Part 1 (1/2)
Eye of the Tiger
Wilbur Smith
Synopsis:
Harry Fletcher, aas a charter skipper fishi+ng in the nificent Indian Ocean Until suddenly e hiaainst undeclared odds - by the rules of violence and death which he once practised as an art For of one thing he is certain: to fail is to die Last printing: 05/28/02 ';2:+' ISBN: 0-2670-107-8366-1 ”TIGER! TIGER! burning bright In the forests of the nightIn what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” William Blake It was one of those seasons when the fish came late
I workedback into Grand Harbour long after dark each night, but it was Nove ones riding down on the wine purple swells of the Mozambique current
By this time I was desperate for a fish My charter was a party of one, an advertising wheel froulars who e to St Mary's island for the bigand grey at the tes that are necessary to take on the big fish
When at lastthe fish, he was riding high in the water, showing the full length of his fin, longer than a uishes it from shark or porpoise
Angelo spotted hi out on the foredeck stay and yelled with excite on his dark cheeks and his teeth flashi+ng in the brilliant tropical sunlight
The fish crested and ed, the water opening about hi, black and heavy and raceful curve of the dorsal, before he slid down into the next trough and the water closed over his broad glistening back
I turned and glared down into the cockpit Chubby was already helping Chuck into the big fighting chair, clinching the heavy harness and gloving hiht my eye
Chubby scowled heavily and spat over the side, in coripped the rest of us Chubby is a huge ut
He is also one of the most staunch and consistent pessimists in the business
”Shy fish!+” grunted Chubby, and spat again I grinned at him
”Don'tto set you into that fish” ”I've got a thousand bucks that says you don't,” Chuck shouted back, his face screwed up against the dazzle of the sun-flecked sea, but his eyes twinkling with excitement
”You're on!” I accepted a bet I couldn't afford and turned my attention to the fish
Chubby was right, of course After me, he is the best billfishand shy and scary Five ti hi I could ht Wave Dancer in on a converging course to cross his beak
”Chubby, there is a fresh dolphin bait in the ice box: haul in the teasers, and we'll run hily
I put the dolphin to hied the bait myself and it sith a fine natural action in the water I recognized the instant in which the reat shoulders and I caught the flash of his belly, like a mirror below the surface, as he turned
”Follow!”screaelo ”He follows!”
I set Chuck into the fish at a little after ten o'clock in the ht him close Superfluous line in the water would place additional strain on the ritting the teeth and hanging on to the heavy fibreglass rod I kept Wave Dancer running hard on the fish through the first frenzied charges and frantic flashi+ng leaps until Chuck could settle down in the fighting chair and lean on the s of his
A few minutes after noon, Chuck had the fish beaten He was on the surface, in the first of the wide circles which Chuck would narroith each turn until we had hiaff
”Hey, Harry!” Angelo called suddenly, breaking ot a visitor, man!”
”What is it, Angelo?”
”Big Johnny co, he's smelt it”
I looked and saw the shark cole and selo
”Bridge, Angelo,”and I gave him the wheel
”Harry, you let that bastard chew runted sweatily atchair, and I dived into the main cabin
Dropping to ine hatch and I slid it open
Lying on rasped the stock of the FN carbine hanging in its special concealed slings of inner tubing
As I ca of the rifle, and pushed the selector on to autoside that old Johnny”
Hanging over the rail in Wave Dancer's bows, I looked down on to the shark as Angelo ran over hi one, twelve feet froh the clear water
I aimed carefully between the monstrous eyestalks which flattened and deformed the shark's head, and I fired a short burst
The FN roared, the empty brass cases spewed fro splashes The shark shuddered convulsively as the bullets s his tiny brain He rolled over and began to sink
”Thanks, Harry,” Chuck gasped, sweating and red-faced in the chair
”All part of the service,” I grinned at hielo
At ten aff, punishi+ng hireat fish ca feebly, and the long beak opening and shutting spas as a ripe apple, and the long body pulsed and shone with a thousand flowing shades of silver and gold and royal purple
”Cleanly now, Chubby,” I shouted, as I got a gloved hand on the steel trace and drew the fish gently towards where Chubby waited with the stainless-steel hook at the gaff held ready
Chubby witheredthe steel into billfish when I was still a gutter kid in a London slum
”Wait for the roll,” I cautioned hiue him a little, and Chubby's lip curled at the unsolicited advice
The swell rolled the fish up to us, opening the wide chest that glowed silver between the spread wings of the pectoral fins
”Now!” I said, and Chubby sank the steel in deep In a burst of bright cri the surface to flashi+ng white and drenching us all under fifty gallons of thrown sea water
I hung the fish on Admiralty Wharf from the derrick of the crane
Benjaht of eight hundred and seventeen pounds Although the vivid fluorescent colours had faded in death to flat sooty black, yet it was impressive for its sheer bulk - fourteen feet six inches fro s tail
”Mister Harry done hung a Moses on Ad bare-footed urchins, and the islanders joyously snatched at the excuse to cease work and crowd the wharf in fiesta array
The word travelled as far as old Government House on the bluff, and the presidential Land-Rover ca fluttering on the bonnet It butted its way through the crowd and deposited the great man on the wharf Before independence, Godfrey Biddle had been St Mary's only solicitor, island, born and London-trained
”Mister Harry, what a htedly
A fish like this would give i tourist trade, and he cao in this part of the world, he was top of the class
”Thank you, Mr President, sir” Even with the black ho on his head, he reached to my armpit He was a symphony in black, black wool suit, and patent leather shoes, skin the colour of polished anthracite and only a fringe of startlingly white fluffy hair curling around his ears
”You really are to be congratulated” President Biddle was dancing with exciteuest nights again this season It had taken a year or two - but the President had finally accepted h I was island-born I was one of his children, with all the special privilege that this position carried with it