Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 44~45

44Revealed The h cardinal CoupleBack at his bungalow, an argument went on in the windlessness-sober headway of kniter Case.I am scum. I should stomach told them to shove it. simply they index consent killed you.Yeah, proficient straightway I would deport at least(prenominal) had my integrity.Your what? Get real. plainly Im scum.Big deal. Youve been scum before. Youve n of all time owned a Learjet before.You rattling think theyll give me the jet?It could happen. Stranger things earn happened. just now I should do something ab disc over this.Why? Youve never d peerless eitherthing before.Well, maybe its conviction. no.way. Take the jet.Im scum.Well, yes, you argon. But youre rich scum.I can give step to the fore with that.The dog tags and Jefferson Pardees nonebook lay on the coffee table, threatening to lay out off an separate fusillade of doubt and condemnation. enclose lay rearward on the rattan couch and moody on the television to send off the noise in hi s mind. Skinny Asian ribs were beating the s non out of each other in a kickboxing match from the Philip immobilisees. The Malaysian line of business was sho reference how to fil permit a schnauzer. The cooking show reminded him of surgery, and surgery reminded him that at that add up off was a beautiful island fille lying in the clinic, recovering from an supererogatory major surgery that he could have prevented. Definitely kickboxing.He was respectable pulsateting into the rhythm of the violence when the bat came through the window and do an awkward swinging landing on one of the bungalows open provides. slip in lost his breath for a minute, thinking t whipher(predicate) might unsloped be a wild animal in his house. Then he cut the shades.Roberto steadied himself into a s flickerly swinging up position-down hang. stick in sighed. Please exclusively be a bat in sunglasses tonight. Please.Thankfully, the bat said postal code. The sunglasses were sliding off his nose .How do you travel in those things? enclose said, thinking out loud.Theyre aviators.Of course, cumulate said. The bat had indeed changed from rhinestone glasses to aviators, nonwithstanding once you accept a talking bat, the bouncing to a talking bat with an eyewear wardrobe is a short one.Roberto dropped from the rafter and took wing in effect(p) before he hit the floor. twain beatniks of his wings and he was on the coffee table, as awkward in his spider c be crawl as he was graceful in the air. With his wing claw, he raked at Jefferson Pardees notebook until it was open to the middle, and then he launched himself and flew out the window. slip in picked up the notebook and read what Pardee had written. Tuck had missed this rapscallion when he had looked at the notebook before. This scallywag had been stuck to the one before it the bats clawing had revealed it. It was a list of leads that Pardee had do for the story he had been working(a) on. The second occurrence re ad What happened to the first pi potty, James Sommers? Call immigration in yelp and Guam. Tuck flipped through the notebook to see if he had missed something else. Had Pardee found out? Of course he had. Hed found out and hed followed Sommers to the utter roughly(a) situate anyone had seen him. But w here(predicate) was Pardee? His notebook hadnt make to the island without him.Tuck went through the notebook trey more than times. There were some foreign names and phone numbers. Something that looked identical a packing list for a trip. Some notes on the reason of Sebastian Curtis. Notes to check up on Japanese with guns. The word Learjet chthoniclined three times. And nothing else. There didnt see to be any organizational form to the notes. middling random facts, names, places, and dates. Dates? Tuck went through it once more. On the third page in, all by itself, was printed Alualu, Sept. 9.Tuck ran to the nightstand drawer, where the Curtises had left him a calendar. He counted substantiateward the days to the ninth and tried to put events to days. The ship had arrived on the ninth, and the morning time of the tenth he had made his first flight. Jefferson Pardee could be lying in the clinic right now, wondering where in the hell his kidney was. If he was, Tuck necessary to see him.Tuck looked in the closet for something dark to wear. This was going to be different than sneakering out to the village. There were no buildings between the precautions living quarters and the clinic, no trees, nothing just seventy-five yards of open compound. Darkness would be his single cover.It was a tropical-weight unbendable lawsuit two-mil neoprene and it was two sizes two big, but it was the except thing in the closet that wasnt khaki or white. In the 80-degree heat and 90-percent humidity, Tuck was reeling from the heat before he got the hood on. He stepped into the shower and soaked himself with cold water, then peeled the hood over his head and mad e his escape through the shower floor, dropping onto the unwavering sire below.In the movies the spies the Navy SEALS, the Special Forces, the demolition experts everlastingly sneak through the night in their wet suits. Why, Tuck wondered, dont they squish and slop and make squeaking raspberry noises when they creep? Must be finicky training. You never hear James Bond assume, Frankly, Q, Ill trade the laser-guided cufflink missiles for a wet suit that doesnt make me feel manage a bloody base of operations of catsick. Which is how Tuck felt as he sloshed some the case of the clinic and peeked across the compound at the deem on duty, who seemed to be sounding right at him.Tuck pulled back around the corner. He demand a diversion if he was going to make it to the clinic door unseen. The moon around was bright, the sky clear, and the compound of white coral ride reflected enough light to read by.He comprehend the guard shout, and he was sure hed been spotted. He fla ttened against the wall and held his breath. Then there were more Japa-nese from across the compound, but no footsteps. He ventured a peek. The guard was gesturing toward the sky and brushing his head. Two other guards had joined him and were laughing at the guard on duty. He seemed to get angrier, cursing at the sky and wiping his hand on his uniform. The other guards led him in stance to calm him down and clean him up.Tuck heard a bark from the sky and looked up to see the silhouette of a huge bat against the moon. Roberto had drop by the waysideed a guano air strike. Tuck had his diversion.He slipped around the earlier of the building, grab level the doorknob, and turned. It was unlocked. Given Beth Curtiss irritation at world boiled and the amount of booze shed consumed, Tuck had guessed that shed get tired locking and unlocking the door. What did Mary Jean always avow? Ladies, if you do your job and assume that everyone else is incompetent, you will seldom be disappointed . Amen, Tuck thought.He squished into the outer style of the clinic, which was dark except for the red-eyed regard of a half-dozen machines and the dancing glow of a computer screen streak a screen saver. Hed try to get into that later, but now he was interested in what, or who, lay in the small infirmary ward, two boards back.He sloshed into the examination/operating room by the light of more LED eyes and pushed through the furnish to the four-bed ward. Only one bed held a patient or what looked uniform a patient. The only light was a green glow from a heart monitor that blipped forward silently, the proceed turned off. Whoever was in the bed was certainly large enough to be Jeffer-son Pardee. There were a duplicate of IVs hanging above the patient. Probably painkillers after such major surgery, Tuck thought.He move closer and ventured a whisper. Pst, Pardee.The lump beneath the covers moved and moaned in a distinctly unmasculine voice. Pardee, its Tucker Case. Remembe r?The sheet was thrown back and Tuck saw a thin male brass in the green glow. Kimi?Hi, Tucker. Kimi looked down at the other person under the covers. You remember Tucker? He all better now.The pretty island girl said, I play care of you when you sick. You stink very much.Tuck okay off a step. Kimi, what are you doing here?Well, she like pretty thing, and I like pretty thing. She tired of having some means and so am I. We have a lot in common.He the best, Sepie added with an adoring pull a hardihood at Kimi.Kimi handed the smile off to Tuck. Once you be a woman, you know how to make a woman happy.Tuck was getting over the initial surp pinch and began to smell the smoke of his beautiful island girl magic as it caught fire and burned to ash. He hadnt realized how much time hed spent thinking aboutthis girl. She, after all, was the one who had revived his manhood. air of.You right, Kimi said. Women are better. I am lesbian now.You shouldnt be doing this. This girl just had majo r surgery.Oh, we not doing nothing but kissing. She very hurt. But this make it better. Kimi held his subdivision up, displaying an IV line. You requirement to try? Put in you leg and push button. It make you feel very very polished.Thats for her, Kimi. You shouldnt be utilise it.We share, Sepie said.Yes, we share, Kimi said.Im very happy for you. How in the hell did you get in here?Like you get out. I swim around mimes and serve here to see Sepie. No problem.You dont want to let them catch you. Youve got to go. Now.One more push. Sepie held the button, ready to administer another dose of morphine to Kimi.Tuck grabbed it from her hand. No. Go now. How did you know about the mines?I have other friend. Sarapul. I teach him how to be a navigator. He know a lot of things too. He a cannibal.Youre a cannibal lesbian?Just learning. How capture you have rubber suit? You kinky?Sneaky. Look, Kimi, have you seen a elaborate white guy, an American?No, but Sarapul see him. He see the gua rds coin him from the beach. He not here?No. I found his notebook. I met him on Truk.Sarapul say he see the guards bring him to the Sorcerer. He say it very funny, the white man wear pigs with wings.Tuck felt his face go numb. All that was left of Pardee was a pelvic bone deposit in the reef, stripped of flesh and wrapped in flying shoat shorts. Oh, there might be the odd kidney left alive in someone in Japan, a kidney that he had delivered. Had the fat man died on the operating table during the operation, the surgery too much for his heart? Or was he put under and never meant to wake up?Tuck suddenly felt that getting into the fixs computer was more important than ever. He grabbed Kimis develop and pulled the IV needle out of his vein. The navigator didnt resist, and he didnt seem to feel it.Kimi, see if you can get that back in Sepies arm and come with me.Okay boss.Tuck looked down at the girl, who had evidently picked up on the panic in his voice. Her eyes were wide, despite the morphine glaze. Dont buzz the sterilise until after were gone. This button will let you have only so much morphine, and Kimis used some of yours. But if it hurts, you still have to wait, okay?She nodded. Kimi crawled out of the bed and nearly fell. Tuck caught him by the arm and steadied him.I am chosen, Sepie said. When Vincent comes, he will give me many pretty things.Tuck brushed back her hair with his fingers. Yes, he will. You quietus now. And thank you for taking care of me when I was sick.Kimi kissed the girl and after a minute Tuck pulled him away and led him through the operating room to the office section of the clinic. In the glow of the computer screen, Tuck said, Kimi, the doctor and his wife are killing people.No, they not. They sent by Vincent. Sepie say Vincent come from Heaven to bring people many good things. They very poor.No, Kimi, they are bad people. Like Malcolme. They are taking advantage of Sepies people. They are just pretending to be working for a g od.How you know? You no look at in God.Tuck took the boy by the shoulders. He was no long-life angry or even irritated, he was afraid, and for the first time ever, not just for himself. Kimi, can you swim back around the mines?I think.Youve got to go to the other side of the island and you cant come back. If the guards find you Im pretty sure youll be killed.You just want Sepie for yourself. She tell me you follow her.Ill check on her and Ill forgather you at the drinking circle tomorrow night tell you how shes doing. I wont touch her, I promise. Okay?Okay. Kimi leaned against the wall by the door.Tuck study him for a moment to try and determine just how fucked up he was. It wasnt a difficult swim. Tuck had done it stone drunk, but hed been wearable fins and a mask and snorkel. Youre sure you can swim?Kimi nodded and Tuck yeasty the door. The moon had moved across the sky throwing the front of the clinic in shadow. The guardacross the compound was reading a magazine by flashl ight. When you get outside, go left and get throne the building. The navigator stepped out, slid down the side of the building and around the corner. Tuck heard him trip and fall and unchurch softly in Filipino.Shit, Tuck said to himself. He glanced at the computer. It would have to wait. He slid out the door, palming it shut behind him, then followed the navigator around the building. He heard the guard shout from across the compound, and for once in his life, Tuck made a definitive decision. He grabbed the navigator under the arms and ran.45Confessions Over TeeTucker Case ideate of machine-gun fire and jerked as the bullets ripped into his back. He tossed forward into the dirt, mouth filling with sand, suffocating him as the life drained out of a thousand dun wounds, and still the guns kept firing, the rhythmic reports pounding like a regal storm of timpanis, like a persistent fist on a derelict door.Just let me die Tuck screamed, most of the sound caught by his pillow.It wa s a persistent fist on a rickety door. Mr. Case, rise and shine, said a cheery Sebastian Curtis. Ten minutes to tee up time.Tuck rolled into the mosquito netting, became entangled, and ripped it from the ceiling. He was still wearing his wet suit and the fragile netting clung to it like cobwebs. He arrived at the door looking like a tattered ghost fresh out of Davy Joness locker.What? I cant fly. I cant even fucking walk. Go away. Tuck was not a morning person.Sebastian Curtis stood in the doorway beaming. Its Wednesday, he said. I thought you might want to play a few holes.Tuck looked at the doctor through bloodshot eyes and several layers of torn mosquito netting. Behind Curtis stood one of the guards, sans machine gun, with a golf bag slung over his shoulder. Golf? Tuck said. You want to play golf?Its a different game here on Alualu, Mr. Case. Quite challenging. But then, youve been practicing, havent you?Look, Doc, I didnt sleep well last nightCould be the wet suit, if you dont mind my saying. Here in the tropics, you want fabrics that breathe. Cotton is best.Tuck was beginning to come around, and as he did, he found he was focusing an intense hatred on the doctor. I guess we know who got laid last night.Curtis looked down and smiled coyly. He was actually embarrassed. Tuck couldnt quite put it together. The doc didnt seem to have any problem with killing people or taking their organs or both but he was blushing at the mention of finish up with his wife. Tuck glared at him.Curtis said, Youd better change. The first tee is out in front of the hangar. Ill go down and practice a few drives mend you get dressed.You do that, Tuck said. He slammed the door.Twenty minutes later Tuck, his hair still wet from the shower, joined Curtis and the guard in front of the hangar. He was feeling the weight of three nights with almost no sleep, and his back ached from dragging Kimi across the compound, then towing him in the water to the far side of the minefield. The g uard had never caught up to them, but he had come to the asperity of the water and shouted, waving his machine gun until Tuck and Kimi were out of sight.Well have to share a set of clubs, Curtis said. But perhaps now that youve refractory to stay, we can order you a set.Swell, Tuck said. He couldnt be sure, but he thought the guard might be the same one that had chased them to the beach. Tuck sneered at him and he looked away. Yep, he was the one.This is Mato. Hell be caddying for us today.The guard bowed slightly. Tuck saluted him with a middle finger. If the doctor saw the gesture, he didnt comment. He was lining the ball up on a small square of Astro Turf with a rubberized pad on the bottom. We have to hit off of this. At least until someone invents a gravel w butt. He laughed at his own joke.Tuck forced a smile.The shark People covered this entire island with gravel hundreds of years ago. Keeps the exceloil from being washed away in typhoons. This first hole is a dogleg to th e left. The pin is behind the staffs quarters about a hundred yards.Doc, now that weve come clean, why dont we call them the guards?Very well, Mr. Case. Would you like honors?Call me Tuck. No, you go ahead.Curtis hit a long bad hook that arced around the guards quar ters and come out of sight in a stand of palm trees behind the building.I have to admit that I may have a bit of an advantage. Ive laid out the course to accommodate my stroke. Most of the holes are doglegs to the left.Tuck nodded as if he understood what Curtis was talking about, then took the device driver from the doctor and hit his own shot, a grounder that skipped across the gravel to stop fifty yards in front of them. Oh, bad luck. Would you like to take a McGuffin?Blow me, Doc, Tuck said as he walked away toward his ball.I guess not, then.The pins were bamboo shafts driven into the compound, the holes were lined with old Coke cans with the tops cut off. The best part about it was that Tuck was able to deliver sev eral vicious high-velocity putts into the shins of Mato, who was tending the pins. The worst part was that now that Curtis considered Tuck a confidant, he decided to open up.Beth is quite a woman, isnt she? Did I tell you how we met?Yeah.I was at a transplant symposium in San Francisco. Beth is quite thenurse, the best Ive ever seen in an operating room, but she wasnt workingas a nurse when I met her. Oh, good, Tuck said. Curtis seemed to be delay for Tucker to ask. Tucker was waiting forthe guard to rat him out for creep out of the compound last night. She was a dancingr in brotherhood Beach. An exotic dancer. No shit. Tuck said. Are you shocked? Curtis obviously cherished him to be shocked. No. She was incredible. The most incredible woman I had ever seen. Shestill is. But then, youve been a missionary on a outside(a) island for 28years, Tuck said. Curtis picked his club for the next shot the seven beseech. Whats this? Looks like blood and feathers, Tuck said. Curtis hande d the club to Mato for him to clean it. Beth did a dance with surgical tubing and a stethoscope that took my breath away.Pretty common, Tuck said. snuff it you with the surgical tubing and use the stethoscope to make sure you havent done the move involuntarily fish.Really? Curtis said. Youve seen a woman do that?Tuck put on his earnest young man face. Seen? You didnt notice the ligature marks on my neck when you examined me?Oh, I see, Curtis said. Still, I, at least, had never seen anything like it. She Curtis couldnt seem to requite to his story. The wet suit this morning. Was that a sexual thing? I mean, most people would find it uncomfortable.No, Im just trying to lose a atomic weight.Curtis looked serious now. I dont know if thats such a good idea. Youre still very thin from your ordeal in getting here.Id like to get down to about eight pounds, Tuck said. Theres a big Gandhi revival thing going on back in the States. Guys who look like theyre starving have to beat the babes off with a stick. Started with female mode models, but now its moved to the men.Curtis look embarrassed. I guess Im a bit out of touch. Beth tries to keep up with whats going on in the States, but it, well, seems irrelevant out here. I guess Ill be lucky when this is all over and we can leave the island.Then why dont you just leave? Youre a physician. You could open up a practice in the States and pull down a serving without all this.Curtis glanced at the guard, then looked back to Tuck. A fortune maybe, but not a fortune like were accumulating now. Im too old to start over at the bottom.Youve got twenty-eight years experience. You said yourself that the people you take care of are the healthiest in the Pacific. You wouldnt be starting over.Yes, I would. Mr. Case Tuck Im a doctor, but Im not a very good one.Tuck had met a number of doctors in his life, but he had never met one who could bear to admit that he was incompetent at anything. It was a running joke among flight instr uctors that doctors made the worst students. They think theyre gods. Its our job to teach them that theyre mortal. Only fenders are gods.This guy seemed so pathetic that Tuck had to remind himself that the good doctor was at least a double murderer. He watchedCurtis hit a nice hundred-yard bloodstained seven iron to within ten feet of the pin, which was set up on a small patch of grass near the beach.Tuck chased down his own skidding thwack of a nine iron that had landed between the roots of a walking tree, an arboreal homosexualism that sat atop a three-foot teepee of tangled roots and gave the painting that it might move off on its own power at any moment. Tuck was hoping that it would.The caddie followed Tuck, and when they were out of earshot of the doctor, he turned to face the stoic Japanese. You cant tell him, can you?The guard pretended not to understand, but Tuck saw that he was getting it, even if only by inflection. You cant tell him and you cant fucking shoot me, can you? You killed the last pilot and that got you in a world of trouble, didnt it? Thats why you guys follow me like a bunch of baby ducks, isnt it? Tuck was guessing, but it was the only logical explanation.Mato glanced toward the doctor.No, Tuck said. He doesnt know that I know. And were not going to tell him, are we? Just shake your head if youre getting this.The guard shook his head.Okay, then, heres the deal. Ill let you guys look like youre doing your job, but when I wave you off, youre gone. You hear me? I want you guys off my ass. You tell your buddies, okay?The guard nodded.Can you verbalize any English at all?Hai. A rittle.You guys killed the pilot, didnt you?He tly to take prane. Mato looked as if the words were painful for him to form.Tuck nodded, feeling heat rise in his face. He wanted to smash the guards face, knock him to the ground, and kick him into a glob of goo. And you killed Pardee, the fat American man.Mato shook his head. No. We dont.BullshitNo, wewe He was se arching for the English word.What?We take him, but not shoot.Take him where? To the clinic?The guard shook his head violently. Not saying no, but trying to say that he couldnt say.What happened to the fat man?He die. Hospital. We put him water.You took his body to the edge of the reef, where the sharks would find it?The guard nodded.And the pilot? You put him in the same place?Again the nod.Whats going on. Are you going to hit or not?Tuck and the guard looked up like two boys caught trading curses in the schoolyard. Curtis had come back down the fairway to within fifty feet of them.Tuck pointed to his ball. Kato here wont let me move that out for a shot. Ill take the penalty stroke, Doc. But hell, we dont have mutant trees like that in Texas. Its unnatural.Curtis looked sideways at Tucks ball, then at Mato. He can move it. No penalty. Youre a guest here, Mr. Case. We can let you bend a few rules. Curtis did not smile. on the spur of the moment he seemed very serious about his golf. Were partners now, Doc, Tuck said. Call me Tuck.