The Nautical Chart Part 11

"So what the h.e.l.l are you doing so for from home?"

The melancholy in the protruding eyes intensified. He had slipped his hand into a pocket, exposing his suspenders, and suddenly Coy understood the significance of those blue and white stripes-the Argentine flag. The sonofab.i.t.c.h was wearing suspenders with the colors of the Argentine flag.

"Things changed in my beloved country."

He sat down beside Coy, but first he pulled up the legs of his trousers at the knee, carefully; to keep the crease sharp.

"Have you heard about the dirty war?"

Coy's lips twisted with sarcasm.

"Of course. The tupamaro tupamaro

terrorists and all that."

"The montoneros," montoneros," Kiskoros lectured, wagging a finger. "The Kiskoros lectured, wagging a finger. "The tupamaros tupamaros were in Uruguay." were in Uruguay."

Coy heard him sigh with emotion. Impossible to know if he lamented the whole thing or missed it.

"The fact is," he added after a moment, "that there was a war in Argentina, even though it wasn't official. Do you understand? I fulfilled my obligation. Some do not accept that."

"So why are you telling me?" Coy asked.

Kiskoros did not seem discouraged by Coy's hostility.

"I found it necessary to travel," he continued. 'And I have experience as a diver. I met Senor Palermo during the recovery efforts on the Agamemnon, Agamemnon, Nelson's s.h.i.+p that went down in the River Plate." Nelson's s.h.i.+p that went down in the River Plate."

Coy turned away rudely.

"I don't give a fart about your life."

The frog eyes blinked, injured "Very well, senor. Just a little while ago, back in that alley, I was on the verge of killing you. I thought..." "So kill me, and blow it out your a.s.s."

Kiskoros said nothing, mulling over the insult Coy stood up. Tanger was watching him. "He killed Zas," she said.

There was a long silence as Coy remembered the Labrador's warm breath on his arm. He could see-it had been only a week- his moist muzzle and loyal gaze. Then, darkly, came the image of the motionless dog on the rug, his gla.s.sy, half-open eyes. Something turned over inside him; he felt a strange anguish and he scanned the plaza uneasily, the lights of the cathedral and the street lamps. Beside him, the notes of the guitar seemed to be sliding down the steps. The girl who had smiled at him was kissing one of the boys. One of the young men set the beer bottle on the ground.

"Well, that's true." Kiskoros also got to his feet, brus.h.i.+ng off his trousers. "And believe me, I regret that, senor. I am fond... Let me a.s.sure you. I am fond of domestic animals. Why, I have a Doberman of my own."

Thicker silence. The Argentinean a.s.sumed a circ.u.mspect expression.

"In my own way," he insisted, "I am still a military man. Do you understand? I had orders. And that included the senora's home."

He set his face in a sad rictus: accept responsibility; and all that. "Mendieta," he said suddenly. "My dog is named Mendieta." In the meantime, Coy's eyes went to the bottle, which was at his feet on the steps. For a second, he calculated the possibilities of shattering it over the other man's head. When he looked up he met the melancholy eyes of the Argentine.

"You seem to be a very impulsive man," said Kiskoros in an amiable tone. "That has its problems. The senora, on the other hand, seems to have a more gentle character. Whatever the case, it is not a good thing for a lady to be wandering around this shady part of town. I recall an instance in Buenos Aires. A montonera montonera killed two of my fellows when we went to look for her. That woman defended herself like a lioness, and we could only subdue her by throwing grenades. Then it turned out that she had a baby hidden under the bed__ " killed two of my fellows when we went to look for her. That woman defended herself like a lioness, and we could only subdue her by throwing grenades. Then it turned out that she had a baby hidden under the bed__ "

He paused and clicked his tongue thoughtfully. Beneath his mustache was a mouth that may have been smiling.

"There are women who are very macho, I a.s.sure you," he continued "Although later, things went soft in ESMA. You know what I'm referring to." He a.n.a.lyzed Coy carefully. "No, I don't think you do. Regio. Regio. Cool. It may be better that way." Cool. It may be better that way."

Coy's eyes met Tanger's, but she wasn't seeing him, as if she had just contemplated distant horrors. Within seconds, coming back to herself, her eyes seemed to focus on reality, though a vacant darkness remained. She pressed Coy's jacket to her breast, as if suddenly she felt cold.

"ESMA," she said, "was the Escuela de Mecanica de la Armada.... The Navy's torture center during the military dictators.h.i.+p."

"True," Kiskoros conceded, gazing around with a distracted air. "I fear some ill-informed fools refer to it in that manner."

Sh.e.l.lY Manne on the brushes had softly introduced "Man in Love," and Eddie Heywood was launching into the first solo at the piano. Standing bare-chested at the open window of his room in the Hotel de Francia y Paris, in his mind Coy leaped ahead to another phrase of the melody. He was wearing headphones, and when he heard the expected pa.s.sage, he nodded in time to the music. Three floors below, the small plaza was in shadow. The two large central street lamps had been turned off, the foliage of the orange trees was dark, and the awning of the Cafe Parisien was rolled up. Everything seemed deserted, but Coy wondered if Horacio Kiskoros was still hanging around. In real life the bad guys take a rest too, he thought. In real life things don't happen the way they do in novels and films. Maybe now the Argentine was snoring like a buzz saw in some hotel or boarding-house close by, with those suspenders carefully draped over a clothes rack. Dreaming of happy times of sausage, 348 Corrientes, and 1,500-volt currents in the cellars of ESMA. Manne on the brushes had softly introduced "Man in Love," and Eddie Heywood was launching into the first solo at the piano. Standing bare-chested at the open window of his room in the Hotel de Francia y Paris, in his mind Coy leaped ahead to another phrase of the melody. He was wearing headphones, and when he heard the expected pa.s.sage, he nodded in time to the music. Three floors below, the small plaza was in shadow. The two large central street lamps had been turned off, the foliage of the orange trees was dark, and the awning of the Cafe Parisien was rolled up. Everything seemed deserted, but Coy wondered if Horacio Kiskoros was still hanging around. In real life the bad guys take a rest too, he thought. In real life things don't happen the way they do in novels and films. Maybe now the Argentine was snoring like a buzz saw in some hotel or boarding-house close by, with those suspenders carefully draped over a clothes rack. Dreaming of happy times of sausage, 348 Corrientes, and 1,500-volt currents in the cellars of ESMA.

Pum-pum, pum. The second solo was ending, and Coy expectantly awaited the entrance of the third: the tenor sax of Coleman Hawkins, which was the best thing on that cut, with its half time and quick time and strong-light, and corresponding rhythmic surprises when that cadence was broken with the expected unexpectedness. "Man in Love." He had just thought about the t.i.tle, and that made him smile into the shadows of the plaza before he glanced up to the ceiling. Tanger was there, on the fourth floor, in the room right above his. Maybe she was sleeping, maybe not. Perhaps she was awake at the window like him, or sitting at the table with her notes, reviewing the information she'd been given by Lucio Gamboa. Going over the pros and cons of Nino Palermo's proposal.

They'd talked earlier. A long discussion after Horacio Kiskoros said good-bye and "hasta la vista" "hasta la vista" in a way that would have sounded friendly to someone who didn't know of his past what Coy now knew. As the two of them departed, Kiskoros watched them from those deceptive, sad little frog eyes, and when they left the plaza he was still in the same place, standing in front of the cathedral like a harmless nocturnal tourist. Coy looked back, and then up to read the name of the street they were on-calle de la Compania. In this city, he told himself, everything was signs and symbols and markers, exactly like those on a nautical chart. The difference was that the ones having to do with the sea were much more precise, with their colored shoals and scales for miles in the margins as opposed to timeless stone, supposedly accidental meetings, and plaques with unique street names. He didn't doubt that signs and dangers were visible to the eye in the city's streets and alleys, just as on printed charts, but here there were no codes to interpret them. in a way that would have sounded friendly to someone who didn't know of his past what Coy now knew. As the two of them departed, Kiskoros watched them from those deceptive, sad little frog eyes, and when they left the plaza he was still in the same place, standing in front of the cathedral like a harmless nocturnal tourist. Coy looked back, and then up to read the name of the street they were on-calle de la Compania. In this city, he told himself, everything was signs and symbols and markers, exactly like those on a nautical chart. The difference was that the ones having to do with the sea were much more precise, with their colored shoals and scales for miles in the margins as opposed to timeless stone, supposedly accidental meetings, and plaques with unique street names. He didn't doubt that signs and dangers were visible to the eye in the city's streets and alleys, just as on printed charts, but here there were no codes to interpret them.

"Calle de la Compania, a street named after the Society of Jesus," she'd said when she saw the name. "This is where the Jesuits' school of navigation stood."

She never said anything casually, so Coy scanned the area, the old building on the left, the decaying house of Gravina on the right. He suspected that later, for some reason or other, he would need to remember something about this place. They walked for a while, slowly climbing toward the Plaza de las Flores. Twice he turned toward Tanger, but she kept walking, expressionless, eyes straight ahead, purse tight to her ribs, tips of hair brus.h.i.+ng the stubborn chin and mouth rhythmically, until he took her arm and made her stop. To his surprise, she didn't protest, and there she was, so close, after she'd whirled to face him, almost as if she had been waiting for an excuse.

"Kiskoros, at Nino Palermo's instigation, has been watching me for quite a while," she volunteered. "He is an evil and dangerous man."

She paused, as if wondering whether there was something more she should say.

"Earlier, at the Guardiamarinas arch," she added, "I was afraid for you."

She said it straight out, with no emotion. And afterward was again silent, looking over Coy's shoulder in the direction of the plaza, the closed flower kiosks and post office, the outdoor tables of the corner cafes where the last customers of the long day lingered.

"Ever since he came with Palermo to see me," she concluded, "that man has been my nightmare."

She wasn't asking for sympathy, and maybe Coy couldn't help feeling sorry for her for that very reason. There was something childlike, he decided, in that obstinate adultness, in the poise with which she faced the consequences of her adventure. Again the silver cup. Again the framed snapshot. The girl within the protective arm of the man no longer around, the vulnerability of the eyes laughing from the threshold of a time when all dreams were possible. He recognized her in spite of everything. Or, to be more exact, the more time he spent with her, the more of her he recognized.

He suppressed the caress vibrating on his fingertips, and pointed with that hand to the bar behind her. Los Gallegos Chico, it was called. Domestic wines, good coffee, outside food allowed- all that was advertised on placards on the door and in the window. The word "liquors" was enough for Coy, and he realized that she needed a drink as much as he. So they went in. Elbows on the zinc counter, he ordered a gin and tonic for himself-he saw no shade of blue anywhere-and, without asking, a second for her. Gin gleamed moistly on her lips when she looked at him and recounted in minute detail Palermo's first visit, relaxed and friendly, and later a second visit, this time with the cards face up, the pressures and threats seasoned by the sinister presence of Kiskoros. Palermo had wanted to be sure she would recognize the Argentine, that she would know his story and not forget his face, so that when he was standing under her window, walking down the street, or in her bad dreams, she would always think hard about the intrigue she was getting herself into. So she would learn, the treasure hunter had said, that bad little girls cannot walk through the forest with impunity, without exposing themselves to dangerous encounters.

"That's what he said." A vague, somewhat bitter smile hardened her expression. "Dangerous encounters."

At that moment, Coy, who was listening and drinking in silence, interrupted to ask why she hadn't gone to the police. She laughed quietly, a muted laugh, slightly hoa.r.s.e, as filled with disdain as it was devoid of humor. "The fact is," she said, "I am a bad little girl. I tried to put one over on Palermo, and as for the museum, I'm working on my own. If you haven't picked that up by now you're more naive than I thought."

"I'm not naive," he said, uncomfortable, twirling the cold gla.s.s.

"I agree." She gazed into his eyes, her lips not smiling but less hard. "You aren't."

She barely tasted her drink It's late, she said, after looking at her watch. Coy tossed down his gin, signaled a waiter, and left a bill on the table. One of his last, he confirmed disconsolately.

"They'll pay for what they've done," he said.

He didn't have the remotest idea of how he could execute that statement, or what he could do to help, but he thought it was the right thing to say. Such sayingp exist, he thought. Soothing phrases, consoling words, cliches that you hear in films and read in novels, and that have their value in real life. He glanced at her, afraid she might be scoffing at him, but she was holding her head to one side, absorbed in her own thoughts.

"I don't care whether they pay or not. This is a horse race, you understand. The only thing that matters to me is to get mere before they do." don't care whether they pay or not. This is a horse race, you understand. The only thing that matters to me is to get mere before they do."

IT was almost time for the sax. Tanger was like jazz, Coy decided. A melody line with unexpected variations. She evolved constantly around an apparently fixed concept, like a thematic structure of AABA, but closely following those evolutions required a consistent attention that definitely did not exclude surprise. Suddenly he would hear AABACBA, and a secondary theme would emerge that no one had imagined was there. The only way to follow was to improvise, wherever it might lead. Follow without a score. Courageously. Blindly. was almost time for the sax. Tanger was like jazz, Coy decided. A melody line with unexpected variations. She evolved constantly around an apparently fixed concept, like a thematic structure of AABA, but closely following those evolutions required a consistent attention that definitely did not exclude surprise. Suddenly he would hear AABACBA, and a secondary theme would emerge that no one had imagined was there. The only way to follow was to improvise, wherever it might lead. Follow without a score. Courageously. Blindly.

A nearby clock on the plaza struck three. Coy heard it, m.u.f.fled by the headphones and the music, and finally came the sax of Hawkins, the third solo that tied together all the lines of the tune. He listened with half-closed eyes, calmed by the cadence of familiar notes, soothed by the repet.i.tion of the expected. Now Tanger was in the melody, altering its delicate structure. He lost the thread, and an instant later he clicked off the Walkman and held the headphones in his hand, frustrated. For a moment he thought he heard footsteps overhead, just as the crew of the Pequod Pequod heard the sound of the bone leg as their captain played over his obsessions alone at night on deck. He stood there alert, waiting, then he threw the Walkman onto the unmade bed with irritation. That didn't follow; it brazenly mixed genres. His Melville phase, like the preceding one, the Stevenson phase, had been left behind long ago. Theoretically, Coy was very clearly in his Conrad phase, and all heroes authorized to move through that terrain were weary heroes, more or less lucid, aware of the danger of dreaming when at the helm. Men stranded in resignation and boredom, from whose restless dreams had vanished the endless processions of whales swimming two by two, escorting in their midst a ghost hooded like a snow-capped mountain. heard the sound of the bone leg as their captain played over his obsessions alone at night on deck. He stood there alert, waiting, then he threw the Walkman onto the unmade bed with irritation. That didn't follow; it brazenly mixed genres. His Melville phase, like the preceding one, the Stevenson phase, had been left behind long ago. Theoretically, Coy was very clearly in his Conrad phase, and all heroes authorized to move through that terrain were weary heroes, more or less lucid, aware of the danger of dreaming when at the helm. Men stranded in resignation and boredom, from whose restless dreams had vanished the endless processions of whales swimming two by two, escorting in their midst a ghost hooded like a snow-capped mountain.

And yet the conditional yes yes at the gate of the oracle of Delphi, whom Coy knew from Melville, but which that author had taken in turn from other books Coy hadn't read, still echoed in the air, a storm playing the harp in the rigging, even after the sea closes over the pinioned albatross and the flag, and the at the gate of the oracle of Delphi, whom Coy knew from Melville, but which that author had taken in turn from other books Coy hadn't read, still echoed in the air, a storm playing the harp in the rigging, even after the sea closes over the pinioned albatross and the flag, and the Rachel Rachel rescues another orphan. All at once, to his great surprise, Coy discovered that literary or life phases, call them what you will, are never neatly closed, and that although the heroes have lost their innocence and are too exhausted to believe in ghost s.h.i.+ps and sunken treasure, the sea is unchanging, filled with its own memory. It's all the same to the sea if men lose their faith in adventure, in the hunt, in sunken s.h.i.+ps and treasure. The enigmas and the stories the sea holds have a life of their own, they are sufficient unto themselves, and will be there forever. And that is why, until the very last instant, there will always be men and women who question the sperm whale as it turns its head toward the sun and dies. rescues another orphan. All at once, to his great surprise, Coy discovered that literary or life phases, call them what you will, are never neatly closed, and that although the heroes have lost their innocence and are too exhausted to believe in ghost s.h.i.+ps and sunken treasure, the sea is unchanging, filled with its own memory. It's all the same to the sea if men lose their faith in adventure, in the hunt, in sunken s.h.i.+ps and treasure. The enigmas and the stories the sea holds have a life of their own, they are sufficient unto themselves, and will be there forever. And that is why, until the very last instant, there will always be men and women who question the sperm whale as it turns its head toward the sun and dies.

So, despite all the lucidity he could muster, there he was again, calling himself Ishmael after having been s.h.i.+pwrecked as Jim; again, at his age, preparing the harpoon with his own blood and the ancient obligatory cry: let drink or the devil take him to the end, and get on with the disabled boat and the disabled body, et cetera, et cetera. Watching-fascinated by the certainty of an inevitable fate because he had read it a hundred times-the woman with the freckled skin affix her doubloon of Spanish gold to the wooden mast. But that sound wasn't only in his imagination. He had gone to the window, hoping for a breeze from the ocean, and when he heard it again he had looked toward the ceiling. Now he did think he could hear restless footsteps overhead, on the deck. Tap tap tap. Apparently, like him, she couldn't rest, and was hunting her own white ghosts, funeral carriages with elaborate wrought iron. And he had never dreamed, in any of his s.h.i.+ps or books or ports or previous, innocent lives, of such a seductive Ahab enticing him to sail over his tomb.

He lay down on the bed. Until the last port, he remembered before felling asleep, we all live tangled in the line of a whale harpoon.

"THERE is a direct connection," said Tanger, "between the voyage of the is a direct connection," said Tanger, "between the voyage of the Dei Gloria Dei Gloria and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain." and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain."

It was Sunday, and they were having a breakfast of hot bread, cocoa, coffee, and orange juice beneath the awning of the Cafe Parisien, across from the hotel. There was a gentle breeze, bright light, and pigeons strutting across the sunny rectangle of the plaza among the feet of people coming from ma.s.s. Coy was eating half a roll, and between bites he stared at the white and ocher facade and the bell tower of the church of San Francisco.

"In 1767 Charles III, who earlier had been king of Naples, was ruling Spain. From the very beginning of his reign the Jesuits were opposed to him, because, among other reasons, at that moment the battle of new ideas was being unleashed across Europe, and the Society of Jesus was the most influential of all the religious orders. That had created enemies for it everywhere. In 1759 the Jesuits had been expelled from Portugal, and in 1764 from France."

She was drinking chocolate milk from a tall gla.s.s, and every time she lifted it to her hps a line of foam was left on her upper lip.

She had come outside straight from her shower, her still-wet hair dripping on the red-and-blue-checked s.h.i.+rt she was wearing outside her jeans, sleeves rolled above her wrists, her hair drying into soft waves, making her skin look fresh and young. From time to time Coy stared at the line of cocoa on her mouth and s.h.i.+vered inside. Sweet, he thought. Sweet lips, and she had made the drink sweeter by adding a packet of sugar. He wondered how those lips would taste to his tongue.

"In Spain," she continued, "tensions between the Ignatians and Charles's enlightened ministers were growing. The fourth vow of obedience to the Pope placed the Society in the center of the polemic between religious power and the authority of the kings. It was also accused of controlling a lot of money and of excessively influencing university teaching and administration. Besides, there was the recent conflict between the missions in Paraguay and the Guarani war." She leaned across the table toward Coy, gla.s.s in hand. "Did you see that Roland Joffe film, The Mission! The Mission! The Jesuits taking the part of the natives?" The Jesuits taking the part of the natives?"

Coy vaguely remembered the film-a video on board s.h.i.+p, one you end up seeing three or four times, in bits and pieces, during a long voyage. Robert De Niro, he seemed to remember. And maybe Jeremy Irons. He hadn't even remembered they were Jesuits.

'All that," Tanger added, "meant that the Spanish Jesuits were sitting on a powder keg, and the only thing missing was the match."

No sign of Horacio Kiskoros, Coy noted as he looked around. A young married couple was sitting at the next table, tourists with two blond little boys, an unfolded map, and a camera. The kids were playing with plastic slingshots similar to the ones from his childhood, when he'd played hooky to wander the quays. He'd made his sling himself from a V-shaped piece of wood, strips of old inner tubes, a sc.r.a.p of leather, and a few inches of wire. Now, he thought nostalgically, such things were sold in stores and cost an arm and a leg.

"The match," Tanger continued her story, "was Esquilache's uprising. Although the direct intervention of the Jesuits in the disorder hasn't been proved, it is true that about that same time they were trying to boycott Charles's enlightened ministers______ Esquilache, who was Italian, proposed, among other things, that the broad-brimmed hats and capes the Spanish cloaked themselves in be banned, and that was the source of serious disturbances. Calm was restored, the minister was dismissed, but the Jesuits were thought to be the instigators. The king decided to expel the Society and to seize its wealth."

Coy nodded mechanically. Tanger was talking more than usual, as if she had prepared her comments during the night. It was only logical, he told himself. With the appearance of Kiskoros on the scene and the meeting suggested by Nino Palermo, she had no choice but to compensate by giving him more information. The closer they came to the objective, the more she realized that Coy was not going to be satisfied with crumbs. Basically stingy with her information, however, she kept doling out her supply with an eye-dropper. That may have been why, to Coy's disappointment, he didn't feel the same interest he had at other times. He too had had a long night to reflect. Too many facts, he was thinking now. Too many words, but very few were concrete. Everything you tell me, beautiful, I studied more than twenty years ago in school. You hope to string me along with historical swill, without ever getting to the meat of the matter. You are pretending to show with one hand what you're hiding in the other fist.

He was fed up, and he thought less of himself for staying. And yet... That line of foam on her upper lip, the reflection of the bright morning light in the navy-blue irises, the damp tips of the blond hair framing her freckles-taken together, it worked a singular, nearly seductive magic Every time he looked at this puzzling girl, Coy was sure he was in too deep, he was sailing so far into the dark area on the nautical chart of his life that it was impossible to turn back now. Knights and knaves: I will lie to you and deceive you. The truth was that he didn't give a d.a.m.n about the mystery of the lost s.h.i.+p. It was the girl-her doggedness, her quest, all that she was prepared to undertake for a dream-that kept him on this course despite the unmistakable sound of the sea perilously breaking on rocks nearby. He wanted to get as close to her as he could, to see her face as she slept, sense her waking and looking at him, touch that warm skin and know, in the depths of the skin and flesh that contained her, the smiling girl of the photograph in the silver frame.

She had stopped talking and was studying him suspiciously, silently asking whether he was paying attention to what she was saying. Not without effort, Coy pushed his thoughts aside, fearful that she could read them, and looked back at the pigeons. Among them, one male, very sure of himself and very much the gallant, puffed out his chest amid a bevy of feathered beauties running in circles and casting sidelong glances at him, kiss-kissing and cooing. And at that moment, the boys at the next table swooped toward the peaceful birds, shouting war whoops. Coy checked out the father, very calmly occupied with his newspaper. Then the mother, making sure that occasionally she cast a lazy eye over the plaza. Finally, he turned to Tanger. With her back to the scene, she picked up the story.

"Everything was prepared in the greatest secrecy in Madrid. By direct order of the king, a small group was formed that excluded anyone who was a partisan of the Society, or even impartial. The objective was to gather evidence and prepare the decree of expulsion. The result of what came to be called the Pesquisa Secreta, Pesquisa Secreta, the secret inquiry, was a prosecutorial doc.u.ment that accused the Ignatians of conspiracy, defense of the doctrine of a.s.sa.s.sination, loose morals, an appet.i.te for wealth and power, and illegal activities in America." the secret inquiry, was a prosecutorial doc.u.ment that accused the Ignatians of conspiracy, defense of the doctrine of a.s.sa.s.sination, loose morals, an appet.i.te for wealth and power, and illegal activities in America."

The business of the secret inquiry sounded good, and Coy felt a stir of interest as he observed the boys again. They had caught the male unaware, and with one stone had interrupted both the idyll and the digestion of crumbs pecked beneath the tables. Emboldened by their success, the children fired at the pigeons with the lethal precision of Serbian snipers.

"In January of 1767," Tanger went on, "meeting in deepest secrecy, the Council of Castile approved the expulsion. Between the night of March 31 and the morning of April 2, in an efficient military operation, the one hundred and forty-six houses in Spain belonging to Jesuits were surrounded. The priests were loaded onto s.h.i.+ps; Rome had to take responsibility for them, and six years later Clement XIV dissolved the Society."

There was a pause while Tanger finished her chocolate, and wiped her mouth with a hand. She had s.h.i.+fted in her chair to survey, indifferently, the romping boys and the pigeons, but soon turned back to Coy. I can't imagine her with children, he thought. And I know that, whatever happens, I won't be growing old beside her. He could imagine her in later years, amid books and papers, slim and elegant despite the gnawed fingernails. A single woman with cla.s.s, and wrinkles fanning from her eyes, drawing on memories of a long red glove, an antique nautical chart, a broken fan, a jet necklace, a record of Italian songs from the fifties, the photo of an old lover. My photo, he fantasized. Oh G.o.d, if only it could be my photo.

He snapped to attention because she was talking. What happened after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the dominions of the Spanish wasn't of much interest to them, she said. The important period was the year between Palm Sunday of 1766, the first day of Esquilache's uprising, and the night of March 31, 1767, when the decree of expulsion was served on the Spanish Jesuits. During that interval, in a way that recalled what had happened to the Knights Templar in the fourteenth century, the Society ceased to be a respected, feared, and powerful force. Instead, the Jesuits found themselves exiled and imprisoned.

"Don't you think that's interesting?" "Oh, very."

She studied him appraisingly, as if she had caught the irony in his response. Coy kept a straight face. One of these times, he thought, she's going to end up telling me something that's actually worth listening to. He looked over her shoulder. The children were running back, sweaty, victorious; as trophies they were carrying tail feathers from the male, who at this moment. Coy calculated, must be winging toward Ciudad El Cabo at about one hundred and ten miles an hour. Maybe, he thought, Herod's ma.s.sacre dispatched more than innocence.

Tanger had fallen silent again, as if considering whether it was worth the effort to continue. Her head was tipped to one side and her fingers were drumming on the edge of the table with a rhythm that may have betrayed impatience.

'Are you at all interested in what I'm telling your "Of course I'm interested."

For some reason, her irritation made him feel better about himself. He settled into a more comfortable position and adopted an expression of keen attention.

After a slight hesitation, Tanger went on. "When Charles in decided to create the cabinet for the Pesquisa Secreta, Pesquisa Secreta, he appointed Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Conde de Aranda, as head. He was from Huesca in Aragon, twice a grandee of Spain, and had been a military man and a diplomat He was captain general of Valencia when, right in the middle of Esquilache's mutiny, the king summoned him to Madrid to entrust him with a governors.h.i.+p, the presidency of the Council of Castile, and the position of captain general of New Castile. Intelligent, cultivated, and enlightened, he went into the history books as a Mason, although it was never proved that he belonged to any lodge, and modern historians deny that affiliation. To the contrary, there was evidence that he was an eclectic, and, of all the members of the secret cabinet, he may have been the one who best knew the Ignatians, by whom he had been educated and with whom he had many ties, including a brother who was a Jesuit. Compared to rabid anti-Jesuits like the treasurer, Campomanes, the minister of justice, Roda, and Jose Monino, the future conde de Floridablanca, Aranda could be considered moderate in his feelings toward the Society. Even so, he agreed to head the cabinet and countersign its conclusions. The inquiry began in Madrid on June 8,1766, with Aranda presiding. He was accompanied by Roda, Monino, and other confirmed anti-Jesuits, or, as they were called then, Thomists, to contrast them with the pro-Ignatians or 'friends of the fourth vow.' And the investigation was carried out so discreetly that even the confessor to the king was not apprised. he appointed Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Conde de Aranda, as head. He was from Huesca in Aragon, twice a grandee of Spain, and had been a military man and a diplomat He was captain general of Valencia when, right in the middle of Esquilache's mutiny, the king summoned him to Madrid to entrust him with a governors.h.i.+p, the presidency of the Council of Castile, and the position of captain general of New Castile. Intelligent, cultivated, and enlightened, he went into the history books as a Mason, although it was never proved that he belonged to any lodge, and modern historians deny that affiliation. To the contrary, there was evidence that he was an eclectic, and, of all the members of the secret cabinet, he may have been the one who best knew the Ignatians, by whom he had been educated and with whom he had many ties, including a brother who was a Jesuit. Compared to rabid anti-Jesuits like the treasurer, Campomanes, the minister of justice, Roda, and Jose Monino, the future conde de Floridablanca, Aranda could be considered moderate in his feelings toward the Society. Even so, he agreed to head the cabinet and countersign its conclusions. The inquiry began in Madrid on June 8,1766, with Aranda presiding. He was accompanied by Roda, Monino, and other confirmed anti-Jesuits, or, as they were called then, Thomists, to contrast them with the pro-Ignatians or 'friends of the fourth vow.' And the investigation was carried out so discreetly that even the confessor to the king was not apprised.

"Nevertheless," Tanger continued, "there was an important connection between one man in the secret cabinet and a renowned Ignatian__ Paradoxically, one of the best friends of the Conde de Aranda was a Jesuit from Murcia, Padre Nicolas Escobar. Their relations had cooled slightly, but we know absolutely that until Aranda left his post as captain general of Valencia, bidden by the king, they were close friends. Although Aranda later destroyed his correspondence with Escobar, a few letters survive that corroborate their friends.h.i.+p."

"Have you seen those letters?'

"Yes. There are three, and they're in the library of the Universidad de Murcia, signed in Aranda's own hand. I obtained copies through a professor of cartography there, Nestor Perona, when I consulted him by telephone about the corrections we needed to apply to Urrutia's chart."

Another conquest, Coy thought. He imagined Tanger's effect, even by telephone, on any professor, Devastating.

"I have to admit that you've done your homework."

"You'll never know how hard I've worked. Which is why I'm not eager to let anyone s.n.a.t.c.h it out of my hands."

Now, Coy conceded, things were getting interesting. The story was moving away from handbooks and getting down to the fine print. Letters from this fellow Aranda. Maybe after all her ho-hum stories of secret cabinets and uncompromising kings, she was actually getting somewhere.

"Nicolas Escobar," Tanger continued, "was an important Jesuit, well connected in the circles of power and with the n.o.bles' seminary, which rotated among Rome, Madrid, Valencia, and Salamanca. Two decades earlier he had been director of the Ignatian college in Salamanca, the stronghold of the Society, whose presses-and this is just one of the coincidences-printed..."

She stopped. Now guess... et cetera, et cetera. Coy couldn't help but smile. She had made it too easy and it was impossible to disappoint her. You and I are a team. You tell and I believe.

"The Urrutia," he said.

She nodded, pleased.

"Exactly. Urrutia's Atlas Maritimo, Atlas Maritimo, printed in the Jesuit college of Salamanca in 1751 under the protection of another minister friend, the Marques de la Ensenada, the driving force behind the Navy and nautical studies in Spain. And when the secret cabinet was being formed, Padre Escobar, a friend of famous mariners like Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, was in Valencia. Can you guess where?" printed in the Jesuit college of Salamanca in 1751 under the protection of another minister friend, the Marques de la Ensenada, the driving force behind the Navy and nautical studies in Spain. And when the secret cabinet was being formed, Padre Escobar, a friend of famous mariners like Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, was in Valencia. Can you guess where?"

"No. I'm afraid this time I don't have a clue."

"In the house of an old acquaintance of yours and mine. Mine especially: Luis Fornet Palau, 'friend of the fourth vote,' straw man for the Jesuits' fleet and owner of the Dei Gloria" Dei Gloria"

She stopped, pleased by Coy's expression, and leaned across the table, looking deep into his eyes. He glimpsed in hers an ambition glittering hard and pure as dark polished stone. The dream had ceased to be a dream some time ago, he realized. Now there was obsession, solid and concrete. As she reached out and placed her hand over his, he was desperately searching for the right word to describe her. He felt the weight of that warm hand, the fingers laced with his. Soft, warm, strong, so sure of herself that the gesture seemed the most natural thing in the world. That hand was not meant to console him, or fire him up, or pretend. In that instant it was sincere; it shared. And the word for her obsession, which finally came to him, was "implacable."

"The Dei Gloria, Dei Gloria, Coy," she said in a low voice, her hand still in his. "We are talking about the brigantine that leaves Valencia for America on November 2, when the secret cabinet had been meeting for five months, and returns to the coast of Spain a few weeks before they deliver the final blow to the Jesuits." The pressure of her fingers increased. 'Are you tying the loose threads? The rest -that is, the Coy," she said in a low voice, her hand still in his. "We are talking about the brigantine that leaves Valencia for America on November 2, when the secret cabinet had been meeting for five months, and returns to the coast of Spain a few weeks before they deliver the final blow to the Jesuits." The pressure of her fingers increased. 'Are you tying the loose threads? The rest -that is, the what what or or who who could have been on board, and the could have been on board, and the why- why- I will tell you on the way to Gibraltar. Or, as they said in the old newspaper serials, in the next installment." I will tell you on the way to Gibraltar. Or, as they said in the old newspaper serials, in the next installment."

VIII.

The Reckoning Point The location at which the s.h.i.+p finds itself as a result of prudent judgment only, or of data about which there is considerable uncertainty, is called the reckoning point. GABRIEL DE DE CISCAR CISCAR, Curso de estudios elementales de marina Curso de estudios elementales de marina The small polished guns in the plaza were gleaming. The terrace of the Hungry Friar was full, and groups of Anglo-Saxon tourists were photographing the changing of the guard at the convent, visibly enchanted that Britannia still had colonies from which to rule the waves. Beneath the lazily waving flag, in a Gothic arch, a sentry stood at attention with his Enfield rifle, rigid as a statue, faithful to the scene and the setting. The sergeant in charge barked orders in the compulsory military-jargon, shouting at the top of his lungs, inches from the sentry's face. England is counting on you to do your duty to the last drop of blood, Coy thought as he watched them. He stretched his legs beneath the table, leaned back to drain the last of his beer, and squinted at the sky. The sun was reaching its zenith; it was blazing hot, and above the Rock a plume of clouds was beginning to disperse; the wind had s.h.i.+fted from east to west and in a couple of hours the temperature would be more bearable. He paid for his beer, got up, and made his way through the crowds in the plaza.

The focus of dozens of camera lenses, the sweating sergeant was still shouting martial commands at the unflinching sentry. As he walked away, Coy made a mocking face. This morning, he told himself, he had been tapped for guard duty.

He walked through the main street of Gibraltar, mingling with the crowd as he ambled past store after store-Chinese pajamas, T-s.h.i.+rts with silk screens of the Rock and its apes, mantillas, radios, liquor, cameras, perfumes, Lladro and Capodimonte porcelain, Bossom porcelain miniatures. Coy had docked at Gibraltar before, when the British colony was still a conventional port in the old sense, a base for dealers who ran black-market tobacco and Moroccan has.h.i.+sh through the Straits, before Gibraltar had become a tourist beehive and financial haven for drug traffickers and the thousands of English who had retired to the Costa del Sol. In truth, any place near the Mediterranean was a tourist trap by now. But in Gibraltar, along with hamburger joints and fast-food restaurants and drinks in plastic cups, businesses owned by Hindus and Jews alternated with the facades of banks and houses with discreet signs beside the door-lawyers offices, real estate companies, import-export companies, Spanish SA. SA. companies, English Ltd. companies, sh.e.l.l companies. More than ten thousand businesses were registered here, where Spanish and English money was laundered and every kind of business transacted. The flag of the European Union flew at the border, and tourism and the flimflam of fiscal paradise had superseded contraband as the princ.i.p.al source of income. Slick young lawyers who spoke perfect English with a Spanish accent were replacing local Mafia G.o.dfathers and the once ubiquitous lowlife. Old sea dogs with gold rings in their ears and tattoo-covered arms, the last pirate sc.u.m of the western Mediterranean, were languis.h.i.+ng in Spanish or Moroccan jails, serving hamburgers at McDonald's, or loafing around the port, gazing longingly at the fifteen miles that separated Europe from Africa, a distance that a decade earlier they had crossed on moonless nights, skimming over the waves between Punta Carnero and Punta Ores at forty knots, with ninety-horse outboards powering their black Phantoms. companies, English Ltd. companies, sh.e.l.l companies. More than ten thousand businesses were registered here, where Spanish and English money was laundered and every kind of business transacted. The flag of the European Union flew at the border, and tourism and the flimflam of fiscal paradise had superseded contraband as the princ.i.p.al source of income. Slick young lawyers who spoke perfect English with a Spanish accent were replacing local Mafia G.o.dfathers and the once ubiquitous lowlife. Old sea dogs with gold rings in their ears and tattoo-covered arms, the last pirate sc.u.m of the western Mediterranean, were languis.h.i.+ng in Spanish or Moroccan jails, serving hamburgers at McDonald's, or loafing around the port, gazing longingly at the fifteen miles that separated Europe from Africa, a distance that a decade earlier they had crossed on moonless nights, skimming over the waves between Punta Carnero and Punta Ores at forty knots, with ninety-horse outboards powering their black Phantoms.

Coy walked along the sidewalk that offered the most shade, his sweat-soaked s.h.i.+rt stuck to his back, checking the numbers of the houses. Tanger had kept her word, at least in part. Between Cadiz and Gibraltar, as he had maneuvered the rented Renault around the S turns of the highway that snaked along the hills of Tarifa and the cliffs overlooking the Strait, she finished the story of the Jesuits and the Dei Gloria. Dei Gloria. Or at least the portion she thought it convenient for him to know-that is, why the brigantine had traveled to America and why it had returned from Havana. Or at least the portion she thought it convenient for him to know-that is, why the brigantine had traveled to America and why it had returned from Havana.