Scorpion

by Ken Douglas

He thought about Ramsingh. He’d saved the man’s life and in turn the man had saved his. They’d fled the hotel, stolen a car, been shot at, charged into a night sea, stolen a boat and now they were sailing toward the Venezuelan mainland and the night wasn’t even over. The full moon, high in the night sky, the stars, the sound of the boat cutting through a flat sea, all conspired to fill him with awe and he found he envied Ramsingh his years at sea.

  High pitched laughter shot through the dark, carried on the wind, and something shot out of the sea, startling him. Then he grinned wide as another dolphin broke the surface, spinning in the air. Broxton stood and watched as the dolphins swam along the bow wake, jumping it and playing in it, letting it carry them along.

  Then the dolphin on the right shot up, twirled in the air, then slid back into the water and another took its place, playing and gliding in the bow wake for five or ten minutes. Then it, too, danced away as another took its place and Broxton realized what was happening. They were sharing, taking turns.

  The playful animals kept him company throughout his watch and when he finally checked the time he found that he’d let the prime minister have an extra hour of sleep. For a second he thought about not waking him for still another hour, but then three of the dolphins flipped out of the water at the same time, then they sank back into the sea and they were gone.

  He called down to Ramsingh.

  “ I’m awake,” he said. “Uncle Dick take care of you okay?”

  “ He did fine,” Broxton said, and again he thought of his parents. He’d never been able to accept their belief in God, but looking out at the night, inhaling the sea air, knowing how it made him feel, he had to accept that there was something, and if he couldn’t believe in God or a guiding hand, well then Uncle Dick would do fine. He mentally thanked the unknown Richard McPartland for keeping him safe on his watch.

  “ Would you like some coffee?” Ramsingh asked from below.

  “ Yes,” Broxton answered, and in a few minutes the pungent aroma drifted up and mingled with the dark morning air.

  “ How do you drink it?”

  “ Black is fine,” Broxton said.

  “ Black it is.” Ramsingh said, coming on deck with two mugs of steaming coffee.

  “ There’s a light up ahead,” Broxton said, accepting one of the mugs.

  “ That would be Puerto Santos. It’s a small fishing village. It’s a nice place for us to hide the day away,” Ramsingh said.

  “ I thought you’d want to get back to Trinidad as soon as possible.”

  “ I do, but we’re sailing a stolen boat. That’s piracy.”

  “ But we had good cause, and you’re the Prime Minister of Trinidad.”

  “ Do you think that matters to the owner?”

  “ I hadn’t thought about that,” Broxton said.

  “ And think about this,” Ramsingh said. “It probably matters less to the Venezuelan Coast Guard. They’re likely to shoot first and ask questions later, just like in your American old west. Remember, I was in Venezuela because their coast guard shot up a Trinidadian fishing boat.”

  “ Couldn’t we just call for help on the radio and explain ourselves?”

  “ We could, but I’d prefer to get to the bottom of this with as little publicity as possible. I’m not too popular with the press as it is. The last thing I want is to give them any more ammunition to use against me.”

  “ Someone tried to kill you. They should be outraged.”

  “ They’d probably criticize his failure,” Ramsingh said.

  “ It’s that bad?”

  “ A lot of jobs were lost when I started shutting down the money laundering operations.”

  “ Honest jobs?” Broxton asked.

  “ Sure, Billie’s Burgers closed down. Six fast food restaurants, twenty jobs each. Coastal Furniture closed down. Two stores, over a hundred jobs each. Four retail stores in the West Mall, six in the Long Circular Mall, all closed down. Two new car dealerships, a bank with four branches and over a hundred jobs. A little here, a little there.”

  “ But they were laundering drug money and calling it profit.”

  “ Tell it to the man who lost his job. Tell it to his wife and kids. Tell it to his neighbors. Tell it to the newspapers.”

  “ I see what you mean. That could put a dent in your popularity.”

  “ Enough that someone might want me dead?”

  “ We told you we think it’s drug related,” Broxton said.

  “ You must be right, because we’re not talking lone assassin, are we?”

  “ No,” Broxton said, “we’re not.”

  “ I never thought it would come to this,” Ramsingh said.

  “ Who profits most from your death?”

  “ Nobody, really.”

  “ Think about it,” Broxton said.

  “ I have been. You know I have been.”

  “ Who becomes prime minister?”

  “ The party would caucus and choose someone.”

  “ Who?”

  “ Why the most popular man in the party, the most popular man in Trinidad, the old cricket star.”

  “ Who’s that?” Broxton asked.

  “ George Chandee, the attorney general.”

  “ Why am I not surprised? No, don’t say anything,” Broxton said, holding up his hand. “I’m going below and get some sleep. Just think about it.” And Broxton slipped through the companionway and in a few seconds he was asleep. Ramsingh woke him after they were securely anchored in a secluded bay and they had a breakfast of cheese and tomato sandwiches. Not what Broxton would have chosen, but they had to make due with what was available. Then he went back to sleep and slept straight through the day.

  They spent the next night motoring eastward along Venezuela’s north coast toward Trinidad. They stood two hour watches and Broxton found himself enjoying the night solitude. Ramsingh had the boat on autopilot, and like the previous night when the self-steering gear handled the boat under sail, the only thing Broxton had to do was watch to make sure they didn’t hit anything.

  The sun came up during his watch, so he was the first to see it. “Big boat, behind us,” he said, reaching for the binoculars. “It’s a navel vessel of some kind. They’ve got guns.”

  “ Let me see,” Ramsingh said, coming up through the companion way and Broxton handed over the far away glasses. “Venezuelan Coast Guard.”

  “ They be here before we’re out of their waters?” Broxton asked.

  “ Oh, I think so,” Ramsingh said.

  “ Can you fake a heart attack?”

  “ If I have to.”

  “ How do you work this thing?” Broxton asked, picking up the radio mike.

  “ Push this button and talk,” Ramsingh said.

  Broxton picked up the mike and thumbed the push-to-talk button. “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Can you hear me? My father’s having a heart attack. I need help. Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

  “ They’ll think I’m on death’s door,” Ramsingh said, after Broxton released the button.

  “ This is the Venezuelan Coast Guard Cutter Cuatro de Mayo to the vessel calling mayday.” The man was speaking English with a thick Venezuelan accent.

  Broxton clicked the button again. “Are you the big gray boat behind me?”

  “ We are.”

  “ Do you have a doctor on board?”

  “ Negative.”

  “ I need to get him to a hospital as quickly as possible and I can’t sail the boat. Can you help me?”

  “ You can’t sail?” the voice was skeptical.

  “ That’s right, it’s my father’s boat. I’m on vacation. I don’t know the first thing about sailing. You have to help me.”

  “ Captain Sanchez, Venezuelan Coast Guard, the burly man said, as he boarded. “You have the boat papers?”

  “ I don’t know.”

  “ Why not?” Sanchez asked, twirling a bushy mustache.

  “ I just came down to spend a couple of weeks with my father. I don�
�t know anything about the boat or its papers. Shit, they could have been stolen during the robbery,” Broxton said, improvising.

  “ What robbery?” the captain asked.

  “ Last night, while we were ashore in Puerto Santos, someone broke in and stole some money. They came in through there,” Broxton said, pointing to the broken hatch.

  “ That’s unfortunate. Some of our people think the yachties are all rich. They don’t realize that if they keep breaking in to their boats that they’ll stop coming. If that happens everybody loses.”

  “ I imagine it’s the same wherever people are poor,” Broxton said, wanting to change the subject.

  “ I imagine so,” the captain said. Then Ramsingh let out a yell that sounded like his insides were being ripped out.

  “ Can you leave someone with the boat and take us to the nearest hospital?” Broxton said.

  “ Yes, sir,” Captain Sanchez said and in minutes they had Ramsingh in a stretcher and were aboard the cutter.

  “ Two of my men will take your father’s boat to Puerto La Cruz, and we’ll go on to Trinidad.”

  “ Trinidad,” Broxton said, trying to sound shocked, “Can’t we go back to Caracas?”

  “ Trinidad is only a few hours away. Caracas would take us till tomorrow at this time.”

  “ Are the hospitals there any good?” Broxton asked. It wasn’t hard for him to sound worried and concerned.

  “ Not as good as ours, but much better than none at all,” the captain said, obviously proud.

  “ Can you radio ahead and have an ambulance waiting?” Broxton asked.

  “ It’s being done,” the captain said.

  Four hours later a Trinidad and Tobago customs officer and the crew of the Venezuelan cutter watched as two medical technicians hustled Ramsingh into a waiting ambulance. They were two miles down Western Main Road on the way to Port of Spain with the siren blazing when Ramsingh sat up.

  The medic tending Ramsingh in the back of the ambulance dropped his jaw and Broxton fought a smile when Ramsingh spoke. “Driver, turn off the siren and take us to the Red House.”

  “ Holy shit! It’s the prime minister,” the attending medic said.

  The driver looked in the mirror and saw that it was true. “Yes, sir, the Red House, at your service. Sure you want the siren off?”

  “ Yes off,” Ramsingh said. “We don’t want any attention drawn to us.”

  “ Yes, sir, siren off,” the driver said. He turned it off and drove to downtown Port of Spain.

  Outside the Red House Ramsingh told the driver to take Broxton by the American Ambassador’s residence where he was supposed to get his clothes, and then, he said, “Bring my new head of security back straight away.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The sun was winking over the horizon. Dew still covered the grass. A slight breeze rustled through Woodward park, and though it did little to cool the Caribbean heat, Broxton still shivered. If he was going to kill a prime minister, this would be the perfect spot. The park was in the center of the city, ringed on the north by the Red House, the colonial style buildings of Parliament, built by the British before independence-the south, by Fredrick Street, the main shopping street of Port of Spain, always teeming with people hustling in and out of the many department stores-the east, by the modern Department of Justice building, which stood in stark contrast to the old public library next door-and the west by the Gothic St. Ann’s Cathedral, a thousand and one places for a man with a rifle, a security man’s nightmare.

  He sat on an empty bench and watched the workmen setting up the stage in the old gazebo. Others were connecting up the giant speakers that would pour out the calypso beat from noon to midnight. Twelve hours of live music, guaranteed to make the old, the infirm, and even the recent dead get up and dance.

  A scrawny pigeon eyed Broxton from a safe distance, then took a few tentative steps in his direction. Broxton remained motionless, wondering how close the bird would come. It stopped about three paces away and waited, but Broxton had no food for it. One of the workmen started in his direction, stringing speaker wire, and the bird took flight.

  “ You coming to the festival today?” Broxton asked.

  “ Wish I could, but I gots ta work, got five kids, all boys,” the man smiled, proud, showing off a gold front tooth.

  “ Gonna be a lot of people?”

  “ More ‘an I can count.”

  “ The park’s kind of small.”

  “ You know it. Gonna be peoples here stuffed tighter ’an a maxi taxi at rush hour.”

  “ Lots of people,” Broxton repeated as the man shuffled on, stringing his wire. He gazed around the park and tried to imagine how it would be after the festival started, the crowd struggling in the noonday heat to get closer to the bands on stage. The Gazebo was in the southeastern corner of the park, surrounded by shade trees. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about the crowd behind Ramsingh. The park was fenced and the high backed stage prevented anyone from moving in behind the bands.

  “ Hey, mister, coffee?” The voice was deep and friendly. Broxton turned toward it. The man was standing behind a food cart, perched in front of the fountain in the center of the park. Broxton waved and ambled in his direction, taking his time, taking in the morning. Enjoying himself. Enjoying the polite way everybody deferred to him. Yesterday he was a tourist. Today he was in charge of the prime minister’s security.

  He’d expected flack from the police when Ramsingh proposed it, but he’d received nothing but cooperation. Even Cliffard Rampersad, the police chief, was open and cooperative.

  “ How you take it?” the vender said.

  “ Black, and a bag of those honey roasted nuts.” Broxton reached into his pocket for some change.

  “ No charge for the secret agent man,” the vender said.

  “ I’m no secret agent man.”

  “ Gots ta be, otherwise they never bring you out of nowhere and put you over Chief Rampersad. He a proud man an’ he can be a mean man.”

  “ How’d you find out?”

  “ Lord man, nothing happens in Trinidad don’t everybody know if they want.” The vender stretched his arm across the park toward the stage. “If someone gonna shoot at Mr. Ramsingh today you gonna have a hard time of it.”

  “ How does word get out so fast?” Broxton asked.

  “ My sister works for Republic Bank,” the smiling vender said.

  “ So?”

  “ So she works with a woman whose husband’s a big lawyer an’ he knows Mr. Rampersad. In Trinidad everybody knows somebody. Nothing stays quiet too long.”

  “ So how would you do it if you were the shooter?”

  “ Best if you forget about that and spend your efforts trying to make Mr. Ramsingh stay home today. Jus’ let the music play and save the politics for another time.”

  Broxton thanked the man and made his way back to his bench and sat with his coffee and nuts. Some young people were already starting to filter into the park and the music wasn’t going to start for another six hours. They were laughing and talking. Having fun on a Saturday morning. He watched while they spread a blanket, five girls and four boys, about fifteen or sixteen years old. A few minutes later more youngsters came and the friendly banter started. If he’d had any illusions about the size of the crowd they were dispelled. The park was going to be packed.

  He set the coffee by his side and opened the nuts. They were hot, sweet, and reminded him of Paris. He was fishing in the bag for a second bite when he noticed the scrawny pigeon walking toward him. The bird reminded him of Paris too, only the French birds were healthier, fatter, with feathers bright in the afternoon sun. They ate better. Paris was teaming with outdoor cafes and the French ate a lot of bread. When the birds couldn’t get their fill from friendly tourists they happily picked up the local’s crumbs. This bird seldom got a meal from a tourist and in Trinidad times were hard, even for the pigeons.

  “ You’d like Paris, my friend,” he said, squeezing the nu
ts together in his hand, crushing them. Then he tossed them to the bird and watched while it gobbled them from the ground.

  Five hours later he was again reminded of Paris as the first of the bands was setting up under the Gazebo. Tammy Drake was opening the show with a few words and a song. He’d seen her perform when she opened for Bob Dylan there in 1980. He’d been nineteen, on vacation and captivated by the young Trinidadian performer. She’d done a mixture of country, rock, and blues that had the audience standing, dancing, stomping and clapping.

  The songs were different when he saw her last week, but the timeless appeal of that seventeen-year-old sensation he’d seen in Paris hadn’t diminished. She’d held him enthralled in the Normandy’s ballroom with the soft bluesy ballads, like she did in Paris when she was belting out her numbers to an audience of thousands. Today she was going to perform Calypso, still a different kind of music. Tammy Drake had been Calypso Queen in the Caribbean for the last five years running, and Broxton wondered if she would scorch his soul with the calypso beat. He was looking forward to finding out.

  Then she was on the stage and the crowd went wild with applause. All of Trinidad was in love with Tammy Drake. She was wearing a peasant blouse and a pair of faded jeans. Her pale skin and China blue eyes were framed by a mane of dazzling black hair.

  “ Hey, hey, hey,” she said, holding the mike in her left hand. “Today we dance to the beat,” and then she launched into a raucous calypso song that was unlike anything he’d ever heard. This was not like the calypso he’d heard when he was a child. Maryann was not down by the seashore sifting any sand. Tammy Drake’s voice was still beautiful, she was still mesmerizing, she still entertained, but the rhyme scheme was repetitious, the band was loud and the lyrics seemed to incite. She was both singing about and raging against the government at the same time, and the audience was shouting its approval. Broxton shuddered. Ramsingh was not a popular man.

  And in five hours he was going to appear before them. It was a crazy idea and the man earlier had been right. Ram should stay away, but Broxton knew he wouldn’t.

  “ That’s all for now,” Tammy Drake said from the stage, “but I’ll be back before sundown and I promise you a super long set. We’ll do all the favorites, and as an extra added attraction I’ll have Prime Minister Ramsingh on stage with me to help us launch the evening portion of the festival.”