"14 - Flood Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cussler Clive)

"Do you have friends or family in the United States?"

She shook her head. "I have no one."

The thin man looked at her in long, slow speculation, then pointed his finger at her. "You are a spy, sent to report on our smuggling operation."

The accusation came so abruptly, she sat frozen for a few moments before stammering. "I do not know what you mean. I am a school-teacher. Why do you call me a spy?"

"You do not have the appearance of one born in China."

"Not true!" she cried in panic. "My mother and father are Chinese. So were my grandparents."

"Then explain why your height is as least four inches above average for a Chinese woman and your facial features have the faint touch of European ancestry."

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Why are you so cruel?"

"Not that it matters, my name is Ki Wong. I am the chief enforcer for the Indigo Star. Now please answer my last question."

Acting frightened, Ling explained that her great-grandfather had been a Dutch missionary who headed up a mission in the city of Longyan. He took a local peasant girl as a wife. "That is the only Western blood in me, I swear."

The inquisitors acted as if they did not credit her story. "You are lying."

"Please, you must believe me!"

"Do you speak English?"

"I know only a few words and phrases."

Then Wong got down to the real issue. "According to our records, you did not pay enough for your passage. You owe us another ten thousand dollars American."

Ling T'ai leaped to her feet and cried out. "But I have no more money!"

Wong shrugged indifferently. "Then you will have to be transported back to China."

"No, please, I can't go back, not now!" She wrung her hands until the knuckles went white.

The chief enforcer glanced smugly at the three other men, who sat like stone sculptures. Then his voice changed subtly. "There may be another way for you to enter the States."

"I will do anything," Ling T'ai pleaded.

"If we put you ashore, you will have to work off the rest of your passage fee. Since you can hardly speak English it will be impossible for you to find employment as a schoolteacher. Without friends or family you'll have no means of support. Therefore, we will take it upon ourselves to generously provide you with food, a place to live and an opportunity for work until such time as you can subsist on your own."

"What kind of work do you mean?" asked Ling T'ai hesitantly.

Wong paused, then grinned evilly. "You will engage in the art of satisfying men."

This then was what it was all about. Ling T'ai and most of the other smuggled aliens were never intended to be allowed to roam free in the United States. Once they landed on foreign soil, they were to become indentured slaves subject to torture and extortion.

"Prostitution?" Horrified, Ling T'ai shouted angrily, "I will never degrade myself!"