The Two Sisters of Borneo (18 page)

Sometime in the afternoon — at least she supposed it was the afternoon — she fell asleep. She wasn’t sure how long she had been out, but when she woke, it was to the sound of Yu’s voice telling the men they were going to be staying there at least overnight and that he was arranging to have some mattresses sent over.

The brothers didn’t buy me
, she thought instantly. May Ling was in play, or going to come into play, and that meant Ava had crossed her first hurdle.

“How about food?” Boom asked.

“It will come with the mattresses.”

“What about her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Food.”

“Give her some white rice and water.”

“She hasn’t pissed yet, and she keeps asking us to untie her so she can go . . . I mean, what can she do?”

“You saw what she can do when she took out your dumb shit of a brother. She stays there.”

“Okay.”

“Boss, do you have any idea how much longer this is going to take?” Squeaky asked.

“Why, do you have somewhere to go?”

“No.”

“Another day maybe,” Yu said. “The customer doesn’t care what we do with her, so Wan contacted her partners this morning and started negotiating. It’s going as fast as he can make it go, but the partners are asking for proof that she’s still alive.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m sending a digital camera with the other stuff. Take some pictures and then give the camera back to the guy who brought it. We’ll email the pix to them.”

“Fine,” Boom said.

“Hey, what happened to her shirt?” Yu asked. “Buttons are undone.”

“Kang had a peek,” Boom said.

“And?” Yu said.

“As good as I’ve ever seen,” Kang said.

Ava heard chairs moving and then the shuffle of feet. She held her breath. She felt fingers loosen buttons and her shirt pulled back.

“They are nice,” Yu said.

“Told you.”

“But put them back in the bra and close the shirt. We want her to look tidy for the picture.”

She felt clammy hands on her skin and tried not to react. Somehow the humiliation was lessened for her if they thought she was sleeping.

“Okay,” Yu said. “Chin will be here in about two hours. I should be back here sometime tomorrow.”

Ava heard the door open and close. She flexed her wrists. The tape was unyielding. Her legs had knotted again and her knee was throbbing. Her mouth was dry; she could feel her lips starting to crack.

“I would like some water,” she said.

“She wakes,” Kang said.

“Woman, did you hear Yu just now?” Boom asked.

“No.”

“Well, there’s some food on the way. Why don’t you wait until it gets here? Then we can feed you and water you at the same time.”

“I’m thirsty.”

“And we don’t want you pissing all over the floor.”

“Then untie me and let me go the bathroom.”

“You’re a fucking pain in the ass with that. Don’t ask again.”

She had no driving urge to pee. There was some discomfort, but that was overpowered by her thirst. “I’m not going to wet myself. Some water, please.”

This time it was Boom who brought the glass to her. “You’re going to be here for a while, so get used to the idea.”

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are they talking to my people about a ransom?”

“What do you think?”

“I think this is crazy.”

“I’ll be sure to tell my bosses.”

“Look, I know you can’t untie me, but could you at least take the blindfold off? It makes me feel claustrophobic . . . I can feel a panic attack coming on.”

Boom paused. “Kang, what do you think?” he said.

“Makes no difference to me, but if Wan gets mad then it’s on you.”

“We’ll take it off until the guy gets here with the camera. They’ll want to see her full face anyway.”

“Okay.”

“Listen, woman, no promises after that.”

“Thanks, and by the way, my name is Ava.”

“I don’t want to know your name,” Boom said, slipping the blindfold over the top of her head.

She blinked, her eyes trying to adjust to what was nothing more than overhead tube lighting that struck her with the force of kliegs. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, opened them, and closed them again. She looked down at the floor, at her bare feet, not wanting to see her captors until she felt she had focus and control. She moved her right leg to one side and examined the back of her knee as well as she could. It was swollen, a mass of broken blood vessels visible through a patch of black and blue.

“Which of you hit me with the bat?” she asked, finally looking at them.

They were about thirty feet away, standing against a wall. They glanced at each other and said nothing.

Ava didn’t recognize either of them from the night before. Boom was bulky and fleshy, probably in his thirties, a younger version of Wan. His face was round and small and his head looked freshly shaved, the skin slightly pink. He was five foot ten, Ava figured, and had at least two hundred pounds hidden under a roomy floral shirt and a pair of baggy jeans. She searched his arms for tattoos and to her surprise didn’t find any. She looked up at his face again. He looked bored.

From his voice, she had pictured Kang to be small and scrawny, but he was at least as large as Boom, and where Boom was fat, he was all muscle. His upper body stretched a white T-shirt, and a pair of black jeans was tight around his thighs. His face was lean, and made to look even longer by his mohawk haircut. He had tattoos, and rings in both ears. He was smiling, his eyes flicking from her face to her chest.

She took in the room. It had a high ceiling, maybe sixteen feet, and formed a perfect square about forty feet on each side. It looked like a warehouse, and the furnishings — four wooden armchairs like hers, a card table with a radio on it, and an old brown leather couch that was slashed in places — looked lost in it. The walls were bare except for beige paint that was scraped and scarred as if pallets had been banged against them. The floor was covered with gouge marks, probably for the same reason, she thought. She looked down at it, trying to detect any signs of old blood.

“What’s the time?” she asked.

“What does that matter?” Boom said.

“Does that radio work?”

“Stop fucking talking or the blindfold goes back on,” Kang said.

“I’m going outside to make some phone calls,” said Boom. “Do me a favour and stay away from her.”

Kang shrugged and then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of Marlboros. Ava watched Boom open the left side of the double door to leave. She looked past him and saw that the room she was in led into another that looked even larger and was equally as empty. It seemed they were in an abandoned warehouse.

Kang lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, and then started to walk towards Ava, a smile on his face. She turned her eyes away from him and tried to gather herself. He stopped ten paces short. Ava refused to acknowledge him.

He tossed the cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it. Ava sensed rather than saw his hand move towards his crotch and pull down his zipper. “Look at this,” he said.

She shut her eyes.

“I’d like to give you some of it — in the cunt, in the ass, in the mouth. Maybe all three, one after another.” He laughed. “But that’s kind of hard the way you’re tied, so I’ll have to make do.”

She felt him come near and shuddered. He was behind her before she realized it, and the now familiar sweaty hand reached down into her blouse. He pulled her left breast free from the bra and began to pinch the nipple with his left hand. She felt him pressing against her back, his other hand working his cock. She opened her eyes. His left arm lay across her chest. She twisted her head towards it. His wrist was beyond her reach, but the upper arm wasn’t. She lunged, driving her teeth into him as deeply as she could. He screamed and tried to pull free, but Ava hung on until he struck her across the back of the head with his right hand. Her head slumped forward and she braced for another blow.

“You fucking bitch!” he yelled.

“Hey, I thought I told you to leave the woman alone,” a voice roared from the doorway.

Ava looked up and saw Boom standing there.

Kang was still behind her. She heard him fumbling and guessed that he was putting things back where they belonged. “The bitch bit me,” he said, and then he laughed. He walked past Ava without a glance and went to the leather couch, where he lay down.

Behind Boom, the warehouse door opened and a third man came into the room. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt and had a shaved head. Ava recognized him from the restaurant the night before.

Kang sat up and went to join him at the card table, where he was emptying the contents of a paper bag. Even from that distance she could smell the food, and it triggered her appetite.

The new man opened a container of barbecued pork, another that held noodles, and a third that was filled with white rice, and finally he pulled a whole roasted chicken from a large sleeve. Boom walked over to the chairs and pushed them towards the table. The three men filled their plates and then sat and ate. None of them paid her any attention.

When they had finished, Boom and the new man left the room and returned a minute later, each carrying a mattress. They threw them on the floor near the couch. Kang lit a cigarette and said something to the newcomer. They both laughed and turned to look at Ava.

“You told me I would get some food and water,” she said.

“In a minute. I want to get this picture out of the way,” Boom said.

The three of them walked towards her, the newcomer holding the digital camera. They stopped only a few feet away.

“Look up at me and smile,” he said.

Ava stared, her face impassive.

“Great,” he said.

“Now one with those great tits front and centre,” Kang said.

“No,” Boom said.

“The boss won’t mind. When did you get so fucking moral?” the newcomer said.

Ava closed her eyes and waited for Boom to assert himself.

Then she felt fingers on her shirt again, buttons coming undone, hands reaching inside her bra.

“Aren’t they great?” Kang said.

She counted. At ten the newcomer said, “Look at that picture.”

“Enough. You’d better get back to Wan, and back to business,” Boom said.

“I’m done.”

“Then go.”

Her eyes still shut, she heard feet shuffle and the door open and close. Different hands slipped under her breasts and put them back in the bra.

“Sorry,” Boom said.

They fed her two plates of white rice and two glasses of water. Her appetite receded. Her thirst was slaked. The blindfold was pulled back over her eyes, and almost at once the need to pee began to occupy her mind.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said.

“Then go,” Kang said.

She did. The urine ran down the inside of both legs and poured over the middle of the seat onto the floor. She lifted her toes so they wouldn’t have to rest in it. She was glad she wasn’t wearing slacks.

“What a fucking mess,” said Kang.

“There’s a mop in the next room. Get it,” said Boom. “I’ll move her chair out of the way.”

She heard Boom circle around her, trying to avoid the pool of urine. He grabbed the back of the chair and dragged it farther from the door. “You can put your feet down now,” he said.

“Thanks. I’m not sure what I would have done without you.”

“Don’t make anything of it. I follow orders, just like Kang. I’m just not an animal.”

She heard the mop swishing and Kang cursing.

“We’re going to be lying down soon,” Boom said. “We’ll take turns so one of us will always have an eye on you. We’re also going to leave the lights on, so don’t think you can try any funny stuff in the dark.”

“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?