Onward Virgin Soldiers by Leslie Thomas

Author:Leslie Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446439449
Publisher: Random House

13

Inverted triangles of light from Hong Kong city showed through the clefts in the hills. The warmth of the day still pervaded the evening for the Oriental spring was in the air. Brigg sat miserably beside Wilcox in the taxi.

‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ he groaned. ‘I can’t believe that I’d let anyone – anyone – talk me round to this sort of caper. For God’s sake, I’ve got a bloody kid at school. And here I am going out poncing on a couple of middle-aged Yankee ducks.’

Wilcox looked at him bitterly. ‘There are times, friend,’ he said, ‘when you sound dead left wing. Poncing on middle-aged Yankee ducks! Put it that way and it does sound nasty. It’s bound to. Look, as far as I’m concerned, we are acting as professional escorts to two lady tourists who happen to be Americans. We’re doing them a service that’s damned near invaluable. They’ll be able to go to places and see sights they’d never be able to if they were on their tod.’

‘Why don’t they get their own men to take them?’ Brigg complained.

‘Because they haven’t got men.’

‘Let them get some, then.’

‘I doubt if these two could.’

‘Christ, this sounds better all the time!’

‘Look, you won’t have to sleep with yours if you don’t fancy her.’

Brigg glowered: ‘Thank you very much, master. I didn’t bleeding well intend to, I can tell you. God, you’ll have me flogging my hole around the YMCA next.’

‘This will be much more satisfactory,’ Wilcox assured him. ‘I know you’re going to like it. Look, they’re very nice, clean, civilized women. The hotel porter told me when I fixed it. All we do is go out to dinner with them, amuse them, flatter them, and then take them back to the hotel – and they pay! It’s beautiful – and perfectly normal. Professional escorts operate all over the world these days. It’s a godsend to lonely unattached women like these. They spend all their cash touring the world, and then they have to skip half of it because they haven’t got a man with them. And as white folks we’re going to make a bomb, old mate, because most of the professional male escorts in Hong Kong are Chinese and American women don’t like them because in the backs of their minds they think they might be Commies.’ He leant forward: ‘Briggsy, we’re on twenty quid a night!’

‘Well, I’m not going to bed with mine, and that’s for certain,’ sulked Brigg. ‘I’m not prostituting my body for anybody.’

‘Tell her you’ve got a period,’ said Wilcox putting his hand gently on Brigg’s.

Brigg took his hand roughly away. ‘Do we tell them we’re in the Army?’

Wilcox looked at him anxiously. ‘God help us,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you’re going to be all that good at this.’

‘Let’s go back then.’

‘No you don’t, mate. You promised to give it a try. But we mustn’t let them know we’re in the cake, whatever we do. They might not take to that idea.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.