‘They look okay to me.’
‘Now they look okay, Mr McQueen,’ said Loh Han, taking the gin and tonic that was delivered to him, ‘because I went to Magic Million for many year buying the good bloodstock and the fast yearling.’
‘Expensive hobby,’ said Mac, taking his beer from the waiter.
‘Yes, and popular,’ said Loh Han. ‘Vietnamese people love the Aussie horse — maybe not the long bone of Europe and North America, but the big heart.’
‘I know people who go to the sales, Mr Loh Han, and they say that it doesn’t matter how much you spend, there’s no certainties in this sport,’ said Mac.
‘Ha.’ Loh Han shook a playful finger at Mac. ‘That the Aussie wisdom — I like that.’
The race finished and while Loh Han’s horse came fourth, he had a win on his betting. The aide took fresh orders for the next race and Loh Han doled out cash from a black leather overnight bag.
‘Chanthe is one of the favourite people in my whole family,’ said Loh Han, as the aide departed. ‘She is very honest and well meaning — and I don’t have a daughter of my own.’
‘Sure,’ said Mac, sipping the beer.
‘Beautiful and intelligent too,’ said Loh Han. ‘And as we know, such women can be very insecure, easily exploited by certain men.’
‘I guess so,’ said Mac, careful.
‘I want you to know that Chanthe likes you perhaps more than professionally.’
‘Look, I —’ said Mac, a little stunned.
Loh Han raised his hand. ‘I also know that you have not pressed your advantage in that regard, and that makes you a gentleman.’
‘It makes me married, Mr Loh Han,’ said Mac. ‘It’s not as if I haven’t seen what she looks like.’
‘Ha,’ said the gangster. ‘Good answer.’
As the fifth race was loading into the starting barrier, Loh Han stopped the small talk, and drew closer to Mac.
‘I have embarrassed myself, Mr McQueen,’ said Loh Han, lighting a short cigar. ‘I allied myself with some people who could now destroy my country, bring war to this region.’
‘The general?’
‘Pao Peng, yes,’ said Loh Han. ‘This started because I helped the general acquire certain technologies that would help his ambitions. My family has long ties with his and I allowed myself to help.’
‘You started managed funds that bought the assets?’
‘Yes,’ said Loh Han. ‘These are technologies open to sale and purchase on the world markets and I did not see a crime — I had some discussions with my chief money adviser and he set up the fund, started buying selected technology companies.’
‘Ray Hu?’
‘Correct,’ said Loh Han. ‘The general felt that if the fund was managed by a man famous for buying defence-related stocks and companies, then we would attract less attention from the various governments.’
‘And he’s an Australian fund manager, operating from Singapore?’ said Mac. ‘The Americans and British would ask the Aussies to do the audit?’
‘I believe that was the idea,’ said Loh Han. ‘Ray and I were very close — I spoke with him about many things, not just money. I shall miss his wisdom and humour.’
‘So will I,’ said Mac.
‘You knew Ray well?’
‘When I see something funny, I think of Ray laughing,’ said Mac, remembering how Ray would get drunk and hold forth on what an idiot some politician was, his cruel imitations reducing people to tears.
‘When I see a problem, I see Ray being three moves ahead already,’ said Loh Han. ‘I see how easily he beat me at chess — I’m his fool’s mate.’
‘Fool’s mate?’ said Mac.
‘Yes,’ said Loh Han. ‘It’s a chess strategy that creates checkmate in four moves. It’s what Ray would say if he was about to beat another bidder to a parcel of shares or make a takeover offer that he knew the directors couldn’t block.’
‘So, Ray was running this fund?’
‘Yes — I make money, the general is happy and Ray is making more money than ever.’
‘So what happened?’
‘I am introduced to a Jew who I do not like,’ said Loh Han, looking at his cigar. ‘He has charm and intellect, Mr McQueen, but it is corrupted charm. You know this type of man?’
‘I know Joel Dozsa,’ said Mac. ‘And he’s all that.’
‘Well, the general says Dozsa has an idea that will allow me to print real American currency — and that gets my attention because he can get all the codes from the US printing service, the…’
‘The BEP,’ said Mac.
‘Yes, that. And because I owe Pao Peng for getting the contract to supply new toilet bowls to the PLA’s barracks renovations, I go along with the counterfeit idea — we help with logistic and freight, and we provide premises and other things.’
‘An office at the Mekong Saloon?’
‘Yes, and an airline and —’
‘Airline? Is North Air a Loh Han business?’
‘Controlling interest,’ said Loh Han.
Mac’s heart sank. Loh Han pilots probably didn’t log genuine flight plans.
The gangster watched the horses jump from the barrier. ‘So, this Dozsa starts to change things.’
‘Yeah?’
‘I have lunch one day with Ray — at this restaurant right here,’ he said, pointing over Mac’s shoulder at the VIP suites at the back of the grandstand. ‘And Ray ask me what the new fund is really for.’
‘Harbour Pacific?’
‘Yes — and I know nothing about a new fund; it was supposed to be Highland Pacific. So after I argue with the general about Harbour Pacific, it seem Dozsa has overstepped and just forget to tell me about this fund; he thought the general had told me.’
‘Okay,’ said Mac, smiling.
‘Yes. So three weeks ago, I find out that Dozsa has not helped me print some real US dollars for my own amusement — he has built a factory in the forest and is printing the US currency by the billion.’
‘That annoy you?’
‘Yes, Mr McQueen, it annoyed me,’ said Loh Han, finishing his drink. ‘I am a businessman. Most of my income is from my banking and lending interests. We have assets in freight, shipping and trucks; we own hotels and we rent more motor scooters to tourists in South-East Asia than any other company.’
‘So?’
‘So a man printing US notes by the billions is not trying to get rich — he is trying to collapse a currency and, with it, the economy,’ said Loh Han. ‘People are rude about me because they say I the gangster, right?’
‘Sure,’ said Mac.
‘But I do not want the US currency to collapse in Asia,’ said Loh Han, eyes wide. ‘That the exchange currency for business — that’s our benchmark currency! Why I want to ruin that currency?’
‘You don’t, I suppose.’
‘No. So when I hear that an Aussie spy is coming to Saigon to follow the corrupt Australian, I try to get Tranh to be the driver, right?’
‘You did — he’s a good man.’
‘A good kid,’ said Loh Han. ‘But he reporting back and I realise you not following Geraldine McHugh, the currency traitor. You following her husband, Jim Quirk.’
‘Surprised?’
‘Sure,’ said Loh Han. ‘I ask why. I dig deeper, I follow you and then I follow the Americans.’
‘And?’
‘And the Americans are following you and their phone calls are talking about HARPAC, and I think this can’t be Harbour Pacific, can it? This can’t be my fund that I didn’t even start?’
‘Shit,’ said Mac, breath hissing out of him. If the various arms of Aussie intel had worked together — and the Prime Minister’s office wasn’t so keen to outsmart the spooks — Mac would have known about the Harbour Pacific problems a month ago. He wouldn’t have put Ray in that position with Lao at the Pan Pac Hotel.