by Nick Carter
Carter sat forward at the same time Gabrielle did.
"Nick?" she cried.
"I see it, I see it," he said. Below, directly down the hill toward the amphitheater, a long string of pinpoint lights bobbed and moved, much like a troop of glowing army ants. They were torches. Carter figured. The natives were gathering in the amphitheater. There would be another ceremony tonight!
"They're coming together for another sacrifice," Gabrielle said with a shudder.
There would probably be another attack on the base tonight, Carter thought. This time, however, if Fenster's people were on the ball, little or no damage would be done.
The islanders were gearing up for something. For some reason they had stepped up their pressure on the base. But that made little or no sense to Carter.
If the Chinese did have a monitoring station here on this island — a station to monitor what the American spy satellite was receiving — why would they want to harass the site? It could only result in the U.S. Navy coming ashore in force here sooner or later and discovering what was going on. There was no way the Chinese could prevent that, short of instigating an international incident.
For a half hour a steady procession of torches marched from inland, presumably up the wide path Carter and Gabrielle had discovered, and gathered within the bowl of the amphitheater.
A bright yellow glow from the hundreds of torches rose from the depression.
"We can get out of here now," Gabrielle said at Carter's shoulder.
He looked at her.
"They are all there. They are busy. They would never notice us."
"I came here to find out what's going on, and I'll remain until I do. The Chinese Communists are on this island. I think they're behind the attacks on our base. I want to know why, and I want to stop them."
"Chinese, Americans, what difference does it make?" Gabrielle asked. "It is all for war…"
Carter was no longer paying any attention to her. His eyes had strayed to the communications dish. A pencil-thin ruby red light was hitting the central horn of the dish. He got up and went over to it, then knelt down beside the dish and sighted from beside the horn toward the inland area where he thought he had seen something earlier.
The pencil-thin line of laser light disappeared into the distance. It was a laser communications link.
He looked back down to the amphitheater as all the torches went out, plunging the valley into darkness. In the next moment, however, an eerie white light rose from the depression.
Carter stood up.
"I do not like this, Nick…" Gabrielle said. She too got to her feet.
Even as he watched, Carter could see the white light shifting back and forth below. It reminded him of the shifting projector light of a drive-in movie when the scenes changed. Movies.
He turned back to the communications dish receiving the laser beam signal and slowly put his hand out so that he interrupted the signal. At the same time he looked down toward the amphitheater. As his hand blocked the laser signal, the white light rising from the valley was abruptly cut off. When he pulled his hand back, the light returned.
The Chinese were sending signals from some inland installation to this dish. From here they were sent by cable down to the amphitheater, probably to the three shiny devices he had noticed in the rock.
They were sending signals. What sort of signals?
"We 're getting out of here right now," Carter said.
"Now you are talking sense," Gabrielle said.
Together they started down the hill. The going was very slow because of the darkness and the loose rocks. But they had the shifting white lights from the amphitheater to guide them until about the halfway point, when Gabrielle suddenly stopped.
"This is close enough," she said.
Carter looked from the valley back up to her.
"We'll have to go along the hill until we find the path on the other side of the meeting place."
Carter came back up to her. She had been so strong when she had escaped from her husband and when she had volunteered to come here with him. But now it seemed as if she were falling apart.
He took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes in the dim light. "You've got to hold yourself together a little while longer, Gabrielle," he said.
"We have to get out of here, Nick. Before they work themselves into another frenzy. They will kill anything in their path."
"We have to find out what is driving them to it."
"Their sacrifices!"
"That's part of it. But there's more."
"No!"
Then you can remain here by yourself. Or go down to the beach," Carter said. He turned and headed down the hill.
"Nick!" she cried.
He ignored her as he carefully picked his way through the darkness. A minute or two later she was beside him without a word. He reached out and took her hand in his, and together they hurried the rest of the way down the hill to within a hundred yards of the rock outcropping at the back rim of the amphitheater.
If there were any sentries. Carter figured they would be stationed around the rim of the depression. So he and Gabrielle would have to be very careful from this point forward.
Carter took out his stiletto, the blade gleaming dully in the shadowy light coming from below, and motioned for Gabrielle to make absolutely no noise even though the natives had begun to howl and scream below.
She came very close to him, her lips just at his right ear, and she whispered, "They will not be able to hear us."
"There may be guards," Carter whispered back. "Stay here for a moment. Don't move, and don't make any noise. I'm going to see if anyone is there."
"Let's get out of here," she whispered, but Carter crouched down and silently worked his way the rest of the distance down the hill.
There was no one there as far as he could determine. Not on the rim above the rocks. Not within the thick undergrowth to both approaches.
The crowd below was screaming in what sounded like rage, the noise almost deafening.
Keeping low, Carter worked his way to the edge of the rim, and flattening his body against a large boulder, he peered down into the amphitheater.
He had been prepared for almost anything except what he was seeing. The three shiny objects high in the rocks were projection lenses that presented a three-dimensional holographic image just above the altar stone.
That part did not surprise Carter. It was what he expected the dish antenna was being used for. But the images being projected were stunning.
It was the same scene, or a variation of the same scene, repeated over and over, in which terrible things were being done by American technicians to native women and children within the radomes of the American satellite receiving station.
The women, and in some cases young girls, were being raped by big, burly technicians. Some of the children were being cut open, their organs being tacked up on poles. In one scene the livers of two young native girls were force-fed to their mothers and sisters.
At each outrage a fresh cry of anger and despair arose from the native gathering.
At least a part of the Chinese strategy suddenly became clear to Carter. The natives would continue to riot against the American receiving site. If any of them were captured and questioned, even under drugs, they would all tell the same quasi-religious story about how their gods told them what the satellite receiving base was for.
Even if the American forces totally wiped out this island or relocated its population, the Chinese could move to another island and begin the same strategy all over again.
Gabrielle eased down beside him and peered over the edge, her breath catching in her throat as she realized what was and had been happening here.
Carter eased back away from the edge, his stomach churning. It had not been the islanders' fault. They were nothing more than simple natives who had been used as pawns in an international game of intrigue… a game that was being played with absolutely no scruples or concern for a naive
, trusting people.
Away from the rim, Carter and Gabrielle scrambled back up the hill to the spot where the cable had come to the surface. Carter pulled about Fifteen feet of it clear from the dirt, then with his stiletto he cut one end and then the other, pulling out a fifteen-foot-long piece.
The shifting white light below in the amphitheater went out when he cut the first wire, and a silence almost as loud as the cries of outrage descended on the jungle.
Carter reburied the two severed ends and smoothed out the disturbed earth so that it would be difficult or impossible to tell where the cable had been cut.
Then he sheathed his stiletto, coiled up the fifteen-foot section of wire, and headed east, the direction from where the laser signal had been transmitted.
A rising murmur was coming from the amphitheater. Gabrielle looked over her shoulder into the darkness. It would not be long before the islanders decided to do something. They would probably head across to Hiva Faui tonight for another attack on the base.
It would be very bad for them to be caught anywhere near the beach right now, Carter knew, so they headed partway up the hill, then struck out toward the northeast, giving the amphitheater a wide berth. A couple of miles farther, they turned just south of east, walking toward where Carter figured the Chinese transmitting antenna was located.
He had no real idea what they would find, although he suspected there would be some sort of a small outpost and probably on holy ground so that the natives would not get too close.
The going was rough in the darkness and the rising wind. There would be a storm sometime tonight from the looks of the sky. It was possible, Carter thought, mat if the storm did materialize, it would keep the natives from crossing to the other island for their attack.
He and Gabrielle only had to hold out until tomorrow morning when the Starfish was scheduled to arrive. Whatever was happening here on this island would be brought to an end.
Once they thought they could hear the cries of the natives somewhere far to the southwest, but then the wind gusted and a flash of lightning and crack of thunder made it impossible to tell for sure.
"It will rain tonight," Gabrielle said, looking up at the sky when they stopped for a rest.
Her neck was long and lovely. She was a beautiful woman. But Carter found himself wondering about her. There was something about her that was not quite right. Something he could not put his finger on.
"If the wind comes with it, the natives will not attack," he said.
She looked at him, a half smile on her lips. "You do not know these people. They have brought their outrigger canoes across the entire Pacific Ocean. In modern times they regularly go five hundred miles in all kinds of weather. A little local storm will not deter them, Nick. If anything, it will help cover their actions."
There it was again, Carter thought. Almost a pride in what was happening here.
He had been leaning against a tree, smoking a cigarette. He straightened up now.
"Is there another holy ground, other than the volcano, here on the island?"
"I do not know," she said thoughtfully. "There may be. But I do not know of it." She looked into his eyes. "You mean the area around wherever the signal originated from?"
Carter nodded.
"It could very well be. But I doubt if we will ever find it."
"Why do you say that, Gabrielle?" Carter asked. He was becoming more and more uneasy with her.
"If it is nothing more than a little dish antenna, such as the one upon the hill, it would be like looking for a needle in the haystack. Impossible to find."
"You're right."
"We could spend days wandering around this island and never find a thing."
"You're right again, Gabrielle, except for one thing."
Her eyes narrowed. "What is that, Nick?"
"The helicopter was shot down, and the natives chased us up the hill. Now, this evening, their little show in the meeting place was interrupted. Whoever originated the signals knows we're here. They'll be looking for us. We've seen too much."
"So what if it is the Chinese?" she shouted. "This is French territory. We never wanted you or them here!"
"Then you know of the Chinese?"
"That is what I mean," Gabrielle snapped with irritation. "You tell me the equipment on the hill is of Chinese manufacture. It means they are here on this island. Your people are on Hiva Faui. We do not want either of you here. Look at the trouble you have caused for our people."
"But you've deserted your husband, Madame Rondine," Carter said, "or was that all a show just to find out what I was up to?"
She stamped her foot in frustration. "Do you suppose I came into your bed and made love with you just for information? Do you suppose I made up the story about my youth? A story that you could easily check?"
"I don't know, Gabrielle. I hope not, but I don't know."
"Bastard!" she hissed.
Carter looked at her for a long time. "'I 'm here to do a job," he said. "When it is finished you can return to the States with me or remain here. The choice will be yours. And if I am wrong about you, which I sincerely hope I am, then I apologize, Gabrielle. But I am paid to be a suspicious man. Many of my people have been killed. I have come to stop it. And I will."
"I too am sorry, Nick," Gabrielle said just a little too quickly. "I still have loyalties to France despite what has happened to me at the hands of Frenchmen… despite Albert. And I have a feeling for these poor people here."
"Then help me end the killing."
"I do not know if I can, Nick. How?"
"Help me find the Chinese installation here. The transmitting station where the pictures are sent to incite the natives."
"And then what? How can you stop them single-handedly?" Gabrielle asked, but then she stopped herself. "That is not it," she said. "You merely want to find out where the station is located and then you will call for help." She ran her fingers through her lovely dark hair. "My God, you want to start a war here on Natu Faui. Is that it? You crazy American."
"I want to stop a war," Carter said. "A war that began two years ago when the Chinese set up this operation."
"There will be fighting here!"
"Yes, but it will end the killing."
"The killing could end if your people left Hiva Faui!"
"The French would have to leave as well."
Gabrielle just looked at him.
They wouldn't be satisfied merely to get rid of us. They'd want your people to leave as well."
"It is your spy satellite they want stopped…" Gabrielle said, but then she realized she had said too much.
Carter smiled sadly in the dim light. All along he had known something was wrong with her. All along he had suspected she was not telling him the truth.
She worked for the Chinese. Her husband probably did as well. It explained why there were so many Chinese workers on Hiva Faui, and it explained why the natives on this island were kept at barely above the primitive level. The natives acted as an effective buffer between the Chinese Communists and the Americans.
He did not think finding their base here would be very easy after all.
Gabrielle was looking at him, her eyes wide, her mouth pursed in an expression of contempt.
He reached out and grabbed for her arm, but she jumped back and reached for the.45 at her hip.
"Christ!" Carter swore. He dived left and scrambled into the thick undergrowth.
Gabrielle fired a shot well wide of its mark, and Carter lay flat on his stomach, watching her through the thick brush.
She was clearly frustrated and very upset. Evidently her assignment had been to keep tabs on Carter, and if he came too close or discovered too much, she was to kill him. She had failed.
Something made her turn away and cock her head as if she were listening for something. But Carter could not hear a thing.
She turned back and took several steps closer to the edge of the brush Carter had disappeared into, but then she shook her head
in frustration.
"Nick," she called.
Carter remained still, watching her.
"If you are still out there and you can hear me, I want you to know that you will not get off this island alive." Again she looked over her shoulder as if she were listening for something.
She turned back.
"I want you to know that I am sorry it has to work out this way. I was not ordered to sleep with you… but I did it because I wanted to. You are a wonderful lover."
Once again she looked over her shoulder.
"I must go now, Nick. They will find you by morning. They never miss," she said.
She holstered her.45, then turned and headed off toward the north.
As soon as she was out of sight, Carter pushed himself up, emerged from the brush, and stopped long enough so that he could hear her up ahead.
Ten
Gabrielle moved quickly through the jungle. It was as if she knew exactly where she was going and had been on this path often. But Carter had no trouble following her in the darkness. Every ten or twenty yards he would stop and listen. He could hear her up ahead, crashing through the brush, making absolutely no effort to conceal herself.
It was several miles across to the north side of the island, and it took them better than an hour to make it.
Just like the north side of Hiva Faui, this island's north side rose up from the sea in high, sheer cliffs.
The jungle ended almost at the cliff's edge. Gabrielle was nowhere to be seen.
Carter hesitated just within the darkness of the trees. She had been just in front of him. He had lost the sounds of her progress because of the noise of the surf far below and the wind out of the northwest that was rising into a very stiff breeze that moaned around the rocks.
He was sure she had not turned parallel to the cliffs in order to keep to the cover of the jungle. He noticed some rocky hills to the east, and the jungle fell into a fairly deep valley a hundred yards to the west.
No, Carter decided, she had come this way. Which meant there was a path down to the sea.
Keeping low, he stepped out from the jungle, crossed to the edge of the cliff, and looked over. Twenty or thirty yards to the west, and far below on the rocks, he just caught a glimpse of Gabrielle as she disappeared beneath a wide overhang.