Moonstrike 16: Big Sister

CHAPTER 16


She hit the call button and then hit end immediately when her brain caught up with her hand. She typed up, "I'm here. Call or text? What do you need?"

"A ride. Don't call."

Ji Min felt her whole body tense. If Min Joon couldn't call- who was he around? Why couldn't he talk freely in front of them?

'If this is one of Dad's creeper work friends, I'm going to kill them,' Ji Min decided. 'All three. Mom, Dad, the shithead.' It wasn't anger. It was a cold, calculated decision that had been percolating for years. It had seemed like the bullshit stopped after their blowout, but she'd been waiting for the shoe to drop.

"Where should the car be? Do you need any money or anything?"

"Here." He sent a GPS point. "Yes, please, to my cash app? That's a good reason to leave. I'll say I'm getting pizza or something."

Ji Min opened up her banking app. She transferred over $100 dollars and added a pizza and a taco emoji. If he needed to show it to somebody as a prop it would look more convincing that way. She sent it, tense.

Then she opened up the GPS point and her heart fell. She turned on her heel, heading back towards her rental car, but she already knew she was too far away to get there anytime soon. "You need a ride asap?" She checked.

"Yes, please."

Ji Min swallowed. She started jogging. "Okay." Her mind raced for solutions. If she drove, it would be hours. She was going to get to the car asap, but if someone else could help- someone reliable, someone who could control the situation–

Who? Alex? He'd help. He wasn't close but he was a lot closer than Ji Min.

Ohh.

No, she had a better idea.

As she ran, she opened up her chat and hit dial. She prayed a little.

Issa picked up cheerfully. "Oh, hello. Did you want to talk about one of those people?"

"I haven't had a chance to look," Ji Min said. "I need a favor. Can you pick someone up for me?"

Something metal clanged in the background of the call. "From where?" Issa sounded a little puzzled but game enough.

"Next state over, I can send you the GPS. It's urgent."

Issa paused only for a moment. "Say no more," she promised. "I'll pick them up. Going to my ship now." There was a jingle in the background. Keys. "Who am I getting?"

"My little brother. I'll send you a pic for ID. Can I send him a photo of you?"

The line was silent. But somehow, her friend's surprise came across. It wasn't like they ever talked about family or personal lives. "Yes, of course," Issa finally said. "You can count on me. I'll wait for that GPS point. Bye."

'Issa is my new personal hero. I only respect Issa now.'

"Bye," Ji Min echoed, so relieved that she could cry. She shakily hung up and sent the information as well as a selfie of her with Min Joon at a zoo. Only then did she go back to her conversation with him. "I got you a ride," she sent.

A message from Issa came down her screen. "I can be there in 15 minutes."

Ji Min added that information to her message to Min Joon and hit send.

Only then did she realize she didn't have a photo of Issa to send. Instead she wrote up a description and promised that Issa was reliable.

Min Joon reacted with a thumbs up. She walked back to the car and waited anxiously for contact from either one of them. Eventually, her phone rang.

"Hello, darling girl," came Issa's easy tones on speakerphone. "I have retrieved the boy."

"Hey," said Min Joon. "I'm the boy!"

She felt a wave of relief. All the tension washed out and left her weak. "Thank you so much," Ji Min said. She slumped in her seat a bit. "Thanks for getting him so fast. And Min Joon, thanks for letting me know I could help."

"Yeah, of course," he said. "I knew you would. I appreciate it."

She put a hand on her mouth and tried not to cry. She wiped away tears anyway. She was so glad he trusted her like that. She was so glad that she could protect Ari and Min Joon.

"Where are we going?" Issa asked idly. There was a roar of engines. "To you? To his house?"

'Not to me. I'm at a crime convention, and I'm going to meet a cat burglar tomorrow. I might look into a human trafficking ring after that.'

If she had to, she'd ditch all that. But first it was worth asking a few questions.

"That depends," Ji Min said slowly. "M.J., do you want to go home? Are you supposed to be somewhere?" When he didn't immediately answer she added, "Do you want to go to my place with Ari?" She said it lightly, like it didn't matter.

"Ari, please," he said gratefully.

'I'm going to kill them.'

She didn't know what the fuck was going on. But her shitty parents were involved somehow. If he felt safe there, he'd go home.

"Okay, then. You know the address, right? It's fine to give it to Issa."

Issa was good enough that she could track Ji Min down if she really wanted to anyway. At this point, she was going to just have to trust the pirate. If she'd trusted her with a little sibling, there really wasn't anything more important to protect in her personal life.

"Feel free to hang out if you want," Ji Min added. "Issa, can I pay you back for gas, or buy you dinner or something?" She ran a hand through her hair, messing it up. She started thinking through logistics in her head for the longer term.

'Might need a bigger place. I need to look into local high schools as well.'

Issa clicked her tongue. "I think I'll stay with M.J. here until Ari is in contact, at the very least," she said. "Maybe we could have a little home party!"

So. Issa had definitely noticed that something was wrong. She wouldn't leave him alone. Ji Min wanted so badly to ask her what she knew.

"Sounds fun," Ji Min said. She kept her voice deliberately light. "I'll send party money over to M.J.'s account. Please, spend it. Tell Ari I said hi when you see her. Have fun!"

When they added goodbyes, she ended the call and transferred another $500 dollars. Grimly, she added balloons and bells to the message. She had no idea how they could spend that much at home but it made her feel better.

The ordeal left her feeling drained. She fixed her hair in the car's mirror and thought about going back to her assessment of the building. But honestly?

She wasn't in the right mood for that kind of work.

'It's better to be under prepared than to do sloppy work.' She started the car. 'Getting caught or leaving a hint that there's surveillance would be the worst outcome.'

Ji Min sighed as she started the drive back.

It would be really nice to have more heroic contacts, she thought. Issa wasn't heroic at all and she'd saved Ji Min's ass today. What if there was someone who could help her check out that information drop?

The investigator was definitely good. Whatever else they were, Ji Min was confident she'd been contacted by someone who was competent. But that left a lot of uncertainty. This could be a trap, for instance. They might blackmail her. Or they might just be sending her into a situation that was so over her pay grade it would ruin her life. She could end up dead. Or hell, if this actually was trafficking, she might end up trafficked.

The thought got her heart rate up again.

"Less coffee," she told herself.  "It's the caffeine." Ji Min adjusted the temperature in the car just to have something to do with her hands.

She didn't even know anyone. There was the senior team connected to her government role, but she hadn't met any of them yet. There was that man - Jason?- who was probably a vigilante, but they were hardly on cooperative terms. Alex would help in an instant but he was uh, under investigation and probably not even capable of a subtle break in.

There was nothing for it. She didn't have anyone who would help her. She was going to get through this on her own.

Unbidden, Hammer's horrible face floated to the top of her mind. An echo of his voice cheerfully offered to help her network.

She cranked the volume up on her music, scowling.