Part 6 (2/2)

He was in Havana, at a c.o.c.ktail party. 'Another woman asked to meet you, Nick,' the hostess told him. 'I'm going to have to start handing out numbers.'

His physical appearance had something to do with it. He would have been just another bright-eyed, fortysomething surfer from San Diego, though, if not for his string of finds, which ranged from a cache of centuries-old gold coins to the wreck of a legendary pirate s.h.i.+p. And the thirty-room villa it bought him, which came with its own island off Martinique, didn't hurt.

At the same time, his success had made life tedious. The motives of others were increasingly obvious to him, and almost always economic. And he'd seen enough of the world to know it was the same everywhere. Drinking restored some of the edge*or so he rationalized it.

No amount of alcohol could make this gold-digger fest endurable, he thought. With the right woman, however, the night might be salvaged.

The woman he had in mind was Mariana Dominguez, aged ninety-four. She could be found on the veranda of the Hotel Nacional, rolling tobacco leaves from her own field into cigars that he believed were the finest on the island and possibly the world. 'They're going to earn you sainthood,' he liked to tell Seora Dominguez.

On the way out of the party, he traded the bartender a roll of ten-peso notes for a bottle of dark rum. He worked the foil from the cap as he strolled along the deserted Malecon. He admired the once-majestic Spanish town houses, now boarded up to keep out squatters. It was an especially dark night. If not for the slapping of waves against the seawall, Havana Bay could have been mistaken for a vacant lot.

Because of the waves, at first, he couldn't hear what the man ahead was saying, just the cruelty in his tone. Drawing closer, Fielding made out, 'What's a matter, puta puta, you too good for us?' spoken with a heavy Cuban accent.

Fielding accelerated, soon discerning from the shadows a trio of street toughs surrounding a cowering young woman. The tough closest to her face repeated, 'You too good for us?' A stout man with apelike facial hair, he reminded Fielding of Blackbeard.

The woman was a jogger and, taking into account the way her muscles swelled her running tights, a devoted one. Also she was lovely. And And a redhead*Fielding's favorite. Minus the terror, he thought, her eyes would be spectacular. a redhead*Fielding's favorite. Minus the terror, he thought, her eyes would be spectacular.

The thugs reared on his approach, probably wondering whether he was drunk or crazy.

'Buenas noches, amigos,' he said. 'I'm hoping you can direct me to the Hotel Nacional.' he said. 'I'm hoping you can direct me to the Hotel Nacional.'

Blackbeard aimed a thick finger at the radiant, twin-spired colossus a half mile down sh.o.r.e. 'See that?' he said. It was the only structure in sight bigger than a house. The other men sn.i.g.g.e.red.

'Thank you ever so kindly,' Fielding said, starting toward it.

He halted when he came even with the woman. She didn't look up. Probably didn't dare. 'Are you staying at the Nacional too, by chance?' he asked, knowing she had to be. It was a.n.a.logous to running into a man on the moon: The lunar lander had to be his.

She c.o.c.ked an eye toward Blackbeard, seeking permission to speak. He gave it with a shrug.

'Y-yes, as a matter of fact, I am,' she said. Her accent was British. Fielding had presumed as much from what he would affectionately come to call her bathtub-white complexion.

'It's really dark between here and there, and possibly unsafe,' he said. 'Perhaps we ought to walk back together?'

The Cubans eyed one another, apparently trying to decide whether this was amusing or galling. Stepping his big chest into Fielding's face, Blackbeard said, 'She's with us.'

'How about I buy all of you a drink?' Fielding asked. He flashed his rum bottle.

Blackbeard grabbed a handful of Fielding's linen lapel, imprinting it with something oily. 'How about you go to your hotel now?'

Fielding recoiled. 'You had fish for dinner, didn't you?'

'That's it, cabron.' cabron.' Blackbeard balled his free hand into a fist. Blackbeard balled his free hand into a fist.

'Now, now, sir, please,' Fielding said. 'We can settle this without resorting to violence.'

The second thug clucked his opinion that Fielding was chicken. The third called Fielding, 'Maricon.' 'Maricon.' Fielding knew enough Spanish to understand it as an appraisal of his s.e.xual bent. Fielding knew enough Spanish to understand it as an appraisal of his s.e.xual bent.

He told the group, 'Recently I took a seminar called Emotional Balances, which, if you haven't heard, is like anger management, except it's conceived by accredited behavioral scientists. What we learned is that people feel better when they talk about their feelings. It eases the burden of facing our fears and offers us an emotional release. So what do you say we listen to one another, give it the best of our understanding, and see where it leads?'

The woman studied him, her mouth wide open in mystification.

She had beautiful lips, he thought.

'You a f.u.c.king crazy little pedazo de mierda pedazo de mierda, aren't you?' Blackbeard said to him.

Fielding turned the other cheek. 'It's not easy, talking about your feelings, I know. But let's try, okay? Just try? One of my favorite sayings is, Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.''

He would have attributed the saying to 'that great friend of Cuba, John F. Kennedy.' But Blackbeard's fist was flying at his face.

He sidestepped it with ease.

'I tried,' he sighed.

He set his bottle of rum on the wall in time to meet the advance of Blackbeard's confederates. He hit the first with a karate slash, causing the man to grab his wrist and cry out like an injured beast.

Fielding ducked the haymaker thrown by the second thug, then three-sixtied, gaining force, leverage, and surprise. To the man's exposed elbow, he delivered a karate strike with perhaps a little too much squash backhand. Still, it sounded like it broke bone.

Hearing Blackbeard rus.h.i.+ng him from behind, Fielding whirled around and seized him by the waist, bursting the wind out of the big man. In the same motion he heaved him over the seawall. No splash rose from the bay ten feet below, just a heavy smack against a slab of sea rock.

Fielding spun around again, gearing up for the others' retaliation.

They were running away.

'The good news,' he told the woman, 'is now there's more rum for us.'

She smiled, restoring some healthy pink to her face.

2.

'So who sent you?' Fielding asked Alice. sent you?' Fielding asked Alice.

He was fond of saying that the time they'd spent together*four weeks now*was like the midromantic movie montages that invariably feature the couple romping through the surf, except, despite a shared affinity for both jogging and the beach, he and Alice had yet to get around to that.

'Sent me?' She s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably on the silk-upholstered Louis XV settee in his den. Behind her, the exterior wall had been opened; the starlit beach appeared to be a mural. He paced before her, beneath the great white shark jawbone he'd kept above the mantel despite the decorator's pleas. She s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably on the silk-upholstered Louis XV settee in his den. Behind her, the exterior wall had been opened; the starlit beach appeared to be a mural. He paced before her, beneath the great white shark jawbone he'd kept above the mantel despite the decorator's pleas.

'Sent you, yes,' he said. 'Who sent you?' For the first time in a month there was no mirth in his tone. This, as opposed to some combination of the bare arms and legs protruding from her c.o.c.ktail dress, the breeze off the sea, and the bamboo ceiling fans, probably explained her s.h.i.+ver.

Delicately, she said, 'I'm not sure I know what you mean, darling.'

<script>