In any successful society truth is buried deep…
MAIN CHARACTERS
Selina King (43)
Informant
Married off as a child bride aged 15, Selina did not have much choice in the matter, after her parents passed away with cholera on board a ship during their crossing to America. An embittered woman, she has developed a powerful hatred of AJ King, who was never a caring or devoted husband and has more or less given her a life of misery. Selina never escaped because she had nowhere to go to, but she is absolutely determined to bring down AJ King while taking possession of his house and money and finally achieving the sort of life she wants.
She shows fearlessness and determination in her infiltration of the Knights of the Golden Circle. Several times when meeting with political officers from the Office of the Pacific, Selina has to get away from people following her…
and she must keep a straight face when AJ King relays to her that some of his people have voiced suspicions against her. She procures poison (and opium) with the help of a Chinese pharmacist in Los Angeles. But AJ King’s arrest comes before she has time to kill him.
Improbably enough, her ambition is to go back to the small village in the south of England where she came from, purchase a small farm, and provide a new home for her impoverished brother and her nephew, working as farm labourers in England. The goodness of her ambition is offset by the terrible revenge she plots against her husband.
Selina is fiercely loyal to those who are “on her side” … but she is probably a psychopath…
Sam Yuen (35)
Tong leader
Sam is a good-timer, a businessman whose ambition is one day to bow out of the straitjacket of state regulations for Chinese residents. His company makes its money from import-export, cigar making, laundries, also illegal activities such as gambling, prostitution, opium, and to a lesser extent, the provision of cheap labour for public projects and the railroad. A fluent English-speaker, he views himself as American through and through – and waits for the law to recognise the claims of his community. Sam can’t wait to go legitimate, he does what he can to pay off officials and in this way expedite the sort of political development he’d like to see.
Sam was always a keen billiards player, and he befriended Emil Harris soon after the latter first arrived in Los Angeles. He’s the guy who taught Emil to speak a little Chinese.
When Emil first brought Sam to Cleo and Yut Ho’s theatrical performances, Sam was instantly smitten with Yut – although she was never interested in his advances. Later, when Yut Ho is abducted by Yo Hing’s heavy-hitting Hong Chow company, Sam Yuen puts his money and his convictions into helping her – he pays 1000 dollars for the bail bond for Ho’s brother. Throughout this story, Sam Yuen remains Emil Harris’s connection in the Chinese underworld. The two of them are tight, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Sam likes the fact that Emil is on the rise in the LAPD, and he views him as a useful contact to help him get ahead in the flourishing Los Angeles business scene.
Although he’s a very focused person and always has clear goals, Sam is also generous. The antiChinese riot in Los Angeles shakes his belief in America, and he does everything in his power afterwards to help Emil Harris secure as many arrests as possible.
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