recently and was bright yellow. He could smell the fresh wood sap.
There was an outrigger the size of a normal canoe and a platform across the struts. As canoes went, it was a huge structure, and hewing the hull from a single piece of wood with hand tools had taken an incredible amount of work, not to mention skill.
"Kimi did this? This is gorgeous."
Sarapul nodded, his eyes catching the fire of the lamp. "This boat broken since before the time of Vincent. Kimi is great navigator."
"He is?" Tuck had his doubts, given the storm, but then again, as Kimi had said, they had survived a typhoon in a rowboat. And this craft was no accident; this was a piece of art. "So you guys are sewing a sail for this?"
"We finish soon. Then palu will teach me to sail. The Shark People will go to sea again."
"Where'd you get the nylon for the sail? I can't see Dr. Curtis thinking this is a good idea."
Sarapul climbed into the canoe and dug under a stack of paddles and lines, each hand-braided from coconut fiber, until he came up with a tattered mass of nylon straps, Velcro, and plastic buckles with a few shreds of blue nylon hanging here and there.
"My pack. You guys used my pack?"
"And tent inside."
"Do you have the stuff that was inside? There were some pills that can help Kimi."
Sarapul nodded. He led Tuck back through the jungle to his house. Kimi had gone inside and was lying down.
"Boss, I don't feel so good."
"Hang on. I might have some more medicine." Actually, Tuck had never been sure of all the things that Jake Skye had loaded into the pack.
Sarapul retrieved a palm frond basket from the rafters and handed it to Tucker. Tuck found the antibiotics he had been looking for, as well as painkillers and aspirin. Even what was left of his cash was in the basket. All the pills were still dry. Tuck doled out a dose
and handed them to the navigator. "Take these when you have pain, and
these take like the other ones, twice a day, okay?"
"You good doctor, boss."
"You did a hell of a job on that boat."
Kimi seemed distressed. "You not tell Sorcerer or Vincent's white bitch."
"No, I won't tell them."
Kimi seemed to breathe easier. "Roberto come today. He say you must see the canoe. But he say you should no tell the Sorcerer."
"Roberto told you that."
"He talk funny now," Kimi said. "Like you, kinda. In American. He tell me Sepie is okay. She come home soon."
"I couldn't get in to see her. There was a guard on the clinic."
"Dog fuckers," Kimi said.
Then Tuck told the navigator about the golf game and watched as the old cannibal held him while he laughed, then curled with pain. "I better sleep now, boss. You come back. I take you sailing."
"You got it." Tuck backed out of the house and waited until Sarapul joined him with the lamp. "You know which pills to give him?"
Sarapul nodded. Tuck started down the path toward the village, but pulled up a minute later when he heard the cannibal running after him.
"Hey, pilot. Vincent send you to us, huh?"
"I don't know."
"You tell Vincent I wasn't going to eat you. Okay?"
Tuck smiled. "I'll try to smuggle you some Spam next time I come."
Sarapul smiled back.
As he came up on the drinking circle, Tuck stopped and checked his watch. He didn't want to be gone more than a couple of hours. There was little danger that he'd be called to fly, at least not without the warning appear-ance of the Sky Priestess, but Beth Curtis might show up at his bungalow at any time. Funny, he didn't think of the Sky Priestess and Beth as the same person.
The Shark men were applying new coats of red paint to their bamboo rifles by the light of a kerosene lamp. They moved around on the logs and Tuck took a seat by Malink. Without a word, the
young man who was pouring handed Tuck the cup. He drained it and
handed it back.
"What's the deal with the rifles?" Tuck asked Malink.
"Vincent's army," Malink said. "Vincent said we must always be ready to fight the enemies of the United States of America."
"Oh," Tuck said. "Why red?"
Malink looked at Tuck as if he was something he had stepped in. "It is the color of Vincent's brother."
"Yeah?" Tuck didn't get it.
"Vincent's brother, Santa Claus. Red is his color. You must know that."
Tuck couldn't help it. He let his mouth