Island of the Sequined Love Nun

the button, ready to administer another dose of morphine to Kimi.
    Tuck grabbed it from her hand. "No. Go now. How did you know about the mines?"
    "I have other friend. Sarapul. I teach him how to be a navigator. He know a lot of things too. He a cannibal."
    "You're a cannibal lesbian?"
    "Just learning. How come you have rubber suit? You kinky?"
    "Sneaky. Look, Kimi, have you seen a fat white guy, an American?"
    "No, but Sarapul see him. He see the guards take him from the beach. He not here?"
    "No. I found his notebook. I met him on Truk."
    "Sarapul say he see the guards bring him to the Sorcerer. He say it very funny, the white man wear pigs with wings."
    Tuck felt his face go numb. All that was left of Pardee was a pelvic bone wedged in the reef, stripped of flesh and wrapped in flying piggy shorts. Oh, there might be the odd kidney left alive in someone in Japan, a kidney that he had delivered. Had the fat man died on the operating table during the operation, the surgery too much for his heart? Or was he put under and never meant to wake up?
    Tuck suddenly felt that getting into the doctor's computer was more important than ever. He grabbed Kimi's arm and pulled the IV needle out of his vein. The navigator didn't resist, and he didn't seem to feel it.
    "Kimi, see if you can get that back in Sepie's arm and come with me."
    "Okay boss."
    Tuck looked down at the girl, who had evidently picked up on the panic in his voice. Her eyes were wide, despite the morphine glaze. "Don't buzz the doctor until after we're gone. This button will let you have only so much morphine, and Kimi's used some of yours. But if it hurts, you still have to wait, okay?"
    She nodded. Kimi crawled out of the bed and neatly fell. Tuck caught him by the arm and steadied him.
    "I am chosen," Sepie said. "When Vincent comes, he will give me many pretty things."
    Tuck brushed back her hair with his fingers. "Yes, he will. You sleep now. And thank you for taking care of me when I was sick."
    Kimi kissed the girl and after a minute Tuck pulled him away and led him through the operating room to the office section of the clinic. In the glow of the computer screen, Tuck said, "Kimi, the doctor and his wife ate killing people."
    "No, they not. They sent by Vincent. Sepie say Vincent come from Heaven to bring people many good things. They very poor."
    "No, Kimi, they are bad people. Like Malcolme. They ate taking advantage of Sepie's people. They are just pretending to be working for a god."
    "How you know? You no believe in God."
    Tuck took the boy by the shoulders. He was no longer angry or even irritated, he was afraid, and for the first time ever, not just for himself. "Kimi, can you swim back around the mines?"
    "I think."
    "You've got to go to the other side of the island and you can't come back. If the guards find you I'm pretty sure you'll be killed."
    "You just want Sepie for yourself. She tell me you follow her."
    "I'll check on her and I'll meet you at the drinking circle tomorrow night-tell you how she's doing. I won't touch her, I promise. Okay?"
    "Okay." Kimi leaned against the wall by the door.
    Tuck studied him for a moment to try and determine just how fucked up he was. It wasn't a difficult swim. Tuck had done it stone drunk, but he'd been wearing fins and a mask and snorkel. "You're sure you can swim?"
    Kimi nodded and Tuck cracked the door. The moon had moved across the sky throwing the front of the clinic in shadow. The guard across the compound was reading a magazine by flashlight. "When you get outside, go left and get behind the building." The navigator stepped out, slid down the side of the building and around the corner. Tuck heard him trip and fall and swear softly in Filipino.
    "Shit," Tuck said to himself. He glanced at the computer. It would have to wait. He slid out the door, palming it shut behind him, then followed the navigator around the building. He heard the guard shout from across the compound, and for once in his life, Tuck made a definitive decision. He grabbed the navigator under the arms and ran.

45 – Confessions Over Tee
    Tucker Case dreamed of machine-gun fire and jerked as the bullets ripped into his back. He tossed forward into the dirt, mouth filling with sand, smothering him as the life drained out of a thousand ragged wounds, and still the guns kept firing, the rhythmic reports pounding like a violet storm of timpanis, like a persistent fist on a rickety door.
    "Just let me die!" Tuck screamed, most of