by Mary Jaine
Mum stood up and walked over to him, kissed him on the cheek. "Now you making sense, at last!"
He looked at Nia. "Is that good enough for you, Nugget?" he asked with a small smile. Nia grinned at him. "Thank you daddy, Jamie and I accept, we'll both help you tomorrow!"
Dad grinned at us. "I meant what I said, no musical beds, tonight you're still brother and sister, so your own rooms, please, tomorrow night, well, we'll see!" he rubbed his chin. "I must be mad, this is so...so...I don't know what this is, there must be a name for it but I'm buggered if I know!"
There was one thing I had been meaning to ask dad, ever since mum had told us her story.
"Dad, what was my mother like, my birth-mother, and why didn't you tell me she and mum were friends, or anything about her?"
Dad looked pensive, eyes far away for a second.
"Jamie, your mother, your birth-mother, and I were married for almost a year. She was a trainee-teacher, learning to teach primary school 5-year olds. You look a lot like her. She was a lot like you, quiet, funny, patient, happy. She got pregnant soon after we got married, and Anh lived with us – your mother's parents had passed away, and Anh was like her young sister, the only family she had. Soon after you were born, she began having headaches, blurred vision, nausea. The hospital said she was suffering from migraine, kept giving her painkillers, but nothing helped, and the headaches got worse, so they did a CAT scan, and found she had a tumour, a large one, and it was inoperable. She passed away less than a month later. She gave you to your mum, told her she was your mother now, and that's how we kept it. Your mum was the only mother you knew, I didn't want you to be confused when you were small, and after a while it didn't matter, your mum was your mum, she looked after you, fed you, changed you, did everything for you. The rest you know."
Somehow it felt better, clearer, knowing something about the woman who'd given birth to me, and Nia was rubbing my back gently; I think she thought I may have been affected by dad's story, but the truth was, she was still little more than a face in a photograph; mum was my mum, what dad had told me was just background information, nothing there to make me change my life plans or anything.
I had another question. "Dad, how come you speak Vietnamese so well?"
He grinned. "Jamie, your mother is a good and patient teacher; you should have stuck with it!"
He stood up. "Anyway, it's late, we have a busy day tomorrow, go to bed, now, your own beds, and I'll see you at breakfast!"
Tomorrow I shall graduate, I shall be Ms. Nguye't Morrison LLB, B. Anth (Hons). Feels funny, I've been in school of one sort or another since I was 4 years old, now to be thrust out into the cold, cold world and have to fend for myself after 17 years, feels scary, or it would be if I didn't have the Polar Bear and his wisecracks and obscure sense of humour --I swear, he gets more like dad every day; even mum's taken to looking at him sideways...
Now that he's a Captain of Industry (or at least boss of his own practice, anyway) he finally has the time and space to work with me on finding my sister. Our goal has never changed, from the day we found out about her, and Jamie has been a godsend, with all his odd contacts and furtive little friends in the world's out-of-the-way places, digging for hints, clues, or information, finding a piece here, a grain there, always working towards getting her back. Poor baby, he really has put his heart and soul into this, and I love him all the more for it.
He sent me a fabuloso graduation present, a platinum bracelet set with blue-tinged diamonds from Hong Kong, he says they match my eyes -- isn't that sweet? He's due back in later this afternoon from Hong Kong, one of his minions is collecting him from Heathrow and bringing him directly here, the parents can have him when I've finished with him!
He also said he has a lead, something solid, so he's a little excited, well, a lot excited but trying not to show it, but he thinks he may have got the first piece of the puzzle of where my sister, Hu'e, disappeared to, and where she went after that piece of shit police captain took her. After much persuading, mum told us his name, and the district he controlled, and Polar Bear took it from there, so if he's made a start, we have a jumping-off point at last.
When mum told me, I wanted to get the Vietnamese government to hunt him down, corral him so I could have a word with him, maybe rip off his arm and beat him with the wet end, but common sense prevailed (Jamie) and we agreed we'd do this slowly and methodically, although when I do find that baby-stealing piece of shit, I am going to shove a stiletto heel so far up his arse it's going to bruise his tonsils. Then I'm going twist it until one of his eyeballs falls out. Polar Bear says I have deep-seated, unresolved anger issues...
When I was young, I read a children's book of folk stories from around the world, and one of the stories was from Malaysia, about Pontianak, the Child-Stealer, who came into houses at night and took children, and it frightened me for years, I was afraid it would come and take me. Mum always told me there are no such things, made me feel safe again, but now I know there really is a child-stealer, and he came and he stole my sister away, and I swear to the Goddess I will get her back!
I start my new job in mid-May, not the beginning, Jamie asked me to defer for two weeks but didn't say why, so he's up to something, it better be good! I will be a Junior Counsel with the Legal Protection Unit, based in central London, so just a bus-ride to work in the morning, and I can't wait; for a start, I get unrestricted access to UNICEF and their Child Search Database, plus I get to sift through the reports that come through via sister agencies and people like Amnesty International, and Child Rights Coalition Asia.
I'll do the think-work, and Jamie'll do the legwork, and maybe we can track down my sister, find that little girl he stole from her mother, from her family, from me, and let her know who she is, tell her about her real mother, who never stopped loving her, who never stopped wanting her, and maybe, give my mum some peace of mind at last.
Anyway, I suspect Jamie's got some good news for me, as he's been in Qui Nhon, about 200 miles from Da Nang, looking at on-shore thingummies for oil and gas whatnots, and I suspect he may have been sneaking around Da Nang, having a bit of a snoop, and whatever he found has made him excited, but he's trying to hold it down and play it cool; Ha! The last time he fooled me, I was 6, he told me to pull his finger, so I did...
He'd better be champing at the bit when he gets here, I am, and I plan on making jungle music with him, so his blowpipe better be in full working order!
+++
My contact in Vietnam, a really nice, almost honest police Colonel called Phuoc Dienh, for two bottles of Chivas and a tickle with a hundred dollar bill, agreed to let me look at the records the Vietnam Security Force have been collecting on missing children from 1983 to the present day, and I noticed one thing. Almost all records from the Da Nang area were marked as 'Case Closed' or 'Unsolved', and were signed off by the same Police Captain, Minh Thuyet, then later Police Commander Thuyet.
I asked my new friend what was the likelihood that this particular Captain was in some way connected to the disappearances, and got back a suddenly blank, professional face, all smiles that didn't reach his eyes.
"Police work can be so overwhelming when your force spread so thin! Perhaps I have a little chat with him, I sure he be happy to clear this up, with overwork and everything else, he obviously sign them off by mistake. Oh dear, what a scamp he is!"
And Colonel Dienh, with his happy smiling face, and flat unsmiling eyes, closed the file cabinets, escorted me out of the Record Room, and walked with me all the way back to my hotel, obviously concerned I'd get lost on my way there, talking about everything, saying nothing at all..
At last I had confirmation. I already knew the name of the police captain who'd taken Hu'e; it was a Captain Thuyet, mum had told me, now I knew his first name, and that he'd signed off dozens of missing child reports over several decades.
I was going to get no more here. Now that the police higher-up's knew I was looking, they'd make sure there was nothing to fi
nd, nothing to sully Vietnam's reputation as a holiday spot; they'd deal with him internally, and that was what I was most afraid of; I knew all about Chi Hoa, the fearsome high-security prison in Ho Chi Minh City, and once he ended up in there, probably incarcerated under a different name, my search would be over -- we'd never see or hear of him again.
The Vietnamese officials were doing their best to clean up the mess that followed the war, and were eager present themselves as a progressive, modern nation; true, and to their credit, the corruption and post-war incompetence had been largely eradicated; but there were still echoes of it, and I was hearing them loudly right now.
I made a call to the man who'd given me Col. Dienh, Lieng Ho An, the Exploration Coordinator and generally nice guy, and asked him if he could put in a word with the government officials who managed the project, try and get me back in a room with Col. Dienh.
While I waited for Lieng, I actually got a significant amount of work done; after all, I was there to examine the potential of the inshore oil deposits everyone was convinced existed, and deep-water offshore drilling was decidedly risky with China sabre-rattling over the South China Sea, so I had a lot to keep me occupied.
10 days passed, I was due to leave, and then I got a call from Lieng.
"Jamie, the Colonel has agreed to see you again, but it will be in private, in the open, at the Blowout Preventer site, and he wants to do it tonight, so meet me downstairs in 15 minutes!"
I was ready when Lieng arrived, and we drove to the Preventers, abstract-looking steel sculptures in a maze of large-bore pipes and diverter valves under the test well drilling rigs, where we waited for a few minutes. A sleek saloon car pulled up and a dark figure came towards us.
"James, Lieng," He nodded, and motioned for me to follow him. Lieng stayed in view of the car and remained where he was.
The colonel started speaking.
"James, Lieng Ho An has told me more of why you so interested in Minh Thuyet. I will tell you he not District Commander anymore. I shall speak with him later, he waiting for me in Security Force barracks here in Da Nang, we shall have an...interesting and informative conversation; I am sure I will learn many more new and...interesting... things. This not a good thing that he do, and it not liked that people asking these questions. I help you because this wrong, it must stop! Too much of the old ways still here, he part of that, and for this, Thuyet will not see Da Nang again, but I have details from him of what he been...doing for last 30 years. He know where he going, he want very much to help, it only chance he got. Read this and learn, it make... instructive...reading. I give this to you, but it did not come from me, and I do not know you, have not met you, I not here now, and we have never spoken. Your work here in Vietnam is completed, now you will go, do not return. Good luck James!"
He handed me an envelope and walked back to his car, got in, and drove away.
Lieng drove me back to my hotel, where I looked over what Dienh had given me; a thick wad of photocopied typewritten pages, single spaced and dense, no paragraphs.
I interleaved each page with the pages in the project file I had, and packed it away with my stuff, waiting for the Courtesy Bus to take me to Da Nang Airport.
I arrived back at Heathrow to find Mike, one of my interns, waiting for me. "You got the short straw, eh?" I grinned at him, as we loaded my cases, and he tried not to nod, didn't quite succeed. I felt for him; I'd spent enough time dogs-bodying to not wish it on anyone else, but someone had to do it, and he got unlucky.
When we got to the flat, he helped me schlep all my stuff in, then headed back to the office to let everyone know that the boss was back, no doubt so they could clear away any incriminating evidence.
I called out for Nia, and she answered from the bedroom, so I grinned, taking my clothes off as I stumbled over furniture in my haste to get naked and go seriously gorilla on her. I burst open the bedroom door, fully expecting to see her naked, looking all sultry and needy, lack of Jamie glowing all over her. Instead she was fully dressed, her glasses perched on her nose, laptop in hand.
"Taking a shower, were you? Bathroom's that way, Jamie, unless there was something else...?" Damn, my sister's one sexy piece, and trying to look all surprised and innocent was just pressing one button after another with me.
I gave an inarticulate growl. 3 weeks, 3 fucking weeks. It was more than human flesh was meant to take, you try spending 20 days with a permanent erection, see how much fun that is!
Nia gaped at me, then slowly gave that grin, the one that usually leads to us doing sticky things to each other, young Jamie making a spirited attempt to poke me in the eye. I grabbed her as I kissed her as long and as well as I knew how, her hands sliding around my neck as I fumbled with her bra under her top. She stepped back a moment to yank her top over her head and shrug off her bra, and I pulled her close again and slid my hands down inside the back of her leggings, cupping her lovely pinchable little bum and edging down her leggings. She pushed them all the way off and hooked her panties, but I got there first; I love sliding her panties off, it always leads somewhere nice!
I held her and kissed her some more, while squeezing and massaging her taut little cheeks, my cock sandwiched between us. Nia loves me to nibble on her nipples, and so I dipped down, licking and sucking, her breathing becoming deeper, and her hands found me, one hand cupping and gently squeezing my scrotum while she slowly pumped and squeezed my cock with the other. My hands roamed over her, touching, squeezing, fondling, tactile memory remembering her all over again as her breasts entranced me, my hand slowly working its way between her thighs to gently rub and touch , sliding between her labia to gently part the lips and slowly insert my finger into her, feeling her soft dampness, her heat against my hand. We stood and kissed and explored, gently masturbating each other, her pumping of me firm and rhythmic but not insistent, and my caressing of her vulva and slick little clitoris keeping her on the edge, almost tormenting her, but not cruelly, keeping her on the brink to make her orgasm later all the more intense, a game we had played before and understood the rules of.
I drew back from her, urging her down to the bed, rolling myself on and pulling her with me, Nia on her back, her nipples within reach and too tempting to refuse, her parted thighs an invitation for me to explore again her secret places, an invitation I took up eagerly.
At last, tired of playing, I pulled her on top of me, so I could see her fabulous eyes, kiss her delectable lips, and hold her springy, firm buttocks as I pulled her against me. I wanted to taste her again, and she saw the need in my eyes, and slowly slid herself up my torso, her legs curling around my arms, until her moist little pussy was above my mouth. As she gently undulated against me, I licked and lapped at her, tasting her sweet juices, feeling her labia swell even further as her arousal increased, her eyes closing as she held the headboard of the bed, holding most of her weight off me.
She pressed and rubbed her damp and swollen pussy against my face while I held her buttocks, pushing her against my mouth, my tongue delving and probing inside her. I started swirling gently around her clitoris as it pulsed and thrummed like a little fingertip, and her juices began flooding my mouth as she rode my face, pushing herself more and more insistently against me, until, when I licked hard and sucked her clitoris, she came with a gurgling, heartfelt groan of release, her head thrown back and throat and neck muscles corded with the intensity of her release, her secretions pouring down my lips and chin.
I had to hold her up to stop her slumping down over my mouth and nose, her muscles seemed to not be functioning, so I carefully slid her back down, collecting what I could of her delicious juices (finger-lickin' good, by the way!) before I wiped down my chin and neck with a facecloth we always kept in the nightstand for just this eventuality...
I held her close until her heartbeat slowed and her breathing became more regular, then she opened her eyes and kissed me gently.
"Welcome home, Polar Bear, is that all you brought me from the fabled Orient?" she grinn
ed, and I couldn't help but grin, even though I had a pressing problem that I would have liked attending to!
"Oh yes!" she said, and her hand came up to stroke me, wrapping around me and pumping gently, before wriggling around and licking my length, making me groan.
"Oh yes, you like that, don't you?" she teased, gently blowing and breathing on the head of my cock, teasing me, paying me back for keeping her on the brink for so long.
Her lips slid over the end, and her tongue swirled and licked, tasting me as she licked and sucked, the head swelling as she stimulated me. She began sucking in earnest, her head bobbing as she sucked, the lowered pressure making my cockhead more sensitive, and her tongue washing across the tip of my cock was completely delightful. As she sucked she pumped, and finally, she sucked one last time and dragged her tongue across the slit in the end of my cock. I could hold back no longer, and blasted jet after jet of spunk, 3 weeks' worth of pent up need in an orgasmic spraying of my seed into her hot and willing mouth. Nia gulped and swallowed as best she could, the sheer volume of ejaculate threatening to choke her as long spurts of semen continued to boil out of me.
At last, I had no more, the flow of spunk diminishing to a trickle. Nia cleaned the last traces of sperm from my cockhead, and popped me out of her mouth, giving Jamie junior a reassuring pat before scooting up to lie next to me, her grin in evidence again.
"I should send you away more often, if you're gonna go a gusher like that when you get back!" she smiled, and I could only agree. 3 weeks surrounded by girls who looked amazingly like her, it was almost too much to bear, a priapic nightmare. I had deliberately not done anything about it, because I wanted her to get the benefit; apparently she had!
Nia slid up the bed next to me and kissed me, grinning as she drummed her fingers on my chest.
"So what else did you bring me, Jamie, or is that it? she teased, eyes dancing as she rubbed and stroked my chest, feeling my heartbeat slow back to something like normal.
