on the car, speaking on the phone. He stood to attention when he saw them, putting the phone away. “I understand we’re making a stop?”
“Yes, at the Citadel Security Company. It’s in the new Hi-Tech Development Zone here in Zhuhai.”
“Maybe a ten-minute drive, not a problem.”
As they pulled away from the restaurant, May asked, “Why are we going there?”
Ava lowered her voice. “They built the gate at the house in Coloane. I have the specifications but I don’t understand them all that well. They tell me that a truck might be able to crash through. I need more details.”
“If any truck could, it would probably be the Volvo FH15, or better, the FH16,” May said.
Ava turned to her. “How do you know that?”
“We’ve been in the distribution business for twenty years, and distribution is all about trucks. We’ve owned thousands of them, and I did most of the buying and selling, so I had to know something. The Volvo FH16 is a relatively new model and it’s supposed to be the most powerful truck in the world. We own four of them. Seven hundred horsepower, tremendous torque, and it can carry an extremely heavy load. They are real brutes.”
“How much weight can it carry?”
“Thirty tonnes easily.”
“Su, the guy at Citadel, told me that I had to factor in power, weight, and speed. What speed could we generate with the Volvo?”
“What are the distances?”
“Well, from the highway there’s a side road. You can’t go much faster than about thirty kilometres an hour on it. It starts to straighten about a hundred metres from a clearing, and you could get the speed up to, say, forty or fifty. Once you hit the clearing you have a clear run of two hundred metres to the gate.”
“I would imagine the Volvo could get up to a hundred kilometres an hour, maybe even more.”
“Let me call Su,” Ava said, reaching into her bag for her phone.
“Mr. Su, I’m with our chairwoman,” Ava said. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to make the meeting, but we had one of our people look at your specifications and put together some theoretical situations. He seems to think that a Volvo FH16 truck, loaded with thirty tonnes and impacting the gate at a hundred kilometres an hour, would take it down. We’re curious as to your view.”
“Ms. Lee, a tank couldn’t cause more damage than a truck that size, carrying that weight, at that speed.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m familiar with the Volvo FH series, and yes, I’m sure.”
“Thank you. I’ll contact you as soon as we finalize our plans,” Ava said.
“Well?” May asked.
“Get one of those trucks to Macau.”
“Are you always this bossy?”
“Please.”
“I have to call Wuhan. I have no idea where they are right now.”
“And we’ll need a driver.”
“I have one in mind; his name is Song.”
Then Ava’s caution kicked in. “We need someone who knows how to keep his mouth shut,” she said. “And remember, there’s going to be a tremendous impact when the truck hits that gate. He has to be prepared to face that danger.”
“Song races sports cars, so collisions are nothing new for him. And he’s a nephew of Wife Number One, so I’m not worried about his mouth.”
“Okay.”
“Now let me call my logistics manager and see if we can track down a truck.”
“Ms. Lee, are we still going to Citadel?” the captain asked from the front seat.
Ava realized he’d been listening to their conversation. He must think we’re insane, she thought. “No, you can take us directly to the ferry terminal.”
They recrossed the border at the Gongbei Port of Entry, where the traffic lines were even longer than they had been at the Barrier Gate. The Lexus sped by, hardly stopping at the customs booth.
May was on the phone nearly the entire distance to the terminal, doing more listening and waiting than talking. Finally she said, “We’ll have to tag-team the truck. I don’t want Song getting here dead tired. Call me when they leave Wuhan, and make sure they check in with you or me if they have any problems at all.” She covered the mouthpiece and said to Ava, “Where do you want to meet the truck?”
“The Macau wharf is fine.”
May relayed the message.
“When will it arrive?” Ava asked.
“The truck is two hours from Wuhan. We have to pull it back into our yard, load it with thirty tonnes of whatever we have lying around, and then get it on the road. It’s a twelve-hundred-kilometre drive, so we’ll put two drivers on the