Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Chief."
    "You are taking our ship and our navigator."
    "And our mispel," Abo added from behind Malink.
    "I have to go, Malink. The Sorcerer and the Sky Priestess are going to kill me."
    "But Vincent send you. How they hurt you?"
    "They don't really believe in Vincent. They use him to get you to give up the chosen, Malink. They're going to start killing off your people too."
    "They no kill the chosen. Chosen are for Vincent."
    "No. I told you before. They take out your organs and sell them to be put inside of other people."
    Malink scoffed. "You can no put one man kidney in other man."
    "It was in People magazine. Didn't you see it? Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Mariel Hemingway, all of them? You didn't read about it?"
    Recognition lit up Malink's face. "Boob job!"
    "Yes," Tuck said. "Where do you think they get those boobs?"
    "Oh, no."
    "Yes."
    "He speaks the truth," Malink said to the islanders. "It was in People. Put the food in the boat."
    He took Tuck aside. "You will come back?"
    "I'll try."
    "And bang our navigator."
    "I'll try, Malink. I really will."
    "You try."
    "Tide," Kimi called. "We go now."
    The center of the canoe was filled with coconuts, fruit, and bundles of dried shark meat wrapped in banana leaves. Kimi directed the men to get on either side of the canoe and push it over the mat of palm fronds to the water. When it was afloat, Tuck lifted Sepie in, then climbed in himself. Kimi, standing on the outrigger platform, started to hoist the sail. It was the shape of a tortilla chip stood on end with a bite taken out at the top. Tuck recognized the pieces of his pack sewn into the nylon patchwork.
    "Where is Sarapul?" Kimi said.
    "Here!" The old cannibal was running out of the jungle, seeming stronger now than Tuck had ever seen him. He had gone back for his spear, a long shaft of mahogany with a wickedly barbed metal tip. Tuck caught the old man by the forearm and pulled him out of the surf and into the canoe.
    The canoe was already fifty yards from the shore. Sarapul took the long oar at the rear and steered it toward the channel as Kimi stood on the outrigger platform and manipulated the sail.
    The Shark People stood on the beach looking stunned. A few waved. Malink looked forlorn, Abo heartbroken.
    "Thanks," Tuck shouted over the wave. "Thank you, Malink."
    "You will come back," Malink said. It was not a question.
    Tuck turned to look out to sea, then looked back to see the Shark People wading into the water after them. Behind them he saw a dark figure come out of the jungle.
    There was no warning shot or demand to halt. Stripe came out onto the beach and opened up with the Uzi. Tuck pushed Sepie's head down under the edge of the gunwale just as a line of bullets stitched and splintered the wood. Kimi screamed and Tuck looked up to see a row of red geysers open in his back. He clung to one of the lines for a second, then fell into the sea.
    Another scream, this one from Sarapul, the hideous screech of a raging lynx, and the old man went over the side. The gunfire stopped and Tuck risked popping his head up to look back to the beach. Stripe was slamming a new clip into the Uzi as he waded after the canoe. The Shark People had fled from the water and disappeared into the jungle or were cowering on the beach, unable to move.
    With the sail loose, the canoe had swung around and was being carried by the tide toward the reef. They would miss the channel by only a few feet, but they would miss it and run aground on the reef. Tuck reached up to grab the steering oar just as Stripe let off another burst from the Uzi. At a hundred yards he was spraying a wide pattern, but Tuck heard a couple of bullets thunk into the side of the canoe.
    The normally crystal water near the shore was clouded with the sand and silt thrown up by the Shark People's retreat, so Stripe did not see the dark shape moving through the water toward him. He wanted a shot. He set the Uzi to semiautomatic and unfolded the stock to take careful aim.
    Tuck was standing now, leaning hard on the steering oar to bang the canoe around and through the channel. The outrigger scraped over the reef as the canoe approached broadside.
    Stripe lined up the sights between Tuck's shoulder blades, held his breath, let it out, then squeezed the trigger.
    Sarapul came out of the water like an angry marlin, spear-first. The metal point entered just under Stripe's chin and exited his skull at the crown, dragging brain and bone on its evil barb. As Stripe fell