“There was a man here with his wife,” she replied. “He was tall and had dark hair. A very nice couple who were lost. But I do not remember their names.”
“How long ago?” I asked. “When did they leave and in what direction?”
“I will show you,” the old lady said as she started walking up the hill towards the volcano.
Son of a bitch, I thought as we followed behind her. Not another volcano!
Chapter Thirty-One
We stopped at the foot of a tall, jagged rock that had once been a part of the volcano. A hundred natives, mostly women and children, had followed us. They all sat down on the ground and looked up at the giant rock.
Hiwanda grabbed my hand and forced me to sit amongst the tribe. Crumby reluctantly followed suit.
“Why are we sitting here?” I asked Hiwanda.
“We are waiting for the music god,” she replied.
“We don’t have time to wait for god,” I said. “My friend is out there somewhere!”
“Have you seen this music god?” the captain asked.
“You do not see her,” Hiwanda replied. “You hear her.”
“God has ten minutes to show up,” I replied. “Then we are leaving.”
A sudden wind came up, blowing flowers from the bushes and trees all around us. A cloud moved in over the island, and it began sprinkling. The natives gasped in excitement, like children waiting for the curtain to be drawn open at a magic show.
“I hope god doesn’t get rained out,” I said.
“If it starts raining,” Crumby replied, “I am not going into that volcano!”
“I’m with you on that one,” I replied, standing up. “Come on, Hiwanda, we need to go now.”
As we made our way through the crowd of crouching islanders, the wind began to pick up sharply. Suddenly, we were surrounded by an incredible sound.
I turned on my heels and stared towards the giant rock. It was as if a one hundred piece band was performing the strangest symphony I’d ever heard. The three of us sat down again to take it all in.
What sounded like trumpets, flutes, clarinets, trombones and god knows what else bounced together to form a single wall of sound. But there was no band. It was coming from the giant rock in front of us.
“Who is making these sounds?” I yelled to no one in particular over the rushing wind.
“The rock!” Crumby replied.
“I know that!” I said. “But how? How could this be happening?”
Just as quickly as it began, the song was over. The sun came out and cast a rainbow from one end of the island to the other. The natives cheered as they stood up. I’d never seen people so happy. I stared at the music rock, unable to speak for a few moments.
“That was the god of music,” Hiwanda said.
Just then, as I was fixated on the big music rock, the sun shown bright behind her. In that instant, I figured it out. The sun beamed through hundreds of holes in the rock of various shapes and sizes. The wind rushing through the holes made distinct noises. It created the sound of instruments playing together simultaneously.
“Now do you believe in the music god?” Hiwanda asked as we walked down the hill.
“I never had any doubt,” I replied. “She is amazing, indeed.”
We were followed by the natives back down to the beach. They were all singing and dancing, still invigorated by their most recent visit from the god of music. They loaded our dinghy with fresh pineapples and coconuts. The old woman followed us as we drug our dinghy into the water. She seemed proud to have shared their experience with us.
“Did the tall, dark haired man hear the music god?” I asked her.
She smiled and nodded her head “yes.”
“And when he left,” I asked, “which way did he go?”
She pointed down the beach to her right. If what she said was true, Lugosi was headed south down Hawaii Alley, just like we were.
I am certain Crumby didn’t realize what actually had made the music. He was dumbfounded. I never bothered explaining that it was the wind and the rock working together. I just let them believe that we’d just witnessed a concert by the god of music. The wind and rock are God’s work. And in the end, you can’t argue with God.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Everyone’s spirits were lifted after visiting Music Box Island. It even got Crumby singing again. I just wish the damned islanders knew how to tell time. We were on Lugosi’s tracks, but it was hard to say how far ahead of us he was.
I was fishing off the back of the boat with Barber, hoping to catch something worth eating with our coconuts and pineapple.
“You know what would be good?” I asked.
“Not another sword fish, I hope,” he said.
“No,” I answered. “Shrimp! I want to catch some shrimp, but our bait is bigger than they are! How the hell do you catch shrimp anyway?”
“With a net, you idiot!” Barber snapped back. “But we don’t have a trawler on this rig!”
“I know I am going to regret asking this,” I replied. “But what the hell is a trawler?”
“Come on!” Barber said. “You know! “It is the thing you use to hoist the net!”
“Do we even have a net?” I asked.
“Not the kind you need to trawl for shrimp,” he replied.
I had Barber fetch the net anyway and we rigged it with some small weights and attached our fishing line to each side of it. The idea was we would cast the net off of the back of the boat, let it sink and drag it for a while, then reel it back in. On the very first cast, what we brought up shocked the hell out of both of us. It was a big, transparent slimy creature that had no eyes.
“What the hell is it?” I asked as our net reached the surface of the water.
“Jellyfish!” Barber said.
“That doesn’t look like the kind of jam I would put on bread,” I replied, reaching down for the net.
“Don’t touch them!” Barber yelled. “They will sting the hell out of you!”
“Then how will we get that ugly bastard out of our net?” I asked.
“It’s not just one,” he answered, “it is dozens of them, maybe a hundred!”
Barber cut his line, releasing one end of the net and out they dropped as I reeled my side of the net into the boat.
“Let’s try again,” I said. “If we can catch those, maybe we can catch shrimp!”
“That’s not too likely,” he replied. “If there are jellyfish in these waters, they could stretch on for a mile or more. And where there are jellyfish, there won’t be anything else.”
“We’ve got another green one!” Speck shouted. And there’s a boat there. An expensive looking motor boat!”
The sun was starting to set, but the island and boat were still visible just a few miles ahead of us.
“We’ll get as close to the boat as we can,“the captain said, “and try to make contact with them.”
As we dropped anchor within throwing distance of the boat, the sun sank behind the water, leaving just the light of the stars and moon. “We’ll have to wait until daybreak,” Crumby said.
“To hell with that,” I replied. “I say we get in the damned dinghy, row over and knock on their door.”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We don’t know who’s onboard. And it is never a good idea to make a call on strangers in the dark.”
“I am sick and tired of stopping every night!” I yelled. “It’s a damned waste of time! Lower me in the dinghy! I will go by myself!”
I climbed into the small boat and motioned for them to hoist me down. Crumby turned and walked away, ignoring me. A few minutes later, he returned with a Winchester. Handing the rifle to Barber, he ordered him to accompany me.
The boat was indeed an expensive looking rig. It was lit up like a Christmas tree. Electric lights were even on the outside hull all around it. Whoever was onboard certainly wasn’t trying to hide.
As we saddled up next to the boat I started yelling “Hello! Hello!
” Several minutes of me hollering didn’t produce anyone.
“What will we do now?” Barber asked.
I took one of the oars out of the grommet and started banging on the side of the hull.
“Don’t do that!” Barber yelled. “You’ll get us killed!”
A dark figure appeared just above us and called out “Who goes there?”
“We’re looking for a man,” I said. “My friend who is believed to be lost on one of the islands. May we come aboard, sir?”
A rope ladder dropped down so I took that as a yes. We stepped onto the deck of the most amazing boat I’d ever seen. It was sleek and shiny and stank of money.
“I am Christian Pearl,” he said. “And just who are you looking for?”
He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He wore a white jumpsuit and had short cropped hair and a small beard. My guess was that he was former military.
“We’re looking for Bela Lugosi,” I said.
“The actor?” he asked. “Yes, I heard he was missing. Come with me at once. I will introduce you to the Professor.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
There were three men below deck who introduced themselves as assistants to the professor. They were wearing white uniforms, like the man who’d let us onboard.
The place was decked out in white countertops and bizarre laboratory equipment. Large aquariums where tucked away in the corners. It appeared they housed various small marine creatures. The only ones I recognized were shrimp.
A man emerged from the back of the boat and introduced himself as Professor Hailey. He was a short, pudgy man in his sixties with no real distinguishable features other than the fact that he was completely bald. He could have been the guy down at the post office in Hoboken for all I knew. But apparently, he was a professor with great resources to have a boat like this.
“We’ve been to a dozen islands looking for him,” I explained. “When we saw your vessel, I couldn’t help but come ask you if you’d seen him.”
“What they refer to as the Hawaiian Islands are nothing more than a bunch of rocks sticking up out of the ocean,” he replied. “And they happen to stretch out fifteen hundred miles across the Pacific. Only a handful of them can sustain life.”
“I have to look,” I said. “I’ve come a long way already. I want to check every island, every rock. I don’t care how long it takes or how much it costs. Now do you want the job or not?”
Crumby sat silent for a few moments as if he were contemplating my offer.
“One hundred dollars a day plus expenses,” he said.
“Agreed,” I replied.
The professor invited us sit down and offered us drinks. He said they too had visited many islands on Hawaii Alley but had no encounters with Bela.
“We have been here on this island for some time now,” he said. “It is the first one that we have found to be suitable for our needs.”
“Then we will move on,” I replied, downing my bourbon. “Thank you for your hospitality and I wish you the best of luck on whatever it is that you are doing here.”
“There’s no need to rush off,” he replied. “You can’t go anywhere until daylight anyway. Please, stay awhile, have a few drinks and I will tell you about my experiments.”
I explained that my friends would worry about me if I didn’t get back soon. What I didn’t tell him was that I couldn’t care less about his scientific studies.
“I will go back and let them know you are safe,” Barber said. “We will come get you in the morning.”
One of the assistants dressed in white handed me a glass filled with ice. I hadn’t seen ice in a dog’s age. And the bourbon was damned good.
The professor rattled on for a while about marine biology and how he had studied in the fields of species identification, migration patterns and so on. Three bourbons later, things started getting crazy.
“I accidentally stumbled upon something a year ago that changed my course of study,” he explained.
“What was that?” I asked, half-drunk by now but still uninterested.
“Genetically mutated aquatic species,” he replied.
“Mutated what?” I asked.
“You see, Mr. Bay,” he replied. “There are creatures who are born with genetic deficiencies, both on land and sea. These usually result in early death. I’ve studied how and why they occur and came upon a theory that would reverse it to act in the opposite way.”
“And what does that mean in laymen’s terms?” I asked.
“To put it simply,” he replied, “I have developed growth hormones that could put an end to genetic deficiencies that have plagued the earth for all of time.”
The professor stood up and walked across the room to a large tank full of huge shrimp.
“Do you recognize these creatures, Mr. Bay?” he asked.
“Sure,” I replied. “They are shrimp. Very big shrimp.”
“But do you know what species of shrimp they belong to?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “But I tried to catch some earlier and came up with jellyfish.”
“They are brine shrimp,” he replied. “The smallest of all. And two days ago, they were but tiny dots in this tank.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I’d never heard of brine shrimp. I just had to take the professor’s word for it.
“Imagine how big an average size tiger shrimp might be, given the same growth hormones,” he said.
“The only shrimp I know are the ones I get at the local fish market,” I replied. “So you tell me.”
“The tails would be eighteen inches in length,” the professor answered. “And that is why we are here. This island contains the perfect elements that we need to perform controlled experiments. Tomorrow, we will see if I am right.”
“What happens tomorrow?” I asked.
“We will drag the pools on the island and see what comes up,” he said. “The results of our findings tomorrow could change the fishing industry as we know it.”
“So let me get this straight,” I said. “You put growth hormones in shrimp and dropped them into pools on this island?”
“That is correct,” he said. “And crabs as well.”
“And you don’t think this is a dangerous idea?” I asked.
“It could end world famine,” he answered. “Imagine one shrimp feeding ten people! One hog feeding an entire village!”
“Hogs?” I asked. “Don’t tell me there are hogs on the island!”
“Of course not,” the professor replied. “I am speaking hypothetically. But the possibilities are endless.”
I’d had one bourbon too many and passed out while Shrimp Man rambled on about ending world hunger. He had a tank full of giant shrimp and never offered me a single one.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I woke up to the sounds of the Professor and his assistants banging things around, apparently getting ready to leave the ship to go on the island. Normally, I would have been right there with them, but I was hung over as hell.
I had barely gotten back to sleep when Crumby and the crew shook me awake. “What the hell!” I yelled. “Can’t you see I am sleeping?”
“We’re still on a tight schedule,” the captain replied. “And if you want to check this island out, we better do it now!”
I stumbled into the bathroom and took a cold shower. I had to, or I wouldn’t be able to function at all. Before I could even get dressed, someone was pounding on the door.
“I’ll be there in a minute!” I said. “Give me time to put some clothes on for God’s sake!”
“We’re hearing shots from the island!” the captain reported.
I pulled my clothes on and scampered out of the bathroom. “Don’t leave without me!” I said.
A big seaplane was moored next to the Professor’s ship but no one was on board.
“When did this get here?” I asked.
“A couple of hours ago,” the captain replied. “Two men got out and went with the others to the i
sland.”
No one was on the beach when we arrived, but sure enough, shots rang out from the far side of the rock. We followed a winding path through heavy brush and trees to the very top of the island. Still, no one was in sight.
“Now what?” I asked.
“This is a pretty big island,” Sharkey said. “There’s a lot more ground to cover.”
We found another tiny path that went down the other side of the rock. A hundred feet down, we came upon a pond that was swimming with life. The water on top was thrashing wildly, as if they were feeding on something.
“What are they?” Crumby asked. “Squid?”
“They’re shrimp,” I answered.
“No way in Hades those are shrimp,” Barber replied. “They are a good three feet long!”
“The Professor told me he is working on a growth hormone,” I explained. “Apparently, it is working.”
“A what hormone?” Sharkey asked.
“It makes animals grow bigger,” I replied.
Suddenly a low growling noise came from behind a huge hedge nearby us.
We froze in our tracks and pointed our Winchesters towards the origin of the horrifying sound.
“That sounds like a lion,” I whispered.
“There are no lions here!” Crumby replied.
“Well it sure as hell isn’t a coconut,” I answered. “Let’s just back away slowly and get the hell out of here!”
We could see the bushes rustling as we made our way back up the hill. Whatever was in them, was hiding. And it wasn’t happy about it.
Once we were comfortably away, I peered through the binoculars to see if I could spot the creature. There was no movement. It seemed to have disappeared.
“The others must have come across it, too,” Crumby said. “That is probably why they were shooting.”
A few minutes later, I spotted the Professor and his men emerging from the brush opposite to where the damned creature was. There was a short, pudgy man with them that I hadn’t seen before and a taller man in a blue uniform.
They soon caught up with us and all hell broke loose.
“Who are you and what are you doing on my island?” the pudgy man demanded.
Aloha, Lugosi! The Gretch Bayonne Action Adventure Series Book #4 Page 9