Dig?'
Eric nodded.
'Too bad my mom couldn't be around to see me now,' he said, addressing the crowd. He'd gotten used to speaking to large groups and seemed to prefer it rather than one-on-one conversations. 'After all, it's thanks to her I'm here. She used to be head tour guide here for years.' He pointed at the Hearst Castle T-shirt one of his security guards was wearing. 'We had five boxes of those T-shirts in our garage. Factory seconds the gift shop couldn't sell. We had a Hearst Castle clock in the living room, Hearst Castle dishes in the kitchen.' He sat on the edge of the squat black table, absently strumming the guitar. 'This place supported both of us while I played soft rock in Holiday Inns on weekends. John Denver shit. 'Play 'Rocky Mountain High,' ' written in lipstick on cocktail napkins with a dollar bill attached. Same old shit.' He leaned the guitar against the table, waved the young drummer over. 'Bring the medicine bag, Kid,' he said.
The young boy grabbed a child's lunch bucket with cartoon figures of Donnie and Marie Osmond painted on the lid. In his other hand he carried a thin pole. He wore a fisherman's hat that was stuck through with dozens of what looked like hat pins. He handed the lunch pail to BeBop, who opened it, dabbed some white powder on the tip of his thumbnail, and snorted it up his nostril. Then he closed the pail and handed it back. He turned to Eric with a crooked grin. 'Hey, Ravensmith, you or your chick wouldn't happen to be a dentist, would you? I can't seem to get these damn braces off.'
'Sorry, can't help you,' Eric said.
'Well, that's what I get, trying to straighten my teeth at my age. Show business, you know?'
'Listen, BeBop,' Rhino suddenly said, stomping forward from his group. Angel tried to stop him, but he shrugged her off.
Eric saw Griffin follow Rhino forward; he was carrying Eric's crossbow.
Rhino shook a delicate finger at BeBop. 'I want this Ravensmith and Blackjack. They've caused me considerable business setbacks.'
'How so?' BeBop asked.
'Well, they tried to destroy my ship, killed several of my crew.'
BeBop smiled. 'Since that forced you to come here for supplies and repairs and to recruit more crew members, they actually did me a favor. I'm turning a profit on the deal.'
'I don't give a damn about your profit,' Rhino bellowed, snapping the rubber band against his thick wrist. 'I want them. So if it's profit you want, I'll buy them from you.'
BeBop arched his eyebrows in surprise. 'Now there's an offer I haven't had before. Pirates buying other pirates. What should I say to that, Ravensmith?'
Eric smiled. 'I'd ask him how much he's offering.'
BeBop laughed and the crowd joined in, toasting Eric. 'Okay, then, Rhino, what's your offer. How much for the three of them?'
'I'll give you their ship and all its contents.'
'I could take that myself if I wanted to. But then how many customers would come here to do business if they didn't feel safe. No, Rhino, I'm afraid whatever conflict you have with the doctor and his friends will have to wait until you leave Liar's Cove.'
'I want him!' Rhino yelled, his lumpish body trembling with energy and rage.
One of Rhino's crew snatched an arrow up and laid it into his bow, pivoting toward Eric.
BeBop nodded at his young sidekick, who immediately plucked one of the hat pins from his fishing cap, thumbed it into the end of the hollow tube he was carrying, pointed it at Rhino's man, and blew sharply into the end. The hat pin launched out of the end of the tube and dove into the neck of the crewman. The man dropped his bow with a howl and grabbed his neck. Blood braided down his throat as he swooned to the floor.
The crowd watched silently.
'I warned you that violence wouldn't be tolerated. It's bad for business. Nothing personal, Rhino.'
Angel quickly nudged Rhino's elbow, guiding him through the crowd. 'Of course we understand,' she said politely. 'We apologize for our friend's rashness.'
'No problem,' BeBop said. 'Tsetse needed the practice anyway.'
Angel led Rhino out of the room, stepping over the twitching body of their wounded crew member. Kelly Furst, the black ex-army nurse, and Rilke stopped to pick up their fallen comrade.
'I wouldn't bother,' BeBop smiled. 'Tsetse dips those suckers in something nasty that Blackjack helped him cook up. That guy'll be dead meat in a couple minutes. We can use the body to feed the hogs.'
Kelly Furst and Rilke exchanged looks, dropped the body, and quickly trotted after the others.
When they were gone and the crowd was loudly discussing the events just past, BeBop waved Eric, Tracy, and Blackjack over. 'That Rhino's getting worse and worse, man. Acts like a junkie speed freak on Angel Dust. I don't know what your beef is, but I know he's out for your asses. Personally, I don't care one way or the other who does what to who, but I don't want it done here. You know the rules, folks. I'd hate to end up feeding you guys to the hogs too. Blackjack and me done too much business together for that.' He paused, let the light flicker off his braces. 'And he knows me well enough to know I'll kill all three of you if I have to.'
16.
'It's like Times Square,' Tracy complained. 'Don't they ever go to bed around here?'
'They save that for Casa del Sol,' Blackjack said. 'There you can buy a bed and some company in it for anywhere between a loaded cartridge and a bunch of fresh spinach.'
They were walking casually through the lower lobby of Casa del Mar, picking their way past the endless throngs of people. Around them loomed the ancient artworks of centuries past. The ceilings, pilasters, and doorways were gilt decorated. On the wall near the heavy wooden hand-carved door was a polychrome stucco relief of the Madonna and Child by Mino da Fiesole, a fifteenth-century Florentine sculptor. Pushed against one wall was a gilt wood, marble-topped eighteenth-century table from Italy. A couple of rough-hewn men were snoring in a drunken stupor on top of the table, their heavy boots having already scraped long furrows of gilt from the legs.
'Don't you think we should go back and get the rest of my crew?' Blackjack asked. 'I mean, now that Rhino knows we're here, they're sure to be extra cautious.'
'What for? They don't know why we're here. Rhino doesn't know that Angel double-crossed him with Alabaster. And Angel doesn't know that we know. If anything, they'll be out looking for us, afraid that we've already turned tail and run.' Eric glanced up at Blackjack. 'As long as the information you bought is accurate, we should be in pretty good shape.'
'The information is good. Like the newspapers used to say, 'a reliable source.' Actually I got it from one of BeBop's security people. He doesn't discourage them from accepting bribes as long as it doesn't interfere with his percentage. He has a very pragmatic philosophy.'
'He's nuts,' Tracy said.
'Yes,' Blackjack agreed. 'There is that too.'
'Okay, we know this place is so crowded they had to put Rhino and his people all on different floors. Angel's room is on the third floor, Rhino's is on the first, and in between, Griffin and the rest of the crew are sharing a room on the second floor. That spreads them out adequately for our purposes. It's too bad they couldn't split them up and send a few over to Casa del Monte, but this arrangement will have to do.'
As they walked up the wooden stairs, Eric couldn't help but marvel at his surroundings. Even in the shambles these animals were making of it, the building's regal beauty was dominating. Hearst had been possessed when he'd built it, overseeing every detail with architect Julia Morgan, from imported tiles to bathroom fixtures. A massive construction job that contributed to the $125,000,000 debt that eventually destroyed Hearst. The bitter irony: four years before his death, his bad heart forced him to leave his Enchanted Hill to be nearer medical attention.
It was his fantasy, Eric thought, like Blackjack's fantasy of becoming a pirate. Now in California anyone could live out their fantasies; anyone could be a William Randolph Hearst. BeBop could go from part-time musician to
