is really beautiful. Who would have thought this existed here,” May said when Ava reached southern Coloane and started the drive along the coastline, the sea shimmering to their right, the peak and the head of A-Ma looming on the left.
Ava drove past the turnoff to the house and stopped on the shoulder. She pointed back. “That’s the road we’re going to take,” she said. “It’s curvy for the first bit, but the last hundred metres are relatively straight. When we get to the end, you’ll see the house and the gate. The problem is, there’s two hundred metres of open space between the end of the road and the gate, so we can’t hang around too long. When we’re finished, we’ll climb the peak to visit A-Ma. From the top you can get another view.”
While Ava was speaking, May was looking around. “There seems to be all kinds of room to park a car and not attract attention. I mean, we could be here to watch the sun come up over the sea.”
“Seems to be,” Ava said.
She did a U-turn and drove down the side road. Both men in the back leaned forward. The route was more winding and narrow than she remembered. Maybe it’s the difference between driving a Toyota and an SUV, she thought. She couldn’t go more than thirty kilometres an hour, and she realized that the truck would have to drive even more slowly. When the road straightened to the right, she eased the car up to fifty but then had to brake when they neared the opening.
“I’m going to creep forward,” she said.
“Why don’t we get out and walk to the end,” May said. “We can hide behind those trees. No one should see us.”
“Great idea,” Ava said.
The four of them moved forward, hugging the treeline to the right. From their vantage point they could see three-quarters of the gate, its left side blanketed by the wall. They stood there for several minutes. Then Song said, “If I come down this road at any speed and then take the fastest direct run at the gate, I’m not going to be able to hit it dead-on. I’ll hit it at an angle, on the right side there, and there’s a chance the truck — the back end of it, anyway — will smash into the wall. Remember, this isn’t a family car that I can turn and spin any way I want. Once the truck is up to speed I don’t have much control.”
“You would still take down the gate, right?”
“I think so, but Madam Wong said the plan was for you to follow me in your cars.”
“Yes.”
“My fear is that the back end will hit the wall, and if it does, the truck could block the way into the house. You might not be able to drive through. Look,” he said, picking up a stick. In the sand he drew an outline of the wall and the gate and then dragged the stick to the point of impact. “See, if I hit it there, the right side of the truck hits the wall. When it does, it will bounce left, like that.”
Ava looked at his crude drawing. It made sense, and a feeling of apprehension crept into her belly as she tried to figure out the consequences.
“Song is right,” Geng said, looking at May. “The truck would hit the wall and end up wedged in the gate. You would probably have to leave it there, and that is a very expensive vehicle.”
“I don’t care about losing a truck,” May snapped. “All we care about right now is the gate.”
“Are you sure it would be wedged in?” Ava asked.
“It could jackknife, roll over, anything. I can’t be sure exactly how it would react, except that it probably wouldn’t be something you would want,” Song said.
“What would you suggest we do?”
“The best thing is for me to hit the gate flush in the middle, head-on.”
“How would you do that?”
He drew another line in the sand. “I would have to take a hard right from here and then manoeuvre my truck around until it was facing the gate.”
“How long would that take?”
“A couple of minutes.”
“But then you’re running at it from a standing start. What kind of speed can you generate?”
“I don’t know for sure.”
“Then you need to guess.”
“Sixty kilometres an hour, maybe a bit more.”
“Is that fast enough to take the gate down cleanly?”
Song hesitated and looked at his driving partner. Geng nodded. “We think so,”