by Nick Carter
Fenster had set out armed perimeter guards, especially along the northeastern side of the base where they thought they had found a path up from the sea that the natives might have taken.
He had also sent out a heavily armed patrol down the highway toward town to remove the tree blocking the road and to retrieve Tieggs's jeep.
The news was not very good that morning. Fenster and Owen were seated together in the dining hall when Carter and Gabrielle, dressed in khakis that Owen had sent up, came in. The large room fell silent as they crossed, everyone's eyes glued to Gabrielle.
"Good morning, Madame Rondine," Owen said. "Carter."
They sat down, and the place finally got back to normal. Gabrielle was amused, and she managed a slight smile.
But neither Owen nor Fenster was smiling. "We found Duvall," Owen said.
"In town?" Carter asked.
The station manager shook his head. He seemed very grim. "He was just beyond where we found Bob's jeep."
Carter started to ask what Duvall was doing there, but then he understood.
"His throat was cut, and he was hanging by his ankles from the branch of a tree," Owen said.
"I've never seen so much blood," Fenster added.
Gabrielle sat forward. "Pardon me, Mr. Owen, but who discovered this man's body?"
Owen's eyes narrowed, but he shrugged and looked to Fenster. "I don't know."
"One of my security people found him," Fenster said. "But I was out there this morning myself."
"Underneath the… body… where the blood collected. Was there…" She was having a little trouble, and the looks on Owen's and Fenster's faces were not helping much.
"What is it?" Carter asked gently.
"Beneath the body, were there large palm leaves to collect the blood?"
It was Fenster's turn to sit up. "There were, come to think of it. Struck me as very strange."
"It was a ritual murder then," Gabrielle said. "Mr. Duvall was sacrificed."
Owen and Fenster looked at each other. "I knew it was natives who had done this," Fenster said. "But I thought it was their radicals."
"No," Gabrielle said with certainty. "Your Mr. Duvall was killed in a religious ceremony."
"How do you know all this?" Carter asked.
She looked at him and smiled. "Through the years here, with little or nothing to occupy my time, I have become something of an expert on the local Polynesians… their cultures, their languages, their heritage."
"I would have thought they'd hold their religious ceremonies in their villages."
"Normally they would. But this particular sacrifice is designed to take place in the field… the field of battle against a particularly hated and feared enemy. It gives them strength while at the same time draining the blood of their foes."
"We're the hated enemy?" Owen asked.
"Apparently so," Gabrielle said, turning to him.
"But why? What in God's name have we ever done to these people?"
It all suddenly fell into place for Carter… or very nearly all of it. The Starfish would be here in about twenty-four hours. He had until then to find out if he was right, or if he was way off base.
"I cannot answer that, Mr. Owen."
Fenster got up. "I'll have the chopper ready for you anytime you want to go."
"What is this?" Gabrielle asked, looking from Fenster to Carter.
"I'll just have some coffee and be right with you," Carter said, and Fenster turned and left.
Owen got up. "Be careful out there. Carter. If something goes wrong, there won't be a damn thing we can do for you."
"I won't be long."
"What I don't understand is what the hell you hope to accomplish by going over there."
"Over where?" Gabrielle asked.
Owen turned to her. "He wants to go over to Natu Faui. After what happened here… I don't know. But I think he'll end up like poor Handley Duvall."
She turned to Carter. "Why are you going over there this morning, Nick?"
"I want to look around," Carter said.
"I'm coming with you."
"Absolutely not…" Carter started to protest, but she interrupted him.
"Not only can't you speak their language, you have no idea as to their culture, their villages, their ways of thinking… their gods to whom they make sacrifices."
She was making perfect sense, of course. Carter realized. And they would have the helicopter to get the hell out of there in a big hurry if anything went wrong.
Carter smiled. "You win," he said.
Owen shook his head. "You're crazy. First you show up with the French governor's wife, and now you plan on carting her off to an island inhabited by hostile natives." He shook his head again. "Christ," he said, and he turned and left the dining hall.
"He is a very distraught man," Gabrielle said.
"I think he and Duvall were good friends."
"It is very sad."
For just a moment, looking at her profile, her complexion glowing, Carter felt a sense of wonder at the way things were turning out. A few hours after meeting, they had made love, and it had been near perfect.
Gabrielle turned back, breaking the spell, and a quizzical expression came into her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. She glanced toward the door and then back.
Carter shook his head and smiled. "I was just thinking about this morning," he said.
She reached out for his hand. "Was it good for you?"
Carter smiled and nodded. "And for you?" She nodded.
* * *
After they had some breakfast, Carter got a.45 automatic and holster for Gabrielle, who assured him she knew how to use the weapon, and then they went over to the flight line where Fenster was waiting with the helicopter.
The security chief came around the chopper when he saw who had come with Carter. His eyes strayed to the.45 strapped at her hip.
"I'm not taking her," he said.
"Why not?" Gabrielle asked.
"She's not coming, Carter," Fenster said, ignoring her. "If something should happen over there, and she were to get hurt, there'd be hell to pay."
"I tried to convince her to stay behind, but she wouldn't listen to me," Carter said, opening the passenger side door of the helicopter. He helped Gabrielle up into the rear seat.
Fenster just stared at them. He was fuming.
Carter turned back. "Don't just stand there. I'd like to get over and back before lunch."
"What did Justin have to say about her?"
"He just shook his head and said we were crazy," Carter said. He climbed up into the front passenger seat and strapped in. "Are you going to take us over, or do we find another pilot?"
Fenster slapped the side of his leg in frustration, but he finished his walk-around inspection of the helicopter. Then he climbed into the pilot's side and fastened his seat belt. He flipped a series of switches, and then the starter motor, and the big rotor began spinning.
"What part of the island do you want to see?" Fenster shouted over the din of the blades.
"Put us down on the beach at the southwest end of the island."
Fenster looked sharply at him. "Near the volcano?"
Carter nodded. "That's right."
"If the natives are already pumped up, that'll be no place to wander around. The volcano is holy to them."
"Right," Carter said.
Gabrielle sat forward. "What is wrong?" she shouted.
Carter turned around to her. "Are you ready?" he said. She nodded, and Carter turned back to Fenster. "Let's go."
Fenster sighed deeply, but then they lifted off, straight above the base, and headed south. At the edge of the island Carter could see Fenster's security people along the low cliffs. He could also see that the cliffs had been undercut by the wave action. He pointed it out to Fenster.
"We think they hide their canoes in the caves and then climb up," the security chief shouted.
"No way of patrolling the area from the sea
?"
"There are tens of thousands of little holes and caves. At night it would be impossible to see much of anything."
Fenster swung them directly south, and in the distance they could see the volcano on Natu Faui in the haze.
Two miles out. they spotted the first of the native outrigger canoes strung out toward Natu Faui.
"That's why it's impossible to detect an attack ahead of time," Fenster said, pointing down at them.
"What are they doing? Fishing?"
"Some of them. Others are pearl diving. Sponge diving."
Carter looked at them. "And some of them are killers."
"It would appear all of them are killers, if Mrs. Rondine was correct about the religious killing."
"Bring us a little lower," Carter said.
"They won't like it. Our rotor wash screws them up."
"I don't like killing."
Fenster wanted to say something in return — Carter could see it in his eyes — but he held his tongue and brought them down directly over a half dozen of the canoes.
Carter pulled out the binoculars, and as they passed, he looked down into each boat. He had expected to possibly catch one of the boatloads of natives unawares and find them with weapons. He was not prepared for what he did see, however. Every canoe was loaded with weapons: bows and arrows, machetes, spearguns. But there did not seem to be firearms of any kind.
Carter asked Fenster about it as they climbed back up.
"They are a very independent people, from what I know," he said. "The French leave them alone as long as they don't arm themselves with modern weapons. The bows and arrows and other weapons were used to hunt with… until now."
Ahead, for as far as they could see toward Natu Faui, was a virtual armada of canoes.
"The only thing to do will be either to wipe out the entire island or put a garrison on it," Fenster was saying.
The fact that the natives carried only primitive weapons did not fit in with Carter's idea of what was happening on these islands. Yet he still felt he was on the right track.
"It'll come to that, you'll see," Fenster said. "And it won't be our Navy who'll do it. It'll have to be the French. They know how to deal with problems like that."
Another thing bothering Carter was the fact that last night during the attack there were no Orientals to be found anywhere on the base. But this morning they had been back, not as if nothing had happened, but as if they had been there all along, fighting side by side with the rest of the base personnel.
They were approaching the southwestern beaches of Natu Faui, and Fenster was looking at Carter as if he were expecting something. He had evidently asked a question, but Carter had not heard him.
"I'm sorry," Carter said. "I was thinking. You asked me something?"
"I said that after all that has happened, I don't want to set you down on this island. It's simply too dangerous."
"We're going down."
"I would be remiss in my duty as security chief if I let anything happen to you," Fenster said, and he started to peel off to the west, around in a big circle away from the island.
"You set this machine down anywhere but where I asked you to take me, and I will break both of your arms, Richard," Carter said, keeping his voice even.
Fenster flinched as if about to be struck, but he brought the chopper back on course. "This is insanity, you know that."
They were approaching the beach. The volcano loomed well above them, a few miles inland.
"If it was just you, it'd be one thing. But dragging the governor's wife along…"
Carter took out his Luger, ejected the clip, then worked the slide mechanism back and forth a couple of times. He replaced the clip, levered a round into the firing chamber, made sure the safety was engaged, and slid the weapon back into its holster at his belt beneath his shirt.
During all that, Fenster nervously brought them down for a jerky landing on the beach halfway between the water and the thick wall of jungle.
He shut down the engine, and in the silence, Carter opened his door and unbuckled.
"I want you to stay here with the chopper. We might have to beat a hasty retreat."
"What are you planning on doing?"
"We're going inland. There's something I have to see. If you hear any shooting, start the engine and get ready to lift off."
Fenster looked from Carter to the jungle and back. "Where inland? How far? And just what is it you're going after? I don't understand any of this."
"I'm not going to stop and explain. Just be here when we get back. Understand?"
Fenster wanted to argue, but again he held his tongue. He nodded.
Carter got out of the machine and helped Gabrielle down.
"We may have to hike several miles each way," he said to her. "Do you think you're up to it?"
She smiled. "Ill manage," she said.
"Keep your eyes open," Carter said to Fenster. "We're heading directly inland. If anything happens out here, come in toward us. Let us know what's going on."
Fenster swore under his breath, but he nodded. "How long do you suppose you'll be?"
"Several hours," Carter said. "Keep a sharp watch." He took Gabrielle's arm, and they went up the beach until they found a break in the thick vegetation that allowed them to penetrate the jungle.
There was so much undergrowth that the going was very difficult for the first few hundred yards. But then the ground became much harder as it began to rise toward the volcano, and the growth began to thin out.
They stopped after a half hour to catch their breath. Carter figured they had come about a third of the way to the general vicinity where the helicopter instruments had gone crazy when he had flown over with Tieggs.
Gabrielle's face was covered with a thin sheen of perspiration. It had been the same earlier this morning when they had made love in his room. She had been like a sensual animal then. Now she seemed like some sort of a sleek jungle cat. She was strange and very sad in some respects, but incredibly lovely and innocent all at the same moment.
"Just where is it we are going, Nick?" she asked.
"It's farther inland. Possibly an hour or more away from here."
"But what is it you are seeking? Why this place? What has drawn you here?"
Quickly he told her about his search of this end of the island with Bob Tieggs and of the odd readings on the helicopter's instruments.
"So you think there is something going on up here? Something electrical, evidently, if it had such an effect on your machine's instruments."
"Something very powerful."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"Radar, perhaps," Carter said. "We may have crossed its beam. I don't know. It's why I'm here now."
"You think it has something to do with the native attacks?"
"I don't know, Gabrielle."
"But it is why you have brought me along. If we find something, I will be able to translate."
"What could make them hate our installation so much? What could drive them to such attacks?"
"I do not know, Nick. But it certainly has something to do with their religion. In their minds, your people have evidently committed some sacrilege."
The helicopter, trailing thick black smoke, clattered overhead then disappeared to the north, the noise of its engine fading almost to nothing, but then it came back.
"What is happening?" Gabrielle cried.
Carter looked around for a climbable tree as the chopper clattered overhead again. This time it was going much more slowly, however, as if it were searching for something or someone, and almost immediately it swung back again toward the north.
There was a bright flash followed by an explosion. The machine rolled over on its side and dived.
Seconds later the dull thump of an explosion came to them through the trees, and they headed in a dead run toward the north.
Eight
The helicopter, or what was left of it, had come down in a thicket at the edge of a small clearing on
the side of a lava flow. The fire was still far too intense for them to get very close to the wreckage. There was no doubt in Carter's mind that Fenster was dead. No one could have survived the explosion and fire.
Carter was certain that the machine had not exploded because of some malfunction. He could have sworn that just before the chopper exploded there had been a bright flash, as if a small ground-to-air missile had homed in on it.
But why had he gone up in the first place? Had the natives come back to the island? Or had someone or something else come in on him?
"What happened here, Nick?" Gabrielle asked.
"I don't know for sure, "he said. "But it's a safe bet the natives didn't do this."
She looked sharply at him. "Who then?" she asked. "There is no one else here. The natives, your people, my people."
"And the Chinese," Carter reminded her. "Let's not forget them, shall we?" If it had been a missile, Fenster never had a chance. But the ship had been trailing smoke when they first saw it. Something had happened down on the beach. He immediately thought about pheasant hunting. The natives had possibly flushed him up into the air, and then the missile was fired. From inland.
It was only a few minutes after nine, but already the morning was becoming brutally hot. To the west the volcano towered over them. Straight inland, among hills rich with vegetation, was something that had interfered with the helicopter's flight instruments.
"How are we going to get back?" Gabrielle asked. She had been staring forlornly at the flaming wreckage.
"We'll worry about that later. I still have a job to do, and I intend doing it."
"But we cannot continue."
Carter took her hands. This had all been too much for her. He should have known better than to bring her along this morning. After her escape from her husband and the attack on the base, she was just overloaded.
He did not think the natives would harm her. They evidently were being directed against the American installation and the Americans, not the French. Besides, she would be known here. And she knew their language and customs.
"Go back to the beach and wait for me there. I'll be a few hours."
"No," she cried.
"You can talk to the natives. We'll need a canoe to take us back to Hiva Faui. Tell them I am French as well. By the time they realize where I am I'll be on my way back."
