Island of the Sequined Love Nun

give Melanie your number there. I'll see what I can do."
    "Mary Jean, I really appreciate this. If I could go to anyone else, I would."
    "And hurt my feelings? No, you wouldn't. Tucker Case, I've been selling the power to change yourself for forty years. Now, if I don't believe in the power of redemption, then I'm guilty of false advertising, aren't I? You sit tight, now. Bye."
    She clicked the intercom. "Melanie, get me Jake Skye on the line, please. Thank you, dear."

61 – Roundhouse Aloha
    Tuck stood at the arrival gate amid a group of Hawaiian college students wearing grass skirts and sarongs and…stooped with leis they were draping on tourists as they came out of the tunnel from the 747. Tuck spotted Jake Skye well before he came out of the tunnel. He was a head taller than most of the tourists and one of the few who had a tan. Tuck waved to him and Jake tossed his head to show he'd seen him. He came out grinning with his hand extended.
    Tuck smiled and hit Jake with a roundhouse to the jaw that knocked him back into a group of pseudo hula girls. Jake apologized to the girls and rubbed his jaw as he turned to Tuck.
    "We done?"
    "I guess so," Tucker said. He knew that Jake would never apologize for selling him out.
    Jake fell in beside Tuck and they walked through the terminal. "I didn't see that coming. You've changed, buddy."
    "I guess so," said Tuck. "Thanks for coming."
    "I'm just here to take you home." Jake pulled two airline ticket folders out of his shirt pocket. "Mary Jean says you can bring your new girlfriend."
    "I'm not going home, Jake."
    "You're not?"
    "No. I need your help, but I'm not going back to Houston."
    "There's a stop in San Francisco. You can get off there."
    "No. I've got some things I need to do."
    "Buy me a drink." Jake turned and walked into an open cocktail lounge where a twenty-foot waterfall fell over black lava rock among a forest of bromeliads and orchids. "Cool airport," Jake said, pulling a stool up to the bar. "You ever think about living in the tropics?"
    Tuck whipped around on his stool and Jake held up his hands in surrender.
    "Just kidding. Okay, what's the story?"
    This time Tuck told the story leaving out none of the details, and to his credit, Jake did not call him crazy at the end. "So what do you think you can do?"
    "Well, first, I thought you could hack the doctor's computer and erase the database. It might slow up the process if he has to do all the tissue types again."
    Jake was shaking his head. "Can't do it, buddy. Even if I wanted to."
    "Why not? I've got the password."
    Jake drained off the last of his third Mai Tai. "He's on a satellite uplink net. The connection only goes two ways if he wants it to. I won't be able to get in. Besides, it's not in the mission parameters. I'm supposed to come here, get you, and take you home. Period."
    Tuck dug a slip of paper from his back pocket and unfolded it. "I've got these. Maybe they can help."
    Jake was still shaking his head, but he stopped when he saw the numbers written on the paper. "Where did you get those numbers?"
    "They were on the bottom of a desk drawer in Curtis's clinic."
    "They're not computer codes, Tuck. You see those letters at the end? BSI? You know what that is?"
    Tuck shook his head.
    "Bane Suisse Italiano. Those are Swiss bank account numbers." Jake tried to snatch the paper and Tuck pulled it out of his reach.
    "You willing to expand the mission parameters?" Tuck said.
    Jake was staring at the paper in Tuck's hand. "How much?"
    "Half."
    Jake scratched his three-day growth of beard. "And they were getting how much per kidney?"
    "Half a mil."
    Jake cringed, then relaxed and put his hand on Tuck's shoulder. "What did you have in mind, partner?"
    "I want to get the Shark People off the island."
    "How many? Three hundred and change? Hire a ship."
    "I want to go sooner. I want to fly them off."
    Jake smiled. The wheels were working now. "It's going to take a big plane: 747 or L-1011. That island got enough runway for something that size?"
    "Can we get something that size?"
    "Not legally," Jake said.
    "I'm not worried about legally. I'm worried about logistically."
    Jake stood up. "I'm not flying it. I get you a plane, I get half. Deal?"
    "I'll give you one of the account numbers as soon as we get the plane. You take your chances whether there's money in it or not. If I don't make it, and the money's in my account, you're screwed."
    Jake considered it, then nodded. "I can live with that. Let's go watch