Djibouti Read Free Page B

she work? Helene’s a fashion model. I met her in Paris, she’s working a show for one of the houses. I’d watch her come down the runway with her bored-model look, red hair afire, her swarm of freckles subdued…She’d glance in my direction, sitting a couple rows back, and smile.”
    â€œShe knew who you were.”
    â€œNo. She told me after, she pretends to see people she knows and gives them a quick smile. Show she’s not aloof.”
    Dara hesitated. She said, “If you’re out in your boat half the year…”
    â€œYou want to know do I work. My family’s had oil leases in Oklahoma for a hundred years. It was my granddad put us in the shipping business, oil tankers going back and forth between Nigeria and East Texas. This trip, I’m looking into doing business with the Saudis, see how they’re dealing with the pirates”—grinning now—“and I find out you’re making a pirate movie, a documentary, the real stuff. Xavier said you’re gonna sail out to the gulf and talk to ’em, get interviews.”
    â€œI hope to.”
    â€œYou think the Somali government’s behind them?”
    â€œI doubt it,” Dara said. “It’s been almost twenty years since they’ve had a government, one that works. The Islamists in Somalia, the straight-arrow Muslims, say they’re against piracy, but who knows.”
    â€œThey’re all Muslims,” Billy Wynn said.
    â€œSome more than others,” Dara said. “You know the Somalis hijacked a Saudi tanker.”
    â€œMonths ago, the Sirius Star, ” Billy said. “The last I heard they’re still trying to work out a ransom. I was wondering,” he said now, “if it might be an outfit like al Qaeda financing the pirates. Where’d these fishermen get their guns, AK-47s, RPGs…? I’ve heard they come from Yemen. The government selling weapons is making money while the people go hungry.” He said, “Well,the UN’s taking serious action, finally. You’ll see warships out’n that Gulf of Aden but, man, it’s a mean piece of water.”
    Dara listened, sipping her champagne and smoking her cigarette.
    â€œThey catch some of the pirates,” Billy said, “what do they do with them? Kenya will take some, throw ’em in prison. But whose laws have they broken? Who tries them?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Dara said.
    He turned on his grin.
    â€œBut you can sure get people to talk in your movies. I admire that.”
    â€œYou like documentaries?”
    â€œI do. Good ones always reveal the truth,” Billy said. “I can’t wait to hear what the pirates tell you.”

CHAPTER THREE
    Y OU WENT TO A fashion show in Paris to look for a girlfriend,” Dara said. “Is that right?”
    â€œI remember what one it was, Chanel. The guy who runs the house wears the stiff collar and shades? He was there, came out at the end.”
    Billy the Kid started to grin.
    â€œI was there to look over the girls. See if I might pick one out. They tend to be skinny, but that’s okay, they all in pretty good shape.”
    â€œAsk her if she wants to go sailing?”
    â€œNot right away. I see a girl for forty-eight hours. In two days you find out all you need to know. She acts intelligent, but she’s busting her ass to pick the right words, uses I when she means me, and reads the wrong books, if she reads. I don’t want to sound heartless, but we’ll be doing a lot of reading aboard, talking about books. I ask if she’s ever shared a tiny flat with another girl and thrown things at her. Nine out of ten say, ‘No, but I sure wanted to.’”
    â€œShe fails the test?”
    â€œBecomes a forty-eighter. I start with looks, get that out of the way. Then brains and personality. I’ll be with this girl a good four months in fairly tight quarters. Now if she’s funny