Cayo Elina 30

Chapter 30

Elina and Gus were out walking Paul on the beach, with Hector shadowing them from a discreet distance.

“What’s the deal with Hector?” Elina asked.

“He’s a friend.”

“Don’t tell the rumors were true?” Elina teased.

“Not my boyfriend and no they are not true. Besides I think Hector would be too butch for my taste. He has that whole machismo thing going on.”

“But you never showed interest in…well anyone.”

“I’m not bringing a child into this.” Gus said.

“There are ways to prevent that.”

“The rhythm method? C’mon Elina, condoms and birth control pills are in pretty short supply these days. Besides I like how I have you and other friends to talk to without letting my dick get in the way.”

Elina laughed and Gus yelled at Paul as he brought back a leather glove with a hand still inside of it to them. “Drop it, Paul!”

For some reason this made Elina laugh more and when the dog refused to drop the hand and instead danced around them playing keep away she had to sit on the beach to keep from falling on it.

“Sure, laugh it up. Until he gets the shits from eating rotten meat.” Gus admonished.

“Oh he isn’t eating it, he’s just playing. See?” She pointed to where Paul dropped the hand twenty feet away.

Gus started towards the dog, only to watch as Paul picked up the hand and retreated again. He dropped the hand and seemed to smile wickedly at Gus.

Gus turned back to Elina and a gleam came into his eye, she yelled out, “Don’t!”

It was too late of course and Gus seemed to disappear in front of her eyes only to reappear by Paul, knocking the dog playfully out of the way to snatch the hand up out of the sand.

“You’ve confused the poor thing!” Elina yelled as the sand from Gus’s hyper velocity movement was blown inland by the ocean wind.

Looking at Paul, Gus saw that the dog was indeed acting afraid, his hackles were up and his front legs were down as he stared at Gus with narrowed eyes.

“It’s okay, Paul. Good boy! But no playing with dead things!” Gus said, shaking the hand at the dog.

Neither of them noticed Hector’s enraptured face as he witnessed Gus’s speed again. The did notice a Humvee pull up outside of Max’s.

“Looks like someone has fuel to burn.” Gus said. ‘This would be Perry.’

“It’s Perry.” Elina said, confirming what Gus’s eyesight couldn’t.

“It must be time to roll then. Do you think Max will watch over Paul?”

“Sure, or Anne Marie will toss him in the soup.”

“She better not!”

The two, trailed by Hector, walked back to the street, where Perry and three marines were waiting for them. ‘The man is either the youngest Admiral ever or something else is going on.’ Gus thought looking at him. Perry looked like he was thirty five.

The other man must have realized Gus was thinking something, because he asked, “What?” as they approached, foregoing a normal greeting.

“You’re awful young for an admiral.”

“Gus!” Elina said, “Hi, Perry.”

“You feeling better, Elina?”

“Right as rain and spoiling for something to do.”

“Good, I’ll oblige you tomorrow morning. I was coming to gather you guys up, let you spend the night at the base so we can get an earlier start.”

“Okay.” Elina said.

Gus was still eyeing Perry and thinking about everything he had learned.

“You alright, Gus? You’re still giving me the eye.”

“Na, it’s nothing, just thinking is all.” Gus said with a smile.

“’Bout what?”

“The future, I’m a little tired of thinking about it.”

“Okay, just focus on tomorrow. Where’s Ricardo?”

“Inside, c’mon you want a drink before we go? We gotta convince Max to watch the dog and not put it the next batch of stew.”

They went in and sat at the bar next to Ricardo, who merely grunted when Perry sat next to him. “Hi.” He grunted before turning back to his opaque brown coffee cup.

‘Blood.’Gus knew, ‘How quickly we get used to the unusual.’ Gus took a seat at the bar and watched as Paul started hounding Anne Marie. He saw her covertly slide a couple of French fries off the plate she was delivering and watched as the dog gobbled them up. ‘That’s one question answered anyway. Unless she plans to fatten him up before killing him.’ He shrugged his shoulders, ‘Either way the dog will be here when we get back. If we get back.’

When Anne Marie got close, Gus leaned in to her and said softly, “Anne?”

“Whaddya need?”

“Nothing. Well, something. I…we’re going with Perry over there for a few days and, well, the dog can’t come with us. Would you mind keeping an eye on him?”

She stared at him, obviously torn between wanted to accept the proposition, but unsure of whether she should see what she could get out of it before doing so. Gus saved her the effort.

“I’ll pay you for it.”

Anne Marie Scowled, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll watch your mutt.”

“His name is Paul. And I will get you something to make it worth your time. Any requests?”

“A revolver. I had a pistol, damn thing broke on me. Now I want reliability. A nice revolver will do it.”

The request shocked Gus, he didn’t see her as the fighting type. ‘I supposed everyone is a fighter. Or dead, in which case they may be a fighter for the other side now.’ Perry and Elina were having a spirited discussion with Ricardo and Hector. There was sweat beading on the young man’s forehead and Gus could tell he was getting angry.

“I’m going. Where Gus goes, I go.”

“Look, son, we bring you and that means we have to bring one less trained marine with us. Now I’m sure you’re good in a fight, but space is limited and I can’t see trading off people I know and trust for someone I just met.” Perry said.

Gus stepped up. “He’s gotta go, Perry.”

“What?” All of them stopped talking and looked at Gus.

“If he doesn’t go we don’t make it back. I’ve seen that much. And if he doesn’t go, I don’t go. I’ll find another way.”

Elina looked at Gus, tilting her head slightly, “You sure, Gus?”

Nodding curtly, Gus looked away to where Paul and Anne were playing at the edge of the bar.

Perry took a moment to answer, “Well. Okay then. I’ll trust Gus’s instincts in this, welcome aboard son!” Perry shook Hector’s hand, but Hector just stared at Gus with thanks in his eyes. Gus shook his head once and Hector said thank you to Perry and let the conversation turn to other things.

“Well I’d love to stay and chat, but I need to get you guys back to meet the team you’ll be going in with, so gather up your stuff and let’s go.” Perry eventually said, bringing the idle talk to a close.

Max said that Gus and Elina could leave whatever they wanted in the room, but the two of them headed back to pack up a few things in case they were gone for longer than a day or two.

“You’re holding out on something. I saw the way you were with Perry back there.” Elina said when they were alone.

“Sure am.” Gus knew better than to deny it.

“Does he get you killed?”

“He’s not even going.”

“He’s not?”

Gus shook his head, “Think about it, he’s the commander in chief hereabouts, he’ll send a representative.”

“He goes out a lot on his own, I don’t see how this would be different. In some ways if this fails it would be better for him to be there. Death before dishonor and all that.”

“Who’s going to care? There is no military. For intents and purposes him and Alban, that’s the german guy, you’ll like him, are petty warlords carving out their fiefdoms.”

“Drop the games, Moley, tell me what you think is going on?”

“It gets back to what Ricardo said, we’re being used. But they don’t need us. Our plan, sure, our support, well, maybe, but for this trip Ricardo could handle the zombies, Alban would be there for the salvage and the marines could handle security fine without us.”

“So we used them to go along.”

“Or they let us go for other reasons.”

“This is why I sort of like the fall of civilization, less conspiracy theories. Why did you want Hector along?”

“You, Paul and him, that’s about the extent of my trust these days.”

Elina nodded, “My list is shorter, pretty much you. Unless you count Ramon, if only because I can predict what he’ll do.”

“You don’t trust Paul?”

“He’d sell me out for a meaty bone.”

“He’s no worse than Ramon then.”

Elina laughed and they gathered up what they were taking with them. It was a patheticly small pile.

“Geez, I say leave all this here and just rely on Perry to outfit us.” Elina said looking over the bags they had packed.

“Empty bags are good; we can fill them with loot.”

“Fair enough, let’s go.”