The Two Sisters of Borneo

by Ian Hamilton

  “Like what?”

  “Don’t know. I’m just saying.”

  “What’s the time?”

  “Almost ten o’clock.”

  It was later than she had thought. In her mind, every hour out from the time she had been seized was a good thing. It had now been close to twenty-four hours. Somewhere, someone, somehow, was trying to get to her.

  I should sleep, she thought. Emptying her bladder had actually relaxed her a bit, and the dampness between her legs and on her thighs was beginning to dry.

  The radio crackled and she heard the softest hint of music. She strained to identify it but it was indistinct. Then, ever so slightly, the volume increased, and she heard the beautiful voice of Anita Mui singing the ballad “Drunken Dreams.”

  Mui was her mother’s favourite Cantopop singer. Jennie Lee owned more than twenty of her CDs and listened to them endlessly, revelling in the ballads that mourned unrequited loves and bouncing around the house to her high-energy rock. Mui moved effortlessly between those genres, a complete singer, a complete entertainer, until her sudden death from cancer in 2003.

  The song ended and was immediately followed by another Mui classic, “Bad Girl.” The tune was incredibly catchy and Mui’s voice was full of joy as she sang.

  When it was over, the radio went quiet, and Ava thought they had turned it off. Instead, after a few seconds’ break, she heard an announcer say that the evening’s program was being dedicated to the work of the queen of Cantopop, Mui, and the king of Cantopop, Jacky Cheung. Mui was her mother’s favourite; Cheung was Ava’s.

  The music began again and she heard the first bars of “Amour,” an early and classic Cheung hit. Like Mui, he could switch back and forth between ballads and rock, and his voice was good enough that he sometimes ventured into operatic pop. “Amour” ended, giving way to “Smile,” and then “In Love.” Ava fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the song called “Goodbye Kiss.”

  She had no idea how long she slept, and for once she didn’t dream. However much sleep she did get, though, ended in a shrill din of yelling voices and slamming doors. It startled her awake, and for a second she couldn’t remember exactly where she was.

  A lot of men were in the room and they were excited, talking over each other, more than a hint of fear in their voices.

  Then Wan’s voice cut through all the noise. “Shut the fuck up and wake her. And take off that blindfold. I need to talk to her.”

  She opened her eyes, the light piercing them as it had the day before. Seven men began to emerge out of the light. She saw Boom, the man she now knew as Kang, and Yu Fei sitting at the table talking on his cellphone.

  “She’s awake,” Boom said.

  Wan ran towards her, stopping when he was no more than three feet away. His face was distorted in anger, spittle gathered at the corners of his mouth. She leaned back, certain she was going to be struck.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were connected to Xu?” Wan screamed, the spit flying in all directions.

  Xu? Ava struggled to place the name and failed.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about Xu?”

  “Why would I?” she said.

  “If you had, none of this would have been happened,” he shouted.

  “I thought Uncle’s name was enough.”

  “Get into this world,” he said.

  Wan stepped back and turned to look at Yu. All the other men in the room also seemed to have an interest in his conversation. Yu closed his phone and stared at Wan. “It’s bad,” he said.

  “Hwang?”

  “They caught five of our people at Fa Pang. Two died and the others talked, and that led them to Hwang. He was stupid enough to resist. They killed him and three more of our guys. They want to know where the woman is. They aren’t taking ‘I don’t know’ for an answer. We have to assume they know where we are, or will soon enough.”

  “How many of them?”

  “A lot.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Two crews, maybe more. Twenty men, something like that.”

  “Fuck, fuck . . . Are you sure Hwang’s people knew about this warehouse?”

  “Even if they didn’t, these guys aren’t going to stop. They’ll keep finding people, and soon enough they’ll find someone who does.”

  “What a fucking mess,” Wan said. He turned back to Ava. “You’re the cause of all this, you bitch. Why didn’t you tell me about Xu?”

  “Does that matter now?” she said.

  “What are we going to do?” Yu asked.

  “I need to reach out to Xu, I need to negotiate some kind of truce,” Wan said.

  “We don’t have much time.”

  “We’ll go to Auntie Lin’s house. That should buy us a few hours.”

  “Wan — hey, the woman is still alive.”

  “Thank God.”

  “And not hurt except for her knee.”

  “And being sexually assaulted by Kang,” Ava said.

  “What?” Wan said, spinning away from her, searching for Kang.

  “I just looked at her tits,” he said.

  Yu grabbed Wan’s elbow. “We can deal with that later. Right now we should be on the move.”

  Wan pointed to Boom and the man who had brought the food. “She’s coming with us. Put her out again and then untie her. And be careful. We don’t want to hurt her in any way.”

  Boom went to the couch and took a rag out of a paper bag that sat next to it. He poured a clear liquid into it.

  “That isn’t necessary,” Ava said.

  “Do it,” Wan said.

  Boom approached her with the rag. Her normal instinct was to resist, but this wasn’t a normal situation. When he put the rag to her face, she breathed deeply. She felt a smile come to her face and a question pounding in her head: Who is Xu?

  ( 29 )

  The woman’s hair was a mass of grey curls framing a round, soft face. Her two hands held one of Ava’s, stroking the back of it. She smiled. “You are such a pretty girl.”

  Ava was in a bed, the covers pulled up and one arm outside, in black silk. She sat up. She was wearing a black silk mandarin jacket, closed at the neck.

  “I washed you myself,” the woman said. “The jacket and pants are my daughter’s. She’s almost exactly your size.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And I put ointment and a light bandage on the back of your knee.”

  The room was big enough to hold a double bed, a dresser, and the chair that the old woman sat in. The door was no more than six feet from the foot of the bed. It was closed, but Ava could hear familiar voices on the other side.

  “Are you Auntie Lin?”

  “How did you know?”

  “Wan said he was coming here.”

  “Yes, I am Auntie Lin.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Eight.”

  “In the morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long have I been here?”

  “Four hours.”

  The voices rose. Wan seemed panicked. Yu was telling him that things were going to work out, but his voice was full of worry.

  “What are those men to you?” Ava asked, pointing at the door.

  “Yu is my sister’s son. When she died, I looked after him until he found a job. It was for less than a year, but he never forgot and has looked after me ever since.”

  “You know what he does, right?”

  “We can’t always choose the paths our lives take.”

  Ava started to climb from the bed, but the old woman blocked her path with her body.

  “I want to talk to them,” Ava said.

  “No, please don’t try. They asked me to make sure you stayed here until the other men came.”

  “What ot
her men?”

  “The Shanghai men.”

  “Men are coming from Shanghai?”

  “No, the men are here already, in KK. Wan told them just about ten minutes ago where my house is. They should be here soon.”

  Ava closed her eyes. She wanted to pray. She normally knelt when she prayed, but the old woman seemed determined to maintain her position, so she prayed sitting up in the bed. She prayed to Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, to thank him. She had prayed to him many times when she needed help. This time, at the warehouse, she hadn’t; she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps she had thought it was too much to ask of him. But he had been there for her anyway, unbidden.

  When she was finished, she looked at the old woman. Her head was lowered as if she was trying to give Ava privacy.

  “Auntie, how do you know about the Shanghai men?”

  “I heard them talking.”

  “When they did, did they mention the name Xu?”

  She nodded.

  “Is Xu here in KK?”

  “I don’t think so. I think he’s in Shanghai,” she said, and paused.

  “What else?”

  “Wan is afraid of him.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “When Wan was talking to him, he was almost kowtowing.”

  “What did you think when you heard him?”

  “That he was a man who was very afraid, a man who isn’t ready to die.”

  A cellphone rang in the other room. Ava shushed the old woman and listened. Yu said, “Yes,” three times and then, “You’re only a few minutes away. The house is painted white with a red door. There’s a black van parked outside.”

  “Your friends are almost here,” Auntie Lin said.

  “I don’t know who they are.”

  The old woman looked at Ava. “Then who are you, for them to do this thing?”

  “I think I’m a friend of a friend.”

  Someone knocked at the bedroom door. “Yes?” Auntie Lin said.

  “Auntie, wake the woman now. We need to have her with us,” Yu said.

  “She’s awake already.”

  “Bring her out.”

  The old woman moved to one side, motioning for Ava to climb down from the bed. Ava’s left leg went first; her right followed, the knee stiff and aching. She winced.

  “I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think the damage is long-lasting,” Auntie Lin said. “It’s a very bad bruise but I was able to move your leg around when I washed you and put on the ointment.”

  Ava sat on the side of the bed, swinging the leg sideways and then back and forth. Gradually it began to loosen, the pain backing off or at least becoming bearable.

  “Okay,” she said, sliding to the floor. “Let’s go see them.”

  The bedroom door opened into what Ava assumed was the living room. A couch, an easy chair, a coffee table, a hutch filled with photos, a large-screen television, and eight men filled it to capacity.

  “You okay?” Wan said.

  “My leg is sore,” Ava replied.

  “Sorry.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Xu’s men will be here in a minute. You’ll be going with them,” Wan said, and then paused. “I don’t want you to hold any grudges.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “It was just a mistake on my part, a bad judgement based on bad information.”

  “Just?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re only sorry because of Xu.”

  “I didn’t know you were connected to him.”

  “So that’s why you felt free to kidnap me?”

  “I told you, it was a mistake.”

  She stared at the other men. Yu stood just behind his boss. Boom was leaning against a wall; Kang was next to him, trying to look invisible.

  “Your man Kang, he molested me. Was that a mistake too?”

  “We’ll look after him when this is over.”

  “I’m not sure I believe you.”

  “What did he do except look at your tits?”

  “His filthy hands were all over me while he was masturbating.”

  Wan looked at Kang. “We’ll take off his right hand.”

  “That’s all?”

  “What else do you want?”

  Kang went pale. He whispered something to Boom.

  “I’m going to think about that,” she said.

  “Whatever else you want,” Wan said. “I don’t want you to hold any grudges.”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible,” Ava said.

  Yu stepped alongside his boss. “I also want to apologize for any bad behaviour on the part of me or my other men.”

  Ava searched the room. “Where is the man who took the pictures?”

  “He was with Hwang. He’s dead,” Yu said.

  “And Ma said that he didn’t approve and did what he could to stop him and Kang. If that isn’t the case —” Wan said.

  “Who is Ma?”

  Yu pointed to the man whom Ava had called Boom.

  “No, he was okay,” she said. “I owe him my gratitude.”

  Boom turned his eyes to her and lowered his head in thanks.

  “Is there anything else that we can do —” Wan began, and then stopped when the door crashed open.

  Sonny Kwok filled its frame. In three steps he was in front of her. She looked up at him and said, “I’m all right.”

  Behind him, eight other men edged into the room. Sonny was dressed in his usual black suit, white shirt, and black tie. The others were in dress shirts and slacks. Several had shaved heads but none had a mohawk or an earring, and the only visible tattoos she could see were discreet.

  “This is Suen,” Sonny said, pointing to a man who had to be six foot six. “The others are his crew. There’s another crew in the city, mopping up.” He stared at Wan and his men. “Which is Wan?”

  “I am,” Wan said from the back of the room, where he was partially hidden by Yu.

  Sonny moved so quickly that Yu was thrown against a wall as he was shoved aside. Wan retreated but Sonny caught him almost instantly, grabbed him by the throat, picked him up, and slammed him against a wall. He suspended him at eye level. “Ava, what do you want me to do with him?”

  “Nothing right now. I need him,” she said.

  He continued to hold Wan against the wall, his hand squeezing. Wan gagged, his feet flailing in mid-air.

  “Sonny, let him go,” she said.

  Yu took one step forward before coming to an abrupt halt as Suen laid an arm across his chest. “Don’t interfere,” Suen said.

  Sonny stared hard at Ava, then nodded and threw Wan to the ground.

  “Xu said that if we returned the woman unharmed, this would end,” Wan said through his gasps.

  “Are you really okay?” Suen asked Ava.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Then I’m going outside to call the boss to tell him,” Suen said.

  “What about our men here?” Yu said. “Are they free to go?”

  “No one moves a muscle until I get back,” Suen said.

  Ava looked at Sonny. His mouth was drawn tightly, his jaw muscles clenched. Ava knew the signs. He wanted to hurt someone and was just waiting for an excuse. “I don’t have a phone and we need to call Uncle to let him know that I’m safe,” she said to him.

  His eyes swung towards her, and she saw his rage turn into the same pain and confusion that had been there the last time they had met.

  “Is he okay?” she asked quickly.

  He shook his head.

  “What’s going on?” she said.

  “He’s in Hong Kong.”

  “So?”

  “Going to Shanghai was too much for him. By the last day there I could tell he was w
orn out, weaker than I’ve ever seen him. Then, when he found about you, it was as if whatever was holding him together gave away.”

  “But you got him back to Hong Kong.”

  “Only because Xu arranged to fly him back by private jet, with a doctor and a nurse.”

  Ava froze. “He needs to know that I’m okay.”

  Sonny nodded. “We can phone the hospital.”

  “Do it. Do it now.”

  “Ava, he might not be able to take the call.”

  She felt her stomach contract. “If they won’t let you talk to him, leave a message and tell them it’s urgent that they give it to him.”

  “It would be better if you spoke to them.”

  “Call.”

  “Yeah,” Sonny said, reaching into his jacket pocket.

  “And we need to get there as fast as we can.”

  “We flew here from Shanghai on another private jet, a big one. Xu said we could use it to go to Hong Kong if things worked out here.”

  “What about these other men?”

  “They’ll drop us off and then go on to Shanghai.”

  “I might want some of them to stay here for a few days. I don’t want to leave May Ling without support.”

  “I’m sure that can be arranged,” he said, and then handed her his phone. “It’s ringing.”

  Ava followed the prompts and reached patient information. She asked for Chow Tung.

  “He’s in the palliative care unit in R Block. There’s no phone in his room,” the operator said.

  “Can you connect me with the nursing station?”

  “Just a moment.”

  “Yes, I’m calling about Chow Tung,” she said when the connection was made. “Can you tell me how he is, please?”

  “He’s resting.”

  “No, I need to know how he is.”

  “I’m sorry, Miss, but I’m not allowed to give out that kind of information over the phone. You need to speak to his doctor.”

  “Doctor Parker?”

  “Yes, that’s the one who’s listed.”

  “Is he there?”

  “No.”

  “Do you have a phone number for him?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll get it myself.”

  “Yes, you’ll have to do that.”

  “One more thing, my name is Ava Lee and I’m his friend. He’s been worried about me. I’m coming to Hong Kong later today to see him. Do you think someone could tell him that, that I’m coming, and that I’m well? It’s important for him to know.”