Читать книгу The Year of Dangerous Loving - John Davis Gordon - Страница 10

Of course she knew it – she was a Macao whore. But that did not trouble Hargreave – he was going to have a nice day for a change. A lovely day! Nor did it worry him that he might be recognized – in an appropriate dress Olga would be just another tourist. Nonetheless he checked the hotel register when he signed in and was relieved that all the guests were foreigners; nor was there anybody he knew in the bar or on the terrace.

The Bella Mar is a grand old Portuguese hotel on the knoll, overlooking the tree-lined esplanade and the Pearl River estuary. The floors are polished wood, the ceilings are high and a sweeping staircase leads up to airy, old-fashioned suites with ceiling fans. The blue swimming pool is on the terrace below the verandah.

Olga Romalova dived and swam the length underwater, her long blonde hair streaming silkily behind her. She broke surface at the shallow end, her hair plastered. ‘How much?’

‘Nine seconds. You’re improving.’

‘Once more.’

She climbed up the ladder, gushing sparkling water, and walked back to the deep end in her tiny bikini. Hargreave, seated at a table under a beach umbrella drinking a Tom Collins, watched her every movement. She was truly beautiful. There were other couples at other tables, all watching her. The Chinese waiters were watching her. They doubtless knew her, but Hargreave did not care: they didn’t know who he was and he was happy – surely every man here must envy him, every woman must surely envy her exuberant beauty. Olga came to the deep end of the pool, held up her finger and demanded, ‘Ready?’

‘Ready.’ Hargreave looked at his wristwatch.

‘Now!’ She dived in like a goddess and streamed frantically underwater, her feet kicking. She gushed up at the shallow end. ‘Yes?’

‘Yes – eight seconds flat.’

A man at a table clapped, then everybody was clapping good-naturedly. Olga climbed out of the pool, beaming, gave them a wave and flopped down in her chair under the umbrella. She picked up her vodka and grinned: ‘I am improving, last week my best time was ten seconds. It is because I have stopped smoking.’

‘You come to the Bella Mar often?’

She shrugged. ‘Sometimes. It depends.’

‘I wanted to be an athlete,’ Olga said, ‘a swimmer. Athletes make good money in Russia. But there was no pool on the collective, so I swam in the river. So cold. For a pool I must go fifty kilometres on the bus. So expensive. So I thought, I will be a gymnast. I could walk on my hands, do backward somersaults. At my school we had parallel bars, a springboard, climbing ropes. I practised like crazy. But my teacher told me I am too big to succeed.’

‘Can you still do backward somersaults?’

‘Yes. Want to see?’

‘Later,’ Hargreave grinned.

She continued: ‘My mother always told me that the farm is not good enough for me, I must leave when I grow up – so little money, so much work. She died when I was ten. So I looked after my father, he was a sick man – he was a foreman, a very good farmer, but he was always sick, with tuberculosis, he died when I was fourteen. My big brother, he left many years before to work in the mines. So I went to an orphanage. I wanted to study to become a vet, but there were many difficulties, so when I was sixteen I went to work in a factory in Yekaterinburg. Do you know where that is?’

‘No.’

‘In the Urals. Very cold in winter. Big city, grey skies, grey buildings. I worked in an aluminium factory. We made plates, cups, pots, knives, forks. Millions and millions. But nobody buys them because people do not like the taste of aluminium. But still we make them, because Gosplan says so, because of the mines and the big hydroelectric stations producing the power. You know Gosplan? It is our big ministry for economics.’

‘Yes.’

‘Nobody buys our aluminium plates. Our wages are very little, and always late. Then we heard that some KGB men are stealing our plates and cups and making them flat with a steam roller and selling it to the West for much money. We were angry. But still we went on making plates for the KGB to steal because Gosplan said we must. Then one day the factory director sends for me. In his office is a man I haven’t seen. He says, do I want to be an actress, because I am pretty.’

‘He was wrong. You’re beautiful.’

‘I said, “Yes, of course!” So immediately I go to Moscow. Many days by train. So exciting. In Moscow they say to me: “We are the KGB, Mosfilm does not really want you, we want you to be a diplomat.”’

‘A diplomat? How old were you?’

‘Eighteen. Of course I was not going to be a diplomat, they were cheating me from the start, I was going to be one of their girls who sleeps with foreigners to get information. And for blackmail. But I did not know then. They said: “To be a diplomat you must first learn how to dress nicely, Western ways.” So they began to train me.’

‘What did they teach you?’

She grinned. ‘Mostly how to make love. And I already knew that, most Russian girls learn that very young because there is nothing else to do. I was kept in a hostel like a student, but I was really a hostess for KGB officers. I was taught to cook and entertain, even to sing Western songs, how to dance, very sexy, but after the party – there were always many parties – after the party I had to go to bed with one of my trainers.’

‘How did you like that?’

She shrugged. ‘I hated it, but they said it was part of my training. One of them I liked, the others I didn’t like.’

‘Were you paid a salary?’

‘Yes, I was working for the state. Then after only six months Gorbachev disbanded the KGB. Everybody was very anxious, and angry also. Then my trainers told me I was being sent to Istanbul to continue my studies. But, of course, when I got there I had to be a whore.’

Oh, Hargreave was so glad to learn she had been tricked. ‘Istanbul? Did you protest?’

‘At first I cried and cried, and argued. But what can I do? They hit me. The other girls told me the KGB would kill me if I tried to run away. They said a girl called Natasha had been killed, as a lesson. And I had no passport, no money. No job in Russia. And we were kept in this big house with high walls, and there were guards.’

Hargreave thought, Oh, you poor child. ‘And? Who were your customers?’

‘Rich Turks. Rich Arabs. And some Westerners, businessmen, English, Italian, Germans.’

‘How did you feel?’

He felt a stab of anguish when she shrugged. ‘Afterwards I got used to it. It was a nice big house, nice rooms, nice bar, nice garden, good food. The madam saved your money for you, every month you got paid, you could send it home or buy things, or put it in the bank. So I thought, this is better than Yekaterinburg, better than the KGB hostel where I got fucked for nothing.’

Hargreave didn’t want to hear that. ‘Were you allowed out?’

‘Only when the KGB trust you. But if you run away they will catch you. And how can you run away without a passport?’

‘Did you try?’

‘Not then. Natasha tried. They killed her.’

Lord. You poor child. ‘So the KGB were still functioning despite being disbanded?’

‘No, the Mafia was controlling us. But many KGB are Mafia now.’

Yes, Hargreave thought, that was common knowledge. Right now the Hong Kong police were trying to deal with the Russian Mafia who were using Hong Kong as a staging post for international smuggling. And here he was sitting in the Bella Mar Hotel with one of the Mafia’s girls: in principle he was compromising himself. But he did not care, he was happy for the first time in a long while, he was having a lovely day with this exotic girl, and she had nothing to do with smuggling – prostitution in Macao and smuggling in Hong Kong were far removed from each other, the one almost legal, the other not. Nonetheless he said:

‘Please don’t tell any of your friends who I am.’

She smiled. ‘Of course not, darling. In my business you must be discreet. You would be surprised what important Hong Kong people come to us, but I won’t tell even you.’

Even him? That felt like a compliment. He said, ‘Vladimir, the guy who came with the credit-card machine this morning, he wouldn’t know who I am, he wouldn’t read the papers, would he? He’s got my name now.’

‘No. And even if he knew he wouldn’t do anything, he only wants business.’

‘Is he a big noise in the Mafia, or is he just a pimp?’

‘A pimp. He says he was KGB, a big man, but he is nothing.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘Don’t worry, darling, I won’t let anybody hurt you, I like you.’

He liked her too, he just didn’t like a pimp knowing his name. But he put it out of his mind. For heaven’s sake, the Triad societies controlled most of the girlie-bars and brothels in Hong Kong, did that mean every government official who went to a girlie-bar in Wanchai was compromising himself?

‘And how long were you in Istanbul?’ he said.

‘Almost three years. Then I was sent back to Moscow. That is when I tried to run away. One of my girlfriends was from Estonia, which had become independent from Russia, she said it was nice there, we can make a new life. But I had no passport, the Mafia had it. So I bought a gun, and we went on the train and I tried to hide when we crossed the border. But the Estonian police found me and sent me back to Moscow. I was very worried. I got a job in a café but the Mafia soon found me. They punished me because they said I had not finished my contract, and they kept me in an apartment and made me work.’

‘Your contract? Had you signed a contract?’

‘Yes. I signed many forms when they said I was training for diplomatic work.’

‘For how long was this contract?’

‘Three years. But now I am on a one-year contract.’

‘And how did they punish you?’

‘They beat me with their fists. But not too bad because I had to be in good condition to work. But they said next time they would kill me. So I did not try to run away again.’

Oh you poor child. ‘So they made you work in a whorehouse?’

‘No, I was sent out to customers in the big hotels, like the Metropole. That is a famous Moscow hotel. But I always had a guard with me. Then, after two months, they sent me here, to Macao. As a “dancer”.’

What a sad history. ‘How do you like it here?’

‘I like it. Here we are free, because we cannot escape to China, or Hong Kong. I like Macao.’

‘And the work?’ Please God she didn’t like the work.

She shrugged. ‘I am used to it. It means nothing now, to me it is just like being a gymnast, or being a tennis player. What else can I do?’

Oh dear. But it had meant something last night, and this morning, hadn’t it – all that hadn’t been faked, had it? ‘And how long will you stay?’

‘Until next Thursday. My Macao work-permit is finished then.’

Next Thursday? Hargreave stared at her. And what he felt was No … Oh, no, she couldn’t just disappear, this gorgeous girl.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Back to Russia. Moscow.’

‘And in Moscow you go back to work? Where?’

‘I don’t know. In the big hotels.’ She smiled. ‘Will you visit me, darling?’

Jesus. ‘But do you want to go?’

‘No. I would like to stay here.’ She grinned: ‘Then you can visit me every weekend?’

‘Can’t you get your work-permit extended?’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘The Portuguese police? They will want a lot of cumshaw to extend it. And Vladimir’s boss says it is important to change the girls every year.’

‘How much cumshaw will the Macao police want?’

‘I don’t know. Perhaps a thousand US dollars.’

Lord, was he mad to be thinking like this? It was on the tip of his tongue to say ‘I’ll pay it’, but instead he asked, ‘And would Vladimir agree?’

She beamed at him. ‘Oh darling, do you really want to do it? So I can work –’ she made her eyes sparkle – ‘really work with you?’

Oh Lord, Lord … He grinned weakly. ‘Would Vladimir agree?’

‘Vladimir, yes, but I do not know about his boss.’

‘Who’s his boss – where is he?’

‘He is in Moscow, I have never seen him. But I think he will agree, why not? Oh darling!’ She squeezed both his hands. ‘Is this really true?’

Hargreave sat back. Oh God, what was he doing? He smiled.

‘I must think. It’s a lot of money.’ He hated saying it – a gentleman does not talk about money at a time like this. And that’s only the start of it, he thought, she would expect him back each weekend.

‘Yes, a lot of money, I understand. And now your wife, too.’ Then she brightened: ‘Do not worry, darling – we still have a whole afternoon and a whole night!’ She grinned: ‘And I am going to make it so wonderful for you that you will say yes! What do you want? Do you want handstands? Backward somersaults? Belly dancing?’

Hargreave threw back his head and laughed.

And, oh dear, it almost felt like love. He knew it was not, of course, but that was how it felt.

She did make it wonderful. Afterwards, lying on the big four-poster bed under the ceiling fan she whispered, ‘And you were wonderful. Last night you were drunk, and you had no dinner, but finally you were okay. This morning you had a big hangover, and you’d had no breakfast yet, but you were good. But this afternoon you had your breakfast and your lunch, and you were wonderful! I had a lovely orgasm, darling.’

‘Did you really?’ He felt very pleased. Mediocre performance of same, huh?

‘Yes.’ She leaned on her elbow and looked at him earnestly. ‘Didn’t you know? That was real. Oh, okay –’ she swept her hair from her eyes – ‘prostitutes always pretend, huh? To make the man finish quicker? Right, that’s what I do – but with you? No. That was real. You know why?’

‘Why?’

‘Because you are a very sexy man. And because I like you so much.’

Him, a sexy man? He grinned – he wished Liz’s lawyers could hear this. Olga flopped down beside him again. She snuggled against him.

‘I was going to say I love you. That is what I sometimes have to say. It is bullshit, of course, but that is what they like to hear, maybe. But I will not bullshit you. So I say, I like you, very much.’

He squeezed her golden shoulders. ‘And I like you, very much.’

‘Okay. So now I let you go to sleep, and when I wake up I give you another triple-A blowjob so you like me more, then I do a belly dance, then some backward somersaults, then we have a nice dinner. Oh …’ she squeezed him, ‘I do not want to go back to Russia.’

He woke up in the sunset. She was still asleep, spreadeagled on her belly, her hair flamed across the pillow, her lovely buttocks naked. And, no, he did not want her to go back to Russia next Thursday, never to be seen or heard of again. Looking at her lying there made him want to mount her again, it seemed he couldn’t get enough of her. Yes, but what about the money? It’s not the thousand bucks up front for the Portuguese police, that’s easy enough, what about every time you come to see her, even if it’s only twice a month – what are you letting yourself in for? How can you afford it, even once a month? Of course you shouldn’t do it – it’s crazy to even think about it, so put it out of your mind. But he looked at her lying there, and he could not put it out of his mind. He got off the bed carefully so as not to wake her, went to the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Fuck the money? You’ll make a deal with her? Live dangerously? Cross the bridges as you come to them?

Yes, and fuck Elizabeth’s lawyer as well, with his law of Community of Property? He stepped under the shower. Yes, cross the bridges as you come to them! Live dangerously! You’ve never lived until today!

When he emerged from the bathroom she was sitting on the bed with the telephone to her ear, speaking in Russian. She gabbled for another ten seconds then banged down the receiver, jumped up beaming, arms wide, and laced her hands behind his neck. ‘I have done it!’

‘An extension to your work-permit?’

She was delighted with herself. ‘At first I thought I make a deal with you – I give you a discount every time until you have got back the thousand dollars cumshaw for the police. Then I thought, no, this is my business not yours, so I will pay the cumshaw! And I will give you a discount every time! And so I telephoned Vladimir and told him!’

Hargreave wanted to laugh. ‘And it’s arranged?’

‘Vladimir agrees, and the police will agree. Vladimir will telephone the boss in Russia tomorrow. Oh darling –’ she jumped up and down – ‘I am so happy! And you?’

Yes, he was recklessly happy. Fuck the money! ‘But Olga – I will pay the thousand cumshaw.’

She turned out of his arms, her palm up. ‘No. Not fair.’

Okay, thank God. ‘And you think Vladimir’s boss will agree?’

‘Why not? But I will pray!’

He grinned: ‘You’re religious?’

She put on a mock frown, placed her fists on her lovely hips. ‘What do I look like? A Communist?’

Hargreave threw back his head and laughed.