Page 18 of License to Kill

“He’d lost one child already, and he wasn’t going to lose another.”

I could only wonder if my pa had died because he’d tried to stop my ma from continuing her vengeful attempt to kill me for how I’d been born. “Does CARD have any information on my adoption?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. There were adoption requirements for you. The Johnsons fit the requirements, which is why they won your adoption. Your biological parents requested that you be given to a lower income family who might not otherwise win an adoption. Your parents also covered all adoption fees, with the fees that would have been paid going to your care. You were to keep the locket given to you, and you were to be given information on your birth parents when you turned eighteen.”

“Wait, what? What information? They were supposed to tell me about my birth parents? I was told I was abandoned with a locket.”

“Yes, that is what the file says. I’m going to guess you were not given that information.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was told I was abandoned and was found with the locket.”

“We’ll research the situation as part of a bonus for your assistance with that matter in South Carolina. I can tell you a little, but the CARD file only has the basics. I’m actually looking at adoption records to get most of this information. You’re from Tibet.”

“I’m from where?” I blurted.

“Tibet. You’re from a rather remote region of Tibet.” There was a brief moment of silence, which was disturbed by the tapping of keys. “Sorry, I misspoke. You are from the most remote region of Tibet, Ngari. It is unknown why you were born there, but that is the location noted in your adoption record and on your original birth certificate. As you were born in such a remote place, your birth parents actually went through quite the legal battle to have you officially recognized as Tibetan. This is listed in your initial immigration record, which is bundled with your adoption records, as your US passport and birth certificate are what matter on US soil. You were properly registered in the United States upon your adoption. But, you do have an official Tibetan birth certificate, which confirms that your registered place of birth is within the Ngari region. This is a shortened translation of the documents, mind you. Your birth name is Karma Dawa. In Tibetan tradition, you only have given names. When you were brought over to the United States and issued a translated birth certificate and citizenship as part of the adoption proceedings, Dawa was removed from your name.”

“Dawa? That’s really part of my name?”

“Apparently, it means moon.”

I regarded my arm with a sigh. “I guess that’s an accurate descriptor of my skin color. Nothing about me looks Tibetan.”

“Well, you’re Tibetan. Considering how remote of a region you’re from, it’s entirely possible the family you belong to has a different appearance from other Tibetans. There is a note about your general appearances not matching the stereotypical Tibetans, but perhaps that is why you were given up for adoption. You may want to go in for some testing to discover if your appearances are related to a medical disorder of some sort, however. That said, you seem healthy enough according to these records.”

I could figure out why I was weird compared to other Tibetans: I became a fox, something I wouldn’t admit to some nameless stranger. “They lied to me about how or why I was adopted.”

“So it seems. That is a fairly common practice, although there was no chance of hiding that you were adopted.”

That was true. I’d known from my very first memory I’d been adopted. I let my breath out in a gusty sigh. “All right. So they lied to me about how I was adopted. Maybe even about why. Fine. Does that file have information on my birth parents?”

“Unfortunately, this says Mrs. Johnson claimed the packet that was supposed to be given to you, and as it was sealed, there are no records available of what it contained. However, we have your original birth certificate, so it would be trivial to get a translator to make an English copy and begin to do a search for your parents. That might become expensive.”

“Can I afford it out of my cut of the hit?”

“Easily.”

“Okay. Take what’s needed to cover the expenses.” Maybe looking into my birth family might give me a purpose in time. “How long does such an investigation normally take?”

“Considering how remote Ngari is, it will take months. We’ll have to get a local tour guide who speaks English, or find contacts, then we’ll have to pay them to conduct a search of the villages until we can find the right one, then seek out information that way. I’ll assign this to someone I know who is good at this sort of work and make sure this record is sealed from the general market. We went through so much effort to eliminate you from the picture it wouldn’t be wise to undo that immediately.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We’ll be in touch when we know more. Expect it to take a few months for an update.”

The line went dead, and Amelia reclaimed her phone. “He’s always like that. He had other work to do, and if that work happens to visit him unexpectedly, he hangs up. That was probably not the answer you wanted.”

“No, but it was an answer. When I had behavior problems, my ma beat them out of me. She didn’t want anyone to know there was something wrong with me. We moved because of it, too. Her beatings worked. I’d just forgotten about them. But then I remembered, and I said something, and she was investigated.”

“Which ended the ruse she was the picture perfect mother, leading to her trying to get rid of you.”

“And getting rid of my pa.”

“Well, yeah. He thought of you as his little girl right up until the end. If he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have killed him like that.”

That was one of the few things I could still believe in. “Right.”

“Are you all right?”