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| Jack and Hannah Clark |
The trail back to their car was wide enough for Sabriya, Jack, and Hannah to walk side by side. After the awkward good-bye to Busaba, Sabriya was anxious to have a frank chat with her security detail. “Hannah, Jack, I need to ask a favor.” Her voice was reticent, unsure how to phrase the request, for it verged on asking them to violate their security oaths. Sabriya was embarrassed by her lack of transparency with David, with the British Foreign Service, and, lately, with Pellagore’s King and Queen.
“It’s true that Jia Kun is my biological daughter, not my niece. But these past eleven years Busaba has effectively been her adopted mother, and my absence has been like that of a distant aunt. That’s what we sort of agreed to when I first came here. The story is long and complex, but now that I am back in Pellagore, the truth of my former life will come to light, something I actually feared might happen. As I explained to Hannah earlier, the path forward for me, and perhaps David, does not promise to be smooth. And the Queen’s asking me for help with her trafficking project is something I want to do, but my participation will complicate things. Can you trust me to tell David the whole story in my own time, without breaking it to him right away? I realize there’s a security issue with my request, but there are personal issues, too. I’m not sure what to do or when.”
For several moments, neither Jack nor Hannah said anything, although they exchanged looks, as if they, too, had a secret or two.
Finally, Hannah stopped on the side of the trail and pulled Sabriya to her, as Jack stood back and kept his eyes on the trail. Hannah took Sabriya’s hand in both of hers. “My dear, we know more than you think.”
Sabriya stiffened as fear crept across her face. She tried to pull her hand back from Hannah’s, but Hannah kept a gentle grip and smiled as if there was nothing to worry about.
“As you know, before Diplomatic Services permitted David to marry you, MI6 ran a background check on you. Jack and I were briefed on those results before we took the assignment to join you and David. We know you were trafficked and that Jia Kun is your child. David knows that, too. We also know something about your years at St. Mary Elias, and how the nuns essentially rescued you from your former life. That’s how MI6 knew where Jia Kun and Busaba lived.”
Sabriya was stunned to silence and started to shake, as if she had just been staked, stripped, and left as a night-time snack for the leopards. Hannah put her arm around Sabriya and escorted her further down the trail behind Jack.
At the trailhead, after a safety check to ensure the vehicle had not been sabotaged by the person Jack suspected of following them two days earlier, they stowed their packs in the rear, Sabriya and Hannah slid into the back seat, and Jack into the front seat.
As soon as Jack had guided the sedan over the rutted trail onto Pellagore’s concept of a highway—one lane of asphalt with two lanes of traffic—Sabriya recovered herself, reached over, and took Hannah’s hand. Sabriya felt cold and began to shiver, as if she had fallen in with the enemy without realizing it. But Hannah’s steady hands, both of which now enclosed hers, were gentle and warm. As Jack drove, Hannah continued to explain.
“Sabriya, we have pledged our lives, Jack and I, to protecting you and David. We do not know who trafficked you, and we have not asked you, because, at the time, it wasn’t important, and expending the time and resources to find out would have endangered you and David. For all we know, the man you were with may be dead, and his gang may be disbanded.” Hannah stared at Jack’s rear-view mirror for a moment.
Jack spoke: “Sabriya, do you want to tell us who Jia Kun's father is? You may encounter him now that you’ve sided with the Queen. It’s something we’ve all been thinking about since you agreed to help her. Is he alive? Do you know where he is?”
“We were told,” Hannah interrupted, “that when you were asked by Agent Reynolds — do you remember the interview?—that you didn’t want to reveal his identity out of fear.”
Hannah remained silent, waiting gently for Sabriya to respond.
Sabriya knew that this time had to come. That it had taken years for the subject to be broached was miraculous. But she was at a loss for words. Perhaps ducking the punch was again the proper defense. “MI6 may not be as good as you think they are.”
“What do you mean?” asked Hannah.
“I’m not as good as you think I am. I have always thought of myself as a liability and have kept in the background. But now, being back in Pellagore, and with the Queen, and now my sister, and lying to everybody about my daughter, I’m baffled how I am of any value.”
Jack took the lead. “You’re more important than you realize. Everyone has skeletons in their cupboard. As far as Jia Kun is concerned, under common law, you are her aunt and Busaba is her mother. So, in that way, you have not lied to anyone. Otherwise, you’re the wife of a foreign diplomat, and your intuition about the culture, as you’ve experienced it, is very important. You don’t have to collect and clean the bones, just help David connect them.”
Sabriya was churning inside. There were so many thoughts that came to her at once, and she couldn’t spar with Hannah to work them out. “Knowing all this, why in the world did David marry me, or MI6 allow it?”
Hannah laughed. “Sabriya, my dear, if you only knew how much David loves you. That’s the first reason, and it might as well be the only one. However, or otherwise, there were five things, perhaps six, that influenced the Services to give David the go-ahead. First, you had the intelligence, courage, and perseverance to escape your captors. Second, you valued your daughter’s safety above your own and placed her far from you, in a safe, remote part of the country, with a caring blood relative, your sister. That demonstrates sacrificial wisdom and love. Third, you gave yourself to the care of Carmelite nuns for years. You could not have chosen or fallen in with a better group to reform your past. Fourth, you proved yourself a disciplined Wing Chun student and earned your third-degree black belt. That shows strength of character. And then, as David reported, you demonstrated great control and compassion during the market defense of a young girl and her mother. Finally, and this was the icing on the cake, we might say, you have a higher ranking than David in the martial arts, so we expect you to protect him better than he might protect you.”
They all laughed at that, although Sabriya didn’t believe it for a second that she needed to or could protect David.
Jack spoke. “Sabriya, we are aware that your involvement with the Queen may put you at greater risk, but it’s a risk that we all accept, and you did too when you married David. We are aware that your association with the Queen raises the public’s awareness of you and your advocacy—that’s good. On the downside, those from your past may seek revenge. While that sounds bad or dangerous, it’s also a way to flush out the criminals Pellagore intends to put out of business. I guess you can consider yourself bait. Anyway, that is why both Hannah and I came with you on this trip. Being a diplomat isn’t always diplomacy.”
As the sedan pulled into Meijing and drew closer to the Embassy, Sabriya no longer feared that knowledge of her past would hinder her marriage. But that wasn’t all that entangled her heart’s emotions. Sabriya prayed that Jia Kun would not trust in the medallion’s power, as she had worshiped Kasden’s charm—although similar in appearance, their sources of power were very different.
Flashback: January–April 2014
Carmelite Monastery – Kolinggar Mountains
In exchange for sanctuary, Sabriya had promised Mother Superior to fully participate in the Carmelite community of silence, prayer, labor, poverty, chastity, and obedience. Little did Sabriya realize at the time that such a promise would lead to her Christian conversion and Catholic baptism. In fact, in previous years, she could never have imagined such a reversal, due to a mystical and not insignificant obstacle.
Growing up in the Northeastern Kolinggar Mountains, Sabriya had a modicum of familiarity with Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. But growing up, the spiritual essence of her villagers’ lives was the worship of mysterious stone images, to which Sabriya’s family and village leaders sacrificed and devoutly venerated. It was a form of animism, or idol worship, as she came to learn through her monastery’s education.
As her understanding of religion developed, particularly regarding Judaism and Christianity, a profusion of confusion arose, occupying her thoughts and prayers for nearly half a year. During that time, she faced a serious moral dilemma because of two undeniable miracles: Jia Kun's safe placement with Busaba and her own sanctuary with the Carmelites. Both occurred immediately after she prayed to and sacrificed to Kasden, the local god of power, riches, and revenge, to whom she had occasionally prayed since childhood. But the Catholic faith forbade such worship and sacrifice to inanimate objects, as Sabriya had secretly done while living with the nuns. When she finally told a sister she possessed a charm dedicated to the god Kasden and had sacrificed to it, Mother Superior demanded the idolatrous token be destroyed immediately, in flames, outside the monastery walls. At first, Sabriya refused because of the token’s apparent safety, which had apparently provided her and Jia Kun with freedom. Still, Mother insisted, reminding Sabriya of her oath of obedience if she wanted to stay.
Sabriya relented, so unrelenting was Mother’s insistence and so gracious her benevolence that in January 2014, the metal charm was melted down, ground to a powder, mixed with Holy Water, and thrown off a mountain cliff. Months afterward, Sabriya remained anxious, having entrusted her safety entirely to Kasden, until she was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014, and her dependence on Kasden disappeared.
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