The Stone Monkey

latches. Chang wiped his hair out of his eyes. “This won’t work,” he said to the captain. “We need another way out.”
    Captain Sen replied, “There’s an access panel on the floor, in the back of the hold. It leads to the engine room. But if that’s where the hull was breached we won’t be able to open it. Too much pressure—”
    “Where?” Chang demanded.
    The captain pointed it out, a small door secured by four screws. It was only large enough for one person to pass through at a time. He and Chang pushed toward it, struggling to stay upright against the sharp angle of the floor.Scrawny Wu Qichen helped his sick wife to her feet; the woman shivered with chills. Chang bent down to his own wife and said in a firm voice, “Listen to me. You will keep our family together. Stay close to me by that doorway.”
    “Yes, husband.”
    Chang joined the captain at the access door and, using Sen’s flick-knife, they managed to undo the screws. Chang pushed hard on the door and it fell into the other room without resistance. Water was filling the engine room too but it wasn’t as deep as in the hold. Chang could see steep stairs leading to the main deck.
    Screams and shouts as the immigrants saw the open passageway. They pushed forward in panic, crushing some people against the metal walls. Chang struck two of the men with his large fist. He cried, “No! One at a time or we’ll all die.”
    Several others, desperation in their eyes, started for Chang. But the captain turned on them, brandishing his knife, and they backed away. Captain Sen and Chang stood side by side, facing the crowd. “One at a time,” the captain repeated. “Through the engine room and up the ladder. There’re rafts on the deck.” He nodded to the immigrants closest to the doorway and they crawled outside. The first was John Sung, a doctor and a dissident, whom Chang had spent some time talking with on the voyage. Sung stopped outside the doorway and crouched down to help the others out. A young husband and wife climbed out next and scurried to the ladder.
    The captain caught Chang’s eye and he nodded. “Go!”
    Chang motioned to Chang Jiechi, his father, and the old man went through the door, John Sung gripping him by his arm. Then Chang’s sons: teenage William and eight-year-old Ronald. Next, his wife. Chang went last and pointed hisfamily toward the ladder. He turned back to help Sung get the others out.
    The Wu family was next: Qichen, his sick wife, their teenage daughter and young son.
    Chang reached into the hold to take the hand of another immigrant but two of the crewmen raced for the doorway. Captain Sen grabbed for them. He raged, “I’m still in charge. The Dragon is my ship. The passengers go first.”
    “Passengers? You idiot, they’re cattle!” one of the crew screamed and, knocking aside the scar-faced mother and her little girl, crawled through the opening. The other followed right behind him, pushing Sung to the floor and running for the stairs. Chang helped the doctor to his feet. “I’m all right,” Sung shouted and clutched a charm he wore around his neck, muttering an abbreviated prayer. Chang heard the name Chen-wu, the god of the northern sky and protector against criminals.
    The ship lurched hard and tilted faster. The wind of escaping air began to shoot out through the doorway as water flooded in, filling the hold. The screams were heartbreaking and were soon mixed with the sound of choking. She’s going down, Chang thought. Another few minutes at the most. He heard a hissing, sparking sound behind him. He glanced up and saw water flowing down the stairwell onto the massive, grimy engines. One of the diesels stopped running and the lights went out. The second engine then went silent.
    John Sung lost his handhold and slid across the floor into the wall. “Get out!” Chang called to him. “We can’t do anything more here.”
    The doctor nodded, scrabbled for the stairs and climbed out. But Chang himself turned back to the doorway to try to rescue one or two more. He shivered, sickenedat the sight in front of him: water was pouring out of the doorway, from which four desperate arms extended into the engine room, clawing for help. Chang grabbed one man’s arm but the immigrant was so jammed among the others that he couldn’t be dislodged. The arm shivered once and then Chang felt the fingers go limp. Through the roiling water now bubbling into the engine room Chang could just see Captain