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Twenty minutes later, we were seated in the bar. Brian had just come on duty. "Now you two make a right couple," he said in his New Zealand accent. "What'll it be?"
I smiled at his assumption about Laughlin and myself, but didn't bother to correct him. It's not like I could explain the real reason we'd been spending so much time together. "I'll have a rum and coke," I answered, then looked inquiringly at Laughlin.
"Same," he responded, looking back at me as if to say, "Well, you're the investigator."
Not wanting to ask about Stroeker with my very first question, I looked around the bar, then noted to Brian, "I see you weathered the storm pretty well. Any damage to the hotel?"
"Oh, a few window panes here an' there," he said with a shrug. "I hear one of the rooms was damaged by what they call a 'micro-burst,' but no one was in it, so no harm done."
A micro-burst, eh? Well, that was one way to explain the damage to Stroeker's room.
Brian poured our two drinks. "So, last day, eh? Just as well. There's a right lot of Japanese tourists in here tomorrow night, and the whole hotel will be full. Ready to return to civilization?"
I nodded. "I don't mind saying, I'll sleep easier once I'm home. It made me nervous last night, knowing that Stroeker was running around out there. I don't suppose they've caught him yet?"
Brian shrugged. "There aren't many police on the island. None, in fact. If they caught the man, I wouldn't give much for his chances. They're very closed-mouth about their rituals I understand. Never had much interest in that mumbo-jumbo myself. Still, I haven't heard anything. That bad-attitude yank you're looking for usually comes in every night around 8:00. I didn't see him last night."
"I doubt he would have, if he's hiding from the natives. It kind of worries me, though, knowing that he could be lurking in some unused room in the hotel, or a storage closet somewhere. I mean, there must be plenty of places he could hide here, until the plane leaves tomorrow."
"I suppose. The maintenance men are all natives, though. It'd be risky. I reckon he's holed up in one of these cabanas. Or maybe the jungle."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot there was a jungle here," I lied with a laugh. "I guess I haven't strayed far from the hotel while I've been here. Is it a very big jungle?"
"Nah. There's only twenty square miles to the whole island, and maybe a quarter of that is village or resort. He'd have to be damn good."
"Or have some help," Laughlin said.
"True." I decided to risk probing a little further "Did you ever see him hanging out a lot with anyone else?" I asked Brian. "Other than his woman of the night?"
"No, he was in here every night hitting on a new woman. He owe you money?"
"Oh, no, I'm just curious," I assured him. "It's almost like something out of a novel. Smuggling, ancient artifacts, secret native rituals.... Very exciting, as long as you aren't directly involved."
"And you're most likely to enjoy your trip if that's the way you keep it," advised Brian with a grin.
I grinned back as he moved down the bar to serve other customers, wondering if that was just friendly advice, or something more.... Then I glanced over at Laughlin. "Shall we move on?"
He nodded. "Where to?"
"I believe we were going to check out the marina next," I responded.
We walked together down to the marina, which looked much the same as it had earlier. There was some damage from the storm, but the boats and pier were intact. A few sailors tended to their boats, while hotel staff was trying to clean up the area. Laughlin apparently decided that he wanted to take the lead this time, catching the attention of one of the sailors. "Excuse me, but would you happen to know if any of the boats are missing?"
"What do you mean?" was the somewhat confused reply.
"Do you know of any boats which have been stolen? Or which should be here but aren't?"
"Not here, no."
"But you do know of a missing boat?"
"Yeah. In Utelei, the native village. The chief's boat, she disappear during the storm. I hear it from one of the villagers."
"Thank you."
Laughlin looked to me to see if I had anything further, but I shook my head. Once we were out of earshot, I noted, "So we do have a missing boat. I can't believe Stroeker would risk stealing a boat from the village whose inhabitants are out to get him. Wouldn't it be safer to take one from the hotel? Unless he figured they'd all be busy looking for him...."
"Maybe the village is less well lit. Or maybe he had another reason to be there," Laughlin noted. "The important thing is, he may have a boat. Assuming he doesn't try sailing all the way to Nuku'alofa, that means he still has to be somewhere on the island, on the small island, or the ship."
"Unless the missing boat is the one intended for the natives we locked up last night. No, they wouldn't consider that one missing. Hmm, I wouldn't think he could have gotten far in that storm last night. If it wasn't for that, I'd lay money on him joining up with the ship we picked up. It's the only place he could be sure of not being stumbled across by the natives. The ship's still there, though, so if that's the case, he's hanging around hoping for another shot at those statues. I wonder why he wants them so badly?"
"That is the question. They're very ancient. From near the dawn of human civilization. Or before. From what I could tell, they might be ritually significant, which would fit in with Stroeker or an accomplice being a mage."
I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes. "Oh for...is there anything that isn't going to turn out to be connected to magic as far as you're concerned? First you, then the storm, then Stroeker, now the statues. With all of this magic running around, it's a wonder it's such a well kept secret."
"Consider the alternative," he responded. "These things are important enough to risk that secret. Besides, as you are fond of pointing out, absolutely nothing that has happened cannot be explained away by science or coincidence. It was sheerest coincidence that a storm rose up just when Stroeker most needed cover. Lucky fellow."
"The storm was already showing up in the NOAA forecast a day before it hit," I pointed out. "Are you trying to claim that Stroeker knew they were going to catch him, so he rustled up a storm in advance?"
"I claim only not to believe in coincidences. What do you wish to do now?"
I frowned, not done with the topic, but recognizing it was best dropped for now. "I'm not sure," I admitted. "If Theresa's actually regained consciousness, it might be worth it to go to Nuku'alofa. But if not, the trip's a waste of time. When you get right down to it, it all seems to wind up back at the island. Stroeker's probably going back there. The natives are probably performing human sacrifices there. And we still don't understand why Theresa reacted the way she did when she was near it. I suppose you'll say there's a magic-related reason for that, too."
"Not per se. I have a theory. Want to hear it?"
I nodded, preparing myself for something outrageous.
"Theresa and Doctor Volk are seismologists, invited by the Tongan government to investigate some anomalous seismological readings near Avuo'tutu. I'm betting that Theresa saw something down there. Something that caused those quakes. Something represented in those carvings."
"She saw something that was so terrible that it threw her into shock? Why didn't she say anything about that after the first time?"
"I'm no doctor, but traumatic events can cause memories to be hidden away. Possibly, merely being in the submarine with us brought those memories back the second time. Or maybe she saw something...again."
"In which case, it might be worth at least calling the hospital and seeing if she's awake...and what she remembers if she is. Although, to be honest, if she says she saw something like what I saw on the statues, what exactly are we going to do about it? Good lord, I can't believe I'm even seriously discussing the possibility of a creature like that existing. It isn't possible!" Unfortunately, my voice didn't sound quite so sure of that.
"Don't you think we'd just traumatize her again?" Laughlin said with genuine concern. "I'd rather traumatize Stroeker. As for those things, they remind me of some African legends I know. Which reminds me again of the man in the airport."
"I honestly don't know if we'd risk traumatizing her again. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here. I'll settle for traumatizing Stroeker if we can find him." I paused for a moment, considering his last sentence. "Do I really want to know what these African legends say?"
"I'm thinking of the legends of Dagon, the evil fish god who will arise in might to swallow the earth," Laughlin replied. "Making it damn tough to cash in one's frequent flyer miles."
I smiled slightly at his last line, despite myself. "I didn't think you rich types worried about frequent flyer miles."
"Of course not," he said with a smile. "I know the legend of Dagon.
I noticed that the sun was beginning to lower a bit in the sky, and checked my watch. It was about four in the afternoon. That left us with five more hours of daylight. My expression turned more serious. "I think we're starting to run out of options. If Stroeker did take that boat, then he's likely out of our reach until he decides to come back here. If he comes back. And even if he does...." I frowned. "This is all getting out of control. What are we going to do with him, even if we find him? Turn him over to the local authorities? They're likely the same people that are trying to kill us." I looked a bit frustrated.
"I suppose beating the information out of him is out of the question?"
I frowned, not sure if he was kidding. "Satisfying as that might feel, any information gained from such questioning would be inadmissible in court. If all I wanted was vigilante justice, I could have done that the first time I came across him here."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't even arrest him here, right? No matter what we find out, your collar would have to be on US soil."
I nodded. "Hence my observation that we're running out of options. My original plan was to figure out what he was doing here, and if it was something I could nail him on, to follow him back home and arrest him there. But I can only get him for smuggling those artifacts if he actually brings them into the country. And he doesn't even have them anymore. At the very least, even if I didn't learn anything here, I could have made sure we knew when and where he was arriving back in the country. Once he went to ground, that became rather less likely, too. Given his history, I still wanted to locate him, just to be sure he wasn't hurting anyone, but unless he is, I'm rather limited in what actions I can take against him here."
"He works out of the U.S., right? Whoever he's stealing those things for, assuming they're not for himself, must have contacted him there. That's conspiracy, right? I know it's not much, but it's a start. And I suspect that there is much more. This," he waved his hand generally at the far island, "is just the tip of the iceberg."
"Right. And if he had succeeded in getting the artifacts off of the island, we likely would have held off on arresting him until he met with the buyer, in hopes of getting them both. But, no artifacts, no sale, no buyer. The odds of our turning the buyer up independently are pretty small." I smiled slightly. "Short of stowing away on that boat and hoping Stroeker steals the statues back, there isn't much else I can do. What a mess."
"Well, maybe he gave us the slip. You might have to try to pick up the scent back in New Orleans. From what you told me, he frequently returns there. It might help, however, if we knew the name or registry of that ship."
I nodded. "I can't think of a way to get that, short of taking a boat out there ourselves. We'd definitely want to wait until nightfall for that, though. If they are smugglers, they'll likely shoot anyone who approaches too closely."
"True. So what now? Wait for nightfall?"
"We should secure a boat before than. And there's one other problem...." I looked off in the direction of the island. "I can't stop thinking about that poor man we did such a terrible job of rescuing. I can't just leave him to be sacrificed by some insane cult."
He sighed. "I was afraid of that. How are you planning on getting there without being seen?"
"That's the problem. I'm not sure it is possible to go back there without being seen now, at least during the day. It's kind of hard to sneak up on an island. Assuming they've moved him to the island, of course. He might still be in the village."
"Not if they intend to sacrifice him," Laughlin noted. "Ritual is like that. They'll take him back. So we wait until night and then go out there? After the last time, they'll probably be watching for us."
I nodded. "I know. I'm hoping we might catch a break, and that they won't have moved him to the island until nightfall. You're probably right, though, I'm sure they snuck him back out there as soon as the storm broke. And that place is terrible to invade, from a tactical standpoint. There are a limited number of access points to cells, assuming they're still keeping him there, nothing in terms of cover, and lots of cultists who'll doubtless be only too happy to add to the sacrificial menu. What we need is a distraction...." I considered the problem for a bit. "I wish I could be sure Stroeker was going to try to recover those statues tonight. It could provide the ideal distraction, depending on when they intend to perform their sacrifice. Aren't those kinds of thing usually done at midnight?"
"That's a western tradition. It could be different here. As for night or day, it'll be dark in about five hours. It'll take two just to get a boat and sail out there. If you want to arrive under cover of dark, I'd say that's fairly easy. The hard part will be, as you say, getting ashore."
"Not so much getting ashore, since I doubt they'll have the entire island staked out. They won't need to. They just need to guard the entrance. Let's face it, there is no good way to sneak in there. It's not like we can club the guards and take their place. We'd probably have better luck with the cave. Even if there are guards on it, it's not the main entrance, so if we can manage to take them out, we'd have a little time. And there's still the problem of getting to the cells, since we have to pass right through the altar chamber to do it." I frowned. "Are you sure you want to be involved in this? It's bad enough that I'm probably going to get myself killed, I don't want to take someone with me."
He smiled ironically. "What the hell? I've got nothing better planned for the evening. Plus it means I get to see you in a swimsuit again, right?"
I smiled slightly at that. "Somehow I don't think the sight of me in a swimsuit is worth dying for."
"Let's find out." With a mischievous grin, he headed back toward my cabana.
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Last modified on January 24, 2016 by Kris Fazzari.