“No, but we’re not flat on our backs in the restaurant getting the crap beaten out of us either.”
Ava smiled. She was beginning to warm to Simon. He had shown some nerve, he had a sense of humour, and he was holding up to the adversity better than Michael, who looked lost in whatever dark thoughts were filling his head. “I wouldn’t have let them do that,” she said.
“No, I guess not,” Simon said. “Where did you learn that shit? I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”
“I’ve been training for years. Anyone can do it.”
Simon sipped from the bottle, his mood faltering again. “For years all we’ve done is build a business, and now look.”
“What are we going to do?” Michael said suddenly, as if he had just woken from a dream.
“Go back to Hong Kong,” Ava said.
“And do what?”
“I don’t know exactly. I’ll make my phone call and then we’ll figure out if there’s anything we actually can do.”
“There has to be,” Michael said.
“No, that isn’t always true,” Ava said. She didn’t care when Michael looked pained at her reply. She wasn’t in the business of false hopes and, brother or not, she wasn’t about to start supporting pipe dreams.
( 6 )
Ava waited until they had landed in Hong Kong and parted ways before she called Uncle. He answered on the second ring, and his brisk wei told her he’d been expecting her call.
“Uncle, it’s Ava.”
“I understand you are in Hong Kong.”
“I am.”
“Is everything all right?”
“As well as can be expected. I imagine you have heard from Kao Lok and that he told you we met.”
“Of course.”
She knew he would have. “I didn’t know it was him. I mean, I recognized him when I saw him, but the name meant nothing to me. I went into the meeting totally unprepared to see him there.”
“He is not very happy, especially about the way you damaged Wu.”
“And I’m not happy either, especially about the way they’re destroying my brother’s business and reputation and putting my family at risk.” She knew she had said a lot that needed explanation, and she didn’t want to do it over the phone. “Uncle, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was coming to Hong Kong. This was strictly personal, not business. Can we meet to talk?”
“I think we have to.”
“Where should we meet?”
“You know Andy owns a noodle shop near the Kowloon Tong MTR station?”
“Yes, and I know where it is.”
“Meet me there in an hour.”
It was only after she hung up the phone that she felt the stress of the day descend on her. It was a mess. More of a mess than she could have anticipated. And aside from asking Uncle to intervene, she didn’t have a clue about what to do. She rarely felt helpless. There was always a way, always some lever you could pull. Except this time she couldn’t think of a single one except for Uncle. What ate at her was the thought of having to ask him. And what scared the hell out of her was the possibility that he might turn her down. She wasn’t sure she could handle that humiliation.
She showered quickly and changed into her track pants and a black T-shirt, then headed to the Star Ferry.
It was late afternoon and the harbour rush hour was just starting. Normally Ava sat at the rear of the Kowloon-bound ferry so she could look back at the Hong Kong skyline. Today she sat in the middle of the boat, with no interest in anything but the meeting with Uncle.
She caught a taxi in Tsim Sha Tsui and got to Kowloon Tong five minutes early. Uncle’s car was already at the curb, with Sonny, his driver and bodyguard, leaning against it talking to a policeman, who was making every effort to be polite. Sonny wore a black suit and white shirt, but unlike his boss he had a black tie knotted at the neck. He was a large man, bigger than Ava and Uncle combined. Well over six feet, he had a body that looked soft, but his physique was deceiving — he was more agile than any man Ava had ever met, and even more powerful. He also had no fear and, she thought, no conscience.
“Sonny,” she said.
He glanced at her and smiled. “He’s waiting for you,” he said.
The noodle shop was just inside the station, a location that Andy would have to have killed someone to get if