Chapter 392 - Amun's Women

"Amun," Sasquatch repeated this name. "One of the founders of The Organization..." he whispered as he remembered an update that Halia sent him earlier.

Lotus looked at Sasquatch in surprise. "Who are you?" she asked. How did he know who Amun was and how did he know about The Organization?

Sasquatch calmly pulled out his badge and showed it to the woman, "Senior Interpol agent, Bernard Kwan."

While the woman looked at his badge in surprise, he pointed to her hands, "I received a lead about your hands. You're a passport forger for The Organization, aren't you?"

Lotus hesitated for a moment but she eventually nodded her head. She knew she couldn't escape at this point, and even if she did, Amun had people hunting for her on the outside.

"I know you're not a bad person..." Sasquatch said as he looked into the woman's eyes. "How did you end up working for The Organization and do you know how to find Amun?"

Lotus took a deep breath and replied, "Amun is a charismatic man that knows how to mess with a person's mind. 25 years ago, he adopted me from the traffickers in the middle east and brought me to his home in Egypt. There, he fed me well, gave me fresh clothes, and promised to take good care of me. At that time, I genuinely thought that he was my savior. There were a few other adopted children in that home with me and he had a tutor for each of us to teach us knowledge, etiquette, and life skills. We were even taught our mother tongue and cultural history so we 'wouldn't lose our roots' and we were taught martial arts so 'we could protect ourselves'. I seriously thought he was a good man that wanted the best for us. Only now, do I know that he was training us to be his soldiers. I still remember, when I turned 12, Amun suddenly packed the entire family up and we moved to a base camp in Morocco. When we first arrived, it was like a paradise. Some of my older adopted siblings turned 18, so he adopted more children to join us and got them to take care of them. During that time, I completely trusted and depended on him and I did everything he asked of me. In my mid-teens, he 'rewarded' me by sending me on errands through the medina, delivering messages and packages for him. It was the only time I got to leave the base and I secretly made some friends on the outside. I felt honored that Amun trusted me and I appreciated the opportunity to see my friends, so I completed every errand to the best of my ability. Sometimes, I was chased by the police and Amun's enemies, but because of my small stature and nimble skills, I always escaped, and Amun praised me for it. His praise was like the best gift on Earth..."

"Then, when I turned 16, he began to teach me how to forge passports, IDs, and even how to counterfeit money. He convinced me that I was doing something good. That the money he made from my help was used to adopt more children and to give them better lives. I completely believed him and respected him. But, as I matured, I began to notice strange things around the base. Some of my older siblings were sent away and I never saw them again, especially the boys, and some of my female siblings started to act differently around Amun. I also noticed some strange cuts on their hands, but they simply told me they were nothing to worry about."

"It wasn't until the night of my 18th birthday that I realized what the cuts meant... It was a kind of branding... It meant that we were Amun's women..."

Lotus' eyes became watery as she stretched out her hands. "He r.a.p.ed me on the night of my 18th birthday and branded me with these cuts. It tore my world apart. I always viewed him as a father figure, but he suddenly turned into a monster that night." 

"I realized after that, that he did it to every single girl that turned 18. It was a way to satisfy his ego and narcissism. Those that he didn't like or got sick of, he branded them and sent them on long term missions overseas to help The Organization. Sometimes they were sent to kill traitors and members that had been captured, sometimes they were sent to facilitate illegal border crossings and trafficking, and sometimes they were even sent as gifts. Many times, they were killed and never heard from again. Meanwhile, those that he liked, he kept them close to him. I was one of the ones he liked. He called me his little Oriental Lotus. I was kept by his side for 5 years before he finally sent me to Beijing to join the immigration office. Before I left, he warned me that he would kill me if I didn't behave and I believed him. After all, I knew how many children he had trained and sent on the field and I knew how many he was in the process of training. As a result, for the last 8 years, I've been assisting The Organization with everything that's immigration-related here in China. At first, I tried to find a way out. I thought I could make a fake passport and ID for myself and just disappear. But, I quickly realized that staying quiet was easier. The Organization didn't do much in China anyway, and when they did, they barely needed my help, so in the last 8 years, I've probably been contacted only a dozen times. The rest of the time, I've just been living a normal life."

Sasquatch furrowed his brows, "Then why did he suddenly send someone to kill you?"

Lotus sighed, "I suspect it has something to do with Boginya's capture. They failed to help her escape, so they're going with Plan B: kill her and anyone that recently came in contact with her."

"But, you simply helped her make fake passports. Isn't he being too paranoid?" Sasquatch asked in confusion.

Lotus shook her head, "No...he's not being too paranoid. He needs to kill me because I also know the location of his base..."