by Frank Dorn
“That didn’t stick either. Did you know Jose has a new girlfriend?”
“I’m not surprised. Your raised his stock value enormously and the woman who stole him away from you has just raised her stock value too.”
Brandie slouched again. “I hope she doesn’t break his heart.”
“There you go being nice again. Come on, it’s time to rejoin the party, and smile like you’ll have a tomorrow. You will, you know.”
“Tell that to the spider.”
“What?”
“A foot long centipede just killed a big hairy spider.”
“That is surprising.”
“I thought so and I haven’t taken any snuff.”
“Not for the reason you think. The wandering spider is also called the murder spider. A bite can kill a person, let alone another insect. They are hunters and they are aggressive, but so are giant centipedes. They are bigger and outweigh a murder spider, and their bite will hurt, but isn’t anywhere near as deadly. The spider should have been able to kill the centipede and that is why I am surprised.”
“What a fun place to live.”
“Oh they aren’t the most dangerous animals in the rain forest. There are green anaconda out there that are more than thirty feet long and weigh over five hundred pounds. Touch one anywhere on it’s body and you’ll be wrapped up, wrung out, and swallowed whole in seconds. They can swim, drop from trees, or hide beneath leaves along side a trail.
And the water contains caiman, electric eel, and red piranha. Even a puddle can kill you.”
“Anything else that can kill me?”
“Aside from the spiders and centipedes?”
“You said they weren’t deadly!”
“One bite might not kill you, unless you’re allergic, but several might. And there’s the poison dart frog whose name pretty much says it all, bullet ants and assassin bugs, ditto on names, bunches more snakes, lots of them poisonous, and you can’t forget the jaguar but the most dangerous animal out here is us.”
“Hmm?”
“People. We kill way more of them than they kill of us. Hell we’re killing the whole jungle, maybe the whole planet, not to mention ourselves and each other.”
“Yeah, we suck. I’m just feeling particularly special tonight.”
For a long time neither of them said anything. Starbuck finally walked up to her. “Lea, welcome to my world.”
He offered her his arm. She slipped off the stool and took it. He knew that walking out of an otherwise unoccupied building with him would set tongues wagging and settle her local reputation. After all, she went from a nerdy gopher to the big boss in one projected romance step. What’s more they both knew it. He didn’t care. It wouldn’t cost him in any way, and he’d learned long ago that kindness, even to someone like Flores, worked better in the long run. He eyed miss Kalani and smiled. She smiled back.
Heck, sometimes even in the short run.
“What was that place?”
“Oh. The school?”
“Was it here when you brought in the factory?”
“There was nothing here. I brought in everything, including the people.”
“Why?”
“Why the location? Because its remote and inaccessible. Why the school? Because I wanted my workers to learn a skill. Drug manufacture isn’t a long term industry, at least not for any one maker. Grow it, change it, ship it, sell it, protect it. We’re like army ants. Everyone has a job and we do it.”
“You left off leader.”
“Thankfully I forget that sometimes.”
They stopped at a makeshift bar. There were jugs of all shapes and sizes. Brandie was perplexed. “Do you order by color and shape?”
“You are correct, but missing an important element. If the container is locally made, so is the contents, some of which are non-standard and probably illegal in the rest of the world and possibly fatal in all of it. Rum, neat, please.”
The bartender set out two tumblers and poured Appleton Estate into both. Smiling, Brandie served.
Starbuck sipped. “Reminds me of the slave trade.”
“Hmmm. You ever hear of soju?”
“Korean vodka.”
“You do get around.”
“We sell to all corners of the globe. People were traded for sugar, sugar was traded for rum, rum was traded for clothe, and the clothe was traded for people. Along the way everyone made money, except of course for the slaves. Hence the absolute absurdity of the name, slave trade.”
“Slaves existed in Asia too.”
“Weavers, sailors, and distillery workers were all abused and underpaid, and they were the lucky ones. That’s the world we live in.”
“So you became a drug dealer.”
“So I opened a school to teach English to each and every one of my employees. You think they were born speaking English? How many languages do you speak?”
Brandie started thinking, and counting, to herself. English of course, French, Thai, Vietnamese, German, Arabic, Spanish … did she ever really master Maylay? She never mastered the three tenses of Japanese, and knew only pidgin Mandarin, but none of that really mattered. She gave him the answer he expected. “One.”
“There isn’t a person here who doesn’t speak at least four languages, but the only one that matters is yours, and maybe Mandarin.”
“Dangit. I knew I should have practiced my Mandarin.”
That got a laugh out of Starbuck, even if she wasn’t joking.
“When I either get caught or retired, they’ll need to make lives for themselves. If they want to work for me, they have to be ready to do be on their own at a moment’s notice.”
“I’m not sure about all of Flores’ men, but your people I’d bet on.”
“They… appreciate what we’re doing, but they understand the danger, and they know someday that it will end.” He stopped and turned to face her. “This party isn’t just about you, and Akhim, and a movie.”
19. 19
Brandie was carrying chairs back to the school when she literally stumbled over Akhim, passed out in a doorway. She stopped and nudged him with her toe.
“You really don’t want to sleep there.”
“I was dreaming we were back on Kumari Kandam.”
“Starving, dying of thirst, getting punched, kicked, stabbed, strangled, drowned, shot at, sunk, and blown up?”
“Good times. Help me up.”
Brandie set down the chairs and helped him to his feet. After dusting himself off he took one and fell in beside her.
“Who are you thinking of casting to replace me?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “A few hours ago I was having a conversation with a giant talking lizard who was wearing a tuxedo. He made more sense than you.”
“Come on! Play nice.”
“I can either tell the truth or, as you call it, play nice. Pick one.”
“Fine. Lets try for companionable silence. Maybe we can sleep on the desks in the school.”
“There’s a school?”
“Teaching English as a second language, or fourth or fifth language more likely, and office, accounting, and business skills.”
“No film studies classes, eh?”
“Nothing on the romance poets, either.”
They entered the school which now was lit by an electric lantern. The long banquet tables were back in position, ready to serve as desks. Starbuck was sweeping up, but he stopped and smiled when they entered. “You’re supposed to be guests not the cleaning crew!”
They put their chairs behind the tables. “And you’re the boss, not the cleaning crew!” Akhim crawled up on one of the tables and lay on his side. “Wake me in the morning. No more than an hour after classes start.”
“You’ll distract the students.”
“I will terrify them.”
“First period is for our guards and soldiers.”
“Have you chased out the giant bugs?”
“Most of them.”
�
��Then let him rest. I’ll get the rest of the chairs.”
“I’ll come with you.”
By the time they left Akhim was snoring softly. The plaza was deserted. Above them, more stars were visible than Brandie could ever remember.
“It’s beautiful at night.”
“Be glad it isn’t the rainy season.”
“Is it cooler during the rainy season?”
“Muggier, wetter, and just as hot. More floods though.”
“I will never understand you, or this.”
“You don’t have to. All you really have to do is get out of here in one piece and that is easier said than done.”
“You must have a pretty well established discreet shipping operation.”
“Which is long and circuitous and not without risk.”
“Which leads me to another question. If we were scouting this location for a movie, how did we know about your facility?”
“I have thought on that myself. How did you know?”
“I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m an actress. Nobody tells me why anything is done, they just tell me where to go and what to do. I’m afraid my performance here just proved to the higher ups that I’m not star material.”
“How would they know about what you’re doing?”
“Did you notice how many of the soldiers and your employees have cell phones?”
“Of course! Everyone has them.”
“And they all took videos and posted them on Youtube and Instafacelinked.”
“And that can’t be helped.”
“No… but while I was hiding in the school feeling sorry for myself I did some research. Graham Enterprises has a yacht they use for their news division but they’ve loaned it out to Graham Entertainment for a few movies and TV shows. Right now it’s about half way between Hawaii and the California coast. If we could get Akhim to divert it to Peru...”
Starbuck stopped dead. He didn’t move, didn’t blink for more than a minute. “How big is this boat?”
“Over a hundred feet, I think. I read somewhere it was a decommissioned Coast Guard ship.”
“If it can carry close to two hundred people and perhaps an additional forty or fifty tons I believe we may be able to help each other.”
~*~
Charlie’s throat hurt. Who knew high school wrestling matches could be so exciting? Chuck Jr. had wrestled, Chuck’s dad and Charlie had cheered through the entire match, and then through the rest of the matches.
Now he could barely whisper. “Does beer help?” He asked Chuck Senior.
“Beer always helps,” he whispered back, “but you still won’t be able to talk.”
They had stopped for pizza on the way home. Chuck Jr. ate two large. Charlie and Senior split a small pizza and a pitcher of beer. Charlie found out that Jim liked pepperoni and ordered him a small, thought about it, and switched the order to two large.
It was after eleven when they got back to their new apartment. Jim was sitting in Charlie’s chair, his eyes glued to three monitors. Charlie’s special cellphone sat beside him. He smiled like Christmas when the trio walked in.
“Did you bring pizza did you know your cell phone has the president’s phone number in the contact list and Earl Graham he’s the head of Graham Entertainment and some guy named Akamai Gangnam-”
“Hold on. Gangnam?”
“Something like that.”
“Gangnam is from a hit song Gangnam Style by Psy, a Korean pop star.”
“Whatever, anyway this Akamama-”
“Akhim. It’s Indian.”
“Akhim had to talk to Graham so I patched him through. I figured if they’re both in your contacts list it was okay for them to talk.”
Charlie sighed, poured Jim a glass of milk and served him three slices of pizza. “This time it’s okay, but we need to go over that, and probably a million other rules too.”
“Sorry. Anyway they’re trying to revive a movie. It’s so cool! Chucky! Did you win?”
“Of course he did. That’s why we’re whispering.”
“Yeah I forgot about that. Dad cheers a lot.”
“Loud, too.”
“Yeah. Thanks for the ‘za.”
“Thanks for sitting in, too. You did right with Akhim and Earl.”
Jim’s eyes went wide. “You Earl Graham?”
“I know a lot of people. Earl’s one of the good ones. I work for him sometimes but he’s a… a friend. I guess. Anyway it’s a long boring old person story and it’s time for bed.”
Both Chucks headed for their bedrooms. Charlie insisted on four bathrooms because he wanted his own and didn’t want anyone to feel unequal. That meant their new home was somewhat palatial, which meant it was in an upscale neighborhood, which meant he was drawing more attention to himself than he was typically comfortable with, but he watched father and son head off to bed and believed it was worth it.
Jim, however, hadn’t moved.
“Can I talk to you about something?”
Okay maybe it wasn’t worth it.
“Sure.”
“So… I tracked Ack-awk-”
“Akhim.”
“Akhim to the border territory between Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia.”
“Good job. Any satellite images?”
“I looked at that but wasn’t sure, so I left it alone.”
“Good job on that, too. So what’s your question?”
“It’s not a question, exactly. More of an idea.”
“I like ideas.”
“Well, Graham News owns a ship.”
“A yacht. The Rupert Ames. I’ve been on it.”
“Anyway it’s a converted Coast Guard cutter or something like that and I figured maybe there would be a news story there or… something. So since the Robert Ange-”
“Rupert Ames.”
“Whatever, was half way to Peru anyway I sort of diverted it there.”
Charlie counted to ten. It didn’t help. He tried again. Finally he asked “what exactly is your question?”
“It isn’t exactly a question. More of a confession.”
Wheels turned. Plans formulated and were discarded faster than light. “Stand up.”
Charlie wasn’t polite, he was in the zone. Jim didn’t mind. He’d danced along the edges of such a mindset on occasion and was excited to watch. Charlie spent a few minutes adjusting the screens, the mouse pads, the keyboards, and Jim’s half finished glass of milk which Charlie now claimed.
A plan formed like a symphony full blown and ready to be performed. His hands and eyes danced, played, and flew.
~*~
The Rupert Ames was running at three quarter speed across an eerily flat Pacific Ocean. The ship’s Commander was at the wheel. The sun was rising almost dead ahead and it was a beautiful day.
Something had to go wrong and it did. The head of communications joined him. The man was breathless. “New course heading and orders sir.”
“What now?”
He took the orders and quickly scanned them. After setting the new heading he asked “Any other orders?”
“Already issued, sir.”
“Not by me they haven’t. And not to me.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry. They were rather cryptic. It just said to tell the permanent crew: Lock and load. Not a drill.”
That did not sound cryptic to the Commander at all. Ominous, downright dangerous, yes, but there was nothing subtle about the order.
“Tell the crew, the whole crew, we will be having drills twice a day until we reach the coast of Peru. Repel boarders and abandon ship. Put the head of the permanent crew in charge.” With luck they’d get in two drills, at least.
“Aye aye.”
The man practically sprinted away. The fool kid was excited. He had no idea. He should be scared out of his mind.
At least he knew enough to be terrified. Sighing, he looked to his left. The sunrise didn’t look quite so beautiful any more.
20. 20
Flores didn’t li
ke it. His nephew was parading around with a pretty young girl on his arm and she was telling everyone who would listen that they were engaged. What women saw in him, he would never understand.