Chapter 10

10

Nathan is the first to speak. “What do you mean ‘kidnapped’?” I have no idea how he manages to sound so lucid and alert when I’m still sitting there blinking stupidly. The world has a murky quality to it that makes me feel as though I’m underwater, my thoughts swimming slowly. I squeeze my eyes shut and open them again, hoping it will wake me up.

“Aduh, what you mean, what I mean, kidnapped?” Ma cries. “Kidnap itu ya kidnap. Is there other meaning to kidnap?”

“I think he’s asking how it happened and who did it,” Fourth Aunt snaps. She turns to Nathan. “Second Aunt likes to do Tai Chi every morning—”

Big Aunt snorts. “He know. Everybody know. She always telling everybody how she like to do the Tai Chi every morning, always boasting about it.” Her words are callous, but I catch the slight crack in Big Aunt’s voice, and this is what wakes me up. Big Aunt is worried. Sure enough, when I look at her closely, I see the telltale signs of anxiety; the way her mouth is pinched, the way she’s woven her fingers through each other and is grasping so tightly that her knuckles have turned white. My breath catches in my throat. Big Aunt is worried about Second Aunt, her nemesis. Things are serious.

“Right,” Fourth Aunt continues, “so this morning, she went out to the front yard to do Tai Chi—”

“Aiya, how you know what happen?” Ma interrupts. “You were sleeping, you lazy bum. I was awake, I was in the kitchen making tea for me and Second Aunt—”

“Right, so you were making your weed tea as usual—”

“Not weed tea. Jasmine tea!” Ma snaps. “Anyway, then I hear cars screech. I look up and I see this big black car stopping outside the gate, then these men come out—aduh, they so scary deh—they force gate open like this—” She mimes wrenching open the gate. “And they—they—” Her voice breaks. “They just take her! She doing the Tai Chi and they just grab her. I run outside but they gone already.”

Horrified doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling. Whatever is going through me right now, it actually feels physical, like someone’s punched me directly in the stomach, knocking all of the wind out of me. Nausea pulses through me in sickening waves. Next to me, Nathan looks just as shell-shocked as I feel. I don’t know how to process this. Maybe I should, after all that we’ve been through—accidental murder, overpowering a bunch of fake mafia members at our wedding—this shouldn’t come as such a blow, but it does.

It’s the thought of poor Second Aunt, grabbed by unknown men while she was doing something as innocuous and mundane as Tai Chi. This isn’t supposed to happen. Not to normal people like us. But then again, after everything we’ve done, maybe we’re not normal people. Maybe it’s exactly the kind of thing that happens to people like us.

Tears flood my eyes. My head feels hot, like my skin is about to melt right off my skull. I told you we should’ve left! I want to shriek at them. But Ma and the aunties look so wretched, their faces twisted with anxiety and sorrow, that I can’t possibly allow myself to play the blame game right now. No, what’s most important right now is getting Second Aunt back.

“They leave this on front lawn.” Ma produces an envelope, and Nathan takes it.

For kidnappers, they have strangely good taste. The envelope is made of thick, creamy paper with a letterpress logo on it that says: KKH. My stomach sinks so low it threatens to fall right out of me. That can only be Kristofer Kolumbes Hermansah.

Sure enough, when Nathan takes out the card inside and reads it out loud, my fears are confirmed.

“You stole something from my granddaughter.”

---

•   •   •“This is preposterous!” Abi roars. He starts pacing about the room like a caged tiger, his teeth gritted, his hands squeezed into fists. His rage emanates from him in a blinding aura, and I find myself leaning away from him without even realizing it.

Julia Child, who has made herself comfortable despite just arriving moments ago, rolls her eyes, seemingly unperturbed by this outburst. “It’s somewhat unfortunate, yes.”

“Unfortunate?” Abi swings around to face her. What happened to all of that deference and fearful respect he had toward her just a day ago? Even as I think that, I realize that it’s all gone, burned away by his love for Second Aunt. It’s touching in a really horrible, awful way. I want to weep for him and everyone involved, but most of all, I want to sob out of anxiety and concern for Second Aunt. I hope she’s safe. “This isn’t what I’d call unfortunate. It’s unacceptable. This is a slap in the face. It’s a challenge. We have to meet it.”

Something cold tingles across my skin. Hang on, this sounds like an escalation, not a resolution. I’ve spent enough time with my own ma and aunties to know that when they go into escalation mode, I really need to step in before they cause World War III. “Can we maybe try to speak with Kristofer peacefully and come to some sort of compromise?”

“What?” Abi roars. “Speak with Kristofer peacefully? You might as well try to reason with a snake.”

Julia Child snorts. “Unfortunately, in this instance, I agree with Abraham. Kristofer is not someone who is receptive to reason and logic.”

Abi nods. “The only way we can get Enjelin back is by going head-to-head against him.” He pauses and stands up straight, his chest swelling with incandescent anger. “War,” he whispers.

Julia Child clicks her tongue, still looking unimpressed. “Hmm.”

“War?” Nathan says. He breaks his stare from Abi to give me a look that says: Is he serious?

Oh god. I raise my hand meekly. “What do you mean by war?”

“Tch, Meddy, you don’t malu-maluin Mama dong,” Ma says. “Is obvious, war is mean fight. We fight them.” She gets that glint in her eyes again, like Gordon Ramsay when he’s just cut into an overcooked piece of steak.

“Fight them?” I wish my voice didn’t come out so squeaky.

“Yes,” Big Aunt intones in the Voice of God, crossing her thick arms in front of her massive chest. “We fight. We cannot allow our sister to be kidnap like this. We teach them lesson.”

“What the—whoa, whoa,” I cry. “What the hell happened to ‘law-abiding businesspeople’?” I’m stuck in a nightmare. I know it. Maybe I should smack myself to wake myself up. “Why don’t we just go to the police?”

At this, Abi and Julia Child both jump up as though I’ve just tapped them with an electric prod. “No police!” they both shout.

I gape at them. They exchange glances with each other, as though surprised that they’ve reacted so quickly and decisively.

“Let me explain,” Julia Child says with a practiced smile. “Indonesia is very different from America. Here, we try not to get the police involved as much as we can. We prefer to . . . solve our own problems.”

“Yes, yes,” Abi says, nodding vigorously. “Solve our own problems.”

“Wha—” I close my mouth. Open it again. “But this involves literal kidnapping. Surely that’s gone well beyond the scope of peaceful conflict resolution. It’s an actual crime. That should be handled by the police.”

Neither one speaks. Their faces are both painfully resolute, cold and unmoving as stones.

“This is because you two are triad leaders, aren’t you? All that stuff you said about being legit businesspeople, that was all bullshit.” Next to me, Nathan shifts warily and Ma and the aunties wince at how harshly I’m speaking to my elders, but I can’t help it. There have been so many lies, and they’ve all culminated in this. In Second Aunt being literally kidnapped. There’s a shocking protective instinct that’s caught me by surprise, rearing up from deep inside me and striking with claws unsheathed, teeth out. I don’t care whom I offend, I need my family intact.

“You don’t understand what the police are like in countries outside of America,” Julia Child says simply. “You’re looking at this through an American lens. Did you never read that god-awful story about Amanda Knox?”

Ma shakes her head while Fourth Aunt’s head bobs back and forth. “Foxy Knoxy,” Fourth Aunt says.

“Hanh?” Ma says.

“That was the unfortunate name that the Italian police came up with for Amanda Knox after her roommate was found murdered in Italy,” Julia Child says. “The Italian police immediately pinned Amanda as a suspect, and all of their investigation seemed geared to proving she was guilty instead of finding out the actual truth. And you know what? Her case wasn’t at all unique. It only went viral because she’s a beautiful Caucasian woman, but every day, all over the world, tourists find themselves in bad situations, and when the local cops get involved, guess who they’re going to blame?”

My stomach sours. This is completely not the way I saw this conversation going, but as much as I want to refute Julia Child’s logic, it makes perfect sense. Tourists make for a convenient scapegoat.

“You are visitors in this country,” Julia Child continues. “Your aunts renounced their Indonesian citizenship, didn’t they?”

Ma and the aunties nod hesitantly, and Julia Child sniffs. “Right, so you’re American citizens. You’re tourists. You’re in a foreign country, and you’re suggesting we go to the police and tell them that the most powerful and respected businessman in Indonesia has had your auntie kidnapped while she’s doing Tai Chi?”

I gape at her for a second, realizing how utterly ridiculous it all sounds. But I forge ahead. “Well, yes!” I sputter. “I mean, that is literally what happened. Or maybe we could go to the US Embassy—”

“They will only make things worse. Americans, always marching everywhere, claiming power where they have no right to. If you get the US Embassy involved, it’ll likely make the local authorities more defensive and less likely to help you.”

I grit my teeth, and Nathan squeezes my hand. “She’s right,” he murmurs. “I travel a lot for business and I hear a lot of things—incidents that involve tourists in foreign countries. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the local authorities would take advantage of the fact that tourists rarely know the laws of the country and they’ll pin the blame on the tourist. Before they know it, they’re imprisoned for years for breaking a law that they didn’t even know existed.”

“But we haven’t broken any laws!” I cry. Then I stop myself. Because that’s not strictly true, is it? We’ve broken plenty of laws, including the biggest of them all: murder. And maybe if the Indonesian police were to look into our backgrounds, they might discover incriminating evidence about our old crimes. It’s a horrible realization, slamming down with the force of an anvil. I feel as though my very bones have been crushed and flattened. I can barely keep myself on my feet. I just want to lie down and weep.

“Okay, so no polisi,” Big Aunt says. Her face is still sickly pale with worry, but she looks resolute, far stronger than I’m feeling. Shame burns in my veins. Big Aunt, who is in her sixties, is holding up better than I am even though it’s her sister who’s gone missing. I need to be stronger. I take a deep breath, willing the air to fortify me. “What we do now to get Enjelin back?”

“War!” Abi roars again. Now that the discussion about calling the cops has been thoroughly dismissed, he’s fully embraced his rage once again. “Julia Child, you need to round up all of your men. We need to gather our forces and storm his house and—”

Julia Child scoffs at the same time as my mouth drops open. “I think not,” she says with finality.

“What?” Abi shouts.

“I want nothing to do with Kristofer.” Her nose wrinkles with obvious distaste. “No, if I never speak to the man again, it’s too soon.”

I want to scream. I can’t believe that even someone as powerful as Julia Child is still concerned with “What might people say?” And we’re in such dire straits that it’s ridiculous that anyone could be hung up on something so trivial. We’re talking about literally saving someone from a kidnapper. But then again, I’m not convinced by Abi’s idea of “war,” whatever that means. Surely it can’t mean a literal battle, but I have no idea what passes for normal with these people anymore.

Ma and the aunties are gaping at her. “Are you saying you won’t help get my sister back because you’re scared it’ll make you look bad?” Fourth Aunt says.

Julia Child’s gaze flattens. “I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“I don’t care what way you put it,” Fourth Aunt snaps. “You had a hand in this, you’d better step up, lady.”

Julia Child’s chin lifts ever so slightly. “Oh?”

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room drops, turning icy. If Fourth Aunt is a scrappy warrior, Julia Child is a ruthless empress. Big Aunt must have felt the shift, too, because she places a hand on Fourth Aunt’s shoulder, as if to say: Back off and let me handle this. She nods at Julia Child. “What your suggestion?” Her voice comes out very measured. Calm, but with just a touch of accusatory note that makes it clear that she hasn’t let Julia Child off the hook. “We appreciate your help to get our sister out.”

Julia Child sighs and turns away, crossing her arms and tapping her chin with an immaculately manicured fingernail. “I really don’t want to get involved in this. It’s your mess, Abraham.” At the rushed intake of breath from all of us, she holds up a palm. “But let me think.” She gazes out of the window for what seems like an entire year before finally speaking again. “Ah, I think I have an idea. Kristofer always throws a lavish feast for every holiday. Chinese New Year, the Full Moon Festival, even Christmas.”

“Isn’t Chinese New Year over?” I say. “We had our big celebration two nights ago.”

“You would think. But not for Kristofer,” she says dryly. “He holds a celebration for his family on the night of Chinese New Year, and then another two days later for everyone else—his business partners, his friends, everyone. It’s a huge feast with hundreds of guests, and it’s happening tonight. The perfect chance for you all to get in, get your aunt back, and get out without Kristofer knowing.”

“What? How are we going to do that?” I blurt out.

Julia Child levels a serious gaze at me. It feels as though she’s looking directly through my skin and flesh and straight into my soul. Then she nods toward Big Aunt. “I’m sure you’ll all figure something out.”

“We’ll get it done,” Fourth Aunt says flippantly, as though she’s talking about a trip to Target.

“How we going to steal into someone’s house?” Ma gnaws at a fingernail. Big Aunt frowns at Ma, and Ma quickly puts her hand back down on her lap.

With a sniff, Big Aunt turns to Julia Child. “We handle it.”

The question of how is almost out of my mouth before I manage to swallow it down. If I asked Big Aunt that right now, she’d probably see it as me talking back, and worse, doing so in front of outsiders, which would bring extra shame. But really, what in the world can we possibly come up with that could get us into some mafia lord’s house? And, don’t forget, out of said mafia lord’s house, preferably in one piece? Still, my mouth refuses to open and betray Big Aunt’s confident facade.

Julia Child nods at Big Aunt. “Once you get her out, go to the private airstrip. I’ll have my jet fly all of you out of here so you can leave all this mess behind. That’s my best offer of help.”

My heart is racing. With fear? With anticipation? With excitement at the chance to get Second Aunt back? Who knows. I feel like vomiting. Nathan looks just as conflicted as I feel, but Ma and the aunties’ eyes are glittering. There’s even a small smile playing on Fourth Aunt’s lips. Of course they would be excited by the prospect of breaking into a triad leader’s house.

“And you—” Julia Child turns to Abi. “You’d better wait at your house. You can’t show your face there, otherwise the whole operation would be discovered.”

Abi’s hands clench and unclench as he grits his teeth. It’s obvious he’s dying to come with us, but Julia Child is right. He would be recognized immediately.

“I—I don’t know . . .” I mumble. I keep my hands together to stop them from trembling.

“Okay,” Big Aunt says. “We do this. And you will fly us away right after?”

“Tch.” Abi waves a hand flippantly. “I’ll fly you all in my private jet. That’s not a problem.”

Julia Child shrugs. “If you wish. But my jet is also at your service. As my thanks for helping to get the title deed back.”

I look at Nathan, then at Ma and my aunties, and I see the answer written plainly on their faces. There’s never been any question about it, because of course we would go to the deepest reaches of hell to save one of us. We’re going into Kristofer Kolumbes’s estate, and we’re going to get Second Aunt back, even if it kills us.