Blood Sun

27

Max’s physical wounds healed quickly. A few more scars creased white lines across his suntan, but the warm ocean soothed him. He walked out of the deep blue onto the bright sand. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter stood offshore as a Zodiac boat made its unhurried approach through the reef.

Sunlight glinted on a bling bracelet as a skinny kid raised a glass with a small umbrella stuck on the top.

“They’re comin’, chico.”

“I see them,” Max said.

“Maybe we should stay here, cousin?” Max took the drink Xavier offered. Their towels were laid out under the palm trees. “We got room service from them navy people; we got everything here. We kings, man, of all we behold. You been good to me, cousin. I don’ forget that. Not ever.”

Max smiled. Xavier shrugged. “That crazy Orsino Flint. He taught me that when we got put in a cage while you went off and destroyed half the world.”

“You think he survived?”

“He said he was stayin’ ’cause he was in a secret valley, that there’d be all them orchids and things he could smuggle out.”

Max nodded. Orsino Flint would make a small fortune.

“Those kids. Y’know, Setting Star and her bro, they got back with their parents. They were all prisoners. I dunno why, maybe ’cause they didn’ wan’ no one findin’ out what was goin’ on in there.”

“It had something to do with their blood. The bad guys needed it.”

“Like vampire bats?”

“Worse,” Max said.

Xavier made the sign of the cross.

“It’s good the kids found their parents,” Max said, and did not deny himself the sense of warmth from the memory of Setting Star.

“You better now? Y’know, you thin’ you find out about your mother an’ all?”

Max nodded. “She discovered they were buying every scrap of rain forest they could get. Huge no-go areas that protected them from what they were doing. Now it’ll be saved.”

The Zodiac boat was getting closer. “What about you, Xavier? You’ll miss your brother.”

Xavier nodded.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do with your immunity and new identity?” Max asked.

“I dunno yet. Bein’ an honest citizen might take some gettin’ used to. But, y’know, since I been in the jungle with you, I might open an exotic pet store. These creepy things? They don’ bother me no more.”

“What about driving around in fancy sports cars?”

“I was thinkin’ maybe that’d draw too much attention from the wrong people, yeah?”

Max finished the drink. “Yeah. Good thinking.”

“That’s right. Get smart, chico, I tell myself. After this loco trip. Get smart.”

The boat ran ashore. A sailor jumped into the shallows.

“Are you ready, sir?”

Xavier pulled his sunglasses on top of his head and gestured for the man to wait. “Y’see, Max, now they call me sir.” He smiled. “OK, cousin, I won’ be able to tell you where I’m going or my new name-witness protection an’ all that-but you ever want any birdseed, you look up Alfredo’s Pet Store in L.A.”

Max and Xavier hugged each other.

“You gonna be OK?” Xavier asked.

Max nodded. “The Royal Navy is coming for me in a couple of days.”

“No, I mean … inside. About everything.”

Max nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. “Bye, cousin.”

The ship eased from the bay, a brief blast of farewell from its siren, and then it was gone, leaving a rippled blemish on the calm water. The sky sucked in the light as a purple glow edged the horizon. The sunset would soon flutter and die beneath the surface.

Max knew there were still questions to be answered. Somewhere in the world were threads connecting his mother and father to a force that wielded enormous influence and control. Like an invisible disease, these people had penetrated positions of power throughout the world.

And Max had been drawn into it all.

Two rows of footprints led toward the white rock jutting out into the bay that he had found a few days earlier. A few meters into the jungle, a small area had once been cleared and sun-bleached stones collected to make a grave. The handmade wooden cross was strong and had already survived four years-his father’s hands had seen to that.

He gathered flowers from the jungle, then cut down and placed on the grave a traveler’s palm frond whose base held fresh water, in which he arranged the flowers. Then he carefully entwined the pendant around the cross. The disk glinted as the blood sun reached out its beams like a mother’s arms enfolding her child.

A jaguar sat on the white rock, deepening shadows disguising her presence, as Max felt himself drawn into the sun’s embrace.

Anything else could wait for another day.