The Mountain Master of Sha Tin, page 1
The Ava Lee Series
The Dragon Head of Hong Kong: The Ava Lee Prequel (e-book)
The Water Rat of Wanchai
The Disciple of Las Vegas
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan
The Red Pole of Macau
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya
The Two Sisters of Borneo
The King of Shanghai
The Princeling of Nanjing
The Couturier of Milan
The Imam of Tawi-Tawi
The Goddess of Yantai
The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung
Fate
Copyright © 2019 Ian Hamilton
Published in Canada in 2019 and the USA in 2019 by House of Anansi Press Inc.
www.houseofanansi.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Hamilton, Ian, 1946–, author
The mountain master of Sha Tin / Ian Hamilton.
(An Ava Lee novel: the triad years)
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4870-0203-9 (softcover).—ISBN 978-1-4870-0204-6 (EPUB).—ISBN 978-1-4870-0205-3 (Kindle)
I. Title.
PS8615.A4423M68 2019 C813'.6 C2018-905432-8 C2018-905433-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962110
Book design: Alysia Shewchuk
We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada.
To Brenda Bowlby and Rick Burgess for their years of friendship, and for lending their names to a law firm in Hong Kong.
( 1 )
Ava Lee looked out of the window of the first-class cabin as the China Eastern Airways jet began its descent into Shanghai. It was a city she normally loved to visit, but on this occasion she was filled with apprehension.
“Are you okay?” a woman’s voice asked.
Ava turned towards Pang Fai, her friend and lover. “I’m worried about Xu. If he has bacterial meningitis, we have to hope they caught it in time.”
Fai squeezed her hand. “At least he’s in a hospital now, and I’m sure he’s receiving the best of treatment. You’ll see him soon enough and then you can relax.”
Xu was Ava’s closest male friend. He was also, significantly, the head of the triads in Shanghai, chairman of the Triad Society in Asia, and a silent partner in the investment business that Ava co-owned with May Ling Wong and Amanda Yee.
“I keep telling myself the same thing, but as soon as I manage to convince myself that he’s going to recover, my mind jumps to Lop getting shot in Hong Kong, and the mess that might create,” Ava said. Lop was one of Xu’s key lieutenants, and he had been shot the day before.
“You told me that Hong Kong isn’t your problem,” said Fai.
“I think I said I don’t want it to be my problem, but if Xu is incapacitated that could create a situation I might not be able to stay away from.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated,” Ava said, and then realized immediately that she might have sounded condescending. Fai had known Xu before meeting Ava, and she was well aware of his triad links. Ava, though, had never spoken to her in any detail about the dangers she and Xu had confronted together. What the hell, she thought. Fai has handled everything well up to now and she deserves an explanation. “By that I mean I played a role in Xu’s takeover of the Wanchai triads. I am at least partially responsible for deposing — in fact, if not officially — Sammy Wing as Mountain Master, and for the appointment of Lop as the de facto boss. So, whether I like it or not, I have ties to Wanchai that some people will not forget.”
“What will happen if Xu’s health improves?”
“He could still find it difficult to deal with a problem that’s more than twelve hundred kilometres from his hospital bed in Shanghai, and I can guarantee that the last thing he’ll want anyone to know is that he’s unwell. Rivals would be quick to pounce — and with triad gang leaders, everyone is a potential rival.”
“What if he’s well enough to travel?”
“That’s very optimistic. But if he can travel, he’s the best person to restore equilibrium in Hong Kong. Although there would still be the question of what to do about Sammy Wing, and the fact that Lop has been shot can’t be ignored. If Lop dies, it will be almost impossible for Xu to turn the other cheek without appearing weak,” Ava said.
“Who is this Sammy Wing?”
“He’s a lifelong triad who is in his seventies or eighties. He ran the Wanchai triad gang for years. I first encountered him about five or six years ago, when he accepted a hit contract on me from a conman I’d pissed off — ”
“A hit contract?”
“Yes, Sammy was hired to kill me. Not personally, of course. He sent a couple of his men to do the dirty work. Later, through Uncle’s intervention, he cancelled the contract, but not until his men had tried to do me in,” Ava said. “Then, about a year ago, trouble flared up again when Wing took exception to Xu’s growing influence within the triad hierarchy. He decided to kill Xu and I was caught in the crossfire. Obviously he wasn’t successful. In the aftermath, Xu took control of Wanchai and put Lop in charge. There are people who think Xu made a mistake when he kept on Wing as a figurehead; they think he should have killed him. If Lop’s shooting is connected to Sammy, it will look like they were right and Xu was wrong.”
“Do you think there is a connection?”
“There are rumours that Sammy’s nephew, Carter Wing, who has just taken over the Sha Tin gang in the New Territories, wants to help his uncle reclaim his turf,” Ava said. “If that’s true, a lot of blood could be spilled.”
Ava saw Fai flinch and decided she’d said enough — maybe even too much. She turned towards the window again. Their flight had originated in Beijing and was going to land at Hongqiao Airport rather than at Pudong International, with which Ava was more familiar. “We’ll be on the ground in about ten minutes. I think I’ve been to Hongqiao only once before.”
“Pudong is on the eastern edge of Shanghai and Hongqiao is in the western part. It’s only ten kilometres from the centre of the city,” Fai said, sounding relieved by the change of subject.
“Suen will be waiting for us with a car. The plan is to go directly to the hospital to see Xu,” Ava said. “You’ve met Suen before, right?”
“I don’t know if met is the right word. I’ve seen him, of course, but he was always lurking in the background; he’s so large he’s impossible to miss. I thought he was just a bodyguard until Tsai told me he has another role — although I don’t remember exactly what that is.”
“He is Xu’s Red Pole, which means he’s the gang’s enforcer and runs all the muscle on the ground. In an ideal world, his job is more preventive than proactive.”
“And in this case?”
“I won’t know until I talk to Xu.”
Fai looked awkwardly at Ava. “It’s going to be uncomfortable for me to meet some of these people. They’ve only seen me with Tsai, when I was basically his paid mistress. It might be difficult for someone like Suen to understand why I did that, and how I finally came to terms with my sexuality only at this point in my life.”
Ava shook her head. Pang Fai, although perhaps China’s greatest film actress, wasn’t well paid by Western standards and was not financially self-sufficient. In the past she had augmented her income by dating and sometimes sleeping with wealthy men. Tsai Men, the son of the governor of Jiangsu province, had been one of those men, and Ava had first met Fai at a dinner with Tsai and Xu.
“Fai, pay no attention to what others think or say — although I can’t imagine that anyone associated with me or Xu would ever be disrespectful. All that matters is that you’re happy and at peace with yourself.”
“Which I am . . . but I still need reminding now and then that it’s okay for me to feel that way,” said Fai. Ava and Fai had been a couple for more than eight months, but because of Ava’s business demands and Fai’s film commitments, they had spent only about two months of that time together. The reason they were flying from Beijing to Shanghai was that they had spent the previous week in the Chinese capital dealing with a problem Fai was having with the China Film Syndicate. Their intention had been, after those issues were resolved, for Ava to travel with Fai to Yantai to meet her parents. Xu’s illness had changed those plans, and now the troubles in Hong Kong were threatening to change them again.
The plane’s descent quickened and the pilot announced they were making their final approach to Hongqiao. Ava closed her eyes and said a short prayer to Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. She had given up most of her Roman Catholic faith in reaction to the Church’s position on homosexuality, but she still turned to Saint Jude whenever she felt that events in her life were spinning out of control. She didn’t know what she would find when she landed in Shanghai, so her prayer simply asked for things to be as normal as possible.
* * *
Hongqiao, like most of the newer airports in Asia, was built for efficiency. Within fifteen min
“Ava,” a man’s voice called out.
Ava looked to her right and saw Suen. Even amidst the throng he was impossible to miss. At six foot four and with 240 pounds of muscle accentuated by a tight-fitting polo shirt, he was an imposing figure. Ava and Fai walked towards him.
He reached for their bags. “I’m very happy to see you,” he said.
“Do you remember Fai?” Ava asked.
“Sure,” he said, nodding at her. “Good to see you too.”
“How’s Xu?” Ava asked. “Have they settled on a diagnosis?”
“They’re now quite certain that it’s bacterial meningitis,” Suen said.
“I was hoping it would be something else,” Ava said.
“Don’t panic. They’ve shot him full of antibiotics and the doctor told me he’s sure they caught the disease in time.”
“Is Xu alert? Is he responsive?”
“Sometimes he’s lucid and sometimes his mind wanders off and he starts talking nonsense. And he’s still physically weak.”
“Have you told Auntie Grace about the diagnosis?” Ava asked, referring to Xu’s lifelong housekeeper.
“I thought I’d leave that to you. She’ll trust whatever you tell her. With me she always has a hundred questions that I can’t answer,” Suen said. “I assume you’ll be staying with her?”
“We will.”
“And I assume you want to see Xu first?”
“Of course.”
“We’d better get going. It is already quarter to eight and visiting hours end at nine. He’s in the Shanghai East International Medical Centre in Pudong, which is a thirty-minute drive from here. Wen is waiting with the car.”
Ava and Fai followed in Suen’s wake as he barrelled through the crowd. When he reached the arrival hall’s exit doors, he stopped and stood to one side to let Ava and Fai pass. When Ava stepped out onto the sidewalk, she saw Wen directly in front of her, standing next to Xu’s silver S-Class Mercedes Benz.
Wen bowed his head when he saw her. “Xiao lao ban,” he said.
Ava smiled. Wen had been the first person to call her “little boss” to her face, although he had been quick to add that most of Xu’s men — and even Xu himself — often referred to her that way when she wasn’t around.
“Good to see you, Wen, though I wish the circumstances were better,” she said.
“The boss will be okay,” he said with determination.
Wen was a small, wiry man, but his size was no indication of his grit. Ava had seen his bravery first-hand the year before, when a special unit attached to the People’s Armed Police had come to Xu’s house — where she was alone with Auntie Grace — to arrest her. Wen had organized the resistance and had been prepared to exchange fire with the police. It hadn’t come to that, but Ava didn’t doubt for a second that Wen was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her.
“Yes, I’m sure he will be okay,” Ava said.
As Wen put their bags into the trunk of the car, Ava and Fai slid onto the back seat and Suen sat in the front passenger seat. “You haven’t mentioned Lop,” she said. “How is he?”
Suen turned to face her. “He’s still alive.”
“And what’s happening in Hong Kong?”
“The last I heard, it was quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Except for Lop getting shot.”
“I’m hoping that was an aberration, a mistake of some sort.”
“Do you really believe that?” she asked.
“No. I said I hope that’s the case, not that I believe it.”
“Does Xu know about Lop?”
“Not yet. Telling him now didn’t seem to be the right thing, given his condition.”
Ava shook her head. “He needs to know. Not telling him is usurping his authority. I know your intentions are good, but they could be misconstrued later.”
“If we do tell him, it might also be better coming from you,” Suen said. “You’re the one he told about his concerns there, and it’s your man Sonny who’s been poking around.”
“Speaking of Sonny, have you heard from him?”
“He called me a couple of hours ago. He wanted you to call him when you landed,” Suen said. “I’m sorry, I should have told you earlier.”
“No need to apologize. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate,” Ava said, reaching for her phone to call Sonny in Hong Kong.
Sonny was Sonny Kwok, a man as large as Suen and probably more vicious. He had been a member of Uncle’s triad gang in Fanling before becoming his fanatically loyal bodyguard and driver. When Uncle became ill and knew he was going to die, he had asked Ava to employ Sonny, saying, “A Sonny with nothing to do and no ties will eventually get into trouble, and it is the kind of trouble that you cannot begin to imagine.” So Ava had hired him. The fact that she lived in Toronto and Sonny wouldn’t fit in anywhere but Hong Kong was a challenge, but they agreed that whenever she was in Asia, she had first call on his services. The rest of the time Sonny drove for Ava’s father, Marcus, her half-brother Michael, and Amanda Yee, who in addition to being Ava’s business partner was married to Michael. They all lived in Hong Kong, and the arrangement had worked well so far. Ava knew that Sonny was as loyal to her as he had ever been to Uncle.
“Wei,” he answered.
“It’s Ava.”
“How is Xu?” he asked immediately.
“I’ll know soon; I’m on my way to the hospital now. Suen tells me Xu has bacterial meningitis, but it’s treatable. I’ll call you after I see him,” Ava said. “How are things on your end? How is Lop? Any noise from Sammy Wing?”
“Lop is at Dr. Lui’s clinic in Kowloon. Lui thinks he should be moved to a regular hospital, but I talked it over with Ko, Lop’s right-hand man, and we decided to leave him where he is. If he’s moved to a hospital the cops will get involved, and there’ll be a lot of questions that no one wants to answer.”
“But if Lop’s life is at risk . . . ”
“Lui is a good doctor and he has all the equipment you’d find at most hospitals,” Sonny said. “He’s just nervous about having someone like Lop at the clinic.”
“Then why did he agree to take him in?”
“He didn’t, really. We showed up on his doorstep with Lop in tow. He couldn’t turn us away.”
“Lui is your girlfriend’s brother, right?”
“Old girlfriend’s brother. That might also be why he’s reluctant to help.”
“So you think Lop is going to live?”
Sonny paused. “I don’t know. He caught three bullets — one in his gut and two in the chest. Lui got them out, but Lop lost a lot of blood, and Liu isn’t sure how much damage was done internally.”
“Lop is incredibly fit.”
“Bullets do their damage whether you’re fit or not.”
“How about Ko? Is he strong enough to take over, even temporarily?”
“He’s a good number two, but that’s what he is — a number two. I can’t see him running a gang on his own. Besides, he’s a Shanghai man, and that’s not the best of references around here right now.”
“Shit,” Ava said.
“The good news is that nothing else has happened since Lop was shot,” Sonny said. “If Sammy and Carter were going to make a play for Wanchai, they would have followed up more aggressively.”
“Maybe they’re waiting to see how Xu reacts. The last time Sammy tried to take him on, Sammy and his gang were taken apart in less than twenty-four hours.”
“But that was with Lop in charge of the troops on the ground.”
“Even so, the Wings have reason to be cautious.”
“The other reason might be that the shooting doesn’t have anything to do with Wanchai. Maybe someone just has a hate-on for Lop.”
“Do you believe that?” Ava asked.
“Not really. I trust Andy’s judgement. If he heard that Sammy and Carter’s Sha Tin gang are going to make a play to take back Wanchai, then I believe it,” Sonny said. Andy was an old triad colleague of Sonny and Ava’s who was loosely connected to the Sha Tin gang.
