Page 41 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Kriya

Zuri was never too busy to talk, so long as you rang her during the working day. She was still at the office when I got home at four thirty and rang her—the first time in recorded history I’d ever logged off earlier than her.

She said, “Yeah, I can talk. Let me go find a quiet corner.”

Once she was settled in a suitably quiet corner, I said, “Eh, you know the Helen Daley piece in the Guardian ? You said you know somebody who knows the source, right? The YouTuber May Yin was telling us about.”

“It’s his boyfriend my friend knows,” said Zuri. “Why?”

“I’ve got a work issue.” I paused, staring out of the window of my living room.

Charles was basically right about confidentiality and privilege. But I was also right that it was fucked up that, with sufficient money, any criminal could make the legal system into a tool to hammer any critic into silence. This had to be the right thing to do.

“I can’t say much,” I said. “It’s all super sensitive. But my firm’s been approached to act in relation to the article, let’s put it that way. I’ve been thinking whether there’s anything I can do about it.”

My parents would take the view that I’d done more than enough in announcing my resignation.

Leave it to the firm to decide whether they wanted to get involved in Jamaludin’s business, Amma and Appa would say.

Even if I could do anything to affect that decision, what difference would it make to the likes of the Prime Minister and his right-hand man?

They’d just go and find another law firm to act.

They were bound to find one willing to hold its nose and take their money.

Getting Swithin Watkins to decline representation was, at most, an inconvenience—a pebble in their shoe.

But it was the most I might ever be able to do. It wasn’t explosive diarrhoea, much less a criminal conviction for multiple counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to murder, and all the rest of it. But it was better than nothing.

“I’m assuming it’s not Helen Daley who’s approached your firm,” said Zuri. “They’re willing to get involved in this kind of thing? Isn’t it bad for their reputation?”

“If you offer enough money, people stop worrying so much about their reputation.”

Zuri snorted. “True. Four billion dollars is probably enough, right.”

“I need evidence,” I said. “You know what lawyers are like, it’s the documents that matter. I was thinking, they probably had to be super careful about what they said in the article, right? The underlying proof must go even further.”

“I’ll ask my friend,” said Zuri. “I don’t know the guy myself. I’ll let you know.”

I figured she meant in a couple of weeks’ time, if that. I put my phone down and went for a bath. I had a bath about once every two years, but this day, I felt, merited a long soak and a glass of wine.

When I got out, warm and pruney, my phone was ringing.

“He says he’ll come meet you,” said Zuri, without precursor. “The boyfriend.”

“ What? What did you tell him?”

“Just what you told me,” said Zuri. “OK lah, maybe I elaborated a bit. I might have implied Jamaludin approached your firm. I got a little carried away.” She laughed.

I didn’t. Zuri stopped laughing.

“Are you serious?” she said.

“I can’t say anything!”

“That’s crazy, ” said Zuri. “OK, OK, I won’t ask. Maybe the guy’s heard something. He wants to meet today. Says he’s free from seven thirty. Can you do it?”

I hesitated. Charles had said he should be able to get out of the office around seven, to meet for dinner.

This was important enough that I should probably cancel on dinner. But I might not be seeing much more of Charles, if it all went ahead with Sanson. Rosalind had indicated they’d want me to start as soon as possible, assuming the GC liked me (“he will definitely like you, he is not an idiot”).

I didn’t want to think about how that made me feel. Maybe it would be better to avoid Charles till I knew whether I’d be staying in the country or not. But after everything that had happened between us, I couldn’t decide to do that—at least, not till I’d had a chance to say goodbye.

“Would nine o’clock be OK?” I said.

“Yeah,” said Zuri. “Only thing is, right, he says it needs to be somewhere private. He didn’t come right out and say it, but I think he’s worried about being followed. Is it OK if I bring him to your place? He works close by only, the office is across the river.”

“Oh, you’re coming?”

“Are you kidding?” said Zuri. “Of course I’m coming. This is the most exciting thing that has happened in my entire life.”

I might have been a little distracted at dinner with Charles that evening, but he didn’t say anything to show he’d noticed. Zuri turned up shortly after he had left my flat with his suitcase. She had a Chinese guy in tow. He was in a slightly rumpled suit and looked completely ordinary.

There was something weird going on with Zuri, though. It took me a moment to realise what it was. She was starstruck.

“This is Ket Hau,” she said. “Ket Hau, Kriya.” To me, she said, “Eh, turns out I follow Ket Hau’s sister-in-law on Instagram!”

I blinked. “Is she the mutual friend? The one who introduced you?”

“No lah. I don’t know her,” said Zuri. “She’s an influencer. She runs that brand, Virtu, damn expensive one. It’s nice,” she added, glancing at Ket Hau. “But I can’t afford the clothes. I can only admire from afar.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Ket Hau. We shook hands.

“Thanks for letting me come here,” he said.

“I was telling Zuri, I’m trying to be careful at the moment.

Everyone is jumpy, with the election coming up, and the Guardian series being published.

Stephen’s had a couple of incidents. Might be nothing, but after he was kidnapped that time, he’s a little paranoid. ”

“Yeah, fair enough,” I said, resolving internally to catch up on Stephen Jembu’s YouTube explainers. “Do you want a drink? Coffee? Tea? Milo?”

“No,” said Ket Hau, then: “Oh, if you have Milo…”

Once we were sat down with our hot drinks, he said: “I should explain why I was so keen to meet. You see, we knew they’d be trying to suppress publication of the series. Helen’s been waiting for the legal letter. So when Zuri got in touch, I thought, here we go.”

“I don’t know how much I can tell you,” I said. “Zuri said you’re a lawyer, is that right? So you’ll know I have professional duties. We haven’t cleared conflicts yet, or confirmed we’ll be acting. But it’s a bit complicated, because one of the parties involved is an existing client of the firm.

“I resigned today, actually,” I added, and felt Zuri start next to me. “But I don’t want the firm to represent these people. I mean, I know they’ll just go off and find some other lawyers who are willing to take their money, but…”

“If you can make life difficult for them, why not, right?” Ket Hau grinned. “If a firm like Swithin Watkins turns away a client like that, that might filter out into the market. Make other people more cautious about signing on. It makes sense to me.”

He was a reassuring sort of person. I felt the knot of tension in my chest start to unwind.

“Why don’t you tell me what you can,” he said. “And I’ll see how I can help.”