“Thanks, Sheryl,” I tell her as we wrap up hammering out the details of the press event for Phnom Penh. I don’t miss Father, but at this point I sure appreciate how he got all the press stuff handled so we could just focus on the work of saving the planet. Now we’re fighting the uphill battle of not only continuing the work, but making sure the world knows that we can do it without him. The garbage patch work and Chad’s efforts in Africa are a good start, but if we can nail the publicity on something as big as this Southeast Asia trip, we should be able to keep all the same doors open to us that Father would have had. On the other hand, if things don’t go smoothly, or if we don’t put a good face on it, we’ll see those doors slam in our faces and saving the world will be so much harder.

Sheryl heads back to her office and I’m barely settled back into my desk when the familiar ding of an incoming message pulls my attention. I pop the message open as soon as I see who it’s from.

Dear Noah Kimball,

It was very nice to meet you when I visited your home in America. I have now returned to my country but I wanted to write to you to practice my English. Would that be acceptable for you? My tutors will help me with my writing. I very much liked the talks we had at dinner and at the car when I left. Please write back if you would like to correspond with me.

Thank you,

Liu Mei Lin

The memories rush back again, the soft touch of her kiss on my cheek at dinner and the slight parting of her lips as she kissed me by the car. She’s clearly keeping it sanitized, but she enjoyed it as much as I did if I’m reading this right. I’m sure from what she’s written that she has people screening her messages or looking over her shoulder. If I respond, I’d better keep it formal. My fingers fly across the keyboard.

Dear Miss Lui,

I also had a very good time talking to you when you visited and would like to have more conversations like the ones we had here. I would be happy to correspond with you so that you can practice your English and perhaps we could become good friends. I hope that your health has improved since your trip. I don’t know if your father told you, but several of my brothers and sisters and I were hoping to visit your country later this year. It would be very nice to see you again while we are there if we can.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Noah

That should be safe enough, nothing that would get her in trouble. I send it out.

I’ve been meaning to look up what the deal was with Yang Song. Time to hit Father’s intel repository. Not the regular one, the fancy one that has all the extra info from the military and intel services. Most of those feeds are cut off now, but he kept a copy of everything he ever got. I check Lin out first, just out of curiosity over what’s in there about her. Not much, some basic biographical info, a little bit about her cancer. Hmm, she’s older than me by a little more than a year, I thought she was younger.

Oh my, I’ve been seduced by an older woman.

Her life looks pretty sheltered. The cancer kept her out of standard schooling for most of her life. Her mother died from the same thing, so they caught Lin's early and have been slowly losing the fight against it ever since. It seems like she didn’t have a lot of contact outside of family, doctors, and tutors. I wonder if I’m one of the first real boys she’s ever talked to.

Yang Song’s file is longer. One of the first recruits in the People’s Liberation Army’s first female special forces unit, she distinguished herself early on then served several years in their intel division under General Liu until he requested her as his daughter’s bodyguard. She’s been watching Lin almost her whole life. No wonder I got the protective aunt vibe from her. If I didn’t have the bots, she could probably kill me with her bare hands without much effort. She probably would if she thought I was going to cause Lin any trouble.

The inbox dings again and there’s another message from Lin.

Noah,

Thank you for replying. I am feeling much better since my visit to your home. I’m very excited to see you again. I will speak with my father and make sure that we are there to greet you and welcome you to my country. I am the only child in my family, what is it like to have so many brothers and sisters? Please tell me about yourself. I would like to know you better.

Yours,

Lin

I hit the reply button and tell her about how I grew up as an only child and only found out about my siblings later in life. She answers almost immediately and tells me about her apartment in Beijing where she’s writing from. I tell her about the home I grew up in. She writes about her favorite foods. I was expecting them to mostly be Chinese cuisine, but a lot of them are American. I write to her about the foods I tried in Africa. She’s never had most of those, but wants to try them.

We have a surprising amount in common. She’s funny, smart, and wonderfully geeky. She’s kind of obsessed with American books and movies, especially anything sci-fi. Her technical chops are impressive too, I think because she’s had a lot of time to play around on computers because of her illness. As we write back and forth through the afternoon and into the evening, I find myself liking her more now than when she kissed me. Then the darkness inside me wonders exactly how much she would hate me if she knew what I really am. Who could ever want anything to do with a murdering bastard like me?

No. That line of thinking doesn’t do me any good. I’m working on being a better man. Mom, if you’re out there somewhere, please help me to stop hating myself.