My Kind of Town
>> Waikiki Gold Coast Dark force man
Salvatore Innuendo was reborn in the days after Machiavelli Wang saved his life, yanking him back when Innuendo tried to leap from the Pali Lookout. And not a born-again Catholic.
Salvatore had known men like Machiavelli when he worked for the Vatican Security Office. They operated behind the scenes, pulled strings, whispered in ears, tugged on sleeves, twisted arms and kicked buttocks when necessary. But they remained mostly faceless. The Pope provided the face, they provided direction. "The Vatican announced today," the news reports would begin. Not "the Pope announced." The only difference with Machiavelli Wang was that he didn't wear silk robes and a red scull cap.
Innuendo took a sip of the Pinot Grigio, spartan, almost flinty. Machiavelli's latest face, Innuendo knew, was the senator whose name still twisted his Genovese tongue -- Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka. He'd never met the senator, but certainly knew of him and his mysterious but well-publicized absence from the Capitol. He wondered if that was the nature of Machiavelli's surprise call. He'd find out soon enough.
Machiavelli had another thing in common with those men at the Vatican. He didn't spend any time thinking about God. At the Vatican, they thought first about the business of the church, their own influence on it and how to increase that influence. Machiavelli simply didn't believe in the supernatural.
"This is all there is, Sal," he said, "right here, what you can see and taste and touch."
Innuendo wasn't so sure. Yes, factoring out a God wiped the slate clean and could have made performing certain tasks in his new life less morally tedious. But he believed that he'd merely changed sides. He was using the same skills he'd learned at the VSO, but was now using them to a serve a darker force. He was one with that force and would have his reward in Hell. He was destined for Hell anyway after his lapse into carnal thought -- distracted by the Va-Va-Voom Twins -- resulted in the Pope being shot. He punished himself on this earth by avoiding contact with the female genre.
Innuendo heard a knock on the door, through the peep hole saw Machiavelli, opened the door. But he had not seen the other man. "Sweet Mary and Joseph," he swore softly. "Another reclamation project from the scrap heap?"
"You could say that." Machiavelli half-pushed a derelict-looking fellow into the condo. "I don't believe, you've had the pleasure of meeting the senator. Sal, this is Donovan."
Innuendo did not extend a hand to shake. He was not the touchy kind. "Donovan, this is Sal. He's going to take care of your problem with Sherlock Gomes."
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