Li shrugged, and Soong quickly ran the wand over him from head to foot, front to back. Satisfied that he was clean, Soong dropped it back on the table and said, ‘Smart man. Maybe we can get down to business now.’
Li said, ‘You were going to tell me who the ah kung is. The one they call Kat.’
Soong smiled. ‘I don’t really need to do that, Mr. Li, do I?’ Li canted his head and shrugged his eyebrows and Soong added, ‘But, you know, I’m not the monster you think I am.’
‘You have no idea what I think, Soong.’
‘Oh, I could have a pretty good guess. I’m sure you’re thinking how you would love to get me in an interrogation room back in Beijing, stick me with a cattle prod, deprive me of sleep. And you’re probably wondering how it was with me and your sister. When I fucked her. You know, that night at the Golden Mountain Club.’ It was a deliberate and spiteful provocation, Soong testing his power, pushing Li to the limit, wondering perhaps just how far he could go. ‘Well, she was just another whore.’
With a composure that he didn’t feel, Li said, ‘And you were just another trick.’ He scratched his chin thoughtfully, trying to recall her exact words. ‘What was it she said…? Short and fat, with a big belly and bad breath. They get on top of you and hump for a couple of minutes and then they’re all spent. It’s hard to tell who you’re with. Sound about right?’
Soong glared at him. He was vulnerable on vanity. ‘I offer our people the chance of a better life,’ he said in a voice that barely concealed his anger. ‘Hope, not hardship, Mr. Li. Dollars, not deprivation. In China they have no freedom. In America at least they can dream.’
‘You’re a real philanthropist,’ Li said.
Soong bristled. ‘No, I’m a businessman. Nothing in life is free And, of course, there is a price to pay. But I enable them to pay it. I lend money to the families in China so they can make down payments to send their loved ones to Meiguo—to the Beautiful Country. When they get here, I find them jobs so that they can pay off the debts and pay up the balance. I make it possible for them to send money home to their families in Fujian. And I am much more efficient at it than the Bank of China.’ He snorted his derision. ‘They take three weeks to send cash. Their exchange rates are terrible, and they will only deal in yuan. My rates are as good as any you can find in America, I deliver the money in a matter of hours, and always in dollars.’
‘What a hero,’ Li said. ‘If you were a Catholic they’d make you a saint.’ He lit a cigarette. ‘And I suppose the sixty thousand dollars you charge is just to cover expenses.’
‘It is an expensive business, transporting people halfway across the world, providing papers, accommodation, bribing officials. But, of course, I make a profit. It is the business I am in.’
‘The exploitation business,’ Li said. ‘Charging poor people more money than they could dream of in a lifetime to come to America and be forced into slave labour. An only slightly more sophisticated version of what the British did to the Africans two hundred years ago.’
Soong was losing patience. ‘There is no point in debating the issue with you, Li. You will never be convinced. But every single Chinese I bring into this country has the chance to work his way to freedom.’
‘In brothels and gambling dens?’ Li had a vivid picture in his head of his sister, tears streaming down her face, as she sat in the interview room at the Holliday Unit, and he took a long pull at his cigarette to try to keep his anger battened down.
Soong hissed his frustration. ‘I never pretended it was easy,’ he snapped. ‘I travelled the same road myself, and look where I am now. I don’t know many who would exchange their shot at the American Dream for life under the Communists.’ He stabbed a finger in Li’s direction. ‘And as for your precious Chinese government, their attempts at stopping illegal immigration are a joke. Hah! I’ve seen the posters in Fujian myself. WE MUST INTENSIFY OUR EFFORTS IN STOPPING THE PATHOLOGIC SOCIAL TREND OF IRREGULAR IMMIGRATION. And…ATTACK THE SNAKEHEADS, DESTROY THE SNAKEPITS, PUNISH THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. It’s pathetic!’ Pinpoints of light burned deep in his black eyes. ‘The truth is, Beijing wants them to go. There are too many people already in China, and too few jobs. And once they are here, all those illegal immigrants send money home. They inject millions into the local economy of Fujian. An economy that would probably collapse without them.’ Tiny specks of spittle were gathering around the corners of his mouth. ‘The snakeheads are the people’s friends.’
‘Shutting the air vents in that truck and murdering ninety-eight people wasn’t very friendly,’ Li said.
Soong’s face coloured. ‘That was an accident. The vent got closed by mistake. It was a terrible thing.’
‘Yeah, it cost you six million dollars.’
‘Actually,’ Soong looked at him very directly and said levelly, ‘it was more than that. I have already ordered that every penny paid to send these poor people to America be paid back to the bereaved families.’
‘I’m sure that will more than compensate for their loss,’ Li said.
Soong almost flinched from the acid in his tone. ‘I didn’t like you the first time I met you, Li,’ he said. ‘And you’re not doing anything to change my first impressions.’ He paused to take a deep breath and steady himself. ‘It gave me nothing but pain to see my fellow countrymen die like that.’
Li leaned forward to stub out his cigarette. ‘Is that why you’re injecting them with a lethal virus?’ He saw Soong’s jaw clench, and the skin darken around his eyes.
‘That,’ Soong said, in a low, dangerous voice, ‘was nothing to do with us.’ He paused for a long time, then he said, ‘About six months ago we subcontracted the final leg of the journey — the border crossing — to a well-establish gang from Colombia. They had been bringing drugs into the United States successfully for decades. They knew all the routes, every trick. And their success rate has been 30 percent higher than ours.’
Li frowned. ‘Why would Colombian drug smugglers want to bring in illegal Chinese?’
‘Because the money’s just as good, but the risks are a lot lower,’ Soong said. ‘The penalties handed out by courts in the US for people smuggling are much lighter than they are for drugs.’
‘So why were they injecting them with the flu virus?’
Soong shook his head grimly. ‘We have no idea. We made contact with them immediately after our meeting with you yesterday. Of course they denied it, but then they would, wouldn’t they?’ He walked toward the window and gazed at his own reflection for a moment. ‘But we’ll find out,’ he said. ‘We owe them around ten million dollars. As of today I have put a stop on all payments.’ He turned and smiled at Li. ‘We may be about to witness the first ever Chinese-Colombian war. One way or another we’ll come up with answers and put a stop to it.’
Li said, ‘And how are you going to stop me having you arrested?’
Soong laughed in his face. ‘You can’t have me arrested, Li. You have no evidence. Not a scrap. And I am a respectable citizen, a democratically elected member of the city council.’
Li started to circle the table, Soong watching carefully his every step. ‘Tell me how you managed to keep your identity a secret for so long, Soong,’ Li said.
Soong shrugged. ‘Quite simple. When you employ so many people in so many different countries, you never deal directly with any of them. Everything is delegated. So there are only a handful of people who know my real identity, and they are all making far too much money to betray me.’