The Hostaged Island

3

Islanders in robes, pajamas, casual clothes crowded the wide walkway that paralleled the beach. Family groups and clusters of neighbors waited for official explanation of this emergency assembly. The sirens were wailing again. It was ten minutes since they had heard the voice over the loudspeakers.

Babies cried; children ran through the cold tide-soaked sand, parents calling after them. Friends talked and waved to each other and introduced neighbors. Islanders continued to stroll down from the residential areas. In twos and threes they joined the mass of people already on the beach. They too talked animatedly with their neighbors as they walked.

One man on the beach — stocky, his short hair sticking up in various directions — limped from group to group, always questioning. People shrugged, shook their heads.

Then he went in to one of the tourist hotels, The Pavilion Lodge.

"Hey, Max!" The desk clerk called out to the limping man as he crossed the lobby. "You talked to the sheriff yet?"

"Can't find him anywhere," Max said. "I been up and down the beach. Haven't talked to anyone who has seen him, either."

"Christ, just what we need," the clerk complained. "A weekend crowd in the hotel and we get an emergency I can't even explain."

"Pass out the complimentary booze," Max smiled. He was almost an old-timer on the island. "Keep them pacified." Despite the lobby's warmth, he kept his coat closed. He was shivering. He wore a sports coat, slacks, a pinstripe shirt with a tie, shined shoes: Max was a traveling salesman accustomed to dressing quickly.

"Not that easy," the clerk told him. The balding man leaned across his desk, spoke quietly. "I got some people here — the reservation came on a fancy corporate letterhead, they pay with corporate checks, but they've got two Secret Service agents with them. I can tell. These big guys in gray suits, nasty metal things with handles on them right here..." the clerk reached for his left armpit, "...you get the picture. They ask me what's going on, I can't tell them. They look at me like I'm dog shit on their shoe."

"Do you really think they're Secret Service?" Max had studied all the guests in the lobby. He saw one wide-shouldered young man with a briefcase in his hands, stationed in front of the door leading to the hotel's party lounge, who looked like he was on a military field, standing at parade rest.

The clerk pointed at his lapel. "They got these little buttons — and anyway, the sheriff told me. There's two of them with these six professor types. Why did all this have to happen this weekend?"

Max stared hard at the young Secret Service agent, then he turned and without a word limped quickly out of the hotel. As he did so, there was the nearby sound of automatic weapon fire.

"Mayday, Mayday!" the officer chanted into the shortwave radio's microphone. "This is Deputy Sheriff Fletcher of the Avalon Sheriff's Office on Santa Catalina Island. We are under attack by an armed motorcycle gang. We are under attack by an armed motorcycle gang. They have automatic weapons. They have killed several residents. They are taking hostages.

"Mayday, Mayday. Please, anyone hearing this call, notify the mainland. We are under attack..."

The young deputy heard motorcycles, then voices. The glass of the office's front door shattered.

"Mayday, Mayday. This is Santa Catalina Island. We are under attack by a motorcycle gang. They are killing..."

Shotgun blasts rocked the outer office. As he spoke into the microphone, the deputy took out his speed-loaders and laid them on the table in front of him. Then he cocked his .38 service revolver and aimed it at the closed inner office door. He heard the front door being kicked open. He heard the sickening shock of rifle fire and shotgun blasts. Slugs punched through the office wall.

"...This is the Avalon Sheriffs Office! We are under attack by a motorcycle gang. Contact the mainland. All communications here are dead. Please contact the..."

Sections of the wall exploded inward. Plaster, framed photos and certificates, books flew through the office. Deputy Fletcher felt a slug rip across the top of his thigh. He fired his .38 at the door. The pistol made only a pop-pop-pop against the noise and chaos.

Then a shock literally threw him against the radio.

As he lost consciousness, he raised his pistol to fire at the silhouette in the doorway.

Howling and laughing, the Outlaws swept down from the hills, islanders sprinting in panic before them. The bikers fired their weapons into the night sky as they herded groups of residents to the beach. Forming bike lines of chrome and steel where the side streets met the beach walkway, they blocked any escape.

From the south, a line of Outlaws pushed the crowd toward the old Casino. Shouting commands, firing weapons over the heads of their prisoners, the bikers rode handlebar to handlebar. Other men on motorcycles criss-crossed the beach, their wheels throwing sprays of sand and salt water, cutting off the few islanders who had attempted to dash to small boats moored only a few yards offshore in the calm bay.

Gang members ordered the tourists from the hotel lobbies, then searched the rooms. Those who attempted to hide, or who struggled when they were dragged out, suffered a kick in the groin and a smash over the head from a gun butt.

Max limped beside his wife and teenage daughter. He watched for a chance to break free. He had lived on the island for the fifteen years since his discharge from the army. He knew every shop, every doorway, every alley. He pulled his wife Carol and his daughter Julia close to him and said:

"We're going to slip away from here. Move over toward the shops as we walk..."

"You can't outrun them," his wife told him. "You try and..."

"I know I can't run. That little alley beside Jim Peterson's restaurant? The lock on the gate is broken... You push on it, it opens. We're going to duck into that alley, close the gate behind us. We'll hide back there."

"You have your gun?" Carol asked him.

Max pressed his coat. There was the outline of an auto-pistol. "You ready?" he asked. Carol nodded. "And you, Julia?"

His daughter clutched his arm and nodded. They pushed through the mob of terror-stricken friends and neighbors. The restaurant was three doors ahead of them..

"One more thing," Max told them. "Nobody comes with us. Now move fast."

They passed the restaurant. Max took a last look around, then shoved his wife and daughter ahead of him, knocking the iron grill open with the force of their bodies. In an instant he kicked the gate closed behind them. Then he pushed them into the shadows.

A bare bulb lit the narrow alley. Max found a bottle and gently smacked the bulb.

The alley went dark. He slipped the Colt Hard-baller from his belt. "Let's go," he whispered.

He led them down the alley. Behind them passed a line of men on motorcycles, screaming and howling and laughing, like something from a nightmare.

Max led his wife and daughter around a corner. Here, the alley passed behind the Pavillion Lodge. Someone moved in the hotel's service entry. Instinctively, the three of them took cover.

It was the Secret Service agent Max had seen earlier. He held an Uzi machine-pistol. Max and his family were so close they heard footsteps on the concrete.

The agent spoke to some newcomers. "I'm point. Follow me, gentlemen." The agent led five briefcase-bearing men in suits from the doorway. At the street the agent glanced in both directions. He motioned the five men against the hotel wall.

"Where's Mr. Severine?" the agent asked the men. The five all looked at one another. The agent pointed at them. "Stay there."

Cat-silent, he returned to the doorway. He stopped short, his face going slack with surprise: "Mr. Sever..."

A point-blank pistol shot threw him back. Seeing the agent killed, the five men in suits scattered into the street. There were shouts, the roar of motorcycles, as laughing, yelling bikers saw and pursued them.

As Max watched, a sixth middle-aged man appeared. This was Severine. Like the others, he wore a conservative suit. But he also held a pistol. He walked over to the dead Secret Service agent and dropped the pistol. Then he walked calmly into the street and let the bikers take him.

Seconds later, several motorcycles roared into the alley. Damnation. The headlights had found Max, his wife, his daughter.

Built in 1909 for fishermen and the resident employees of the Wrigley Company, Catalina's Pleasure Pier now serves the tourist trade. From the pier, glass-bottom boats shuttle visitors to view the bay's kelp forests and sea life. Other boats take tourists to view the colonies of California sea lions, to cruise through the splendid isolation of Two Harbors, to watch the nightly phenomenon of flying fish leaping over the sea's surface on silver gossamer wings.

The pier holds rental shops offering motor launches, rubber rafts, and scuba gear. The restaurants there sell what many islanders and tourists swear to be the most delicious shrimp and crab cocktails on the West Coast.

The Harbor Master's office occupies the seaward end of Pleasure Pier. A simple green shack, its unimpressive exterior hides the interior's state-of-the-art electronics. Banks of radar screens, linked by cable to radar scanners on top of Catalina's second highest mountain, Mount Black Jack, monitor all marine and aircraft traffic to the mainland on the north, east, and south, and far into the Pacific Ocean to the west.

Horse pressed the muzzle of his cocked .45 automatic against the head of the duty officer in the Harbor Master's office. The young man, despite himself, shook with fear. Horse grinned as he surveyed the consoles of radar screens. He knew he could spot any police or military attempt to land forces, whether by sea or by air. He could then send his bikers to eliminate the threat.

And if the authorities mounted an overwhelming attack, the Outlaws would simply execute all the hostages, then fight to the death.

"All right!" Horse glanced at Banzai, demon-faced biker of Japanese ancestry. "You see all this? This is ours now. We got early warning!"

Banzai's hand-radio buzzed. "Yeah, what?" He listened and then reported to Horse. "They're bringing in one of the sheriffs. His name's Fletcher."

"Fletcher? Deputy pig Fletcher?" Horse laughed. He took a slip of paper from his jacket and put it in front of the duty officer. "Okay, boy, you wanna stay alive?" The young man nodded. "So I'm the main man now. You do what I say. Call this number — now."

The paper read: "Governor's Hot-line," followed by a line of numbers.

The duty officer's hands shook as he dialed. "It's... it's..." he stuttered, finally getting the words out. "It's ringing."

Horse shoved the young duty officer off the chair and took the phone. He listened to the distant ringing. Once, twice, three times. He watched the spinning green line of the radar scan sweep the screen: green blips marked the positions of stationary ships all around Catalina. Finally, after six rings:

"Hello... " A sleepy voice came from the phone. "This is the Governor... who's calling?"

"Jerry baby! This is the Outlaws' number one talking to you. You listening? I'm going to give it to you fast and only once."

"Is this some kind of joke?" The Governor's voice had come alive. "Who's calling? How'd you get this number?"

"Never mind that crap. You just listen. We got fifteen hundred hostages. We're going to kill them — are you listening?"

"What is it you want?"

"So you're listening. One, I want my three chemists out of jail. The ones you got in jail for manufacturing a bit of PCP. That's number one."

"Goon."

Horse heard a click on the line. That meant the call was now monitored and recorded. "Two, we want twenty million in gold bullion. Twenty million dollars in gold, understand? And three, you got the nuclear submarine Orizaba parked in San Francisco Bay. You put my men, my gold in the sub and bring it here. You've got forty-eight hours. Understand?"

Behind Horse, the door opened. Two bikers half-dragged, half-carried Deputy Sheriff Fletcher into the room.

Most of Fletcher's right hand had been shot away. Two fingers dangled from a mess of blood and exposed-bones. A tourniquet cut from a telephone cord and knotted above his wrist slowed his loss of blood. His other wounds had not been treated. A gaping wound across one thigh poured blood down his slacks. There was a clear imprint of a boot heel on his face.

"How do I know this isn't a hoax?" the Governor shouted. "You'll have to talk to my people..."

"I got a pal here for you to talk to." Horse turned to the deputy. "Hey, Fletcher. Remember me? During the summer? You whipped my head with your stick, remember?"

Fletcher recognized Horse through swollen eyes. But he said nothing.

"What's wrong? You too fucked up to talk? Does it hurt? Don't sweat it, I got something to make the hurt go away. Just for you. Now talk to the Governor." Horse pushed the handset against the deputy's face. "Tell him your name."

"This... is Deputy Sheriff... Joseph Fletcher, of the Avalon Sheriff's Office. We are under attack by a motorcycle gang. We need..."

"Have they really taken all the people hostage?" the Governor barked down the phone.

"I don't know. They're killing people... they..."

Horse raised his .45 to the deputy sheriff's face. "I'm going to take away the hurt now, Fletcher. Say bye-bye to the Governor."

Fletcher closed his eyes. "Hail Mary, mother of grace. Forgive us our sins, now and at the time of our..."

The shot sent blood spewing over the Harbor Master's map of Santa Catalina Island.