Beauty Queens Part 24

"Fine! Play hardball, Jonesy. I like that about you."

"I'm not playing. I'm genuinely not interested."

"The plane crash. The Miss Teen Dream beauty queens on the other side of the island?"

From the safety of her hiding spot, Taylor gasped and immediately put a hand to her mouth to silence herself. Aviators man's head turned slightly in her direction and Taylor crouched lower.

"What is it?" the college kid asked.

"Nothing," Aviators man said.

"So The Corporation was looking for those girls and the whole time they're right here with us on the island."

"The Corporation knows that, and they weren't looking for them."

An icy dread coursed through Taylor's blood. It beat a warning in her temples.

"What do you mean?" the college kid asked.

Aviators man exhaled a plume of smoke. "We get some rescue crews here to pick up a few beauty queens, next thing you know, they're taking a closer look at our operation. They find out about Operation Peac.o.c.k. Do you know what would happen if people found out The Corporation is making an arms deal with MoMo B. ChaCha?"

Taylor knew about MoMo B. ChaCha and his country, the Republic of ChaCha. Every morning after she finished her exercises, she read the paper cover to cover so that she would be up on her current events. The judges would never catch her unawares. She knew that MoMo was a very bad customer, and no American corporation should be doing business with him.

"Yeah, I get it. s.h.i.+t happens." The college kid shrugged. "It's just too bad they have to die. They're totally bangable, you know?"

"Bangable," Taylor mouthed in disgust. She wanted to show this boy another meaning for the word bang, and it involved his head against a steel door. She had to warn the others. Somehow, they had to let the world know what was really going on here.

"So I guess this is officially the end of the Miss Teen Dream Pageant, then. The ratings sucked anyway. Now we can finally program something good, like Bridal Death Match36."

Taylor had heard enough. She emerged from the jungle like a Kurtzian G.o.ddess. Her eyes narrowed. "You. Will not. Mess. With MY pageant."

"What the -" the college kid squeaked.

Before the agent could extinguish his cigarette and find his gun, Taylor caught his jaw in a roundhouse kick, the same one she'd perfected in countless aerobic kickboxing cla.s.ses. He staggered back, his nose bloodied.

"And smoking is a terrible habit that not only eats your lungs away, it gives you those spidery lip wrinkles before your time, which Botox will not fix." Taylor whipped around to face the Dweeb. "Would you like some of this, rudely staring man?"

The kid continued staring. "You are so hot. Please don't hurt me."

"d.a.m.n!" Aviators man realized he'd left his gun on his desk - a rookie mistake. This new corporate culture was making him soft. He grabbed for the beauty queen, and she deftly elbowed him in the gut.

"Flag corps," she hissed. "Learned that move for my first Miss Purdy Boots pageant. It's got a real nice follow-up that goes something like this!"

Taylor executed two backflips with a kick to his ribs.

"Gymnastics," she huffed. "My dismount was the envy of stage mothers across Texas."

"Get her, you jacka.s.s," Aviators man gasped from the ground.

"Could I have your number?" the Dweeb asked.

But Taylor didn't stick around to answer. "A Miss Teen Dream is a bright light in the world," she intoned. She was team captain, and her girls needed her. Alive with purpose, she took off running. Despite his wounds, the agent poured on speed, and Taylor felt something she hadn't experienced in years: fear. Her breath was ragged, animalistic, the opposite of pretty. Her lungs burned. She stooped to grab a coconut.

"Ready? Okay!" she said in perfect cheerleader rhythm and launched it behind her. There was a moment of satisfaction as she heard the man hiss in pain. Some girls lost their aim in times of crisis. Taylor did not. Quick thinking. It was what separated the queens from the runners-up. Taylor was not going for runner-up.

Agent Jones's shoulder throbbed where he'd taken the full brunt of the coconut. He ran fast, but he was no match for the beauty queen's youth and conditioning. If she made it back to the beach, she'd warn the others. The operation would be exposed. His pension and benefits would disappear. Or he'd have to kill them all. Quick thinking. It was what separated the men from the dweebs. Agent Jones was no dweeb. He might not be able to catch her, but he had something that could. Still running, he reached into his pocket for the darts.

Taylor felt a sharp pain in the back of her arm. She reached back and pulled out the small, pointed tip. She chanced a glance behind her and saw the blow tube at the man's mouth. Panic set in now. Her father always told her that panic was a soldier's enemy. Fear could be used, but panic was no good. Focus, Miss Texas, she told herself. All she had to do was make it to the top of the hill and get off one scream to the others. Just. One. Scream. As she sprinted, the hill bounced in her vision. Almost clear! She was clear!

"Teen ... Dream ... Misses!" she gasped out. "This is ... your ... team ... captain!"

The second dart stuck fast in Taylor's neck.

"Danger!" The shriek was torn from her.

A third dart lodged in her b.u.t.t. A fourth followed. She fell to her knees and tried to stagger to her feet again, but her legs felt numb and nothing looked right anymore. She felt like a visitor in her own body as the drug released directly into her bloodstream. Within seconds, her vision altered in terrifying ways. She whispered the word she'd never allowed herself to say, the word that she'd buried in her toy sculpture years before when her mother left.

"Help."

And then Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins, Miss Texas, pa.s.sed out.

Panting heavily, his jaw bruised and his leg bleeding, the agent crawled toward the beauty queen and smeared her mouth with the Mind's Flower fruit, torn from a neighboring plant. He put a few broken petals in her hands to suggest that she'd eaten her fill. Then he limped off toward the volcano lair. Before he'd settled into the corporate life of privatized security, the agent had initiated coups in third world countries. He'd overseen arms deals and planned a.s.sa.s.sinations. He'd taken out a rhino once on illegal safari with the board of directors for a fair trade company in Tanzania. The rhino went down after two shots. It took four for this beauty queen. None of his a.s.signments had been as much of a headache as this one.

Women were a lot of trouble.

He hoped the Mind's Flower would keep her nonsensical long enough to formulate a Plan B. MoMo was due on the island soon, and things were going from bad to worse. He didn't relish telling the Board.

He certainly didn't relish telling the Boss.

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CHAPTER NINETEEN.

The girls had brought Taylor into her hut and placed her on the palm fronds like a sleeping princess. Taylor had been vaguely aware of the movement, but her mind was too confused to speak. She woke from her fever dream sometime in early morning. She'd gathered a few supplies and stolen away to a remote part of the jungle where she could be safe. It was so hard to feel safe in the world when you were a girl. But this place was good. It was a small cave hidden in the leafy growth of a mountain not far from a freshwater lagoon. And there were unicorns with rainbow-sparkle tails. Sometimes the unicorns spoke to her, and that was a little disconcerting. But then she would tell them to go off and work on their step-ball-change for the opening number and they did.

Now she was alone. She was alone like when her mother left and the world became a frightening place. When she'd had to build the sculpture to feel safe. But Taylor had proof that her fears were real. She'd seen what they were doing. She put her head down on her knees and began to cry.

"Tay-Tay, why is my pretty girl so sad?"

Taylor lifted her head. Through the haze of tears she saw her mother, resplendent in a bright yellow evening gown and surrounded by a silvery glow. "Mama? You're here?"

"Yes, I am, Taylor. I'm here to help you."

In the flickering glow, Taylor's mother looked just like she had when Taylor was six, but this mom wasn't crying at a sink full of dirty dishes. "Something's wrong, Mama. I can't make my head work right."

Her mother sat beside her and offered her a section of orange, which Taylor couldn't be certain she was eating. "Why did you leave?" Taylor said.

"I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know it was okay not to be perfect." Her mother tucked Taylor's hair behind her ear softly. "You're not like me, Taylor. You're a fighter. Who's no quitter?"

"Me."

"That's right. Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins. Miss Texas." Her mom tapped her nose gently with her finger. Outlined by the fertile greenery, she was like an exotic plant. "Life can be ugly, Taylor. That's why it's so important to keep things pretty. And we are going to keep things pretty, aren't we?"

"Yes. We are."

Taylor's mother was no longer there. "Mama?" Taylor whispered urgently. Sweat beaded on her skin and ran down her arms. A snake hissed from a tree. And Taylor was afraid. In the jungle, she heard the creak of branches breaking, the squawk of a walkie-talkie. She hid behind a bush and watched the man with the earpiece and the AK-47. In his left hand was a cell phone, which struck Taylor as odd, but she tried to keep her focus. That was what made winners - focus. Not getting distracted by the little things. The man wore a black s.h.i.+rt like the others she'd taken out, five by her last count. The walkie-talkie squawked with a voice, and the man in the black s.h.i.+rt answered. "Nope. Haven't found her yet."

Hidden by the thick vegetation, Taylor watched the man carefully. It was hard because sometimes things didn't look right to her anymore. She could see smells and smell colors and it was all just a little fantastical. She couldn't even be sure of this man. She needed to be sure, though, and so she risked stepping out from the bush.

"Well, I'll be," the man said, smiling. "Come on out. I won't hurt you. I'm here to help you."

For a moment, her mind slipped sideways again, and she imagined he was her daddy coming to offer her a hand out of her stuffed-animal cave after her mother left. "Come on, baby. Come on out," her dad had said. The light from her bedroom window had fuzzed the top of his buzz cut like a dandelion.

"No," Taylor had said. And then she'd started crying. "What did I do to make Mommy leave?"

"You didn't do anything. This isn't your fault."

"Then why?" she'd wailed.

"I don't know," her daddy had said, and he looked so sad.

"It isn't fair!"

"No, it isn't, baby. Not by a mile. The world's only as fair as you can make it. Takes a lot of fight. A lot of fight. But if you stay in here, in your little cave, that's one less fighter on the side of fair."

He'd let her be, but every morning, he'd put down a tray with French toast, her favorite. It was brown around the edges and squishy in the middle, just the way she liked it. And eventually, she'd come out. When she was good and ready.

Focus, Miss Texas. Taylor forced herself to look again and concentrate. This man offering his hand was not her father or anyone like him. In this man's smile was all the unfairness of the world in its thuggish seduction. "Just come with me. We'll take care of you."

"No, you won't." Taylor stroked the man's cheek. She reached her arms up to cradle the back of his head and, with the skill of a champion, she broke his neck. Then she dragged him into the bushes, took his gun and walkie-talkie, and kept moving.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

"What is she doing?" Adina asked.

It had taken two days, but the girls had found Taylor's hiding place deep in the jungle and had gathered to watch her. She looked rough. Her normally smooth blond hair was a matted tangle. She'd camouflaged her face and arms with dirt like a soldier in a war movie. The white dress she'd taken the care to wash out every day was ragged.

"I can't believe she ate that psycho-fruit. It's like she was trying to kill herself or something," Mary Lou said.

"It's weird," Adina said. "That's just not something I could remotely imagine Taylor doing."

"She was pretty upset about not getting rescued," Jennifer said.

The girls kept a safe distance, crouched low behind the cover of plants as they watched Taylor work. For days she'd been sneaking into the camp and stealing random items - eyelash curlers, a hair dryer, earrings, stockings. It wasn't like they needed them here, but why did she? Only Mary Lou had worked up the courage to approach Taylor's XL Crazy. "What do you need those for, Taylor?" she'd asked, and Taylor had done a little circle-turn and half a jig punctuated with jujitsu moves.

"If chosen as Miss Teen Dream, I will not let the bad people mess with our pretty. Their outfits are wrong. They're not good people. Tonight on Patriot Daughters!"

"It's like she's some freaky pageant robot that went haywire," Mary Lou said. "Also, she licked a tube of mascara."

"Don't use that now," Brittani said. "You'll get eye herpes."

"Boy, I hate eye herpes," Tiara agreed. Beside her, Nicole pretended to write something on imaginary paper, which she tore off and handed to Tiara. "What are you doing, Nicole?"

"Writing you a prescription to come talk to me."

"Can you do that if you're not a real doctor?"

"Sure," Miss Ohio said. "I found a guy on the Internet to write me a prescription for horse diet pills."

"Horse diet pills?" Nicole repeated.

"Yeah. They worked great, but my mom made me stop when I grew an extra set of teeth inside my large intestine."

Petra stuck her fingers in her ears. "La-la-la-la-la."

"What's she wearing?" Sosie signed.

Around her dress, Taylor had constructed a makes.h.i.+ft bandolier out of airplane seat belts, a pink unicorn wallet, and a tampon carrying case.

"That girl is serious about her feminine hygiene," Shanti said.