Chapter 44: The Chinese Girls

Before Dawn, Sunday August 17, 2008

A Pier at Salaverry, Peru

Right on time, a member of the Cousins watching the Five’s ship “Cinco Alono Medicale” saw two drug company heavy trucks pull up to the pier. It was still dark, but he had night vision equipment. As soon as the trucks were in place, girls were marched down the gangplank and loaded onto the trucks using steps. In the dark, human nature is to move toward the light, so the girls were easy to direct with dim lights on the plank and the steps. In the dark nobody else was watching as the human cargo entered Peru.

They were chained together with waist chains in four groups of 11 each, plus they were cuffed in front. Interestingly, there was a man included in one of the groups. They were not bagged but they had tape across their mouths and were dressed in super cheap, one-size-fits-nobody paper jumpsuits. Each chain of girls was directed by a member of the crew waving a pistol. There were two guards from the Five giving directions, they held M-1 carbines that were probably five or six decades old. Relics of D-Day, Korea and VietNam, a lot of these guns went to Latin American militaries when the US switched weapons to M-16s.

Once they were loaded one guard rode in the back of each truck, and one of the ship’s crew members rode in the cab of each truck with the driver. By the time the trucks cleared the dock and got on the coastline road the sun was up, which told us that these guys had the timing down. Early on a Sunday the roads were pretty empty, any car following the trucks would be easily spotted. A Cousin launched what looked like an RC aircraft, it was set up with a TV camera and a much longer range than usual. The Cousin’s ship sailed north, parallel to the coastline at 30 knots. The trucks were pulling away but not much, the RC plane followed and watched.

As the trucks got close to the airport a van passed them. Inside the van an indian with a crossbow fired through an open window of the van into the canvas cover on the back of each of the trucks. The bolt was designed to stick in the canvas and was fitted with a small microphone and transmitter. I got the tape later.

A few minutes before the trucks entered the airport, the guard in the lead truck got a phone call. The caller identified himself as “Juan” at the charter aircraft company. He said that there was a mechanical problem with the Caribou that had been chartered. He understood the cargo was time sensitive so another, larger plane had been dispatched at no extra charge. The replacement would be a little late. People “at the other end” had also been contacted with the particulars. The guard acknowledged the call.

The trucks pulled up in the freight area in the airport where they were supposed to be, on time. Without a plane handy there was a conference held between the guards and the truck drivers. They met between the trucks so the microphones picked up every word.

The delay and the change of planes was explained. Their schedule was pushed back, but that just meant overtime to the drivers so they were fine with it.

Obviously the girls had to stay in the trucks.

One of the guards had expressed concern, because he knew putting 44 girls in the Caribou would be tight. Now he wondered about any other type of plane landing at the house in Troma, he was not sure any larger plane could land on the relatively short driveway. The Caribou was designed for the space. He was told not to worry, they were not pilots. The guy didn’t give up, he said if the pilot landed at the airstrip it was a three-mile walk for the girls in no shoes, as well as for them. All while the public could see. There was no answer.

The other guard was more concerned about the unfamiliar crew of the substitute airplane, not everybody co-operated when the cargo was a bunch of chained young Chinese girls, without documents, guarded by 2 guys with rifles. Nosey flight crews seemed to think they could give advice about such things. On the other hand, sometimes the aircrew wanted to take a girl into the cockpit, to “try out” their entertainment value. The larger plane might have more people wanting a poke. The bosses did not want any virgins spoiled before their time.

“That is why we have the guns, so we make the rules,” one of the guards said. I noted the voice, he sounded like a volunteer for special projects.

The other guard agreed. Both guards agreed that shooting the pilot was probably a bad idea, something to keep in mind.

“Well, bullet in the knee makes a guy cooperative and probably does not hurt his ability to fly,” said one of the guards. “Plus, they have a co-pilot for a reason ... it is called target practice.”

Both the guards and the truck drivers agreed that the current inventory at the brothels was in bad shape, “well past the expiration date.” One of the guards said, “I almost considered going someplace else and paying for it last night. But business was slow so I snagged a second girl and used her tits to keep my eyes covered. We worked things out.”

During the wait there were the usual problems with the girls wanting water or needing a bathroom, the guards just told them to let it go and keep quiet. Their paper jumpsuits had liners built in and would be trash soon enough, and the girls would be hosed down before the real fun began. This did not make the girls feel better.

Finally the Hercules arrived, when it landed at the airfield there was a phone call to the guard saying this was their plane. The trucks were repositioned and some canvas was used so the girls went directly down some stairs from the truck to the aircraft’s rear ramp then onto the plane without anybody else seeing. In short order the girls were transferred into the roomy Hercules. As soon as the girls were unloaded the truck drivers left, taking the two sailors back to the ship. The two guards stayed with the girls.

The plane loadmaster insisted that everybody be seated, with a seatbelt, for takeoff, “I don’t want my load shifting, this is going to be tight on the landing, I won’t know for sure until I know wind and temperature.” One of the guards tried to call the house, to ask about getting the trucks to the air strip, but there was no answer.

No comment was made about the guns or the chains or the tape. One guard sat in the back of the plane, the other sat up front next to the cockpit door.

As the ramp started to close one of the Chinese captives made a fuss. Her hands were suddenly free of the cuffs, she had the tape off, and she gave an order, in Spanish with a local accent, for one of the guards to unchain her waist “NOW.”

Well, we knew there was at least one spy with the shipment, and Chin Li was supposed to find her. But we did not expect her to announce herself so quickly.

The assistant loadmaster, standing next one guard, stuck him with a needle as as the ramp was closing. The loadmaster, next to the other guard at the rear ramp, did the same. They were quick and efficient taking the carbines out of play, popping the magazines out of the guns. Their speed shocked the spy. After a moment she produced a knife, but she did not really know what to do with it. That hesitation gave the loadmaster time to draw a dart gun and shoot. Next the spy was looking in shock at the dart in her belly, when she slumped over, dropping the knife. The assistant loadmaster also drew a .22 automatic, a long-barreled semi-automatic target gun, to make sure there were no more problems.

With the sudden violence the other girls were upset and noisy, but they soon realized that only the bad people were targeted, and they were okay. Except they were chained up on a large airplane taking off.

After the plane cleared the outer marker Chin Li’s voice came over the loudspeaker. This was a mature female voice, speaking Chinese with authority as she addressed the captive girls. First, she assured the girls that they were being freed from the men who wanted to rent their bodies out as whores and drug mules. “More than two decades ago I traveled the same path you chose, to escape my situation in China. Now I can set you free. But first, I must order my men to check for weapons, and to see if their are any other spies among you. Please, help them. Once we are at cruising height your chains will be removed as we fly to a safe refuge.”

The words “order my men,” spoken in Chinese, changed everything. No reassurance could be stronger.

There were no other weapons found, the Five were too cheap to pay for a second spy. As each girl passed inspection their seatbelt, chains and tape were removed, when they were all free water bottles, juice boxes, and snacks were passed out. Chin Li came into the cabin and talked to the girls, saying they were allowed to sit where they wished, but asked that they move one at a time, to keep the pilot happy.

The 2 guards and the spy were chained together and cuffed. Chin translated as one loader asked if dropping them off would save some fuel, but the loadmaster said that somebody wanted to talk to them after a little duress. Breathing was an effort at cruising altitude as curare flowed in their veins, so tape wasn’t used. Some of the girls thought that maybe the knife should be used, “to slice something open,” with the universal sign for cutting a throat.

But Chin Li said that was a bad idea. “My Master says he cannot waterboard dead people, he has many question and slower, less unpleasant ways to get answers from these. They will beg for a swift death, but will only suffer more. Also, you know blood is very hard to clean up on an airplane.” Her calm authority and the words made an impression on the girls. Again, it was the secondary message, that the Chinese woman had a “Master” which calmed them. That was something they could understand.

The man who was chained with the girls was named “Snik.” He was a new member of the ship’s crew, a native of the Philippines, who said he did not sign on for taking money from poor desperate girls only to sell them into sex-slavery. Two of the girls, sisters, had befriended him, so he was planning to free the captives when they got close to shore. He was turned in by the Spy, clapped in irons in mid ocean, and questioned by the Captain. The Five had some hard questions for him, and would use him for leverage with the girls, otherwise he would already be sharkbait.

The Spy sat next to the ship’s Captain when Snik was questioned, so he confirmed that the now-paralyzed girl who pulled the knife was the one who turned him in.

Two girls who were openly lesbians identified themselves and asked what might happen to then. Chin Li said that their feelings would be respected by most where they were headed, but that “people are people and acceptance was not shared by everyone.” Then she mentioned that her own daughter was a poor sex worker after she was conceived with an unknown father at sea. “Now she is a joyful concubine of a powerful man, a Prince who gave her a diamond and a new car. But she is free to enjoy several female lovers as well.” Noting that the hour was early at their home, Chin said, “in fact, she is in bed with two lovely women as we speak.”