“Get yourself cleaned up, then we'll talk about it,” she replied. She stood away from the tree and started along the path to the stream.
From close behind him, Fatu heard the soft click of Toma's fingernails. Is she with us? Toma asked.
Fatu clicked a quick affirmative. Then he thought for a moment and offered Toma a second reply, a visual one this time. He moved his hand to where Toma could see it, and crossed his fingers.
Chapter 23
Angie paused outside the cave entrance.
“...don't give a damn what she said.” Crawley's voice came from just inside. “You never should have allowed the harvesting to begin.”
“You're the one who sent her out here,” Fatu replied.
“She claimed troubleshooter's privileges,” Toma said smoothly, “and according to her contract...”
Angie glanced at Nori, who had climbed the path just behind her. He was dressed in a fresh uniform, ordered ashore from the bus through one of the waterguards. The inspector's insignia flashed on his sleeve as he lifted his hand to run it through his wet hair. The wind whipped the hair back onto his forehead. He met her look and lowered his hand.
“You still look surprised to see me here, Nori,” she said. “You know, you really shouldn't have put all that much faith in a hidden locator. Things like that tend to get misplaced in situations like this.”
“When did you realize you were carrying it?” he asked.
“Right after I got here,” she lied. “We've had rather a bit of fun with those things, Pua and I. Especially Pua. You'd be amazed at the variety of creatures she's managed to attach them to, and the places they've gone.”
He didn't want to believe that. He didn't want to believe that all the tracking he and his people had been doing over the past weeks had been for nothing. There were probably waterguards out there at this very moment following Pua's weeks-old trail.
“If that's true, why did you wait until last night to send them away from Pukui?” His voice only hinted at his irritation. He had obviously been tracking the locators closely ever since his arrival. The unavailability of a flitter must have aggravated him dearly.
She shrugged. “Turnabout's fair play, Inspector. You've surprised me a few times recently.”
“You had no way of knowing I was coming...”
“Nori love, Crawley would never come out here alone, and—” She touched her fingertips to his cheek. He flinched. “—I knew you'd never give up the opportunity to pay me a visit.”
She laughed at his horrified yet fascinated look at her long, webbed fingers. “You're not afraid of me, are you, Nori?”
His look snapped back to her face. “Of course not.”
She touched him again, and although he tensed, he did not pull away. Oh, Nori, she thought. You're so afraid of me right now, you're about to pee your pants. “I'd hate to think things had changed between us.”
Startled curiosity flickered in his dark eyes. His short hair blew forward. He pushed it back.
“It's been a long dry spell here in this wet, wet place,” she said. And hearing that, he actually smiled. How, she thought, was I ever taken in by this tide-pissing liar? Because she always relaxed her normal troubleshooter's vigilance when she went to the mountain preserve. She went there to relax, and the Company and Nori had taken advantage of that. I won't relax here, she promised.
Crawley's colorless voice called them into the cave.
“Have you seen Pua?” Fatu murmured as Angie passed him on her way in.
She shook her head. Both Crawley and Dr. Waight had already asked about Pua on the way uphill. Angie hoped the girl would come. Her case would be difficult to plead without her physical presence.
The U.N. reps were eager to relax. Bathing and getting solid land under their feet had abated most of the nausea they had experienced on the bus, and Crawley's objections to the welcoming ceremony were easily overcome. They sat on stacks of friendly vine and clicker leaves, looking drained but tremendously relieved to be safe and dry and out of the wind.
Three of the nine had elected to remain wrapped in the colorful lavalavas they had been given at the freshwater stream. The others had changed into clothing brought off the bus. None, Angie was pleased to see, had been seriously injured in the hydrobus incident. They seemed to consider it more an adventure than an accident, now that it was over. Crawley sat slightly apart from the rest, scowling and rubbing at his scarred cheek.
The Earther waterguards had not fared as well. Most had been on deck when the coiler caused the abrupt stop and skew of the bus. They had been thrown hard against cargo and deck gear. The worst of the injured, five with broken bones and four more with deep gashes, had already been attended to, but Dr. Waight and another woman, obviously a medic, moved among them applying clean bandages and administering anesthetics. The guards’ gray uniforms stood out clearly in the bright light of fluorescent lamps.
Seven healthy guards had accompanied Crawley and their injured comrades to Second Island. Two of those stayed with the bus, while the rest climbed the hill to the cave. The others had gone into the water as soon as they were inside the pass—to see to the orderly withdrawal of Company swimmers from the harvesting operations, Crawley had claimed.
Fatu seated the guests in a floor plan that vaguely fit Angie's impression of the formal seating arrangements described in the Samoan history tapes she had studied. She, not surprisingly, found herself sandwiched between Fatu and Toma near the entrance to the cave. Crawley sat opposite, flanked on one side by Waight and on the other by the leader of the inspection team. The rest of the team, and the Lesaat crew leaders, sat along the sides, creating an open oval center. Nori was placed in the second row behind the crew leaders and among the injured waterguards. He did not look pleased.
The welcoming feast would be based on no single Earth island cultural tradition, Fatu had explained to Angie earlier, but rather on as many as he could remember. “We'll do it the Lesaat way,” he said. “Whatever works best and takes up the most time.”
When everyone was settled, he began. First, he had one of the Pukui swimmers pass sticks of betel coral and Maldarian caramels among them, apologizing all the while for the lack of a proper kava-drinking ceremony. Then he greeted all of the visitors very formally, listing them by rank and title, and welcoming them to Pukui. He continued with a long speech describing the reef and its history, its current troubles, and Pukui's appreciation for the honesty and generosity of its distinguished visitors.
He spoke with great emotion, almost whispering at times, then lifting his voice in laughter or shouting with great power. He gestured freely with his hands and occasionally flicked the large and bulky sennit whisk he carried for emphasis. Angie recognized the fly whisk as a true relic of Earth, one of the symbols of office of a Samoan high chief. There were several smaller imitations on display in the main house.
There was a stunned pause when Fatu finished. He had left them all breathless. Into the silence, Fatu invited Crawley to speak.
“Don't be absurd,” Crawley replied. “Get this thing over with. We have business to do.”
Fatu gave him such a polite nod that even Yoshida looked embarrassed. Many of the U.N. team members frowned. “Who, then, will speak for our Company visitors?” Fatu asked.
Toma rose. He spoke eloquently for the Company, addressing World Life's sincere desire to aid the peoples of the Earth, as well as the inhabitants of Lesaat and Pukui. The decisions they would make at this meeting of friends, he said, might certainly prove to be difficult, but they would be made with fairness to all and with careful attention to the law. Fatu and the waterworlders, and even some of the U.N. team, nodded their approval. Crawley scowled throughout.
The U.N. team leader spoke then. He had obviously done this before and, although somewhat embarrassed, seemed to enjoy his role. His speech was eloquent enough, but it sounded as if it had been memorized and, most probably, used before.
Others spoke. Waterworlders, mostly. Le
aders of the crews that had come to assist in the emergency harvest. Angie glanced toward the cave entrance. She saw Fatu do the same. There was still no sign of Pua. Fatu enticed several more members of the U.N. team to speak, poking gentle fun at them for their reticence. That part was more reminiscent of a resort-town tourist show than proper Island ceremony, but it took up time.
Angie had yet to speak; she had not really planned to, not at this point in the proceedings. But without Pua, she might be forced to. She was debating how to begin when there was unexpected movement at the back of the cave. Pua appeared from the deepest shadows. Crawley spun around at the sound of her approach. She stopped less than a meter behind him and could easily have touched him if she had so chosen. The entire gathering watched her in stunned silence.
Pua stared at Crawley for a moment, then walked slowly around the center oval of seated adults. The only sounds were those she alone made. Dozens of tiny shells clipped and clicked together at the edges of her shirt and on the elaborate woven headdress she wore. Her skirt of thick, wide leaves rustled and sighed. She wore layer after layer of strung shells and coral around her neck, and friendly vines and seaweed were woven in colorful patterns around her torso and along her arms and legs.
She carried a whisk just slightly smaller than Fatu's, made of some local material, and a carved pole that Angie assumed was meant to represent an orator's staff. She circled, stared at each of the visitors, at Fatu and Angie and all the rest, before returning to her starting place.
She lifted a hand.
“Greetings to all the chiefs and talking chiefs gathered here at Pukui,” she began.
“Hail to the spirits of this dark cave, where the bones of Pukui's heroes are laid.
“Hail to the great spirit of Le Fe'e, who has given his blessing for this important meeting and who stands guard over the children of this lagoon.”
Angie glanced at Fatu. If he found Pua's highly distorted imitation of a Samoan high talking chief offensive, he did not show it. His face held only stunned amazement. His fragrant body remained absolutely still.
Only once during Pua's long list of honorific greetings did he react, and then it was with a quickly suppressed smile. Angie reminded herself to look up the Samoan term that Pua had used in reference to Nori.
Fatu was not the only one caught by Pua's performance. Only Nori and Toma were glancing about like Angie. Toma smiled a small, cool smile when their looks met. Nori eyed them both coldly and passed his look on. Everyone else was transfixed by the chanting girl. Angie listened again as Pua completed her list of honorific greetings.
“They call me Pualeiokekai noun Zedediah me Kalehuaokalae Pukui,” she said then. “I am the first of my kind. I live in Lesaat's great golden sea with my family and with Le Fe'e, who is my friend.”
She flicked her fly whisk precisely as Fatu had earlier. “You probably remember Le Fe'e. He once lived on the planet you call Earth. But he was always restless there. Ask the Hawaiians. They know. He moved from place to place, shifting his colors, never content, because deep in his heart he knew there was another place. A better place. A place with rich golden waters, and peopled only by creatures who know how to smile with their eyes. One day, he decided to seek this sea...”
Pua slid smoothly into the colorful tale of Le Fe'e's journey from Earth to Lesaat, the one Fatu had told Angie in the sub weeks before.
Pua chanted her story; she sang it like a song. She moved and swayed with the rhythm of her tale, and the soft click and rustle of shells and leaves provided music to fill the small silences between her words. This is her creation chant, Angie realized suddenly. She is sharing the beginnings of her personal identity with us. She realized, too, that she had heard the song before. Last night, deep under the sea.
It was Le Fe'e's song.
“I offer you this kumulipo,” Pua said finally. “This story of the beginnings of my people. Taste it and know what it is to be of Pukui and the Lesaat Sea.”
There was total silence when she finished. She maintained her own silence for a moment, proving that she was as fine an actress as she was a storyteller. Then she flicked her whisk and stepped between Crawley and Waight to the center of the neatly laid clicker fronds.
To Angie's total amazement—and Fatu and Toma's, as well, judging from their quick intakes of breath—Katie followed Pua into the circle. She, too, was decked with shells and twisted vines, although not as regally as Pua. She carried a large, leaf-covered wooden bowl, another artifact from Lehua's collection, which Pua instructed her to set before Crawley. Pua thanked Katie formally. When the drone had disappeared again into the shadows, Pua sat cross-legged in front of the bowl.
“Welcome,” she said, staring straight at Crawley. “Please accept this small amount of food which Pukui has provided.” She lifted a pair of broad leaves to reveal a huge mass of dark green paste.
“Oh, dear god,” Fatu breathed. Others among the waterworlders caught their breaths. Toma was on his feet instantly.
“What is it?” Angie asked.
Fatu had gone pale. “She's offering Crawley boiled loli.”
“I'll show you how it's eaten,” Pua said in her most innocent, childlike voice. The U.N. team members smiled, oblivious to the tension among the waterworlders. Pua scooped up a fingerful of paste.
“Get the rest of the food in here,” Angie said. “Do it now.” She quickly joined Toma at Pua's side, having no idea how she was going to stop Pua if poisoning Crawley was what she had in mind. Crawley stared at all three of them suspiciously.
The U.N. leader nudged him in the side. “Go ahead,” he whispered. “Take some. It's impolite to refuse food here on Lesaat. You know that.”
Pua sucked loli from her fingertips noisily.
“Pua,” Toma said. “The first food should be offered to Warden Dinsman. She is, after all, our highest ranking guest.”
Angie felt her jaw go slack. You reef-sucker, she said to Toma with her eyes. He smiled in return. She quickly composed herself.
Pua blinked. “She is?”
“Technically, that's true,” the U.N. rep said. He was smiling, enjoying himself greatly. Crawley stared at each of them, obviously not sure what was going on but knowing that something was. Angie looked down at the potentially deadly loli, wondering if Pua would really let her die. There was no way to know until the next day if the loli was bad, and by then Angie would have accomplished all that Pua needed done to protect her and her babies, if it could be done at all.
“Help yourself, Auntie Puhi,” Pua said. Her face revealed no expression whatsoever.
Angie gave Toma one glaring glance before scooping up a gob of loli paste. She had to trust that Pua would not let her eat it if it carried the deadly loli fever bacteria. Before it reached her mouth, however, Fatu reached over her shoulder.
“You forgot my rank,” he said as he, too, lifted a fingerful of loli. Pua made no move to stop him. She watched them both solemnly as they sucked the paste from their fingers, chewed for a moment, and swallowed.
Then she smiled sweetly. “Where's the rest of the food?” she asked. “These people look like they're starving.”
The tension was abruptly broken, at least among those who didn't understand what had been going on. Angie counted to still her heart. Platters of food were quickly circulated, and the Earthers, many of them famished after being emptied so thoroughly on the hydrobus, greeted the meal enthusiastically.
Angie glanced at Fatu, who was only then regaining color in his cheeks, and returned to her former place. She looked up to see Nori standing against the far wall. He gave her a slow grin. He had known what the loli was. And he had done nothing to warn Crawley about the food's possibly deadly contents.
The meal proceeded without further incident. Pua entertained the visiting Earthers with stories of life on the atoll, speaking seriously with them at some times, charming them with her wit and laughter at others. She even drew a smile from some of the waterguards. Crawley and Dr. Waight were the
only ones not pleased. Several times, Angie saw Waight reach for Pua's hands, but Pua always moved smoothly and seemingly innocently away from her touch.
You'll get your chance at her soon enough, bitch, Angie thought. Late into the meal, a swimmer slipped through the entrance and spoke briefly to Fatu, then left again. A waterguard came in and did the same with Nori. Nori relayed the message to Crawley, and for the first time that evening, Crawley smiled.
Trouble at the nets, Angie thought, not caused solely by the storm. Thank goodness they had a few days of calm weather coming. With luck, any damage done that night could be cleaned up before permanent harm was done. Still, if Crawley was happy, it was time to move things along. She stood.
“I would like to conduct some business,” she said. Her voice was soft, but her words brought an immediate hush over the gathering. She motioned for Pua to bring her the med-recorder kit she had brought into the cave earlier. She handed it to one of the U.N. members who examined it silently, nodded, and handed it back. That brought absolute silence.
“I was sent here to do two things,” Angie said. “To find the missing total-conversion enzyme records, and to save Pukui Reef. I find that to accomplish at least one of those goals, I must invade the privacy of our host. I have chosen to do it now, before witnesses. Fatu, will you join me?”
Fatu showed just the right amount of reluctance.
“Warden,” Toma said quickly. “Is this really necessary?”
“It is,” she said. Crawley's thin lips twisted into a tight smile.
“Fatu?” Angie said again, and finally he joined her. They sat facing each other on the cool, smooth clicker-palm leaves. His skin shone in the brilliant light. His candleberry scent teased her across the short distance between them, and his shallow breathing belied his outward appearance of calm. Nori edged forward and pushed his way in between two of the waterworld crew leaders. They frowned but, at Fatu's lifted hand, allowed him to remain.
Angie snapped on the recorder.
“Angela Roberta Dinsman, troubleshooter first rank,” she said. “Second Island, Pukui Atoll, Lesaat. I am conducting this interrogation at the request of other interested parties, but ultimately by my own decision. I am under no personal coercion. I have found no other way to accomplish what needs to be done.”
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