Part 4

Q--Then what happened?

A--Somebody opened the door and said, “Please, come in.” He took my hand as in welcome. He said, “I am glad to see you,” or something like that and in the room was the Chinese tailor I saw on the ship and another man....

Halvorsen remembered sitting with the three Chinese at a small, round table. The room was dimly lit and dingy. One of the men offered him whiskey but he refused and instead asked for a glass of beer. A woman padded into the room and placed a bottle of beer on the table. And then he was aware that a Chinese girl was standing near him. But when he glanced at her, he was blinded momentarily by a flash of light and so startled that he started to rise from his chair.

The wart-eared tailor laughed and said, “Don’t worry. It was only a flash from a camera. We need a photograph to send to our man in San Francisco so he will be able to recognize you when you arrive with the packages.”

One of the Chinese, a short, fat man in shirt sleeves, took a slip of paper from his pocket and scrawled on it the words, “San Francisco.” He tore the paper in half, handing one part to Halvorsen. “You keep this half,” he said, “and we will send the other to our man in San Francisco. When you meet him, you give him your half of the paper and he can match the two halves to make sure you are the right man.”

“Where will I meet him?” Halvorsen asked.

The man wrote on another slip of paper “Lew Gar Kung Saw, 854 Clay Street, San Francisco.” He handed it to Halvorsen and said, “You deliver the packages of heroin to this man at this address. When you make the delivery, he will pay you twelve hundred dollars. Okay?”

Halvorsen nodded. “I guess it’s okay,” he said. Then he gave them the itinerary of the Fernhill. He told them the ship was scheduled to arrive in Boston on May 16. If possible, he would leave the ship there or in New York and travel by bus to San Francisco to make the delivery, after which he would return to Norway.

The fat Chinese left the room, and when he returned he was carrying ten cotton bags filled with heroin, each of them weighing about half a pound. He placed them in Halvorsen’s briefcase....

Q--What happened then?

A--Then he asked me if I saw the bags. I said, “Yes.” He said that was what I was going to take ashore and he said, “You have to keep it on your body.” And he showed me a white silk sash.

Q--Did he tell you how to use that white silk sash?

A--Yes. He said I was first to fold it double and put it around my waist and then I could put the white bags down in the folds of the sash. He said I should keep maybe two bags in front, two bags in the back and the others strapped to my legs.

After the Chinese put the heroin in the briefcase, Halvorsen left the house on Cameron Road. He returned to his ship and placed the briefcase in a ship’s locker. He explained to the officer in charge that it contained souvenirs.

From Hong Kong, the Fernhill steamed to Djakarta, Indonesia, where Halvorsen hurried ashore with several crew members for a look at the city. After a time he wandered away from the others. He was alone, sipping a glass of beer in a bar near the Hotel Des Indes, when a Javanese approached and stood beside him.

“Have you got anything you would like to sell?” the Javanese said. “Any clothes or shoes? I can get you a good price.”

Halvorsen looked at the man, a middle-aged Javanese with a jagged scar running from his left eyebrow to his chin. He said stiffly, “I’m not interested in small stuff.”

The Javanese slid into a chair beside the youth. “You mean you’ve got something else you would like to sell?” he asked.

Halvorsen nodded, trying to appear casual and matter-of-fact.

“Maybe we can do business,” Scar Face said. “What have you got to sell?”

Halvorsen said, “What would you pay for a pound of heroin?”

The Javanese was impressed. “You can get heroin? You are not fooling me?”

“I’m not telling a lie,” Halvorsen said. “How much for a pound?”

Scar Face said, “If it’s pure stuff, I’ll take two pounds and pay you ten thousand dollars American money.”

$10,000 for two pounds of heroin! Halvorsen was so startled that he blurted: “That’s too much. Five thousand would be enough. I’ll have to get the stuff from the ship.”

Scar Face said, “You wait here. I’ll be back.” And he hurried from the bar.

In less than five minutes he was back with two other men, one of them dressed in a police uniform. They took Halvorsen to the dock, where they boarded a police launch which carried them to the Fernhill. Halvorsen took Scar Face to his cabin and told him to wait there.

Then he went to the ship’s locker and removed two bags of heroin and brought them back to his quarters. The Javanese opened one of them. He took a pinch of the white powder and tasted it. “It looks and tastes like it’s pure stuff, but I don’t know. I’ll have to get a doctor to make a test.”