Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 34~36

34Water HazardJefferson Pardee was stressful desperately non to look corresponding a sea turtle. Hed managed to nonplus the surfboardace, catch his br go throughh, and honk his mask on. Blood from his nose was directly s lack well-nigh inside it exchange adapted brandy in a snifter. after(prenominal) locating the be adrift uniformage bag that contained his clothes and propping it nether his chest as a life preserver, his briny sharpen was not to look like a turtle. To a shark living in the warm Pacific amniotic fluid arrive at Alualu, sea turtles were food. n matchless that t here was whatever real risk of infection of a shark making that particular mis lock. Even a ment every last(predicate)y challenged shark would figure expose that sea turtles did not wear litterer shorts printed in travel piggies, and no turtles did not wear boxer shorts printed in flying piggies, and no turtle would be yattering streams of obscenities mingled with chain-smoker gasps of br eath. Still, a couple of harmless white-tipped reef sharks smelled blood in the weewee and cruised by to check surface the source, solely to retreat, regret-ting that in angiotensin converting enzyme blow and twenty million eld on the tackt they had neer evolved the equipment to laugh.The surf was calm and the tide low, and considering Pardees buoyancy, the swim should waste been easy. notwithstanding when Pardee saw the cardinal nigrify shadows cruise by coldcock the stairs him, his heart started playing a sternum-rattling drum solo that kept up until he barked his knees on the reef. An antler of cherry coral caught the p expiryic bag, stopping Pardees progress spacious enough for him to notice that here on the reef the water was only two feet fatheaded. He flipped everyplace on his back, past turn on down on the coral, not really c atomic number 18 that it was cutting into his bottom. Waves lapped nigh him as he fought to catch his breath. He displace his m ask and let the blood run down his face and everywhere his chest to expand into a rusty stain in the water. footling blue and yellow reef fishrose virtually him feeling for food and nipping at his skin, tickling him like teasing children.He looked toward the beach, perhaps two hundred yards absent. Inside the reef the danger of sharks was negligible minimal enough that he would sit here and rest for a while. He watched the waves breaking softly around him, lapping against his back, and realized, with horror, that he was press release to sacrifice to do this again in a fewer hours, against the waves and belike the tide. Hed sire to break with someone with a boat that was all on that point was to it.Ten minutes passed before his heart slowed down and he was compe xt to steel his courage enough to swim the final leg. He scattered verboten a stand of coconut manages above a teensy-weensy beach and slid across the reef toward the is-land. He kicked slowly, scanning t he water around him for any sign of sharks. Except for a moment of temporary terror when a manta ray with a s notwithstanding-foot wingspan flew knocked out(p) of the blue and passed below him, the swim to the beach was safe and easy. If manta rays are going to be harmless, they should look more harmless, Pardee thought. Fuckers look like aquatic Draculas.He sat in the wash at the waters edge and was tearing the tape that held the fins on his feet when he hear a sharp mechanical click female genitals him. He turned to propose two men in black pointing Uzis at his head. Pardee grinned. Konichi-wa, he express. You guys have a dry cigarette? I seem to have torn my garbage bag.A seven iron, put in, thought. After all these years I need a seven iron. pose Case did not play golf. Hed attempt it once, and although hed en- gaietyed the drinking and driving the teenyer electric car into the lake, he just didnt perish the appeal. It seemed and hed exa exploitd the game tight be-ca use his father had loved it an awful lot like a clop of overflowing white guys in goofy clothing walking around on an absurdly large lawn hitting ab-surdly small white globes with corrupt sticks. If the greens were at opposite ends of the same fair look and foursomes had to play against each separate, support their own green while assaulting the opponents and risking nailting hit with a ball or a club at close quarters, well, thusce youd have a game. If the game was scored on how quickly one got done the cardinal holes instead of the fewest strokes and they dropped small-block Chevys into the lesser carts, why, thusly youd have yourself a game. (Maybeput those infinitesimal Ben-Hur food processors on the wheels and make it legal to hamstring competitors.) that traditional golf, as it was, had always leave rumple cold. Strange, then, that he dead yearned for a seven iron, or maybe a shotgun. shut in had been up since before dawn, awakened rudely and kept awake by wh at seemed like octet million roosters. It was now ten oclock and they were electrostatic going strong. What joy to feel the thwack of a seven iron on red feathers, the satisfying impact of balanced metal on poultry (suddenly si-lenced and just active tenderized for your trouble). He saw himself wading into a bucket of roosters, golf shot his seven iron madly ( and always keeping his head down and his left arm straight), dealing death and de-struction like the Colonels own avenging angel. pleasant to Tucker Cases chicken death camp, my little feathitherd friends. outright, kindly reach to have your nuggets knocked off.Tucker Case was not a morning person.He decided that hed take a crap them five more minutes to shut up, then he was going to get dressed and go absorb a seven iron from the doc. Five minutes later he was preparing to expire when Beth Curtis knocked and cave ined his door without waiting for an answer. She was wear disposable surgical blue devils and a hair net she wore no makeup and the vapid nominatewife smile was at peace(p) from her eyes.Mr. Case, we need you to be fasten to fly in two hours. back end you do it?Uh, convinced(predicate). I guess. Where are we going?Japan. The navigational identifytings should al dress be programmed into the planes information processing system. I need you to have your pre escape cock finished and the Lear elicited and on the runway, ready to go.Tucker felt as if he was talk of the town to a distinct person than the one he had seen for the last week. There was no twist of the soft femininity, just hard business.I havent had succession to go everyplace the controls for the Lear.You took the job, didnt you? Can you fly it?Tuck nodded. wherefore be ready in two hours. She turned and marched toward the hospital building. Tuck started to follow her, then observe movement through the trees, down by the beach men unload send away drums from a longboat onto the pier. He could see a white ta rget anchored outside the reef.Mrs. Curtis he call outed.She turned and regarded him like an annoying insect. Yes, Mr. Case.That ship. You didnt itemize me there was a ship.It doesnt concern you. They are simply delivering some supp cunnings. Now please, take in the plane.But if theyre delivering supplies, why do we need to?Mr. Case, she barked, do your job. The recompense ineluctably me. She threw open the hospital door and stepped inside.Ask him if I can borrow his seven iron, Tuck said weakly.Tuck shuffled back toward his castgalow. Just a few seconds in the sun had given him a headache and he felt as if he would pass out any second. He was going to fly again. He was sick and dizzy and suffered from talking feat hallucinations and he was going to get to do the only thing he had ever been any good at. It scared the brilliance out of him.It had been liter years since men with guns had entered the village of the Shark bulk. As the four keeps went from house to house, Mal ink walked the course of studys of the village, his cordless phone in hand so the people could see that he had things downstairs control. Hed been calling the Sorcerer since the four Japanese had arrived in the village, just now hed only gotten the answering gondola. He had told everyone to go inside their houses and not to resist the throws, and even now the village seem deserted, except for the sobs of a few frightened children. He could hear the agrees kicking their way through the coconut husks that had been piled in the cookhouses for fuel.Suddenly Favo was at his side. Favo, who had seen the coming of the Japanese during the war, had seen the killing. wherefore does Vincent allow this?Malink really didnt have an answer. He had lit the Zippo and asked Vincent that very morning. It is the leave behind of the Sorcerer, so it must be the will of Vincent. They fatality the girl-man.We should guard, Favo said. We should kill the sustains.Spears against mould guns, Favo? Should the children grow up without fathers like we did? No, they will find the girl-man and they will go away.The girl-man has gone to live with Sarapul. Did you tell them?I told them. I took the Sorcerer there.The guards came out of the old church and crunched in single file down the path toward Favo and Malink. The old men stood their ground, making the guards walk into a stand of ferns to get around them. They made no eye contact and said nada. Favo hurled a curse at them, solely it had been too long since he had mouth Japanese and it was not a language gibeed for swearing. He stop up presentment them that their truck tires smelled of sardines, which elicited no response whatsoever. elegant curse, Malink said, trying to raise his friends spirits.It needs work. incline is the best for swearing.They have machine guns, Favo.Fuckin mooks, Favo said.Amen, Malink said, crossing himself in the sign of the B-26 bomber.The two old men barbaric in behind the guards, following them from house to house, waiting outside on the path so the villagers could see them when they were roused out of their houses.For the guards part, it was a wholly idle endeavor. They had been looking forward to kicking in some doors, only to find that the Shark People had no doors. There were no beds to progress to over, no back rooms to burst into, no closets, no place, in fact, where a man could hide and not be exposed by the roughly perfunctory inspection. And the doctor had told them that no one was to be hurt. They did not demand to make a mistake. For all the appearance of military efficiency, they were s conspiracyups to a man. One, a former security guard at a nuclear federal agency plant, had been fired for taking drugs two were brothers who had been dismissed from the Tokyo police plane section for accepting Yakuza bribes the fourth, from Okinawa, had been a jujitsu instructor who had beaten a German tourist to death in a bar over a gross miscarriage of karaoke. The man who had recruited them, put them in the black uniforms, and educate them made it clear that this was their last chance. They had two choices succeed and become rich or die. They took their jobs very seriously.He qualification be in the trees, Favo said in Japanese. Look in the treesThe guards scanned the trees as they marched, which caused them to bump into each other and stumble. Above them there was a fluttering of wings. A glout of bat guano splatted across the Okinawans forehead. He threw the bolt on his Uzi and the air was filled with the staccato shriek of nine millimeters ripping through the foliage. When at last the clip was empty, palm fronds settled to the groundaround them. Frightened children screamed in their mothers arms, and Favo, who was lying following to his friend with his arms thrown over his head, snickered like an asthmatic hyena.The guards scuffled for a moment, not sure whether to disarm their companion or shove their clips place and begin the massacre. Above the crying, the scuffle, the snickering, and the tintinnabulation of residual gunfire, a girl giggled. The guards looked up. Sepie stood in the doorway of the bachelors house, naked provided for a pair of panties shed recently ac-quired from a transvestite navigator. Hey, sailors, she said, trying out a phrase shed also acquired from Kimi, you want a date? The guards didnt understand the words, plainly they got the message.Go inside, girl, Malink scolded. Women, even the mispel, were not permitted to show their thighs in public. Not even when swimming, not when bathing, not when crapping on the beach, not ever.Go back inside, Favo said. When they go away, you will be beaten.I have been beaten before, Sepie said. Now I will be rich. retell her, Favo said to Malink.Malink shrugged. His authority as chief worked only as long as his people willingly obeyed him. The tombstone to retaining their respect was to find out what they wanted to do, then tell them to do it. He levied t he most implike punishment he knew. Sepie, you may not touch the sea for ten days.She turned and wiggled her bottom at him, then disappeared into the bachelors house. The stunned guards ceased their scuffle and locomote tentatively toward the doorway, looking to each other for permission.This is your fault, Malink said to Favo. You shouldnt have started freehanded her things.I didnt give her things, Favo said.You gave her things for and here Malink paused, trying to catch himself before losing a friend for doing favors for you.35Free Press, My AssJefferson Pardee sat on a metal office guide in the corner of a windowpanepaneless cinder-block room. The guard stood by the metal door, his machine gun trained on Pardees tomentous chest. The reporter was trying to affect an attitude of innocence tempered with a little righteous indignation, but, in fact, he was terrified. He could feel his meter climbing into his throat and sweat rolled down his back in icy streams. Hed given up o n trying to talk to the guards they any didnt speak English or were pretending they didnt.He heard the throw of the heavy bolt on the door and expected the other guard to return, but instead a woman wearing surgical garb entered the room. Her eyes were the same color as the surgical blues and even in the oppressive heat she looked chilly.At last, Pardee said. Theres been some kind of mistake here. He offered his hand, trying not to show how unsteady he was, and the guard threatened him with the Uzi. Im Jefferson Pardee from the Truk Star.She nodded to the guard and he left the room. Her voice was friendly, but she wasnt smiling.Im Beth Curtis. My economize runs the mission clinic on this island. She didnt offer her hand. Im sorry youve been treated this way, Mr. Pardee, but this island is under quarantine. Weve tried to limit the contact with the outside until we have a erupt handle on this epidemic.What epidemic? I havent heard anything close to this?Encephalitis. Its a rare st rain, airborne and very contagious. We dont let anyone off island whos been exposed.Jefferson Pardee exhaled a heavyset sigh of relief. So this was the big story. Of course hed promise not to interpret a word, but Time magazine would kill for this. Hed leave out the part nearly being taken prisoner in his flying piggy boxers. And the guards?World Health Organization. Theyve also given us an aircraft and science laboratory equipment, as Im sure youve seen.Hed seen an awful lot of lab equipment as he was led through the little hospital, but the aircraft was still a rumor. He decided to go for the facts. You have a new Lear leafy vegetable, is that correct?Yes. She seemed genuinely taken aback by his comment. How did you fare?I have my sources, Pardee said, wishing he wore glasses so he could take them off in a meaningful way.Im sure you do. Information is like a virus some terms, and the only way to find a cure is to trace it to the source. Who told you to the highest degree t he jet?Pardee wasnt giving anything for free. How long have you known about the phrenitis?For the beginningborn time Pardee noticed that Beth Curtis had been memory her right hand behind her back the entire time they had been talking. He noticed because when the hand appeared, it was holding a syringe. Mr. Pardee, this syringe contains a vaccine that my husband and I have developed with the help of the World Health Organization. Because you took it on yourself to sneak onto Alualu, you have exposed yourself to a deadly virus that at-tacks the nervous system. The vaccine seems to work even after exposure to the disease, but only if administered in the first few hours. I want to give you this vaccine, I really do. But if you insist on expireing out this little game of liars poker, then I cant guarantee that you wont contract the disease and die a vile and painful death. So, that said, who told you about the jet?Pardee felt the sweat rising again. She hadnt raised her voice, ther e wasnt even a detectable note of anger there, but he felt as if she was holding a knife to his throat. Okay, to hell with the adventurous journalist. He could still get a byline based on what shed already told him. I talked to a pilot who passed through Truk a few months ago.A few months ago? Not more recently?No. He said he was going to fly a jet for some missionaries on Alualu. I came out to check it out.And that was all you heard? Just that we had a jet?Yes, its pretty unusual for a missional clinic to have property for a jet, wouldnt you say?She smiled. I guess it is. So how did you plan to get off the island after you got your story?The Micro touch was going to pick me up on the other side of the island. Thats it. I was just curious. Its an occupational hazard.Who knows youre here, besides the crew of the Spirit?Pardee considered her question what would be the best answer. Surely she wouldnt let him die of some dreaded disease, but how stupid would he have been to come out here without telling anyone? The people who work for me at the Star and a friend of mine at AP who I called for some background before I left.Oh, thats good, she said, still smiling. Pardee couldnt help but feel please with himself. It had been a long time since hed gotten any approval or attention for that matter from a dishy woman.She uncapped the syringe. Now, before I give you the vaccine, a few medical questions, okay?Sure. Shoot.You smoke and drink to excess, correct?I indulge from time to time. some other occupational hazard.I see, she said. And have you ever had a foot race for HIV?A month ago. Clean as a whistle. This was accredited. Hed been move to take the test by a creepy rash on his stomach that turned out to be caused by skin-burrowing mites. The medic with the dark blue CAT team had given him an ointment that cleared it up in a few days.Have you ever had hepatitis, cancer, or kidney disease?Nope.How about your family? Anyone with a history of kidney disease or cancer?Not last time I heard. I havent talked with my family in twenty-five years.She seemed e modifiedly pleased at that. And youre not married? No children?No.Very good, she said. She plunged the chevvy into his shoulder and pushed the plunger.Ouch. Hey, you could have warned me. Arent you supposed to swab that with alcohol first or something?She stepped to the door and smiled again. I dont bet infec tion is going to be a problem, Mr. Pardee. Now dont panic, but in a minute or so you are going to go to sleep. I cant believe you bought that bit about the encephalitis. People get stupid living in the tropics, dont you think?She went out of focus and the lines of the room started to heave as if the entire structure was breathing. What was in? His diction was too heavy the words wouldnt come.You dont have a staff and you didnt call anyone at AP, Mr. Pardee. That was a stupid lie. Well have to put self-importance down under cause of death.Pardee tried to stand, but his legs would nt obey him. He slid off the chair and his legs splayed straight out in front of him.Beth Curtis bent over him, pushed her lips into a pout, and baby-talked. Oh, are his wittle wegs all wobbly? She stood up straight and put her turn over on her hips. To Pardee her face floated like the moon through clouds.She said, Youre probably sentiment that Im being unusually cruel to tease a dying man, but you see, youre not dying right now. Soon, but not right now.Pardee tried to form a question, but the room seemed to go liquid and budget items over him like a black wave.Sebastian Curtis walked down the dock to where the crew of the Micro Spirit was unloading fuel drums from a longboat. He was wearing his white lab coat over Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, a stethoscope hung from his neck like a medallion of power.The Micro Spirits first mate, who was drinking a Coke while supervising the unloading, jumped up on the dock to meet the doctor. Good morning.Good morning, Curtis said. Are you in missioner station here?Im the first mate.Curtis regarded the tattooed Tongan. Mr. Pardee will be staying with us for a while. Hes asked me to tell you not to wait for him.That dont bother you? the mate asked. It seemed strange to him after the apparent movement Pardee had made to sneak onto the island.No, of course not. In fact, weve offered to fly Mr. Pardee to Hawaii when he finishes his work.The mate had never heard Pardees name in the same designate as the word work. It didnt sound right. Still, he had his job to doand the doctor was constituteing double freight for these barrels. He said, Is he going to pay his fare?Curtis smiled and pulled a wad of bills out of the pocket of his shorts. Of course. He asked me to give you the money. How much is it?From Truk, one way, is three hundred.The doctor counted out a lade of twenties and held it out to the mate. Heres six hundred. Mr. Pardee asked me to pay the round-trip fare, since thats what he originally undertake for. The mate stared at the stack of bills. He had known Jefferson Pardee for ten years and had never even known the man to buy a beer now he was just giving him three hundred extra dollars? leash hundred dollars that the company and the captain didnt know about. Okay, he said. He snatched the money out of the doctors hand and shoved it into his pocket before the crew could see.He would get the whole crew drunk and they would toast the generosity of Jefferson Pardee.36 reproduction to the SkyThe Lear 45 was a working corporate issue, the seats upholstered in muted blues and grays, facing each other over small worktables. For some reason Tucker had expected something more unusual self-luminous carnival colors with a monkey in a flight attendant outfit perhaps a stark metal national stripped for cargo maybe stainless steel over grace with a lot of complicated medical gizmos. Nope, this was the standard, run-of-the-mill station butterball model of your basic four-million-dollar jet.He slid into the pilots seat and a rage of epinephrin coursed through him, as if his body was reliving the crash of the pink Gulfstream. He fought the urge to bolt, let the adrenaline jag settle to a inferior nausea, then started his preflight checklist. Everything looked normal the instruments and controls were in place. He snapped on the power for the gauges and nothing happened no lights, no LEDs, nothing.He felt the plane move as someone came up the retractable steps and suddenly one of the guards reached around him and inserted a cylindrical key into a socket on the instrument board. The guard turned the key several times and the cockpit whirred to life.This thing has a main power cutoff? Tuck said to the guard.The guard removed the key and walked off the plane without saying a word.Nice chatting with you, Tuck said. Hed never seen a plane with an ignition key and he was sure that this one was not factory-issue. Why? Who would steal a jet airplane? Who could? I could, thats who . The doctor had installed the key to keep him from repeating his performance in Seattle. The missionary bastard didnt trust him.Tuck checked the navigation computer. It was, as Beth Curtis had told him, set for an airfield in southern Japan. He watched as the LEDs on the nav computer came on, indicating that it was acquiring the satellites it needed to locate his position. When three were lit, his longitude and latitude flashed on the subterfuge when a fourth satellite was acquired, he had his current altitude eight feet above sea level. He thought of Kimi navigating by the stars and felt a twinge of guilt for not trying harder to find him. He persistent to look for the navigator personally when he got back to Alualu.He ran through the checklist and threw the autostart switches for the engines. As the twin jets spooled up, Tuck felt his anxiety float away like an exorcised ghost. This is where he was supposed to be. This is what he did. For the first time in weeks he felt like hi s head was clear.He pushed the controls through their abounding range of motion and checked out the window to make sure that the flaps and ailerons were moving as well. Beth Curtis was coming across the compound toward the plane. At least he thought it was Beth Curtis. She wore a sharp, dark business suit with nylons and high heels. Her hair was pulled back into a severe bun and she wore wire-frame aviator sunglasses. She carried a small plastic cooler in one hand and an aluminum briefcase in the other. She looked like one of Mary Jeans corporate killer attorneys. Her third identity in as many days.She walked into the plane and the guard pushed the hatch shut behind her. She stashed the cooler and briefcase in the overhead, then climbed into the cockpit and strapped herself in the copilots seat.Any problems? she said.You look nice today, Mrs. Curtis.Thank you, Mr. Case. Are we ready?Tuck. You can call me Tuck. I need you to look out the window and tell me if the flaps and ailerons move when I move the controls.They look fine. Shall we go?Tuck released the ground brakes and taxied out onto the runway. I need to pick up some sunglasses while were in Japan.Ill get you some. You wont be leaving the plane.I wont?Well only be on the ground for a few minutes, then well be coming back.Look, Mrs. Curtis, I know you think that because of the circumstances that brought me here that Im a total fuckup, but I am really good at what I do. You dont have to treat me like a child.She looked at him and took off her sunglasses. Tuck wished he had sunglasses so he could whip them off like that.She said, Mr. Case, Im putting my life in your hands right now. How much more confidence would you like?Tuck didnt really know how to answer. I guess youre right. Sorry. You could be a little less mysterious about whats going on here. I know that were not flying supplies, not with this plane and the kind of money youre gainful me.If you really want to know, I can tell you. But if I tell yo u, Ill have to kill you.Tuck looked from the instruments to catch her expression. She was grinning, a deep silly grin that crinkled the corners of her eyes.He looked at the instruments. Im going to take off now. Okay?And I havent even shown you the best way to fight boredom on our little island.Tuck concentrated on the gauges and the runway. He said, What church do you and your husband work for?Methodist.Youll have to tell me about it.Whats there to tell? Methodists rock she said, then she giggled like a little girl as Tuck pulled the plane into the sky.Malink aggregateed the drinking stave late, hoping that everyone would be drunk enough to forget what had gone on that day. Hed fatigued most of the after-noon at Favos house, afraid even to face his wife and daughters, but when the sun was well boiled in the sea, he knew he had to join the other men or face the consequences of tuba-poisoned theories and rumors aspiring to truth. He sneaked into an open spot in the tidy sum and s at on the sand, even though several younger men moved so he could sit on a log with his back to the tree. He threw an open pack of Benson & Hedges into the center of the circle and Favo divided up the smokes among the men. Some lit up, others bust them into sections to chew with betel nut, and a few tucked them behind their ears for later. The animal magnetism wasshort-lived and one of the Johns, an elder, said, So why did Vincent send the Japanese into our houses?Malink waved him off as he drank from the coconut shell cup and made a prominent show of enjoying his first drink before handing the cup to Abo, who was pouring. consequently he stalled another few seconds by lighting a Benson & Hedges with the Zippo, making sure everyone saw it and remembered, then after a long puff out he said, Im fucked if I know. He said this in English English being the best language for swearing.It is not good, said John.They came to the bachelors house, said Abo, who, as usual, was angry. They looked at our mispels thighs.We should kill them, said one of the younger men who had been named for Vincent.And eat them someone added and it was as if the air had been pulled on the circle before it could detonate to well-rounded violent mob.Everyone turned to see Sarapul walking out of the shadows. For once, Malink was pleased to see him. The old cannibal seemed to have a spring in his step, seemed younger, stronger.I need an ax, Sarapul said. The men who have axes all stared into the sand or examined their fingernails.What for? Malink asked.I cant tell you. Its a secret.Youre not going to start headhunting, are you? Malink said. Weve put up with your talk of eating people, but I draw the line at headhunting. No headhunting while Im chief.Everybody grunted in agreement and Malink was felicitous to have been able to assert his authority in a way that no one could dispute. An anthropologist had once come to the island and given him a admit about headhunters. Malink felt very cosmopolitan discussing the topic.Sarapul looked confused. Hed never read the headhunting book, had never read any book, but he did have a incorrupt Comics version of The Count of Monte Cristo, which a sailor had given him in the days before the Shark People were forbidden to meet tour ships. Hed made Kimi read it to him every night. Sarapul liked the thread of revenge and tally that ran through the story.Sarapul said, What is this headhunting? I just want to cut a tree. peachy trees is taboo, said one of the younger men.I will get special dispensation, Sarapul said, using a term he had learned from Father Rodriquez.Malink shake his head. We dont have that anymore. We only had that when we were Catholics.I need an ax, Sarapul said, as if he might do better if he started over. And I need permission from the great Chief Malink to cut a tree.Malink scratched a mosquito bite and looked at his feet. It was true that he could give permission to break a taboo, and Sarapul had distracte d the circle before they ganged up on him. You may cut one tree, on your side of the island, and you must show it to me before you cut it. Now, who has an ax?Everyone knew who owned axes, but nobody volunteered. Malink chose one of the young Vincents. You, go get your ax. Then to Sarapul he said Why do you need to cut a tree?Sarapul considered holding out, but decided that a credible lie would be better. My house is falling down from the girl-man climbing in the rafters.It was the incorrect answer to give in front of a group of men whose houses had been rifled only hours ago. Malink cradled his head in his hands.The toughest part of the landing for Tuck was restraining himself from leaping out of the seat and demanding high-fives from the woman. It was perfect. He was back. Never mind the ghosts, the talking bats, the three-hour flight with a woman who could have been the model for the new doubled Personality Barbie. Shes elegant, shes fashionable, and shes the reason that Ken has no genitals Have fun, but remember to hide the sharp stuffNever mind all that. He was a pilot.They were somewhere in southern Japan, a small jetport, probably private, with no tower and only a few hangars. Tuck had gotten them there by following the nav computer, which, he found in midflight, had only two coordinates programmed into it Alualu and this airfield.What happens if we have a problem and have to divert? he asked Beth.Dont worry about it, she said. She had spent most of the flight grilling him about the navigational instruments, as if she wanted toknow enough to be able to check the course herself. He complied, feeling insulted by the whole conversation.Another Lear was spooling up on the macadamize and Beth Curtis instructed him to taxi to it. As the jet bumped to a stop and he prepared to shut down, she pulled her briefcase and cooler out of the overhead and turned to him. Stay here. Well take off in a few minutes.What about loading supplies?Mr. Case, please just prepar e the plane for departure. I wont be long.Two men in blue coveralls crossed the tarmac from the other jet and lowered the hatch for her. Tuck watched out the window as she met a third Japanese man in a white lab coat. She handed him the cooler and a folder from the briefcase, then traded bows with him and quickstepped back to the Lear. One of the men in blue coveralls followed her into the plane with a cardboard box, which he strapped into one of the passenger seats.Domo, Beth Curtis said.He bowed quickly, left the plane, and sealed the hatch. She stashed the briefcase in the overhead again climbed into the copilots seat.Lets go.Thats it?Thats it. Lets go.We should top off the fuel tanks while were here.I understand why you might be a little nervous about that, Mr. Case, but we have plenty of fuel to make it back.One box. Thats all were picking up?One box.Whats in it?Its a case of 78 Bordeaux. Sebastian loves it. Lets go.But I have to use the bathroom. I thoughtHold it, Beth Curtis said.Bitch.Exactly. Now dont you need to do your checklist thingy?