A Woman of Courage (33 page)

‘Dress?'

‘Smartest one you have.'

2

Sara chose a red and blue qipao dress from Shanghai Tang, one with short sleeves. Before they left the hotel Martha had looked at it approvingly.

‘Good choice. You look very elegant.'

‘Chrysanthemums for luck, right?'

‘Right.'

When they arrived they got out of the taxi and Sara looked around her. The Kee Club was situated over the Yung Kee restaurant and from the outside didn't look like much.

‘Very discreet,' Martha said.

Inside was a different story: a lounge and bar with private rooms leading off and a dramatic gilt staircase leading to a restaurant on the upper level. Martha spoke to a tuxedo-clad man, very tall and thin, who sneered down his nose at them as though he suspected they had come to the wrong address.

‘This private club,' he said. ‘Members only.'

Martha was having none of that. ‘Mr Boon Kim-Chwee,' she said in English, and followed it up with a volley of Cantonese as hot as fire.

The flunky wilted, his expression changing at once. He led them deferentially across the lounge to the door into what Martha said was called the Red Salon.

‘Please be seated,' he said abjectly. ‘I shall inform Mr Boon you are here. A drink while you are waiting, perhaps?'

‘Champagne!' Martha said. ‘And make sure it is imported. None of your local muck!'

‘Of course.'

The man fled. Sara stared at this woman who without warning had transmogrified into the late and unlamented Madam Mao of terrible memory.

‘What did you say to him?'

Martha smiled contentedly. ‘I said: “Turtle dung ferret, you dare address your betters in this way? Learn humility or I shall report you to Mr Boon.”'

‘It certainly worked. And who is Mr Boon?'

‘Alias for Mr Wong Chee-Weng. Famous men, powerful men, often use other names to conceal their true identity.'

‘But that waiter knew who he was.'

‘Of course he knows,' Martha said. ‘Everyone knows. They must. Otherwise how can anyone know how important he is?'

Sara did not try to work out the logic of that. ‘When do you think he'll turn up?'

‘He's here already, I think. Maybe watching us right now. But important men always arrive late. They like to keep others waiting.'

‘To show how important they are,' Sara said.

Martha beamed. ‘Now you're beginning to think like a Chinese woman!'

The champagne arrived and they sipped it.

‘Very good,' Martha said.

The door opened silently. Almost before they were aware of it Mr Wong had joined them. He was not alone; two other men came with him but there was no mistaking who was in charge.

Wong Chee-Weng was a big man, stout, but his flesh was hard. He was smiling but looked formidable and Sara thought he would grin a lot and they would never know his thoughts.

Mr Wong gave both women a genial smile, sat down and spoke to one of his aides. The man nodded and left the room. Wong turned his attention back to the two women.

‘We shall eat,' he said in good English. ‘You enjoy Chinese cooking?' he said to Sara.

‘Very much.'

‘Good, good. My wife is excellent cook. Could have been professional chef.' He laughed and patted his belly. ‘As you can see.'

Who had chosen the menu Sara never discovered but the food was indeed excellent: sweet almond soup, abalone with fresh salmon, crabmeat with egg white, Cantonese roasted duck, hor fun with oxtail… The dishes seemed endless, as did the enthusiasm of the diners. But even the best of things had to end and eventually Mr Wong put down his chopsticks, selected a toothpick and sat back in his chair.

‘Lennox Brothers,' he said.

He was looking at Sara, so she was the one who answered him. She was aware of Martha watching her; she felt like a schoolgirl facing her first public test.

‘We feel humiliated by the Lennox brothers,' she said. ‘We allowed them to cheat us. It was a serious error and we wish to express our regret at our foolishness in this matter.'

Mr Wong, hand cupping his mouth, was busy with his toothpick. Eventually he removed both hand and toothpick. ‘There is no profit in discussing the past. Especially as I understand you have severed your connection with these men.'

‘Absolutely,' Sara said. ‘As soon as we found out about it we took action.'

‘Forceful action is good when dealing with such men. Valiant in defence of right: that is old Chinese saying.'

‘And a very wise one,' Sara said.

‘Yet I have read nothing about this regrettable affair in the newspapers.'

Sara said carefully: ‘It is our belief that publicity would be in no one's interests.'

Wong nodded. ‘Good, good. Tell me, Ms Brand, why does your corporation wish to invest in China? To teach us how to improve, heya? To learn from you?'

His expression was bland, his smile unchanged, but Sara sensed that her reply would prove crucial to what clearly had the potential to be an important relationship.

‘I would not presume to think along those lines,' she said. ‘This is my first visit to China and I am here to learn, not instruct. Both the Brand Corporation and I personally are looking for your guidance, Mr Wong, if you would be gracious enough to advise us.'

‘You have the authority to speak for the Brand Corporation?'

‘In this I do.'

He looked at her for several seconds. ‘Why do you wish for this advice? Why should you care?'

‘Because anyone with eyes to see knows that China is a coming force in the world. We inherited the Lennox contract from Channel 12's previous owners. The way things worked out it has cost us a lot of money. We do not complain – that is always a risk in business – but of course we regretted it.' Her eyes met his eyes, dark, unreadable. ‘I do not regret it now.'

‘Why is that?'

‘Because it has given me the opportunity to begin to learn what I can about China. It is only a beginning, of course – it would take a dozen lifetimes to know even a fraction of what there is to know – but to begin is important. Was it not Lao Tzu who said the journey of a thousand
li
starts from where one stands? In that sense I am a pilgrim. And who better to instruct me than a man from China?'

If Wong was surprised by her words he did not show it. His response was sharp. ‘You hope to learn in order to profit from us?'

Now it was Sara's turn to smile. ‘Knowledge is its own reward, Mr Wong. But I like to believe we would all profit from such a relationship.'

Wong looked at her impassively then nodded several times and stood up. ‘Thank you, Ms Brand. A most interesting discussion. I trust you enjoyed the poor food.'

‘The food was excellent, Mr Wong.' She risked another smile, as among friends. ‘Or should I call you Mr Boon?'

His laugh was like a bark. ‘You will excuse me now. Pressure of business, you understand.'

‘Of course.'

For the first time he turned and spoke to Martha in Chinese, then jerked his head at his two aides who followed him out of the salon.

Sara and Martha looked at each other.

‘Did I upset him in some way?' Sara said. ‘He said nothing about the future.'

‘It went extremely well. You handled it just right. Wong Chee-Weng was pleased.'

‘He spoke only to me.'

‘Of course. I expected nothing else. You're Hilary Brand's daughter. One day you'll be running the company.'

‘Maybe.'

‘That is what he expects. What we all expect. Therefore he needed to learn your thinking, just as you needed to learn his.'

‘About what?'

‘About China. About everything.'

‘Then why did he say nothing about the future?'

‘That will come.' She shrugged. ‘Or not. It will not be his decision. He will report to Beijing and Beijing will decide. But I believe the signs are positive.'

‘He said something to you at the end, as he was leaving. What was it?'

‘He thanked me for bringing you to meet him. And to say we need concern ourselves no more about the Lennox brothers.'

‘Why? Have they left Hong Kong?'

Martha smiled. ‘Better not to ask. But if Mr Wong says we need not concern ourselves with the Lennoxes we may be sure he is right. Now we should return to the hotel. I shall tell that waiter to summon a taxi.'

On the way back to the hotel Martha said: ‘How did you know the Lao Tzu quotation?'

‘In television you learn to prepare yourself for the person you are interviewing. I thought it might be useful. But he did not seem to notice.'

‘He noticed. He was very impressed.'

‘How do you know?'

‘I know. I think everything went very well.'

‘But what do we do now? About Mr Wong, I mean?'

‘We wait.'

3

They didn't have to wait long. Two days later Sara had a phone call from one of Wong's aides to say that he would like to meet with her and her mother as early as was convenient to discuss matters of mutual interest.

‘He wants to speak to Hilary?'

‘Of course,' Martha said. ‘She is the CEO of Brand. Why should he not wish to speak to her? What I find interesting is that he wishes to include you in the talks also. You must have impressed him very much.'

‘And Hilary will certainly want you there as well,' Sara said.

‘The Three Musketeers,' Martha said.

When Martha Tan was in her daughter-of-China mode it was easy to forget how familiar she was with western culture but Singapore had been a British colony for over a century after all.

‘You're not wrong,' Sara said.

She phoned Hilary.

‘Have you sorted out that problem yet?' Straight-to-the-point Hilary.

‘Yes. We have it on good authority we shall have no more problems there.'

‘And the money?'

‘We have recovered some. Not all.'

‘Only to be expected, I suppose. Worth suing them?'

‘That might prove difficult.'

A pause. The line cracked faintly.

‘I see. Anything else?'

‘Yes. Something important. I'm flying down tonight. I'll tell you when I see you.'

‘Getting on with Martha OK?'

‘Very well.'

‘Good. I'll speak to you when you get here. Martha's familiar with the procedure when you arrive. Leave it to her. I'll arrange for the chopper to be on stand-by.'

‘Any thoughts about Andrea Chan?' Sara said.

‘I'll tell you when I see you.'

And rang off. Straight-to-the-point Hilary indeed. Well, at least you knew where you were with her.

‘We're going back tonight?' Martha said. ‘I'll tell the desk.'

I wonder what happened to the Lennoxes, Sara thought. They had certainly made enemies. Not only had they stolen from Brand; they had made problems for Mr Wong and China. And she suspected Mr Wong was not a forgiving man.

I guess we'll never know what happened, she thought, and resolved she would do everything possible to put them out of her mind. As Martha Tan had said, sometimes it was better not to know.

4

They flew down overnight, slept on the plane and showered and refreshed were in the office first thing. Or at least Sara, still used to television hours, thought of it as first thing but, as Martha had warned her, she found Hilary had been at her desk a full hour before the Airbus put down at Kingsford Smith.

And this could be my future? Sara thought. If I play my cards right and there are no hiccups and all the other mixed metaphors I can think of, I too could be arriving at the office at seven o'clock every morning? I must be out of my cotton-picking mind. To use another well-polished phrase.

Sara and Martha saw Hilary together, with both Vivienne Archer and Desmond Bragg sitting in. Coming down on the plane the two women had discussed how they should go about reporting what had happened. Martha had been nominally in charge when they went to Hong Kong and Sara therefore wanted Martha to report on what had been her mission, but Martha wouldn't have a bar of it.

‘Wong Chee-Weng spoke to you, not me. Like it or not, he obviously thinks of you as Hilary's successor and so you are. He wishes to see you with Hilary because he sees you as the future and Chinese people think long term.'

‘Even when they come from Singapore?'

Martha smiled. ‘Even then. Continuity and future very important in Chinese thought. They think westerners are mistaken in focusing too much on short term and not enough on long.'

‘You think he sees me as the long-term future of the company?'

‘Of course. And he is right.'

So it was the spokesman for the long term who told the meeting what had happened.

‘The Lennox boys,' Desmond Bragg said. ‘You say this Wong guy said we don't have to worry about them any more? Why should he say that?'

‘In my opinion they are probably dead. No proof but that is what I believe.'

‘You're saying he may have had them killed? Jesus! Hard ball, eh?'

‘You'd better believe it,' Sara said.

‘Which raises a question,' Vivienne Archer said. ‘Do we want to get into bed with men we think may be murderers?'

Sara thought Hilary would reply but she did not. She watched Sara and waited for her to answer. Go for it, she thought.

‘I think we should, yes. First of all, my suspicions are no more than that. We have no evidence. Also we have no plans to do what the Lennoxes did. We shall keep faith with them and I am quite sure they will then keep faith with us.'

‘You hope,' Vivienne said.

‘And believe,' Sara said.

Hilary intervened for the first time. ‘Martha, your view?'

‘I think Sara is right.'

Vivienne was still troubled. ‘But what do they want? Or what offer are they planning to make us?'