not to.”

There was a teapot on the table and four cups. Xu poured tea into the cup next to his. “They should be here soon.”

Ava checked her watch. It was five to one.

“Did you bring Sonny?” he asked.

“Yes, he and Suen are outside.”

“Precautions. There was a time when they were not necessary,” Xu said.

“And there was a time when having a fax machine and a mobile phone that weighed five pounds was considered high-tech.”

Xu smiled. They were standing next to each other. Ava stretched out her arms and gave him a small hug, then they both sat.

“I have to tell you that, despite the way it came about, this meeting was long overdue and is probably a very good thing. I had been putting off having to deal with Wing, but as a long-term strategy it was never going to work. So we will get things settled and move on,” Xu said.

“You seem confident that he’ll agree to your offer.”

“I am hopeful more than confident, but if I read him correctly, he will agree.”

Ava glanced at her watch again. It was one o’clock. The door was open and she could see into the restaurant. There was no sign of Sammy Wing or Jimmy Tan. She felt a flutter of disquiet in her stomach.

“Wing did say one o’clock?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Her phone rang. It was Sonny. “Yes,” she said.

“Three of those workers just got into the truck and drove away.”

“Where did they go?”

“Down the street and around the corner.”

“What are the others doing?”

“Looking down the manhole.”

“Have they done anything other than that?”

“No.”

“Any sign of Wing?”

“No.”

“Thanks.” She looked at Xu. He held a cup of tea to his lips, seemingly relaxed.

“I’m starting to get uncomfortable,” she said.

“They are only a few minutes late.”

“I’m giving them another five minutes, no more than that.”

“I spoke to Wing this morning when I got in. He said he was driving here from Hong Kong. He could be tied up at the border or in traffic.”

“If he is, why doesn’t he call?”

Xu shrugged, but Ava saw his eyes narrow and knew she had his attention now. “I will phone him.” She watched him search for Wing’s number in his log and then press the call button. A few seconds later he put the phone back in his pocket. “The call went to voicemail,” he said.

“I think we should leave,” Ava said, rising from the table.

They heard a clatter of dishes from outside the room, raised voices, and then a woman’s scream. Ava slid around the table. Xu moved even faster and reached the door before her, blocking her view for an instant. She wasn’t sure which she saw first, the flash of a yellow vest or the bare arm with a knife in its hand. She moved to the right and saw the knife catch Xu’s upper chest near the left shoulder. As Ava tried to get past him, the knifeman struck again, his blade catching Xu’s side.

Ava finally found space and struck. With the middle knuckle of her index finger extended, she smashed her right fist into his face. Blood exploded as the assailant’s nose crumbled into a mass of bloody pulp. The man lurched back, falling to the floor and blocking the path of the two men who stood behind him.

“We don’t want you. All we want is him, but if you get in the way I’ll fuck you too,” the man who Ava now knew for certain was Ko said. “Move out of the way.”

Xu was slumped behind her. She stared at the two men holding long, lethal stilettos.

“No,” she said.

“I should have killed you in London,” Ko said.

“You couldn’t do it then and you can’t do it now.”

“Bitch,” he said.

Ko rushed her from the left. Ava swivelled as he thrust the knife towards her neck. She moved her head back a few inches, and as the weapon hissed past her she drove her foot into his groin. He gasped and folded forward. Her knuckle rocketed into his ear, and then she raised her foot and drove the heel of her shoe into his forehead.

She turned to face the remaining man. The knife was in his left hand, and in his right he held a gun. Ava looked at Xu. He was leaning against the doorframe, clutching his side, half of his shirt soaked in blood. She saw the man raise the gun and aim at Xu. Before she could move, a shot rang out. Wing’s man looked at her in shock and then crashed to the floor. She looked down at what had been the back of his head. All she could see was blood spreading around him like a halo.