Elmore Leonard - Djibouti

Dara called to Billy, "What did the pirates want?"

"Hold me for ransom, what those people do."

"Where's Helene?"

"I told her stay below while I run 'em off." He looked around. "She's still there."

"Two weeks ago," Dara said, "we saw you leaving Djibouti. You flew past us and turned around to go back."

"I took off," Billy said, "not realizing I was short of stores."

"Champagne?" Dara said.

"Among other goods. These guys now," Billy was saying, "they're making a wide circle to come around and run past me from about fifty meters." He said to Dara, "Why, you think I drink too much?"

Dara said, "How would I know?"

"Helene says getting ripped seems to calm me down. I become serious for some reason. Helene says I make pronouncements."

Idris had to wait before saying, "You wave something at my boys, show you're a friend?"

"Like what, a white flag? I'm out of the cockpit holding a double-barrel rifle fires six-hundred-caliber Nitro Express rounds. They're coming past me now, ducks in a row. I fire and blow the Yamaha off the first one. The second boat I fire a speck wide, hit the outboard but took a chunk out of the stern. The boat sank in five minutes opened up like it was. I see the guys swimming to the first boat drifting away. Dumb guys don't bring any oars. They look like they're in a panic, the ones in the water, till they got pulled aboard the third boat. I reloaded, my shoulder sore as hell. You talk about a kick-I've seen that Holland amp; Holland knock people right off their feet. There's a trick to not getting injured by the recoil."

Dara said, "What about the third boat?"

"They sat out there two hundred meters looking at me. I wanted, I could've hit two of 'em before they pulled away."

Dara said, "Why didn't you?"

"For what? 'Cause they want to get rich? I thought of telling Helene to put her bra on and come topside. Show these Mohammedans what they're missing. You know my elephant gun set me back a hundred and thirty-five thousand? I'll tell you for a fact, it's good to have the means."

Dara said, "The third boat left?"

"No, I finally motioned 'em over. Put the rifle down and held up a bottle of champagne in each hand." He said to Idris, "Those were your guys want to hijack me?"

"They want to greet you," Idris said, "as a friend of mine come to visit. But you shoot at them?"

"At the boats, not knowing their intention," Billy said. "I was to shoot at them, they'd be floaters."

Dara watched Idris on the screen shrug and then smile. He said, "I apologize for the misunderstanding." She watched him turn now to gaze toward the coast. "And would like you to be my guests"-the camera moving toward a scattering of low buildings along the beach, one much larger on the slope above, dominating the scene-"at my home in Eyl." DARA CLOSED THE LID of the laptop.

Xavier said, "You went on the sailboat so you could speak to Helene."

"I got Billy to invite me. He said, 'You want to learn how to sail?' I told him I had to use the head and went below. Helene was sitting at the table in the salon with a bottle of champagne. She said, 'Get a glass. That fucking gunfire-my ears are still ringing. He wants me to fire it, get knocked on my ass.'"

"Champagne helps now?"

"It can't hurt. I find if I stay ripped it's easier to follow instructions. 'Aye, aye, Captain.' He's teaching me how to sail, in the fucking ocean. I don't know how many times I thought of sticking a finger down my throat."

"But you hung in."

"Still his little sailor. I have to actually mop the fucking deck."

"Part of the trial, eh?"

"I guess. I'm not sure it's worth it."

"Outside of that, you still like him?"

"He's weird. Always looking for pirates, his elephant gun handy."

"But he doesn't try to shoot them."

"He sunk their boat. If they happen to drown, tough shit."

"What's he talk about?"

"The rules of the sea. How to tack, come about. How much money he has. Arabs. He doesn't care for Arabs, I found that out. He said, 'The Mohammedans scored with 9/11'"-Helene trying to sound like Billy from East Texas-"'now they'll try for a bigger bang.'"

"Does he mean al Qaeda? Bin Laden and his people?"

"Billy doesn't say. I think he's dreaming, trying to think of a role he can play. And I happen to be with him, I'm his gang."

"He isn't CIA, is he? You mentioned that once."

"He hinted at it, sounding like he's some kind of government agent, but he's not. I came right out and asked him and he smiled, very condescending, and patted my cheek. Like what do you expect from a chick works fashion shows. He said why should he get tied up in rules and red tape when he's got the way to get answers on his own. He means he's got enough money to bribe anyone who can help him. He believes terrorists are playing a part in this, letting the pirates have thirty million, less than half of what's been paid so far."

"That much in ransoms?"

"At least. More than sixty ships have been hijacked-the latest number he told me this morning-ransomed off or still being held."

"How does he know that?"

"He makes phone calls. To Billy, the bad guys are the lawyers and Mohammedan terrorists. He always calls them that, Mohammedans. At first he thought it was al Shabaab, the strict Muslim gunmen. They're supposed to be against piracy, but Billy says bullshit, they're taking a cut like everybody else. He told me al Shabaab means 'young guys' and calls them 'the lads.' He got that from the BBC."

"But if Idris and his guys are doing all the work-"

"Billy says Idris is afraid to complain."

Dara shook her head. "He doesn't know Idris."

"Billy says they'll shoot him and get somebody else."

"But Idris is having a ball hijacking ships." Dara paused. "There was something on the Internet about middlemen, lawyers handling the ransom negotiations from Nairobi, even London. Billy thinks the lawyers represent terrorists?"

"Or they don't know who they represent, or care. Billy can be terribly boring, but he's not dumb."

"Maybe melodramatic?"

"Serious," Helene said. "Sometimes he's so fucking serious it's scary."

"The money's delivered directly to the pirates," Dara said, "by boat or dropped from a plane. I've seen it."

"Billy says they get only part of it that way, for show. It keeps the lawyers out of the news."

"Idris," Dara said, "has never even hinted at someone telling him what to do."

"Ask him about it. Maybe Billy's full of shit."

"I don't know-Idris has always seemed straight with me," Dara said. "It's why I like him."

"I do too," Helene said and took a sip of champagne. "The other night at that club in Djibouti, Las Vegas, he asked me to go for a ride. You'd already left, I didn't know if he wanted to show me the sights or jump me."

"He made a move when I was with him," Dara said. "I told him I don't do it in cars, even a Mercedes."

Helene raised her hand to slap Dara's.

"So you went for a ride with him?" Dara said.

"No, because Ari Ahmed Sheikh Bakar walked in and we started talking. Billy was still after Idris, asking him about his pirates, if they were high when they boarded ships, making it sound like a guy-thing. Idris-he's so fucking cool-said, 'They do what pleases them.' So Harry and I went for a stroll."

"I flew in from Paris with him," Dara said.

"I know, he told me. The two of you talked all night. So you know more about him than I do."

"To me," Dara said, "Harry's one of the good guys, if there are any."

"That's what I told Billy after we left the club. Billy said, 'There is no way to tell who's good and who's bad in this fucked-up Mohammedan world.'"

"He may be right," Dara said.

NOW THE LAPTOP SCREEN showed cargo ships and the massive Saudi tanker Sirius Star lying at anchor a mile or so off the coast of Eyl, Dara's camera coming on to them from the sea.