Dialogue in this chapter is in Korean, translated to English.
Nuna hadn't changed in three years, apart from one thing: her smile was beautiful to behold.
I could only remember years of her wearing the same glum expression, perpetually whining at Kang-min for nothing at all. When was the last time I'd seen her smile? Before we lost Abba? Didn't matter; there she was, smiling right at me.
"I don't have long." She was in a canteen with a stethoscope around her neck, and what was probably the millionth coffee of the day in her hand. "Jun-su! It's you!"
"How did you find Will's number?"
Nuna glared at me like I was an idiot. First time I'd ever been happy to get that look from her. "From your email."
"My email?"
"Your email asking me for money for a flight home. And to call you on William Graz's phone. I read it five minutes ago! I didn't think I still had that email address. I only checked it to contact one of my old anatomy tutors for help with a conference!"
Of course. My email, sent from my shitty teenage k-mail address to Nuna's shitty teenage k-mail address. Weeks of calling the Korean Embassy, when my email to Nuna had just been sitting there, waiting for her.
"Jun-su, I need to call Eomma and the Korean Embassy to tell them you've escaped. The ransom is off now, so we can-"
"Wait, what?"
"The ransom!" Nuna waved her arms like I knew what the fuck she was talking about.
"Ransom?"
"Your ransom, idiot."
Shibal.
What the fuck had Sigma done?
"I don't know about any fucking ransom, Nuna."
"The ransom! We've been negotiating for two weeks. But very slowly, since Eomma won't talk unless I'm there to translate, even though her English is fine. And she refuses to let me talk to the negotiator without her, so we can only negotiate at weekends. They sent photos and videos of you, but Eomma keeps asking to talk to you on the phone before she'll pay. And they're getting tired of it. I kept begging her to just pay, but you escaped so we don't have to now!"
My heart felt like it was plunging off the cliffside in Santa Elena State Park. Of course I was being fucking ransomed. Sigma was ransoming a hostage who'd escaped seven fucking weeks earlier.
"Who the fuck have you been talking to about a ransom, Nuna?"
Who in Sigma took photos and videos of me? Were there cameras in Seven's TV room? At La Rosa, when I was playing piano? In the Suites?
"The Korean Embassy in Maria contacted L.K. asking for Eomma's phone number, saying that they'd been contacted by your kidnappers. They asked for Eomma to help with negotiations."
"Who asked?"
"The contact in the Korean Embassy who was receiving information from the kidnappers. She's our negotiator. Ana Maria Santiago."
I fucking knew it. Ana Maria had known Eomma's whereabouts for two weeks. Exactly when she called me to introduce herself.
I held my face to my phone, my heart boiling with so much fucking rage that I was close to smashing my fist through the porch window. "Call Eomma right now. Tell her not to talk to anyone from any Embassy. I need to call the police in Maria."
"What's happening, Jun-su?"
"Ana Maria Santiago is in the gang. She wants Eomma to think that I'm still trapped so that she'll pay."
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The Sigma Asset 🏳️🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022
Mystery / Thriller**AMBYS 2022 WINNER** He'll never play piano again. That's what virtuoso pianist Zephyr has vowed to himself after escaping Sigma, the sprawling criminal organisation that once held him--and still holds his friends--captive in California's mega-city...
