“Do you have any drugs with you?”

“None.”

“And you are doing this for money?”

Tse nodded. “We have been promised many years’ wages. I was already given one year’s wages before I left.”

“How long are you supposed to be away?” Tristan asked.

“I am unsure,” Tse said. “One year, maybe two at the most.”

Tristan ran a hand through his hair. He shook his head and cast a dismayed look at Marissa. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything else to ask. I’m baffled.”

All of a sudden the group realized they weren’t alone. Looking up, they saw that the captain had come forward. Once he had gotten their attention, he spoke.

Bentley translated: “The captain wants to know if we want to eat. His wife has prepared a meal for all of us.”

“Why not?” Tristan said, getting to his feet. “We should get something for my bloody three thousand five hundred Hong Kong dollars.”

Several hours later, Marissa and Tristan were lying together on bamboo mats on the poop deck. It was the only place they could be alone. Except for an occasional mosquito and the cool, damp breeze, they were comfortable.

Marissa had not eaten anything. Instead she’d drunk most of the water they’d brought on board. Her nausea and vomiting earlier had left her dehydrated.

“I’ll have to apologize again, luv,” Tristan said. “I was so sure that coming here and talking to these blokes would solve everything. As it is we’re no better off than before we’d come to Hong Kong. It appears as if we’ve risked our lives and made you bloody sick for nothing.”

“I thought this would give us answers, too,” Marissa said. “It’s strange. I don’t understand what we could be missing. There just doesn’t seem to be any explanation why Female Care Australia is making this elaborate illegal effort to bring in Chinese nationals.”

“I still think it has to involve drugs in some way,” Tristan said. “It’s got to be the heroin from the Golden Triangle.”

“But these men are carrying nothing,” Marissa reminded him.

“But it’s the only way I can think to justify FCA’s level of expense,” Tristan said. “Not to mention the extent to which they are willing to go to protect whatever it is they’re doing. They thought it was important enough to gun us down in public. It’s gotta be drugs; don’t you think?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Marissa said. “What you say makes some sense, but only to a point. And we still haven’t figured where the TB salpingitis comes in. And if it is drugs, how does it involve a country doctor and a Buddhist monk?”

“I don’t have a clue to any of those questions,” Tristan said. “I’m at a loss. At one point I had an idea that this scheme might somehow involve Hong Kong being given back to the Chinese in 1997. But even that wild idea has nothing to recommend it. I’m afraid we’re at a dead end.”