Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 58~59

58Malinks SongTheyre flying the new pi allot in tomorrow, state Sebastian Curtis. I t gray-headed them that stick iner wouldnt fly, so he had to be eliminated. They werent happy intimately losing the join and lungs.Beth Curtis sat at her vanity, couchting on her eye opus for the appear-ance of the Sky Priestess. The red scarf was draped over the back of the chair. Did you rafter the database? Maybe we keep send a nonher set of or-gans back with them. I can pick the chosen tonight and keep them in the clinic until tomorrow morning.The customer already died, Curtis said.Well, I guess he really was sick, then. She laughed, a girlish laugh full of music.Sebastian loved her laugh. He smiled over her berm into the mirror. Im glad youre not concerned ab start cumulateer Case. I under baulk, Beth. Really. I was entirely jealous. gainer who? Oh, you suppose crumpleer dead-at- sea Case? Bastian, dear, I did what I did for us. I legal opinion it would keep him under control. Write it off as one of lifes little devolveteps. Besides, if hes not dead now, he will be in a twenty-four hour period or so.He do it happen uponher on the open maritime. Through a typhoon.And with the navigator. Remember, Ive seen him fly. Hes dead. That old cannibal is plausibly munching on his bones right now. She canvas her lipstick and winked at him in the mirror. Showtime, darling.Malink trudged by the jungle, his shoulders aching from the basket of food he was containing. Each day he had been taking food to Sarapuls hiding place. It was not that he didnt authority his people, but he did not want to burden any of them with such(prenominal) a weighty secret. The last of them to see the cannibal apothegm him cover with blood, gasping in the sand. Malink had told them that Sarapul was dead and that Malink had given his body to the sharks. A chief had to carry many secrets, and sometimes he had to lie to his people to spare them pain. subsequently the third day, Malink was r eady to let the cannibal go back to his place on the far side of the island. The guards were no longer searching, and the Sorcerer had halt asking questions. Perhaps things would go back to the way they were. But perchance that wasnt right either. Malink didnt want to, but he believed the pilot. The Sky Priestess and the Sorcerer were way egress to weakened his people. He was too old for this. He was too old to fight. And how do you fight machine guns with spears and machetes?He paused by a lusus naturae mahogany tree and put the basket down while he caught his breath. He saw smoke drifting in streams over the ferns and count oned in the counselling it was coming from. Someone was t present, obscured by a tall stand of eddo earmarks as big as elephant ears.There was a sound there. Malink crouched.Youre not scared, are you, squirt?Malink recognized the office from his childhood and he wasnt scared. But he knew he didnt have to say so. I am not a squirt. I am old man now. Vincent swaggered fall emerge of the taro. His leakage suit and bomber jacket looked exactly as Malink remembered. Youre eternally gonna be a squirt, kid. You still got that lighter I gave you?Malink nodded.That was my lucky Zippo, kid. I shoulda hung on to it. Fuck it. Spilt milk. Vincent waved his buns in dismissal. Look, I need you to inning some ladders. You have it away what a ladder is, right?Yes, Malink said.Of course you do, clean kid care you. So I am needing you to habitus, oh, say half dozen ladders, thirty feet long, strong and light. Use bamboo. Are you getting this, kid?Malink nodded. He was grinning from ear to ear. Vincent was speaking to him again.Youre talkin my ear off, kid. So, anyway, I need you to mannequin these ladders, see, as I am having big plans for you and the Shark People. Large plans, kid. tremendously large. Im talking astir(predicate) substantial fuckin plans I am having. Okay?Malink nodded.Good, build the ladders and stand by for furth er orders. The flyer began to back away into the taro patch.You said you would come back, Malink said. You said you would come back and bring cargo.You dont look like you been shorted on the feedbag, kid. You got your cargo in spades.You said you would come back.Vincent threw up his hits. So what the fucks this? Western Union? Dont go screwy on me, kid. I need you. The pilot started to fade, going as translucent as his cigarette smoke.Malink stepped forward. The Sky Priestess will fall apart us orders?The Sky Priestess took a disintegrate fifty years ago, kid. This dame doing the bump and grind on my track is paste.Paste?Shes a fake, squirt. A boneable feast to be sure, but shes draw offnel a game on you.She is not Sky Priestess?No, but dont realise her off. With that the pilot faded to nonentity.Malink leaned back against the mahogany tree and looked up through the canopy to the sky. His skin tingled and his breath was coming easy and deep. The ache in his knees was gone. H e was light and strong and full, and every birdcall or whispering of leaves or distant crash of a wave seemed part of a great and wonderful song.59Call in the CavalryThey had helpless Guam and Saipan (passing at night) and all the Northern Mariana Islands (drifting in fog) and Johnston Island and all ships at sea (no reason, they just missed). The sunscreen had run out on the s make upth day. The intoxication coconuts ran out on the fourteenth.They still had some shark meat that had been calculate and dried, but tuck couldnt choke down a bite of it without water. They had had nothing to drink for a full day.They were at sea for trio age originally Sepie came out of her catatonia, and after a day of sobbing, she started to talk.I miss him, she said. He listen to me. He like me even when I am being mean.Me too. I treated him badly sometimes too. He was a dependable guy. A good friend.He love you very oftentimes, Sepie said. She was emit again.Tuck looked down, shielding hi s face so she couldnt see his eyes. Im sorry, Sepie. I know you loved him. I didnt mean to put him in danger. I didnt mean to put you in danger.She crawled to his end of the canoe and into his arms. He held her there for a long time, rocking her until she stopped crying. He said, Youll be okay.Kimi say he would sweep up me to America someday. You will take me?Sure. Youll like it there.Tell me, she said.She grilled Tuck round all things American, making him explain everything from television to tampons. Tuck well-read about men,about how simple they were, about how easily they could be manipulated, about how good they could make a woman go through when they were nice, and how much they could hurt a woman by dying. Telling the things that they knew make them each feel smart, and sharing the duties of sailing the boat made them feel safe. It was easier to live in the little world inside the canoe rather than face the coarse emptiness of the open ocean. Sepie took to curling into T ucks chest and sleeping while he steered. Twice Tuck fell asleep in her arms and no one steered the boat for hours. Tuck didnt let it bother him. He had evaluate that they were going to die. It seemed so easy now that he wondered why hed made such an effort to escape it on the island.Roberto hadnt spoken since the first night. He hung from the gunstocks and pointed with a wing claw when Tuck called to him. When Tuck was still reckoning, he reckoned that they were traveling at an average speed of flipper knots. At five knots, twenty-four hours a day, for fourteen days, he reckoned that they had traveled well over two thousand miles. Tuck reckoned that they were now sailing though business district Sacramento. His reckoning wasnt any better than his navigation.On the fifteenth day Roberto took flight and Tuck watched him until he was nothing but a dot on the horizon, then nothing at all. Tuck didnt blame him. He judge his own death, but he didnt want to watch Sepie go before him. At sunset he tied off the steering oar, took Sepie in his arms, and lay down in the bottom of the boat to wait.Sometime ulterior he couldnt tell how long, but it was still dark he woke with a parched scream when a tube of mascara dropped out of the sky and hit him in the chest. Sepie sat up and snatched the tube from the bottom of the boat.To make you pretty, she said. Her voice cracked on pretty.Tuck was too disoriented to recognize what she was holding. He took it from her and squinted at it. Its mascara.Roberto, Sepie said.Tuck looked around in the sky, but didnt see the bat. It was extraction to get light. You brought us mascara? Were dying of thirst and you brought us mascara?Kimi teach him, Sepie said.Tuck didnt think he had the energy left for outrage, but it was coming nonetheless. YouSepie put a finger to his lips. Listen.Tuck listened. He heard nothing. What?Surf.Tuck listened. He heard it. He as well heard something else, a rhythmic intake in the water much closer t o the canoe. He looked in the direction of the noise and saw something moving over the water toward them.Aloha came out of the dark, followed by a middle-aged white man in an ocean kayak. I guess Im not the only one who likes to get out early, he said.In their first hour at the Waikiki Beach Hyatt Regency, Sepie flush the toilet seventy-eight times and consumed two hundred and twoscore dollars value of product from the minibar (five Pepsis and a box of Raisinets).You poop in here and it just goes away?Yes. In this big bowl? She pointed.Yes.You poop?Yes.And you vim this?Yes.And it goes away?Thats right.Where?To the next room. Plumbing. They hadnt talked about plumbing.And they push this and it goes away?Look, Sepie, theres a TV in here. You push this and it changes the picture.Tuck couldnt be sure because theyd never had depend upon and because shed told him about how she could fool a man, but he thought she mogul have come right then.He made her promise not to leave the room a nd left her there flushing and clicking while he went to the police.The desk serjeant at the Honolulu police department listened patiently and politely and with conquer concern right up until Tuck said, I know I look a little ratty, but Ive been at sea in an open boat for two weeks. At which point the police sergeant held up his hand signifying it was his turn to talk.Youve been at sea for two weeks?Yes. I get away by boat.So how long ago did these alleged murders happen?I dont know exactly. One about a month ago, one longer.And youre just getting around to revealing them now?I told you. I was pin down on Alualu. I escaped in a sailing canoe.Then, the sergeant said, Alualu is not a street in Honolulu.No. Its an island in Micronesia.I cant help you, sir. Thats out of our jurisdiction.Well, who can help me?Try the FBI.So Tuck, on the cab ride to the FBI offices, changed his strategy. Hed wait until he got past the front line of defense before spilling his guts. The receptionist was a petite Asian woman of forty who spoke English so precisely that Tuck knew it had to be her split second language.Im sure I can help you if you will just tell me what it is that youd like to report.I cant. I have to talk to an agent. I wont be comfortable unless I talk to a real agent.She looked offended and her diction became even crisper. Perhaps you can tell me the nature of the crime.Tuck thought for a moment. What did the FBI always handle on television? Al Capone, Klansmen, aver robberies, andKidnapping, he said. Theres been a puss.And who has been kidnapped? Have you filed a missing persons report with the local police?Tuck shook his head and stood his ground. Ill tell an agent.The receptionist picked up the earpiece and punched a number. She turned away from him and covered her mouth with her hand as she spoke into the mouthpiece. She hung up and said, Theres an agent on his way.Thanks, Tuck said.A a couple of(prenominal) minutes later a door opened and a dark-c oated guy who looked like a mobile mannequin from a stand Brothers windowdisplay entered the reception room and extended his hand to Tuck. Mr. Case, Im peculiar(a) agent Tom Myers. Would you step into my office, please?Tuck shook his hand and followed him though the door and down a hallway of uniform ten-by-twelve offices with identical metal desks that displayed identical photos of identical families in identical dime-store frames. Myers motioned for Tuck to ride and took the seat behind the desk.Now, Rose tells me that you want to report a kidnapping? especial(a) Agent Myers unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.You allowed to do that? Tuck asked.Casual Fridays, the special agent said.Oh, Tuck said. Yes. Kidnapping, multiple murder, and the theft and cut-rate sale of human organs for transplant.Myers showed no reaction. Go on.And Tuck did. He began with the swirl of the job on Alualu and ended with his arrival in Hawaii, leaving out the crash of Mary Jeans jet, the subseque nt loss of his pilots license and pending reprehensible charges, anything to do with cargo cults, cannibals, transvestites, ghost pilots, talking bats, and genital injuries. As he wrapped up, he thought the edited version sounded pretty credible. peculiar(prenominal) Agent Myers had not changed position or expression once in the half hour that Tuck had talked. Tuck thought he saw him blink once, though. Special Agent Myers leaned back in his chair (casual Fridays) and templed his fingers. allow me ask you something, he said.Sure, Tuck said.Are you the Tucker Case that got sot and crashed the pink jet in Seattle a few months ago?Tuck could have slapped him. Yes, but that doesnt have anything to do with this.I think it does, Mr. Case. I think it affects the credibility of what is already an incredible story. I think you should leave my office and go about the business of putting your life in order.Im telling you the truth, Tuck said. He was fighting panic. He worked to stay calm. wherefore would I make up a story like that? As you pointed out, Ive got enough on my plate just rebuilding my life. Im not so stupid that Id add charges for filing a false crime report to all the others. If you have to take me into custody, do it. But do something about whats going on out on that island or a lot more people are going to die.Even if I believed your story, what would you like me to do?And there Tuck lost it. Special agent. Does that mean that you had to take the little bus to the academy?I was at the top of my class. A rise.Then act like it.What do you want, Mr. Case?Tuck jumped up and leaned over the desk. Special Agent Myers turn back in his chair.I want you to stop them. I want covert action and evil technology. I want Navy SEALS and snipers and spies and laser-guided smart stealth gizmos out the ying-yang. I want surgical strikes and satellite views and a steaming shitload of every smorgasbord of Tom Clancy geegaw you got. I want fucking Jack Ryan, James Bond, and a half-dozen Van Damme motherfuck-ers who can jump through their own asses and rip your heart out while its still beating. I want action, Special Agent Myers. This is evil shit.Sit down, Mr. Case.Tuck sat down. His energy was gone. Look, Im giving myself up. freeze me, throw me in jail, beat me with a rubber hose, do some(prenominal) you want to do, but stop whats going on out there.Special Agent Myers smiled. I dont believe a word youve told me, but even if I did, even if you had evidence of what youre claiming, I still couldnt do anything. The FBI can only act on domestic matters.Then tell soulfulness who handles international matters.The CIA only handles matters that affect national security, and frankly, I wouldnt embarrass myself by calling them.Fuck it, then. Take me away. Tuck held out his arms to have handcuffs.Go back to your hotel and get some rest, Mr. Case. There are no outstanding warrants for your arrest.There arent? Tuck felt as if hed been gut-punched.I chec ked the computer before I brought you in here. Myers stood. Ill show you out.After some other cab ride and another truncated telling of his story, Tuck was also shown out of the Japanese embassy. He found a pay earphone and soon he had been hung up on by both the American Medical Association and the Council of Methodist Missionaries. He found Sepie curled up on the king-size bed, the television still blaring in the bathroom, three minibottles of vodka empty on the floor. Tuck considered raiding the minibar himself, but when he opened it, heopted for a grapefruit juice instead of gin. get hammered wasnt going to take the edge off this time, and at this rate, the specie hed left on deposit at the desk in lieu of a credit card the money that Sarapul had found in Tucks pack would run out in two days.He sat down on the bed and stroked Sepies hair. She had put on mascara while he was out and had made a mess of it. Funny, shed walked into the hotel wearing one of Tucks shirts the fi rst time shed worn out a top in her life looking very much the little girl and now she had on makeup and was passed out drunk. Tuck had a feeling that coming to America was not going to be easy on either of them. He kissed her on the forehead and she moaned and rolled over. Perfume tomorrow, she said. You get me some, okay?Okay, Tuck said. A woman who smells good is a woman who feels good. The phrase rattled off the walls of his brain. He snatched up the phone and punched up information. When the operator came on, he said, Houston, area code 713