The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,28
would take a position in their corporation, some elder-statesman kind of role. This from a woman who resisted hiring us for that job because she did not want their family name associated with mine. She must want you to join her very badly if she is willing to put up with me.”
Ava saw no point in being anything other than direct. “Uncle, you helped bring May and I together. Now we’re friends. And yes, she has been trying to get me to become part of their firm. Truthfully, I have thought about it, and I have decided that I’m not ready yet. Maybe one day I will be, but not yet. Are you okay with that?”
“Of course. You owe me nothing.”
“I owe you everything,” she said, more sharply and loudly than she had intended.
His eyes turned away from the table, looking towards the front window. “I see Sonny has been circling. We need to get you to the airport and I need to make some calls to Indonesia, and maybe even the Philippines. My contacts are not so good in Indonesia, but I know Uncle Chang is strong there.”
“If you talk to him, send him my regards,” Ava said.
“We speak every week,” Uncle said. “He is still at Tommy Ordonez’s right hand, and I expect he will die there.”
( 11 )
Sonny drove her to the airport. They didn’t speak until they had cleared the tunnel and were heading through Hong Kong towards the bridge. “You need to keep track of him,” Ava said. “He seemed not too bad to me — his mind is still sharp, but physically I see a bit of deterioration. What bothers me most is that he seems to be getting maudlin.”
“That’s the word I was searching for earlier, when I told you about him wanting to talk about the old days.”
“I don’t think it’s a symptom of anything. We could be overreacting to simple mood swings, so don’t press him, eh? If you are going to tail him, be discreet; remember who you’re dealing with. He has always been sensitive to his physical surroundings, and unless you’re careful he’ll spot you in a moment.”
“I was thinking of using someone else, a female friend he’s never met.”
Ava nodded. “That’s a great idea, Sonny. Really, a great idea. This woman, though, she’s professional enough to pull it off?”
“Yeah.”
He said it so aggressively that it triggered a host of questions in her head. She ate them all. “Good. Please keep me posted.”
Sonny dropped her off at the VIP departures gate. It took her less than five minutes to check in at Cathay Pacific and only ten minutes more to clear Customs and Immigration on the departures level; she was through security in another five. She had given herself two hours, so she headed for the Cathay first-class lounge. She grabbed a double espresso and copies of the South China Morning Post and the International Herald Tribune and deposited herself in one of the big easy chairs the lounge provided.
The papers headlined a huge sell-off of stocks in the United States that had evidently been triggered by a computer entry mistake. Some trader selling futures had punched in sixteen billion instead of sixteen million, and the computer had taken over from there. Ava’s money was widely distributed — Canadian government bonds, Canadian bank stocks, gold, real estate investment trusts — and she hardly gave market activity a thought, but she found it alarming that so much value could be vaporized through sheer stupidity.
Her cellphone rang. She looked at the screen and saw the name MARCUS LEE. All thoughts about the U.S. stock market disappeared. “Hi, Daddy,” she said, kicking herself for not having called him first.
“Mummy said you were going to be coming through Hong Kong,” he said.
“I’m in the Cathay lounge at the airport, in transit to Vietnam.”
“Back at work, she says.”
“Yes, and mainly because of her, in case she didn’t tell you. One of her friends lost some money in an investment fund and Mummy put her on to me. A small case, really, and one that I don’t think is going to last too long or result in too much.”
He paused, and Ava braced herself. Instead he said, “Just be careful.”
“I promise I’ll be careful.”
“Make sure you do. Ava, I know you’re entirely capable, but all of us overreach. Look what happened to Michael.”
“He survived.”
“Speaking of Michael, did you look at your emails today?”
“No, why?”
“Amanda and he have set a wedding date. Our two families had