“One hundred thousand — U.S. dollars of course,” she said.
“Cash?”
“We prefer wire transfers.”
“Upfront.”
Uncle hated paying upfront. The most he had ever agreed to was half upfront and half at the conclusion. But the Captain hadn’t been making a request — those were his terms. She sensed that trying to negotiate those terms would put a crimp in what had so far been a relatively painless exercise. Uncle was going to have to put up with it.
“Yes, upfront.”
The Captain’s face broke into a smile. “Okay, let me speak with my friends. If they’re happy with the arrangement I’ll let you know and give you the details of how the money should be transferred.” He nodded in the direction of Robert and Patrick. “You’ve met the boys. If we go ahead I’ll lend one of them to you as a… liaison. Do you have a preference?”
“Who is senior?”
“Patrick.”
“He’s the one I’ll take.”
“Assuming we do business,” the Captain said.
“Assuming.”
(24)
Ava called the number Lafontaine had given her and got his voicemail. She left a message apologizing for the way their dinner had ended. Nothing else. If things went as planned, she wouldn’t have to speak to him again.
Uncle answered her call on the first ring. “Ava, when will you be finished with this project?”
Ava was caught off guard. Uncle never rushed a job. “I’m not sure. Two days, maybe three. I made progress today… Has something happened?”
“We have landed a huge client. Have you heard of Tommy Ordonez?”
“The Filipino billionaire?”
“That’s him. He is ethnic Chinese; the family name is actually Chew but he changed it to fit in with the Filipinos. He has a brother here in Hong Kong, David Chew, and another in Vancouver, Philip Chew. Tommy is the eldest, so all of the family money flows through and around him. He called me today through a friend.”
“Tommy Ordonez got screwed in a deal and needs us to chase money for him?” she asked.
“Don’t be foolish — he never gets screwed,” Uncle said. “The brother in Vancouver is the one who was unwise. Someone, who obviously doesn’t know he is Tommy’s brother, took the family for more than fifty million in a land swindle. If it were the Philippines or China or anywhere else in Asia, Tommy would look after it himself. Canada is another world. So a friend referred him to me. We have the contract. I had to cut our rate, but not that much.”
“I need at least three days, and that’s not a promise,” she said.
“If Tam weren’t the nephew of my friend… You think three days?”
“Minimum.”
“Where are we?”
“I’ve found him. I think I’ve bought off the local muscle. Now I need to get my hands on Seto and get the money back to Tam.”
“How much to buy off the locals?”
“One hundred thousand, upfront, all of it by wire.”
“You know — ”
“I know,” Ava said, louder than she intended. “It can’t be done any other way, and without them I’m nowhere. This is like a Chinese provincial backwater where one guy controls everything and nothing happens unless he says so. In this case, the main guy won’t give the green light unless the money is sent to him upfront.”
“He is that powerful? He is that insistent?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Okay, Ava, I understand. Where do I send it?”
“I won’t know until tomorrow.”
“As soon as you know — ”
“Uncle, I want to get out of here more than you want to make Tommy Ordonez the happiest man in the Philippines.”
“Sorry,” he said.
She wasn’t used to getting apologies from Uncle. Normally if he made an error — and that was seldom enough — he’d correct it and tell her about the change in the situation without acknowledging a mistake had been made in the first place. And she, of course, would accept the change as a given and never mention the events that had preceded it. It was enough that they both knew; there was no reason for her to be disrespectful by remarking on it and no reason for him to explain himself. She guessed that he was feeling guilty about pushing Tommy Ordonez at her when the Tam job was still on the boil.
“Let me finish here,” she said, “and then we’ll make the Chews one big happy family.”
Ava crawled into bed with the James Clavell novel. She slept amazingly well and didn’t wake till just past eight. Skipping breakfast and Tom Benson, she went for a completely uneventful run. When she got back to the hotel, Patrick was asleep in the lobby, his head on the back of the chair, his mouth half open.
She tapped his arm. He snorted and his eyes flicked open, immediately alert.
“I was on a run,” she said.
“Yeah, they told me,” he said. “Here, the Captain wanted me to give this to you. It’s what we could come up with on Seto last night.” He handed her an envelope. “He’s been coming here on and off for years, mainly to do fish business, but recently just to hang. He’s never been a problem.”
“Is that because someone decided to leave him alone or because he was saintly?”
“Who knows, but if he was left alone it was because he never went over the line.”
“Who’s the woman?”
“Anna Choudray. They’ve been together for about six years. She was a bar girl when they met. They aren’t married but he must like her a lot ’cause she’s the legal owner of the house in Malvern Gardens, lucky her. The Vietnamese is Joey Ng. He travels under an American passport, the same as Seto. He isn’t new; he’s been here with Seto quite a few times.”
“I was told this is where Seto comes when things get too hot elsewhere.”
“Could be. Like I said, he’s trouble-free here.”
She wiped sweat from her brow. “I need to shower and change. It will take me about half an hour. Will you stay and have breakfast with me?”
“Of course.”
“This means that the Captain has accepted our arrangement?”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“And you are my… liaison?”
“That isn’t the word he used but the meaning is the same, I guess.”
“Banking information?”
“In the envelope.”
The shower could wait. Ava went directly to the business centre, opened the envelope, and sent an email with Robbins’s bank particulars to Uncle and the Hong Kong accountant who handled their wire transfers. It was mid-evening there and nothing would move until the next morning, which meant that, given a twenty-four-hour transit time, the wire wouldn’t get to Robbins until two full days from now. She didn’t fancy spending two days doing nothing, so she asked the accountant to scan and email her a copy of the wire transmittal. It was being sent from the Kowloon Light and Power Bank, which was owned by some friends of Uncle, to the Cayman Islands branch of a Canadian chartered bank. Kowloon Light and Power was substantial enough that she was sure the Canadian
