The Princeling of Nanjing (22 page)

Two hours later, Ava walked into the courtyard to find a black BMW X6 with a driver Ava had never seen behind the wheel. Suen leaned against the back door. When he saw Ava, he stood up and opened it for her. She climbed in. He sat next to the driver.

“Traffic is good,” Suen said. “We should be there by quarter to one at the latest.”

Ava took out her notebook and began to review the notes she’d been making. She lost all sense of time and direction as the BMW worked its way through the city, and was surprised when it came to a stop and Suen said, “We’re here.”

She looked out the window at an unmarked four-storey brown brick building. She started to open the door, but before she could, Suen opened it for her. As she climbed out of the car, a man and a woman rushed out of the building and headed for Suen. He held out his hand and said something that Ava couldn’t quite hear, but which generated huge smiles.

“We can go inside,” Suen said to Ava. “The boardroom is available to us now, and we have it for as long as you need.”

The couple led Suen and Ava into the building. It was as plain inside as out — brown tile floors, beige walls, and a white tile ceiling. They walked past an unstaffed reception desk and down a corridor lined with closed doors. At the end of the hall, the man opened a set of double doors. The boardroom was large and had four long tables forming a square and twenty plastic chairs. The walls were covered with whiteboards.

“We need everything erased from the boards,” Ava said. “He doesn’t need to know anything about the co-op’s business. Besides, I think it could be visually distracting.”

“Xing, will you look after that please,” Suen said to the man who had led them into the boardroom.

“Sure,” he replied and went immediately to work on the boards.

“Is this room okay?” Suen asked.

“It’ll do fine.”

“Most of the offices on this floor are empty, so you don’t have to worry about being overheard.”

“Are you going to stay when I talk to him?”

“Do you need me to?”

“I think I’d rather have you sitting just outside.”

“No problem. What else will you need?”

“Some water, and eventually I hope I’ll need that videographer. How close is he?”

“Fifteen minutes, and he’s been told to be on standby.”

Suen’s phone rang. He answered it, nodded, and said to Ava, “Your man is here.”

“He’s a bit early. That’s good,” Ava said. “Could you bring him here?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll get organized,” she said, taking her notebook from her bag.

“How much time do you think you’ll need with this guy?”

“I have no idea. It depends on how smart he is.”

“Smart or scared?”

“A bit of both isn’t bad, but I prefer smart. It always goes faster when the other party really understands what kind of situation they’re in and how limited their options are.”

She heard them first, footsteps on tile. Then the door opened and Suen filled its frame. Looking slightly uncomfortable in the big man’s wake was a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, thin, about five foot nine, his hair stylishly shaved along both sides and spiked on top. He wore a smart slim-cut grey tailored suit and a blue and gold Hermès tie.

“What a pleasure to meet you,” Ava said, extending her hand. “I meant to ask you before what language you prefer to speak — English or Chinese?” she asked him in Chinese, and as he stumbled over an answer she added in English, “I’m a Hong Konger and went only to English schools there.”

“Then English will be fine,” he said. “It will be nice for a change.”

“Your accent is quite distinctive.”

“I was raised and educated in Newcastle. I have a bit of a Geordie accent, although it isn’t as broad as most you’ll hear.”

“Have a seat. Can I offer you some water or another beverage?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said.

“How did you get here? Do you have a car and driver?”

“No, I came by taxi.”

“Well, thank you for taking the time to see me,” Ava said, opening her notebook.

“What company did you say you were with?” Yin asked.

“I didn’t say.”

“And which one is it?”

“Well, this is where things start to become a little complicated, Mr. Yin.”

“Call me Vincent, and I don’t understand what you mean by ‘complicated.’”

“For starters, there isn’t any company.”

“What?”

“I can explain.”

“How about Mr. Calhoun’s friend?”

“I’m sure Mr. Calhoun has many. I just don’t know or work for one of them.”

“This is absurd,” Yin said, starting to rise.

“Don’t do that,” Ava said. “The large man who brought you here is sitting outside. He won’t let you leave until we’ve finished talking. So please sit down.”

He flinched, and she saw a trace of fear in his eyes.

“You have to tell me what this is about,” he said, now standing.

“In the very broadest sense, it is about the rest of your life,” she said.

“That’s crazy.”

“No, it really isn’t,” Ava said. “Because by the time we’ve finished talking, you’re going to have to make some important and difficult decisions that will affect the rest of your life. I know what I want you to do, and I know what I think is best for you to do, but ultimately we’re going to find out how practical and sensible you are.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Mega Metals.”

“What about it?”

“It’s a business created out of corruption and run in a corrupt manner.”

He looked towards the doorway, then back at Ava.

“Who are you?” he asked as he slid back into the chair. “What do you want? Is this some feeble attempt at blackmail?”

“A week from now, I doubt that Mega Metals will still exist,” Ava said. “Dennis Calhoun will be disgraced, and instead of bragging about his business acumen he’s going to be fighting to stay out of jail. The Tsai family will be looking over its shoulder, wondering what the powers in Beijing will do to them. It’s going to be complete chaos.”

Yin shook his head. Ava noticed he was having trouble looking her in the eye.

“The main question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to go down with them.”

“How can you possibly make those kinds of assertions?” he said.

“I have the facts to support them. It’s going to go under, you can count on that. Calhoun and Tsai have only one chance to avoid getting swamped themselves,” Ava said, and then leaned towards Yin. “And that’s if they pin the blame entirely on you.”

“I’m an employee.”

“You’re managing the business. If Tsai and Calhoun say they knew nothing about the deals and it was all your doing, then who are the authorities in the U.K. and China going to believe?”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“Don’t be so naive,” Ava said. “They would do it in a heartbeat and without a second thought. They’d throw you to the wolves, and the Chinese wolves have shown a tendency to kill whoever they sink their teeth into.”

“I’m a British citizen.”

“You were born in China and you live and work in China. The Chinese government won’t care what passport you carry or what citizenship you claim. They’ll come and get you, and once they have you, they won’t let you go until you’re on your knees and they’re putting a bullet in the back of your head.”

Yin shook his head. Ava could see panic and confusion on his face.

“You know Mr. Calhoun quite well, I imagine, and you’ve seen how the Tsai family operates. You know the kind of power they have,” Ava said. “Neither Calhoun nor the Tsais are what you would call warm and considerate. Can you imagine them not doing whatever is necessary to protect themselves and their reputations?”

“Still . . .”

“Look, you have a chance to get out of this situation intact, but you need to realize that I’m your only lifeline.”

“In what way?”

“I’ll come to that,” Ava said. “But before I do, let’s you and I just talk. I want to verify and expand on some facts. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to start at the beginning.”

“I’m not sure I have any interest in doing that.”

“Then you can try to run past the big man outside, but I have to warn you that he’s surprisingly fast.”

“And if I agree?”

“When we’re finished and if you want to leave, I promise you that we won’t prevent it. And when we’re finished, if you decide you want our help, you’ll have it.”

He took a deep breath. “Are you with the government?”

“No, but we’ve opened up lines of communication with more than one government and they have an interest in our efforts. It’s safe to assume they will become directly involved sooner rather than later, and charges will be brought against Mr. Calhoun in the U.K. God knows what the Chinese government will choose to do with the Tsai family, and with you — if you’re still here.”

“Then who are you with?”

“Does that matter?”

“Someone trying to settle a score with Mr. Calhoun?”

“You could say that.”

“Then why do I have to get dragged into it?”

“Vincent, you’re running a company that was founded on the basis of a corrupt agreement, an agreement you were a party to. The agreement is going to be exposed and all hell is going to break loose. Now, I repeat, do you want to co-operate with me and get out of here in once piece with your wealth intact, or do you want to end up in a British jail, a Chinese jail, or a Chinese grave?”

“How do you expect me to respond to a question like that?”

“Does that mean you’re going to co-operate?”

Yin hesitated and looked towards the door, then back at Ava. “I’ll tell you what I can,” he said. “But I may not know as much as you think I do.”

“I can accept that, and I’m not going to be unreasonable. So, let’s start with an easy question: do you run a company called Mega Metals?”

“You know I do.”

“What’s your title?”

“Managing director.”

“Are you also the legal representative?”

“Yes.”

“Is your boss Dennis Calhoun?”

“My immediate boss is Rory Taggert, the CEO in the U.K. Mr. Calhoun is the company chairman.”

“And you have a partner named Lau Ai?”

He hesitated.

“Let me rephrase that,” Ava said. “The majority owner of your business is a company called Shell Investments. Shell is owned by the Tsai family, and they’re using Lau Ai as the person of record.”

“You could put it that way.” He licked his lips. There was white residue in the corners of his mouth.

“There’s water on the table if you want some,” she said.

He reached for a glass and filled it.

“How did you know about Lau’s role?” Yin asked.

“I’m asking, not answering questions. So just answer, please, and please be direct,” Ava said. “Now, when was Mega Metals established?”

He hesitated, his eyes flitting around the room. Ava knew he was looking for a way out.

“Vincent, you’re making this much more difficult than it needs to be.”

“Close to five years ago,” Yin said.

“Have you been with the company since the outset?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Where were you before that?”

“Calhoun Metals.”

“In the U.K?”

“Yes, I worked in the Newcastle office. I joined them right out of Northumbria University.”

“Doing what?”

“Sales and marketing.”

“You obviously did well.”

“I did okay.”

“Did you work for Dennis Calhoun?”

“Not at first, but it was his business, and it wasn’t so big then that he didn’t know who most of us were.”

“Your importance must have increased when he decided to expand into Asia.”

He nodded. “There wasn’t anyone else in the office who spoke Mandarin.”

“Were you born in China?”

“Beijing. My parents emigrated when I was eight.”

“So you didn’t know anyone in Nanjing?”

“No one.”

“Then how did Mr. Calhoun hook up with the Tsai family?”

“He had a friend in Manchester who was doing business with them. He recommended that Mr. Calhoun contact them to see if he could work out his own arrangement. At the time, Mr. Calhoun was quite discouraged about our prospects in Asia. He’d set up businesses in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, but neither of them did very well. This friend told him that the Tsais made doing business very easy.”

“This friend was a Westerner?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of deal did he have?”

“He had a factory that was making cheap housewares. He said he paid a monthly fee to make sure he had no problems getting raw materials, managing his labour force, or shipping goods out of the province.”

“How do you know that?”

“Mr. Calhoun told me.”

“When?”

“Later, after we had started our discussions with Tsai Men.”

“What was the name of the friend’s company?”

“I think it was called Phillips Trading.”

Ava flipped back to the front of her notebook and her first list of people paying the Tsais. Phillips Trading was contributing $5,000 a month.

“How did Calhoun Metals initially contact the Tsais?”

“Mr. Calhoun’s friend told Tsai Men about our company and then arranged a conference call.”

“Did you take part in it?”

“I took part in all of them, and in all of the meetings that followed.”

“Obviously Mr. Calhoun speaks no Mandarin.”

“And I don’t think that Tsai Men speaks English, or at least I never heard him speak it.”

“So you interpreted?”

“For Mr. Calhoun. Tsai Men had his own person.”

“What was his name?”

“Wang.”

“Not Ling?”

“Ling was only there for the first few meetings and then he was replaced.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“How many meetings were there in total?”

“A lot. They went on for several months. I think we made four trips to Nanjing.”

“It sounds like things were complicated.”

“The basic structure of the deal was in place very quickly, but sorting out the numbers was the hard part.”

“By ‘basic structure’ you mean that it would be a fifty-one, forty-nine split in the Tsai family’s favour? Calhoun Metals would front all the cash and inventory, and the Tsai family would make sure that business came to the new company?”

“How do you know that?”

“Never mind. Is what I described accurate?”

Yin squirmed in his chair.

“Vincent, I asked you a question and I want an answer.”

“Yes.”

“So what was making people uncomfortable about the deal?”

“It wasn’t so much people as it was Mr. Calhoun.”

“What was bothering him?”

“Tsai Men wanted Mr. Calhoun to commit to a far larger inventory than he thought prudent, and Mr. Calhoun was looking for guarantees that the business would operate the way Tsai Men promised. Truthfully, there was quite a bit of mistrust from our side at the beginning.”

“What was Calhoun’s reluctance about the inventory?”

“He was being asked to put two hundred million dollars in cash and goods into a company that we owned only forty-nine percent of. He was afraid that two months down the road the majority owner would scrap the business and scoop the inventory.”

“That’s a legitimate concern. What prompted him to take the plunge?”

“He met the Governor.”

Ava fought back a smile. “And were you there at the meeting?”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

“Tsai Men and his wife.”

“What did they discuss?”

“The business.”

“Specifically.”

“Well, Men outlined the deal to the Governor and then explained that Mr. Calhoun was looking for assurances that the inventory would be turned over quickly and that the profit margins would be healthy.”

“How did Tsai Lian respond?”

“He asked Mr. Calhoun if he was financially stable enough to provide a five-hundred-million-dollar inventory if it was required.”

“And Calhoun said?”

“He could provide an inventory of any size as long as it was turning and the margins were there.”

“And the Governor was satisfied with that?”

“He seemed to be, because he immediately told Mr. Calhoun that he would never have to worry about the inventory turning.”

Ava looked down at her notebook and took some small breaths. “Did he give any reasons why Mr. Calhoun should believe him?”

“He said that any company that didn’t commit to buying from Mega Metals wouldn’t get a dollar of government business and would find it difficult to get a building permit for any private project. He emphasized how much construction the government undertook. He finished by saying that any company that reneged on a commitment to Mega Metals would get their permit revoked.”

“Are those the words that came directly out of Tsai Lian’s mouth?”

“As best as I can remember.”

“This is important, Vincent, so think back. Was it the Governor himself who told Mr. Calhoun he would ensure that anyone who didn’t buy from Mega Metals would have a difficult time getting building permits?”

“It was.”

“Did you put those guarantees on paper? Did you write them into the agreement?”