“No, I don’t have that kind of time. Besides, I don’t intend to suck up to her. I’ll meet her at the ferry terminal. You can call me when she gets in and confirm what time the helicopter will leave.”
He shrugged, and Ava could tell he wasn’t pleased with her remark about May Ling. “I’ll be polite enough when I see her,” she added.
“So now what are you going to do?”
“I hardly know where to start. I need to sit down and make some notes and get myself organized.”
“Then go and do that. May’s flight should be in at one. I will call from the airport and we will arrange to meet at the ferry terminal.”
“Uncle, I can’t thank you enough for all of this.”
He pressed the palms of his hands together and raised them, the tips of his fingers resting against his lips. His eyes searched her face. “I wish so much that none of it was necessary.”
“I don’t know what else can be done.”
“Ava, you do understand that Lok and Wu are not men who capitulate. Even if you surprise them, even if by chance you outnumber them, their initial reaction to any threat will be violent.”
“I have assumed that.”
“And Ava, if you are successful, and if you can do it without a bloodbath — have you given any thought about what you are going to do with the two of them?”
“No,” she said softly.
“It is something that needs consideration. These are not men who forget.”
( 18 )
It was rush hour and the Star Ferry was as crowded as an MTR train. She couldn’t find a seat and found herself wedged against an outside rail, barely able to turn her head to look at the skyline. Time was beginning to weigh on her, and she was annoyed that she hadn’t been more precise with Michael in pinning down what the four days he had negotiated actually meant. Was Lok counting from the day of the call? If he was, they were already into the third. Talking to Michael moved to the top of her must-do list.
Then there was the gate, and the truck. She’d have to talk to the guy at Citadel again, try to pry more information out of him. Then it occurred to her — he was in Zhuhai. She could go to see him.
When she got to her room, she went directly to the desk, opened her notebook, and began writing. As she did, she realized just how ill-formed her earlier thought process had been. Removing the cops from the scene made all the difference in the world. What it came down to was her ability to organize a plan properly, to control it, to take as many elements of luck out of it as she could.
She called Michael at the apartment. He sounded tired, depressed. Without offering explanation she said, “I need you to talk to Lok today. Wait until you get the photo, then call him and tell him you need to start making arrangements for exchanging the money for Simon. Ask him if he has a place in mind. He’ll try to tell you that he’ll release Simon once he has the funds. Tell him that won’t do. You want to make an actual physical exchange, and you insist that it happen in a public place.”
“Ava, you have the money?” he asked, brightening.
“We’ll talk about that later. Just concentrate on what I’m telling you now. I expect Lok will fudge it, say that he needs time to think about it, and that’s fine. What I really want to do is fix the day, the time. Today is Wednesday. For us the ideal situation would be to do it on Saturday afternoon. So tell him you want to do it Saturday and see if you can get him to buy in to that. If you can’t, then it has to be Friday. And Michael, it cannot — I repeat, cannot — be any sooner than Friday afternoon, because I don’t think I’ll have control of the money until then.”
“I think Friday is what we agreed to anyway,” he said.
“But get me one more day if you can.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Now, you don’t fix the location until you fix the day. I think the lobby of one of the new hotels would be perfect, so suggest the Four Seasons or the Venetian, someplace with good internal security.”
“All right. If he’s getting his blood money, he shouldn’t care.”