Chapter 6 - The Man Buying the Block
Victor Hale looked nothing like a villain.
That annoyed Jack.
He was forty-five, athletic, soft-spoken and impeccably polite.
Crescent Pacific’s acquisitions director invited Jack, Sophie and Lan to meet at a glass office overlooking Irvine.
Minh refused to come.
Bao was already there.
Jack stopped at the door.
“Of course.”
Bao leaned back.
“You wanted answers.”
Victor gestured toward chairs.
“Then perhaps we can lower the temperature.”
Jack remained standing.
“You paid people to film me.”
Victor did not react.
“We retain communications firms.”
“Did your firm know I was coming?”
“I didn't.”
Bao looked toward the window.
Sophie caught it.
“You did.”
Bao sighed.
“My father told me about Daniel Mercer’s flag years ago.”
Minh had been right.
“What did he tell you?”
“That Daniel kept a key in the pole.”
Jack’s anger rose.
“And you arranged for me to be blocked.”
“I arranged nothing.”
“Huy says otherwise.”
Bao’s face tightened.
Victor raised a hand.
“Whatever interpersonal mistake occurred on the street is unrelated to Crescent.”
Lan laughed.
“That's a sentence prepared by counsel.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“I have good counsel.”
He explained Crescent’s plan.
A mixed-use redevelopment.
Housing.
Retail.
Parking.
A hotel.
Public plaza.
Several older buildings would be demolished.
Some preserved.
Owners who sold early would receive premiums.
Bao's properties sat near the center.
His payout could exceed six million dollars.
Minh’s family market would also become extremely valuable.
Minh refused to sell.
“So this is territory,” Jack said.
Victor shook his head.
“It's real estate.”
“To you.”
“Exactly.”
Victor did not pretend otherwise.
That honesty made him harder to dismiss.
“Buildings decay,” Victor continued. “Families change. Markets change. Some owners want to retire.”
Lan agreed with part of that.
“My father acts as if every storefront must remain exactly as it was in 1985.”
Bao pointed at her.
“Thank you.”
“But,” Lan continued, “Crescent's option structure gives extraordinary bonuses to intermediaries who deliver groups of owners.”
Bao stopped smiling.
Jack looked at him.
“How much?”
Lan answered.
“If Crescent reaches seventy percent participation, Bao receives an additional $1.2 million consulting fee.”
Sophie whistled.
Bao’s face flushed.
“I have spent fifteen years keeping this district alive.”
“While secretly getting paid to persuade your neighbors to sell?”
“I disclose when required.”
Lan looked directly at Victor.
“Did he disclose to you that he is a fiduciary officer of the merchants’ association?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“That is a matter between Mr. Nguyen and the association.”
Translation: they knew.
Jack leaned over the table.
“What was in 27B?”
Victor genuinely looked confused.
Bao did not.
Sophie watched him.
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
Bao said nothing.
Victor turned.
“Bao?”
For the first time, Jack believed Crescent might not know everything Bao had done.
Bao finally said, “Old contracts.”
“Where are they?”
“I don't have them.”
Sophie asked, “Who does?”
“I don't know.”
Jack stepped closer.
“You broke into the room.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Bao snapped.
“My father emptied it!”
Silence.
Victor stared at him.
Lan whispered, “When?”
Bao realized he had said too much.
He stood.
“This meeting is over.”
Jack blocked nothing.
Bao left.
Victor's expression remained controlled.
But he was angry now.
“You should understand something,” he told Lan. “Our acquisition depends on clear title.”
“Meaning?”
“If there are credible historical documents affecting title, we need to know.”
Sophie almost laughed.
“So suddenly you want us to find them?”
“I want accurate information.”
Jack looked at him.
“Because if Bao sold you land his family never properly owned—”
Victor finished.
“We would have a substantial problem.”
The present conflict had just changed shape.
Crescent was not necessarily the original conspiracy.
It might be buying into one.
Outside, Lan called her father.
He answered angrily.
“What?”
“Bao says Nam emptied 27B.”
Silence.
Minh finally said, “That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Nam never had the key.”
Jack held up the brass key.
“Maybe there was another.”
Minh became quiet.
Then he said, “There were two.”
Everyone looked at the phone.
“Daniel had one.”
“Who had the second?”
Minh answered.
“My father.”
Lan closed her eyes.
Duc Tran.
Minh's father.
Which meant two founding families had access to the hidden archive.
The Mercers.
And the Trans.
Nam Nguyen should not have been able to enter.
Unless one of those families helped him.
Lan whispered, “Dad… where is Grandpa’s key?”
Minh did not answer.
“Dad?”
Finally:
“I gave it to Nam.”
Lan went still.
“When?”
“1994.”
Jack stared.
The same year Daniel’s journal said:
Saw N.N. today. He knows I kept the key.
May you like
Minh had given Bao’s father access to Room 27B.
And for thirty-two years, he had told everyone the archive was destroyed.
