Descent from Xanadu (31 page)

She looked at him. “Don’t feel sorry,” she said. “That, too, would have happened sooner or later.”

***

The little Japanese nurse bent next to Brad as he fixed a nose bandage across Judd’s face. He held it gently but tightly. “Put on the tape, Jane,” he said.

Deftly the nurse held the roll of surgical tape and covered his nose to his cheekbones until the center of his face was entirely hidden. “Okay, Doctor?” she asked.

Brad checked Judd. “How do you feel?”

“Like my nose is stuffed,” he said.

“It’s that street shit you been snorting,” Fast Eddie laughed. “Told you you’d wind up with a plastic lining.”

“Not funny!” Judd said sarcastically. But he was smiling.

Jane turned. “Your turn, Mrs. Evans.”

Sofia looked at her. “I thought everything was finished.”

“Surgically, yes,” the nurse smiled. “But there are still a few touch-ups to finish. Like your hands and arms, for example, or your
décolletage
.”

Sofia looked at her hands. “They look okay to me.”

“Hold them up against your face,” Brad said. “They’re completely white, not at all like the skin tones of your face. They’d be a sure giveaway if anyone was looking for you.”

Sofia looked at him silently.

“Jane has a body stain. She’s an expert with it. It won’t take long,” Brad went on.

“Two applications should do it, Mrs. Evans,” Jane said. “The first one stays on ten minutes, then you shower and dry off. Then we’ll do a second application and dry it into your skin with a hair dryer. The color should stay on your skin for at least two months, even if you shower twenty times a day.”

Sofia looked at Judd. “Do we have the time?”

“We don’t have much choice,” he answered.

She nodded to the nurse and started for the bathroom. “Let’s begin,” she said.

The nurse picked up a large doctor’s bag and closed the bathroom door behind her. “Please take off all your clothes, Mrs. Evans,” she instructed her. “And then clean off all your makeup.”

Quickly Sofia stripped and removed her makeup with a large jar of cold cream. She washed her face with a cloth and dried herself. She turned to the nurse. “Now what?”

“Very good,” the girl smiled. “Now step into the shower stall. Put on a shower cap and face me, your eyes tightly shut.” She held a spray can in her hand. “The stain may sting slightly but only for a moment. Don’t turn your back to me until I tell you.”

“Okay.” Sofia closed her eyes. She heard the hiss of the spray can, then she felt a faint sting as the spray touched her skin. The stinging crawled slowly down her body to her feet. After a moment the sensation stopped.

She felt the nurse’s hand touch her arm. “Still keep your eyes shut,” the girl said. “I’ll guide you so you can turn around for me.”

Sofia felt the girl moving as she turned. “Now stand with your legs slightly apart. You can place the palms of your hands flat against the wall of the shower stall to hold yourself steady.”

“I’m fine,” Sofia said.

The stinging sensation began again, this time from down her neck, across her shoulders and back, then finally to her legs. She could feel the spray against the back of her legs, then she felt it turn to the inside of her thighs and down to the calves.

She heard the nurse’s Japanese giggle. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Evans, but I must ask you to open your buttocks slightly if you can, because your skin there is too white.”

“I can’t do that standing in this position,” Sofia said.

“It’s okay if you bend slightly forward,” the girl said.

“Damn!” Sofia exclaimed as the spray hit. “This really hurts.”

“Many pardons,” the girl said. “But most necessary. There is time now, you can relax.”

Sofia half-smiled as the girl’s embarrassment caused her to revert to Japanese diction. She straightened up, turned back to the nurse and stepped out of the shower stall. She looked at herself in the full-length mirror. “I look yellow!” she exclaimed.

The nurse giggled. “Very Japanese,” she agreed. “But do not worry. Next application you’ll have normal, dark-white skin.”

Judd was alone when she returned from the bathroom ahead of the nurse, who was carrying the black doctor’s bag. “I’ll be back in a moment, Mrs. Evans,” she said. “I’ll bring your clothes and help with your makeup if you need me.”

“I think I’ll be all right,” Sofia said. She turned to the makeup mirror on the dresser. She began to apply her lipstick. In the mirror she saw Judd studying her with a strange look. She turned to him. “Anything wrong?”

He shook his head. “Every time I look at you, you look like someone else.”

“It’s the color,” she said. “You’re not used to it. It’s golden now.”

He was silent.

“It reminded me somewhat of Amarinth’s color,” she said. She loosened her white silk robe slightly. “But darker than hers.”

He turned away from her. “Finish your makeup,” he said almost harshly. “We’re almost ready to go.” He picked up the telephone from the table and dialed Brad’s office. “Has Valerie Ann arrived yet?” he asked.

Brad’s voice crackled through the receiver. “Fast Eddie has just brought her in through the lobby. He wants the two observers to have a good look at her before they go up in the elevators. I’ll bring them up to you as soon as they get to my office.”

“Who’s Valerie Ann?” she asked as he put down the telephone.

“One of the stewardesses on my plane,” he said. “You’re taking her place. I’m taking no more chances, just in case somebody figures out I’ve brought an extra girl aboard.”

“What will happen to this girl?”

“She’ll stay here a few days and then return home on a commercial flight.” He walked over to the window. “The van is still there.”

“You don’t think it’s a coincidence?” she asked.

“I know it’s not,” he said. “While you were in the bathroom we had the license plates checked. They’re phony.”

A knock came at the door, and the Japanese nurse entered carrying a small valise and a handbag. She turned to Sofia. “The clothes you wore when you came here are in the valise. Also your handbag.”

“Leave it on the bed,” Judd said. “She’s not using any of it.”

“Yes, sir,” Jane said. She put the bags on the bed and looked at Sofia. “Can I help you, Mrs. Evans?”

“I think I’m doing okay.”

Judd interrupted. “I’d appreciate it if you stayed, miss,” he said. “We may have to make a few more changes.”

A moment later Brad entered the room, Fast Eddie following him with a light-skinned black girl wearing a stewardess’s uniform. The girl’s eyes were lively and intelligent, her nose aquiline, and her lips slightly thick and wide. She noticed Judd’s nose bandage but remained silent.

“Thank you for hurrying, Valerie Ann,” Judd said. “I need to ask an important favor of you.”

“You’re the boss, Mr. Crane,” Valerie Ann said.

Judd gestured. “Valerie Ann, this is Mrs. Evans.”

The black girl looked at Sofia. “Mrs. Evans,” she said politely.

“Valerie Ann,” Sofia answered.

“I’d like you to give her your uniform,” Judd said, “so Mrs. Evans can return to the plane with me.”

The stewardess looked from Sofia to Judd. “There’ll be no problems with the uniform, Mr. Crane,” she said, “but she’ll never make it as a sister.”

“I don’t understand,” Judd said.

“Black girls are different from white girls,” Valerie Ann said. “First, she needs a little more soot on her face, neck and throat where it shows, then her lips need to be made wider and larger. Maybe the most important thing is her walk. Black girls’ asses have a bigger
shelf
that makes them move differently. What she needs is some ass falsies. Like Fredericks of Hollywood shows in their ads.”

Judd turned to Brad. “Think you can take care of it?”

Brad looked puzzled. “We can take care of the makeup, but the ass is something else.”

“I think I can arrange that,” the nurse said. She flushed lightly. “Japanese girls usually have low asses. There are several lingerie shops in Little Tokyo that specialize in ass falsies.”

“Really?” Judd asked.

Jane flushed even more. “Yes, Mr. Crane. I wear them when I dress up.”

“Hurray for the United Nations,” Fast Eddie laughed. “What you get is not always what you see.
Vive la différence!
”

17

Still wearing the silk robe that Sofia had given her, Valerie Ann walked to the window and looked down. “They should be coming out any minute now,” she said.

Jane came to the window beside her. “Here they come!” she exclaimed.

They could see Fast Eddie opening the door to the limousine. Moving quickly across the sidewalk, Judd entered the car first, then Sofia, Brad beside her. Fast Eddie jumped into the car, pulling the door behind him. A moment later, the car moved out into the traffic.

“They’re gone,” Jane said.

Valerie Ann turned to her. “What was that all about?”

“I don’t know,” Jane answered. “But that’s nothing unusual around here. Dr. Walton is one of the best plastic surgeons around, and many patients insist that they not be seen.”

Valerie Ann went to the table and sat down. “Do you have anything here to drink besides pineapple juice?”

“There’s a bottle of white wine in the refrigerator,” Jane said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Valerie Ann asked.

Jane took the bottle from the refrigerator and brought it to the table with the glasses. “Not a very good wine,” she said apologetically, turning the plastic cap of the bottle.

“I’m not complaining,” Valerie Ann smiled. “Now all we need are some cigarettes and a couple of toots.”

Jane filled their glasses, then took a package of cigarettes from one pocket and a half-gram vial from the other. A small spoon was attached to its cap with a chain. She placed them all on the table between them. “That’s pharmaceutical, right out of our own dispensary.”

“Party time,” Valerie Ann laughed.

A few minutes later they were relaxed in the chairs. Jane held the cigarette lighter out to the stewardess. “It’s been hectic,” she said.

Valerie Ann let out some smoke and sipped at the wine. “Your doctor’s cute,” she said. “Does he have any prejudice against black girls?”

Jane gave her little Japanese giggle. “Not at all. But it won’t help.”

“Maybe I can talk him into it,” Valerie Ann said.

“Approximately half the nurses in the place would like to. But no chance.”

“Very straight?” Valerie Ann asked. “Strictly business?”

The Japanese giggled again. “No business. Straight gay.”

“Shit,” Valerie Ann said disappointedly. “That’s my luck. Every guy I have eyes for turns out to be gay.”

“Your boss seems strange,” Jane said.

“He is strange,” the black girl agreed.

“Did you ever make it with him?”

“No,” she answered. “He’s ice.” She looked at the nurse. “I wonder what he sees in that Mrs. Evans. She’s not exactly a kid.”

“Maybe he likes older women,” Jane giggled.

Valerie Ann smiled at her. “I have this little hook in my nose,” she said. “Do you think your boss would spring for a little nose job for me? Just so it doesn’t turn out to be a total loss.”

Jane laughed.

“Damn it,” Valerie Ann said, clapping her forehead. “I just remembered, I promised my sister I would join her this weekend on a retreat at the Church of Eternal Life. Now I’m stuck in Hawaii. Would it be all right if I called her in L.A. and let her know I can’t make it?”

“Sure,” said Jane. “Just dial direct.”

***

Brad and Fast Eddie were seated on the jump seats on either side of the console containing the bar, television screen and radio. Set into the top of the console was a telephone and a call director. Brad gestured to Judd and Sofia. “Sit at opposite corners, the rear window, please. I need a clear view.”

Brad looked out through the rear window; he leaned over to the driver. “Take the old road to the airport, behind the shopping center.

“Right,” the driver replied over his shoulder.

Brad turned back to them. “They’re right behind us,” he said. He looked down at the call director and pressed a button. A row of narrow red signal lights began to flicker. “They’re using a mobile telephone,” he said. “Let’s see if we can tap into their channel.” He pressed the automatic frequency transponder.

Fast Eddie called the driver. “Give me the trumpet case I left on the seat next to you.”

The driver held up the black case. Fast Eddie took it, placed it on his lap and began unlocking the snaps.

Brad stared at him. “Don’t tell me you’re going to play the trumpet at a time like this?”

Fast Eddie grinned back. “Don’t you know that music soothes the savage beast?” He opened the case and took out a black cylinder about a foot and a half in length and four inches in diameter. He locked in two arm clamps, one on each side of the cylinder; he fitted a flat rectangular metal box into the opening created for it under the cylinder. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he asked.

Without waiting for an answer, he pressed the switch to open the sunroof over the passenger compartment. He raised the cylinder and without standing up through the opening, placed it on the roof and tightly screwed its clamps. Then he looked through a tiny direction finder at the bottom of the metal box. He adjusted the clamps slightly. Finally he turned, smiling, to Brad. “Take a look.”

Brad looked through the tiny aperture. The white van following them showed exactly in the cross-hairs of a telescopic sight. Brad sat back in his seat. “It’s a periscope,” he said. “But what the hell do we need it for if we can see it just as clearly through the window.”

“It’s not just a periscope,” Fast Eddie said, a faint hurt in his voice. “Do you think I’d fuck with a toy like that?”

“What the hell is it then?”

“It’s a miniaturized version of the Swedish Anti-Tank Weapon that the U.S. Army uses. This little rocket is powered by compressed air and is accurate up to a hundred and fifty yards. It carries enough incendiary explosive to turn that van into a fireball, leaving nothing but dust after it.” He looked at Brad sarcastically. “Still think it’s a toy?”

Brad stared at him for a moment, then grinned. “You know, Fast Eddie,” he said. “I think you’re a mean mother.”