WHEN Tailan Chan found a bullet in his mailbox, he knew what it meant.The anonymous telephone caller who had told him to look for the parcel had not given any clues, but Chan had heard about the methods of crime syndicates and recognised the style.
When the caller told him a few days later that the price of a peaceful future was NZ$1 million (about HK$4.6 million), no doubt remained.
Chan was being blackmailed, triad-style. A second parcel, containing a small bottle of concentrated hydrochloric acid, was backed up with a threat to disfigure Chan, his wife and his two daughters.
The worst part of it was that the Chans had travelled a long way from home to a place where they were supposed to be safe from organised crime.
This was not Hong Kong. This was Auckland, New Zealand.
Like an increasing number of Hong Kong Chinese, the Chans had left the city of uncertainty for the promise of an easier life in this placid southern Pacific nation of just 3.5 million people.