The urbane Head of Intelligence at the Chinese Embassy was sufficiently used to dealing with Australians to understand what ‘knocking heads’ together meant. His Australian colleague, in reciprocation of his Chinese opposite number’s usual economy of information, was only passing on what he thought necessary to maintain good relations. It was a game of sorts but one with a common purpose, if not a common motivation; to eliminate these influential criminal groups. For the Chinese mainland authorities, such free enterprise as the groups displayed was a threat; for the law-enforcement agencies of the rest of the world, they simply represented criminal activities that harmed the generality of law-abiding citizens.
Li Chen knew perfectly well the identity of the two key crime syndicates. The Chinese’s own investigations, which they didn’t share with the Australians, told them that both of these groups had fingers in the importation of illegal labour into the European Union, Canada and even the US, and were struggling for supremacy against each other and various indigenous organisations all around the world. What they hadn’t been sure about was which of the two Mr Kim worked for, although information was soon to emerge in Melbourne that would provide an answer to this question. What they also didn’t know for certain, but assumed, was that both groups had political protectors.
However, none of the people keeping watch over Mr Kim at Hong Kong International Airport had any idea why he was heading back to Melbourne. It wasn’t really their business. Their job was to insulate him from any contact with anyone from Hong Kong or elsewhere in mainland China, and to see him on his way in as quiet and trouble-free a way as possible.
Kim knew this. With nothing to occupy him, he spent his time making the job as onerous as possible for his minders.
But his patience wasn’t unlimited. Being tall, even in Business Class he hadn’t slept very much, and the perpetual attentions of the cabin crew hadn’t improved his temper either.
His rising irritation was directed particularly at a couple of the plain-clothed police officers. He had no doubt that that was what they were. Walking when he walked, stopping when he stopped, they followed him back to the area next to the reembarkation gate after his circumnavigation of the terminal. Their presence would have been obvious to a child. But then they were supposed to be obvious.
Maybe I should have gone into the Duty Free, he thought, knowing that that would have activated some sort of action to either deter him or isolate him and prevent any contact with any third party.
But he also knew that his unforgiving boss in the syndicate in Shanghai wouldn’t take kindly to his playing games with the authorities; he was supposed to be as inconspicuous as possible. What did he need from the Duty Free Shop anyway?
Notwithstanding all of the official interest, Mr Kim was also being kept in view by other, much more discreet observers who would be reporting back that his passage through Hong Kong had been totally sanitised. Mr Xu didn’t always trust even his most loyal lieutenants.
As always, Kim wondered what was the point of such close-quarters surveillance. He was at least half a head taller than any other Chinese man that he had ever known. How could he have become invisible in such a public place as an international airport?
Time passed slowly but fortunately the stopover was only short.
Back on the aircraft, where as far as Mr Kim knew he was not under surveillance, he took time to review his brief stay in the UK. As he had anticipated they would, the local Chinese gang leaders had detected much greater pressure from the authorities and the gossip through contacts in the London Civil Service seemed to suggest an increased level of cooperation around the world in response to the mainland Chinese’s increased activity. He wasn’t sorry that some of what he called the political stuff was being taken off him. He’d been impressed by the slip of a girl who was supposed to deal with the increasingly complex interface with the local gangs. But he wondered whether, remote from China, the power she held from her husband would be enough to impress and gain obedience from the British gang leaders. But then Kim wasn’t privy to the true nature of Mr Xu’s relationship with his clients and how little they trusted him. Contracting his wife to Xu was key insurance to Shi Xiulu.
‘Nobody seemed to know why there was this sudden increase in interest,’ Kim was to report to his principals later, ‘but it was very much about trafficking the illegal labour; nothing to do with the women trafficking.’
It was this analysis that the women trafficking was as yet not too strongly on the radar of the authorities in the UK that had occupied much of Kim’s thoughts on the Hong Kong to Melbourne leg of his journey.
But then he was never likely to have heard of Susie Peveral and her discreet crusading on the issue, or of David Hutchinson, whose subversion from his investigation into trafficking of illegal labour Ms Peveral was engineering.
Kim realised, however, that it was only a question of time. That it was on the radar of the authorities in Australia and Canada he did know, but his sense was that they were scratching about in the dark. That was a situation that his actions in Melbourne would change – snatching the young woman in China Town had attracted too much attention.
Women trafficking had always been the least of Kim’s concerns. But the particular client that his organisation was working for was far too powerful and far too valuable to neglect. The fact that the perfect woman, a virgin, was being held by another Chinese group was an inconvenience. Snatching the girl was a risk that had to be taken, according to Mr Xu. The fact that another of the high-value women was present was something that Kim couldn’t have foreseen. But her presence was to give the authorities a gold mine of information that could well lead to the shutting down of one of Mr Kim’s organisation’s rivals.
‘There has to be an easier way to earn a living,’ Kim said to himself once all the action in Melbourne was over, the dust had settled and he found himself in Echuca with a striking Chinese woman who for once raised other feelings than just contempt.
It was an expression he had picked up from one of the gang leaders in Manchester. Not having a sense of humour, Mr Kim didn’t really appreciate the subtlety of the remark; avoiding arrest in Lincolnshire one day and kidnapping a very attractive young woman like Alice Hou a week later seemed to him to be all in a day’s work.
And now there was Julie Li!
A week after their arrival at Echuca, Julie had so far failed to get on terms with Mr Kim, but she had begun to get to know Alice Hou. Kim proved to be something of a complex and often confusing character. The day after they had arrived he sent the driver to Swan Hill to hire a car. He then spent a couple of hours apparently driving around the locality making himself familiar with the late-model Holden that he had acquired. The driver remained on the boat to physically prevent Julie, let alone Alice, from even coming on deck.
Somehow as the days went by and Kim was forced to have more and more contact with her, she sensed that something of his distrust was abating and something that she found hard to define had crept into his behaviour towards her. Used to and expecting contempt from Kim, Julie took time to realise that a grudging respect was emerging in the way he related to her.
She guessed he could see that he didn’t frighten her.
Alice, on the other hand, seemed to shrink into herself more and more whenever Kim was anywhere near her; in his turn, he either ignored her or addressed her roughly and with the sort of contempt that Julie had expected to attract. The poor girl was totally intimidated by him and seemed increasingly to look to Julie as a barrier between them.
At the beginning of the second week Kim gestured Julie out on to the afterdeck of the houseboat and showed her his Black-Berry. Another email from the dreaded Mr Xu had arrived and Kim was required to show it to Julie.
The afterdeck was larger than the foredeck that they had used to deliver the packaged and terrified Alice. It had a guard rail all round it to protect the occupants of the houseboat from the engines, but it was also sheltered from view from the shore wher
e the vessel had been tied up.
The email gave Mr Kim instructions to give to Julie. Mr Xu came from a rather different world from Julie and it would never normally have occurred to him to deal directly with her.
‘We need to get busy,’ Kim said.
Even he could see that Alice was looking very jaded and nothing like the fresh faced and lively girl that Mr Xu clearly expected and wanted her to be.
The instructions were to get Alice fit and healthy and to tutor her in various domestic skills.
‘What does he mean tutor her in domestic skills? She’s been doing the cooking and all the other chores virtually since we arrived. I thought it would give her something to do since I have no idea how long we’re supposed to keep her here.’
‘Never mind that!’
‘What do you mean never mind that! You going to have to tell me how long we’re going to be here sometime, for Christ’s sake. I have another life as well as this.’
Mr Kim looked bemused and fleetingly anxious. Over the last week or so Julie had realised that talking back to him and challenging him were very effective ways of asserting her independence and forcing him to deal with her. And he knew that, if she were determined to leave him, there wasn’t much he could do beyond killing her. That was hardly an outcome that Mr Xu would have appreciated. Somewhere in his complex mind Mr Kim perceived that, despite the shadow of arrest that was supposed to hang over Julie, she would run if she felt that she had to. Julie’s real motivation seemed unlikely to occur to Kim, so successful had the petite Singapore police lieutenant been in selling her capabilities
‘You’ll be told!’
She needed to be told. She had been out of contact with the Australian Security Service for over two weeks now and, although they knew it would take time for her to establish herself, they would have been expecting her to attempt some sort of communication.
‘So what do you want me to do? I can take her jogging. That’ll do me some good, too. If I don’t get out of this tub soon, I’ll go mad staring at four small walls and you.’
It was light-heartedly said but again Mr Kim’s lack of a sense of humour meant that he picked up literally on what she had said and only concentrated on the idea of Alice and herself running freely around the countryside.
‘No way!’
‘Jesus, man, we’re supposed to groom her until she looks the picture of health and beauty according to your Mr Xu, whatever that means. I could take her to the Echuca gym; I’m sure they have one. You could come running with us!’
From the way that his body stiffened, Julie knew that Kim was getting angry. She backed off.
‘OK, go and buy an exercise bicycle in Swan Hill or somewhere. Not in town here. I used to use a gym so I’ll try and think up some exercises for her.’
The ease with which Mr Kim accepted her proposal told Julie two important things. One, he was desperate to be seen to carry out Xu’s orders, which confirmed her belief that he was frightened of him for some clearly very powerful reason, and two, his lack of imagination as well as sense of humour meant that he could be manipulated rather more easily than she had expected. Or at least so it seemed.
Why the invisible Mr Xu wanted Alice to be brought to a peak of fitness and health Julie didn’t bother to think about. She had to play along with Xu and Kim until something more concrete emerged on what was behind the whole women trafficking activity. Only then would the police and Security Service have the evidence to take action against it.
Her confidence in her understanding of Kim didn’t last.
‘I sent the driver away so I’ll have to go and get the exercise bicycle,’ he said the day after their discussion. ‘So I’ll have to leave you on your own.’
It was not a situation that Julie had been expecting.
And it was clearly a problem to Mr Kim. Alice, who was in earshot at first, looked expectant and then anxious.
Julie could see Kim’s difficulty.
‘OK,’ she said, ‘you’re either going to have to trust me or, if you can’t, what are you going to do – lock me up as well?’
Built as a temporary summer home, the houseboat, Julie had been quick to notice, had an almost impregnable security system.
Something in the gleam in Mr Kim’s eye told Julie that she wasn’t going to like the solution to the problem that had now occurred to him.
‘Get her clothes off.’
The panic-stricken Alice stripped off her meagre clothes which were snatched away by Kim. Silent tears rolled down Alice’s cheeks before something of the defiance that she was beginning to be able to muster showed. But beautiful as her body was Mr Kim showed no signs of even noticing.
‘Empty your pockets.’
Julie’s tight jeans didn’t allow much storage for even the most simple of female accoutrements, let alone any weapon.
When it was obvious what Kim had in mind, Julie offered up her left hand to be handcuffed to Alice’s right and her right to Alice’s left. Kim’s efforts to force them into a more awkward left hand to left hand and right to right posture were thwarted by a snarled comment from Julie. It was a small but useful victory for both their comfort and for Julie’s faltering confidence in handling Kim. His revenge was painful for Alice, if, as he clearly recognised, short-lived. The delight with which he applied the tape to her mouth earned him a bruise on his shin as Julie lashed out with her heavy boot. As acknowledgement of this riposte, with a grin, he made a gesture as if he was going to tape her mouth, too – something that was totally unexpected for Julie; it was almost erotic. Mr Kim, however, didn’t push his luck as far as actually doing so. The surge of feelings that Kim’s unexpected lascivious grin induced in Julie occupied her thoughts until Kim had secured the houseboat and driven off. She had definitely not yet plumbed the depths of Mr Kim!
Alice and she were in for an uncomfortable afternoon but at least she had preserved her cover.
With her mind on the erotic, Julie’s senses were perhaps overexcited. She quickly and rather brutally ripped the tape from Alice’s mouth and walked her awkwardly into the bedroom. In such close proximity to Alice, the look in the girl’s eyes came as a shock.
Julie felt herself being dragged on to the bed. Using the handcuffs to pull Julie’s arms around and behind herself, Alice relaxed until her head was resting on her companion’s chest. The warmth of Alice’s body penetrated Julie’s clothing.
What? Julie couldn’t believe it!
Julie had seen pain, fear, anxiety in Alice’s eyes whenever Kim went near her; what she was now seeing was something akin to pleasure. Alice was happy with what had happened!
Being forced into such intimate contact with Julie was clearly something that Alice was relishing.
God help me! What’s this all about?
That was soon obvious.
Alice thrust her body even harder into Julie, her breasts being crushed in the movement as Julie shuffled her body to sustain the pressure. Alice cocked her head sideways and brushed her lips over Julie’s. Her eyes sparkled. This was suddenly an Alice that Julie didn’t know. She’d metamorphosed suddenly, and in the absence of Kim, from a frightened child into something almost powerful and predatory.
Holy shit. They want her to be a virgin but this is…!
Julie’s brain went dead; the implications of Alice’s actions had stunned her. There was nothing in her wildest dreams, nightmares more like, that could have alerted her to what was happening.
As Alice started to gently gyrate her body against her all manner of feelings started to surge through Julie.
Holy shit, she thought again. What the hell am I going to do now.
Julie stiffened her body again and shook her head gently, but Alice was too far gone in her enjoyment of the physical contact. Her eyes glazed over; released by the intensity of her relief at Mr Kim’s absence, Alice seemed concentrated on snatching whatever moments of pleasure that she could.
Our Mr Kim would love this!
Except that there was n
o way on earth that she was going to tell him. Whatever the complications that Alice’s apparent lesbian tendency produced, letting Kim or the fearsome Mr Xu in on the secret was definitely not an option.
19
‘Kim’s a thug!’
Linda Shen didn’t offer her opinion to her husband unless he specifically asked. On this occasion, he had asked. He’d invited Mr Xu to dinner and was updating himself after his wife’s most recent trip to Britain. What Mr Shi’s business dealings with Xu were, as with all his business arrangements, her husband never explained; Linda was happy with this. Not only did she find Xu one of the most objectionable people that she had ever met, she sensed that her husband was no fonder of him than she was. But business was business and Kim had been one of her contacts while she was away. Her husband always made a point of being as well briefed as he could be before his dealings with any of his syndicate associates. It was one of the few things about him that his wife had a grudging respect for.
‘You dealt with him in England. How did you find him?’
There was no point in telling Mr Shi that Kim had only spoken to her when he had to, that his manner was rude and hectoring, and that she found him almost as unpleasant as his boss. She was a woman, albeit a new-generation Chinese woman, what did she expect? Notwithstanding, Kim still managed to be respectful enough to inhibit her from reporting his behaviour back to her husband.
‘Kim’s a thug. His manner to the people that we were dealing with was harsh, rude and, as far as I could see, very much resented. I think his insensitivity and his limited brain power are a serious problem for us.’
It wasn’t what Mr Shi wanted to hear but it was certainly what he feared he might hear. Nor was it entirely accurate. Kim was much more intelligent and complex than Linda had implied, but she realised that her trips to the UK would be much easier for her if she didn’t have to keep in touch with the man.
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