Chapter 2: Marina Learns Angelina's Fate

If Marina had gone straight back to her hotel, then that would have been the end of this story. But Marina did not go back to her hotel. Instead she decided to visit Mr Marcelinus, whose invitation to the pair three years ago had been the start of the nightmare of Angelina's disappearance. She had the address and had little difficulty finding the house, which was a villa in its own grounds and very grand if dilapidated. She rang the bell and a maid let her in. Mr Marcelinus came out of a back room and ushered Marina into the lounge. he was an elderly man and wore a down at heel and dejected look.

"You were wrong to come here, Miss Green. And I was horribly wrong to invite you both here three years ago. I would tell you to go straight home, but it is too late for that. The airport will be being watched and all roads out of the capital. And we must do something about that face! A white woman stands out a mile. I'm amazed you are still at liberty! No white woman is safe here for long. You are lucky still to be at large, Miss Green. Very lucky!"

A servant led Marina, now very frightened, out of the rear of the house and into a maze of alleyways until they came to the servant's own miserable hovel. here she was told to strip. An angry and impatient gesture from the female servant made her obey. This old woman then produced a jar of walnut coloured liquid and began to apply it evenly over her whole body. Marina noted that the woman was careful not to paint the soles of her feet or the palms of her hands. She clothed Marina in rough native garments and took the still terrified girl's own clothes out to the back yard and burned them.

"You must be native from now on, Miss Green. Poor native."

Marina noted that her new clothing did not include footwear. She had seen for herself that many people here were shoeless, especially the women. She was given a chipped and broken looking glass. Amazing! Marina had the right shaped face to pass for a native and with this convincingly stained body that the good servant had expertly given her, she looked like any one of thousands of poor local women.

"What now?"

"You want to find your fiend, or you want escape? We get you to fishing boat and you get away. But if you want find friend - very much danger. Mr Marcelinus, he old man but he help you find friend. I see in brave lady's eye she want find friend!"

"I only leave here if I can take Angelina with me. Either that or I share her fate. I suffer too with friend."

"You good woman! Not all of us bad here. Men in charge bad men. Plenty hate them!"

"How long will the stain last?"

"Many, many weeks! It no come off. You safe for many weeks!"

Marina guessed that in many, many weeks, the sun might have given her a deep enough tan to pass for a local without the need for stain, especially in these clothes, which consisted of a khaki blouse and baggy short trousers which reached to just above the knee. Hardly ultra modest, she thought! And she had seen enough to realise that what the Consul had said on the subject was nonsense. Excessive modesty was not the rule for females in this country. Far from it!

Next day Marina was led back to Mr Marcelinus's house.

"I was raided yesterday, Miss Green, seconds after you left. You seem to be gifted with a charmed life! Your disappearance has caused a lot of panic, but I think you will not be recognised now! I will do all I can to trace dear Angelina. But first you must learn the language. It will be disastrous if you try looking for her without being able to pass as one of us. Are you a good linguist, Miss Green?"

Marina nodded. Her father had been born in Cyprus and her mother was German. She knew three languages already. One more was no problem and if it meant finding Angelina then she would willingly become fluent in ten languages!

Three months later, she was judged sufficiently fluent to begin searching for her friend. In order to disguise any remaining foreign tinge to her accent she had developed a very thlight lithp!

She learned that her boy friend had been looking for her, but had gone home. They had told him some story and he had believed them. Officially, Marina had been checked out of the country three days after she had arrived, supposedly on her way to Thailand.

"Angelica is working in the north, Marina. There are important minerals there and an Anglo-American company is exploiting them. These materials are vital to your countries' military and they will do anything to lay their hands on supplies, even if their own nationals have to suffer. Your Consul and the US Consul are in the whole thing up to their necks."

"What kind of work?"

"Breaking rocks. Like convicts on a chain gang. But these rocks contain the mineral. The dust they create by the work of their bare hands is worth a fortune."

"But there are machines to crush rocks! Why use human labour - to say nothing of a woman like Angelina? Are there many women involved. Marina already knew the answer.

"All these prisoners who sweat and suffer under the scorching sun are women, Marina. And they are all members of the despised white race. The new Junta is run by lunatics, Miss Green. And your government goes along with this madness in order to procure the sinews of war. The Americans as well. You will have no help from any Western government. You are on your own! And if you do get your friend away there are many miles of ocean between this island and safety. Normal means of departure are out!"

"How many years has this evil been going on for"

"Some of those poor women have been here for thirty years, Marina. They are old before their time and still they are worked until they drop. We are not proud of what our country has become - not the educated among us."

"I see why Angelica saw no hope. No wonder she wants me to stay away. Poor girl. My poor friend!"

She was allowed out only when her language skill was deemed satisfactory. The hunt for her seemed to have died down. Going back to that market she saw several native women in that same ring. They were dancers in the main, and very seductive! And hardly modestly dressed. One local couple of women had wrestled erotically, with even less on them and clearly doing zero damage to each other. There were two other fights which were all too real and they were both taped fist fights between naked white women. The eighteen year old figured in both and Marina saw that she was coming on fast!