THE JAVELIN MURDERS

SAMOA THEY WERE WATCHING the rain come down in torrents when Nicolas spoke up and addressed the other two. He said, “I don’t see how anyone can tolerate this tropical rain for very long. It rains almost 120-inches a year and, after just three days, I’ve had enough already. Robert Louis Stevenson called Samoa his tropical paradise but it beats the hell out of me why he said that. What is so raptur-ous about rain?” Carlos replied, “When I was a kid, I liked the rain. It was fun to play in and it served my needs as a cheap way to take a bath. How about you, Sarma. How do you stand on the subject of rain?” “Like any woman, I detest rain. It destroys my makeup and makes me look like a creepy vampire where my mascara is concerned. But, it does put a damper on our annual vacation, doesn’t it?” Nick said, “I did tell you that there are a lot better places than Samoa to spend your furlough on, didn’t I? I wanted to go to Monaco and play the casino tables but, no, you wanted to come here and play house.” She said, “Well, it is the only house that I have and, with me being in the Army, once a year is about the only chance that I have to come down here and check things out.” Nick smiled and agreed with her but, he add-ed, “Let’s start coming down here when the rain is not so severe. This climate is monsoonal and the heavy rain falls from November to April. Let’s try to visit Samoa during June-to-August when it rains less than 5-inches per month. That would be some improvement.” She looked at him and said, “I am at the bottom of the list when it comes to seniority for Major Generals. I have to wait until all of the higher ranked men get their choice on when their vacations can be taken. I just got promoted from Lieutenant General, remember? So it will be awhile before I can pick and choose about when my furlough can start. And, June-to-August is impossible because that’s when all of their children get out of school and go back stateside to see their grand-parents.” Carlos decided to change the way the conver-sation was heading when he said, “This is just fine with me, Babe. Anytime you want to come down here and play house, I will be pleased to serve as your pilot and watch you play house. I especially like the way that you are running your bedroom schedule.” To which Nicholas responded, “Oh, I wasn’t complaining about anything but the rain. I like the rest just fine, especially the sex with you, sweet Sarma.” She said, “I understand, lovers and so do I. You two guys offer what I call ‘heavy-duty service. It is the monotony that gets you down in this lovely place. About all we have to do for recreation is to climb Mount Vaea and visit the Museum and Grave of Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author. If you don’t count Monopoly, Scrabble or sex, that is.” Nick interrupted with a burst of enthusiasm, “Why don’t we do something different today? Why don’t we start our brainstorming session for our next assignment? For the kind of work that we do, no amount of pre-planning can be excessive, can it?” She replied, “In this case, no. You will need all of the help that you can get because you will be greatly outnumbered by a group of sadists who think of themselves as being invincible and smarter than anyone else on Earth. Carlos smiled and said, “Not unlike Paul Olin-ger and Ned Baker of The Freedom Murders, I assume?” She responded, “In that case, you had just two major adversaries. Here, you can expect several hundreds of would-be enemies. Nick said, “Tell me more, General. So far, I am excited about solving this next great problem for you. And, because we might have to face so many opponents, our fee just doubled. Question number one is, if we do face too many antagonists, can we expect support from the military like we received at St. Kitts?” Sarma nodded her head and said, “Whatever you need will be granted unless you ask for atomic bombs or drone missiles. Our targeted villians live in the heavily populated cities of Bonn and Berlin so we cannot use any weapons of massive destruc-tion. Clearly, we want to keep friendly fire out of the picture as much as possible.” Haig asked, “Speaking of pictures, what are we going to be facing? The floor is yours, Major General Goldbond,