Chapter 12: Crisis of Conscience

"My visa runs out in a month," the woman said with a heavy accent.

That was a problem and one which Dave had no intention of even trying to solve. Keeping on the correct side of the law while making an adult video was problem enough. He didn't need the additional problems of keeping someone in the country legally.

Dave said, "We can't help you with a visa."

The woman said, "I don't need visa. I need money. I need a lot of money."

"You do know that you'll have to have sex with people," Dave said wondering if she actually understood what the job entailed.

"I know. Everyone want to fuck Asian chick. So I figure, get paid for it."

"I guess," Dave said.

"Your ad said regular work in private adult film. Regular work mean regular money. I want money."

"I see that you have a degree," Dave said glancing back down at the information she had provided.

"Yes. I have a degree, but no job," the woman answered.

Dave said, "I'll need your passport to make a copy of it."

The woman dug around in her purse. She handed him the passport. He looked at the cover and saw that she was from South Korea. He photocopied it and then looked at the passport with a little more care. He took a minute to make sure that she was over eighteen. She was twenty-four.

He flipped to the page where her visa was stamped in it. He photocopied her visa thinking that he would have to check to make sure she was allowed to work. This was an issue that hadn't come up yet and he had no idea how to deal with it. He then handed the passport back to her.

He said, "Go into the other office. Sue Ellen will take your picture."

"I start work now?"

Dave shook his head. "No. We will give your picture to our investor and he will decide if we hire you."

"When will you know?"

"Probably tomorrow. If we hire you, you'll have to get a blood test from our doctor. You can start work when we get the results back," Dave said.

"Tell investor that I fuck him for job," the woman said bluntly.

Dave said, "I'll get back in touch with you."

"Okay."

"One last thing. What name do you want to use?"

"Mimi."

"That's M I M I?" Dave asked wondering if it should be 'me me.'

"Yes."

"Go to the other office now."

Sue Ellen looked up at the woman who entered her office. When she had learned that an Asian woman had applied, she had images of a cute little Asian doll. The woman who came in had the expected long black hair and small stature. She didn't have much in the breast department. Her round face was kind of flat and rather plain looking.

Sue Ellen said, "If you'll get undressed, I'll take your picture."

Mimi dropped her clothes without hesitation. Sue Ellen handed her a little brush to fluff up her pubic hair. Mimi brushed it out and tried to hand the brush back to Sue Ellen.

"Keep it or throw it away."

Mimi dropped the brush on the desk and said, "Ready for picture."

Sue Ellen thought Mimi was a little too thin. Her overall impression was that Mimi wasn't attractive. Mimi took up the suggested poses and Sue Ellen snapped the pictures. Even Cat, when she was just posing, had done a better job of looking sexy.

She sent the woman packing without engaging her in much conversation. There was something about her manner that set her teeth on edge. Her smile, when she smiled, was only surface deep. There was a brittle hardness about her that screamed out that she was a user.

Andrew looked over the pictures getting excited. He asked, "She's willing to do this?"

"Yes," Dave said.

"You checked with the lawyer and everything is okay?" Andrew asked.

"Yes."

Sue Ellen said, "She's not a nice person."

"She's Asian. I've never had sex with an Asian," Andrew said while tapping Mimi's picture.

"I don't trust her," Dave said.

"I don't like her," Sue Ellen said.

Dismissing their concerns, Andrew said, "Oh come on. What could she do?"

"She could try to blackmail us," Sue Ellen said.

That stopped Andrew cold. He frowned while thinking about it. That could be a real problem, particularly in light of Bambi's recent success.

He asked, "What can we do to protect ourselves?"

"Let me run a background investigation on her," Dave said.

"Do it," Andrew said.

It was several days later when Dave, Andrew, and Sue Ellen met to discuss Mimi. They gathered in the conference room. Andrew looked upbeat. Dave and Sue Ellen looked unhappy.

Andrew asked, "What did you find out?"

Dave said, "She was a student and did graduate with a degree in business."

"Excellent," Andrew said.

"She had a job as intern at an import/export company. They chose not to hire her but they've done that with other Asian interns. It seems they work them until their visa expires and then replace them with the next year of graduates," Dave said.

"That's not very nice," Andrew said.

Dave said, "It's actually what was intended in the student visa program."

"Still, that's not very nice," Andrew said.

"The bad news is that she's been working in a massage parlor for the entire time that she's been in the country," Dave said.

"She knows how to give massages?" Andrew asked perking up.

Dave said, "She works at a rub and tug shop. That's a quasi-legal business which is a front for prostitution."

"I knew that," Andrew said.

He had tried massage parlors. He found it an empty experience. There was a lot of poking and prodding that didn't really relax any muscles. It ended with a quick five minute hand job given by a bored looking woman.

Sue Ellen said, "I don't like her."

"I don't either," Dave said flatly.

Seeing the stubborn look on Sue Ellen's face and Dave's arms crossed over his chest, Andrew said, "Okay. We won't hire her."

"Good," Dave said with relief in his voice.

"Tell her," Andrew said.

Later that afternoon, Dave, Sue Ellen, and Andrew were again in the conference room. Dave had asked to meet and discuss a new matter that had arisen.

Andrew asked, "What is it?"

"I got an answer back from Mimi," Dave said.

"Is she threatening us?"

Dave said, "No. She wrote back that she knows a girl who will be arriving to this country as a student in ten days. She'll send her to us."

"That's nice of her," Andrew said. "Maybe we were wrong about her."

Shaking his head, Dave said, "She wants ten thousand dollars as a finder fee if we hire the girl."

"That bitch," Sue Ellen spat.

"I'm glad we didn't hire her," Andrew said.

Sue Ellen looked over at Dave. He had his arms crossed and his face had his stubborn look on it. She exhaled knowing that he was about to charge off on his white horse to correct some wrong.

She asked, "What is it?"

"I don't like it. I don't like it at all," Dave said.

"It's the exploitation angle, isn't it?" Sue Ellen asked.

"Exactly," Dave said.

Andrew asked, "What are you talking about?"

Dave said, "This girl is coming to this country to get a degree. Mimi is already pimping her out for a job in the sex industry. It makes you wonder if this isn't some kind of organized scam to exploit young women who are looking to better themselves by getting an American education. I'd bet money that they would expect her to pay them a portion of whatever she earns."

"You don't know that for a fact," Andrew said with a frown.

Dave said, "That's true. I don't know that for a fact. However, I'm sure that whoever is behind this is going to get her into prostitution with us or with someone else before long."

Sue Ellen said, "I say we drop the whole business."

Andrew said, "I agree with Sue Ellen."

Dave said, "I don't know if I can."

In a forceful voice, Sue Ellen said, "Drop it, Dave. I'm warning you that nothing good can come out of it if you pursue this."

Dave exhaled loudly. He stood up without his cane and paced around the room. Sue Ellen watched him knowing that he was having a fight with his conscience. The fact that he wasn't using his cane told her that it wasn't an easy decision. Suddenly, he sighed, his posture sagged, and he returned to the chair. His face looked like he had just finished sucking a lemon.

"What did you decide?" Sue Ellen asked.

"You're right. I'll drop it," Dave said bitterly. "It's just that this sounds too much like white slavery and that's wrong."

Andrew nodded his head and wisely stayed quiet. He knew the tension between Dave and Sue Ellen could snap and backlash in the wrong direction if he said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Putting her hand on his, Sue Ellen said, "Let's go home, honey."

"We'll go after I tell Mimi thanks for thinking of us, but it is our policy that we won't pay a finders fee," Dave said, patting her hand with his other hand.

He expected that in a few weeks he would be getting another e-mail from a South Korean lady looking for work. He knew that Andrew wouldn't like it, but he made up his mind that he wouldn't bother interviewing foreigners. There was just too much risk of getting into trouble.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Andrew said quietly.

A minute later, Andrew was alone in the conference room. He was deep in thought considering what Dave had said. Deep in his heart he knew that Dave was right. Something smelled about that whole mess and Dave didn't like it. That was enough for Andrew. He got up and went home despite the fact that it was only the middle of the afternoon.

Andrew had just finished telling Amber and Cat what Dave suspected was happening with girls from South Korea. Bambi was at school at the moment. With her recent success, it was very likely that she'd be moving out soon.

Cat listened to the story without saying a word. Sitting back on the sofa, she crossed her legs and her arms. Her head was turned slightly away and tilted down. She had a disapproving look on her face, although she didn't look at Andrew.

She wasn't moved by the circumstances the woman found herself in. She had avoided it and knew that others could avoid it as well. The woman, whoever she was, was where she was because she had made a decision to be there.

Amber was staring off into the distance deep in thought. Occasionally she would give a weak frown and shake her head. Sometimes, it was a weak smile with a node of her head. Most of the time, though, her face was a tight mask that didn't give away what she was thinking.

She didn't appear to take notice when Andrew cleared his throat. Cat looked at him.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Shrugging her shoulders, Cat said, "Stay out of it."

Andrew asked, "How can you say that?"

"She made some bad decisions. She has to live with them," Cat said.

Not wanting to point out the obvious, but feeling it was necessary, Andrew said, "You made some bad decisions."

Cat said, "I know and I'm living with them."

Andrew said, "Amber?"

"What?" Amber asked noticing for the first time that he was talking.

"What do you think?"

Amber was silent for a moment. Although the girl coming to the states could have been in the same position financially as Bambi, there was something dirty about this. That whole bit about a finder's fee made it seem like the girl was being sold. Finally, she said, "Drop a dime on them."

"Call the police?" Cat asked.

"Not the police. You need to call Immigration. Foreign women being brought here, possibly to be sold as a sexual slave or something. They are using student visas to get the women into the country. Call them and give them all the information that you've been able to dig up. It is up to Immigration to straighten it out," Amber said.

"We don't need any immigration agents coming here. They're federal agents and they'll just arrest everyone," Cat said horrified.

Even though she was born in this country, she couldn't help having a gut level reaction to immigration. She'd heard horror stories growing up about them coming into a workplace and hauling everyone off. Families would be split up and it could be days before anyone knew what happened. With Mom or Dad getting deported, the rest of the family was left behind trying to figure out how to get by. Sometimes it would be months or years before they would be reunited.

Andrew said, "I'd hate to expose you to this."

Cat said, "We're not the only ones. Bambi would be blindsided by it if the feds showed up to investigate us. This could destroy her career."

Snorting, Amber said, "Take a trip out of town. Get a tracfone and call them anonymously. Dump the tracfone in a river or burn it up in a fire after you make the call."

"That sounds like something out of a movie," Andrew said.

He didn't know of a movie, per se, that had a scene like that, but it sounded like something that should be in one. He sat there for a minute trying to remember if he'd ever seen anything like that. Still, it sounded like something a spy would do. It sounded a little adventurous and that spoke to the game player and sci-fi lover inside him.

"Well, it gives you a clear conscience while putting the monkey on the back of immigration. Straightening this out is their job, not ours. Let them do it," Amber said.

Andrew thought about it. He grinned when he thought about how Dave would react when he learned what he was going to do. Then he thought about how much Dave would enjoy being the one who made the phone call. Thinking it over a little more, he realized that he should let Dave handle it. The problem was, he wanted in on it.

As if Amber was reading his mind, she said, "You and Dave can do it together. You buy the cell phone and scope out the location. One of you can drive the car. Let him make the call. You should both write the script so that you don't give away any details about yourselves and us."