My Kind of Town
>> Arizona Memorial Going with his gut
Commander Chuck Ryan had absolute faith in his gut -- gut instincts, gut feelings, gut reactions. When the Navy intelligence officer felt something down there, he went with it. And at the moment Muhammed Resurreccion was making Ryan's gut churn.
Muhammed left the theater late in the film holding his stomach, of all things, then spent several minutes in a bathroom stall. And now, instead of trying to rejoin the three females he was with for the boat ride out to the Memorial, he was walking out past the Arizona's huge anchor, apparently heading back to the parking area. Retrieving some Pepto-Bismol?
No. Just past the security check Muhammed turned right and walked across the lawn toward the water, hands in his pockets.
>> Lt. Martin Luther Washington, lingering in his seat on the left aisle of the theater as the others filed out, appeared to be pondering the just-completed film, totally lost in patriotic meditation, until he was the last one.
"Sir?" a park ranger called from the door that led out to the dock. It was the young local woman who'd introduced the film. A cutey. They were about to get acquainted.
"Right," Marty said, rising.
As he walked down the aisle toward her, he pulled his wallet from a butt pocket. "Ranger ..." He paused, looking at her name tag. "Ranger Maunawili, I'm Lt. Marty Washington, Navy intelligence." He flashed his ID. "We have a problem."
"Oh?" said. This was just Pono Maunawili's second day on the job. She wasn't ready for a problem. "What kind of problem?"
He led her back up the aisle, pointed to a bouquet of flowers that the three women with Muhammed Resurreccion left under their seats.
"We believe those flowers may be more than just flowers. They may be a bomb."
"Oh my God!"
"And I want this theater closed until we can check them out."
We? That would explain the cell phone ear-piece he wore.
That's when the little Filipino girl ran into the theater and called out eagerly to Marty and Pono, "Did you find my flowers?"
>> State Capitol
Machiavelli Wang was ready to break something. Like Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka's nose. He'd missed the last three days of the session, and been AWOL for almost five days now. Thanks, however, to the mayor's sudden exit, the senator was back in the race for governor. But he was not answering any of the usual numbers. Then Machiavelli remembered the Star-Bulletin story. The senator had been seen at a Makiki Heights home, and it listed an address. Machiavelli was on his way.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com