White Tiger

reined it in quickly; getting into a shouting match with his uncle would serve no purpose, nor would it do him any good. He composed his face into a mask of apology and sat up on the bed, bowing his head.

“Sorry uncle,” he muttered.

This seemed an acceptable act of contrition. Chen Gui made a dismissive motion and stalked over to the windows overlooking the dark harbor. Chen Song settled back on the bed, fluffing the pillows up beneath his head. He grabbed the remote control and pointed it at the TV, scanning through the channels until he arrived at HBO. He was rewarded with the opening credits for The Sopranos, a show both he and his uncle fairly revered.

“Uncle?” Chen Song glanced at the shorter, older man as he stood before the large windows, hands clasped behind his back, still clutching the cell phone.

“What is it!” Chen Gui snapped.

“The Sopranos is being rerun on HBO,” his nephew said finally.

“As if I care!”

Chen Song took a deep breath, fighting to keep his tone of voice conciliatory. “But…but you love this program, uncle. And it has Chinese subtitles!”

Chen Gui sighed loudly and settled his large rump onto the small couch by the window. He gazed at the television screen for a few moments, but from the expression on his face, Chen Song knew he couldn’t care less about the trials and tribulations of Tony Soprano. Chen Song sympathized. While Soprano might have been a fairly factual representation of organized crime bosses in America, Chen Gui likely found his own plight more compelling at the moment.

“What if the Bai Hu fails?” Chen Gui suddenly worried aloud. “What if he can’t get to the Fujianese? What if the Japanese police catch him?”

Chen Song’s attention was suddenly focused on his uncle, as sharp and penetrating as a laser beam. In the background, The Sopranos played on, completely forgotten by him. He swung his legs off the bed and sat up again, looking at Chen Gui with narrowed eyes. “What are you talking about, uncle?”

Chen Gui buried his face in his hands and sighed again. “I told him to take care of the problems you could not. Someone has to behead the Fujianese leader, and since you failed to do it, I had to pay him an exorbitant fee! Truly, I’m too generous for my own good!”

Chen Song spoke through clenched teeth. “I told you I would take care of that problem, uncle. I swore I would!”

“Then it’s regrettable you couldn’t spend less time chasing Japanese and Korean bar hostesses and do what you ‘swore’ you would!” Chen Gui bellowed. “If you had done your duty, we would not have had to flee Japan and leave our territory open to others!”

Chen Song felt embarrassment rise in his chest. There was more than a grain of truth to what his uncle said, even though he didn’t know it wasn’t only hostesses he dallied with, but sometimes their male friends as well.

“Giving the American the job was wrong, uncle,” Chen Song pressed on, his voice like stone. “He cares nothing for us-”

“Perhaps not, but he cares for the money we pay him, you fool! Of course he’ll try and do the job, but even he could fail.” Chen Gui launched himself to his feet again and clasped his pudgy hands behind his back. “Aiyah! The trouble we’re in, because you couldn’t follow my reasonable requests!”

Chen Song’s face reddened with anger he could no longer control. “You sent the Bai Hu to do my job? How could I do it in the time we had, when almost all of our men were killed by the Fujianese? How could I have done what you asked?”

“I cannot see why you feared to do the job alone, nephew,” Chen Gui replied icily. “After all, the Bai Hu always works alone. Perhaps you should follow his example.”

Chen Song began to respond, then checked himself. This was getting him nowhere.

“I don’t see what the problem is, uncle. If the Bai Hu succeeds, then you”-he almost said “we” but managed to censor himself-“get the territory back, and the Yakuza will fall back in line. After all, the only reason the Fujianese went on the rampage was because they couldn’t match our prices. The Yakuza won’t care, so long as they get their slice of the profits. And if the Bai Hu fails, he’ll either be dead or be behind bars in a Japanese prison.”

“The Bai Hu knows much of our operations,” Chen Gui mumbled. “He never asks questions, but we’ve used him for so long he knows more than I would like.”

“Then why continue to use him, uncle? If what you say is true, then he can be a great liability.”

“Simple, nephew, simple. Chinese cannot get by in Japan without being monitored, and this you know-how often have you been asked for your identity papers by Japanese police, even in Roppongi and Shibuya? An American now, an American especially, can go places where we cannot. Unlike a Chinese, an American commands respect in Japan.”

“Bah! Many Japanese think that Americans are bothersome and ungrateful!”

“And so they are,” Chen Gui agreed, “but the fact of the matter is, what individual Japanese say is not at all reflective of Japanese society in general. Americans have prestige, and in many ways, the Japanese are indebted to them. The same cannot be said for us Chinese.”

“I see the wisdom in using him now, uncle.” Chen Song paused for a long moment, then found it time to ask the question he most wanted answered. “How much are you paying him?”

Chen Gui turned and looked at his nephew for a long moment, and Chen Song wondered if he had crossed some hidden boundary. By rights, the Bai Hu was just a common henchman-well, a specialist, actually, but still a member of the lower order-so there should have been little reason for Chen Gui to withhold the information. But when it came to the Bai Hu, Chen Song found his uncle’s judgment in great doubt.

“Almost one point seven million yuan,” Chen Gui sighed finally, and he practically collapsed back onto the couch.

The sum was more than Chen Song had been prepared to handle. “Two hundred thousand American dollars? Uncle, I realize you want the Fujianese dead, but that’s practically robbery-”

Chen Gui held up his finger, and Chen Song fell silent. “What you call ‘robbery’ is the only thing that will get us our territory back,” he intoned. “There is no other way, nephew. If the Bai Hu can kill the Fujianese leader, then those of us who still remain in Japan can move against the rest of their gang, while I plan our return. With fresh troops from Shanghai. The yakuza will wait for us, as you yourself observed our goods are the cheapest on the market right now.”

“But two hundred-” Chen Song’s mind was still spinning. While his uncle often went on about his great generosity, the fact of the matter was he was considered viciously miserly, even when contrasted against the typical Shanghainese stereotype. To know that he had such liquid assets was not surprising; that he would willingly transfer it to a foreign scum like the Bai Hu most certainly was. Chen Gui had offered Chen Song a paltry $25,000 bonus for the hit.

“The money is nothing compared to what we lose if we fail in Japan,” Chen Gui interrupted. “And if we fail in Japan, nephew, you know what will happen. We’ll lose our status, and we’ll be back to watching over Ma jiang parlors and brothels and perhaps supplying drugs to the new red princes and princesses. I very much would like to avoid that line of work. Not only is it unprofitable, it could get us killed by our own government.” Despite all the changes mainland China had undertaken, drug trafficking was still an offense that carried a mandatory death penalty, even while those in power in Beijing occasionally dabbled with that particular forbidden fruit.

“I can’t believe you paid the Bai Hu so much,” Chen Song said forlornly.

“Better him than you!” Chen Gui snapped. “At least he could get the job done!”

Chen Song’s face clouded as his anger deepened, threatening to spiral well out of his control. Chen Gui watched it happen with narrowed eyes, and Chen Song knew it gave him some measure of satisfaction.

“I should have killed him when I had the chance,” Chen Song muttered, looking away.

“You? Kill the Bai Hu?” Chen Gui threw back his head and laughed. “I’d pay another two hundred thousand to see that! Nephew, when it comes to things such as killing, you’re no match for the Bai Hu. Otherwise, why would I retain him?”