‘Yes, I have heard of it. There have been vague references to it from time to time in some of my people’s reports, but it’s evidently a pseudonym for some other place and only referred to under that name by the inner ring. Are you certain it’s at Ismailia?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Tell me all you know about it.’ I related my conversation with Oonas and her offer to give me the run of the place when she believed that I was Lemming. ‘Why should you imagine they would take Sylvia there?’ he asked when I had finished. ‘Well,’ I hesitated. ‘It’s a beastly thought, but Sylvia’s good-looking, isn’t she? And the place is not an ordinary brothel but a depot through which they bring Asiatic beauties for the houses in the Mediterranean ports and ship white women to the East. It makes one sick even to think of it but, since white-slaving is part of their business, mustn’t one face the facts and assume that having taken the risk of kidnapping Sylvia, directly they’ve bullied her into signing the letter to the bank, instead of releasing her they’ll white-slave her as well?’ He nodded.
