I don't own them, if I did they would get out and play more often.

I'd like to thank Becky for the use of her transcripts.

This story is a sequel to: Old Friends

"Oh, man," Jim moaned, stepping away from the plane and turning his back on the water. The small plane had landed on the water and pulled up to the shore. Jim and Blair loaded their luggage and piled up on the shore.

The pilot climbed over the rocks to Jim. "You okay there, Jim? Brought her down as smooth as I could."

"Yeah, I know." Jim felt the sturdy rocky beneath him. Rocks didn't roll like ocean waves. "It wasn't the landing, Eddie. Just all those miles of open water. I got this slight phobia."

Blair smiled. "I suppose that's why you chose the army over the navy, right?"

"Good thing you boys brought your tackle boxes," said Eddie. "The salmon are running."

The waves and the all that water were getting to Jim. Getting his eyesight back was a good thing. Then why did he feel like throwing up? He was going to toss; he was going to hurl any second. "Could we, uh, back off the seafood chitchat?"

"Come on, Jim, buck up," Blair said. "You know, 'the time a man spends fishing is not deducted from his life.'"

"Isaac Walton, The Compleat Angle. He wrote it back in-," Eddie stated.

"1653," said Blair. "That's great, man. So, theoretically, if you fish every day you're going to live forever."

Eddie laughed. "Sounds good to me."

"Yeah, well, Sir Isaac must have run out of bait 'cause the last time I checked, he was still dead." Jim usually didn't mind talking about fishing, one of his favorite pastimes, but his stomach was a bit queasy from the flight. He wanted to get inside and kick back some beers with his cousin Rucker before the weather changed. He could feel the approaching storm hanging in the air.

Rucker Ellison came down to the dock to greet them. Jim waved to his cousin, a big man in a Coast Guard jacket.

"Hey, cuz. How you doing?" Jim hugged Rucker.

"You didn't have to do this, you know, Jimmy," said Rucker.

"Well, I couldn't let you see another birthday go by on this rock alone," said Jim. "Oh, this is my partner, Blair Sandburg. This is my cousin Rucker."

Blair put out a hand to shake. "How you doing?"

"Good. Good to meet you." Rucker shook Blair's hand. "So you're the one taking care of my cousin."

"Jim takes care of himself," commented Blair.

"Well, I figured with Andy gone you'd need a couple of extra hands to blow out the candles," Jim said.

"Who's Andy?" asked Blair.

"My first mate," explained Rucker. "Father took sick in Cascade. Be back next week."

"That's too bad," said Blair. "So it's just gonna be the four of us then?"

"No, not me. I got to head up to the res at Taholah and drop off some medicine. I'll pick you guys up tomorrow afternoon as long as that storm that comes in blows over. No way we're going to make it across this channel in a 40-knot gale. Hey, buddy, happy birthday, man." Eddie tossed Rucker a small package.

"Thanks, Eddie. Plain brown wrapper, huh?" teased the big Coast guard officer.

It's not what you think," Eddie teased back. "I'll catch you later."

"Take care, Eddie." Rucker looked at the storm clouds rolling in. "South-southeast."

Blair looked up, too. "Suppose it's going to be a big one?"

"Well, they don't call this Storm Island for nothing, huh?" Rucker slapped Blair on the back and laughed.

They brought their bags inside Coast Guard station before the storm hit. Wind was kicking up outside. "This thing came up on us fast. Weather service had it blowing a hundred miles south," Rucker said.

Jim looked out at the rolling water. "Think your launch is okay out there?"

"She's on a hurricane anchorage," Rucker explained. "I'm more worried about the power in here. The lighthouse got a systems upgrade a couple of years back. But the Guard hasn't put this place on a priority list yet."

"Oh, yeah. Well, here's something for your troubles. For the man who has everything. It's from me and Sandburg." Jim handed his cousin a box, then sat down on couch.

"Thank you." Rucker opened box, took out gift, and laughed. "An extendo-flexo mini fishing rod."

"Isn't that great? You know, like, 'as seen on tv.' Speaking of which if we're cooped up here all weekend, where is your television?" Blair looked around the room.

"We don't have one," Rucker explained.

Blair went over to computer. "Oh, hey. You got an Internet link on this computer here?"

Rucker opened Eddie's gift. "This is a working US Coast Guard substation, kid. We pull 12-hour staggered shifts, search and rescue and we don't get HBO." Rucker looked the three tapes in the package. "Oh, all right, books on tape. Short stories of Jack London, David Copperfield."

Blair said, "I've always wanted to read Copperfield."

Rucker handed Blair the tape.

"Right on." Blair stared at the tape a second. "But this is in Chinese."

Leaning back on the sofa, Jim chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm learning Mandarin," explained Rucker. "I don't like to waste my downtime."

Blair held the tape in his hand. "Uh, don't get me wrong -- I've done time in some isolated places myself -- but how in the world did you pull a duty like this?"

"He asked for it," said Jim. "Ruck's always been kind of a loner. I have The Lord of the Rings on tape in my bag. All three books."

"In English, I hope," said Blair.

"Of course, Tolkien only works in English," said Jim.

"The cadence would be all wrong in Chinese," teased Rucker. "Jimmy, a great book for listening to out-loud. I may postpone the Chinese lesson until you leave."

Blair, handing the tape back, saw a name tattooed on Rucker's arm. "Who's Jennifer?"

"Big mistake," said Rucker. "I don't know what I was doing with that one. But that's not why I live here."

Jim put his hands behind his head and stretched out on the sofa. "Hey, Ruck, why don't we get down to business and play a little poker so I can relieve you of some hard-earned government money?"

"I'll get the deck," said Rucker.

"Jim needs an oversized deck with large print pictures. I'll get it." Blair opened one of the duffle bags to get the cards out.

Rucker looked at a radar display. "This guy's got to be doing 40 knots."

Blair looked over Rucker's shoulder. "What is it?"

"Muscle machine. Maybe a cigarette boat." Rucker went over to storage closet to pull out rain gear. Then looked that the computer screen. "Look at that. That bleep is all over the place."

Jim guessed, "Could be pilot error or a damaged craft."

"Either way we better pull her in before that storm hits. Visibility is gonna be zip." Rucker handed Blair some rain gear. "Cuz, mind the store while we're gone."

"I might be able to help." Jim kept his first aide and CPR training up-to-date. Another hand might be helpful in an emergency. Blair had handled more than his share of emergencies, but he wasn't Red Cross trained. The pilot of that craft could have had a heart attack or injury.

Rucker started toward the door. "I don't need to be babysitting your phobia while I'm trying to convince some drunken partier to head into dock."

Jim took some rain gear from the closet. "Blair should stay back. My eyesight is improving everyday, but it has a ways to go before I'll be reading radar screens."

"You go under one condition. You need to threw-up, you aim toward the water," Rucker said. "I don't know why you insist on coming out here. You spend half the time with your head between your knees."

"I need to face my fear if I'm ever to get over it," said Jim.

Rucker said, "Blair, you might as well come along, too."

"Yeah, we should get a visual as soon as we make the turn." Rucker yelled on a radio bullhorn, "This is the Coast Guard calling the unknown craft. You are traveling on an unsafe course at an unsafe speed. Heave to immediately." Rucker looked through binoculars. "This is the Coast Guard, do you read? Repeat, do you read?"

Boat ahead swerved.

Rucker explained, "Ah, she's made a turn for the shore. We got to intercept before she racks up on the rocks."

"All right, pull up next to her, Ruck," said Jim. "Get as close as you can."

"You be careful," Rucker said.

Blair asked, "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna board her," said Jim.

"What?" Blair yelled.

Jim climbed onto the front of the boat. "Pull over to her, Ruck. Come up a little closer, Ruck. Bring it up! Bring me closer."

They reached the side of the boat and Jim jumped across and pulled himself on board. Once inside, Jim pulled the brake to stop the boat. Rucker and Blair pull up next beside him.

"Jim! Jim!" yelled Blair.

Jim found the driver of the boat lying unconscious on the floor. Her heartbeat and breathing were normal. She didn't appear to have had a heart attack or sunstroke. Holding the woman in his arms, he climbed onto the other boat.

"Man, is she all right?" asked Blair.

"I don't know. Let's bring her in." Jim would feel much better on shore. He was getting queasy, again. All that water and nowhere to go but under the waves. He never had a near-drowning incident. Why did he have this fear? Phobias didn't need to make sense. He sat down in Rucker's boat and put his head between his knees as cousin told him. Think about the unconscious lady, not yourself He closed his eyes, but he could still feel the motion of the boat.

Jim, happy to be indoors and off the boat, recalled earlier lessons in meditation. He wasn't folded his legs Indian-style. He was far more comfortable stretching out, hogging all the space in the Coast Guard station sofa for himself. He closed his eyes and let the drip, drip, drip of the rain put him in a peaceful place.

Blair poured coffee for their company who was now awake. He brought cup over to their guest, handed it to the woman wrapped in blankets and asked, "How you feeling?"

"Better. Thanks," said the lady.

"What's your name?" asked Jim, opening his eyes only slightly. The soggy lady from the boat wasn't going to destroy his calm.

"Monique," said the lady.

"Monique, what were you doing out in the middle of nowhere?" asked Jim.

"Running away," said Monique.

"What were you running away from?" Blair asked.

"My boyfriend," said Monique. "He's, um, he's a powerful man."

"And what's his name?" It was the detective in him, but unanswered questions ruined his peace of mind. He liked all the puzzle pieces to fit together.

"Enrique." Monique paused on the last name. "Mendez. He's, uh, an investment banker."

Jim didn't like the way her pulse went up and her pausing on simple questions. Her whole manner said she was lying, but he had to play her game until he knew more. "So why were you running away from him?"

"Because today he started drinking, and he said he was going to get a gun." Monique said, more lies. "Then he passed out. So I slipped out a window and ran down the docks to his boat."

"Where were you going to go?" asked Jim.

"Anywhere. I don't know. I just headed out to the open sea. I saw the lighthouse so I figured, well, I'll head that way, but then, I don't know, I hadn't slept or eaten, so I guess I just, guess I just passed out." Monique pulled out an empty pack of cigarettes. "Out of cigarettes. Great. Great. Guess I'll be quitting after all."

"I can teach you some meditation tips," said Blair. "Helped my mom out big-time."

Lights flickered and went out.

"Oh, great," said Rucker. "The power's down. We got propane lanterns for the light. Going to have to do without everything else."

"What about communications?" asked Jim.

"Radio link's protected. Separate system coming down from the tower." Rucker put on a heavy coat. "With a little sweat, we could probably jury-rig something for our power down here, but not until the weather clears. We're just going to have to sit her out a while. I'm going to go double up the moorings on the boats. You better finish dogging this place down, Jimmy." Rucker left.

Jim threw his hands into the air. "Very good."

Monique complained, "I'm so cold."

"Blair, why don't you rustle her up some dry clothes? I hope you like flannel." Jim went off to check the windows.

Blair took Monique to the guest bedroom. "You will have to borrow my clothes. I'll be outside."

Blair went back to the main room. After taking part one of Fellowship of the Ring out of Jim's bag, he held it in his hands, but didn't put it in the player. He didn't want Jim yelling at him for wasting the batteries on trivialities. "Can I play it?" asked Blair.

Jim said, "We should wait for Ruck. He said he wanted to hear it."

Monique, in dry clothes and bare feet, walked over to Blair.

"Oh, hey, all right," said Blair. "Grunge looks pretty good on you."

"Thanks," said Monique.

"Oh, here. I got these up in Alaska. Might be a little big, but they should fit." Blair handed her a pair of moccasin boots.

Just as Monique sat down and started to pull on boots, Rucker came back inside. After Rucker showed Jim a package, Jim asked, "What's your full name?"

"St. James. Monique St. James," said the woman.

"She came in with a little package." Rucker opened a briefcase to show two wrapped packages.

"Heroin, Mexican brown," explained Jim.

"No, no, I swear. That is not mine!" said Monique. The first time that evening her body language didn't say she was lying.

"I didn't see anybody else on that boat," Jim said. "Tell me about the heroin."

"I don't know anything about that. I don't know, maybe Enrique-." Monique stopped talking. She must have realized she was digging a bigger hole for herself. After Jim badgered Monique for close to forever, he went in another room with Rucker and slammed the door.

The next morning, the rain had gone away and the sun was out. Jim opened the front door. "I'm going to take a look at that sea ray." Fresh air sunshine, now all they needed was answered to where Monique was going on half a tank of gas. Monique had lied. Evidence didn't lie, even tampered with evidence told the truth, if Jim probed deep enough.

"Jimmy, you said your eyesight wasn't that good," said Rucker. "Besides, I don't think I missed anything."

"Probably not, but just the same I'd feel better if I check it out myself," said Jim. "A second person might see something you missed. It can't hurt."

"All right," said Rucker. "I'll see what I can dig up in the mess."

Before reaching the sea ray, Jim heard a beeping of a tracking device. He found the device in a hidden cabinet on the boat. Jim came inside and plopped a device with an antenna down on desk.

Blair picked it up. "What's this?"

"I found that on the sea ray. Some kind of transmitter," explained Jim. "It was in some hidden hatch."

Rucker took the device. "This is an electronic beacon. Did you activate this thing?"

Monique said, "I didn't even know it was there."

"Damn," said Rucker. "A remote command then."

"Wait," said Monique. "I don't understand what's wrong?"

Jim explained, "It gives an exact fix of the boat."

"Which means that Guzman knows she's here," said Blair.

"Oh, god," said Monique.

"All right, it's 6:30," said Jim. "Why don't we get the launch, head for the mainland. We'll make contact with the Coast Guard and headquarters en route, all right?"

"We can leave now." Rucker got up.

Jim turned toward the door then stopped, hearing helicopters above their head. "It's too late."

Rucker asked, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, no," cried Monique. "Enrique's here."

"How much firepower you got around here?" asked Jim.

"Well, we got two M-16s and a few mags. Plus, we got a flare gun in the kit," explained Rucker.

Jim asked, "How many ways in or out of here?"

"There's a front door and a back door," explained Rucker. "There's a trapdoor down to the crawl space, really."

"Lock them down. Put whatever you can in front of the doors. Blair, give him a hand." As Blair and Rucker barricaded the doors, Jim went over to the comlink system. "I'm going to send out a distress call. Get some backup out here."

Outside, the charge blew out a tower.

"What was that?" asked Monique.

Rucker looked out window. "Jim, they blew the comlink. We're cut off."

Blair and Jim looked out through window blinds at two armed men were standing on the dock. "You see them?"

"Yeah," Jim said, "but I can't make out any features."

"How many guns?" asked Rucker.

Blair said, "I make six, plus Guzman and some other tough guy."

"That's Raoul," said Monique. "He's the worst of them."

Raoul said into bullhorn, "Coast guard, we have your island. You are surrounded. If you send out the woman, we let you live. You have two minutes."

"You better let me go," Monique suggested.

"What do you mean?" said Blair. "What are you doing? Are you crazy? That guy's going to kill you. No, hey, Jim, what are our options here?"

Rucker handed Jim one of the M-16s. "Well, we could make a break for the launch and set up the deck gun."

"We got eight guys between us and the water," said Jim. "What about that trapdoor, any way through the crawl space?"

"Yeah, we could kick out a vent screen," Rucker said. "That would make us come out under the north side of the station."

Raoul used the bullhorn. "Coast Guard. Your time is up. Senor Guzman wants you to look out the window."

Everyone inside the coast guard station looked out through the blinds. A man came over to Guzman and handed him a small device. Guzman pushed a button on the device, causing the Coast Guard launch to blow up.

Raoul said over the bullhorn. "There is no way off this island for you." That's why Jim hated deep water. He was trapped until the cavalry arrived. On land, escape was always possible, sometimes, unlikely, but always possible. Here they were on an island with armed men surrounding them. His fear of deep water wasn't so irrational after all.

The four people inside walked away from the window. "Son of a bitch," yelled Rucker.

"Well, so much for Plan A," said Blair.

"There's got to be some way we can get an SOS out." Jim couldn't panic now. He was the former Army Ranger. Rucker, Blair and Monique would be turning to him for advice and guidance.

"There's no phones with the power still out. We're way out of range for a cellular." Rucker paused. "The lighthouse still has power. There's a radio there in the shed. I'll have to take the back trail up and around through the woods."

"All right, I'll hold him off as long as I can," said Jim. "I want you to get to a radio. Call Simon Banks at Cascade PD and get a hold of the Coast Guard, all right?"

"Roger that," said Rucker.

"And, Ruck, next time we celebrate your birthday, let's do it on the mainland, okay?"

After Rucker went into crawl space. Jim handed Blair the M-16.

Blair refused the gun. "I don't know about this, Jim."

"It's our only shot. Take it." Jim would have to pretend to see, again. Enrique Guzman wouldn't find a personal trainer and an anthropologist very threatening. Jim would have to play tough cop.

Blair took the gun. "All right. Good luck."

Jim walked onto dock.

Raoul yelled, "Stop there. Where is your uniform?"

"I'm not in the Coast Guard. I'm a cop. Right now, half of Cascade PD is on its way out here." Jim figured if he was going to lie then lie big.

Raoul laughed. "How do you call them? We knocked your radio tower down."

"I want Monique. Bring her to me," said Guzman.

"So you can beat her again?" said Jim. "Maybe break her legs, so she can't run away this time?"

Raoul hit Jim over the head with his gun. Jim went down, but not all the way. Jim's head hurt and things were more blurry than normal. He wasn't going to lost consciousness.

"Beat her? I loved her," yelled Guzman. "I gave her everything. But she's a whore, a liar, and a thief!"

Jim stood up and rubbed his eyes. "You got the dope. Why don't you just let her go?"

"I don't care about the dope!" Guzman threw briefcase in water. "I want my book."

"What book?" Jim didn't know anything about a book.

"Ask Monique. Ask the whore," said Guzman. "If you don't bring her out here with my book, I burn this whole place down to the waterline."

Jim went back into the Coast Guard station. Blair asked him how he was, but Jim didn't answer, he just grabbed Monique's small backpack, dumped it on the table, and began searching through the contents.

Monique asked, "Well, what are you doing? What are you doing?"

Jim found her passport, but no book. He took her coat and checked it -- nothing. "Where's the book?"

"What book?" asked Monique. The woman was lying, again.

"Raise your arms," said Jim.

Blair yelled. "Hey, Jim."

"Give it a rest, Chief. Come on, let's go. Bring them up." Jim patted her down -- still nothing. "All right."

"Jim, what the hell is going on here?" asked Blair.

"Guzman accused her of stealing some book. If you know anything about this, you gotta say something," Jim pleaded with her to stop lying for a second. He didn't want to die, protecting a liar and a thief.

"Enrique doesn't believe in computers. He puts everything in little books," explained Monique.

"What do you mean, everything, like what?" asked Blair.

"Um, he left one open once. It had numbers and names, stuff," said Monique.

"Phone numbers, accounts, what?" Jim knew she had it now. It must be the tape he had found inside the Walkman. Jim gave a gun to Blair. "Chief, it's time you got ready to use this thing."

Hopefully, Monique would notice the big gun and not Jim's small movements. Good girl, she turned to focus on him giving Blair the machine gun. As Blair held the gun, Jim replaced the tape with another tape, that Copperfield tape Blair left on the table would do nice. Wishing he had time to copy over the tape, Jim scratched off the label then put the tape in the Walkman. With her attention on Blair, she didn't appear to notice the switch. Blair was squirming enough that Jim could bring an elephant into the room without Monique noticing, not that Rucker had any elephants nearby.

"I don't know, man. The idea of actually killing somebody." Blair sounded nervous. The last time he held a gun at someone he threw up afterwards.

"All you got to do is spray a burst over their head. Anything to keep 'em back, okay?" Jim showed him how to use it. "All you got to do is rack the slide. Hold down the trigger and point."

Blair swallowed hard. "All right."

"Come over here. Anybody gets inside this door, you shoot them with this." Jim handed Monique the flare gun. "Can you handle that?"

"I think so."

The men outside start firing at the station, taking out the windows. Jim didn't want Monique to know that he was legally blind. She probably wouldn't feel safe with one man who won't shot to kill and another who can't see well enough to aim. Jim, Blair, and Monique all ducked as shots went over their heads, destroying everything in the building.

"I just want you to know that this doesn't change my opinion on gun control," Blair said.

"I'll keep that in mind," Jim teased. Jim and Blair start firing at men on docks. He had may not been able to see objects at a distance very well, but his hearing more than made up for it, enabling Jim to take out a few gunmen. Then they both pulled their guns back inside.

Blair said, "Jim! I'm out of ammo, man."

"Me, too," Jim admitted. He did better than he expected.

Jim, Blair, and Monique went through the trapdoor to the other side of the house. The three of them ran through the rain. Jim scouted on ahead. All he could see was inky black trees with green leaves. The ground was damp and the decomposing leaves stuck to their shoes. Every step made a squish in the mud under the decomposition layer. In these conditions, no one would be able to sneak up on them without Jim hearing.

Blair yelled. "Hey, Jim, she got hit."

"What?" Jim doubled back.

"She got hit," said Blair.

"It's okay." Monique was holding her arm.

"Let's set her down over here. Easy, easy." When they set her down by tree, Monique yelled in pain. Jim said, "All right, take it easy."

"Jim, we got to bind that," Blair said.

"I've got a bandanna in my day pack," Monique said.

"Let me have the pack. Take her jacket off, and cover her up. Keep her warm. Just keep breathing." Jim took out bandanna, handed it to Blair. "Here you go." Jim sneaked the Copperfield tape out of the daypack. He now had a bargaining chip if he needed it. "I'm going to make sure we weren't followed. You stay with her." Jim walked off and listened for heartbeats. He didn't hear anyone other than the three of them. "We got to move, get to the lighthouse. Go through the brush to avoid the chopper. If he made it, we'll hook up with Rucker."

"What if he didn't make it?" Blair asked.

Jim didn't answer. He took Monique by her good arm. "Think you can keep moving?"

"Yeah, I think so," Monique said.

"All right, let's go. Watch it." Jim didn't want Monique to get hurt because she was being lead by someone who was legally blind and he didn't know if telling her his vision was last tested around 20/250 would put him at an advantage or disadvantage. "Here we go."

"Thank you." Monique started walking.

Jim stopped Blair for a moment. "Just watch yourself around her, Chief."

Jim, scanning the area in front of the lighthouse, heard two guards posted around it. Blair and Monique joined him as his motioned. They started to creep closer. Jim threw a stone on the walkway to the lighthouse and both men turned around to check it out. Neither man saw Jim behind them. Jim knocked them both out by banging their heads together.

Blair appeared at the edge of the walkway, on the other side of the railing. "Where'd you learn that, the army rangers?"

"Hope and Crosby," Jim said, one of their many Road pictures. "Get up here."

"It was beautiful." Blair climbed over railing.

Jim started to collect guns from unconscious men. Another man with a gun appeared and Jim stopped what he was doing. He didn't have time to raise one of the guns to fire.

Monique held flare gun at man's neck. "Drop it, Hernando or you're dead."

Man held himself still while Jim came to him and took his gun away. So far so good. Jim wondered if Rucker made it inside to alert the Coast Guard, the police and whomever else he was able to connect. Jim, Blair, and Monique walked up to the lighthouse. Jim went inside to check things out. "All clear."

Blair and Monique came in. Jim wandered over to broken window and listened. He heard heavy breathing and a heartbeat. The three of them walked to the edge of a big rock to see Rucker, injured, just on the other side, lying down. They walked down to join him.

"Damn! Took you long enough. Tried to get a message off. I don't know if it got through," explained Rucker. "Not as bad as it looks, right?"

Jim and Blair stopped next to Rucker, whose leg was shot. As Jim was talking to his cousin, Monique walked a little further on and fired the flare gun.

"What the hell did you do that for?" yelled Jim.

I'm sorry. I-I don't know. I was scared. It just went off." She was lying, again. That woman wanted them all to be killed. If she wanted to commit suicide, couldn't she have the decency not to include his cousin and his lover in her plans? Jim decided that he was too nice a person. He rescued her from possibly crashing on the rocks and this was how he was repaid.

"Come on, let's go." Jim helped Rucker up. They took off into the cover of the trees as the helicopter came near them. At least two men aboard the copter fired guns at them. Jim wished he had some long distance vision. His sight was limited to a few feet ahead of him. Everything else was drippy ink black forest. All right, even a few feet ahead of him was blurry, but he could get enough useful information out of a world that never came quite into focus that Monique probably believed he could see 20/20.

Jim helped his cousin walk through the forest. "Hang in there, Ruck, Hang in there. That's bleeding pretty badly. We can't keep walking on this any longer. Set down by this log over here." Jim set Rucker down.

"I'm only going to slow you down," said Rucker. "There's thicker forest north a ways."

"Easy," said Jim.

"It's better cover," said Rucker. "I'll stick here. You keep going."

"Come on, what're you talking about, we can't do that," said Blair.

Rucker said, "You have to, kid."

"We can't leave him behind alone," Monique said.

"Look, he's a military officer. He knows that it gives us our best chance to survive," Jim explained.

"No, we should stay here with him," said Monique.

"Oh, that's a good idea. Just sit here and wait until they find us and shoot us to pieces. Why are you trying to stop us from getting rescued?" Jim didn't understand that lady. Why would she fire a flare gun and alert people that wanted to kill her of their location? She didn't appear to be suicidal. There must be a missing clue somewhere.

"Oh, you're crazy," Monique cried. "I saved your life!"

"Maybe. But then again, they would have gunned you down, too," said Jim.

"Hey, hey. Where's all this coming from, man?" asked Blair.

Jim explained, "Guzman looked surprised when I accused him of smacking her around. He even denied it."

Monique shouted, "And you believed him?"

"Maybe now is a good time to show us those bruises on your back," Jim said.

"Yeah," Blair agreed.

"Come on," said Jim.

"Go to hell," Monique shoved past them back toward Rucker.

"You know, your friend was no choirboy, but he nailed you on two things," said Jim. "Being a thief and a liar."

"Look, I told you. I don't have his damn book," shouted Monique.

"Of course you don't. Because you transferred it onto this." Jim pulled out an audiotape. "I got it out of your Walkman."

Rucker asked, "What's on it, Jimmy?"

Jim held onto the tape. "Haven't played it yet, Ruck."

Monique picked up the gun Jim had laid down on the ground next to Rucker. "Hand it over."

Blair groaned. Jim could see that Monique had a gun. His vision wasn't that bad, although the rain and mist weren't helping.

"Do it!" Monique held gun on Rucker. "Or I put him out of his misery."

Jim tossed tape to Monique. "You know, there's other pieces to this puzzle. I just haven't been able to put it all together."

"You just weren't smart enough to figure it out, were you?" said Monique.

"Smart enough to get you to show your true colors," said Jim.

Monique pulled trigger on gun -- nothing happened.

"Smart enough to put a blank clip into that Tec-9," said Jim.

Monique screeched and threw gun at them. Then she took off into woods. Blair started to go after her, but Jim stopped him because he heard something -- guns cocking.

"They're here." Jim picked up a gun with ammo.

Raoul came out from behind a tree and pointed gun at Jim. "I wouldn't do that."

Jim backed up as Raoul came at them with gun.

Guzman came into clearing as well with Monique. While still talking on his radio, Guzman forced Monique down to her knees on the ground. "Come on. Robert, we have them. Take the chopper down to the beach and wait for us." Then he said to Monique. "Did you really think I wouldn't find you, carita? Why did you take my book? Blackmail? Extortion? Insurance? No matter. Now you'll tell me. Where is it?" He held knife to her throat.

Raoul shot Guzman. Monique pulled away from Guzman, ran over to Raoul, started kissing him. The whole wild goose chase finally made sense. "We did it," shouted Raoul.

"You did what?" said Blair.

"You don't get it, Chief, huh?" Jim thought the kissing made it obvious. "Monique gets tired of the jefe, throws in with Raoul. She takes off with the boat, heads to a remote island where she can kill a very heavily protected man. She figures there won't be any cops around. Just a couple of Coast Guardsmen that won't be a problem to put away. Guzman tracks her with the transponder. She probably was going to drop him soon as the helicopter lands, only we showed up."

"What about Guzman's book?" asked Blair.

"Can't take over a man's business without his contact lists. You've got dealers, informants, bribed officials, delivery routes, drop-off points." Monique ran her hand along Raoul's chest. "Well, I'm about tired of this backwoods stuff, baby. Let's get this over with and get the hell out of here."

Helicopter echoed overhead and they looked up to see a Coast Guard copter flying over. Jim took advantage of the distraction and attacked Raoul, knocking his gun out of the way. Monique ran and Blair chased off after her. Raoul's gun went off as Jim tried to knock the man out. Rucker helped his cousin knock out Raoul.

"Jimmy! Where's your partner?" asked Rucker.

"As in life partner," said Jim. "I'm not a cop anymore."

"I realize that," said Rucker.

"Then stop calling Blair kid," Jim heard some commotion in a clearing and went to investigate. Blair had blood coming out of his nose. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I got everything under control, partner. Give me a hand here." Blair motioned Jim to help him up.

Rucker said to Jim as they walked toward the Coast Guard boat. "You see a lot better than you told me over the phone."

"Not really," said Jim.

"You handled yourself with Monique pretty good, cuz." Rucker gave him a playful shove.

"I can't see well enough to distinguish people by their faces. I go by voice and other clues. I can't read small or large print because I have holes in my visual field," said Jim. "However, a few months ago, I could barely distinguish between light and dark."

"I would never guess."

"Thanks to the new currency, I can distinguish twenties from other bills." Jim laughed. "Blair teased me about giving the donut lady a twenty. That won't happen, again."

"You have a good attitude about it."

"I have a lot to be thankful for. Blair adores me. Now that you met Andy, you know how important the love of the right person is. I'm talking to Steve, again. Why didn't you tell me I have a niece?"

Rucker put an arm around him. "It wasn't my place."

"Thanks, cuz. I missed the first seven years of her life."

"That was between Steve and you. I talk to both of you, but I don't get involved. Safer that way."

Jim shoved Rucker back. "Your men should be cleaning up the place by now. Mostly the main room was trashed. You and Andy's personal things should be mostly unharmed. We party on the mainland next year."

"I hear you, Jimmy." Rucker muffed Jim's short hair. "Your place can get trashed."

After the bad guys were all tied up and being lined up for transport on a boat, Raoul and Monique stood at one side as Guzman's body in a body bag was taken by the Coast Guard. Blair, holding a cloth to his nose, strolled onto dock.

Jim walked beside Blair. He knew Blair by his height, hair, smell and a dozen other things. Things he couldn't explain to Rucker. "How's the nose?" Jim asked.

"Oh, it's all right, It's all right. Oh, hey, by the way." Blair handed Jim the tape.

Jim looked at tape, then Blair, before dropping the tape in Monique's hand. "Here you go. Happy listening." Jim ran a finger along Monique's face from her cheek up to her temple then down to her chin.

"What are you doing?" asked the woman.

"Getting a look at you." Jim put his hands at his sides. "Raoul, she isn't much."

Monique and Raoul were led away.

"What did you do that for?" asked Blair.

"No, just relax." Jim laughed. "She never had the real one. I switched them -- I hope she likes David Copperfield in Chinese."

Coast Guardsman came over, handing Rucker a radio-phone. "Rucker! It's mainland relay. It's your first mate."

While Rucker talked on the phone, Jim was trying to get a better look at Blair's nose. Blair pushed away his hand.

"Andy, how's your dad?" Rucker said.

"He's fine. He's out of ICU," said Andy.

Jim knew better than listening in, but why have enhanced hearing, if he couldn't be naughty once in awhile.

"Good," said Rucker.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Andy sounded worried.

"No, no, I'm fine. It's the station that's a mess. Yeah, I miss you, too. Can't wait to see you. I love you. Bye."

Andy said, "Love you too. Bye."

Rucker hung up.

Blair laughed. "Now, that explains a lot."

"Blair, Andy is my fiance. Short for Andrea." Rucker shows him a picture.

Jim tapped Blair on the head.

"I knew that. Come on," Blair said. "No one would stay out here alone. Let's go somewhere and make-out."

"Only make-out," said Jim.

"Kissing can lead to more. We never done it in the woods without a tent," said Blair.

"Lead on," said Jim.

End Lighthouse by Athena: athena@fateordestiny.com

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