Meaghan looked back at her jailor, who looked relaxed and unconcerned as she stared down at the bed with sharp blue/gray eyes.
"So, I can see those questions floating around your eyes, perempuan bodoh." Meaghan recoiled as the insult slapped at her. "Go ahead and ask away, if you can handle the answers."
[A/N: "perempuan bodoh" is an offensive term, like b##ch or sl#t]
Meaghan tried to pull her thoughts together. "Does my kidnapping have something to do with the tower sabotage attempt?"
"Your family has been a thorn in the side of this organisation long before that little bit of mischief. Your parents were always in search of our group, but they were clever enough to have hidden their offspring from us.
"It's a pity about your parents last year." The last part was said with a sneer. "If they had cooperated with us during interrogation, you would have never been involved. Of course, it turned out great for us, since you got drawn in on your own."
"You…how do you know about my parents?" Meaghan tried, but could not entirely remove the plaintive note in her voice, something that did not go unnoticed by the mercenary, who smiled unpleasantly.
"They never made it onto that commuter plane; we caught them, squeezed them for information, and then disposed of them. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the file containing the information on us. We've been searching ever since; that's why we seized their assets by faking loan documents, but it wasn't anywhere in their belongings."
Meaghan's mind whirled with this new knowledge. Her parents didn't leave her and her sister without anything; it had been stolen from them. And Shel? She remembered when this woman moved into her neighborhood, so soon after her parent's accident, and the different times she tried to get inside her house.
'They think I have this file' Meaghan thought. Her breath hitched when she realized that her ersatz neighbor likely had a hand in her parent's murder. The anger she felt bolstered her.
"I want to speak with Shel."
The woman examined her for a moment, and then gave a sharp nod.
"She wanted to know when you were awake. I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about." She smiled, but there was no humor in it, only teeth.
She pulled out a black phone from her back pocket and flipped it open.
"Shao Xiao Shel, this is Shuk. She's awake. Mmm-hmm, Yes, ma'am." She snapped the phone shut and walked back to the desk.
[A/N: Chinese term of respect]
"You're about to get your wish, perempuan bodoh."
After a very short time, the cabin door opened, and a shaft of sunlight haloed her neighbor and former friend. Shel was wearing a faded pair of jeans and a blue check man-styled long sleeve shirt knotted at her waist. Her boyishly short hair lent her an almost harmless appearance, but Meaghan was now very well acquainted with the intelligence and forceful personality behind those blue eyes.
"So, are you ready to have a nice chat with me, Meaghan?"