Island of the Sequined Love Nun

against speed, and decided to go like a newborn turtle for the water. The only people who might see him were the Doc and Beth, and they were probably in the process of pushing the twin beds together and doing the Ozzie and Harriet double-skin sweat slap-or whatever sort of weird shit they did. He hoped it was painful.
    He broke into a dead run across the gravel, feeling the coral dig at his feet and the ferns whip at his ankles but keeping his focus on the beach. As he passed the clinic, he thought he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't turn. He was Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, and Edwin Moses (except he was white and slow), a single head turn could cause him to lose his stride and the race-and boy, does that beach seem farther when you're running than when you're sneaking. He almost tumbled when he hit the sand, but managed a controlled forward stumble that put him face-first in four inches of water. The baby turtle had made it to the water, but now he faced a whole new set of dangers at sea, not the least of which was trying to swim with a pair of stuffed khakis around his neck.
    He kicked a few feet out into the water, put on his fins and mask, and began the swim.

    He'd been furious from the moment he heard the pilot's voice in the clinic and he had fought the cloud of painkillers and the pressure in his head to get to him. Yamata watched the pilot stumble into the water before he tried shouting for the others. The shout came out little more than a grunt through his wired jaw, and his crushed sinuses allowed little sound to pass through his nose. His gun was in the guards' quarters, the others were at the hangar, and his hated enemy was escaping. He decided to go for his gun. The others might want to take the pilot alive.

56 – Escape
    Kimi was trying to call up thunder and was having no luck at all. He'd been chanting and waving his arms for half an hour and there still wasn't a cloud in the sky.
    "You're not holding your arms right," Sarapul said. He was Lying under a palm tree, chewing a betel nut and offering constructive criticism to the navigator. Sepie lay nearby watching.
    "I am too," Kimi said. "I'm holding them the same way you do."
    "Maybe it doesn't work for Filipinos."
    "It's because I'm shot," Kimi said. " If I wasn't shot, I could do this."
    Sarapul scanned the horizon. Not even a bird. "That's it. It's because you're shot." He spit out a red stream of betel nut juice. "And you're not holding your arms right."
    Kimi resumed chanting and waving his arms.
    "Hey!" Sarapul said.
    "What? Did you hear thunder? I knew I could do it."
    "No. Be quiet. Someone is calling you."
    Kimi listened. Someone was calling him, and they were getting closer. He limped down the beach toward the voice and saw Tucker Case coming around the island.
    "Hey, boss, what you coin' out here during the day? The Sorcerer gonna be plenty mad at you."
    Tuck was out of breath. "He is mad. I need your boat, Kimi. And I need you to navigate for me."
    "Not his ship," Sarapul said. "My ship."
    "The doc is going to kill me if I don't get off the island. Can I use your boat?"
    The old cannibal was silent for a moment, thinking. "Where you go?"
    "I don't know. Guam, Yap, anywhere."
    "Can I come?"
    "Yes, yes, if I can use your boat."
    "Okay, we leave five days. Right, Kimi?"
    Kimi looked at Tuck. "It not be good sailing for five days."
    "I have to go now, Kimi."
    "Can Sepie come?"
    Sepie stepped back, surprised. "You want to take me? Women don't sail."
    "You come," Kimi said. "Okay, boss?" he said to Tuck.
    Tuck nodded. "Whatever. Sepie, go tell Malink that I need everyone to bring drinking coconuts. Many drinking coconuts with the husks taken off. Bananas, mangoes, papaya, and dried fish if he has any."
    "There is plenty shark meat," Sepie said.
    "I need it now, Sepie. Go. Tell Malink that Vincent demands it."
    Sarapul began to chop at the underbrush in front of the sailing canoe to clear a path to the water. "Put down palm leaf to slide ship on," he told Tuck. Tuck began to gather long palm fronds and lay them down in a path to the water.
    "Kimi, can you go get the things from my pack? There's things we can use."
    "What about Roberto?"
    "Call for him, but go get the stuff. The money too."
    "Okay, boss."
    Ten minutes later Tuck looked up to see Malink leading a line of Shark People through the jungle. All were carrying baskets of food and husked green coconuts.
    "You are leaving?"
    "Yes, I have to go,