Free China Wife by Hedley Harrison

which were less than impressed by the evidence of the combination of collusion and bribery that kept the rebels quiescent during an expansion of the Shell oil company’s pipeline system. The subsequent sanctions imposed by the federal government on the Rivers Province Government ensured that David was never likely to travel in that part of Africa again.
    The meeting room at the Millbank Tower was windowless and featureless. David was surprised by the large cast that had gathered. He had no idea why the meeting would require twelve people present and he never found out who all of the twelve people were.
    â€˜There’s always the note-takers,’ Susie said afterwards.
    â€˜Four?’
    â€˜That just says that there were four departments present.’
    â€˜Shit, Susie, why don’t they just share the meeting notes?’
    â€˜No, no, you don’t understand,’ she said with a grin. ‘The notes aren’t just recording what was said and agreed at the meeting. That’s too simple a view. They’re about the people who will read the notes and assuring them that the department’s view point was accurately portrayed.’
    â€˜You’re joking!’
    The light-hearted jocular tone of the conversation reflected David’s relief that the meeting was over and that it hadn’tproved anything like as demanding as he had expected. Nonetheless, a meeting chaired by a woman that he regularly had sex with was always going to have an element of challenge in it.
    â€˜So,’ he said, ‘I got myself a job.’
    â€˜And, you can be sure that you’ll get paid for it!’
    But it had taken two hours for them to get to this point of satisfaction.
    Susie had started the meeting off by introducing only some of the people present. Of those she did introduce David learned that there were representatives from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department of Work and Pensions, and the Home Office.
    It soon became clear that the various attendees didn’t sit together by department. Whether this was by design or simply a reflection of the arrival times of the participants of the meeting David never had any idea. But it did make following the flow of the meeting more difficult and at times confusing. It didn’t, however, take long for the various departmental agendas to become apparent.
    The most difficult part for David was that those present had either been well briefed or were so actively involved in the issues under discussion that no background was ever offered. But it was very clear what the underlying topic for the meeting was.
    â€˜The illegal immigrant routings are getting more sophisticated. From contacts in Canada and Australia we’ve learned that the source of immigrants has been expanded, to South America – to Brazil, to be precise. A large-scale operation has been discovered by the Canadians that has allowed a whole stream of migrants to get under the American radar. The US is so fixated on Mexico and stopping both the illegals and the violence crossing the border that it has become much easier for people-trafficking routes from further south to be built up and to bypass the US control system. They aren’t looking for themso they don’t find them. The key point is that they don’t stay in the States; they move on to Canada and into the labour force there. From what we are discovering, the movement is very specific and very well resourced.’
    David wasn’t clear whether the speaker was Work and Pensions or from the Security Service.
    â€˜Two other trends are emerging. One, many of the illegals are Asian, mainly Chinese, with the odd Japanese. Two, among the general run of illegals of all social categories simply out to make a better life there is evidence of a small number of middle-class/professional class women being trafficked. They are thought to be second-generation immigrants to Brazil, maybe Argentina, facing