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"Two conditions Actually, three"
"The first is your son, of course I’ve given you my word What else?"
"I want direct access to you No middlemen"
"What about Chase? The ht only a moment "If that’s what it takes What’s the third?"
"Don’t make me wear a necktie"
--
The sun had just set when Michael knocked on the door of Greer’s cabin There was no light inside, no sound Well, I’ve walked too long to wait out here, he thought I’ on the floor and lit the lamp He looked around Greer’s pictures: How many were there? Fifty? A hundred? He stepped closer Yes, his memory had not betrayed him Some were hasty sketches; others had obviously required hours of focused labor Michael selected one of the paintings, untacked it from the wall, and laid it on the table: a reen, seen froe The sky above and behind the island was a deep twilight blue; at its center, at forty-five degrees to the horizon, was a constellation of five stars
The door flew open Greer stood at the threshold, pointing a rifle at Michael’s head
"Flyers, put that down," Michael said
Greer lowered the gun "It’s not loaded anyway"
"Good to know" Michael tapped the paper with his finger "Remember when I said you should tell me about these?"
Greer nodded
"Noould be the time"
--
The constellation was the Southern Cross--the ht sky south of the equator
Michael showed Greer the newspaper, which the man read without reaction, as if its contents caensfjord and the bodies he’d found; he read the captain’s letter aloud, the first time he had done this It felt very different to speak the words, as if he were not overhearing a conversation but enacting it For the first ti a letter that could never be sent; it imparted a kind of permanence to the words and the emotions they contained Not a letter but an epitaph
Michael saved the data froational coion of the South Pacific roughly halfway between northern New Zealand and the Cook Islands; Michael used the atlas to show Greer When the ship’s engines had failed, they had been fifteen hundredin the equatorial currents