Island of the Sequined Love Nun

he knew by heart, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and put in the coordinates for his second destination. He put on a headset and turned on the radios. The frequency was already set for the Honolulu tower. Jake was receiving the official FAA ass-chewing of the century, but there wasn't a word about anyone dropping to the top of a United jet. He had just taken off the headset to settle down for the wait when he heard a scratching sound outside the escape hatch. He opened it and Roberto plopped inside.

63 – No Frills
    The Sky Priestess was drunk. She and the Sorcerer `, had made two million dollars in the last ten days and she couldn't even buy a pair of shoes. The new pilot, Nomura, was a heavily tattooed, taciturn prick who spoke marginal English and looked at her like he'd rape her in a second, not for the pleasure of the violence, but to put her in her place. Since his arrival, even the ninjas had started to get cocky, joking in Japanese and laughing raucously when her back was turned. Even the Shark People seemed to be losing their fear of her. The last time she had appeared to them the children were left in the village. So the Sky Priestess was watching television in a torn T-shirt and some sweatpants and she was drunk.
    The intercom beeped and she let it. If it hadn't run on batteries, she would have unplugged it. Instead, she threw it through the french doors, where it beeped the beach for two more minutes, then stopped. The next time she saw it Sebastian was standing in the door holding it like a prosecutor exhibiting a murder weapon to the jury.
    "I suppose you think this is funny."
    "Not particularly. Now if it had hit you in the head, that would be funny."
    "We have an order, Beth. A kidney."
    "Oh, good. I'm in great shape to assist a surgery. Let's do both kidneys. Give the buyer a bonus. What do you say?" She sloshed her tumbler of vodka.
    Sebastian picked up the empty Absolut bottle from the end table. "This isn't going to work, Beth. You can't appear as the Sky Priestess like that." He seemed more afraid than angry.
    "You are absolutely correct, 'Bastian. The goddess has taken the night off."
    Sebastian paced back and forth in front of her, rubbing his chin. "We could stall. We could put you on some oxygen and amphetamines and you could be ready in an hour."
    She laughed. "And ruin this buzz? I don't think so. Tell them to find another source for this one."
    He shook his head. "I don't think I can do that. Nomura's been on the phone with them. He told them we could deliver in six hours."
    She hissed. "Nomura's a fucking grunt. He does what we say. This is our operation."
    "I'm not so sure, Beth. I really don't want to tell him no. Please take a shower and make some coffee. I'll be back in a minute with an oxygen cylinder."
    "No, 'Bastian," she whined. "I don't want to spend six hours in a plane with that asshole."
    "You won't have to, Beth. They've requested that we send him alone this time."
    She sat up. "Alone? Who's going to watch him?" Suddenly she felt very sober.
    "No one needs to watch him, Beth. He works for them, remember? You were right. We shouldn't have gotten a pilot from them."

    An hour and forty minutes after he dropped through the hatch, Tuck started the procedure to power up the 747. He'd never actually flown anything this big-or anything nearly this big-but he had done twenty hours in a simulator in Dallas and only crashed twice. All planes fly the same, he told himself and he started the first engine. Once it had spooled up, he had the power to start the other three. He put on the headset and looked out the side window to make sure he had room to turn the plane and taxi it to the runway. As soon as it started moving, the tower began to chatter, trying first to get him to identify himself, then to stop. Roberto, who was hanging from the straps on the flight officer's seat beside Tuck, barked twice and let loose a high-pitched squeal.
    "You're cookie' with gas, buddy," came over the radio. Jake was close enough to see the big jet.
    "Where are you, Jake?"
    "Out of the way, buddy, but thanks for using my name on the radio. Just thought you ought to know that you're going to need fifty-one hundred feet of runway to get that thing off the ground at your destination-and that's with full flaps, so save your fuel now. You'd better tell them what you're doing unless you've got collision insurance on that thing."
    Tuck keyed the mike button on the steering yoke. "Honolulu Tower,