A moment later Sofia was in a large dressing room. Ginny sat in a chair while Sofia undressed. The manager made a face when she saw that Sofia’s undergarments were cotton.
“Perhaps madame would like to see some of our lingerie?” she said. “We have the latest styles, French and American. Silk or nylon.”
Sofia smiled. “Thank you, madame. Perhaps I can use a selection of both kinds.”
The manager came with a tape measure and Sofia undid her brassiere and slipped from her panties. Professionally the saleswoman checked her measurements. A moment later she left the two women in the dressing room.
Ginny looked at Sofia. “I told you before, but no one would know from your clothing, what a fantastic body you have.”
“Thank you,” Sofia said.
“No wonder Mr. Crane wants you to get a new wardrobe.”
Sofia smiled. “I thought he did this for all his girl friends.”
Ginny laughed. “Not all of them. But this is the first time he’s ever done it for his doctor.”
Sofia looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She saw Ginny stand behind her.
“Did you ever have your breasts done?” Ginny asked.
She met the girl’s eyes. “Never.”
“I can’t believe it,” Ginny said. “They’re absolutely perfect.”
Sofia still watched her in the mirror. “You can check them if you don’t believe me.”
Ginny hesitated a moment, then put her arms around Sofia’s back and cupped her breasts in her hands. Sofia looked at Ginny’s eyes in the mirror. The stewardess’s hands were almost hot; Sofia felt her nipples harden.
“Do you believe me now?” Sofia asked.
Reluctantly, slowly, Ginny withdrew her hands. Their eyes were still meeting in the mirror. Ginny’s voice whispered harshly, “Yes.”
After a moment, the door to the dressing room opened. Ginny returned to her chair as several girls entered with piles of clothing.
***
The sun was hot and the air humid above the water on the far side of the island. Li Chuan and Judd stood next to the sailor driving the mahogany Riva. Li Chuan pointed out a motor yacht half a mile in front. “That’s his boat. It’s always in Repulse Bay.”
“Would he be on board?” Judd asked.
“No, according to his schedule he should be swimming,” Li Chuan replied. “He said the earliest appointment he could give you is three days from now.”
Judd’s voice was flat. “We’ll talk to him right now. Slow down to two knots and keep a sharp lookout for him.”
The powerful motors softened to a whisper. Slowly the Riva began a wide circle. Ten minutes later they saw the yellow balloon bobbing in the water and three black heads before it.
Judd began to take off his clothes. “Head as close to them as you can with safety.” He pulled off his shoes and socks when the Riva was twenty meters away from them. He stepped over the windscreen onto the prow of the Riva. He waved his arms over his head. The black heads in the water suddenly grew faces as they turned to him. “Cut the engines,” Judd ordered.
Judd stood naked except for his bikini. He could see one of the men treading water lift an Uzi submachine gun in a waterproof plastic wrapper, which he tore off expertly.
Judd dove into the water and came up close to the man. “Be careful with that toy,” he said. “Use it and we all wind up blown apart in this water.”
Another man next to the one with the Uzi spoke. There was no fear in his voice. “What do you want of us?”
“I’m Judd Crane,” he said, treading water.
The man looked at him. “Didn’t your man tell you that we gave you an appointment three days from now?”
“Yes,” Judd said. “But I thought it better that we meet immediately.”
“Here? In the river?”
“It’s as good as any other place.”
“Very irregular, I must say.” The man’s face creased into a faint smile. “Do you always hold your meetings like this?”
“Not usually,” Judd said. “But then, business doesn’t offer me many opportunities to meet such men as S. Yuan Ling.”
Mr. Ling laughed. “You are younger than I thought, Mr. Crane.”
“Thank you,” Judd said. “Do I have your ear?”
“That is a Chinese proverb,” Mr. Ling said. “A deaf ear doesn’t listen to opportunity.”
Judd moved closer to him and they tread water face to face. “My information tells me you have a twenty-million-dollar deposit on six ships that Mitsubishi is constructing for you. Also that the first three are going to make their trials next spring.”
Mr. Ling nodded. “That’s true.”
“My information also has it that Mitsubishi plans to ship the steel to my bridge project in Malaysia on those ships’ sea trials. After that the vessels will be turned over to you for the remainder of the cost you and they have already agreed on.”
The Chinese was silent for a moment. “How much are they planning to charge you for shipping your steel?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.”
S. Yuan Ling nodded. “Very clever, these Japanese.”
Judd nodded back. “Very clever.”
“Would you agree to four hundred thousand dollars?”
“Yes,” Judd said.
“We have a deal.” The Chinese held out his hand. “May I invite you to lunch aboard the yacht?”
“I apologize,” Judd said. “I’m running a bit late for some other appointments. May I have the honor another time?”
“Of course,” the Chinese replied. “Any time.”
Judd swam to the Riva. A sailor held out a hand and helped him aboard. Judd turned to the Chinese still swimming and waved his hand. He turned to the sailor. “Let’s go.”
Slowly the Riva reversed engines and moved away from the swimmers, then swung in a wide circle. The helmsman opened the throttle full and the speedboat raced back to shore.
11
The limousine pulled up next to the plane. Sofia and Ginny stepped out. “I’ll have everything brought to your cabin,” Ginny said.
“Thank you.” Sofia smiled. She touched her head, a tinge of nervousness came into her voice. “Do you think he’ll like the way I look?”
Ginny laughed. “If he doesn’t, he has to be crazy.”
“That was the first time I’ve been in a beauty parlor in five years,” Sofia said. “I didn’t even recognize myself in the mirror.”
“You look just fine,” Ginny said. “Stop worrying.”
“It cost a fortune.”
“Not to him,” Ginny said. “Now, go ahead. I’ll bring up your clothes and you can put on one of the new things. He’ll be knocked out.”
Li Chuan was in the lounge when Sofia entered. He bowed slightly. “Was your shopping trip successful, Doctor?”
“Very much so, thank you,” she said. “Is Mr. Crane aboard?”
“He’s in his cabin, getting a massage,” he said. He held out his hand to Sofia. “It has been a pleasure to meet you, Doctor.”
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I have to get back to the office and the plane is leaving for the States at eight o’clock.”
She glanced at her watch. It was seven o’clock. “That’s in one hour,” she said in surprise.
He nodded. “Mr. Crane told the captain to hold until you return.” He paused for a moment; when he spoke again it was in Chinese. “I did not mention to him that we have met before.”
She looked at him. His eyes revealed nothing. “Thank you, Comrade,” she replied, also in Chinese.
He spoke quickly. “I think he would be more confident about you if you told him about your work with Mao, rather than if he has to discover it through his security check.”
She nodded, without replying.
“Also, if he should mention anything about the pharmaceutical deal, I would be grateful if you could pass his comments along to me.”
; “Yes, Comrade.”
He switched back to English. “I hope we will meet again, Doctor.”
“I hope so, Mr. Li Chuan,” she said, also in English. “And again, thank you for your help.”
She watched him leave the lounge just as Ginny entered with two porters carrying the packages behind her.
***
The telephone next to her bed buzzed softly. She pressed the rheostat so the light dimmed. “Yes,” she replied huskily.
“I’m sorry,” Judd’s voice came over softly. “I didn’t want to awaken you.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “I didn’t realize that shopping was so exhausting.”
“Was it fun?”
“Much to my surprise, yes,” she said. “By the way, thank you for all the lovely things.”
“I want to do it.”
“Did you have a good massage?” she asked.
He seemed to hesitate. “Yes. Would you like one?”
She became aware of the hum of the jets and glanced out the window. The night stars were flickering. “Don’t tell me you also have a masseur on board?”
He chuckled. “Not a masseur. Two masseuses. They’re very good. They’re going only as far as Honolulu, then they go back to Hong Kong.”
She was silent.
“You can think about it later,” he said. “I called you to ask if you’d join me for dinner.”
She glanced at the blue light on the digital clock. “It’s ten-thirty.”
“No hurry,” he said. “I’ll wait.”
She heard the phone click off in her ear before she could answer. Slowly she sat up in bed, picked up the telephone again and pressed the service button.
Ginny answered. “Yes, Doctor?”
“May I please have a pot of strong coffee?” she asked.
“Of course, Doctor,” Ginny said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Sofia got out of bed and went into the shower. A few minutes later she was back in the cabin wrapped in a towel. The stewardess was there waiting for her.
The coffee was hot, black and strong. “That’s good,” Sofia said.
Ginny stood there.
Sofia looked at her. “Is there anything wrong?”
The girl’s voice was tight, strained. “You’re going up to him, aren’t you?”
Sofia nodded. “Of course.”
Tears flooded into Ginny’s eyes. “Please. Don’t go up there. Not tonight. After we had such a beautiful day together.”
“Ginny,” she said softly, understanding. “Child.”
“Please.” Ginny seemed almost begging. “I don’t want him to use you the way he does all the others. I love you.”
“Have you ever—?”
Ginny interrupted her. “We don’t have any choice. He buys and owns all of us.”
Sofia looked at her, then drew the girl to her. Ginny’s voice was muffled against her shoulder. “But you don’t have to jump through his hoop. He doesn’t own you.”
“Child, child,” Sofia whispered. “You do not understand. Everyone, yes everyone, is owned by somebody or something.”
Ginny looked up into her face. “Then you’re not in love with him?”
“No,” Sofia said. “I am not in love with him.”
“But you will go with him?”
“Yes,” Sofia nodded.
“I hate him!” Ginny said angrily.
Sofia was silent.
“Do you love me?” Ginny asked.
Sofia met her eyes. “Perhaps, in time.”
The sun streaming through the window was burning her eyes. By shutting her eyelids she managed to close the shade. She rolled over in the bed. She had a splitting headache and opened her eyes again. She sat up. She was in her own cabin. She took a deep breath. It was strange. She did not remember coming down the stairs.
She rolled out of bed to the bathroom. Quickly popped two aspirin tablets and a five-milligram Valium. She took a deep breath and stepped into the shower, turned on the water full blast. Ice cold first, then hot, then ice cold again. Her head began to clear a little.
She stepped from the shower and reached for the bath towel, then was shocked frozen by what she saw in the full-length mirror. Her naked body was almost wholly covered with tiny black-and-blue bruises all the way from her jutting breasts, across her belly, to her hips. She stared at herself in disbelief. Her pubis had been cleanly shaven, her mons veneris was swollen like Mount Vesuvius and her clitoris felt sore and was red, like lava from the volcano’s lips.
She took a deep breath and turned to look over her shoulder at her back. Thin red lash stripes crisscrossed her back and buttocks. Tentatively she touched the bruises. There was no pain. Again she coursed her fingers over her buttocks, then cupped her breasts. Still no pain.
Slowly she wrapped the towel around herself and walked into the cabin. She sat on the bed and tried to remember what had happened last night. But it was all a blank.
She picked up the telephone and pressed the service button. Raoul, the chief steward, answered. “Yes, Doctor.”
“What time do we expect to land in Honolulu?”
Raoul’s voice was impassive. “We departed Honolulu three hours ago, Doctor.”
She hesitated for a moment. “Could you ask Ginny to bring a pot of coffee for me?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” the steward said without expression. “Ginny left the flight in Honolulu. I’ll have a pot of coffee sent to you.”
Then it all came back to her. Just as she put down the phone. It was almost as if it had been a nightmare. The little Chinese girls, like two peas in a pod. Identical twins. Naked and rolling the small pill-like gum of opium in their fingers, lighting the pipe and holding the stem to her mouth with delicate little hands.
Then the lovely clouds and silver mist. Floating inside her body and then feeling outside the beauty of her body as the tiny girls touched her, feeling the love in all her nerves. Then the orgasm that had exploded her into a million tiny fragments, shattering her body in the blackness of night.
The blackness was exploded by pain. She fought the night to climb back up to consciousness. Then the pain began again. She opened her eyes and saw Ginny’s face, snarling with rage and hatred, teeth tearing at her, then the thin lashes of the whip. She screamed and screamed and screamed.
Then the door had been pushed open. Suddenly, Ginny was gone. Judd was looking down at her. She tried to speak to him, but she heard no sound.
It was his voice that she finally heard. “Ice pack, procaine, and ACTH ointment. Lots of it. Two Syrettes of Demerol.”
“Pain,” she said. “Pain.”
“It will be gone in a moment,” he said. Then she fell back into blackness.
A knock came at the door. “Come in,” she called.
Judd looked in. “May I?”
She nodded.
He stood to one side as a stewardess placed the tray with the pot of coffee on the small table next to her bed. He waited until the stewardess was gone.
“How do you feel?”
“I hurt,” she said. She sipped at the coffee. “Maybe you are a better doctor than I am. I never knew what was happening.”
“The opium put you away,” Judd said. “You were asleep when we took you to your cabin.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I could have been killed.”
“The girl was crazy,” he said. “None of us could have known that. Not until we broke through the door and saw her there.”
She looked at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make any trouble.”
“It was not your fault,” he said. “Anyway, I’m happy that you’re okay.”
She was silent for a moment. “Again, thank you.”
“We’ll be in San Francisco in about four hours,” he said. “Why don’t you sleep until then? I know a doctor there who will help your bruises disappear in less than a day.”
12
The helicopter that carried them from the San Francisco airport to Cran
e City set them down exactly at eleven in the morning. Two automobiles were awaiting them.
Several men were standing as they descended from the copter. One of them, a tall distinguished man with salt-and-pepper gray hair, held out his hand. “Judd.”
Judd grasped his hand. “Jim. Thanks for meeting us so promptly.” He turned to Sofia. “Sofia, this is Dr. Marlowe. Brigadier General Marlowe, retired, was formerly in charge of the burn and skin center at NASA hospital in Houston. Jim, this is Doctor Ivancich, Sofia.”
The two doctors shook hands. “How do you feel, Doctor?” Jim asked.
“Sore,” Sofia answered. “But I feel they are mostly surface contusions.”
Jim smiled. “We’ll take a look at it. I’ll take you to the clinic.”
Sofia turned to Judd questioningly.
Judd smiled reassuringly. “I’ll be at my office. As soon as Jim takes care of you, he’ll bring you over.”
He watched as Dr. Marlowe’s car rolled away. Fast Eddie and Merlin followed him to the other car. He raised the window that separated the chauffeur from the passengers and looked at Merlin. “How come Ginny’s psychomedical report didn’t uncover her latent psychosis?”
“Nobody knows,” Merlin said. “They’re reevaluating the tests now.”
“I want a full review of it as well as the complete tests and procedures. All it would take is one nut like that to blow us all out of the sky.”
Merlin knew better than to reply. Judd’s anger was never obvious on the surface, but it was deadly. He had no tolerance for mistakes.
Judd changed the subject. “Did you notify Judson at construction about S. Yuan Ling?”
“Yes. He was very pleased. Also he asked me to tell you that he is reworking the bridge construction labor method and thinks that he can bring that down by about another million dollars.”
“Good,” Judd nodded. “Is Barbara meeting me at the office?”
“Yes, sir.”
Judd nodded and leaned back into the seat and lowered the chauffeur’s window. He snapped his fingers. Fast Eddie looked back over his seat. He knew what was wanted.
The small gold vial and spoon passed in the palm of his hand. Judd covered his hand and turned to the corner of the car. He felt better as soon as the two snorts of cocaine hit him. He nodded and palmed the vial and spoon back to Fast Eddie.
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