Fishing for Stars (20 page)

I realised that they thought Anna was Chinese, which would have added greatly to their chagrin. Except for the Koreans, no people are less worthy in the eyes of the Japanese, who had committed bestial atrocities against helpless victims in the wars in China and Manchuria, among other things using Chinese civilians for live bayonet practice. We were to be punished for not only ruining their plans for an all-male night out at company expense, including a visit to a love hotel with a bar hostess, but also for the supreme insult of bringing a Chinese woman into the premises to negotiate with them. I guess it was three strikes and you’re out; a woman, a Chinese and an all-male banquet denied.

‘What if he knows his ships and isn’t fooled?’
Bando-san
cautioned. ‘Didn’t his letter of introduction say he owned a small fleet?’

Fukuoka-san
was unimpressed. ‘
Pfft!
This
gaijin
who brings a woman with him to buy a ship can’t know much about ships or men. Take my word for it. He is an
o−baka
[a big idiot]. Besides, all eight vessels have had a lick of paint to cover the rust. There is a broker who wants six of them for an African buyer, a Nigerian, who can’t afford more, that’s why they’re not included in the brochure. He has offered sixty thousand US dollars each, a fair price. That leaves two of the eight leaky tubs.’

‘We don’t want to be too greedy, sir. The Africans want those six for short trips to load the bigger ships lying out to sea off Lagos. All the other prospective buyers have rejected them because of their limited fuel capacity – their cruising range is too short.’

‘This
baka
[fool]
,
who brings with him this
hafu
[this half-breed], won’t know that.’ He turned to Mr Bando, the translator. ‘Tell the
gaijin
that
unfortunately we have only two ships available, but even they are in demand. We are only talking to him because he has come a long way from Australia, and out of courtesy for our representative in Sydney. Tell him we regret, but he must take it or leave it. The two ships we hope will prove to be ideal for his purposes, but he will need to make up his mind in twenty-four hours and the cost is one hundred thousand US dollars each.’

Bando-san
looked momentarily doubtful, realising that
Fukuoka-san
had added a premium of eighty thousand US dollars for the two freighters. As Anna was sitting beside me I couldn’t see her face, which I knew would be perfectly composed while inwardly she’d be a raging inferno. But then Anna always looked coolest when she was fired up. I’d have to tread carefully. Anna had insisted on being thoroughly briefed on every specification. It was her way. No matter how small the business transaction, she did her homework so that she wouldn’t be caught out on some small neglected detail. On the plane, despite my insisting that I knew ships and how to buy one, she’d laughed, glancing at me with her blue eyes wide. ‘Nicholas, I couldn’t sit in a meeting and not understand every aspect of the negotiations. I
must
know, I must be able to think, to plan the next move. Knowledge is power!’

‘But, Anna, I will do all the negotiations,’ I insisted.

‘Yes, of course! But, Nicholas, you said they would take at least three days – our first meeting with them, our visit to the harbour to inspect the freighter the following day, then back for the final negotiations. We will need to discuss things each day when we get back to the hotel. If I don’t understand
everything
, then how can I be useful?’ she said appealingly, then added, ‘We have never done business together. I must not let you down, darling. My client told me about these two ships and the possibility of buying them in good condition for less than a new one would cost. I could never forgive myself if something went wrong. You must brief me, please.’

Now, seated in this ridiculous row against the wall we listened to the ultimatum
Fukuoka-san
offered us. I sensed that Anna ached to have a go at them – they were small fry and not in her league but nevertheless needed to be taught a lesson. They’d fondly believed they’d set a trap for us and I’m sure she wanted to extract the cheese from it, leaving it unsprung and her would-be assailants totally bewildered.

While I could handle myself in any boardroom and usually knew what I wanted to achieve, Anna was and always would be the better negotiator. She simply had the patience, cunning and intuition I lacked. Furthermore, she enjoyed the process immensely and needed to win for too many reasons in her past to discuss. This would be especially true against the Japanese. These two clever dicks conspiring to cheat us because of ‘the insult’ of her presence in the room she would regard as simply too good an opportunity to resist.

For my part, I would have enjoyed nothing more than to stand up, grab both of them by the lapels of their cheap blue serge suits, lift them bodily off the floor and bang their heads together while castigating them in Japanese. I could even think of the precise phrase to use – 
baka wa shinanakuya naoranai
[a fool is only cured by dying]. Alas that pleasure would have to wait.

Fukuoka-san
gave me an ingenuous smile as the translator announced the offer, stressing that we must make up our minds quickly.

I returned the smile, almost neglecting to wait for the translator to finish. ‘Ah, thank you,
Fukuoka-san
. We would be greatly honoured to discuss this generous offer with you and your esteemed colleague,’ I said in the exaggerated formal Japanese manner while still speaking in English.

Mr Bando, the translator, looked pleased, no doubt relieved that we hadn’t understood the previous conversation between the two executives. He quickly translated, retaining the formal style of my reply.
Fukuoka-san
and
Nakamura-san
smiled broadly, nodding their heads, both looking extremely pleased with themselves.

I turned to Anna and smiled. ‘Whacko, Anna, over to you, give bib and bub their comeuppance.’ This was a sentence Mr Bando had no way of translating and he looked totally confused.

Only the tiniest flicker in Anna’s eyes registered her surprise. ‘Thank you, Nicholas, however did you guess?’ she said, rising from her chair. She carried it to one end of the boardroom table where she seated herself. ‘Mr Bando, would you kindly bring your seat to the left side of the table. Mr Nakamura and Mr Fukuoka on the right side if you please and Nicholas at the other end.’

Mr Bando was too astonished to react and stood looking at Anna and then at the two executives. I grinned and jumped up with alacrity, taking my chair and placing it at the opposite end to Anna and sitting down. The translator, overcome with apprehension as well as confusion, pointed wordlessly at the right side of the table then stammered, ‘She wants you to sit there.’

Both men turned to look at each other, their expressions just as surprised as Mr Bando’s had been. It struck me that they hadn’t yet understood that somehow the tables had turned and the advantage no longer lay with them. They were both small men and now seated in front of them was a six-foot three-inch Caucasian male and a slim, incredibly beautiful female who seemed perfectly composed and completely in control. She was also in the process of ordering them in the politest possible manner to do as she required, there being no way they could resist without remaining seated like supplicants against the wall of the boardroom.

The two men brought their chairs over and positioned them at the table as they had been instructed,
Fukuoka-san
collecting himself enough to mutter ‘
Kusatta gaijin!
[Stinking rotten foreigners!]’

Anna waited until they were properly seated then she pointed at the manila folder. ‘I noticed that you have a brochure in that folder. I would be grateful if you would tell us which of the two ships of the twenty it features are the ones not yet sold, Mr Fukuoka.’

Bando-san
translated and
Fukuoka-san
nodded his head vigorously. ‘No, no, those are all sold, we have two others.’

Anna waited for the translation. ‘These two others, what is the survey status?’ she asked.

The answer came from Mr Nakamura. ‘The vessels are from the Philippines; we have not yet translated the information.’

‘Oh, that will be no problem. Ship surveys in the Philippines are conducted in English. If you will let us have the papers we can read them ourselves,’ I said, as Anna wouldn’t have known this detail.

‘Not possible,’
Fukuoka-san
said.

‘Confidential information,’
Nakamura-san
added quickly.

The tedium of translation proceeded.

‘Oh? But, of course, we would need to see the current survey certificates if we are to purchase the vessels,’ Anna insisted quietly.

Fukuoka-san
thumped the table. ‘This is Mitsubishi. You will trust us – we will not be insulted by you!’

Anna did not react. ‘Can you tell us the cruising range, the capacity of the fuel tanks?’ she asked calmly.

‘Not available!’
Fukuoka-san
yelled at Mr Bando. ‘Tell the
kyabajo−
[cabaret girl, ergo prostitute] we want a decision today or the vessels will be sold. We have a buyer waiting!’

Anna waited for the translation, which
Bando-san
modified. ‘Unfortunately there is another buyer. You must give Mr Fukuoka your decision today.’

It was a mistake. ‘Ah, then if you have a buyer who is so careless he will buy two vessels without a current survey certificate and no idea of the cruising range of the fuel tanks, then you must let him take them.’ Anna smiled. ‘With the greatest respect, Mr Fukuoka, there is also more information we would need as well as the right to inspect the ship, possibly with our own engineer.’ Anna paused and gave the Japanese man a brilliant smile. ‘Please permit me to list the additional information required from Mitsubishi if we are to proceed.’ Whereupon Anna, not waiting for his reaction, reeled off the information we would need: ‘When was each ship launched? Who built them? What are the displacement weights, including cargo? We need to know the cubic capacity of the holds. Refrigerated cargo capacity? Draught-depth? The type of engines they have? Hours run and their maintenance history? Fuel consumption – gallons per hour at cruise? Can you tell us the number of generators on board and their respective voltages?
Navigation equipment and cargo-handling equipment?’

I admit, I was totally gob-smacked. Anna had sailed on
Madam Butterfly
since she was a child but in terms of a cargo vessel, she would struggle to tell the prow from the stern. She had simply memorised precisely what I had told her on the plane from Hong Kong to Tokyo.

All this enumeration took some translating and
Bando-san
, obviously familiar with the nautical language from previous negotiations, made a fair fist of it. By the time he was finished, Mr Nakamura’s head was in his hands and Mr Fukuoka repeatedly banged the boardroom table with his fist. The corners of his mouth spittle flecked, he yelled, ‘No negotiation! Tell the
kusatta
gaijin
[stinking rotten foreigners] it is over! No more talk! No inspection! Go away!’ He waved his hand towards the boardroom door.

Mr Bando translated this as: ‘
Fukuoka-san
regrets we cannot continue to negotiate. Mitsubishi cannot sell you these ships.’

Anna rose from the table and stood quietly waiting for
Fukuoka-san
to calm down, whereupon she said evenly in Japanese, ‘
Kako o mizu ni nagasu.
[Let the past float with water.]’ The consummate negotiator was giving the Mitsubishi executives a chance to begin again. Later I would realise that by remaining calm and seemingly reasonable she had exacerbated their loss of face.

For my part, now that we’d let the cat out of the bag, I was furious. ‘
Baka ga ate riko− ga hikitatsu
. [In the presence of fools wise men stand out.]’ I pointed to Anna and said, ‘You are unprofessional and have insulted my honourable partner.
No− aru taka wa tsume o kakusu
. [The hawk with talent hides its talons.] You would do well to be less smug and more attentive. As shipping men you are a disgrace!’ I turned to face
Fukuoka-san.
‘You should be more careful in future. Not all
gaijin
should be taken for fools, nor should all Japanese be seen as honourable men. My hope is that we have both gained from this experience.’

Anna’s hands rested flat on the boardroom table and she raised the index finger on her right hand to indicate that I should say no more. Then leaning forward slightly she bowed her head formally and looking up at the two executives she smiled. ‘We thank you for your honourable presence and your valuable time,
Fukuoka-san
and
Nakamura-san.
We have appreciated your openness and your sentiments.’ Then turning to Mr Bando she continued, ‘
Bando-san
, your most honourable translation was very discreet and you are to be congratulated. Furthermore, it is customary in the West for women to sit at the same table as men, but I want you to know I respect your ways and took no offence whatsoever. Will you do us the great honour of personally escorting us to the foyer where we have a limousine waiting for us?’ Anna’s spoken Japanese was of a class above that spoken by the three Japanese men and so formal that they would have been even further humiliated.