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 coraclass="underline" 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.”