An Evil Guest

A STROLL ON THE BEACH

“I know you love me,” Cassie told Reis, “and gosh knows I love you. I know you’re busy, too.”

Reis nodded.

“So what I’m asking for is a big gift, but I’m going to ask for it anyway. I want some time alone with you. Now. Two or more hours at least. Three might be better. I’ve got questions, and I think it’s time we really got to know each other. Can I have it, Bill? Please?”

“Yes.” He glanced at his watch. “Starting this minute if you like. I’m flattered. I hope you know that.”

“I don’t believe it, but I sure would like to. I want us to take a walk together. Down there on the beach would be too dangerous, wouldn’t it?”

“The beach here in front of the palace would, yes. Absolutely. What about another beach, would that do if it’s a nice one?”

Cassie nodded. “It might be better.”

“In that case, there’s no problem.” Reis spoke into his watch; half a minute later, a hopper popped into being far above them. As he turned off the cell phone function, he said, “Our beach is watched, I’m sure of it. Not by the Storm King himself but by his worshippers. Luckily for us, there are thousands of islands in this part of the Pacific. They can’t possibly watch them all, so they don’t.”

“WHERE are we?” Cassie asked as the hopper rose and boomed into nothing above them.

Reis smiled. “Let’s not be overly specific. We’re outside the Takanga Group. This could be Tuvalu or the Solomons, or a lot of other places. We’ll be a little bit safer if I don’t say it, perhaps. If you want the name of this particular island, I don’t know it and it may not have one. It’s uninhabited as far as we know.”

“Except for the volcano.”

Reis’s smile widened. “Yes. Except for that. I’m glad you remember.”

“So am I. Did you write that show, Bill?”

“Yes, with a collaborator. I knew what show I wanted and he knew how shows ought to work. I suppose I ought to say I sweated blood over it, but it was fun. I enjoyed it. I didn’t compose the music, you understand. For the most part I sketched out the plot and told my collaborator what ought to happen in various scenes. Are we going to walk along the beach?”

Cassie said, “I hope so. That’s what I wanted.”

“In that case I’ll take off my shoes.” Reis found a shady spot beneath a palm tree and sat.

Nodding, Cassie sat beside him. Her canvas sandals were off in a moment. They kissed, and when both his shoes stood beside hers, they kissed again.

She rose. “Want a hand up?”

“Not particularly.” He grinned. “But I know you want to talk. So do I. What is it you want from life, Cassie?”

“That’s a big one. All right if I think about it?”

Reis nodded.

“What is it you want, Bill? I know you must have thought about the answer before you asked me.”

“You’re right. I have.” He stood. “Everybody dies, Cassie.”

“Sure.”

“I wish it weren’t like that. But even if we didn’t age, we’d die anyway, sooner or later. Accident, disease, suicide, war, murder... Something would get us.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’d have two hundred and fifty years, perhaps. Some would. Three hundred at most.” Reis drew a deep breath. “So here’s what I want. I want to be a very powerful man, and I want to use that power for good. A lot of people think I’m a bad man.”

Cassie nodded, remembering. “Dr. Chase certainly seemed to think so.”

“The rich are his clients. Rich people, governments — they’re all rich, never let anybody tell you different — and rich corporations. Nobody else can afford his fees. He takes the money and does what they want. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it isn’t. He’s a wizard. I’ll give him that. I’ve got him on my team now, and I’m damned glad to have him.”

“Do you trust him?”

Reis shook his head. “I trust very, very few people, and Gideon Chase isn’t one of them. You can never trust a wizard, my darling. They know too much and they’re too complicated.”

“I trusted him.” She began to walk.

He followed her, keeping his steps small and slow to match her speed. “You’re a trusting woman, and I love you for it. That doesn’t mean I’d put you in an executive position. I wouldn’t. It’s not what you’re cut out for.”

“I know...”

The sea was blue and gentle. She found a dried starfish, examined it, and tossed it back into the water. “I’ve been thinking about what I want.”

He nodded. His face serious. “Are you going to tell me?”

“Pretty soon, I think. You disappear. Want to say you don’t?”

He shook his head.

“That’s good. I watched you do it in Springfield. I asked Dr. Chase after that, and he said yes. You could do it, but he couldn’t.”

Reis said, “Then it seems he told you the truth. May I show you something?”

“Yes, if you want to.”

“Watch me. Look hard.” She did, and he vanished. Unseen, his hand touched hers. “I’m still here.”

“Yes.” She was smiling.

“And you’re still beautiful. Now look behind us.”

She turned, and saw their shadows paint a romantic silhouette on the sand, a big man clasping the hand of a smaller woman.

“As a general thing,” he said conversationally, “I try to stay clear of sunshine when I do this. Of bright light from any single source.”

He was visible again, and she rose on tiptoe to kiss him.

When that kiss ended, another began.

At last they separated. “You make gold, too, Wally. Is it all right if I call you Wally sometimes?”

He nodded. “The gold made you think of that first bracelet. I understand.”

“I guess it did. We’ve already talked a little about the gold. Radioactive gold.”

“We have.”

“And vanishing. So you’re a wizard, too.”

He chuckled. “I suppose I am. I’ve been called a financial wizard often enough. I should have thought of that.”

“You told me once that you could be trusted. You said your word was always good.”

“Did I? I probably did. Certainly it’s true.”

“Do you love me, Wally?”

“Yes. As I’ve never loved anyone else.” He sighed. “I only wish you loved me as much as I love you.”

“I want to. Because that’s what I want from life. Remember asking me? I want love. It’s why I liked doing Dating the Volcano God so much. I could get out there onstage and be Mariah Brownlea, and the whole audience loved me. It’s why I married two pretty terrible men, because I thought they loved me. They said they did, and I believed it. When I found out Scott didn’t — and Herbie not enough — I dumped them.”

“I don’t want to be dumped. Do you believe me, Cassie?”

“Sometimes, but there are things that bother me.”

“The gold, of course. Do you know the dragon legend? How dragons hoard gold, amassing more and more? Sleeping on a bed of gold?”

“I saw a vid about that once.”

Reis nodded. “I called it a legend because that’s what everybody calls it. It isn’t really a legend at all. There are dragons, Cassie. Real dragons.”

She stared out to sea, then turned back to him. “A year ago I wouldn’t have believed you. Now...”

“You don’t know.”

“Right. Dr. Chase took me to a place called the Silent Woman. Have you ever been there?”

Reis shook his head.

“It was a storybook kind of place, but they had good food.”

He smiled. “They often do in storybooks.”

“I suppose. Anyway, I told him they ought to serve dragon’s eggs, and Dr. Chase said they couldn’t, eating dragon’s eggs would kill you. He talked like there really were dragons. Both of you do.”

“Because there are. Some are human beings, Cassie. Some aren’t. The Storm King is a dragon in the sense I mean, and one of the worst. A dragon, and not remotely human. May I tell you about my gold?”

“I wish you would.”

“I sell it in small bars, little bars that you could put in your purse. They weigh about as much as a bag of groceries. Gold’s heavy stuff.”

“I know that bracelet was.”

“You’re right. My customer may buy only one. Or a hundred. If he buys a lot, he gets it delivered in dribs and drabs, one or two little bars at a time.”

“King Kanoa said something about that.”

“Kandy? Yes, he knows. Sometimes my customer is a dragon who hoards it all. If he isn’t, it will fall into the hands of a dragon sooner or later. Most of it, if not all of it. They keep it together and they keep it near them, because they’re afraid it may be stolen.”

“I — see.”

For a time they walked together in silence, looking out to sea, or up at the towering peak of the volcano, or just along the beach, an utterly deserted beach of white coral sand.

“People lived here once,” Cassie said at last.

“How do you know?”

“My eyes keep looking for footprints in the sand.”

“Have you seen any?”

She shook her head. “Only ours. But I wouldn’t look for them if I didn’t know, down deep, that there had been people here.”

“You may have seen the blocks without really noticing them.”

“What blocks?” She had stopped, and turned to face him.

“Squared blocks of coral back in the jungle. I saw them when I stopped to take off my shoes. Someone built something here once, even if there’s nobody here now.”

“Don’t be mad, Wally. Please don’t. But would it be all right if we go back so I can look at them?”

“Of course it is. This is your walk.”

His watch chimed; he answered it, saying mostly yes and no. Once he said, “Go ahead,” and once he chuckled.

When he had hung up, Cassie said, “I think my walk’s almost over, and I haven’t even gotten to the important stuff. So I’m going to bring it up right now. Pat Gomez is dead. Do you know who she was?”

“I do. I got her killed, though I didn’t intend to. What do you know about her?”

“Only that she was working for you, and that she went down to the Storm King’s city. They must’ve done horrible things to her there, because it seemed like she was crazy.”

“You talked to her?”

Cassie ignored the question. “I liked her, and she died while I was there with her in her room.”

“I can’t say that I liked her,” Reis said, “but then I only saw her twice. Before she was dumped on our beach, I mean. She seemed competent, and I didn’t think they were likely to suspect she was a plant. That was what I wanted, so I hired her. She was an operative with a little agency in Oakland. She was supposed to join the Storm King’s cult in San Francisco and tell us who belonged to it and what they were planning. She did it for about six weeks. After that she dropped out of sight. The agency didn’t know what had become of her and neither did I.”

“I asked Dr. Schoonveld how they bury people here. It’s pretty simple. No embalming. They just wrap them in plastic and bury them in a hole in the sand.”

Reis nodded. “For us, yes, though not many of us die here. Kandy’s people have their own customs, and we turn their bodies over to their relatives.”

For a handful of seconds it seemed to Cassie that the palms, restless as they always were in the trade wind, were whispering to her: dark secrets she had no desire to hear. “You make sure they’re dead?”

“The doctor does, yes. You said she died while you were with her.”

Cassie managed to smile. “That’s true, Wally, but I’m not really a nurse. I just play one sometimes.”

He smiled in return.

“Hiapo found the man who had found her body for me, and brought him to me. He was sure she was dead when he picked her up. So was she...”

Reis put his arm around Cassie’s shoulders. “This is just making you unhappy, and I hate seeing you unhappy. What would you like me to do?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then let’s talk about something else. Isn’t there anything else you’d like to talk about?”

“In the meeting — oh, Wally, I hate to say this.”

“The meeting today? That was when you said you wanted some time alone with me.”

“Right.” Cassie forced herself to stand straight. “The Storm King sent that awful woman, Wally. Sent her to try to make me hand you over to them.”

“Go on.”

“And I felt sure you’d be angry. But in the meeting, right at the beginning, you promised King Kanoa that you wouldn’t do anything about it.”

Reis shook his head. “I did nothing of the sort.”

“Yes you — ”

He raised his hand. “I did not, Cassie. I know what I said, even if you don’t. I promised Kandy I wouldn’t attack the city with depth charges. That was what he was afraid I was planning to do. Think back and you’ll find that I’m correct.”

“It’s the same thing!”

“No. It really isn’t. Still, you’re right in one way. I’m not attacking it. Or him. Not attacking isn’t the same as doing nothing. Have you ever offended gypsies?”

She stared. “I don’t even know any.”

“Neither do I, but a man who works for me got some gypsies seriously angry at him. They put stolen goods in the trunk of his car and phoned the police.”

For several dozen steps, Cassie considered that. At last she said, “I’m so lost... What do you mean, Wally?”

“The Navy’s been hunting for my gold for two years. I told you about that.”

She nodded.

“They’re good men, and they’ve been working hard. It’s pretty mean of me, when you come to think of it, to keep them flying around with nothing to report. I’ve decided to let them find some.”

“Do you know,” Cassie asked, “you look exactly like a little boy with both hands in the cookie jar?”

Reis chuckled. “You see right through me.”

“Maybe I do. The police found some stolen goods, right? In the trunk of your guy’s car?”

“Exactly. We know, you see, where the Storm King’s sunken city is. We’ve known for a year at least, and Kandy’s been afraid I’d try to blow it up ever since we found it.”

“Does he like the Storm King?”

“No. He’s afraid of him. He fears him even more than he fears me. With good reason, I’d say.” For a few steps Reis was silent. “I’ve killed some people, Cassie. Killed them myself, I mean. A good many more have been killed at my order. I think I had good reasons in every case. The Storm King may think the same thing, though I don’t believe he does.”

“What does he think, Bill? Do you know?”

Reis shrugged. “Ever lived on a farm?”

“No. I’d like to try it someday.”

“I haven’t either, but I stayed on one for a while as a young man. A company dinner was almost always chicken. Real free-range chicken. The farmer’s wife would catch one and wring its neck. It didn’t bother her. They were just chickens.”

“I think I’ve got it.”

“I’ve wandered way off the point, but I’ll get back now. Today we start dropping gold bars into R’lyeh. We’ll be dropping one a day, mostly. Sometimes two. Sometimes none. That will depend on what other uses I may have for the gold. The Storm King has people down there. Hundreds. A thousand, maybe.”

Remembering, Cassie nodded.

“He may not know about the gold for a while, but they certainly will in a day or two. They’ll collect them, and keep them together.”

“The radiation... ?”

Reis grinned. “Long before the radiation, the Navy. I don’t know how much gold they’ll have to have at that depth before the Navy picks it up. It could be twenty bars. It could five. But they’ll pick it up, and when they do, they’ll go after it. My guess is that they’ll send down robot submersibles. They have some good ones, designed for underwater rescue and salvage.”

Cassie asked, “The kind with operators somewhere else?”

“Exactly. The operators will be in ships on the surface, but they’ll see the images transmitted by vid cameras on the submersibles. Those images will be of the Storm King’s sunken city, lit by the powerful lights the submersibles carry.” Reis grinned again. “Which one do you think will be the most surprised?”

“I don’t know, but the Storm King...”

“Will find that he has a much more dangerous enemy than I am.”

THE squared coral blocks, when they found them, led them to an image, also of coral: a squat, wide-mouthed king or deity remarkable only for its size and the ruin wrought by weathering.

“I don’t like him,” Cassie said.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to,” Reis told her. “You’re supposed to fear him and like me.”

They kissed; and soon after, on the beach and half in the surf, they did a great deal more.

ABOARD the hopper that would return them to Takanga Ha’i, Cassie asked, “Are you going to marry me, Bill?”

He looked pleasantly surprised. “If you’ll have me, darling. Yes. As soon as we can arrange whatever kind of wedding you want, and I’ll give you a rock so big nobody will believe it’s real.”

He gulped, and though Cassie could not hear the gulp, she saw his throat move before he said, “I was about to tell you I didn’t know what you wanted from marriage. But I do. You told me. You want love. You’ll get it — shaken down, pressed down, and overflowing. I would die for you, Cassie. I really would.”

“Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think like that.” She shivered. “Put your arms around me.”

He did. “I don’t do this as much as I’d like to. I don’t want to embarrass you in public.”

“I like it. I don’t care whether they envy my rock. It’ll have to be in some bank most of the time anyway. I want them to envy my man, and they will.”

He hugged her, very gently.

“Can I tell you what kind of wedding I want?”

“Yes. Tell me.”

“Nothing complicated. I’ve been married twice already. You know that.”

Reis nodded. “So have I.”

“But I want a bridal gown. Pastel green. White is for virgins, and I’m not trying to fool anybody. Aren’t there preachers on the big island? Missionaries?”

“Yes. Half a dozen, probably.”

“Well, one of them can perform the ceremony. I want it to be in the city somewhere. I mean Kololahi. A place where there’s a wide green lawn, and a white building in the background. I want King Kanoa there, and hundreds of our people. Would that be all right?”

“Absolutely. They’ll be delighted.”

“And I’d like you to fly in a few of my friends from Kingsport. India and Ebony for sure. Tiny, and Dr. Chase. Sharon Bench. Of course you can invite your own friends and family.”

Reis nodded, his face serious. “You don’t have any family do you, Cassie?”

She shook her head. “It was just Mom and me. That was all the family I ever had, and she’s dead now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I. But it’s not like she died yesterday, or even last year. I’m used to it.”

“I — I have a son from a previous marriage. May he come? Would that bother you? He’s sixteen.”

She smiled. “Of course not! He should come, and I want to meet him.”

Reis kissed her.

THAT evening, Hiapo asked leave to speak with her. She agreed and made him sit down in her little drawing room. “Something’s bothering you.” Her tone was as kind as she could make it. “If you’re afraid I’ll be angry, I won’t be. You’ve got my word.”

He adjusted his position, his nervousness freakish in so large and stolid a man. Distrustful of her graceful chairs, he was sitting on the floor. “I am not afraid you will be angry, O Queen. I am afraid you will be afraid.”

“But you think I ought to be told.”

Hiapo nodded solemnly.

“My guess is that you’re right there, but wrong about me being afraid. What is it?”

“The woman die.”

“The woman I was talking to in the infirmary?”

“Even so, O Queen. This woman who die. They bury her. Over her is sand and dirt, made smooth like beach.”

Cassie nodded. “I’ve got it.”

“This morning, no longer smooth. I say we must look. They do not like, but I dig.”

Cassie took a deep breath. “She’s gone, right?”

“You say true, O Queen. They wrap her in — ” Hiapo hesitated. “Sarong of dead.”

“A plastic sheet.”

Hiapo nodded. “I find it in grave at bottom, but no woman there is, O Queen.”

TWO days later, when they were inspecting possible sites in Kololahi, Reis said, “I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is very good. Or at least I think so. The bad news is only a little bit bad, but I admit I’m disappointed. Which would you like to hear first?”

“The good news, naturally. I’m a good-news girl.”

“Rian’s coming. That’s my son. Rian Reis.” Reis cleared his throat. “His mother named him.”

Cassie nodded. “I’d say she did a pretty good job of it.”

“Thank you. She raised him, and I’ve got to say she did well with that, too. He was very ill as a child. A defective heart valve was what they said, although I think it was really something else. His mother got your friend Dr. Chase. Chase fixed it, whatever it really was. I’d never heard of him until then.”

“He’s well now?”

Reis nodded, smiling. “This is his final year at prep school, and he’s their starting quarterback. Now you’ll ask if I’ve ever seen him play. I have. I’ve seen every game.”

“My gosh, Bill! Isn’t that dangerous?”

Reis’s smile became a grin. “I said I’d seen them, which I have. I didn’t say I was seen at them.”

She kissed him, a fleeting kiss like the touch of a finch’s wing. “Now the bad news. Should I sit down?”

“That shouldn’t be necessary. I doubt that you’ve ever heard of Harold Klauser.”

Cassie shook her head.

“He was my predecessor as American ambassador to Woldercan, and he stayed on for a month after I got there to show me the ropes. I don’t have many friends, Cassie. Wealthy men rarely do. Harold Klauser’s my closest friend, though, and very close indeed. He wanted to come, but his doctors say he shouldn’t risk the trip.”

“We could vid it, and send him the card.”

“You’re right. I should have thought of that myself, and I’m surprised you did.”

Cassie grinned. “Showbiz. Remember?”

Later that day, they were shown the broad lawn of the New Zealand consulate, a close-cut carpet of green running down to a rock-strewn beach and the clean, blue Pacific.