Korean translations at the end of the chapter.
"OK. Let's go through it again. Ireumi mwoyeyo[1]?"
"Nae ireumeun William imnida[2]."
I circled my hand in the air to get him to carry on.
"California e sarayo[3]."
"That's awesome!"
Will was a natural. We'd already done greetings and numbers, and his pronunciation was great. He just needed to perfect that classic pissed-off whine to truly sound Korean.
"How about: I enjoy surfing?"
"Oh, that one's easy. Naneun chocolate baereul ieda[4]."
"Did you say Chocolate baereul ieda? As in chocolate?"
"Yeah, something to do with the shape of the surfboard being like a Hershey's bar." My face twitched.
Courage, Zeph.
"What about: Korean is a beautiful language?"
"Na Hangugeo ssaem irang neomu hagosipeo[5]." I tried so fucking hard to hold in my laugh that my ribs felt like they were about to explode.
"Na Hangugeo...ssaem...Wait a second. I'm gonna have to write that one down." Will diligently wrote the sentence on the back of a sheet of staff paper, next to the Hangul characters that he'd insisted on practicing too. "OK, so how about: Do you like jazz music?"
He was so earnest about learning Korean that it made me feel like a total dick for doing it to him. I still did it, though.
"The informal way of saying it is: Jaji bbarado doe[6]?"
Will looked me right in the eyes and said it, painfully slowly, eyebrows wriggling, like his life depended on it. "Jun-su, jaji bbarado doe?"
My insides rolled. My stomach lurched. My laughter was like the noxious gases building up inside an erupting volcano. I couldn't keep it in any longer.
A howl of laughter burst out of me. I fell off the piano stool, clutching my stomach as I rolled on the floor, laughter from pouring out of me like a drain.
Will stood up, palms over his face, shaking his head and desperately trying to cover his grin. "What have you just taught me?"
"Let's just say that Korean guys are gonna love you, man," I managed to bite out in between bursts of laughter, tears pouring down my cheeks.
I tried to control myself, but every time I looked at Will a guffaw rose out of my body. It was a shitty thing to do and I totally deserved a dollyo chagi[7] to the kidneys, but Will just kept shaking his head at me with his zen little smile, like a hairy Buddha.
"I'm buying online Korean lessons," he chuckled, tearing up the staff paper dramatically, complete with his meticulously-scrawled Hangul. "You can't teach me anymore."
It was in jest, but I felt a scintilla of hurt somewhere deep under my laughter. "I'm really sorry. You were just taking it so seriously." Giggles overtook me again. "I promise I'll teach you properly. But you gotta let me teach you some fun stuff too."
"You can teach me anything you want, as long as it doesn't land me in a Korean prison."
I was drifting to sleep when my phone buzzed with a call. I didn't recognize the number. Will's warnings echoed in my head.
Be careful, Zeph.
"I will be," I muttered. Maybe it was news about my guys. I swallowed, skittering fingers swiping across the phone screen. "H-hello?"
"Hey sweetie!" Teresa screeched into my ear.
I groaned, sweat-slicked palms sliding against the smooth shell of my phone. "Thank fuck it's you, Teresa. What number is this?"
"I'm on Ruby's phone."
"Why?"
"Sweetie, listen. This is between you and me, OK? Somebody wants to say hi."
My heart jumped into my throat.
"Um...Zeph?" A shy voice strained through the phone speaker. I'd never heard him down a phone line before.
"Miles! Oh Santa Maria! I was so scared, bro!" Hearing his voice after so long made tears break free. I didn't think I'd ever hear from him again.
His soft voice quivered down the line. "Are you safe, Zeph? We thought you were..."
It had been almost three weeks since the fire. The chaos and smoke seemed like the most distant memory to me. Surely Sigma knew from news reports that I hadn't burned to death. Hadn't anyone bothered to tell Miles? I didn't need to even ask that question. Of course they hadn't bothered.
"Hey, I'm OK. Are you at Este police station?"
"Yeah. They brought us here after the raid on Las Olas."
So, Sofi had decided that Las Olas was worth raiding. I guessed that Teresa must have been doing the preliminary interviews, and let Miles say hi to me in a quiet moment. She was a saint for doing that.
"Can I talk to Raheem? Is he OK?"
Miles drew in stilted breaths. "They took him."
"Who took him?"
"After the fire, Cal told Security to take us to Las Olas. The next day three men came. They took Raheem."
"Where did they take him?"
Miles's voice was barely a whisper. "We don't know."
What did they want Raheem for? He'd been languishing in Sigma for over two years, a prisoner with a blade hanging over his head, and now they suddenly needed him for something?
"Shibal." I rubbed my face, trying to wake myself up. "What do they need him for?"
"They weren't Sigma Security, Zeph. I didn't recognize them. They just told Raheem to get up, and said they were taking him some place." Miles's voice broke, and I lay helplessly listening to his sobs. I wished I could have put my arms around him. "Luke and me begged them not to take Raheem. One of them pointed a gun at me. So, Raheem just...promised me that he'd find me again. And they took him."
I didn't understand. Who the fuck were they? "Those guys weren't stopped by Las Olas Security?"
"No. Nobody cared. He was so scared, Zeph."
How could three unknown guys have just walked into a Sigma building and taken an asset? And who would want Raheem anyways?
"Have you been interviewed yet?"
Miles's voice was so quiet that I strained to hear him.
"The Inspector is interviewing Luke now. The officer, Teresa, is gonna interview me tomorrow morning. We have to go to a safe-house tonight."
"Teresa's my friend, bro. She'll help us get Raheem back. She's looking out for us."
Miles sighed down the phone. "She's just an officer doing what Inspector Borbón tells her to do, Zeph." Miles sounded hollow and empty, like his soul was gone outta his body. "They didn't raid Las Olas to help me and Luke. They wanted to get the coke."
So, Sofi had found some new evidence that had made the raid worth it. It hadn't been the need to corroborate the documents on the printroom computer, or my hunch that my guys were being kept there. It was a drugs bust, something that the wealthy public of Huertas would have approved of.
"How much coke was there?"
"Two thirds of Sigma's goods operation. They arrested Dani Fuentes. Turns out he was a top-level goods manager, not a restaurant manager."
I'd always assumed that Sigma kept its goods stores in Este so that they could be closely guarded. To be so brazen as to run it from the highest-profile restaurant in Huertas? It was insane. It sounded exactly like the sort of egotistical madness that Chavez would devise.
But Chavez had been dead for over two years, and Las Olas was a recent purchase. Who would possibly have convinced someone as cautious as Jones to allow Sigma's goods operation to be run from Las Olas? And why had none of Las Olas finances gone through Ollie's team? Was there another financial center in Sigma that I didn't know about?
"Are you OK, Zeph? Did you get any burns?"
"No, not a scratch, I promise. A guy saved me. I'm staying with him until I get my passport, then I'm going to Korea."
"Is he...safe?"
Guilt suddenly swam through my veins. How could I describe to Miles how Will had just appeared and whisked me away to Santa Elena without it sounding like gloating? All Miles had was a few nights in a safe-house with other poor souls, and the knowledge that he might never see Raheem again.
"He's a good person, bro. I wish you could meet him."
"I can't stay on the phone long. Teresa's not supposed to have told anyone where you are."
"Am I gonna get to speak to you again?"
"I don't know, Zeph." He sounded so weak, like he was too tired to even talk. He needed Raheem with him.
"Hey, we're gonna find Raheem, I promise. Just ask Teresa if you need to talk to me, OK? She'll help."
"I don't wanna put you at risk, Zeph. I wish you were here with us."
"Me too. We'll find Raheem, I swear. Take care of Luke."
Miles and Luke were safe. But there was no way that I'd be able to sleep knowing that Raheem had been taken somewhere. I pulled all the fragments of information I'd amassed from Sigma over the years from the shelves in my brain, every eavesdropped conversation, every stolen glimpse at Ollie's tablet screen.
Raheem wasn't needed on any projects, ever. He hadn't featured as anything other than a low-value asset on the brink of being conveniently ended. Who suddenly wanted him? I nestled into bed, preparing to spend the night wracking my brain to find out.
The floorboard creaked outside my room. I lay still, trying not to breathe. The turn of a doorknob, the click of a light-switch, and the sound of Will disappearing into his bedroom. My heart sank. My conversation with Miles had woken him. I'd broken my promise to Will to not answer my phone to any numbers I didn't recognize. He'd been so scared about me being in danger, and I'd ignored him. How much further could I test his patience before he gave up on me?
Will was home from work, and I collapsed onto the creaking wood of the porch next to where he was hammering nails into new floorboards. Sawdust was everywhere, and I was covered with it instantly.
"Have you forgiven me for yesterday's Korean lesson?"
He prised open a tin of powder blue paint, eyes creased with a little chuckle. "I'll forget but I'll never forgive."
"I did intend to give you a real Korean lesson. But sometimes it's like the past three years didn't happen, and that I'm still nineteen. And I freely admit that I was a fucking idiot when I was nineteen."
Will gave a pained smile. "Try being sixteen and thirty-two at the same time," he said, running a long streak of paint across a floorboard.
It must have felt like that for him sometimes. That his life had just weighed anchor at sixteen. He'd still managed to carve out a chill life for him and Mozhgan though. I was weak-sauce in comparison; taking care of myself was hard enough.
Wasn't he gonna mention the phonecall from Miles? Wasn't he gonna yell at me for betraying his trust? Will worked on, occasionally looking up at me while I worked out what to say in my defence.
But no words came to me, just a tangled net of thoughts piling up on shelves in my brain. I could feel my nervousness disrupting the little wavelets of evening-time calm that Will usually surrounded himself with. Was he done with me for talking to Miles? If he kicked me out, I'd find some kind person with a sofa until I got back to Korea. Maybe Jules would let me stay.
I stood up to watch the waves crashing, and the cliffs casting long shadows on the northern side of the beach. "You never ask me to help you with getting the house ready," I ended up saying, guilt making the stupidest shit tumble outta my mouth.
Will led his paintbrush with practiced care against the edge of a beam. "It's OK. I enjoy it."
"You think I'm useless."
Will didn't reply, painting away for long minutes, serene as anything, while I burned myself up.
"Are you calling your friends?" Will asked finally, still painting. Touché, Will. He didn't sound angry. Just incredibly sad. "I didn't hear what you talked about," he added, as if that was the point.
I was stupid to think that I'd be able to hide anything from him. I wanted to explain that Miles and I were best friends, brothers even, and that it was worth the risk. I wanted to tell him that he didn't understand what it was like to worry about someone like how I worried about Miles.
But no words could come out of me, because of course Will worried like that every day about Mozhgan. He knew exactly what it was like to miss his best friend.
"The police raided one of Sigma's buildings, a restaurant in Huertas, and found Miles and Luke. They're in a safe-house now. Teresa let Miles use her phone to talk to me."
Will stopped painting and sat with elbows on sawdust-covered knees. "Is Teresa gonna lose her job if anyone finds out that she called you?"
Shibal.
A black wave of guilt crashed over me. Teresa could have been charged for disclosing the whereabouts of a witness under protection, all so that I could talk to Miles for a few minutes. Teresa didn't have to do shit for me, but she'd done it anyway.
"Probably."
"She's risking a lot for you."
I hoped that using Ruby's phone would keep Teresa safe from suspicion. "I know. She's amazing. She's taken so much care of me."
Will gazed right at me, a sad little smile on his face. "Everyone wants to take care of you, Zeph."
"I won't pick up any phone calls I don't recognize from now on."
Will didn't look relieved. I doubted that he even believed me. "Will Sigma try to find your friends in that safe-house?"
"No. Too risky. But Miles said that Raheem was taken somewhere by men who weren't from Sigma. Miles is so scared. I don't know what they wanted with Raheem. I tried to think about it all last night, but I just can't-"
Will had begun to shake uncontrollably.
You're scaring him.
I sat down with Will on the dusty porch. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about this shit. I promise I won't pick up my phone if it's not you or the police."
But Will wouldn't calm; there was something wrong. He clutched at his chest, sweat dripping down his forehead.
"Will, are you OK?"
He tensed suddenly, like he was gripped by the most intense pain, his skin gray, like he hadn't drawn breath for a while.
"Breathe, Will." I pulled his hands away from his chest, trying to give him room. "Breathe in!" Will drew in fraught breaths, too fast and shallow to be of any use to his body. "Slowly. Breathe with me," I said, my voice pitched way too high. Will followed the rise and fall of my chest with frantic eyes, but his breaths didn't slow their pace. "Breathe with the ocean," I whispered.
I locked onto the sound of the waves crashing, and breathed in phase with them. It was slower than I wanted to breathe, but I needed Will to follow me.
Ever so slowly he breathed with me, shallow at first, and then lungfuls of air. After a few minutes he sat up, his breathing free again, color slowly bleeding back into his face. He shrugged out of my grip and sat back against the wall of the house.
"Do you get pains like that often?"
Will picked up his brush. I took it out of his hand and put it back down by the paint can. He was too weak to resist me. "It's nothing. My chest gets tight sometimes."
"Have you spoken to a doctor?"
"Yeah," he said in a whisper, still breathing with effort. "They're gonna do some tests."
I couldn't tell if it was a lie to placate me. "When are these tests? Is that what you and Julián were talking about in McKays?"
Will jerked his head toward me, eyebrows bristling in anger.
"I'm sorry," I said. "Your health is none of my business. I shouldn't have..."
I fled back into the house, shame and guilt and worry, and other things I couldn't identify, surging through my veins. Why hadn't he told me that he was sick?
Will had wanted me to forget about Sigma, and sit tight and play piano until I went home, a little vacation in a tranquil coastal village. I was supposed to have been back in Korea, and out of Will's hair, weeks earlier. But Maria's fucked-up criminal networks were gonna take my guys down with them, and I wasn't gonna let that happen. I realized that I was gonna be hurting Will a lot over the coming weeks.
Author's Notes:
Korean translations:
[1] Ireumi mwoyeyo? = "What's your name?"
[2] Nae ireumeun William imnida = "My name is William"
[3] California e sarayo = "I am from California"
[4] Naneun chocolate baereul ieda = "I have a six-pack/washboard abs" (lit. "I have a chocolate bar" i.e. six-pack that resembles the chocolate squares in a Hershey's bar)
[5] Na Hangugeo ssaem irang neomu hagosipeo = "I want to bang my Korean tutor"
[6] Jun-su, jaji bbarado doe? = "Jun-su, can I suck your dick?"
[7] Dollyo chagi = roundhouse kick (taekwondo move)