CHAPTER I
[YON CITY, CAPITAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF SELANG]
In a bar in Yon City, a white man sat at a table with a tumbler of whisky. It was
Talisker, fifteen years old, good stuff.
`Slàinte mhath,` he said to the man opposite him, who was also Scottish, and took
a sip.
From across the room, a few people looked at him with disapproval. A typical Westerner,
they thought–drunk, even at this early stage of the evening. He was drinking alone–usually
a sign of a drunk–and he seemed to be talking to an imaginary friend who sat across from
him. What a sad case.
[YON CITY]
Leun Wa-Fai sat in the shade of the trees at a table outside the Lucky Dragon bar. He
sipped his Tsingtao and waited, scratching his arm through his long-sleeved shirt. Before
long, a woman arrived and sat down opposite him. `What have you got for me?` she said in
Cantonese.
`What have you got for me?` he replied. She laid her bag on the table and opened it
enough for him to see the bag of white powder inside. He reached for it and she pulled the
bag away.
`Tell me what you have,` she demanded.
`You know the office buildings that were being put up by Chandradas? The ones that
lapsed?`
`The land was taken back by the government when Chandradas couldn`t pay.`
`That`s right,` he said. `Now the Company wants to buy it.` The Company was Leun`s
employer, Ibáñez International Shipping, a division of OPU.
`What for?` she asked. Hating OPU and all its subsidiaries was a passion of Mai
Okugawa`s. In the Republic of Selang, the government–a fancy word for a junta of warlords
who had divided up the country amongst themselves after they had kicked out the
communists–was pretty much in the pocket of OPU.
`They want to build a freight depot for shipping. The land`s on the waterfront, near the
docks, so it`s an ideal site.`
`What are they planning on shipping?` asked Mai.
`That`s what I can`t work out,` said Leun. `We don`t need this. We had enough depot space
already before the economy collapsed.` It was 1998, and all of southeast Asia was in the
grip of what CNN called the Asian Economic Crisis. Every country here was screwed, and
Selang was no different from any of the others. `And now our level of trade has
dropped–what`s the point of building more? We`re in the biggest recession for years.`
`Can`t you make a guess?`
`Well, I suppose it must be something they don`t want anyone else to see. Smuggling.`
`Drugs?`
`Or guns, or people–who knows? But those are usually small cargoes. This development will
be much bigger–they could smuggle all the heroin in Asia through there and they`d only
fill a tenth of it.`
`What can it be for?` she mused, half to herself.
`Look, I`ve given you what you want,` he said in a pleading tone.
`Ah yes. Good work. There`ll be more of this when you bring me some details of what
they`re going to do there.` She took out the bag of white powder, keeping it under her
hand, and slipped it across the table. He took it and secretively pocketed it. Then he
rose, gave her a small nod of gratitude, and rushed off to somewhere private where he had
an appointment with a needle.
[YON CITY]
John Lachlan sat beside the wall of the hotel room. On the other side was a room taken by
Mullah Rahman, the warlord who ran Yon City. Not for the first time, Lachlan wondered why
people like Rahman always arranged these meetings in hotels. Everybody knew that he was
the property of OPU, so why meet in such secrecy?
Listening with his headphones he heard the door open, then footsteps, and the door closed
again.
`Assalam alaikum, Mullah,` said the visitor.
`Waalaikum assalam, Mr. Teng. How is my dear friend Mr Hirohashi?` replied the Mullah.
Lachlan knew the name Teng. He was an assistant to Hirohashi, a director of OPU.
`He has a problem with his heart,` said Teng. `But he is due for treatment at one of the
top clinics, which should return him to good health very soon.`
`Insyak Allah.`
They exchanged a few more pleasantries, fortunately in Malay, a language which Lachlan
could follow reasonably well. Having to get it translated would have really wasted his
time. Then they got down to business.
`We have received your bid to buy the Chandradas land, Mr Teng. We are of course very
glad for a buyer in these days of economic recession, but the price seems absurdly slight.
Four million Rinchan? That`s little more than the price of a large house.`
`The economy of this whole region has collapsed, Mullah,` said Teng. `No-one wants to buy
anything here any more. Everyone is selling. Ibáñez International has chosen
to go against this trend, and we naturally expect that property prices will reflect the
state of the market.`
`But I must think of my people. This money will go into the public purse, and will pay
for the poverty relief that the people of Yon City so desperately need.`
`This development will benefit the people of Yon City. It will bring work to thousands in
the city, first on the construction and later on manning the depot.`
`That is very welcome, of course, but... four million. It`s almost unthinkable to sell
such a large piece of land for such a price.
`Of course, Ibáñez International recognises the need for poverty relief. I
am authorised to offer you another million as a donation to the government, to be used for
the benefit of the people in any way you see fit. This money would of course be
administered by you personally.`
`That sounds like an acceptable compromise, Mr Teng.` The meeting ran to a few more
meaningless superficial words, and then Teng left.
In the next room, Lachlan disconnected his listening devices and packed up his kit into a
small case. Then he went downstairs and checked out.
[MANILA]
The OPU Group of Companies was a conglomerate. It did not have a central boardroom, but
used the boardrooms of its various subsidiaries to conduct meetings. This particular board
meeting took place at the headquarters of Ibáñez International shipping, in
Manila. Mr Yao Mang, who controlled OPU`s various medical interests, was addressing the
board with his new expansion strategy.
`Since the financial collapse, prices across southeast Asia have dropped to their lowest
point since the mid-seventies. Many local businesses have been ruined, but with our global
infrastructure we have weathered the storm with only minor damage. Now is the time to make
acquisitions. By investing now in production and distribution, now when prices are at such
a ridiculously low level, and then making use of local labour, we can produce at an
incredibly low cost and increase our exports to an unprecedented level.`
He displayed some projections for the potential exports from OPU`s medical subsidiaries
over the next five years. There were murmurs from several other board members, who
regarded them as unrealistic, even fantastic.
`Procare alone could become the major producer of medical supplies for all of the Pacific
Rim area and Australia as a whole. Compare the prices that we could achieve with those of
our Australian competitors.`
Mr Hirohashi, managing director of Ibáñez International Shipping, had been
doing a few quick calculations. `Yao Mang,` he began, `can you seriously expect us to make
this level of investment at a time when world financial crisis is looming? The Federal
Reserve fears that even the US economy will shrink in the next year. Our multinational
nature will not save us if the whole globe goes into recession. This is a time for
caution, not expansion. The levels of investment you suggest are unsupportable.`
OPU`s Chairman, Santana, had been looking over the plans with concern. `Yao Mang, are
these proposals serious? The amount of pharmaceuticals you plan to produce at these new
plants, the amount of cargo you plan to ship out... surely this is more than we will ever
be able to sell. The markets can simply not support this level of shipping and
production.`
`The markets!` cried Yao Mang. `Think of those markets! Australia–we can undercut their
drug companies easily. Japan–their inflation is so high that they`ll soon price themselves
out of the market. And–best of all in this region–India! A nation of almost a billion
people, a country plagued by endemic medical problems. India is crying out for cheaper
pharmaceuticals–there are masses of people who need medications but cannot afford them at
current prices. We could make a great many treatments affordable to them for the first
time, and our sales would skyrocket.
`And that`s just south Asia and Oceania. What about America? What about Europe? Even
allowing for increased transportation costs, the situation is basically the same as
Australia. We can undercut their producers. Both those markets are crying out for cheaper
drugs. This plan could make OPU the largest supplier of pharmaceuticals and disposable
medical supplies in the world. Think of it–not a big player in the medical market, but the
big player.`
Yao Mang`s plan was too big for the board. Santana and Hirohashi were not convinced, and
several other board members went along with them. They voted the proposals down. Yao
Mang`s plans for new pharmaceutical plants and freight yards would not go ahead.
[YON CITY]
Leun Wa-Fai was working late. The Yon City offices of Ibáñez International
were quiet, and in the large office where Leun worked there was no-one else around.
Leun sat nervously before his computer screen. He was sweating despite the air
conditioning. He had never done anything this big
| 
