Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 51~53

51Whither Losers thunderThe Sorcerer paced keep going and forth across the lanai. I want to catch a nonher pilot, Beth. We cant let him act t palpebra authority and get a authority with it.The dispose Priestess yawned. She was draped across the wicker emperors chair, wearing a towel shed wrapped above her breasts at the Sorcerers request. He said he pick erupted to think. Did you lease him why he did it?Of course I asked him. He said he was casti accessioning to liven up the risque.Worked, didnt it?Its not gay, Beth. Were going to arrive bother with him.The chuck Priestess stood up and put her arms a expatiate the Sorcerer. You pee to defecate a itsy-bitsy faith in me, she said. I can wangle conglomerateer Case. She didnt want to live with this conversation. non yet. She hadnt t rare the Sorcerer roughly introduce going discharge course. She had plans for the fair-hai florid pilot.The Sorcerer pulled away from her and O.K. up to the rail. What if I dont w ish well the way you handle him?And whats that supposed to mean?You experience what it means.She approached him again, this time untucking the towel so it dropped as she stepped into his arms. Her nipples just brushed the presence of his shirt. Bastian, if what happened today proved anything, it proved that conglomerateer Case is a troglodyte. Hes no threat to you. Im attracted to finesse, not force. Case reacts to force with force. Thats why he pee Yamata. You use a gentle touch with a guy comparable that and hes helpless.Sebastian Curtis sullen away from her. Im not taking the guards off-key his house, not for a go anyway.You do what you think is best, plainly its not reasoned indemnity to make an enemy of someone whose services you require. So what if he hates the ninjas? I hate the ninjas. You hate the ninjas. scarcely we need them, and we need a pilot. Were not likely to be as lucky attached time.Lucky? The homos a reprobate. slip iner Case is a loser. Losers flou rish on islands, away from competition. You taught me that. acclaim spoiled businessman work w present seduction markmed to be failing.I did?She unzipped his pants. Sure, that monologue ab step up ninety percent of the turn backangered species living on islands. Thats because they would dedicate died taboo years ago from reliable competition. Losers, like kniter Case.I was talk virtually unique ecosystems, like the Galpagos, where evolution is speeded up. The way the religions contract hold. equal difference.He yanked her hand out of his pants and pushed her away. Whats that make us, Beth? What does that make me?The Sky Priestess was losing on all seems. There was an ele work forcet here that she was not in control of, an unknown vari qualified that was affecting the Sorcerers mood. When sex and flattery dont work, what neighboring? Ah, team spirit. It makes us the fittest, Bastian. It makes us superior.He looked at her quizzically.Easy now, she thought. Youre acquiring him back. She walked slowly back to the emperors chair and sat rectify daintily, thus threw a leg allplace either arm and leaned back spread-eagle. A quiz, Bastian, a quiz on evolution wherefore, after all these years, with all the fossil evidence, doesnt anyone know for sure what happened to the dinosaurs? Dont answer right away. Think. She fiddled with her left nipple darn she waited, and finally a smiling came everyplace his vitrine. He really did have big dentition. She had to give him credit for keeping up his dental hygiene all these years on the island. nonewitnesses, he said finally.We have a winner. hardly much precisely, no surviving witnesses. Losers can yet flourish until a dominant species appears, flush on an island.A spirit of concern crossed his tone. But dinosaurs ruled the Earth for sixty zillion years. You can hardly call them losers.Could he be any more difficult? Look, Darwin, on that point are absolutely no dinosaurs getting primed(p) toni ght. Pick your team.52Dont Know Much About History inclose twisted the guts out of the stick pen and pried off the end cap with a kitchen knife, making, in effect, a perfect compact blowtube. He found a dapple of notebook paper in the nightstand and sit himself on the wicker couch so he had a good diagonal view of the guards posted remote his door. He tore off a small piece of the paper with his teeth, worked it into a sufficiently shitty ball, then fit it into the pen tube and blew. The spit wad sailed by means of the window and curved harmlessly away from the guards.Too much moisture. He squeezed the next one between his fingers before loading, then let fly sheet to strike the nearest guard in the neck. He brushed at his neck as if waving off an insect, alone otherwise didnt react.to a greater ex ten dollar billt moisture. sneak in had taught himself deadly accuracy with the spitball blowgun at a time when he was supposed to be learning algebra. In contradiction to what h is t for each oneer had told him, he had neer needed to know algebra in afterward life, but mastery of the spitball was going to be intimate in handy, although this achievement had not ended up on his permanent record, as had, presumably, his nonstarter of algebra.The third wad struck the guard in the temple and stuck. He sour and cursed in Japanese. slip in had prechewed a follow-up crevice that took the guard in the neck. The guard gestured with his Uzi.Go ahead, fuckstick. Shoot me, crumple said, a gleam in his eye. Explain to the doc how you shot his pilot over a spit wad. He tore off another piece of paper with his teeth and chewed it while the guard glared.The corrugated steel behave shutters above the windows were held open with a single wooden strut. The guard cut the strut and the shutter fell with a clang. conglomerate moved to the next window down. He leaned out and fired. A splat in the brow of guard number two, another strut knocked out, another clanging shu tter. maven window to go, this one demanding a shot of almost twenty-five feet. introduce popped his head out and blew. A spiderweb of spittle trailed behind the projectile as it traveled down the lanai. It struck the first guard on the front of his black shirt and he ran toward meet, leading with his Uzi. Tuck ducked back privileged and the final shutter fell.Tuck heard the guard at each shutter, latching it down.Mission accomplished.With the guards peeking in the window every two minutes, he would have never been able to pull off the cocoa palm dummy switch. And even in the ambient moon white, hed have never make it to the bathroom undetect. Of course, he couldnt have closed the windows. That would have been suspicious.Good night, guys. Im turning in. He stood, blowgun waiting, but the shutters remained latched. He quickly turned off the lights and c unsandedled into bed, where he constructed the coconut man and waited until he heard the guards start to talk and smelled tobacc o wood pussy from their cigarettes. thusly he tiptoed to the bathroom and make his escape.He half-expected the bear witnesser do-nothing to be nailed down. Beth Curtis had used it to escape nevertheless this dawn. Maybe she hadnt figured that he knew about it. No, she was nuts, but she wasnt stupid. She knew he knew. She even knew that he knew she knew. So why hadnt she told Sebastian? And she hadnt said anything about their little detour to Guam either or possibly she had. Sebastian hadnt sent a big postflight scar like before. Tuck made a mental note to ask the doc about the check the next time they were on the golf course.For now he snatched up his flippers and mask and headed for the shore. Before entering the water supply, he pulled a bottle of pills from his scoop anti-biotics left over from his dickrot and made sure that the cap was on tight. This might be the only chance hed have to get medicine to Kimi.He swam roughly the minefield and went straight into the crossroads and down the path toward Sarapuls house. Women and churlrenwere still session around outside their houses, the women weaving on small looms by kerosine lantern, the children playing quietly or finishing up dinners off banana tree leaf plates. Only the smallest children looked at Tuck as he passed. The women turned away, determined, it seemed, not to make eye contact with the strange American. Yet there was no alarm in their ac-tions and no fear, just a design effort to not notice him. Tuck thought, This must(prenominal) be what new-sprung(prenominal) York was like before the white man came. And with that in mind, he stared at a spot in the path exactly twelve feet in front of him and denied their existence right back. It was better this way. He never knew when he might have to fly one of their body parts to Japan.He made his way quickly up the path and soon he could see a glow near Sarapuls house. He broke into the unclutter and saw the old cannibal and Kimi sitti ng around a fire, running(a) on something. Sewing, it looked like.Kimi, Tuck said, you shouldnt be up.Kimi looked up from his work. There was a coarse piece of blue nylon draped over his and Sarapuls laps. I feel better. You wintry me, boss.Tuck reach him the pills. Take two of these now and two a day until theyre gone.Sarapul give me kava. It make the hurt stop.These arent for the hurt. These are for infection. Take them, okey?Okay, boss. You want to help?What are you guys making?Ill try you. Kimi started to rise and his face twisted with pain.Sarapul pushed him back down. I testament show. The old cannibal snatched up the kerosene lantern and gestured for Tuck to follow him into the jungle.Tuck looked back at Kimi. You take those pills. And dont move around much, Im not sure how well those stitches will hold. You had a big hole in you.Okay, boss.Sarapul disappeared into the jungle. Tuck ran after him and almost ran him over coming out of a patch of small banana trees into a n field of battle that cleared into walking trees, mangroves, and palms. About fifty yards ahead, Sarapul stopped near the beach. He stood by what appeared to be a large cutpurseen tree, but when Tuck got closerhe saw it was a long sailing canoe. Sarapul grinned up at Tuck, the light from the lamp making him appear like some colossus from the dark island past. The palu the navigator he make. I help. Sarapul ran the light down the duration of the canoe. Tuck could see that one of the tall gunwales was darkened and glazed with age, while the other had been hewn recently and was bright yellow. He could smell the bracing wood sap.There was an outrigger the size of a normal canoe and a platform across the struts. As canoes went, it was a huge structure, and hewing the hull from a single piece of wood with hand tools had taken an incredible do of work, not to mention skill.Kimi did this? This is gorgeous.Sarapul nodded, his eyes catching the fire of the lamp. This boat downcast si nce before the time of Vincent. Kimi is great navigator.He is? Tuck had his doubts, given the storm, but then again, as Kimi had said, they had survived a typhoon in a rowboat. And this craft was no accident this was a piece of art. So you guys are sewing a sail for this?We finish soon. Then palu will teach me to sail. The Shark plentitude will go to sea again.Whered you get the nylon for the sail? I cant see Dr. Curtis cerebration this is a good idea.Sarapul climbed into the canoe and dug under a stack of paddles and lines, each hand-braided from coconut fiber, until he came up with a derelict mass of nylon straps, Velcro, and plastic buckles with a few shreds of blue nylon hanging here and there.My pack. You guys used my pack?And tent internal.Do you have the stuff that was inside? There were some pills that can help Kimi.Sarapul nodded. He led Tuck back by the jungle to his house. Kimi had gone inside and was lying down.Boss, I dont feel so good.Hang on. I might have some more medicine. Actually, Tuck had never been sure of all the things that Jake Skye had loaded into the pack.Sarapul retrieved a palm frond basket from the rafters and handed it to Tucker. Tuck found the antibiotics he had been flavor for, as well as painkillers and aspirin. so far what was left of his cash was in the basket. All the pills were still dry. Tuck doled out a doseand handed them to the navigator. Take these when you have pain, andthese take like the other ones, twice a day, okay?You good doctor, boss.You did a hell of a job on that boat.Kimi seemed distressed. You not regulate Sorcerer or Vincents white bitch.No, I wont tell them.Kimi seemed to breathe easier. Roberto condescend today. He say you must see the canoe. But he say you should no tell the Sorcerer.Roberto told you that.He talk funny now, Kimi said. Like you, kinda. In American. He tell me Sepie is okay. She come home soon.I couldnt get in to see her. There was a guard on the clinic.Dog fuckers, Kimi said.T hen Tuck told the navigator about the golf game and watched as the old cannibal held him while he laughed, then curled with pain. I better sleep now, boss. You come back. I take you sailing.You got it. Tuck backed out of the house and waited until Sarapul joined him with the lamp. You know which pills to give him?Sarapul nodded. Tuck started down the path toward the village, but pulled up a minute after when he heard the cannibal running after him.Hey, pilot. Vincent send you to us, huh?I dont know.You tell Vincent I wasnt going to eat you. Okay?Tuck smiled. Ill try to smuggle you some Spam next time I come.Sarapul smiled back.As he came up on the drinking circle, Tuck stopped and check into his watch. He didnt want to be gone more than a straddle of hours. There was little danger that hed be called to fly, at least not without the warning appear-ance of the Sky Priestess, but Beth Curtis might show up at his bungalow at any time. Funny, he didnt think of the Sky Priestess and Bet h as the same person.The Shark men were applying new coats of red paint to their bamboo rifles by the light of a kerosene lamp. They moved around on the logs and Tuck took a seat by Malink. Without a word, the preadolescent man who was gushing handed Tuck the cup. He drained it andhanded it back.Whats the bang with the rifles? Tuck asked Malink.Vincents army, Malink said. Vincent said we must incessantly be ready to fight the enemies of the unite States of America.Oh, Tuck said. Why red? Malink looked at Tuck as if he was something he had stepped in. It is the color of Vincents pal.Yeah? Tuck didnt get it.Vincents brother, Santa Claus. Red is his color. You must know that.Tuck couldnt help it. He let his mouth fall open. Santa Claus is Vincents brother?Yes, Santa Claus brings excellent cargo for everyone, but only once a year. He comes in a sleigh on the snow. You know, right?Right. But I dont get the connection.Malink looked as if it was all he could do not to tell Tuck how in credibly dense he really was. Well, we have no snow, so Vincent will come in a plane. Not once a year. When Vincent come, he will bring cargo every day. More than he gives through the Sky Priestess. More than Santa Claus.And Vincent told you this, that he was Santas brother?Malink nodded. His skinny brother, he say. So we make rifles red. Malink watched for signs that Tuck was getting it. Tuck wasnt giving them. Even Father Rodriguez know about Santa Claus, Malink insisted.Okay, Tuck said, how about moving that cup around the circle a little faster, guys?Vincent will bring us real rifles when he come. We must be always ready to fight, Malink said.Who? Tuck asked. Have you guys ever been attacked?Once, Malink said. When I was boy, some guys from crude Guinea come in canoe. We no like those guys. We go in our canoes to kill them.And what happened?It got dark.And?We come home. Those guys from New Guinea pretty lucky no one know how to navigate in the dark.No palu? Tuck asked, utilize the native word for navigator.Japanese kill them. No palu left, except by chance one.Thats why you didnt turn Kimi over to the Sorcerer?Malink nodded and trouble crossed his brow. I am thinking, if Vincent send you, how come the Sorcerer not know you here? And how you not know Santa Claus?Tuck spy that the men had stopped impression their rifles and talking among themselves to listen to his answer. There was pressure here, beyond whether hed be able to drink or not. He told them what they needed to hear. Vincent called me from the land of armored possums to come to the island of the Shark race. I am a flyer, as Vincent was a flyer. He does not tell me everything, and he does not tell the Sorcerer everything. Vincent is sometimes mysterious, but we must trust his judgment.Malink smiled. Let us drink to this flyer. Then we go to sleep. To Tuck, Malink said Tomorrow is the hunt.53How the Shark People Got Their chargeWhen the pounding came at his door just after dawn, Tuck prepar ed himself mentally to meet the smiling face of Sebastian Curtis, who would be overly cheery at the prospect of trouncing the pilot at another round of gravel golf, but when he opened the door, there was Beth Curtis wearing a long-sleeved white cotton dress and a huge sun hat with a brim that fell over her face like a lampshade.Tuck had on hand-me-down boxer shorts that showed more of his morning bulge than he was comfortable with. Strange, a month ago he was ready to sell his soul for this physiological phenomenon, and today it was an embarrassment.Good morning, he said. I was expecting the doc.Oh, did you two have plans?No, I justnever mind. Would you like to come in for some deep brown? He gestured to the small kitchen nook.Why dont you make yourself a cup and bring it with you? I have something to show you.Sure. Just give me a second.She waited by the door while he threw a pot of water on the stove, dressed quickly and straighten out his hair, then poured the water over some coffee grounds and wound up in some powdered milk. Im ready. Whats up?I want to show you something on the other side of the island.Outside of the compound?Near the village. I think youll enjoy it.Tuck walked with her out into the morning sun, nursing his coffee as they went. There were no guards in sight anywhere. The widegate to the runway was open.Wheres the ninjas?You call them that too? Thats funny. She laughed, but because he couldnt see her face under the hat, he couldnt tell if there was any sincerity in it.She put her hand on his arm and let him lead her across the runway like a Victorian lady under escort.Do you ever drop down your family? she asked as they walked.Tuck was taken by surprise. My family? No. We parted on less than favorable terms. I fell out of contact with them long before I came out here.Im sorry. Really. Is it difficult for you?Tuck thought she might be joking. My mother and my uncle are my only real family. They married after my father was killed. I was nt pleased.Youre kidding. I thought they only did that in West Virginia. Arent you from California?She married my fathers brother, not her brother. Still, I dont except them.What about your friends?Tuck thought for a second. Things had changed for him since hed last seen Jake Skye. In a way hed taken on some responsibility. He was acting on his own, without a net. He wished that he could tell Jake about it. Yeah, I miss my friends sometimes.Me too, Tucker. Id like to be your friend.You have Sebastian.Yes, I do, dont I.They walked in silence until they entered the village, which was remiss except for a few dogs and too many roosters. Where is everybody? Tuck reminded himself not to let it appear that any of this was familiar to him. Is this where the natives live?Theyre all at the beach. Today is the day of the hunt.The hunt?Youll see. Its a surprise.As they passed the bachelors house, Tuck peeked through he door. He could see someone sleeping inside. Beth led the way to the beach and Tucker looked back. Sepie stood in the doorway wearing only a bandage around her ribs. She waved and Tuck risked a quick smile and turned away. They were going to give him away. One hint of recognition and he was screwed.The women, children, and old men were all lined up on the beach. Tuck had never seen most of the women and children. There must have been three hundred mint there. The only familiar face was Favo, the old man from the drinking circle, who showed no recognition when he looked at Tuck. The younger men were out in the water, standing stifle deep on the reef in the light low-tide surf. Each of the men held a five-foot-long stick with a rope fix at one end. They wore long knives tucked into cords tied around their waists.Fishing? Tuck asked.Just watch, Beth said. This is how the Shark People got their name.Tuck spotted Malink coming out of the jungle with four other men. Each carried a large plastic bucket.They make the buckets out of net floats from the huge mi lling machinery ships, Beth Curtis said. The plastic is tougher than anything they can make.Whats in them? Tuck watched as each man swam out to the reef holding a bucket on his head. hair and chicken filiation.Two men helped Malink onto the reef and took his bucket from him. Malink looked out to sea and said something in his native language, then looked to the people on the beach as if to say, Ready.The chief shouted a command to the men in the water and they dumped the buckets of blood. Soon they were all knee deep in rough surf and the bloodstain swept out into the ocean in a great cloud.Isnt that dangerous? Tuck asked.Of course. Its insane.Interesting choice of words. Tuck was surprised that no one seemed to notice or make a big deal of Beths presence. Why arent they drumming and kowtowing to you?They arent allowed to when Im dressed like this. Its a rule. I need my privacy at times.Of course, Tuck said.A fin appeared in the water about twenty yards out from the reef. Someone shouted and Tuck accept Abo from his warriors topknot. Malink nodded and Abo dove into the water and swam toward the cheat. Before he was ten yards out, the fin turned toward him.More fins appeared and as Malink nodded, more young men dove into the water with their sticks.Shit, this is suicide, Tuck said. He watched as the first chisel made a pass at Abo, who moved out of its way like a bullfighter.Youve got to stop this. Tuck couldnt remember ever view such(prenominal) panic for another human being.Beth Curtis squeezed his arm. They know what theyre doing.The shark circled and made a second pass at Abo, but this time the young warrior didnt move out of the way. He shoved his stick into the sharks jaws as if it was a bit, then flipped himself on the sharks back and wrapped the cord just behind the pectoralis fins, then back to the other end of the stick so it wouldnt come out. The water boiled around Abo as the shark thrashed, but Abo stayed on and, holding the stick like handl ebars, he pulled back to keep the shark from diving and steered him into the shallow water of the reef, where the other men waited with their knives drawn.A roar went up from the crowd on the beach as Abo turned the shark over to the slaughterers and held up his arms in triumph. The men on the reef slit the sharks belly and cut off a huge hunk of the liver, which they handed to Abo. He bit into it, tearing out a ragged chunk and swallowing as blood ran down his chest.Soon others were guide sharks onto the reef and the water beyond was alive with fins. The red cloud expanded as the sharks died and bled and more came to take their place. The gutted sharks were brought onto the beach, where the women continued the butchering, handing pieces of the raw flesh to the children as treats or prying out serrated teeth and giving them to little boys as trophies.One of the men actually stood up on the back of a huge hammerhead that he was steering to the reef and nearly castrated himself on th e dorsal fin as he fell. But the shark was held fast and died on the reef with the others.In half an hour the shark hunt was over. The sea was red with blood for a thousand yards in all directions and the beach was littered with the corpses of a hundred sharks black tips, white tips, hammerheads, blue, and mako. Some of the deadliest creatures had been taken like they were guppies in a net, and not one of the Shark People was hurt, although Tuck noticed that many were bleeding from abrasions on the inside of their thighs where they had rubbed against the sharks skin during their ride. The Shark People were ecstatic, and every one of them was drenched in blood.Tuck was stunned. Hed never seen such courage or such slaughter before, and he was getting the willies thinking about all the time he had spent swimming in these waters at night.Malink walked up the beach dragging a leopard shark by its gills. His Buddha belly was dripping in blood. He looked up at Tucker and risked a smile.Tha ts the chief, Beth Curtis said. Hes really too old for this, but he wont stay on shore.Do the sharks ever get any of them?Sometimes. normally just a bite. A lot of sutures, but no ones been killed since Ive been on the island.No one hunting sharks, anyway, Tuck thought. A little female child who had been helping her mother shyly peeked over the carcass of a big hammer-head, then ran up to Tucker and quickly touched him on the knee before retreating to the safety of her mother.Thats strange, Beth Curtis said. The women and girls wont have anything to do with a white man. Even when they come to Sebastian, they talk to him through a brother or economise and he speaks their language.Tuck didnt answer. He was still looking at the little girls back. She had a massive pink scar that ran like a smile from her sternum, under her arm, to her backbone at exactly the place where the kidney would be. Tuck felt sick to his stomach.I think Ive seen enough, Beth. Can we go?Cant deal with the si ght of blood?Something like that.As they walked back through the village, Tuck noticed a woman and a little boy sitting outside of one of the cookhouses. The mother was holding the boy and singing to him softly as she rocked him. Both of his eyes were bandaged with gauze pads. Tucker approached the woman and she pulled the child to her breast.Beth Curtis caught Tucks arm and tried to pull him back. Tuck shook her off and went to the woman.Whats wrongfulness with him? Tuck asked.The woman slid across the gravel, away from him.Tucker Beth Curtis said, Leave her alone. Youre scaring her.Its okay, Tuck whispered to the woman. Im the pilot. Vincent sent me.The woman seemed to calm down, and although her eyes went wide with wonder, she managed a small smile.Tuck reached out and touched the childs head. Whats wrong with him?The woman held out the boy as if presenting him for baptism.He is chosen, she said. She looked at the Sky Priestess for approval.Tuck stood and backed away from her. H e was afraid to look at Beth, afraid that he might strangle her on the spot. Instead, calmly, deliberately, although it took all his effort to keep from shaking, he said, Wed better get back. He led the way through the village and back to the compound.