Page 31 of Remember When We
He hadn’t been wrong so far.
A Chinese man in a suit came out and smiled. “Jade will see you now.” He told us, his voice had a cultured accent that suggested he only spoke English when he needed to.
We got up and followed him going through the door he’d come from down a corridor that seemed to go on forever. Here the walls turned to glass. Floor to ceiling glass walls, but it wasn’t really that. It was a fucking aquarium and what was inside shocked me to shit. On one side there was a snake.
A fucking anaconda swimming around like it would in the jungle. On the other side of us were crocs. Crocodiles that gave even me the fucking creeps.
Dante tensed and looked at me. Gibbs however, kept his head straight, chin up, and continued walking along the corridor.
It all made me wonder what kind of place this was, and how did Marshall know about it.
We walked into a large room and a beautiful Chinese woman sat on a chaise lounge smoking a pipe. She blew out rings of smoke and smiled when she saw us.
“Weapons at the door.” The man said bringing out a basket.
I handed over my guns, Dante too, and Gibbs. The man did a quick pat down of us to be sure we weren’t carrying anything we didn’t disclose.
We didn’t need to do things like that, but hey it was more than understandable.
When he finished with Gibbs, Gibbs smiled and said something in Chinese that I didn’t understand. It took me a second before I realized he’d spoken in the dead language shocking both the man and the woman. The woman was so surprised she twisted around in her chair and widened her smile.
She set her pipe down upon a holder on the coffee table and surprised me further by signing with her hands; sign language.
“You speak ya kumu?” The man asked translating for her.
“I do.” Gibbs replied. “Very clever. I like it.”
“What language is that?” Dante asked.
“It’s actually eighth century Japanese.” Gibbs looked proud of himself.
“And you know this how?” I was intrigued to hear it.
Gibbs gave me a pat on my shoulder. “My man Gio, I know many things. If I gave away my secrets, you people wouldn’t pay me the coins you do.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“Unfortunately, I don’t sign so I’m going to have to put my trust in our host here.” Gibbs said looking at the man who nodded and seemed to loosen up.
He motioned for us to go and sit.
We did and as soon I lowered into the chair I looked at Jade. I realized the reason why she was signing. I’d assumed it was because she was deaf, but it wasn’t that.
She had no tongue.
She saw me looking and smiled and opened her mouth showing me I was completely correct.
Dante was looking too and glanced over at me.
“Someone cut your tongue out?” Dante asked. I had to say that of the two of us he was the more forward and blatant.
I took him for a brother, because we’d been those kind of friends and sometimes our temperaments were the same. At other times we were complete opposites. Like just now, that was a question I wouldn’t have asked even though it was clear that was what happened. It was obvious from the stump of what used to be her tongue.
She nodded and the man took his seat next to her. She signed something and the man looked uncomfortable.
“Jade had her tongue cut out to stop her from giving away certain information. It was to teach her a lesson. She had to learn to sign in order to communicate,” he explained.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Did you catch the people who did that to you?” Dante asked.
