Stealing Asia

by David Clarkson

  He nodded thoughtfully. It is amazing how easy it is to manipulate a man’s way of thinking when you know how to speak his language. This one was just a sucker for metaphors.

  ‘You’re right,’ he finally replied. ‘A flower will not blossom if it is left un-watered.’

  I chuckled, lamely - for his benefit, not mine. Did I really just sleep with this guy?

  ‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘I’m so glad I was able to be of help, sir.’

  And that was that. The balance had been restored. He was my teacher again and I his student. As soon as I got home, I called Sydney to tell her about my day. I had a good idea that I knew what her response would be.

  ‘OMG, Katie; you are such a slut!’

  I should add that Syd does not actually talk in this way. It is just a game we play where we pretend to be your typical preppy LA girls. She is much better at it than me.

  ‘Like, tell me about it,’ I replied. ‘You should have seen his boat – it was super awesome.’

  I told you she was better.

  ‘Does this mean you will be getting straight A’s this semester?’

  ‘I doubt it. This one has never cheated on his wife before. Once the excitement wears off, guilt will follow and then it is only a matter of time before resentment sets in. I don’t think I need to tell you where he will be directing that, do I?’

  ‘Oh, Katie, however do you get yourself into these situations?’

  ‘I thought we already covered that. I’m a slut, remember.’

  I heard her sigh at the other end of the line.

  ‘Seriously though; was it worth it?’

  ‘For the sex? – no. The comedy value on the other hand, was unforgettable. Have you noticed how he always puts that ridiculous fake British accent on during lectures?’

  ‘How can anyone not notice? The guy is so pompous. Everyone knows that his family come from the mid-west. He is fooling nobody.’

  ‘Well, the impression extends further than mere speech.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Let’s just say that he likes to keep a stiff upper lip.’

  ‘You are terrible!’

  She was right, of course. All of my problems are engineered by me, but I was glad to have Sydney to confide in. Being an only child is never easy and it is even worse when you are a girl. She was the sister that I should have had. After exchanging a little more gossip, I ended the call and almost immediately the handset burst back into life.

  Withheld number.

  There is normally a fifty-fifty chance whether or not I would answer a call like this. Since I had just ended it with the only man in my life, I was confident it would not be somebody playing games. I took the call.

  ‘Hello, Syd, it’s Katie. You will never guess where I have spent the afternoon...’

  Hearing the exact same words I had spoken just minutes before played back made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I knew instantly who the caller was. There was still one man who was dead set on complicating my life and the games he had in mind were never playful. He had not only heard everything, but the bastard had it on tape. I pressed the end button. It was not necessary to hear the entire conversation again to realise what trouble I was in. All I could do was to wait for his next move.

  There was no point in trying to avoid him. It was his house and with security cameras in every room, it was not like I had anywhere to hide. My summons came shortly after dinner. Well, shortly after his dinner. I had just taken a bowl of fruit to my room and eaten from that. If we carried on avoiding each other at meal times it would do wonders for my figure.

  ‘Well?’ I asked, hoping that he would just get the lecture over and done with.

  He did not answer. He did not even acknowledge the question. All he did was sit at that stupid desk of his and pretend to be engrossed by some dumb paperwork. He had built an entire career based around feigning an interest in paperwork.

  I turned to leave. When I was just about to turn the door handle to let myself out he finally acknowledged my presence.

  ‘I did not excuse you, child.’

  Child! Who did he think he was? I had lived more in my nineteen years than he had his entire life.

  ‘You did not give me permission to breathe either. Would you like for me to asphyxiate myself for you?’

  He did not respond.

  ‘I did not think so. That’s a game you like to save for your hookers, isn’t it?’

  Again, he just sat and silently stared me down. Mom’s portrait was behind him as ever. He had no right to keep her so close to him, but at least I could take some comfort in her presence. Why she had wasted her life on such an odious man I will never understand. I held her gaze to avoid his. It was his turn to be uneasy with the silence.

  ‘I have spoken to the Dean and he is as eager to avoid any negative publicity as I am. Rather than expulsion, your name will simply be deleted from the school’s records. It will be as if you never attended.’

  Was I supposed to be grateful? That was the third school I had been removed from in six months. Yet I was still not getting the credit I deserved. Maybe I was sleeping with the wrong people.

  ‘Why must you insist on hiding the truth?’ I asked. ‘Would it not be easier to just let the papers have their scandal? Let the world know that your daughter is some kind of a sex addict. I am sure that the resulting publicity would do wonders for your campaign.’

  I would only ever use the “d” word in a negative context. He deserved to claim no parental responsibility except when it came to my fuck-ups.

  ‘It seems you know even less about politics than you do about being a lady. The only reason I did not throw you onto the street years ago is because of the stain it would leave on my own reputation.’

  ‘Sorry for being a regular teenager. Maybe you would prefer it if I contracted a terminal illness. If you want to get re-elected you are going to have to win over the sympathy voters.’

  His nearest rival in the polls had recently closed the gap to just two points. She had a young son in hospital suffering from leukaemia and the story attracted a lot of media attention. The best he could manage was to butcher a load of impoverished kids for selling crack just to stay alive.

  ‘That will not be necessary. I intend to see to it that you cannot jeopardize my career ever again.’

  His words seemed so final. I quickly glanced down at my feet to make sure I was not standing on a secret trap door. He opened the top drawer of his desk and I braced myself for when he would push the button that would send me cascading down into the crocodile pit below. A few seconds passed and I did not find my limbs being torn apart by ravenous reptiles. It looked like I had once more over estimated the old man.

  I watched him remove an envelope from the drawer and place it onto his desk. Maybe things were looking up for me after all. Many a political foe or member of a law enforcement agency had sat across from him at this same desk and been passed a mysterious envelope that turned out to be filled with crisp green portraits of ex presidents.

  ‘This is a first; you paying a lady not to fuck you.’

  ‘You are no lady and I am not paying you anything. Open it.’

  The envelope was not sealed. I pulled back the flap and removed what turned out to be a plane ticket. The destination was Malawi: one way. Rather than lower myself by asking for an explanation, I waited for him to offer one.

  ‘I thought that by keeping you at home this time it would have stopped you from giving in to the temptations that inevitably come with college life. I was wrong. The only option left is to send you away; far away.’

  This was a bit extreme even by his standards. Did he genuinely think that spending a year or two in the Peace Corps would mould me into the frigid mannequin he had always wanted me to be? If either of us needed to be humbled by experiencing third world poverty first hand it was him. Maybe if I was lucky, Madonna would adopt me and bring me back home to the States a little sooner.

  ‘Can I
be excused now?’

  He waved me away before returning to his oh so important papers. There was nothing I could say to change his mind. I walked to the door, but still he had not finished with me. Once again he called me back just as I was about to leave.

  ‘One more thing, Katherine,’ he said, as condescendingly as he was capable. ‘It would be unfortunate if your ticket were to become lost or damaged in any way. Andrew will take it from you once you leave my study. He will also be your chaperone until it is time for your departure.’

  So that was it. I was to be guarded under lock and key before being exported to Africa, where I would undertake my rehabilitation. Surely Betty Ford would have been cheaper. I found out a little more of the details over the following days. The destination selected for me was an all female refuge. I was to help care for victims of rape and domestic violence. There would not be a man within a hundred square miles of me the whole time.

  I would like to say that Andrew had been a loyal servant of the family since before I was born and looked upon me as he would his own daughter. Unfortunately, that is not true. The senator was a miserly employer and could never retain any of his staff beyond a maximum of two years. Andrew had been at the house for just eight months and he was hired with my proclivities in mind. He was homosexual. On the positive side: I always did enjoy a challenge.

  The senator was out of state on business when the day of my departure came. He would not have been bothered about saying goodbye to me anyway; he only wanted to make sure that I was gone.

  A security agent was appointed to accompany me to the airport. It reassured me to know that tax dollars were being put to good use on a matter of national significance. Ordinarily, I may have tried to seduce this unwanted chaperone. He was, all things considered, quite cute in an apish sort of a way. It would have been a futile gesture though. I had tried it once before. These security types take their job far too seriously to jeopardise it on a girl. They probably cut their dicks off at boot camp just to make sure that temptation is never an issue.

  Andrew was driving. He also took a liking to my new bodyguard and made no effort to hide the attraction. The way he flirted was outrageous. He even had a few tricks I was not aware of. Resisting the advances of a girl was one thing, but having to deal with the advances of another man was a different matter for the minder entirely. By the time we made it to the airport the agent had had enough.

  ‘I will take her from here,’ he said to Andrew. ‘You are dismissed. I will make my own way back.’

  ‘Just one minute,’ said Andrew, using his finger to prod the agent in the chest. ‘This little Angel is my responsibility and I am not letting her out of my sight until she is safely on her plane. Do you understand?’ He then softened his tone. ‘Besides which, I was hoping that we could maybe make a detour on the way home: just the two of us.’

  He smiled in a way that I could only describe as lascivious.

  ‘You want her; she’s yours,’ said the agent.

  The guard then shot me a cruel sideways glance before striding away to look for a taxi to take him back into the city. I waited until he was out of sight and then raised my hand to offer Andrew a high-5.

  ‘You are even more of a tart than me,’ I told him later, as we sat in the airport juice bar sharing smoothies before I headed to the departure lounge.

  ‘You have got to be kidding,’ he replied. ‘I know all about your antics, young lady. They make even an old queer like me blush. You certainly have a talent when it comes to men.’

  ‘Talent enough to make a gay man straight?’ I asked.

  He laughed into his straw, dumping a dollop of froth onto the tabletop.

  ‘Not quite, darling, but I give you full marks for trying. If anything, I actually feel even more gay now that I have experienced...lesbianism.’

  We both burst into laughter. Who would have thought that the senator could be such a good judge of character when it came to hiring his staff? I liked Andrew and if he had been straight, I may have been tempted to invite him to join me on the flight. If anything, he had earned his freedom. It saddened me to think that he would have to return to waiting on the every whim of the senator.

  I was headed to Kuala Lumpur. The name had a nice ring to it and the city had been featured at the end of the movie Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta. Most importantly, it was a place that I hoped the senator would never think to look for me.

  Anyway, you probably want to know how I got Andrew on my side. It was simple really. Deep down everyone is a little bi-curious; even gays. With the eyes closed, does it really matter if it is a man or a woman sucking on your cock? A bit of inventive finger work helped to seal the deal. Andrew more than repaid me. As well as the flight, he also got me a new set of ID’s. I kept my mother’s name. Cole was common enough not to draw attention to its self and I quite liked the sound of Asia. It had a mysterious, romantic quality to it.

  Following the flight, I chilled in Malaysia for a few days. The change of scenery was a blessing at first, but I soon started to become bored. I was wary of strangers and knew that I needed to keep a low profile. A girl still needs her fun though, so I booked a flight to Thailand for the full moon party.

  A couple of nights before I was due to board my plane I met Ben. He was not what I would consider my usual type in that he was actually a genuinely nice guy. I first noticed him eyeing me up in the bar, but I could also tell that he was too terrified to hit on me. I did manage to get him to follow me out of the bar, which was something. I was looking forward to seeing how he would go about approaching me. In the end he did not need to. He saved my life. I knew then that he was the one.

  Chapter 2

  As soon as they forced me to separate from Ben, I realised we were in trouble. Up until then I had not suspected a thing. I knew those guys could be arseholes; Barrett in particular, but I never thought they could be capable of something like this. The two British girls were in a state of shock and did not know what to think. They kept telling me to trust the guys and that everything would turn out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding. I understood it perfectly.

  ‘Take me back to the island, right now,’ I demanded of the nearest deck hand.

  ‘Asia, please,’ pleaded Izzie. ‘They are only trying to protect us. We should do as they say.’

  ‘I want to go back to the island,’ I told her. ‘I should never have let these thugs take me away from Ben.’

  If they would not take me back, then I decided I would have to sail the dinghy myself. I attempted to untie the ropes attaching us to the boat, but was roughly grabbed and bundled back onto the deck. I struggled to free myself from their restrictive embrace and in return I was manhandled into what could only be described as a prison cell. If these people did not already know my identity, it would only be a matter of time. I needed to get off the boat quickly.

  They left me alone in the cell for a couple of hours. I figured they were waiting for Clay and Barrett to arrive, but they could also have just been trying to scare me. When the door finally opened, I hoped I would see either Ben or Esteban. It was neither. The fact that Clay was back onboard suggested there would not be a rescue party for some time.

  ‘I trust my crew have made you feel comfortable,’ he said. ‘It is not often that we are host to such an esteemed guest.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ I told him.

  ‘I think you do. That South American scumbag has quite a keen interest in you. From the evidence we found, he has been spying on you for weeks. You are going to tell us why.’

  He spoke of Esteban in the present tense. This was a positive sign, as it implied that not only was he alive, but maybe that he had evaded capture. If he had gotten away then there was a good chance that Ben had too.

  ‘Maybe he likes redheads,’ I said.

  He moved closer; too close. I took a step back until I was up against the wall of the cell. I glanced over his shoulder to try and gauge if it was worth making a run
for it. It wasn’t. Even if I managed to make it off the boat, what was I going to do; swim back to shore? The only realistic option I had was to reason with him and try to buy enough time until help arrived.

  ‘I only want to help you,’ he lied. ‘Whatever trouble you are in, we will be able to help.’

  ‘Drop the cover story,’ I told him. ‘I know you are not with the CIA. I’ve met many agents in my time and although you have the arrogance, you certainly lack the smarts. If you want me to co-operate, you can at least tell me who you are working for. You owe me that.’

  ‘I owe you nothing,’ he replied. ‘And I anticipated that you might take this stance. Perhaps your boyfriend will be more forthcoming.’

  ‘Ben is here?’ I was unable to disguise the concern in my voice and I could tell that this pleased him. ‘Is he okay?’

  ‘For the time being, which is more than can be said for Barrett. Right now, we do not know if he is dead or alive. Your admirer stabbed him in the back.’

  Ben had proven that he was willing to fight for me, but I could not imagine that he would knife someone; especially in the back. That had to have been Esteban. I already owed him for catching me when I fell from my quad bike and if he was alive, I knew that he would save me again.

  I was left alone for the remainder of the night, but I barely slept. Clay returned shortly after dawn. His mood was more upbeat. This concerned me greatly.

  ‘Before you ask,’ he began, ‘no we haven’t hurt your precious Ben. He had an attitude to begin with, but he eventually saw the light and was forthcoming with answers to my questions. I get the impression that guns make him uneasy. How about you?’

  ‘I agree. Guns do make him uneasy.’

  He smirked. Not from arrogance this time, but pleasure. I was turning him on.

  ‘Are you flirting with me?’ he asked; somewhat optimistically.

  Not yet I wasn’t, but it was good to know that he was receptive to my feminine wiles. When the moment was right, I did not think that it would be too difficult to manipulate him. The more cocksure a man is; the more sure you can be that he puts his cock before his head.