bottles of water and soft drinks. “This is May,” she said to the men. “She’s working with us on this.”
May was standing against a wall. One by one, they got up and bowed. While they did, Ava took the enlarged floor plan and the map of Coloane and taped them to a wall.
When they were seated again, Ava pointed to the map. “This is where we’re going.” Then she pointed to the floor plan. “This is the house. We enter it at dawn tomorrow, that’s six fifteen. There are no neighbours and we don’t expect any police response. It’s just us, the house, and the guys in the house.
“I want to make one thing very clear before getting into detail. Our sole purpose is to rescue a guy, Simon To, they’re holding for ransom. Here is his picture. Please pass it along,” she said, giving it to Carlo. “Now, we aren’t at war with Kao Lok and his men. If we can get Simon without a single shot being fired, that’s perfect, so I don’t want anyone taking it upon themselves to turn this into something else, something unnecessary. Now obviously, if they fire on us we’re going to defend ourselves, and you should all know that I don’t do that in half measures and wouldn’t expect any less from you. So no shooting unless we have to, but if we have to, make it count.”
She took out her notebook and turned to the pages she had worked on the night before. “Now let me get into specifics.”
She spoke for more than an hour, giving them every detail, every possible negative scenario and how they were to react to it. The first time she had briefed Carlo and Andy on a job they had tried to wave her off, saying they didn’t need to know everything, just to give them the basics. She had refused. The details, in her mind, showed that planning had been done, that thought had been brought to the process, and she felt that should impart confidence. She wanted confident men. And the wrinkles were just as important. Things would not go smoothly, she told them — they never did. And then she went over what could go wrong, to the extreme perhaps, and then addressed each possibility specifically, making it clear what the appropriate reaction was. “I don’t want you guessing,” she said. “If A happens, do B; if B happens, jump to C. Don’t waste time thinking, just do.”
When she was finished, she told them to go outside for a smoke break. “I’m sure you must have questions. When you come back, we’ll try to answer them,” she said.
Sonny stayed behind. “What do you think?” Ava asked.
“A good plan.”
“You have any worries?”
“The mezzanine.”
“I know, I actually had dreams about that last night.”
“If Wu and Lok are up there when we come through the door, it isn’t going to be any fun.”
Ava sat across from him. “I know. The thing is, I think Wu is right-handed, and that’s the arm I broke. If he wants to shoot, he’ll have to use his left hand, and that’s not an easy adjustment. As for Lok, he doesn’t seem the type to even carry a gun, although that doesn’t mean he won’t have one. In any event, I know we can’t just waltz in there. I think when we go through the door, we should head right up the stairs. Lok’s room is on the far right, and I’m going to cut hard in that direction. You need to focus on Wu’s room.”
“How about you?” Sonny said. “What else worries you?”
Ava was about to say “everything” and then caught herself. Sonny deserved more than a glib answer. “The more I think about it, the more I analyze it, the more concerned I get about the left wing. On the surface it seems like the easiest part of it. I mean, if the men who are housed there react as slowly as I’ve been told they have in the past, then we should be able to neutralize them without any bloodshed.
“But it’s all a matter of timing. If we’re fast enough getting through the gate and through the door, and if we’re lucky enough that they don’t hear anything until we’re actually at the door, then we should be able to seal off the wing without too much trouble. What scares me is that they might hear the gate crash, or the gate is hooked up to the alarm