"Right," Carter said.
Gabrielle sat forward. "What is wrong?" she shouted.
Carter turned around to her. "Are you ready?" he said. She nodded, and Carter turned back to Fenster. "Let's go."
Fenster sighed deeply, but then they lifted off, straight above the base, and headed south. At the edge of the island Carter could see Fenster's security people along the low cliffs. He could also see that the cliffs had been undercut by the wave action. He pointed it out to Fenster.
"We think they hide their canoes in the caves and then climb up," the security chief shouted.
"No way of patrolling the area from the sea?"
"There are tens of thousands of little holes and caves. At night it would be impossible to see much of anything."
Fenster swung them directly south, and in the distance they could see the volcano on Natu Faui in the haze.
Two miles out. they spotted the first of the native outrigger canoes strung out toward Natu Faui.
"That's why it's impossible to detect an attack ahead of time," Fenster said, pointing down at them.
"What are they doing? Fishing?"
"Some of them. Others are pearl diving. Sponge diving."
Carter looked at them. "And some of them are killers."
"It would appear all of them are killers, if Mrs. Rondine was correct about the religious killing."
"Bring us a little lower," Carter said.
"They won't like it. Our rotor wash screws them up."
"I don't like killing."
Fenster wanted to say something in return — Carter could see it in his eyes — but he held his tongue and brought them down directly over a half dozen of the canoes.
Carter pulled out the binoculars, and as they passed, he looked down into each boat. He had expected to possibly catch one of the boatloads of natives unawares and find them with weapons. He was not prepared for what he did see, however. Every canoe was loaded with weapons: bows and arrows, machetes, spearguns. But there did not seem to be firearms of any kind.
Carter asked Fenster about it as they climbed back up.
"They are a very independent people, from what I know," he said. "The French leave them alone as long as they don't arm themselves with modern weapons. The bows and arrows and other weapons were used to hunt with… until now."
Ahead, for as far as they could see toward Natu Faui, was a virtual armada of canoes.
"The only thing to do will be either to wipe out the entire island or put a garrison on it," Fenster was saying.
The fact that the natives carried only primitive weapons did not fit in with Carter's idea of what was happening on these islands. Yet he still felt he was on the right track.
"It'll come to that, you'll see," Fenster said. "And it won't be our Navy who'll do it. It'll have to be the French. They know how to deal with problems like that."
Another thing bothering Carter was the fact that last night during the attack there were no Orientals to be found anywhere on the base. But this morning they had been back, not as if nothing had happened, but as if they had been there all along, fighting side by side with the rest of the base personnel.
They were approaching the southwestern beaches of Natu Faui, and Fenster was looking at Carter as if he were expecting something. He had evidently asked a question, but Carter had not heard him.
"I'm sorry," Carter said. "I was thinking. You asked me something?"
"I said that after all that has happened, I don't want to set you down on this island. It's simply too dangerous."
"We're going down."
"I would be remiss in my duty as security chief if I let anything happen to you," Fenster said, and he started to peel off to the west, around in a big circle away from the island.
"You set this machine down anywhere but where I asked you to take me, and I will break both of your arms, Richard," Carter said, keeping his voice even.
Fenster flinched as if about to be struck, but he brought the chopper back on course. "This is insanity, you know that."
They were approaching the beach. The volcano loomed well above them, a few miles inland.
"If it was just you, it'd be one thing. But dragging the governor's wife along…"
Carter took out his Luger, ejected the clip, then worked the slide mechanism back and forth a couple of times. He replaced the clip, levered a round into the firing chamber, made sure the safety was engaged, and slid the weapon back into its holster at his belt beneath his shirt.
During all that, Fenster nervously brought them down for a jerky landing on the beach halfway between the water and the thick wall of jungle.
He shut down the engine, and in the silence, Carter opened his door and unbuckled.
"I want you to stay here with the chopper. We might have to beat a hasty retreat."
"What are you planning on doing?"
"We're going inland. There's something I have to see. If you hear any shooting, start the engine and get ready to lift off."
Fenster looked from Carter to the jungle and back. "Where inland? How far? And just what is it you're going after? I don't understand any of this."
"I'm not going to stop and explain. Just be here when we get back. Understand?"
Fenster wanted to argue, but again he held his tongue. He nodded.
Carter got out of the machine and helped Gabrielle down.
"We may have to hike several miles each way," he said to her. "Do you think you're up to it?"
She smiled. "Ill manage," she said.
"Keep your eyes open," Carter said to Fenster. "We're heading directly inland. If anything happens out here, come in toward us. Let us know what's going on."
Fenster swore under his breath, but he nodded. "How long do you suppose you'll be?"
"Several hours," Carter said. "Keep a sharp watch." He took Gabrielle's arm, and they went up the beach until they found a break in the thick vegetation that allowed them to penetrate the jungle.
There was so much undergrowth that the going was very difficult for the first few hundred yards. But then the ground became much harder as it began to rise toward the volcano, and the growth began to thin out.
They stopped after a half hour to catch their breath. Carter figured they had come about a third of the way to the general vicinity where the helicopter instruments had gone crazy when he had flown over with Tieggs.
Gabrielle's face was covered with a thin sheen of perspiration. It had been the same earlier this morning when they had made love in his room. She had been like a sensual animal then. Now she seemed like some sort of a sleek jungle cat. She was strange and very sad in some respects, but incredibly lovely and innocent all at the same moment.
"Just where is it we are going, Nick?" she asked.
"It's farther inland. Possibly an hour or more away from here."
"But what is it you are seeking? Why this place? What has drawn you here?"
Quickly he told her about his search of this end of the island with Bob Tieggs and of the odd readings on the helicopter's instruments.
"So you think there is something going on up here? Something electrical, evidently, if it had such an effect on your machine's instruments."
"Something very powerful."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"Radar, perhaps," Carter said. "We may have crossed its beam. I don't know. It's why I'm here now."
"You think it has something to do with the native attacks?"
"I don't know, Gabrielle."
"But it is why you have brought me along. If we find something, I will be able to translate."
"What could make them hate our installation so much? What could drive them to such attacks?"
"I do not know, Nick. But it certainly has something to do with their religion. In their minds, your people have evidently committed some sacrilege."
The helicopter, trailing thick black smoke, clattered overhead then disappeared to the north, the noise of its engine fading almost to nothing, but then it came back.