Djibouti

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE NIGHT OF HIS party Idris presented a bonus to a half dozen of his mates: brown oxfords from Tricker's on Jermyn Street, London. Now they were showing the inscription inside the shoes: By Appointment to His Royal Highness Prince of Wales. R. E. Tricker, Shoe Manufacturers Ltd. Now they were throwing away their sandals.

Dara and Xavier were in her hotel suite watching footage.

"About when we got there, the boys lookin down at their kicks, grinnin," Xavier said, "pokin each other. 'Look at mine.' They all wearin the same brown wingtips. How'd Idris know their sizes?"

"I don't know if he asked them or took a guess. I'm using the spy pen at the party," Dara said, "only the second time for a film, after I shot the guys aboard the gas ship. I still wasn't sure it would give me what I want."

"You said long as you facin what you shootin."

"I know, but I still try to be so casual about it. What I got of the two Saudis looks great."

"They kept duckin out on me. Did not want to be in a movie."

"And I got them at the party."

Xavier said, "Where are they?" looking at the laptop.

"They're coming up."

"You got Idris and Harry in their white suits."

"I've got tons of Idris and Harry."

"I liked those dogs," Xavier said. "They puttin it on 'cause they can do it, spend their lives misbehavin. I ask Idris, 'You get along with the al Shabaabs? Understand where they comin from?' Idris shrugs his shoulders like he don't care, says to me, 'Some like it jihad.' Like it's something cool Arabs say."

"Maybe it's an Arab expression."

"I don't know-it's the first time I thought a Arab said somethin funny."

"Look at the color," Dara said. "High def and you don't even see the camera."

"You like the torches?"

"I love the torches. Exotic lighting and mood in the same prop. A gang of Arab pirates, a goat turning on a spit, the pool lit. Music. Several ass shakers. Here they are, the two Saudis, always together, always smoking Marlboros." Dara lighted a cigarette. "I'm trying to figure out why Idris brought the Saudis and not the rest of the crew. The captain and the first officer stayed in the house most of the party."

"Passed on the roast goat," Xavier said.

"The two we thought were both Saudis ate but didn't drink. I kept shooting with the spy pen as I talked to them. 'Hey, didn't I see you guys on the Aphrodite?' The younger one said, 'You making a movie, uh? Want me to star?' There's no way he's anything but African American."

"Boy visitin his homeland," Xavier said.

"I told Idris and he said, 'Oh, is he?' Idris said Harry invited those two. Harry didn't think the Filipinos would fit in and feel comfortable. Like the captain was having a ball staying in the house."

Dara said, "And there's the guy you gave your gun to, Kwame. Putting on his new shoes."

The pirates lounged on the floor around a cocktail table eating and drinking, were still admiring their new shoes.

"I didn't give him my heat, you did."

"Tell Idris you were showing Kwame the gun and he thought you were giving it to him," Dara said. "Remember?"

"I'm showin my piece to a man was robbin us?"

"I didn't see you had to go into that. You told Idris Kwame took your gun by mistake. Idris got it from him and gave it to you."

"I don't see it in the movie."

"I didn't use it. Too much to explain. I told you we'd get it back, and we did." BILLY BROUGHT HELENE THROUGH the Eyl people squatting in the dark at the edge of the yard, the locals watching the dinner party on the patio: most of the guests eating with their fingers from bowls they shared. The watchers murmured to one another licking their lips.

"Mmmmm, roast goat," Billy said. "You ever have it?"

"Love it," Helene said.

He brought her among the diners in camp chairs and on fat cushions, to the ones lounging on the brick floor around the cocktail table.

"You like the music?"

"Love it."

Billy started toward Dara in the crowd talking to her bearer, Xavier, Billy believed born of Watusi stock. "Eating with his fingers seems natural to him, doesn't it? And look at Dara sucking her fingers, enjoying the Arabian cookout."

Helene thought of "Margaritaville."

Billy was saying, "Mohammedans are a unique people, aren't they? Like to sit on the floor eating goat. We see chickens in the yards, but goat seems to be their dish." He said to the table, the Somali nearest him about to take a drink, "Tell Allah you'll be back on the Islam wagon tomorrow."

The Somali stared at Billy, his mates jabbing Arabic words at him until he said, "You sink one of my boats, you leave the other one with no use in it. I believe you should pay me for their destruction."

Helene saw Harry and Idris coming in their white suits. New York, they'd start a trend, guys in white suits with different color scarves. She waited for Billy to make a thing out of the Somali's demand so he could talk for a while.

Billy said to the pirate, "What's your name, amigo?"

The Somali said, "My name is Booyah."

Billy said, "You putting me on?"

Idris stepped in. "No, Booyah Abdulahi is his name. Booyah's an honorable man."

"Well, I want to pay him what I owe," Billy said. "I hit his boats with six-hundred-caliber Nitro Express rounds. Firing the gun will knock a normal person on his or her ass. I've been trying to get my companion to fire the rifle, a Holland amp; Holland, but she won't take my dare."

Helene rolled her eyes looking at Dara.

"I put one of the boats under," Billy said, "and the other's beached for good. I'll pay what they're worth."

"And the motors?" Idris said.

"Yeah, and any personal effects."

"The weapons they lost," Idris said, "and the gasoline, in five-gallon containers, several of them in each boat?" He turned to Harry Bakar. "What is petrol selling for now, eight dollars?"

"Look," Billy said, "I'll pay for all that. I'm curious about those ships anchored out there"-talking to the table now-"that tanker especially. You weren't afraid to board it?"

"No smoking," Booyah said. "No lighter, no matches."

Harry said, "Excuse me," to Billy, "but this afternoon the owners of the Sirius Star agreed to pay Mr. Abdulahi three million dollars for its release. I believe within the next few days."

"Three million, huh, that's all?" Billy said. "How much you asking for that LNG tanker? I wouldn't touch it you paid me ten million dollars. I bet you could get that much too. Ten mil or you'll blow her up. I understand you have to keep the gas cool once you convert it to liquid. I read if any leaks out and turns to vapor and becomes a cloud and you ignite it…?"

Helene looked at Harry listening to every word.

"The heat will melt steel at twelve hundred feet. I read that if terrorists had a gas tanker and blew it up, you'd have thousands dead and injured on your hands."

Helene said, "I'm going to the loo, okay?"

Idris watched Dara say something to Xavier and follow after Helene. He thought it was curious how women always go to latrines together. He heard Billy say:

"Anybody ever ask the crew if they worry about getting blown up?" HELENE SAID AT THE mirror, "With my tan I could lose three pounds and do bikinis."

Dara said, "What's it like being a companion?"

"It's the same as 'lady.' Or, 'the lady.' Once in a while 'old lady.' He tries so hard to impress me."

"You're a possession."

"Yeah, but he's in love with me. He tells me whenever he's high. That's when he's the nicest, if you've ever heard of that. He's never mean, he's just so fucking boring."

"I'll bet you don't marry him," Dara said, "if he ever asks you. You decide the money isn't worth it."

"He promised to put ten mil in my account the day of the wedding."

"He's buying you."

"So what, he loves me. He grins when I say 'fuck.'"

"How do you say it?"

"Like, 'This fucking boat is driving me out of my fucking mind.' The regular way, but I wouldn't say that."

"Why's he so interested in the gas tanker?"

"You heard him, he thinks bin Laden's gonna blow it up."

"Where?"

"He's trying to figure that out. Or they'll run a ship into it."

"The crew's part of it?"

"Billy says not the gooks. He says if they don't change the crew again, like at Djibouti, then it's the two Saudis will blow it up at some American port."

Helene was using a comb now trying to untangle her hair, saying to Dara, "You went on board to talk to the crew?"

"Tried to communicate. We didn't get much."

"Billy wonders if you have pictures of the Saudis."

Dara said, "Tell him I got them aboard the gas ship and this evening, a little earlier."

"Billy said if you have the Saudis on film"-Helene working on her hair-"he can tell if they're terrorists or not. He has head shots of all the bad guys."