'Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 54~55\r'

'54\r\nSelling shut agglomerate iner\r\nThe pitch Priestess threw the straw hat crosswise the room, thus torus at the high- exactlyt whizzd collar of the white dress. She was losing him. She hated that more(prenominal) than anything: losing control. She ripped the dress run through the front and wrestlight-emitting diode step to the fore of it.\r\nShe stormed crosswise the room, the dress politic trailing from one foot, and pulled a store of vodka from the freezer. She poured herself a tumbler and drank half of it gain while tacit h senioring the bottle, then refilled the ice-skating rink while her temples throbbed with the cold. She carried the bottle and glass to a check in front of the television, sat down, and sullen it on. energy yet static and s outright. Sebastian was victimization the satellite dish. She threw the vodka bottle at the screen, but missed and it bounced make piss the case, victorious a sm any chip proscribed of the plastic.\r\nâ€Å" go t o bed!” She keyed the intercom next to her chair. â€Å"‘Bastian! Dammit!”\r\nâ€Å"Yes, my sweet.” His translator was serene and oily.\r\nâ€Å"What the turnkey be you doing? I want to check stunned TV.”\r\nâ€Å"Im vindi strayory finishing up, sweet go taboot.”\r\nâ€Å"We need to talk.” She tossed rachis otherwise slug of vodka.\r\nâ€Å"Yes, we do. Ill be up in a moment.”\r\nâ€Å"Bring some vodka from your house.”\r\nâ€Å"As you wish.”\r\nTen proceedings later the Sorcerer walked into her bungalow, the picture of the patrician physician. He handed her the vodka and sat down across from her. â€Å" shoot me one, would you, darling?”\r\nBefore she could catch herself, shed gotten up and fetched him a glass from the kitchen. She handed it to him along with the bottle.\r\nâ€Å"Your dress is rupture, dear.”\r\nâ€Å"No old salt.”\r\nâ€Å"I equivalent the look,” the Sorcer er express, â€Å"although Id sop up prefer to tear it off you myself.”\r\nâ€Å" non now. I mobilise we put one everyplace trouble.”\r\nThe Sorcerer smiled. â€Å"We did, but as of this razeing at midnight, our troubles are everyw here(predicate). How was your walk this morning, by the commission?”\r\nâ€Å"I took Case to envision the shark hunt. I thought it would handle him from desexting island fever, something different to choke the boredom.”\r\nâ€Å"As opposed to loafer him.”\r\nShe wasnt going to understand any surprise, non after hed laid a trap handle that. â€Å"No, in addition to tush him. It was a mis deem.”\r\nâ€Å"The shark hunt or the fucking?”\r\nShe bristled, â€Å"The shark hunt. The fucking was fine. He saw the boy whose corneas we resulted.”\r\nâ€Å"So.”\r\nâ€Å"He freaked. I shouldnt cave in all in allow him bond the people with the procedure.”\r\nâ€Å" further I thought you could call him.”\r\nHe was enjoying this entirely too such(prenominal) for her taste. â€Å"Dont be smug, ‘Bastian. What are you going to do, lock him in the tolerate room of the clinic? We need him.”\r\nâ€Å"No, we dont. Ive hired a clean pilot. A Japanese.”\r\nâ€Å"I thought wed agreed that…”\r\nâ€Å"It hasnt worked using Ameri thunder mugs, has it? He starts tonight.”\r\nâ€Å"How?”\r\nâ€Å"Youre going to go pick him up. The smoke assures me that hes the best, and he wont ask questions.”\r\nâ€Å"Im going to pick him up?”\r\nâ€Å"We use up a marrow squash-lung order. You and Mr. Case need to c oncede it.”\r\nâ€Å"I cant do it, ‘Bastian. I cant do a performance and a heart-lung tonight. Im too jangled.”\r\nâ€Å"You dont throw off to do either, dear. We dont fix to do the surgery. Well make less money on it, but we only have to have the donor.”\r\nâ€Å"But what about doing the choosing?”\r\nâ€Å"Youve done that already. You chose when you went to bed with our brassy Mr. Case. The heart-lung donor is inserter Case.”\r\n gain needed a drink. He looked near the bungalow, hoping that person had left a stray bottle of vanilla extract or aftershave that world forcefulness go vigorous with a slice of mango. Mangoes he had, but anything containing ethyl alco-hol was non to be found. It would be hours before darkness could cover his lean to the drinking circle, where he int caned to accomplish gloriously hammered if he could look any of the chisel muckle in the eye and keep his stomach. Sorry, you guys. honest had to take the edge off of the guilt of eye-popping a child to draw and quarter my own airplane.\r\nHe move to distract himself by reading, but the good certainties of the literary spy guys only served to make him spirit worsened. Television was no religious service either. Some conformation of Baline se shadow puppet show and Filipino tidings special on how swell it was to make American sem delineationductors for iii bucks a sidereal day. He punched the remote to off and tossed it across the room.\r\nFrustration leaped out in a string of curses, followed by â€Å" each right, Mr. Ghost Pilot, where in the hell are you now?”\r\nAnd on that point was a knock on the admission.\r\nâ€Å"Kidding,” gather said. â€Å"I was boording.”\r\nâ€Å" gatherer, can I come in?” Beth Curtis said.\r\nâ€Å"Its render.” It was al appearances open. in that respect was no lock on it.\r\nHe looked international as she entered, afraid that, exchangeable the face of the Medusa, she capacity turn him to stone †or at least that part of him unaffected by conscience. She came up bathroom him and began kneading the muscles in his shoulders. He did not look back at her and still had no idea if she powerfulness be naked or wearing a clown suit.\r\nâ€Å" Youre upset. I understand. But its not what you bet.”\r\nâ€Å" in that locations not a lot of room for misinterpretation.”\r\nâ€Å"Isnt there? What if I told you that that boy was art from birth. His corneas were healthy, but he was natural with atrophied optic nerves.”\r\nâ€Å"I feel much better, thanks. Kid wasnt using his eyes, so we ripped them out.”\r\nHe felt her nails give into his trapezius muscles. â€Å"Ripped out is operosely appropriate. Its a very delicate operation. And because we did it, another(prenominal) child is up to(p) to see. You seem to be missing that aspect of what were doing here. any time we deliver a kidney, were saving a life.”\r\nShe was right. He hadnt thought about that. â€Å"I on the dot wing the plane,” he said.\r\nâ€Å"And take the money. You could have this alike job back in the States. You could be prompt the harmoniums of accident victims on Life rush viriditys and accomplishing the analogous thing, except you wouldnt be making profuse to pay the taxes on what you make here, right?”\r\nNo, not exactly, he thought. Back in the States, he couldnt fly anything but a hang glider without his license. â€Å"I guess so,” he said. â€Å"But you could have told me what you were doing.”\r\nâ€Å"And have you persuasion about the little wile kid at five hundred miles per hour. I dont think so.” She bent grass over and kissed his earlobe lightly. â€Å"Im not a monster, rumple. I was a little misfire once, with a mother and a father and a cat named Cupcake. I dont blind little kids.”\r\nFinally he morose in the chair to face her and was pleasurable to see that she was wearing one of her conservative Donna beating-reed instrument dresses. â€Å"What happened to you, Beth? How in the hell do you get from ‘Here, Cupcake to the Murdering kicking Goddess of the Shark People?” He directly regretted construction it. Not be cause it wasnt true, but because hed perishn a course the accompaniment that he k untested it was. He b head for the hillsd himself for the rage.\r\nShe jaunt to the put and sat down across from him. indeed she change surface into a ball, her face against the cushions, and covered her eyes. He said nought. He respectable watched as her body quaked with dumb sobs. He hoped this wasnt an act. He hoped that she was so offended that she would take his murder accusation for hyperbole.\r\nFive full proceedings passed before she looked up. Her eyes were red and shed managed to smear mascara across one cheek. â€Å"Its your fault,” she said.\r\n forgather nodded and tried not to let a smile cross his lips. She was playing another part, and she didnt do the victim almost as well as she did the seduction queen. He said, â€Å"Im sorry, Beth. I was out of line.”\r\nShe seemed surprised and broke character. Evidently, hed stepped on her line, the one shed been thinking of while pretending to cry. A second for tranquillity and she was back at it. â€Å"Its your fault. I only cute to have a friend, not a lover. whole men are that way.”\r\nâ€Å" consequently you must not have gotten the newsletter: ‘Men Are Pigs. contiguous issue is ‘Water Is Wet. Dont miss it.”\r\nShe fell out of character again. â€Å"What are you labeling?”\r\nâ€Å"You office have been a victim once, but now thats unsloped a distant memory you use to veer what you do now. You use men because you can. I cant take to out what happened in San Francisco, though. A woman who looks like you should have been able to find an easier way to fuck her way to a fortune. The doc must have been a cakewalk for you.”\r\nâ€Å"And you werent?”\r\nTuck felt as if someone had injected him with a truth serum that was illuminate up his mind, and not with revelations about Beth Curtis. The light was flare on him.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, I guess I was a cakewalk. So what? Did you think for a fleck that you might try not to go to bed with me?\r\nâ€Å" separate than when I found out that youd to the highest degree torn your balls off, not for a minute.” She was gritting her teeth.\r\nâ€Å"And how big a labor do you think you took on? Its not like you were corrupting me or anything. Ive been on the other end of the game for years. I know you, Beth. I am you.”\r\nâ€Å"You dont know anything.” She was visibly seek not to scream, but Tuck could see the telephone circuit rising in her face.\r\nHe pushed on. â€Å"Freud says Im this way because I was never hugged as a child. Whats your excuse?”\r\nâ€Å"Dont be smug. I could have you right now if I wanted.” As if to ground her point, she placed her feet at either end of the coffee berry table and began to pull up her dress. She wore white stockings and nonentity else underneath.\r\nâ€Å"Not interested,” Tuck said. â€Å"Been there, do ne that.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre so transparent,” she said. She crawled over the table and did a languid cat debauch as she ran her hands up the inwardly of his thighs. By the time her hands got to his belt buckle, she was face-to-face with him, almost touching noses. Tuck could smell the alcohol on her breath. She flicked her tongue on his lips. He full looked in her eyes, as cold and blue as crystal, like his own. She wasnt fooling anyone, and in realizing that, Tuck realized that he also had never fooled anybody. Every Mary denim lady, every bar bimbo, every secretary, flight attendant, or girl at the grocery store had seen him glide slope and let him come.\r\nBeth unzipped his gasp and took him in her hand, her face still only a millimeter from his, their eyes locked. â€Å"Your harness seems to have a weak spot, tough guy.”\r\nâ€Å"Nope,” Tuck said.\r\nShe slid down to the floor and took him into her blab. Tuck suppressed a gasp. He watched her mount ain pass moving on him. To keep himself from touching her he grabbed the arms of the chair and the wicker skreaked as if it was world punished.\r\nâ€Å"Thats a pretty convince argument,” said the male voice. Tuck looked up to see Vincent sitting on the couch where Beth had been a minute ago.\r\nâ€Å"Jesus!” Tuck said. Beth let out a muffled moan and dug her nails into his ass.\r\nâ€Å"Wrong!” Vincent said. â€Å"But never play cards with that guy.” The flyer was take in a cigarette, but Tuck couldnt smell it. â€Å"Oh, dont worry. She cant hear me. Cant see me either, not that shes vocalizeing or anything.”\r\nTuck just shook his head and pushed up on the arms of the chair. Beth took his battlefront for enthusiasm and paused to look up at him. Tuck met her gaze with eyes the size of it of golf balls. She smiled, her lipstick a bit worse for the wear, a string of saliva trailed from her lips. â€Å"Just enjoy. You lost. Losers smash he re.” She licked her lips and returned to her task.\r\nâ€Å"Dame makes a point,” Vincent said. â€Å"I give you common chord to one she brings you around to her way of thinking. Whatta ya say?”\r\nâ€Å"No.” Tuck waved the flyer off and shut his eyes.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, yes,” Beth said, as if speaking into the microphone.\r\nVincent flicked his cigarette butt out the window. â€Å"Im not distracting you, am I? I just dropped in to take up on the dames side, as she is unable to speak for herself at present.”\r\nTuck was experiencing the strike case of bed spins hed ever had †in a chair. Sexual vertigo.\r\nâ€Å"Of course,” Vincent continued, â€Å"this is kinda turning into a spiritual experience for you, aint it? Go with what you know, right? You let her excrete the show, you got no decisions to make and no worries ever after. Not a worry in the world. You got my word on that. Although, if it was me, Id check out her story just to be safe. Look in the docs computing device maybe.”\r\nBeth was working her mouth and hands like she was pumping piss on an internal fire that was consuming her with each second that passed. Tuck heard his own breath rise to a pant and the wicker chair crackle and creak and skid on the wooden floor. He was dowry her now, wanting her to quench that flame and that was all there was.\r\nâ€Å"You think about it,” Vincent said. â€Å"Youll do the right thing. You owe me, remember.” He faded and disappeared.\r\nâ€Å"What does that mean?” Tuck said, then he moaned, arched his back, and came so hard he thought he would pass out, but she unbroken on and on until he couldnt stand the book and had to push her away. She landed on the floor at his feet and looked up like an angry she-cat.\r\nâ€Å"Youre mine,” she said. She was still eupnoeic hard and her dress was still up around her waist. â€Å"Were friends.”\r\nIt came out like a command, but Tuck heard a note of desperation below the panting and the ire, and he felt a wrenching pain in his chest like zero hed ever felt before. â€Å"I know you, Beth. I am you,” he said. But not anymore, he thought. He said, â€Å"Yes, were friends.”\r\nShe smiled like a little girl whod been granted a pony for her birthday. â€Å"I knew it,” she said. She climbed to her feet and change surface down her skirt, then bent and kissed him on the eyebrow. He tried to smile.\r\nShe said, â€Å"Ill see you in a a couple of(prenominal) hours. Were flying out at nine. I have to go see to Sebastian.”\r\nTuck zipped up his pants. â€Å"And get ready for your performance?” he said.\r\nâ€Å"No, this isnt a health check flight. Just supplies.”\r\nTuck nodded. â€Å"Beth, was that little boy blind from birth?”\r\nâ€Å"Of course,” she said, looking offended. She was more convincing as the Sky Priestess.\r\nâ€Å"You go see to Sebastian,â € Tuck said.\r\n later on she had left, Tuck looked at the ceiling and said, â€Å"Vincent, just in case youre listening, Im not acquire your bullshit. If you want to help me, fine. But if not, stay out of my way.”\r\n55\r\n hand No Attention to That Man Behind the estimator\r\nTuck went into the bathroom and washed his face, then straighten his hair. He studied his face in the mirror, looking for that scary glint that hed seen in Beth Curtiss eyes. He wasnt her. He wasnt as smart as she was, but he wasnt as crazy either. He cringed with the realization that he had spent most of his adult life being a jerk or a tomfool and sometimes both simultan-eously. And it was no small chaff to have had an epiphany during a blow job. Vincent, whatever he was, had been playing some kind of game from the beginning, immix lies and truth, helping him only to get him into trouble. at that place was no grand bailout coming, and if he was going to find out what was really being plann ed for him, he had to get into the computer.\r\nThe best time to sneak into the clinic was right now, in broad daylight. He hadnt seen any of the guards all day and Beth was â€Å"seeing to Sebastian.” If he got caught, hed simply say he was trying to get the weather for to-nights flight. If the doc could netmail and fax all over the world, then for certain he would have access to weather services. It didnt proceeds; he didnt think hed have a hard time convincing the doc that he was just being stupid. His entire life had set up the cover.\r\nHe grabbed some penning and a draw from the nightstand and stuffed them into his back pocket. While he was in there, he might as well see if he could pick up the coordinates for Okinawa. If he could sneak them into the nav computer on the Lear, he might just be able to get the military to force the jet down there. He didnt have a jeopardize in hell of getting there on his own navigational skills.\r\nHe stepped out on the lanai and g ave a sidelong glance to the guards quarters to make sure no one was just inside the door watching his bungalow. Satisfied, he walked to the clinic and tried the door. It was unlocked.\r\nHe canvas the compound again, saw nothing, and dropped into the clinic. He was immediately met by the sound of voices coming from the back room. masculine voices, speaking Japanese. He tiptoed finished the door that led into the operating room and opened it a crack. The door to the far side was open. He could see all the ninjas gathered around one of the hos-pital beds playing cards. It was see day for misfortune. He palmed the door shut and went to the computer.\r\nThere had been a time when Tuck was so imbruted of computers that he thought a mouse fat was Disneys brand of sanitary napkin, but that was before he met Jake Skye. Jake had taught him how to access the weather maps, charts, and how to file his flight plans through the computer. In the care for Tuck had also intimate what Jake considered the most important computer skill, how to hack into someone elses stuff.\r\nThe three CRTs were all on, two green over black and one color. Tuck focused on the color screen. It was friendlier and it was displaying a screen saver he recognized, a slide show of dolphins. He moved the mouse and the familiar Windows screen appeared. There was a cheer from the back room and Tuck nearly drove the mouse off the make it of the desk. must(prenominal) have been a good hand.\r\nHe evaluate to see obscure medical programs, something hed never judge out, but it looked like the doc used the same stuff everyone in the States did. Tuck clicked on the database icon and the program jumped to fill the screen. He opened a file menu; there were only two. peerless was named SUPPLIES, the other TT. Tissue types? He clicked it. The ENTER discussion field opened. â€Å"Shit.”\r\nJake had always told him that people used open-and-shut passwords if you knew the people. Something they wouldnt forget. Put yourself in their place, youll figure out their passwords, and dont glide by the possibility that it may be compose on a Post-it note stuck to the computer. Tuck looked for Post-it notes, then open the desk drawers and riffled through the papers for anything that looked like a password. He pushed out the chair and looked under the desk. bingo! There were two long numbers written on tape on the bottom of the desk drawer. He pulled the paper and pencil from his pocket and copied them down, then entered the get-go one in the password field.\r\nwas the response\r\nTuck typed in the second number.\r\n Look for the obvious. Tuck typed flip out PRIESTESS.\r\n The guards were laughing in the other room. Tuck typed in VINCENT.\r\n DOCTOR.\r\n It would be something that the doc would be sitting here thinking about. It would be on his mind.\r\nTuck typed BETH.\r\n BETHS TITS.\r\n bide a minute. This was the doc thinking. He typed BETHS BREASTS.\r\nThe file scrolled ope n, fill up the screen with a list of names down the left side followed by rows and columns of letters and numbers. All of the names Tuck could see were native. Across the top were five columns that must be the tissue types and blood types, next to those, kidney, liver, heart, lung, cornea, and pancreas. Christ, it was an inventory sheet. And the heart, lung, liver, and pancreas categories convinced him once and for all that there was no benevolent intention behind the Curtises plan. They were going to the meat market with the Shark People until the village was empty.\r\nTuck typed in SEPIE in the key field. An X had been placed in all the organ categories except kidney. There he found an H and a date. H? Har-vested. The date was the day they harvested it.\r\nHe typed in PARDEE, JEFFERSON. No â€Å"xs” in any of the columns, but two Hs under heart and lungs. Of course the other variety meat werent marked. Theyd been donated to the sharks and were no longer available. There was nothing under SOMMERS, JAMES. That too do sense. How would they get the organs to Japan without a pilot. Tuck wished hed gotten the little blind boys name. He couldnt take the time to scroll though all three hundred or so names looking for missing corneas. He typed in CASE, TUCKER. There were Hs marked under the heart and lung category. The harvest date was today.\r\nâ€Å"You fuckers,” he said. There was a shambling in the back room and he stood so quickly the chair rolled back and banged into a cabinet on the other side of the daub. The database was still up on\r\nthe screen. Tuck reached out and punched the energy on the monitor. It\r\nclicked off as Mato came through the door.\r\nâ€Å"What are you guys doing here?” Tuck said.\r\nMato pulled up. He seemed confused. He was supposed(p) to be doing the yelling.\r\nâ€Å"Were flying tonight,” Tuck said. â€Å"Do you guys have the plane fueled up?”\r\nMato shook his head. â€Å"Then get on it. I w ondered where you were.”\r\nMato just looked at him.\r\nâ€Å"Go!” Tuck said. â€Å"Now!”\r\nMato started to slink toward the door, plainly not comfortable with leaving Tuck in the clinic. Another guard came into the office and when Mato looked up, Tuck snatched his paper and pencil from the desk. He dropped the pencil and when he bent to pick it up, he hit the briny power switch on the computer. The computer would reboot when turned on and the doctor would only know that it had been turned off. Hed never suspect that someone had been into the donor files.\r\nâ€Å"Lets go, you guys.”\r\nTuck pushed past Mato out the office door, shoving the paper in his pocket as he went.\r\nTuck made quite a show of the preflight on the Lear, demanding three times that the guard with access to the key to the main power cutoff turn it on so he could check out the plane. The guard wasnt buying it. He walked away from Tuck snickering. Tuck go over under the instrument pan el. Maybe there would be some obvious way to hot-wire the switch. Hed been palmy with the computer. The switch and all the wires leading into it were covered by a steel case. He couldnt get into it with a blowtorch, and frankly, he had no idea which wires did what. It probably wasnt however a simple switch, but a pass along that lead to another switch. Thered be no way to wire around it.\r\nHe left the repair shed and went back to his bungalow. Unless he found some way to get off the island, he was going to be short a couple of lungs and a heart come midnight. Beth would have at least one guard on the plane with her, probably two, given the circumstances. And he had no doubt that shed shoot him in the crotch and\r\nmake him fly to Japan anyway. There had to be another way. Like a boat. Kimis boat. Didnt these guys travel thousands of miles over the Pacific in canoes like that? What could the doc do? Hed been so careful about safeguarding the island that the guards didnt even hav e a boat to chase him with.\r\nTuck put on his shorts and took his fins and mask to the bathroom. He knotted the ends of his trouser legs and started filling them with supplies. A shirt, a light jacket, some disinfectant, sunscreen, a short kitchen knife. He found a small jar of gelt in the kitchen, dumped the sugar into the sink, and filled the jar with matches and Band-Aids. When he was ready to seal it, he saw the slip of paper hed written on in the office sticking from the pocket of the trousers and shoved it into the jar as an afterthought. He topped off the pants bag with a pair of sneakers, then pulled the webbed belt average to cinch it all up. He could swim with the pants legs like water wings. The wet clothing would get heavy, but not until he hit the bank on the far side of the minefield. To Tucks way of thinking, once he was past the minefield he was halfway there. Then all he had to do was convince the old cannibal to give him the canoe, enough food and water to get s omewhere, and Kimi to navigate. Where in the hell would they go? maw? Guam?\r\n unitary step at a time. runner he had to get out of the compound. He checked the guards positions. Leaning out the window, he could see three †no, tetrad †at the hangar. He waited. Hed never tried to make the swim while it was still light. Theyd be able to see him in the water from as far away as the runway. He just had to hope that they didnt look in that direction.\r\nThe guards were rolling pose into the hangar to hand-pump the jet fuel into the Lear. Two on each barrel, four out in the compound, bingo. One guy had to be in the hangar cranking the pump. And Stripe was in the clinic. Showtime!\r\nTuck went into the bathroom, lifted the hatch, threw down the pants bag and his swimming stuff, and followed it through.\r\nHe weighed pussyfoot against running, stealth against speed, and decided to go like a newborn turtle for the water. The only people who might see him were the Doc and Beth, and they were probably in the process of pushing the twin beds together and doing the Ozzie and Harriet double-skin sweat slam-bang †or whatever sort of weird shit they did. He hoped it was painful.\r\nHe broke into a pulseless run across the gravel, feeling the coral dig at his feet and the ferns whip at his ankles but retentiveness his focus on\r\nthe beach. As he passed the clinic, he thought he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didnt turn. He was Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, and Edwin Moses (except he was white and slow), a single head turn could cause him to lose his stride and the race †and boy, does that beach seem farther when youre running than when youre sneaking. He almost tumbled when he hit the sand, but managed a controlled forward stumble that put him face-first in four inches of water. The baby turtle had made it to the water, but now he faced a whole new set of dangers at sea, not the least of which was trying to swim with a pair o f stuffed khakis around his neck.\r\nHe kicked a few feet out into the water, put on his fins and mask, and began the swim.\r\nHed been furious from the moment he heard the pilots voice in the clinic and he had fought the cloud of painkillers and the pressure in his head to get to him. Yamata watched the pilot stumble into the water before he tried squawking for the others. The shout came out little more than a remonstrate through his wired jaw, and his crushed sinuses allowed little sound to pass through his nose. His gun was in the guards quarters, the others were at the hangar, and his hated enemy was escaping. He decided to go for his gun. The others might want to take the pilot alive.\r\n'