Brief Encounters With Che Guevara_ Stories - Ben Fountain [43]
“How’s he doing?”
“Fine. Merrill is always fine.”
McClure laughed. “That’s our boy.” He settled in and swung; the ball pulled left, its curve deepening as it fell. He squibbed an other out of the pile and raked it toward him. “You know…” He settled in and swung; both men eyed the ball’s warped trajectory. “If he nails down that Tesco deal, it’ll be the biggest thing this place has ever seen. Bigger than Unocal, bigger than the Yetagun field. And our good buddy Merrill will score the mother of all success fees.” McClure selected another ball. “But I’m just wondering, how’s he going to handle the generals’ end?”
“They seem to have a good rapport,” said Sonny, which got a braying laugh from McClure. “Rapport, right, that’s good Sonny. I’m sure they have outstanding rapport.” He paused and swung. “But how’s he planning to get them their five percent, that’s what I want to know.”
Sonny said nothing. That the generals were getting bribes had always been the assumption, a possibility he’d felt no need to explore. He was just the pro; that other stuff had nothing to do with him. McClure smiled and took a lazy practice swing.
“Five percent of this deal, that’s the bomb, man, that’s just a shitload of dough. How’s he going to move that kind of money without the feds jumping his ass? You know, Sonny, there’s all kinds of U.S. laws forbidding that sort of thing. They could probably drag a drug angle into it too.” McClure paused for another shot. “By the way, how’s the golf course development coming?”
“I haven’t heard anything. I guess it’s on hold.”
“Yeah.” McClure was futzing with his grip. “I can’t help thinking that’s a weird place for a golf course, way down there on the peninsula. With the Karens raising all kinds of hell down there…” He swung; suddenly everything was going straight. “Tesco investing in that deal?” he asked lightly.
“I have no idea,” said Sonny.
McClure sighed and gave him a pained smile. Sonny sensed that he’d let his fellow American down, and that it was, sadly, no great surprise.
“Well, it’s just a notion,” McClure said in an easy voice. He hit a few more shots, then reached for his bag. “Thanks for the lesson, pro, I think we got it licked. Man, some days I just love this game.”
The following Monday Hayden walked into the pro shop and handed Sonny a check for seventy-five thousand dollars, drawn on the account of First Asia Golf Development Corporation.
“We’re good to go,” he said. “Dr. Maung’s going to do the design for us, we’re flying down this Thursday to walk the site. General Myint and General Tun are coming too. You free to join us?”
Sonny glanced at the check. Seventy-five thousand dollars—college for Carla and Christie, at least a year or two. “Sure,” he said, “I’m available.”
Sonny was trying to recall the last time he’d been on a helicopter. Was it ’93? ’94? The Buick Open in ’94, he decided, though that chopper had been a bucket compared to this one, a sleek teal-and-purple corporate job stocked with Cokes and Evian water and fresh bei moq cakes. Each seat came equipped with a headset and intercom jack, along with instructions in seven different languages; no explanation, however, was given for the pilots, who wore the combat fatigues of the Tatmadaw—they’d simply climbed aboard with everyone else and powered out. Within minutes Rangoon’s scrap-heap jumble had given way to the mudflats of the Sittoung River, and then to the gulf, the sludgy discharge from the river gradually shading into paisley swirls of electric green and blue. If Sonny leaned forward he could spot their military escort, three olive-drab helicop ters raked across the sky in a taut diagonal. Helmeted gunners hunkered down in the open side doors, bucking the wind like bugs on a windshield.
Hayden’s voice crackled over his headset. “We’ll cross the Gulf of Mottama here,” he said, holding a map over his shoulder for Sonny to see. “Then we’ll follow the coastline almost to Dawei. The property’s just north of there.”
Sonny nodded and tried to look as useful as possible. He was sitting in back with Dr. Maung,