"Gabrielle," he whispered her name. "Sweet Gabrielle."
"Oh… yes," she cried as Carter thrust deeper, and harder and faster, her body continuing to rise against his, her legs tightening around his waist, her fingernails clawing at his back.
And then they were both coming, a moan escaping Carter's lips, as she clung to him with everything in her power.
Afterward they lay in each other's arms. Carter smoked a cigarette while Gabrielle looked up at him.
"It was very good for me, Nick. Was it for you?"
He smiled at her, happy he had given her pleasure. "It was very good for me, Gabrielle. Very good."
Seven
Fenster had set out armed perimeter guards, especially along the northeastern side of the base where they thought they had found a path up from the sea that the natives might have taken.
He had also sent out a heavily armed patrol down the highway toward town to remove the tree blocking the road and to retrieve Tieggs's jeep.
The news was not very good that morning. Fenster and Owen were seated together in the dining hall when Carter and Gabrielle, dressed in khakis that Owen had sent up, came in. The large room fell silent as they crossed, everyone's eyes glued to Gabrielle.
"Good morning, Madame Rondine," Owen said. "Carter."
They sat down, and the place finally got back to normal. Gabrielle was amused, and she managed a slight smile.
But neither Owen nor Fenster was smiling. "We found Duvall," Owen said.
"In town?" Carter asked.
The station manager shook his head. He seemed very grim. "He was just beyond where we found Bob's jeep."
Carter started to ask what Duvall was doing there, but then he understood.
"His throat was cut, and he was hanging by his ankles from the branch of a tree," Owen said.
"I've never seen so much blood," Fenster added.
Gabrielle sat forward. "Pardon me, Mr. Owen, but who discovered this man's body?"
Owen's eyes narrowed, but he shrugged and looked to Fenster. "I don't know."
"One of my security people found him," Fenster said. "But I was out there this morning myself."
"Underneath the… body… where the blood collected. Was there…" She was having a little trouble, and the looks on Owen's and Fenster's faces were not helping much.
"What is it?" Carter asked gently.
"Beneath the body, were there large palm leaves to collect the blood?"
It was Fenster's turn to sit up. "There were, come to think of it. Struck me as very strange."
"It was a ritual murder then," Gabrielle said. "Mr. Duvall was sacrificed."
Owen and Fenster looked at each other. "I knew it was natives who had done this," Fenster said. "But I thought it was their radicals."
"No," Gabrielle said with certainty. "Your Mr. Duvall was killed in a religious ceremony."
"How do you know all this?" Carter asked.
She looked at him and smiled. "Through the years here, with little or nothing to occupy my time, I have become something of an expert on the local Polynesians… their cultures, their languages, their heritage."
"I would have thought they'd hold their religious ceremonies in their villages."
"Normally they would. But this particular sacrifice is designed to take place in the field… the field of battle against a particularly hated and feared enemy. It gives them strength while at the same time draining the blood of their foes."
"We're the hated enemy?" Owen asked.
"Apparently so," Gabrielle said, turning to him.
"But why? What in God's name have we ever done to these people?"
It all suddenly fell into place for Carter… or very nearly all of it. The Starfish would be here in about twenty-four hours. He had until then to find out if he was right, or if he was way off base.
"I cannot answer that, Mr. Owen."
Fenster got up. "I'll have the chopper ready for you anytime you want to go."
"What is this?" Gabrielle asked, looking from Fenster to Carter.
"I'll just have some coffee and be right with you," Carter said, and Fenster turned and left.
Owen got up. "Be careful out there. Carter. If something goes wrong, there won't be a damn thing we can do for you."
"I won't be long."
"What I don't understand is what the hell you hope to accomplish by going over there."
"Over where?" Gabrielle asked.
Owen turned to her. "He wants to go over to Natu Faui. After what happened here… I don't know. But I think he'll end up like poor Handley Duvall."
She turned to Carter. "Why are you going over there this morning, Nick?"
"I want to look around," Carter said.
"I'm coming with you."
"Absolutely not…" Carter started to protest, but she interrupted him.
"Not only can't you speak their language, you have no idea as to their culture, their villages, their ways of thinking… their gods to whom they make sacrifices."
She was making perfect sense, of course. Carter realized. And they would have the helicopter to get the hell out of there in a big hurry if anything went wrong.
Carter smiled. "You win," he said.
Owen shook his head. "You're crazy. First you show up with the French governor's wife, and now you plan on carting her off to an island inhabited by hostile natives." He shook his head again. "Christ," he said, and he turned and left the dining hall.
"He is a very distraught man," Gabrielle said.
"I think he and Duvall were good friends."
"It is very sad."
For just a moment, looking at her profile, her complexion glowing, Carter felt a sense of wonder at the way things were turning out. A few hours after meeting, they had made love, and it had been near perfect.
Gabrielle turned back, breaking the spell, and a quizzical expression came into her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. She glanced toward the door and then back.
Carter shook his head and smiled. "I was just thinking about this morning," he said.
She reached out for his hand. "Was it good for you?"
Carter smiled and nodded. "And for you?" She nodded.
After they had some breakfast, Carter got a.45 automatic and holster for Gabrielle, who assured him she knew how to use the weapon, and then they went over to the flight line where Fenster was waiting with the helicopter.
The security chief came around the chopper when he saw who had come with Carter. His eyes strayed to the.45 strapped at her hip.
"I'm not taking her," he said.
"Why not?" Gabrielle asked.
"She's not coming, Carter," Fenster said, ignoring her. "If something should happen over there, and she were to get hurt, there'd be hell to pay."
"I tried to convince her to stay behind, but she wouldn't listen to me," Carter said, opening the passenger side door of the helicopter. He helped Gabrielle up into the rear seat.
Fenster just stared at them. He was fuming.
Carter turned back. "Don't just stand there. I'd like to get over and back before lunch."
"What did Justin have to say about her?"
"He just shook his head and said we were crazy," Carter said. He climbed up into the front passenger seat and strapped in. "Are you going to take us over, or do we find another pilot?"
Fenster slapped the side of his leg in frustration, but he finished his walk-around inspection of the helicopter. Then he climbed into the pilot's side and fastened his seat belt. He flipped a series of switches, and then the starter motor, and the big rotor began spinning.
"What part of the island do you want to see?" Fenster shouted over the din of the blades.
"Put us down on the beach at the southwest end of the island."
Fenster looked sharply at him. "Near the volcano?"
Carter nodded. "That's right."
"If the natives are already pumped up, that'll be no place to wander around. The volcano is holy to them."