Flying to Pieces

by Dean Ing

  "I don't see why not," Lovett said.

  "Grandfather had forbidden it," Keikano said. "Just as he insisted I must not play with other children in the south village, or take part in the leadership games. If I dressed and acted like a gaijin, a tourist boy, Grandfather felt I would not become a south villager. His wisdom protected me in many ways. He did not trust the things he heard, and would not risk a personal visit. For him, the war was still real. He alone had responsibility for the airplanes, you see, since the others had died."

  "And all this time he could have kept Jean-Claude's machines running,"

  Lovett said.

  "Never. Certainly not after old Matai was killed and Jeanclaude took over," Keikano said. "Jean-Claude is a bad man. He takes any woman he likes; that is one reason why the tourists left. Several women came to the north village to escape. But the children of the south village needed a teacher, someone who understood how things stand."

  Chip's short laugh made Keikano stiffen. "That's why you've lived this way," he said.

  Keikano turned quickly, eyes burning with intensity. "None of it was my idea, it was a decision among my southern elders. And what I reveal to you must not be shared! What others do not know, they cannot tell. I beg you, Chip. My life is in your hands."

  "Hey, no problem," Lovett said, as much taken aback as Chip. "So you became a sort of go-between for the two villages, helping your grandfather when you could. Jean-Claude sure won't hear it from us, but unless I tell my friends they won't trust you.,, A long silent gaze between Keikano and Chip, and then the American youth nodded. "He has to tell them that, Kei."

  cannot stop you," said Keikano in dismay. "I cannot stop anything, it seems."

  "You'll feel better when Reventlo brings the medicine for your village,"

  Lovett said, and nodded toward the old Japanese "Does he know about that?"

  "Why tease him with promises? I will tell him when I see Guess I can't fault Keikano for not trusting our promises, Lovett thought. "Tell him that, in return for these airplanes, we will bring him medicines for his ailments. That's our promise and I'll be responsible." Keikano "Yet you have already promised that to me, pointed out.

  "But some of it's for him, dammit! You knew that, even if we didn't." ck in Keikano's craw, but he Lovett could see that this stu addressed the old man again. A brief but lively dialog ensued, and Lovett knew the outcome before Keikano said, "He wishes you to know that the trade is unequal." e "One of these days we'll have a talk about Japanes American trading, and inequality," Lovett gritted.

  "Meanwhile-Keikano, ask him if he accepts that his war is over."

  Keikano hesitated, then complied. ohtsu responded. Keikano finally translated, not very happy about it: "The enemy is strong, and he is more clever than a simple man."

  "That's not much of an answer," Lovett said.

  "Mr. Lovett, he does not wish to say that you are lying.

  That is his way." Shit, I remember now. They didn't like to say no.

  "He has no difficulty saying it to me," Keikano remarked with a trace of humor, "but to an enemy officer he is more polite." ST HERE it was again; Ohtsu's conviction that he was a pri oner of war. It seemed that if any progress were to be made, it would be by following old Ohtsu's worldview. Then a simple solution made Lovett brighten. "Keikano, ask him this: does he believe an American officer has captured him?"

  The one-word reply to Keikano's query was a reluctant

  "had"; evidently it was acceptable to say yes. "Very well. Does he accept that these airplanes are captured, too?"

  Another query from Keikano, another had from the old man.

  "Will he, as my prisoner, obey my orders?"

  This time, old Ohtsu replied only after some internal debate. "He wishes to remind you that it is dishonorable to be Captured, but a prisoner's honorable duty to escape," Keikano reported.

  "Okay. It is my duty to see that prisoners are well treated," Lovett said, with a smile for his "prisoner," and as Keikano rattled off his translation, something in Ohtsu's gaze seemed to soften. He made no reply however. "I will treat my prisoner well if he promises not to harm us or our captured property. If he promises that, I will not punish him for honorable intentions."

  With this translated, Ohtsu regarded Lovett with fresh curiosity, and his reply was lengthy, terminating with a brief bow. Keikano said, "He bows to an honorable captor and will abide by the terms. He wishes to know if his weapons will be returned."

  Lovett wanted to comply and when he looked at Chip, the youth said,

  "Sure, Pop, why not? What's he going to do?" Somehow that sounded childishly naive.

  And if that was naive, maybe Lovett was courting the same mistake.

  "Shoot us, maybe; the guy's a soldier, Chip. No, Keikano, in his time you didn't give a prisoner a loaded weapon. I think he's testing the system. Tell him." This Keikano did, and the old fellow reacted calmly, silently, as if to a move on a chessboard. Then Lovett added, "Now tell him to go outside and wait."

  Keikano translated. The old man took a few steps toward the new entrance, then turned as if waiting. Lovett waved him on. Chip asked,

  "Should I go with him, Pop?"

  "Certainly not," Lovett grinned. "But he'll just-oh," said the youth.

  "Right," Lovett said, seeing Ohtsu still eyeing them as he left the cave. "If he hasn't sailed off the island in fifty years, he won't do it now, and we're not in the prisoner business. Hell, we both know where he's going. If he goes back on his word, his ass will be grass. Keikano, you can go with him if you like. Tell him that if he leaves us in peace, I'll see that ii he gets that medicine."

  Keikano swallowed hard. "I will see to it that you will not I be sorry for this." 411, here m just doing myself a favor, getting him out of before I barf, Keikano. Maybe old soldiers never die, but MY God, their teeth sure do. Your old gram pa's breath would gag a maggot,"

  Lovett said, as the schoolteacher hurried from the cave with a final imploring look toward Chip.

  A moment later they heard Keikano's voice. raised outside, calling through darkness to the old man. Lovett let the cave's silence deepen, thought about Mel Benteen, then said, "This has been one night full of surprises." Chip gave a distracted nod as if lost in thought. "Under the circumstances, Chip, we may as well sleep back in our beds."

  "Not me. We agreed this was my duty and I intend to do it, Pop. You go on. I want you to."

  "Christ, you're worse than that old man."

  "Same to you. Hanging out like that, checking up on me like I couldn't do a man's job."

  "You sorry I did?"

  "A little, but I might be sorrier if you hadn't," the youth admitted.

  "You going to radio back to Coop and the others?"

  "No point in that. But I'm going on one condition: any more of this war-games horse shit tonight, and I want you on the radio on the double." daggers at him,

  "Sure." When Lovett continued to look Chip said, "Yeah, okay! What's the matter, I said yes."

  "The matter is, you didn't do it before."

  "That was different," Chip said, failing to meet Lovett's gaze. "Just like your coming out here."

  Lovett smiled. "I guess we both know more'n we did an hour ago," he said, and Chip rolled his eyes in silent agreement.

  Lovett stood before the door to Benteen's room for so long in indecision, he damned near fell asleep on his feet. I can see me now, starting to snore at the crucial moment, he thought. Not the cleverest of strategies. Instead, he found his own bed, put his radio next to his ear, and tried to raise Chip without success until he fell asleep after twenty seconds. They would learn later that their little transceivers would neither transmit nor receive from inside the walled-up hangar.

  Lovett was wakened by the half-track's clatter and thrumm as Pilau urged it along the crushed shell drive. It was already midmorning, and Lovett didn't need to dress because he hadn't 'undressed. He managed to raise Chip by radio immediately, because the youth was already perched outsi
de the cave wall, hard at work. "No more problems, Pop," he said. "Mr.

  Myles brought me a mango. You gonna sleep in today?"

  "Smartass kid; I'll be along. What've you told Myles?"

  "Nothing. I'm gonna tell him you released a saboteur? You tell him. I'm tired of getting yelled at. Over."

  Lovett punched off and tried Coop's frequency. Benteen answered in the maintenance area; Coop was cussing one of the Letoumeau's tires as he worked and"... I thought my dad taught me every phrase in the book but Coop's giving me a postgrad course," she said with a throaty laugh. It set Lovett's nerves to tingling.

  "Tell you what, Mel.: when you break for lunch, bring some food to us at the cave. Coop should come, too."

  "You can't get your own? We're getting close to a trial she began.

  "It won't take long. You'll both want to see this," he promised.

  She agreed, grumbling, and Lovett took the sole remaining scooter, jouncing down deepening ruts to the road's end. He was peeling a late-breakfast mango as he arrived at the cave.

  Poor Chip was still walloping away at the wall, hanging from a rope while Myles, shirtless and gleaming with sweat, dumped the debris into the underbrush. Even though it was clear that Vic Myles avoided going up on a rope, he'd chosen heavy work that needed doing and, try as he might, I-ovett couldn't bitch about the division of labor. It seemed to suit Chip, who was whistling-whistling!-as he walloped.

  By now, a good ten feet of wall had fallen across its full width, yet Lovett could not see any sign of an aircraft from ground level. It occurred to Wm that, given the slight downslope, the cave wouldn't display its secrets to a visitor at any distance until that wall came down another six feet or so, which gave them more time before someone told Jean-Claude exactly what was inside. Sure, they'd told the big bastard they'd found more machines'. They just hadn't told him those old machines looked brand-spanking new. When he found that out, sure as hell he'd decide he'd had the raffia cloth pulled over his eyes. If he didn't find out for another few days, maybe he'd be too busy with the annual leadership games to care.

  And there was another major job to be done before the planes could be pushed, towed, or-Jesus, maybe even taxied!-to the beach. "Hey, Vic," he called, tossing the Texan a mango as he approached the cave.

  Naturally he took some flak for tardiness, and sustained it philosophically. "Didn't get much sleep last night," he called down as he settled onto a rope perch. "Tell you why when the others get here."

  Then he began to methodically bash his way toward Chip, whose lank muscles shone beneath a patina of rock dust as he worked.

  Benteen radioed at noon, and presently they heard the tubercular chug of a Cushman expire in the near distance. Benteen brought salted fish and coconuts for them, with Coop p I lodding slowly behind, still favoring that leg. "This better be worth it," he called as Lovett slid down from his perch. He was not to be disappointed.

  The first thing Lovett displayed was the little pistol,@e'd left with Chip. "Hell, that's a Nambu," Coop said as soon he spotted it. "Saw some of those in May of '43 after our as guys took, Attu." He handled it gently with those callused fingers, shaking his head in remembrance, then returned it. "Found a stash, did you?"

  "You could say that. You see any infantry rifles on Attu?" With that, he picked up Ohtsu's rifle with its overlong bayonet and the canvas ammunition pouch now linked to its sling.

  "By God, that's one of 'em," Coop said, laughing. "You did find a stash!"

  "Yeah, but the guy was still using 'em." It was Chip, who Couldn't wait for his grandfather to draw the moment out.

  With a look of disgust toward the youth, Lovett sighed. "Punchlining an old man; God will punish you for that, Chip. You see if I don't." He turned to the others. "Well, he's right. We caught the guy who's been getting traps for us. Chip disarmed him. Turned out he's Keikano's grandfather, who claims he's kept these damn planes in condition to fly."

  This, in one great lump, was simply too much for any of them to swallow so Lovett had his fun after all. It took a full half-hour to satisfy Coop, Myles, and Benteen as to the details. Coop strained hardest at the idea that a Japanese soldier mechanic had stayed hidden for so long; Myles had trouble believing that Lovett had actually let him go.

  Benteen found all of it somewhat easier to accept. "That makes Keikano a quarter Japanese; no wonder he had trouble nouncing his L at first, he was rusty on English b t not pro I u on Japanese. He doesn't have the, what is it, epicanthic fold? The little Japanese eyelid, but I should've suspected anyhow. The little snip," she said, and laughed, adding that she'd known islander kids before who'd become passable linguists at an early age.

  Keeping a sentry, they decided, was still the only safe course.

  "Somebody ought to put the word out," Myles said grimly, "if I see either one of 'em during my sentry duty, he'll have a hole in him you could throw a bear cub through."

  "Worst thing you could do," Lovett told him. As things stood, he added,.

  they might learn much about servicing the airplanes from old Ohtsu, especially when Reventlo brought the medicines he'd promised. As for Keikano, no one on Fundabora had been so helpful.

  Coop's view was similar. "I'd prob'ly have trussed the old Jap up myself, or shot him maybe, but it seems to me Wade and Chip did okay.

  I'll say this, though: if he comes creeping around here again the least I'll do is hog-tie him. He'll understand a kick as well as the next man."

  "Nobody kicks Keikano, okay?" Chip said softly.

  Coop gave the youth a level glance. "Giving orders, sonny?"

  Even under his tan, Chip's flush was evident. "I'm asking. He's not-he doesn't deserve that," he stammered. "I know him better than anyone here, and you weren't with me when that old guy snuck into the cave, and Keikano was, and-he could've screwed us up and he didn't, that's all. If you see him around, chances are it's for your own good. That's all I'm trying to say. Let's keep him on our side."

  "That's a little more like it," Coop said, "but I wonder if Wade sees it the same way."

  Lovett thought about that for a moment, swigging coconut milk. Finally:

  "I think he should be warned away from here outside business hours," he said at last. "Though I've got to tell you, that little confrontation could've gone downhill in a hurry without Keikano to smoothe things out.

  I'd say handle him gently. Much of what we've learned, we got from him."

  Myles didn't like the consensus, but grudgingly accepted it and then changed the subject. "How's the Letoumeau coming?" it ran, said Coop, but it filled the metal shed with diesel smog. By the day's end he hoped to have the tires fixed. The belly scraper blade could not be adjusted until corroded parts had been cleaned. "Another day and we'll know whether the brute's in business," he finished.

  Lovett waved an arm toward the gentle slope of overgrown runway. "Does that mean you could give it the acid test on the airstrip?"

  "Not tomorrow. Next day, maybe," Coop judged.

  That, said Lovett, would work out nicely. He stated his case for leaving the wall half-demolished until they'd cleared a broad path for the planes.

  "I s'pose that was about half bullshit, what you told the old guy about clearing the runway for Reventlo," Coop ruminated. Lovett could only shrug, with a guilty smile. "I thought so. But actually, why couldn't we?"

  Myles blinked and stroked his beard, eyeing the jungle growths downslope. "Could we? That'd depend on what you could do."

  "What she could do," Coop responded, with a nod toward Benteen.

  "Whaddaya think, Mel?"

  I 'Whoo," she said, eyes slitted, gazing over the job. "Not in less than a week. More like two, and that's if we can wheedle enough fuel from Jean-Claude. A Letoumeau guzzles the stuff, guys. You're asking for a swath two hundred feet wide, half a mile long, aren't you?'.' Lovett said he thought so. There was no way to know whether Cris Reventlo would arrive with another C-47 or something smaller. Whatever it was, it wouldn't take kindly to landing o
n stumps or a field of potholes. The largest of their treasures, the twin-engined Betty, was almost the size of a C-47 and would need a clearing a hundred feet wide merely to be towed to the beach.

  "All I can say is," Benteen concluded, "I'll give it a shot and see how the strip pack's down. If Coop gets the Letoumeau well and truly cranked up for me, when I'm operating here it'll be loud enough to be heard from the village. So one thing we can expect is a bunch of native kibitzers."

  Benteen was thinking of jobs she'd had on other islands. She was not thinking about Jean-Claude Pelele and his demands on the village.

  The luck of the draw had slated Melanie Benteen for sentry duty, and after their dinner buffet she tucked her own little pistol into her bag before gliding off the verandah to set off down the beach. "want me to go partway? Not that you really need it," Chip added hurriedly.

  Before she could reply, Lovett said, "Oh hell, I'll do it, Chip. I need to take a closer look at that old bomber anyway.

  Myles ignored them, watching tendrils of smoke curl from the bowl of his corncob as he sat on the veranda, looking after the vanished sun a la General MacArthur minus a shave. Lovett made a show of reluctance as he moved off with Benteen.

  "I am perfectly capable," she began a bit haughtily as he caught up to her.

  "I know that," he muttered. "Just wanted it to look good for the troops." 'You may not have fooled them, but you fooled me," she replied more gently. "So I'm an old bomber, am 1?"

  He laughed softly. "You've gotta admit, you sure dropped one on me last night. Dead bang on target, too."

  "Oh, don't say 'dead bang,' Wade. Not 'til you know me better."

  He chuckled again, then said he supposed she hadn't thought to bring that Drambuie; and she said he supposed right. By the time they reached the turn-in from the beach, Lovett learned that old Elmo had sent her to pricey schools in the States, not all of which appreciated her, and the feeling was mutual, and that while she'd been treated as an only child sh@ wasn't sure how many half-siblings she might have. "Maybe half of Fundabora, if I know my Dad," she sighed. "He was marooned here for quite a while."