"Simon Ings - The Wedding Party" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ings Simon)

All but two of his cargo asphyxiated to death.

But itтАЩs the fine levied on the lorry firmsтАФ ┬г2,000 per headтАФthatтАЩs
done most to curb human trafficking by lorry. That and the technol-ogy, as
even a well-insulated TIR rig is no defense against infrared and ultrasound.
 The trend now is to shift fewer people in small-er vehicles. As the
technology improves and the political climate hardens, itтАЩs a trend that can
only continue.

I just have time for a quick breakfast at a brasserie outside the ferry
port. Its Seventies decor reminds me of Portsmouth, which is at once my
home town and our destination today. Even the name of this
restaurantтАФthe BritanniaтАФpoints toward closure.

Then up the ramp onto the ferry.

The checks on this side of the Channel are cur-sory, much less
stringent since the French decided to pull out their specialist unit.
Portsmouth, on the other hand, bristles with every piece of tech going.

So this is how itтАЩs doneтАФ

Natural gas hasnтАЩt caught on as a fuel in this country as yet, and no
one knows what an engine that runs on both gas and diesel actually looks
like. The engine is largely fake, but all the parts are genuine and
professionally assembled, and who in their right mind is going to take an
engine apart? So the bags sit in metal casings, many of them in plain view,
and never get spotted. And because the bags are cold-blooded, relying for
their primitive metabolism on heat from the actu-al engine (itтАЩs in there
somewhere under all the Meccano) nothing very remarkable ever shows up
on infrared.

So we arriveтАФif not intact, then at least undis-covered.

Even Hayling Island is becoming gentrified now, though the softest of
the creek beds have so far resisted development. IтАЩm out the van, tinkering
with the engine; taking the bags from their hiding places, stowing them in
carriers. тАЬCarrefour.тАЭ тАЬLafayette.тАЭ

There are old moorings among the reed beds, the wood all rotted
away so only the holes are leftтАФholes with a petrolish sheen over them
where nothing grows. But who would notice them among all these reeds?
What fills these holes is an essence of rotted wood and the micro-scopic
carcasses of whatever fed on it, all mingled with the deliquescent remains
of whatever fed on them. And so onтАФwho knows how long a food chain?
Though water covers the holes for much of the day, what fills the holes has
very little to do with water.
 The holes are something like the consistency of porridge and dogs
have been known to disappear into them. One or two children.