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As I have said and as I hope that you have seen, I am inclined to a love of life and to a sunny disposition even in the face of bleak skies and persistent storreater hilarity in the threats and posturings of a sadistic chief of police
Fair warning requires the acknowledgment that some events resist the touch of a humorist, and what jokes may arise frohter We are coh waters, to straits so narrow that virtue and wickedness voyage close together and may be at times more difficult than usual to differentiate from each other
Across the bay and into open sea, I waited without light in the belly of the boat In spite of noise that hammered effectively at concentration, I used the ti aboard
Junie’s Moonbeaines cut back sooner than I had expected and, after a thus far straight course, the big oceangoing tugboat began tothe vessels to effect the transfer of the nukes
The Pacific seemed to be nearly as calm here above the deeps as it had been all day nearer shore With so faster
I rose to h the pitch-black chaht be scalding hot I kept an i on psychic htless maze
Instinct told me to reach for a lever handle, and I found it after a
When I cracked the door, I saw a deserted passageway With the transfer of the shipard and the other three would have to be above, all hands needed to ensure a successful delivery
I stepped to the first starboard compartment, tried the door, found it unlocked, and went inside fast, shouldering it open, the pistol in a two-hand grip
The rooht played on the porthole Certain that no sleeper lay here to be awakened, I felt boat lay Junie’s Moonbeam, its port side to our starboard, at a distance of perhaps ten or twelve feet A white yacht in fog, it would have been a stealth vessel but for the hotel’s worth of lighted portholes and s that made it appear as festive as a luxury cruise ship
Fro down inflatable black-rubber bladders that would serve as protective buh to knock hulls in a set of rogue waves
Retreating to the passageway, I quietly pulled shut the door and crossed to the first portside coo in fast, as before, but the door opened on darkness
Soft laht filled the aftmost port compartment When I went inside, Joey looked up in disbelief fro the door swing itself shut behind me, I took two steps and shoved the pistol in his face before the azine fell out of his hands and slithered shut upon the deck
THIRTY-SIX
JOEY, THE CRITIC OF YACHT NAMES, SAT AT THE shortwave radio For a h he ained control alan to calculate how to come after me, I lowered the pistol to his throat, the better to see his face and every nuance of expression
Get me the Coast Guard, I said Call them up
Me and them, we already had our chat
Call the
What’s the un off him, he would coered by nausea, so I made use of it I spat in his face
As he flinched, his eyes were briefly shut, which gave me a chance to whip hiht scored his cheek, and a thin line of blood sprang up
He put a hand to the hot laceration
Although the anger in his eyes had with unsettling swiftness distilled to bitter hatred, he had gained a new respect for ht not be so quick to make a move
Call them, I repeated
No
He meant it He would not be persuaded The prospect of life in prisonat the door and then quickly at me, Joey hoped to imply that so, hoping I would glance back
Anyway, he said, when I didn’t take the bait, their nearest cutter is fifty nautical ines of the nearby yacht sent vibrations through the hull of the tugboat, and all the other noises of the pending transfer left me with no concern that a shot would be heard above the racket I put one round in his left foot
He cried out, I told hiain to silence him
Inside myself, I had opened a door to ruthlessness that I wanted to close again as soon as possible But the fate of a nation and the lives of millions were at stake, and whatever must be done, I ed hi
I believe you about the cutter, fifty s about this operation, then I kill you quick and painless
He said a twelve-letter word that I won’t repeat, although I challenged hie, I said, If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll wound you in ways so painful you can’t conceive of your suffering Wounds that leave you dying slow, unable to ony, more tears than all the babies you would have killed in those cities, so many tears you’ll die of dehydration before you bleed to death
He wanted to sit on the deck and hold his wounded foot to damp the pain, but I would not allow it
Where do the bombs come from?
I didn’t think he was ready to answer, but then in a voice shaken by pain and fear, he naet on the yacht?
Frohter
Transshipped? Where?
Three hundred miles out
At sea?
Yeah Where the Coast Guard can’t monitor He inhaled with a hiss between clenched teeth This foot is killin’ me
It won’t be the foot How many nukes?
Four
HowWhat cities?
I don’t know
What cities? I demanded
I don’t know I don’t I didn’t need to know
Who owns the yacht?
Some billionaire I don’t know his name