“If I can isolate Lok, I’ll find a way to get through the gate.”
“Ava, listen to me,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Lok is a man who, given what he does for a living, has limited guanxi. But what guanxi he has is tied to the police force. He is Macanese, and so are all of them. They share blood, they share years of mutual trust, and God knows how complicated and intertwined their financial arrangements are. So trying to separate the police from Lok is, in my mind, a plan with disaster written all over it.”
She sat back, her attention on the spicy pot, waiting for the first shrimp to pop to the surface. “I have three more days,” she said.
Fresh drinks arrived. Her second glass was still half full, but Uncle downed the rest of his and picked up the third. She’d never seen him drink so quickly. “That gives you some time to think, and you need to do that. You need to think this through better.”
A thought that had been nagging her since Uncle mentioned Andy’s comments on the house pushed its way forward. “Uncle, if I do decide to visit Lok’s place, can I count on Carlo and Andy?”
He sighed. “Of course you can. Those two would follow you anywhere.”
“I would need more men than that, though.”
He took a shrimp from the pot and put it on her plate. “Then talk to the boys. Andy has a brother-in-law who is very handy, and Carlo has some friends he trusts as much as he trusts Andy. You have to be careful about whom you choose and how you choose them. You do not want hired guns who are strangers, because no matter how good they are, there always comes a point when a decision has to be made between them and you. The loyalty that the boys have to you is absolute, you should know that. You cannot expect anyone else to match that, but if they are as loyal to Carlo and Andy as the boys are to you, that is enough.”
“I’m not ready to talk to anyone yet. You’re right, I need to think this through a bit better.”
“Good girl.”
“But, Uncle, I’m telling you, I can’t sit back and do nothing.”
“I understand. Take some time; let that active imagination of yours see what it can come up with.”
When they had finished dinner, he walked her back to the hotel, his steps a bit unsteady. She didn’t like it when he drank too much, when he lost even a small amount of the self-control she so much admired. She was thinking that she should get in a taxi with him and ride back to Kowloon when she saw Sonny standing by the car in front of the hotel. She kissed Uncle on the cheek and passed him to Sonny.
Ava stopped at the business centre and printed the specifications for the gate. She glanced at them as she rode the elevator to the twenty-third floor, and saw that they were beyond her comprehension. Maybe it’s the wine, she thought. They’ll be clearer in the morning.
She undressed quickly, pulled on a clean T-shirt, turned on the television, took two cognacs from the mini-bar, and crawled into bed. A Hong Kong variety show was on, an endless parade of singers interspersed with comedy sketches that were broad, coarse. It was mindless entertainment, exactly what she needed, and she even had a laugh or two.
She downed the two cognacs quickly and was about to raid the mini-bar again when Eric Tsang, the chubby little actor from Infernal Affairs, came on the screen. He reminded her of Simon To. His hair had been dyed blond for the film and was now black again. She felt a tear on her cheek and wiped it away with a rough stroke of her hand.
( 17 )
Her father had returned to her dreams. They were alone, stuck in the middle of a city that neither of them recognized. They needed help — she wasn’t sure why — and he asked Ava to try to call someone on her cell. She tried and tried and kept failing, every time hitting a wrong key, missing a number, dialling the wrong area code, while her father became increasingly frustrated and angry with her.
She woke with a start, happy to get away from him. It was nearly six