Jack Taggart Mysteries 9-Book Bundle. Don Easton

ng did not understand. After, the bald ape turned to the Vietnamese man.

      “Tell them all to stand,” said the bald ape, speaking English.

      “Yes, Styopa,” replied the Vietnamese man. He then gave the command in Vietnamese and everyone got to their feet.

      For Hng, the names Petya and Styopa were too foreign to pronounce. She would just think of them as the vulture and the bald ape.

      The vulture and the bald ape approached each woman and pointed for them to stand on one side of the room or the other. As this happened, the Vietnamese man wrote everyone’s names down on two lists.

      It is the Vietnamese custom not to look into a person’s face. To do so could imply a lack of respect. In this case, Hng sensed it was an uncomfortable shame the women felt as they stared down at the floor, wondering what the selection was all about. When the men reached Hng, the bald ape lifted her chin to face him, but she continued to avert her eyes.

      “You are the young one,” he said. “You speak English?” he asked.

      Hng nodded, but the man still gripped her chin, making nodding difficult.

      “Let me hear you talk,” he commanded.

      Hng swallowed and said, “Yes, I speak English. My father taught me.”

      “Good. And you are going to the States to live with an American family, correct?”

      “Yes, to live in the house of Mister Pops.”

      “Mister Pops!” The bald ape glanced at the vulture and they both chuckled before turning back to Hng. “Your English is good,” he said, releasing her chin. “Your sister was supposed to come. Why didn’t she?”

      “My father wanted me to go first. To make sure it would be good for my sister.”

      “That is very prudent,” said the vulture. “Your father is a wise man, but you will see that you are very happy there.”

      The bald ape grabbed Hng’s hand and held it up to show the vulture her extra thumb. Hng felt her face flush with embarrassment. The vulture spoke harshly to the bald ape in his own language and the ape dropped her hand. Hng felt his eyes upon her for a moment before they moved on.

      When the men finished dividing the women into two groups, the bald ape walked back to one young woman and poked her in the ribs with his finger and turned to his Vietnamese colleague and said, “This one is too fat. Nobody will want her.”

      The Vietnamese colleague said, “She is fat now, but she will be much thinner in six weeks when she arrives.”

      The bald ape blurted out a laugh.

      Hng had been warned that the voyage on the ship would be cramped, with little time on deck. It would be a tough journey, but one they were told they would forget completely once they arrived in America. Still, his cruel laugh—he is like the rats who live in the sewer. The sewer I must cross to America.

      She risked glancing at the vulture. His face was cold, without expression. A slit under his beak cracked open and he said, “They are all okay. Get them to the ship.”

      Moments later, Hng found herself crammed into the back of a large cube van. There was standing room only and she was glad that Ngc Bích had remained by her side.

      It was three hours later when they hurried up a wooden gangplank in the dark to the deck of a ship. The women were told to remain in the two groups they had been divided in. Each group was directed to a separate cargo hold.

      They were told to climb down a ladder leading below deck and a man stood at the top of each ladder to help. Hng stooped to get on the ladder and felt the man grab the cheek of her buttock and squeeze tight while emitting a laugh.

      Hng gasped but before she could respond, Ngc Bích slapped the man hard across his face. He released his grip immediately and pulled back a fist to punch Ngc Bích in the face. At the same time, another man’s voice uttered a command from the darkness for them to be quiet.

      The man who had grabbed Hng scowled and lowered his fist. He grabbed Hng by the arm and made her go with the second group of women. She quickly made her way down the ladder into the cargo hold and, along with the others, stood waiting for further instructions.