Danger - A Safe Bahamian Novel - Day 05

Danger - A Safe Bahamian Novel - Day 05

(3:28 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)

*** Skiff On Water Near Head Near Shack Near Beach ~;-)

Jack is hand line fishing. Partly to catch some dinner, but mostly to give himself some time to think.

That was really something yesterday. He has never seen any style quite like the one those women used on those jerks yesterday. It was also obvious that they had trained together for joint operations and probably had carried out a goodly number as well.

He was glad that he had been able to play his cards close to his chest. The less some of his particular skills and abilities were know,the better he like it.

When they had returned to the stables, their horses were already there and people seemed surprised to see them come walking back. The women asked who had brought their mounts back, but no one seemed to have any knowledge. Very odd that.

The stable crew wanted to know why they had let the horses loose to return on their own.

For some reason the women seemed reluctant to give out the details of what had happened and Jack was quite happy to leave things that way himself.

He wondered about the local women though. Had the other women talked to them without his noticing? Or did they too have reasons of their own for keeping the recent happenings under wraps? Interesting.

He felt a nibble on the line and yanked! Got one! Yeah baby! He loved this feeling.

Jack fought with the fish for a while before pulling in a good sized turbot. He dropped it in a bucket and took the hook out of its mouth being careful not to let the dog bite him. Then he baited up his hook with another piece of conch and threw out his line again.

Good eating there.

Jack thinks that, if these women really are the ones behind his map being taken, that it will be quite a difficult project to get his property back from such a well disciplined group.

(4:39 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)

*** Inside of a sub-sub-basement, deep below a huge new house on the eastern end of Paradise Island.

The room is in darkness and we cannot make out the sole occupant who is standing at a desk and talking on a conference phone.

"Listen, you gentlemen need to understand this, it is getting late. I still have no sign of my needs being met. What are you up to now?"

"Sir, we have him in sight. He is out on a little boat hand line fishing."

"And how do you plan on getting him to me?"

"He can't be going to stay out much longer in that little tin can. We plan to get him just After he lands at the beach."

"Brilliant plan gentlemen. Call me as soon as you have him well secured."

The shadowy figure pushes a button on the phone and a light goes out. He sits down in a nice, ergonomic leather chair behind the desk and sighs to himself. "Idiots! Will someone deliver me from these idiots?"

(5:07 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)

*** In The Very Spacious Salon Of A Mega Yacht Anchoured On The Andros Barrier Reef

"Ladies, things are going well, but we need to be on our guard. I don't like it that he turned up yesterday like that. He must suspect something. And he is deep waters if you ask me."

"What do you mean Moon Daughter?"

"Well, there was no panic in him yesterday during that little incident. I noticed that he was alert but calm after we were captured and that he seemed ready for action at all times, Dirge Singer, if only I could have watched him during our operation, I think I might have learned more useful information. As it is, I think I saw him take out one or two of the jokers when he thought no one could see him but I am not sure of it. Certainly, I have never before seen anyone do what I thought I saw him do yesterday. I think he could be a very dangerous man. We need to be vary careful with him from now on. Very careful indeed."

(10:14 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)

*** A Lonely Room

A lonely room where a tired eyed author, in fact, your tired and bleary eyed author, dear reader, has come to this.

Yes, it has come to this. A desperate need to reach a certain word count for the day.

Combine that with a current lack of ideas.

Combine that with the lateness of the hour.

Combine that with this particular author's skill at procrastination.

There you have a dangerous brew.

So, gentle reader, while I should have been writing and plotting this evening, what was I doing? I was over at a friends house, sitting in on a practice session for a band that a number of my friends are in. No, it is not Barry And The Cudas, that band is, at this point at least, at least semi fictional. I will decline to name the real band at this time unless they should request to be named herein.

I knew I needed to write and plot mind you. But I hadn't been to a practice in a very long time. What to do? What to do? I told myself that I would do some plotting while I was there. Good idea! Right? Wrong! At least it turned out wrong. Turns out I developed plotter's block when I got there. Go figure.

So then I come home well after nine in the pm and I still have to shower and change for the night. Now I could write and try and make quote before the shower, but that is a dangerous road.

So here I am, having this little chat with you and running up the word count.

You know, gentle reader, when you have some idea of where things are going, words can flow, you can get in a zone. Your fingers fly. Life is good.

Then you hit times like these. In times like these, I count myself lucky to have you here to help out gentle reader. I would be lost without you here to help out in these dire straights.

I would feel marooned, lonely out in space.

I might be tempted to hop in my car and drive around town, perhaps even to the other side of the planet. You can do strange things like that in the world of literature.

(10:27 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)

*** Inside of Shack Near Beach

Jack is squatting beneath a hoodlum that he has trussed up and hanging by his feet from the rafters of the shack. There are a couple of other hoodlums from yesterday's little bit of fun well tied up and stacked against one wall so that they can see what is happening in the centre of the room.

"OK, gents, the easy time is over, I must admit, you all have held out longer than I would have thought, but things are going to get a little more serious from here on in. Please do yourselves a favour and don't make yourselves undergo any unnecessary pain."

He goes over to the stereo and puts on a CD.

I sing my songs with broken heart
But Oh, my love, I've made a start
So if you give me one more chance
I'll be your knight of true romance

He starts swinging the upside down guy gently back and forth to the beat of the music.

"Do you like that song? It has a nice easy beat to it, don't you think?"

He lets him sway like the pendulum of a grandfather clock for a while before changing his tactics and sending him out more in a circle as it were.

"Listen, tell me what I want to know. I can assure you that one of you will give me answers tonight. Why should you suffer only to have your friend over there tell me what I want to know after it is too late for you to change your mind. The pain. It will not be able to be undone I can assure you."

He paces around behind the guy, whispering to him gently and explaining certain things to him in a general way, things that he certainly hopes he will not be tempted to do to him here tonight. Things he doesn't think he could bring himself to do here tonight. Things he wants to convince this guy that he would be happy to do here tonight.

The guy continues to surprise him though. He can tell that he has made him afraid, but he is bucking himself up and holding out.

"OK, let's try a little game of twenty questions. One. Is the person or are the persons who sent you female?"

Knight Of True Romance is about to end and he knows Two Dollar Bill comes on next and he decides to use it.

"You are going to like this next song. You have heard Two Dollar Bill on the radio right? I like it a lot. Here is the thing... After each verse, and then after each chorus, I am going to give you a chance to answer my simple questions. If you answer, great, if not, well, let's just say that I will give you a gentle little loving touch."

At this, he does his best to give an evil laugh. He doesn't want to do what he has decided to do, but he has decided that he will if he doesn't get an answer.

What he has in mind is something that is referred to as the "Cat Island Touch" in his family. It is not dangerous. It is not even really painful. It is more surprising and unexpected and to tell the truth, scary than painful.

When he was young, he and his siblings used to use it on each other as a prank until his father found out about it and put a stop to their mis use of their knowledge.

Knight Of True Romance ends and the first verse of Two Dollar Bill comes on...

I got a two dollar bill in my pocket
I got two more miles to go
I been waitin too long to see you tonight
And baby its starting to show

The verse ends. "Time's up. Ready to answer? Or are you ready for some fun instead? Five, four, three, two, one, zero..." There is no answer and so he reaches out and touches the guy on the inner part of his upper left arm just above the elbow.

"Ahhhhhhhh! What the! What did you do to me?" His guy is breathing fast and has broken out in a sweat.

"Just a little something I picked up while traveling. You like it?"

So darling try to be ready
Yeah get ready to go
We'll shout and we'll dance
And try a little romance
And later we can jump in the flow

"Time's up! Ready to answer? Or are you ready for a little more fun instead? Five, four, three, two, one, zero..." There is no answer and so he reaches out and touches the guy on the inner part of his upper right arm just above the elbow.

"Ahhhhhhhh! Stop! Don't do that again!"

"Sure thing, just answer the question."

The guy just grunts and sets his face.

I got a three dollar bill in my pocket
And there's three things I want to know
Will you kiss all night, choose to love or fight
And baby how's your garden grow

"Time's up! Ready to answer? Or are you ready for a little more fun instead? Five, four, three, two, one, zero..." There is no answer and so he reaches out and touches the guy on the sole of his left foot, under the arch.

This time the guy lets out a prolonged yell and starts to curse at him.

"You ever had Thai food? You know how their pepper is not like ours. You get a nice conch salad heated up nice with a mix of goats and birds. You put some of that in your mouth and that is instant fire and pain. Thai food is not that way. Yeah, it starts hot, but you figure you can handle it. But it builds with each bite. You know what I mean? This is sort of like that Thai food. I suggest you answer before the heat builds too much."

So darling try to be ready
Yeah get ready to go
We'll shout and we'll dance
And try a little romance
And later we can jump in the flow

"Time's up! How bout now? Female? Yes or no?"

He turns to look at the guys on the ground who are wide eyed and looking a bit wild.

"How about you guys, have pity on your buddy? You are next anyway. You might as well cave now and say it was out of compassion for your friend."

He spins quickly and he reaches out and touches the guy on the sole of his right foot, under the arch, twice in quick succession.

This time the screams and curses go on for quite a while. If he hadn't been through this so many times as a child, he probably wouldn't be able to keep this up. From the sound of the guy, you would think this was really serious. Jack knew that the guy wasn't so much feeling pain as experiencing a very odd and unknown sensation. That was why it was important to keep telling him how painful it was. Don't give him a real chance to analyze the feeling in any detail.

I got a half dollar bill in my pocket
And I have to let you know
I been waiting this long for the time to be right
And Mary its starting to flow

The verse ended and Jack simply reached out without warning and touched the guy twice on the back of his neck. He screamed and passed out. Jack was halfway expecting this though and grabbed a glass of cold water and woke him up. "What, you think you deserve a warning every time? It doesn't work that way you know."

So darling tell me you're ready
Say you're ready to go
Well we shouted and danced
And tried a little romance
And now its time to jump in the flow

"Time's up! How bout now? Female? Yes or no?" Jack made like he was reaching out to touch the guys eyes and he freaked. jack did his best to laugh hysterically.

Yes we shouted and danced
And tried a little romance
And now its time to jump in the flow

You know its time to jump in the flow
Mmmm Mary its so sweet in the flow

"Time's up! Song's over, you're out of luck my friend. One last chance..."

"Male! It was a guy who sent us alright! Leave him alone."

Jack turned and stared in surprise at the tall, wiry guy on floor and smiled, you just never could tell he thought to himself. That's why you always had to stay alert and cover all the bases.

(11:36 pm Monday Nov 05, 2007)