The Wild Beasts of Wuhan (2 page)

“The synagogue is there to the right,” the woman said. “It was built in 1692, and some additions were made in 1732.”

Henry and Bella walked tentatively towards the entrance, Ava trailing behind them. As they stepped inside, she heard them gasp. Ava peered over Bella’s shoulder and saw an almost perfect jewel box of a building. A straight line from the doorway led to a wooden pulpit at the opposite end; along either side of the aisle were rows of dark wooden benches. Just above, balconies ran down both sides, and four marble columns extended upwards to an arched ceiling from which hung three huge chandeliers.

They took several steps into the synagogue. As she entered, Ava noticed that Henry and Bella’s eyes were transfixed by the floor. She looked down and saw that it was covered entirely in thick white sand.

She watched as Bella and Henry pressed their feet into the sand. Then Bella began to cry. Henry put his arm around her shoulders and started to sob as well. Ava didn’t know why they were crying, but she felt their emotion all the same.

“The sand is the Sinai Desert,” Henry said. “They brought it here to remind them of Sinai.” He kneeled, picked up a handful, and pressed it to his lips.

“This isn’t common?” Ava asked softly.

“There’s maybe one other synagogue in the world with a floor like this,” he said.

Ava was about to follow Henry and Bella farther into the synagogue when her phone rang. She apologized and excused herself, stepping outside. “Ava Lee,” she answered.

“Ava, it is Uncle.”

Uncle was her partner and mentor; they had been in the debt collection business together for more than ten years. He was in his seventies, but he showed no signs of slowing down and still maintained a massive network of contacts that provided them with business and support. It was a common rumour that in his past life he had ties to the triads. Ava didn’t know for certain; she had only the deepest respect for the man she knew.

“Uncle,” she said, glancing at her watch. It was two a.m. in Hong Kong, and he was usually asleep well before that. “You’re up late.”

“Am I disturbing you?”

“I’m in Curaçao. I’m sightseeing.”

“Still on that cruise?”

“Yes.”

“Can you talk?”

“Sure.”

“Are you ready to come back to work?”

She took a deep breath. “That depends on what you have. I have no interest in chasing after some scumbag from General Santos City who cheated people with tuna sashimi that’s been gas-flushed twenty times.”

“So you are ready.”

“What do you have?”

“How soon can you get to Hong Kong?”

“Uncle, is it that important?” she asked, knowing already that it probably was.

“Wong Changxing.”

“The Emperor of Hubei?”

“He hates being called that. Even if it is said respectfully, he worries that it is offensive to the government and military officials whose support he needs.”

“I’m sorry. Do you know him from Wuhan?”

Uncle had been born in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. He had escaped the Communist regime and fled to Hong Kong when he was a young man, but he still maintained close ties there and had built a big enough reputation that his Wuhan roots were a source of pride to many people who lived there. “He knows me from Wuhan,” Uncle said.

“Ah.”

“He has a problem.”

“What is it?”

“I am not sure, but he sounded distressed.”

“Something personal?”

“Certainly pressing, if I read his manner correctly.”

“So it’s urgent?”

“He asked us to come to Wuhan to talk. He offered to pay our expenses and a fee of fifty thousand dollars for our time.”

“I’m still on the cruise for another week.”

“He said he needs to see us as soon as possible.”

“You mean, Uncle, that he needs to see you.”

“No, Ava. He was very specific that you come with me.”

“How does he know —”

“That does not matter. He does.”

“The cruise —”

“When he says as soon as possible, he does not mean a week from now.”

Ava paused. The idea of working for Wong Changxing intrigued her, and if her father hadn’t been on the cruise she wouldn’t have hesitated to leave for Hong Kong. But she couldn’t abandon him so easily. “I’ll have to talk to my father,” she said.

“He is a man who has always understood the demands of business,” Uncle said.

“Perhaps, but I still need to talk to him, and I can’t assume he’ll be that understanding. So let me call you back.”

“I will wait up.”

She called her father’s cellphone, which he answered on the first ring. She could hear kids shouting and water splashing in the background.

“Can you talk?” she asked.

“I’m at a dolphin sanctuary, or show, or something. Bruce paid several hundred dollars so that he, Marian, and the girls could swim with the dolphins. They’re in the water now. I’m supposed to be taking pictures.”

“Something has come up,” she said.

“Business?”

“Yes, I just got a call from Uncle. He wants me to go to Hong Kong right away.”

Her father had heard the rumours about Uncle’s past and was quietly disapproving about her association with him. “Is it that important?”

“Wong Changxing.”

“The Emperor of Hubei.”

“I’m told we shouldn’t refer to him as that.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that he’s the most powerful man in the province.”

“No matter, he’s asked us to go to Wuhan for a meeting. I asked if Uncle could go alone, and he said Wong specifically requested that I accompany him.”

“And you’re calling me to ask for permission.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do. This is your holiday, and if you think that my absence will cause any disruption I won’t go.”

“This holiday was the worst idea —”

“I’ve spoken to Marian about Bruce.”

“And I’ve spoken to your mother.”

“Two immovable forces.”

“Bruce is a bureaucrat, professionally and personally. Your mother is every bureaucrat’s nightmare. He wants a plan for everything and your mother can’t think past her next meal.”

“So do you need me? Do you want me to stay?”

“No, you go,” he said quickly. “I’ll try to spend as much time as I can with Marian and the girls and hope time flies.”

“I love you.”

“Me too. Be careful.”

Ava went inside the synagogue to say goodbye to Henry and Bella. They were sitting on one of the benches, their eyes closed. She left as quietly as she could and made her way back to the ship to look for Jennie Lee.

She found her mother in the casino, sitting at the baccarat table with a stack of twenty-five-dollar chips in front of her.

“I have to leave,” Ava said. “Uncle just called. We have a client in Wuhan who needs us.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Your father won’t be happy.”

“I spoke to him first and asked his permission. He told me to go.”

Her mother shook her head. “You can’t leave me alone with them.”

“Marian and the girls love you to death. And Daddy is still here.”

“You are the only one who understands me.”

You mean who tolerates you
, Ava thought. “That’s not true,” she said.

“Stay until we get back to Miami.”

“I can’t. It’s a crisis.”

Her mother stared at her. When Ava didn’t capitulate, she said, “I think Bruce may try to throw me into the sea somewhere between here and Miami.”

“He probably thinks the same of you.”

Her mother continued playing while she talked to Ava, her stack growing larger as she doubled her bet on the banker. When she won, she doubled her bet again, with success. “I suppose I can’t stop you from leaving, can I?”

“No.”

“Well, have a safe trip and call me whenever you can.”

“I need you to do something for me,” Ava said.

“What?”

“My clothes — I brought this ridiculous suitcase with me and I have all these clothes that I can’t wear anywhere else. Can you take them back to Toronto for me?”

“What will you wear?”

“I’ll take my running gear, some T-shirts, my toiletries, and some jewellery. I’ll throw everything in my carry-on. I can buy some business clothes when I get to Hong Kong. I need some new things anyway.”

Her mother sighed and passed her room key to Ava. “Leave your case in my room.”

Ava leaned over to kiss her mother on the forehead.

“Be careful,” Jennie said.

Ava went to her room and turned on her laptop. She found a flight that landed at eight a.m. in Hong Kong with a stop in Newark. She booked it and then called Uncle. He didn’t react when she told him she was coming, and she knew he had probably expected nothing less.

“There is an early Dragonair flight from Hong Kong to Wuhan,” he said.

“No, Uncle, I’m sorry. I have no business clothes with me and I need to shop. See if you can book something for later in the day.”

“Where do you want to shop?”

“There’s a Brooks Brothers store in Tsim Sha Tsui,” she said, knowing that his Kowloon apartment was no more than ten minutes from the popular shopping district and tourist destination.

“I will send Sonny to meet you at the airport. He will take you wherever you need to go. Wong will have to wait.” Uncle paused. “I hear that his wife is very attractive and a real power in their business. They should know that we have the whole package too.”

( 2 )

There was no Wi-Fi at Curaçao’s Hato airport but there was an Internet café, where Ava bought fifteen minutes of time. She emailed Mimi to let her know about her change in plans. The two women had been friends since meeting at Havergal College, a private girls’ high school in Toronto, and there wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other.

In recent months Ava had had some worries about their friendship. Mimi had fallen in love with Derek Liang, Ava’s best male friend and at times associate, when she needed the extra muscle. Like her, he practised bak mei, an ancient and lethal martial art that was taught strictly one on one. Their teacher, Grandmaster Tang, had introduced them to each other; they were his only two students in the discipline. Derek joked that the Grandmaster had dreamed they would one day produce a baby he could turn into the perfect fighting machine. Instead they had become friends, and occasionally employer and employee.

Ava had inadvertently brought Mimi and Derek together, not anticipating that the two would fall so hard for each other. Within days of meeting they had moved in together. As it turned out, Ava’s concerns about how their relationship would affect her friendship with Mimi had been unfounded. Mimi was as available and open as she had ever been. The only negatives were that Ava had to listen to Mimi’s graphic descriptions of their sex life, and so long as they were together, she didn’t feel she could ask Derek to work with her. Over the years they had confronted knives and guns and chains and even been outnumbered by three or four men. Now she didn’t see how she could put Derek at risk, knowing how devastated Mimi would be if anything happened to him.
I can’t
, she thought, and she closed her email by writing
and give Derek a big kiss for me.

Ava thought about phoning Maria but sent an email instead. For someone who was so beautiful and intelligent, there was something almost heartbreakingly simple about the girl. When they were together, Maria was unfailingly buoyant, but the second that Ava left her side she was overwhelmed by waves of self-doubt.

“You need to have more trust,” Ava told her.

“You don’t understand,” Maria said, her voice quivering. “I lived at home in Bogotá before I came here to Toronto. I have never been apart from my family, and my very Catholic family — especially my mother — would never have accepted my sexuality. So I led a life of secrets. I hid my true self. It’s only now, living in a city where I’m anonymous, that I’ve finally been able to be open.”

When Ava told this to Mimi, her friend said, “You need to give her more time. She’s still learning how to be in a relationship.”

“What scares me is her intensity. I’m not ready to commit to being a life partner.”

“Has she asked you to be one?”

“No.”

“Then enjoy her. Let things develop. There’s so much to love about that girl.”

Yes, there is
, Ava thought as she sat at her computer and wrote:

I have to go to Hong Kong and then China on business. I’ve been forced to cut short the cruise. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. I’ll email when I can. Don’t worry, everything is fine. Love, Ava.

She left the café and walked to the departures gate to catch her flight to Newark. As a rule, Ava avoided American airlines, but there was no way to get out of Curaçao that made sense other than flying on Continental. She thought business class might be passable. It was — barely.

The flight at least landed on time, and once she had cleared Customs she boarded a Qantas flight that would take her directly to Hong Kong. Business class was only a third occupied and Ava had no one sitting next to her. She declined dinner, drank three glasses of Pinot Grigio, and then slept for the next eight hours. When she awoke, she ate a bowl of noodles and then debated whether to go online to research Wong Changxing or watch a Gong Li film. She opted for Gong Li.

The airline was screening both
Raise the Red Lantern
and
To Live
. She watched
To Live
first, quietly weeping three or four times during the movie. It was a powerful film, set in China during the tumultuous decades of the Cultural Revolution, that followed a land-owning couple and their descent into poverty. Li was at its core, her life a continuing tragedy that she bore with courage and tenacity. Ava couldn’t help but think of Wuhan as she watched. It wasn’t that long ago that it had been at the epicentre of the Cultural Revolution and women like Gong Li were going through hell.

Ava had never seen a Chinese actress as good as Gong Li, and
Raise the Red Lantern
only confirmed her opinion. Set in the 1920s, the film told the story of a young woman who becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy Chinese man at the head of a powerful family. In Ava’s mind the story was timeless, and she never watched it without thinking about her mother. Her father didn’t house all his families in a compound, but not much else had changed in terms of the essential relationship between the man and the women.