The Cantonesia Caper [Bauhinia Legacy Series, Book 4.0]

03 | Tasked

After a particularly excruciating training session, Amelia returned dejectedly to her room. The guard assigned to escort her activated the steel reinforcements, and she was trapped again. It had been a tough few weeks, and Elise and Darling couldn't master any of the challenges she'd thrown at them. It's not my problem, anyway; Amelia scoffed and sat on the edge of her bed. They asked for it.

In terms of their progress, Elise and Darling varied in proficiency. While Elise mastered agility, Darling tended to be more clumsy and inflexible. However, she excelled in speed. Instead of accepting the challenges she'd thrown at them, the two girls would grumble and reluctantly complete them. Amelia wondered how long this attitude would last and whether the lessons actually benefited them.

Even though Elise and Darling claimed to be best friends, she observed a slight irregularity in how her 'students' would treat each other—they either said too much or too little in a training session. At times, Amelia would find them huddled together in the corner of the room, whispering intently. But more often than not, the duo were strangely silent all throughout the lesson, not even sparing a glance at each other.

Amelia knew that the two were hiding something. But what was it?

There was nothing she could do about it, anyway. She was just a hostage–another pawn in someone else's game. When could she break free of this vicious cycle of being used?

She stared, dazed, at the metal ceiling. Almost instantaneously, the reinforced walls retracted, and a woman entered her room. Amelia rose to greet her.

"There's something in here you should probably read." Elise handed Amelia a manila folder. "And, since you're still helping us, you'll assist us in a mission. You're going to train us even harder. Tell us everything you know—it's crucial for this task to be successful. If not, many lives will be at stake. Understood?" The woman glared at Amelia.

The hostage shot back with an equally fearsome glare. "Do I have a choice?" She grabbed the folder.

Elise turned on her heel and slammed the button with a sinister force. Amelia had to jump back for the rapidly descending steel walls not to crush her toes.

Clutching the folder, Amelia walked back to her bed. She heaved a sigh, sat down on the duvet, and then laid the file in front of her. Whatever this is, she resolved, it will be the last mission where others make the decisions for me. It's high time I paved my own pathway.

The interior of the folder confirmed her suspicions—she was holding top-secret information. Amelia scanned the documents, all marked 'classified' at the top in big, red letters. They were filed under accounts of fraud, burglary, property trespassing, and more. A few–twenty-something–were quite interesting. They listed charges of the criminal who stole artifacts from various museums, including Ancient Egyptian stones, old Chinese vases, and even a jade lion dating back to 27 AD. Amelia raised an eyebrow–whoever this was, they were definitely ambitious.

She counted the number of pages–fifty-six? There was no way they all belonged to the same person—they probably didn't know how to stay inconspicuous. Amelia was impressed and horrified at the same time: this person had built up quite an impressive record, but they weren't that good at evading the law. Even if the law engaged with the Bauhinias at times to settle debts.

Amelia looked at the photos at the back of the file. A total of three images were attached to the back with a flimsy paper clip. All the photos were fraying and yellowing at the sides, meaning they hadn't been touched in a long time.

Amelia wondered why the authorities wouldn't continue looking for precious artifacts that belonged to museums—well, she knew of one reason, but it was implausible. She scrutinized the photos—they were all headshots of the same person. The man was wearing a formal tuxedo with slightly balding hair in all the images. His smile seemed all too fake, all too enigmatic. Where had she seen that smile before?

Amelia shook her head in disbelief.

It was Richard Lau, the governor of Cantonesia.

Amelia paused momentarily, looking up at the steel walls absentmindedly. She had questions, too many questions to count. How did Lau manage to acquire all these artifacts? Why would Elise and Darling trust her with this information? There had to be a price she'd pay for knowing that the governor had a record that was far from clean, to say the least.

Maybe that was why Ah Ba had sent her here. He must have known about Richard's crimes. It was an old tactic of his–when the leader of the Bauhinias wanted to gain information about crimes that his organization hadn't committed, he'd instruct his family to injure or kill one of the criminal's relatives, then take them as hostages.

My, how the tables had turned.

After that, the Bauhinias would know if the criminal truly loved their family. If they confessed, their relative would be free, and the Bauhinias would attain valuable information (usually accompanied by a large number of gold bars), or that relative would suffer.

Devotion to family, whether it was to respect the elderly or protect the young, was an essential virtue where Amelia lived. That was why the Bauhinias could always count on the outsider to confess—family was just too important for them.

Not for Amelia—or Elise, for that matter, anyway. Elise had to have something against her father for ratting him out like this. As for Amelia—simply put, she didn't feel an exceptional level of respect for her father. And it wasn't just her—the feeling was mutual. If Ah Ba didn't value who she was, then why should she devote her life to him? The idea of unconditional respect and reverence never resonated with Amelia.

And it was this disrespect that cost her her freedom. But she wasn't going back to the Bauhinias, no matter what.

One question lingered in Amelia's head, reaching out of her mind to reverberate around her steel enclosure. What was her job in this mission?

Word Count: 1022