Chapter 16

16

I push my way through the crowd without any regard for personal space. A few people grunt and hiss, “Watch it!” but I don’t pause, I don’t look back. It feels like forever before I finally make it to the door. I burst out of it and close it behind me. I run down the hallway and make a quick turn to the left, and there in front of me is a staircase leading up. Yes!

I rush up the steps, taking them two at a time, and just as I reach the top, I hear one of the doors cracking open. Without thinking, I dive in and push the door shut behind me.

“Meddy!”

I gasp. “Nathan! Ma! Oh my god.” I throw my arms around them and squeeze.

“How did you know we were here?” Nathan says.

“I—I didn’t, I was running and I heard the door creaking open and it—I don’t know, it sounded suspicious? Like, someone who’s trying to hide would open a door like that.” I realize I’m babbling and tell myself to stop.

Ma pats my cheek. “Ah, you so smart, Meddy. My daughter so cunning, ya? She can tell who is bad guy just by the door opening.”

“In this scenario, we are the bad guys,” Nathan reminds her.

Ma tsks. “Obviously no lah.”

“Okay, we don’t have time for this.” I gesture at them to listen. “Second Aunt is in one of the guest bedrooms. Fourth Aunt is in the living room, performing, but Rochelle is also down there and she recognized Fourth Aunt, so we’re in a bit of a bind. We need to find Second Aunt and get her out and then find some other way to get Fourth Aunt out.”

Nathan and Ma gape at me. Then Ma goes, “Hanh? Fourth Aunt performing?” She snorts, shaking her head. “Aduh, that woman, no shame. No understanding why we are here. She see the stage, she has to go on it, such attention hole, you see what I say? Attention hole!”

“Actually, it wasn’t her fault. We ah—we ran into Kristofer and he recognized her and sort of pushed her into performing.” Okay, well, she could’ve said no, but I choose to leave out that tiny little detail for now.

Ma snorts again. “He recognize her? Hanh! She will be boasting about this for year and year, you just wait and see. Will be unbearable.”

“Uh. Right. Anyway, my point is, things are pretty bad, and we need to move fast.”

“How you know Second Aunt in guest bedroom?” Ma says.

“Ma!” I throw up my hands. What part of “we need to move fast” does she not understand? “I’ll explain later, okay? Come on.” I open the door a little and peer outside, half expecting a whole army of guards to rush through the door. But the hallway is empty. Huh. Maybe I’d imagined Kristofer’s knowing look after all. Maybe he was looking at me like that because he was annoyed that I wasn’t capturing Fourth Aunt’s performance from a close enough distance? Well, anyway, there isn’t time to linger. I gesture to Nathan and Ma to follow me.

Slowly, we creep out of the room. I wince at every sound we make; our footsteps, something I’ve never thought much of before, sound thunderous in the silence. Even my own ragged breathing seems deafening to me. Stay calm, I tell myself. We’re so close to rescuing Second Aunt. So close. We’ll find her in one of these rooms, set her free, and go. Of course, as soon as we’re fully out in the hallway, it hits me that the room that Second Aunt’s in is probably locked. How are we going to get her out without a key?

Doesn’t matter. All we need to do is find which room she’s in and then figure the rest out. Right. One step at a time.

“Aduh, this house so big, how we going to find her?” Ma complains.

I shush her. I look down the hallway at the doors on either side of us. They are all identical, and there are six doors in total, including the one we just came out of.

“My guess is they’re all guest bedrooms,” Nathan says, reading my mind.

“How do you know?”

He shrugs. “Well, the room we were in was one. And a house this size probably has a lot of guest rooms. It makes sense to put them all together on the same floor.”

“Ah.” That does make sense. “And I’m guessing any guest they might have would be downstairs at the feast, so these rooms should be empty, except for the one Second Aunt’s in.”

“Yep.” Nathan gives me a half-confident smile. “That’s a bit of luck. Come on.” He straightens up and brushes invisible lint off the front of his caterer’s shirt before approaching the first door on the right. He knocks twice and says, “Room service.” When there’s no reply, he takes a deep breath and opens the door. My blood is a deafening roar in my ears. I’m half expecting someone to start screaming about an intruder, but there’s nothing. The room’s empty. And Nathan’s right, it’s a guest room. He closes the door gently and cocks his head toward the next room.

But before we can get to it, Ma has marched right up to the next door and knocks on it. “Room service,” she calls out, and without waiting for an answer, she turns the knob and flings the door open.

“Wait,” Nathan says, rushing toward her.

I run to catch up with them, but once I get inside the room, I freeze.

Because against all odds, we’ve found Second Aunt. She’s standing right in front of a beautiful picture window, her arms raised in a Tai Chi move. For a second, we gape at each other, and then Ma darts forward and envelops Second Aunt in a fierce hug.

“Erjie!” The questions spill out in rapid Indonesian. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you? We were so worried.”

“Wait, Sanmei—”

“What is all this?” a gruff, male voice booms. Ma stops speaking. We all turn around, and there, standing behind us, are three tall, broad-shouldered guards.

“Don’t move!” one of them barks.

“What? Were you three here the whole time?” Ma cries. She glares at Second Aunt. “Why didn’t you tell us there were guards?”

“I was about to, but you were speaking over me,” Second Aunt snaps.

“But you were doing Tai Chi,” I babble. I have no idea why it matters that she was doing Tai Chi. Pretty sure my brain is just misfiring because, holy shit, there are three guards in the room and they look ready to pounce on us and do god knows what.

“Yes, I was teaching them how to do the Tai Chi. They were enjoying it, too, weren’t you, boys?”

The guards nod. One of them cocks his chin at us. “Hands up.”

“Oh, are we doing the Tai Chi together?” Second Aunt says eagerly.

The guard gives Second Aunt a look. “No, lady. Tai Chi time is over.”

Every sense in my body is screaming, nearly in full panic mode. I can’t let all of us be captured. Not now that we’ve finally found Second Aunt. What would happen to us? This can’t be how this journey ends, with all of us captured and under the mercy of Kristofer, a man I’m sure doesn’t have much mercy to spare. Images flash through my head, each one grislier than the last. Our bodies dumped into unmarked graves. Our bodies stuffed into suitcases. Our bodies—

As though reading my mind, Nathan glances over his shoulder back at me. Our eyes meet. He doesn’t need to say a word. I understand him completely, and I hate it. I hate what he’s conveying to me. Run. We’ll handle these men.

I can’t do that, I can’t leave Nathan and my mom and Second Aunt behind. I’ve already left Fourth Aunt on her own, and that had been awful. I won’t be able to forgive myself if I abandoned them too.

Nathan gives a small shake of his head, his gaze unwavering, his jaw hard. Run. Get help.

I’m the one nearest to the door. I’m the one who has the best chance of making it out of here and calling for help. My whole body is resisting it, but I know this is the only way out. The only way that we can have a fighting chance. Taking a shuddering breath, I give him the smallest possible nod.

“Love you,” he mouths, and before I can change my mind, he leaps at the nearest guard. The guard, caught unaware, staggers back, but manages to stay on his feet. Another guard pounces on Nathan. I hesitate. I should help. I should pick up something—a vase, maybe—to hit the guard with—

“Go!”Nathan roars at me.

The animal rage in his voice reaches deep into the primal instincts inside me, and before I know what I’m doing, I turn and run. Shouts ring out of the room, Ma and Second Aunt yelling, “Get him! Hit his pen-ees!”

I stumble down the hallway, the sound of my ragged breathing flooding my ears. My first thought is to crash inside one of the other guest rooms and hide there, but just as I place my hand on one of the doorknobs, my survival instincts kick in. What the hell am I doing? The absolute last thing I should do is hide in one of these rooms. They’re the first place the guards would check if Nathan fails to—to—

No. I can’t let myself think the worst. I force myself to keep going, hating myself the whole time, torn between turning back and helping them and going forward. I reach the stairs and climb up to the next floor, fear and adrenaline making my breath come out in a wheezing gasp. There are only two doors on the third floor. The one on my right leads to what looks like the master bedroom, a lavish room with its own seating area and expansive balcony and—ew—a hot tub built right into the floor, next to the bed. Okay, did not need to know this about Kristofer. I hurry back out and choose to go inside the other room instead.

This room turns out to be Kristofer’s study. I close the door behind me and lock it before leaning against it and taking a second to catch my breath. Okay, Meddy. Think. Think really freaking hard. Okay. Things have definitely gotten out of control. I don’t know what to do. Silent sobs shudder through my entire being and I slump to the floor, covering my face with my hands. That was so stupid. Why did I leave them? There were four of us and only three guards. We could’ve taken them. Well, I don’t know if we could’ve. But we could’ve tried, at least.

But of course we couldn’t. Because I wouldn’t have done anything to endanger . . .

My hands go to my belly, cupping it protectively, feeling painfully aware of the tiny thing growing inside it. Tears streak my cheeks. I wouldn’t have pounced on the guards like I might have before because I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if anything happened to this little peanut growing inside me. The past couple of weeks or so, as my breasts got sore, I thought it was just my period coming, but now I know it isn’t. Not now that my period is almost a month late. I was going to tell Nathan in Bali. I’d had it all planned out. A beautiful sunset dinner at a cliffside restaurant, followed by a waiter presenting him with a takeaway box. Inside the box would be a baby’s onesie. Or maybe a baby bottle, or a pacifier? Whatever it was, it would indicate baby to come!

And now, I don’t even know if we’ll ever get out of Jakarta alive. I squeeze my eyes shut as tears pool inside them. Did Nathan suspect it? Maybe he did, and that was why he’d shouted at me to run. To leave him, Ma, and Second Aunt behind. Even though I understand that I couldn’t have done much good back there, that I had to protect myself and my—my baby—it still feels awful to abandon them.

No, I remind myself. I haven’t abandoned them. I’ve been given a chance to save everyone. Right. With shaking hands, I take out my phone. Whom to call? The cops, obviously. Screw Abraham Lincoln and Julia Child not wanting to get the cops involved.

Hah. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.

I’m about to dial 911 when I realize that that’s probably not the emergency services number here in Indonesia. What’s the number for 911 in Indonesia?

Don’t panic. Just Google it. Right.

I do a search for “police number Indonesia.” 110. Great. I call the number and swallow as I lift the phone to my ear. It rings once and is immediately picked up. I’m in such a state of panic that it takes me a second to realize that the person on the other end is speaking rapid, formal Indonesian.

“Sorry, uh, can you—” What the hell is the word for “repeat” in Indonesian? In the end, I settle for, “Can you say that again?”

The operator repeats herself, slower this time, and I get the gist of her question: What is your emergency?

Oh god. It’s in this moment that I realize I have no clue what the word for “kidnapping” is in Indonesian. “Uh, my aunt, she was—uh, she was taken.” But I’ve used the word “ambil,” which technically should be used on objects, not people, as in “ambil the bag” and not “ambil the aunt.”

“Do you mean that your aunt was picked up?”

“No, not picked up. Like, she was taken. Diambil.” My voice is getting louder. Oh, the irony of the situation. I’m always telling Ma that repeating herself louder doesn’t actually help her get understood, and now I’m doing the exact same thing. “Kidnapped!” I blurt out in English, hoping against hope the operator understands it.

“Kidnapped. Diculik?”

“Yes! Diculik, that’s it. Yes, my aunt was diculik and you need to—ah, mail people before my whole family is killed.”

“I thought you said your aunt was kidnapped, but now it sounds like your whole family has been taken as well?”

I sputter wordlessly for a second, hurling myself over the mental hurdle of getting myself understood in a language I’m not used to speaking. I’ve taken for granted the fact that I’ve gotten comfortable with just listening to Indonesian and not speaking it, and now that I’m under the haze of panic, everything I know about the language has gone out the window. Of course, even if I were relaying the information in English, it would still take a lot of explaining, because how the hell do I convey to anyone what just happened?

In a halting, broken Indonesian, I say, “It’s a long story. My aunt was diambil—diculik, then we tried to get her back by uh—we entered the kidnapper’s house and now we’re stuck in here and you need to get us out.”

There’s a moment’s silence. “So your aunt was kidnapped, and instead of calling the police, your whole family stole into the kidnapper’s house to get her out, but now you’re caught?”

“Yes! That’s exactly right.”

The operator gives a long, tired sigh. “You do realize that prank-calling 110 is a jailable offense?”

“No, wait—this isn’t a prank, please. I—” I struggle to think of the words for “I swear.”

“Mhmm.” Even through the phone, I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “And where is this kidnapper’s house located?”

“It’s—I don’t know the address, but it belongs to Kristofer Kolumbes Hermansah.”

She cackles. She actually cackles, like a demented witch. “Oh right. Of course. Yes, Mr. Hermansah, the guy who owns all those hotels and malls and schools and all those charitable organizations? He kidnapped your whole family and you want us to storm his house, am I right?”

“Well. Yes!” I cry desperately.

“Listen, count yourself lucky that I’m in a good mood and I won’t be pressing charges for this prank call. But do it again and you’ll be looking at prison time.” With that, the call is so abruptly disconnected that it takes a second for me to realize she’s hung up.

I stare at the phone for a second, swallowing the urge to scream. I shake my head, trying to clear it, and instead, dial Abi’s number. He picks up after the first ring and doesn’t even let me speak.

“Do you have her? Is she alright? Tell me she’s okay!”

“She’s fine.” I hesitate. “Ah, well, she was fine. But Abi, listen, we didn’t manage to get her out. Things got bad.” My voice comes out shaky, and I have to pause to take a deep breath. “Everyone’s been taken, including Second Aunt. Everyone, that is, except me, and I’m stuck in a room and they’ll probably find me soon. Well, and Big Aunt, but she’s all the way down in the kitchen and I have no idea what she can do anyway, there’s only two of us against all of them.” My voice breaks, tears catching in my throat.

“This is going too far. I shouldn’t have allowed this to happen. I knew it, it’s time for war.”

“Wait, but if you go to war, what if he hurts them—” I realize I’m speaking to a disconnected line. This time, the shriek tears itself out of me before I clasp my hands over my mouth. I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling my hands trembling against my tear-stained cheeks, and gasp in and out. I try calling Abi again, but it goes straight to voicemail.

What have I done? What the hell does “war” even mean? What else can it mean? An all-out fight, of course. Bloodshed. And who can tell what Kristofer will do when faced with that? He’s got hostages galore; he doesn’t have to face Abi in a war, all he has to do is bring out Nathan, Ma, Second Aunt, and Fourth Aunt and threaten their lives to coerce Abi into admitting defeat. And then what will happen?

I can’t bear it. This can’t be real. I can’t possibly be in a situation where I’m about to lose literally every member of my family. Everyone I love. (Well, minus Big Aunt, but really, what are the chances she’s going to make it out of here safely?) I feel like a caged animal, awaiting the return of the hunter who caught me, knowing that things are about to get much worse. I sag against the wall, hopelessness taking over, making my limbs feel heavy.

But deep inside me is a kernel that refuses to bend. A tiny ember burning brighter and brighter until I find my legs shifting under me, pushing me back up. I’m not just going to sit here and wait for Kristofer’s men to find me. No matter how futile, no matter how outnumbered I am, I need to keep trying. Isn’t that what my family has always done for me? Even when we all thought that Staphanie and her family had everything on us, we refused to let them win. We’re fighters. And after everything, the least I can do for my family is try.