Users of Accounting Information Essay Sample free essay sample

Accounting information helps users to do better fiscal determinations. Users of fiscal information may be both internal and external to the organisation. Internal Users of accounting information are those persons straight involved in pull offing and runing an organisation and users within the company. They include directors. internal hearers. gross revenues staff. budget officers. accountants. officers. managers. and other of import internal determination shapers. Internal users make the strategic and operational determinations for the concern or organisation. The internal function of accounting is to supply information to assist better the efficiency or effectivity of an organisation in presenting merchandises or services to the market place. Accounting information is presented to internal users normally in the signifier of direction histories. budgets. prognosiss and fiscal statements. Internal users or users straight affiliated with the company usage managerial accounting. which i ncludes in-depth studies used to find fiscal strengths every bit good as weak points. These studies aid assistance in the determination devising procedure within the separate sections of a company. For illustration. Human Resource directors have to guarantee the rights of their employee by utilizing pay information along with other informations. On the other manus. a Gross saless Manager may necessitate to reexamine fiscal statements to measure gross revenues people are doing their quota and so on. Internal users of accounting information include the undermentioned: * Management: for analysing the organization’s public presentation and place and taking appropriate steps to better the company consequences. A company’s top leading is the primary users of corporate fiscal statements. Senior executives view accounting studies as strategic tools to measure the economic viability of their concerns. Specifically. senior forces compare past and current informations. placing nonperforming concern units. This comparing is indispensable. as it provides direction information necessary to rectify past errors and pull up equal schemes for long-run operating activities. Understa nding that failure is the female parent of success. section caputs and section heads identify failings in their operations and supply effectual mitigating programs. A company’s balance sheet and statement of net income and loss indicate corporate profitableness and net worth to direction. They besides act as agents of the proprietors. The directors. whether proprietor or hired. on a regular basis face economic determinations – How much supplies will we buy? Do we hold the hard currency? How much did we do last twelvemonth? Did we run into our marks? All those. and many other determinations. require analysis of accounting information. * Employees: for measuring company’s profitableness and its effect on their future wage and occupation security. Employees have an involvement in fiscal statements because they need confidences for occupation keeping. Employees can besides hold an involvement in their company’s stock monetary value. which has a close relationship to the company’s accounting information. Employee stock options may increase or diminish sharply based on the company’s fiscal wellness. Employees need this information to find if they should purchase more or keep their current investing degree. The internal users of fiscal statements include accounting forces. section caputs. corporate hearers. business-unit leaders and top direction. These studies are relevant to each constituency because they provide specific. changing informations. For accounting forces. the overarching aim is to fix and present accurate. complete informations in conformity with norms. Department caputs and section leaders bring fresh eyes to fiscal issues by diging into accounting studies. For internal hearers. accounting studies shed visible radiation on the tools a company uses to follow with regulations. Top direction sifts through fiscal statements to understand the overall state of affairs of the company. every bit good as what it would take to convey it to the following competitory degree. External users are non straight involved in the running of the concern. They include stockholders. loaners. clients. providers. consumer groups. external hearers. authorities bureaus. regulators. attorneies. age nts and the imperativeness. Yet these users can impact and be affected by the organisation. External users rely on accounting information to do better determinations in prosecuting their ends for the organisation. External users are communicated accounting information normally in the signifier of fiscal statements. The intent of fiscal statements is to provide for the demands of such diverse users of accounting information in order to help them in doing sound fiscal determinations. The external users would have limited fiscal information from the mark company. such as all-purpose fiscal statements ; these statements have merely adequate information to inform external users of the company’s economic place. General-purpose statements are in the country of fiscal accounting. which is the type of accounting aimed at providing information to users non straight affiliated with the mark company. External users of accounting information include the undermentioned: * Lenders: loaners have an involvement in both a company’s net income and hard currency flow. These users may hold given loans to the concern. Lenders such as investors. Bankss and other fiscal establishments are interested in such statements for the fact if they were to impart the company money they would necessitate to asses that the company would be able to afford to refund loaned money plus the involvement that would be due. Companies with an inability to refund the loans increase the lender’s hazard. Lenders frequently require several months of fiscal statements for reappraisal before imparting money. Periodic updates are besides necessary to guarantee borrowers still have the ability to refund loans. * Customers: for measuring the fiscal place of its provider which is necessary for a stable beginning of supply in the long term. When there is a long-run engagement or contract between the company and its clients. the clients may be interested in the company’s ability to go on being or its stableness of operations. This demand is besides heightened in instances where the clients depend. for one ground or another. upon the entity. For illustration. a distributer company. the client in this instance. is dependent upon the fabricating company from which it purchases the points it resells. * Suppliers: providers frequently unfastened trade histories with many companies in the concern environment . This allows concerns to pay off purchases over a declared period of clip instead than all at one time. Suppliers prefer to work with financially healthy companies when selling goods. This frequently ensures payment in the hereafter. Suppliers looking for new clients may besides reexamine fiscal statements to happen profitable and stable clients. Suppliers are interested in the company’s ability to pay duties when they become due. They are however particularly interested in the company’s liquidness which its ability to pay short-run duties. * Government: regulating organic structures of the province. particularly the revenue enhancement governments. are interested in an entity’s fiscal information for revenue enhancement and regulative intents. Besides. besides for finding the credibleness of the revenue enhancement returns filed on behalf of the company. Taxs are computed based on the consequences of operations and other revenue enhancement bases. In general. the province would wish to cognize how much the taxpayer is doing to find the revenue enhancement due thereon. Financial statement information or fiscal studies from larger concerns or i ncorporations are frequently sent to the authorities for analysis. The authorities uses the fiscal information presented in the statements and studies to find whether the company is paying the sum of revenue enhancements it needs to run lawfully under the IRS concern demands. The sum of revenue enhancements the concern has paid during that financial period is compared to the figures in the fiscal statements. The authorities so determines whether the information is true. * Investors and stockholders: for analysing the feasibleness of puting in the company. Investors want to do certain they can gain a sensible return on their investing before they commit any fiscal resources to the company. Investors and financial-market participants pore over corporate fiscal statements to guarantee that top executives are pull offing runing activities satisfactorily. In add-on. securities-exchange participants sift through accounting studies to happen the following investing gem. that is. the company with an low-cost stock monetary value and interesting medium-to-long-term growing potency. Investors and stockholders are peculiarly interested in a company’s fiscal information. as they use it to find whether the company would be deserving doing investings in. Investo rs and stockholders analyze the fiscal information to find the company’s overall fiscal strength and to see if the company can do wise disbursement determinations. Some stockholders and investors will compare the company’s one-year study to other companies to find what is most good for them. If one peculiar company is of involvement. some investors will compare older fiscal statement information to see if the concern is increasing its net incomes and income steadily over a longer period of clip. * Regulative Governments: for guaranting that the company’s revelation of accounting information is in conformity with the regulations and ordinances set in order to protect the involvements of the stakeholders who rely on such information in organizing their determinations. Regulators keep a close oculus on companies’ fiscal statements. with a particular focal point on corporate audit studies. By jurisprudence. publically listed corporations must uncover their operating consequences at the terminal of each one-fourth and twelvemonth. Accounting studies must conform to by and large recognized accounting rules and international fisca l coverage criterions. Federal regulators supervising auditing and fiscal coverage procedures include the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Federal Reserve Board. At the province degree. companies must stay by regulative guidelines in consequence in their industries. For illustration. a U. S. -based insurance company must adhere to National Association of Insurance Commissioners guidelines. in add-on to other Torahs and ordinances. The external users of accounting studies run the gamut from regulators. the public and rivals to investors. bargainers and portfolio directors. These groups pay heed to corporate fiscal statements to understand how companies in the center of the battalion emulate the tactics of those in front of the battalion. External readers besides use fiscal statement informations to find concerns that are doing money and those that must go out the market or undergo important reform to go on playing in it. Accounting is a really dynamic profession which is invariably accommodating itself to changing demands of its users. Over the past few decennaries. accounting has branched out into different types of accounting to provide for the different demands of the users.

Tashi Tsering and a Modern Tibet Essays

Tashi Tsering and a Modern Tibet Essays Tashi Tsering and a Modern Tibet Essay Tashi Tsering and a Modern Tibet Essay Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Tashi Tsering and a Modern Tibet Tashi Tsering studied in India and the United States making tremendous progress in his education. He then returned to Tibet with the hope of advancing the standards of living for his people. He wanted Tibet to be modernized, thereby improving the standards of living of the citizens. He constructed many primary schools in the rural Tibet so that the children in these isolated areas could go to school. He wanted people in Tibet to be educated in the ways of the modern world. Tashi experienced life in Tibet before and after the Chinese existence. Therefore, the struggle he goes through during the Cultural Revolution and the trouble he endures to set up the schools shows his dissatisfaction with the Chinese communist government and the effects it had on the people of Tibet. He, therefore, puts an effort to try to modernize Tibet. He feels education plays a greater role in modernization than any other social improvement. Tashi hopes that in the future, people in Tibet receive adequate edu cation, and this will lead to modernization and higher standards of living (Goldstein, Siebenschuh, Tsering, 121). The CPP views globalization in an extremely state empowering way. They believe it to be one of the ways of making china rich. China has been undergoing a string of changes and changing its economic scheme to be in line with the swift changing global market. This is to obtain globalization. However, some structural imperfections in china act as a barrier to its change to a competent market economy. Chinese leaders launched the Western Development Campaign to enable long-term constancy. This campaign had importance to the future success of china. It was to reduce the local economic differences and unite Tibet and other politically aware inner regions. The Dalai Lama to reclaim Tibet’s independence through non-violent means fought for more than twenty-five years. In 1988, they believed that the political system in china was instable (Goldstein, Siebenschuh, Tsering, 67). This worried them that their country would become destroyed. To prevent this potential catastrophe, the Dalai Lama decided to come to an agreement with the Chinese people. They did this by agreeing to the Chinese rule in order to protect Tibetan lives and existence. The Tibetans did not agree with the Dalai Lama’s way. However, the Dalai Lama believed this was the better option, and that it would eventually save their people. The Tibetans consider the Dalai Lama to be the revival of their lord of compassion. The Tibetans believe in the Dalai Lama’s teachings. The Tibetans are nonviolent, spiritual and tolerant people. They are usually strong-minded in their spirit. That is where their strength lies. Tashi, the CPP, The Dalai Lama and the Tibetans all had one aim of attaining globalization. They all desired development and to protect their people so that they may continue existing. They all aimed for a better nation. Tashi’s vision and approach was by building schools and facilitating learning for the Tibetans (Goldstein, Siebenschuh, Tsering, 97). This was so that they could be able to be knowledgeable and be able to improve their standards of living just as he had. He was dissatisfied with the Chinese communist government. This served as an inspiration that spurred him on to go an extra mile. He did this by building schools and learning facilities, even though he had to go through a great deal of struggle to meet his goals in life. Goldstein, Melvyn, William Siebenschuh, and Tashi Tsering. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. New York, NY: East Gate Book, 1999

The Pearl Review

'The Pearl' Review The Pearl (1947) is somewhat of a departure from some of  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹John Steinbecks earlier works. The novel has been compared to Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea (1952). The seeds of Steinbecks The Pearl began to germinate in 1940 when he was traveling in the Sea of Cortez and heard a story about a young man who found a large pearl. From that basic outline, Steinbeck reinvented the tale of Kino and his young family to include his own experiences, including in his novel the recent birth of a son, and how that exhilaration affects a young man. The novel is also, in some ways, a representation of his long appreciation of Mexican culture. He made the story into a parable, warning his readers of the corrupting influences of wealth.​ Be Careful What You Wish For... In The Pearl, Kinos neighbors all knew what good fortune could do to him, his wife, and his new baby boy. That good wife Juana, they said, and the beautiful baby Coyotito, and the others to come. What a pity it would be if the pearl should destroy them all.Even Juana tries to throw the pearl into the sea to free them from its poison. And she knew that Kino was half insane and half god... that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it. But, she needed him yet, and she would follow him, even as he admits to his brother: This pearl has become my soul... If I give it up I shall lose my soul.The pearl sings to Kino, telling him of a future where his son will read and he may become something more than a poor fisherman. In the end, the pearl doesnt fulfill any of its promises. It only brings death and emptiness. As the family returned to their old house, the people around them said that they seemed removed from human experienc e, that they had gone through pain and had come out the other side; that there was almost a magical protection about them.

Employee relations are one of IHRM. Critically analyses how cultural Essay

Employee relations are one of IHRM. Critically analyses how cultural differences might affect it. Illustrate your answer with examples - Essay Example This is to ensure justice prevails, and suitable measures are taken. This calls for the supervisors to consider progressive discipline and regulatory measures in effecting disciplinary actions. These measures are also required to resolve grievances and appeals from the employees. There are employee relations policies that outline steps that supervisors are supposed to take to address work performance and behaviour. Steps in these policies are not rigid procedural requirements that should be used in every situation. The measures are helpful in establishing guidelines to help supervisors monitor and ensure workers meet the expectations. Communication is a crucial tool in employee relations (Stewart, 2010). Employees require proper communication so that they can feel as part of an organization. Thus, it is necessary for supervisors to provide information to employees to promote good understanding of the goals and policies of the organization. This information is also important to employees as it helps in correcting poor performance, personal issues and other duty misconducts. Suitable advice is given to employees on legislation, applicable regulations and other bargaining agreements. It is through these advices that all indifferences are taken into account ranging from economic, social and cultural factors. In this process, employees are advised on the way to present their grievances in an organization (Chew & Chan, 2008). In this process, there is a proper understanding of organizational measures in labour provision. Employer’s main objective is work quality. It is obvious that happy employees create customers who are happy thus suitable business results are achieved. It is the need of every employee to get a respectful, fair, and a healthy workplace. Work motivators determine the work quality and the ability for workers to deliver at their level best. They include job security, workplace

Government 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Government 2 - Essay Example Currently, members of this court include John Robert (chief Justice), associate justices Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens and Sonia Sotomayor. Part B Born in New York, Buffalo on January 27, 1955, Chief Justice John G. Roberts took office as the chief Justice of the United States judiciary on September 29, 2005 after his nomination approval by the senate. Aged 55 then, Justice Roberts is a republican confirmed in his capacity by a Republican-lead Senate vote of 78 to 22 votes of the democrats. His views have majorly been conservative. Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is yet another conservative justice appointed under the Bush administration at the age of 56. Born April 1, 1950, Justice Alito has served the country in his capacity as an associate judge of the Supreme Court since January 31, 2006. Like Roberts, he was confirmed by a Republican-lead Senate vote of 58 to 42 votes of the Democrats. ... Do you think that it is important that diversity exists in terms of race, religion, gender, and the like among justices on the Supreme Court? Does this Court represent diversity, in your opinion? Explain. The political histories as well as personal ideologies of the two Supreme Court judges indicate they subscribe to the conservative ideologies of republicanism. Though related, political philosophy and judicial philosophy are strange bed fellows. On the one hand, Political philosophies concerns outcomes guided by individual thoughts of how world and the law by extension ought to operate. On the other hand, judicial philosophy is based on articulate, rational, defensible choices meant to guide decision-making and is largely fixed on the proper interpretation of the Constitution. These two justices have been strict agents of constitutionalism. Many at times, democratic presidents selected justices have turned to conservatism, and so has been Republican appointees turning liberal in the ir judgments. Though rode on republican influences, confirmations of these two justices fell short of a unanimous vote in the senate. This was simply due to the presence of dissident voices who thought they could not deliver past partisan interests. Whatever the Ideology that propelled them to their positions, judges of the Supreme Court are expected to be neutral in their judgments with strict adherence to the law to guard against going against the spirit of the constitution. Turning to the issue of diversity, Supreme Court Justices must be cognizant of how their judgments affect all Americans.  Courts are the only last resort for the marginalized seeking justice and protection from their government. Diversity of the Supreme Court must be upheld to guard again partisan judgments, either

Nigeria And The Achievements Of Ecowas Politics Essay

Nigeria And The Achievements Of Ecowas Politics Essay The ECOWAS treaty of 1975 provides for the freedom of movement and residency. This means the abolition of visas and the right to reside anywhere in West Africa. The phase one of the protocol guaranteeing free entry of community citizens without visa for ninety days was ratified by member states in 1980 and became effective to usher in an era of free movement of ECOWAS citizens within member states. The right of entry, residence and establishment were to be progressively established within 15 years from the definitive date of entry into force of the protocol.  [2]   The Nigerian investment in the ECOWAS as an organisation has been considerable. At the same time, it has been an investment from which Nigeria has gained much in return. The vast sums of money and resources given by Nigeria to ECOWAS and its member states has been based on what might be called a general policy of enlightened self interest. For example, Nigeria has realized that the promotion of regional free trade, which is one of the objectives of ECOWAS, is crucial if she is to enjoy the benefits of balanced future economic development.  [3]  However, in spite of the big brother role Nigeria plays in ECOWAS, the Buhari regime was unable to observe the protocol on free movement of individuals which is required by the article 3 of the ECOWAS treaty. The administration closed the Nigerian borders and expelled illegal aliens. The closure of the Nigerian borders affected Nigerias neighbours to the extent that many West African leaders pleaded publicly that the borders be re-opened. The closure of the borders resulted in ECOWAS chairmanship being offered to Buhari at the ECOWAS summit of 1984. But he turned down the offer giving the excuse that the regime needed total commitment to the domestic issues in Nigeria.  [4]   However, in August 1986, the Babangida regime came to power. This new regime having realized the dangers inherent in the continuous closure of the countrys borders with her neighbours decided to re-open them to give a boost to their economies which had been strangulated by Buharis policy.  [5]  This new position however, was not without conditions. In that same year, Nigeria adopted a new immigration policy. According to Mr Dahiru Mohammed, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was representing Colonel John Shagaya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria had ratified the protocol, and would allow citizens of ECOWAS member states live and work in Nigeria without visas and work permits.  [6]  However, only immigrants in six professional categories would be allowed. These include engineers, doctors and health personnels, teachers, architects, surveyors and bilingual secretaries. Other professionals such as journalists, lawyers, and accountants, as well as un skilled workers will be excluded  [7]  . According to him, the certificates of professionals in the approved six categories would be verified by government agencies, and such immigrants would be required to find employment within six months of arrival, failing which they would be expelled. It was this principle of admissible categories of expatriate professionals that Nigeria put forward to ECOWAS as a basis for the conferment of resident status on a community citizen. This was accepted at the Abuja summit in 1986.  [8]   ECOWAS remains the only region in Africa where the citizens do not need a visa to visit one another. 3.2TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT As part of efforts towards the physical integration of the sub-region, ECOWAS has embarked on programmes to interconnect existing networks in areas of transport and communications. These are projects capable of promoting integration and constitute the major links in the development of the community. Transport, communications and energy services are a crucial element in improving economic competitiveness and strengthening regional integration. In particular, for export promotion and intra-regional trade, the improvement of road and telecommunications networks, and provision of energy at affordable cost should be treated as key priority areas as we strive to carve a place for ECOWAS countries within the world economy.  [9]   According to analysts, the economic wealth and military power of a people or a nation have been closely tied to efficient methods of transportation. This provides access to natural resources and promotes trade, allowing a nation to accumulate wealth and power. Transportation also allows the movement of soldiers, equipment and supplies.  [10]   Nigeria, on her part has realized that her national intereststhe development and expansion of its economy, the raising of the standard of living of its population, and the future physical security of its territorycan only be effectively secured through joint programmes of balanced production, distribution and consumption of goods and services on a regional basis. In the long term, an industrialized Nigeria hopes to be able to export manufactured products freely to other West African states as well as to invest directly in the production of raw materials in ECOWAS nations, which would then be used to supplement local needs.  [11]   To this end, Nigeria in the 1970s, undertook the construction of roads to link up two member states in order to facilitate trade and boost contact among states. For example, the Lagos-Cotonou highway was constructed at a highly subsidized rate by the Nigerian government.  [12]  On March 6, 2006, the Nigeria-Niger joint commission met in Abuja. At the meeting, the ministers of transport for Nigeria and Niger discussed the building of a rail link from Kaura Namoda through Sokoto to Birnin-nKonni in Niger Republic.  [13]   Over the years, Nigeria has emphasized and assisted in the creation of the communitys structures. She believes in the building of strong regional institution as a pre requisite for the establishment of a meaningful regional integration.  [14]  For example, Nigeria has made substantial contributions to the generation of hydro-electric power to Niger and also supplied gas to Benin, Togo, Ghana under a 5 million Naira inter ECOWAS pipeline gas project.  [15]  The Authority of Heads of State and Government, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, approved the Community telecommunications programme known as INTELCOM I at its May 1979 session held in Dakar. The objective of the programme was to improve and expand the sub-regional telecommunications network. The principal objectives of the INTELCOM I programme were as follows: to open-up the Member States which did not have reliable links with the outside world; to complete the missing links in the PANAFTEL network in West Africa; to establish direct micro wave links between the capital cities of Member States; to increase telecommunications traffic within ECOWAS. From 1983 to 1992, the Community, through the ECOWAS Fund, made significant efforts to finance the first programme which attained 95% of its initial objectives as confirmed by the evaluation undertaken by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The Authority directed the Executive Secretariat to elaborate and implement a second telecommunications programme to be known as INTELCOM II. The main objective of the INTELCOM II programme is to provide the Community with a regional telecommunications network that is modern, reliable, and capable of offering a wider variety of services, including multimedia and wide band services. This will reduce transits through countries outside Africa and improve direct links between Member States.  [16]   3.3 PEACE WITHIN WEST AFRICA NIGERIA AND ECOMOG The years 1972-1975 have been said to be the most peaceful period in the history of the sub region. As from 1980, West Africa became a jungle of wars. Thus, ECOWAS deviated from its original vision of economic integration to a peace keeping organization.  [17]  Various Nigerian governments, military and civilian, have tried to maintain the big brother role played by Nigeria in the sub region. The economic focus of the Ibrahim Babangida regime led to the greater interest in ECOWAS as well as trade and security. Links with Nigerias neighbours resulted in the regimes restoration of good neighbourliness in West Africa.  [18]  Unlike any other period in West Africa, the Babangida regime witnessed quite a number of conflicts. One of these was the border division of the Ewes between Ghana and Togo which has often been criticized by the Ewes who have for long expressed desire to live in one country. Unfortunately, the Ewe irredentism had become a ready tool in the hands of the Eyadem a administration. Accusing fingers were often pointed in the direction of Ghana. This was demonstrated in 1989 when the call for multi-partism to replace the one party system was made. The Eyadema administration played up the Ewe irredentism to implicate Ghana, a country with a large concentration of Ewes. To allow the Ghana-Togo crisis go unchecked would have carried with it a high security risk for the sub region. The Babangida regime offered itself as an impartial arbiter on the issue.  [19]  Article 52(1) and (2) of the revised ECOWAS Treaty (1993) provides not only for the prevention and resolution of conflicts, but also contains a clause on the establishment of a regional peacekeeping force for the prevention, containment, moderation and termination of hostilities between or within member states through the medium of a third party intervention and directed intentionally, using multi-national forces of soldiers and civilian personnel to maintain peace.  [20]  The idea o f a peace keeping force hinged on the idea that development cannot be achieved without security and peace. The Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, once said this about insecurity in the sub region, it takes us away from our original mandate: economic cooperation, economic development and fighting poverty, stepping up trade, etc. political instability in any member state diverts our attention.  [21]  In 1990, due to the Liberian crisis, there was a revision of ECOWAS goals. Events in Liberia, being a member of ECOWAS impacted directly on the fortunes of both the organization and all its constituent member states. Thousands of people died in conflict related situations, most of them civilians, and hundred thousands of others were turned into refugees as a result of the war. In addition, Liberian nationals, citizens of other ECOWAS states, diplomats and foreign citizens were increasingly exposed to the triple hazard of war, starvation and disease.  [22]  Th e stage for Nigerias involvement in the Liberian crisis was decided at the 13th session of the Authority of Heads of States and Government in Banjul, Gambia from May 28-30, 1990 under the chairmanship of Blaise Campraore of Burkina Faso. A committee was set up for the formation of ECOWAS Cease Fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).  [23]  Despite the genuine fears of informed Nigerians about the capacity of the economy to accommodate the Liberian crisis, the Babangida regime saw the issue in a different light. As far as the administration was concerned, the outbreak of hostilities in Liberia called for practical demonstration of the countrys age long good neighbourliness tradition. In addition to the security implications of the crisis, the regime foresaw the damage the carnage in Liberia would cause its leadership role in Africa.  [24]  Subsequently, ECOMOG was instituted for the Liberian crisis. Nigeria also led ECOMOG to dislodge the Johnny Koromah led military junta that ousted Teejan Kabbah in Sierra Leone in 1997 and restored peace in the country. Nigeria also closed down her embassy in Freetown with six other countries in compliance with the directives of the ECOWAS Council of Foreign Ministers.  [25]   Nigerias efforts at finding peaceful means to end the wars in the sub region could be seen in her contributions of man power, technical assistance and aid via ECOWAS. Nigeria alone has committed eight field commanders to ECOMOG and contributed about 70% of the troops in the peacekeeping operations in Liberia.  [26]  According to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria spent eight billion Dollars and lost about five hundred men in the Liberia and Sierra Leone crisis.  [27]  On the platform of ECOWAS vis-à  -vis the ECOMOG, Nigeria intervened in Liberia and Sierra Leone revolutionary conflict over the control of government structures, which were rooted in political and ideological differences lasting till the late 1990s. Not wanting a re-occurrence of the situation and aftermath of the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil war, ECOWAS working in collaboration with Nigeria, did not allow the Ivorian civil war linger for a long time before prompt intervention providing solutions to the c onflict. Thus, Nigeria in West Africa has successfully led the way in resolving the crisis situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone through the instrumentality of the sub regional peacekeeping mechanism, ECOMOG. The establishment of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) despite its handicaps, has proved to be one of the most durable and outstanding achievements of ECOWAS. It has not only provided a novel method for the maintenance of peace and security, which is now widely acknowledged, it has more importantly saved West African states and their nationals from mindless brutality, if not extinction.  [28]   ENDNOTES Dr S.K.B Asante ECOWAS and Freedom of Movement West Africa (London) 3 July 1978. p.1285 Richard Alkali, West Africa: ECOWAS-Its Formation and Achievements. http://allAfrica.com Anyanwu et al, History of Nigeria: Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. (Nigeria: Longman, 1991) p.213 Bunmi Odenubi, Nigerias Foreign Relations in the New Millennium Nigerian Forum. Vol 22, No 7-8. July-Aug 2001. p.157 Hassan A. Saliu, The Foreign Policy Legacies of Ibrahim Babangidas Regime in Nigeria. Nigerian Forum. Vol 22, No7-8, March-April 1995. p.50 Edem Kodjo, ECOWAS: Braving Troubled Waters West Africa (London) 30 June 1986. pp.1363-1364 Ibid R. Omotayo Laniyan, Nigeria and the ECOWAS: A Role and Problem Analysis, in G.O Olusanya and R.A Akindele (eds), Nigerias External Relations: The First Twenty Five Years. (Ibadan: University Press Ltd, 1986) p.127 Achievements of ECOWAS http://www.ECOWAS Official Site.org Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Anyanwu et al, History of Nigeria,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ p.214 Ibid. p.213 Bulletin on Foreign Affairs. Vol 21. March 2006. R.O Olaniyan, Nigeria and the ECOWASà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ p.132 Achievements of ECOWAS http://www.ECOWAS Official Site.org Ibid Information from Professor Adebayo Adedeji, aged about 80 years, ACDESS, Ijebu Ode, 11 Feb,2009 Nigerian Forum. Vol 22, No 5-6. May-June 2001.p.133 Hassan A. Saliu, The Foreign Policy Legacies of Ibrahim Babangidas Regime in Nigeria. Nigerian Forum, Vol 22, No 7-8, March-April 1995. p.51 Dele Ogunmola, ECOWAS and Conflict Management in Cote dIvoire: Appraisal and Prognosis Nigerian Forum. Vol 26. No 5-6. 2005. p.152 Daily Trust online editon, May 25, 2005 Odeyemi Oluwafunmilayo, Economic Cooperation in West Africa: A Look at the Achievements of ECOWAS 1991-2005. (A B.A Long Essay submitted to Babcock University Ogun State.)April 2007. p.45 Bunmi Odenubi, Nigerias Foreign Relations in the New Millenium. Nigerian Forum. Vol 22, No7-8. July-August 2001. pp. 158-159 Hassan A Saliu, The Foreign Policy Legacies of Ibrahim Babangidas Regime in Nigeria. Nigerian Forum.Vol 22, No7-8, March-April 1995. pp. 51-52. http://www.news.bbc.co.uk Ibid http://www.google.com http://www. Africa week magazine.com

Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 42~43

PART THREE Coconut Angel 42 Bedfellows Just before dawn, Tuck crawled through the bottom of the shower like a homesick cockroach, scuttled out of the bathroom under the mosquito netting and into bed. There were things to do, big things, important things, maybe even dangerous things, but he had no idea what they were and he was too tired and too drunk to figure them out now. He had tried, he had really tried to convince the Shark men that the doctor and his wife were doing horrible things to them, but the islanders always came back with the same answer: â€Å"It is what Vincent wants. Vincent will take care of us.† To hell with them, Tuck thought. Dumb bastards deserve what happens to them. He rolled over and pushed the coconut-headed dummy aside. The dummy pushed back. Tuck leaped out of bed, tripped in the mosquito netting, and scooted on his butt like a man backing away from a snake. And the dummy sat up. Tuck couldn't see the face in the predawn light filtering into the bungalow, just a silhouette behind the mosquito netting, a shadow. And the shadow wore a captain's hat. â€Å"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking because I'll give you six to five I do.† The accent was somewhere out of a Bowery Boys movie, and Tuck recognized the voice. He'd heard it in his head, he'd heard it in the voice of a talking bat, and he'd heard it twice from a young flyer. â€Å"You do?† â€Å"Yeah, you're thinking, ‘Hey, I never wanted to find a guy in my bed, but if you got to find a guy in your bed, this is the guy I'd want it to be,' right?† â€Å"That's not what I was thinking.† â€Å"Then you shoulda taken odds, ya mook.† â€Å"Who are you?† The flyer threw back the mosquito netting and tossed something across the room. Tuck flinched as it landed with a thump on the floor next to him. â€Å"Pick it up.† Tuck could just see an object shining by his knee. He picked up what felt like a cigarette lighter. â€Å"Read what it says,† the shadow said. â€Å"I can't. It's dark.† Tuck could see the flyer shaking his head dolefully. â€Å"You know, I saw a guy in the war that got his head shot off about the hat line. Docs did some hammering on some stainless steel and riveted it on his noggin and saved his life, but the guy didn't do nothing from that day forward but walk around in a circle yanking his hamster and singing just the ‘row' part of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.' They had to tape oven mitts on him to keep him from rubbing himself raw. Now, I'm not saying that the guy didn't know how to have a good time, but he wasn't much for conversation, if you know what I mean.† â€Å"That was a beautiful story,† Tuck said. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because the steelhead hamster-pulling ‘row' guy was a genius compared to you. Light the fuckin' lighter, ya mook.† â€Å"Oh,† Tuck said and he flipped open the lighter and sparked it. By the firelight he could read the engraving: VINCENT BENNIDETTI, CAPTAIN U.S.A.F. Tuck looked back at the flyer, who was still caged in shadow, even though the rest of the room had started to lighten. â€Å"You're Vincent?† The shadow gave a slight bow. â€Å"Not exactly in the flesh, but at your fuckin' service.† â€Å"You're Malink's Vincent?† â€Å"The same. I gave the chief the original of that lighter.† â€Å"You could have just said so. You didn't have to be so dramatic.† Tuck was glad he was a little drunk. He didn't feel frightened. As strange as it all was, he felt safe. This guy – this thing, this spirit – had more or less saved his life at least twice, maybe three times. â€Å"I got responsibilities, kid, and so do you.† â€Å"Responsibilities?† Now Tuck was frightened. It was a conditioned response. â€Å"Yeah, so when you get up later today, don't go storming into the doc's office demanding the facts. Just go swimming. Cool off.† â€Å"Go swimming?† â€Å"Yeah, go to the far side of the reef and swim away from the direction of the village about five hundred yards. Keep an eye out for sharks outside of the reef.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"A guy appears out of nowhere in the middle of the night saying all kinds of mystical shit and you ask why?† â€Å"Yeah. Why?† â€Å"Because I said so,† Vincent said. â€Å"My dad always said that. Are you the ghost of my dad?† The shade slapped his forehead. â€Å"Repeat after me – and don't be getting any on you, now – one and two and three and ‘Row, row, row, row, row†¦'† He started to fade away with the chant. â€Å"Wait,† Tuck said. â€Å"I need to know more than that.† â€Å"Stay on the sly, kid. You don't know as much as you think you do.† â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You owe me.† Two armed ninjas followed Tuck to the water. He watched them, looking for signs of microwave poisoning from the radar blasts, but he wasn't sure exactly what the signs would be. Would they plump noticeably, perhaps explode without fork holes to release the inner pressure? That would be cool. Maybe they'd fall asleep on the beach and wake up a hundred times larger, yearning to do battle with Godzilla while tiny people whose words didn't match their mouth movements scrambled in the flaming rubble be-low? (It happened all the time in Japanese movies, didn't it?) Too good for them. He pulled on his fins and bowed to them as he backed into the water. â€Å"May your nads shrivel like raisins,† he said with a smile. They bowed back, more out of reflex than respect. The far side of the reef and five hundred yards down: The ninjas were going to have a fit. He'd never gone to the ocean side of the reef. Inside was a warm clear aquamarine where you could always see the bottom and the fish seemed, if not friendly, at least not dan gerous. But the ocean side, past the surf, was a dark cobalt blue, as deep and liquid as a clear night sky. The colorful reef fish must look like M to the hunters of the deep blue, Tuck thought. The outer edge of the reef is the candy dish of monsters. He kicked slowly out to the reef, letting the light surge lift and drop him as he watched the multicolored links in the food chain dart around the bottom. A trigger fish, painted in tans and blues that seemed more at home in the desert, was crunching the legs off of a crab while smaller fish darted in to steal the floating crumbs. He pulled up and looked at the only visible break in the reef, a deep blue channel, and headed toward it. He'd have to go out to the ocean side and swim the five hundred yards there, otherwise the breaking surf would dash him against the coral when he tried to swim over the reef. He put his face in the water and kicked out of the channel until the bottom disappeared, then, once past the surf line, turned and swam parallel to the reef. It was like swimming in space at the edge of a canyon. He could see the reef sloping down a hundred and fifty feet to disappear into a blue blur. He tried to keep his bearing on the reef, let his eye bounce from coral fan to anemone to nudibranch to eel, like visual stepping-stones, because to his left there was no reference, nothing but empty blue, and when he looked there he felt like a child watching for a strange face at the window, so convinced and terrified it would come that any shape, any movement, any play of light becomes a horror. He saw a flash out the side of his mask and whipped around in time to see a harmless green parrot fish munching coral. He sucked a mouthful of water into his submerged snorkel and choked. He hovered in a dead man's float for a full minute before he could breathe normally and start kicking his way up the reef again, this time resolved to faith. Whatever, whoever Vincent was, he had saved Tuck's life, and he knew things. He wouldn't have gone to the trouble to have Tuck eaten by barracudas. Tuck ticked off his stepping-stones, trying to gauge how far he had come. He would have to go out farther to see past the rising surf and use the shore as a reference, and besides, what was above the water's surface was irrelevant. This was a foreign world, and he was an uninvited guest. Then another flash, but this time he fought the panic. Sunlight on something metal about thirty feet down the slope of the reef. Something waving in the surge near the flash. He rested a second, gathered his breath, and dove, swooping down to grab the object just as he recognized what it was: a set of military dog tags on a beaded metal chain. He shot to the surface and hovered as he caught his breath and read: SOMMERS, JAMES W. James Sommers was a Presbyterian, according to the dog tag. Somehow Tuck didn't think that a thousand-yard swim was worth finding a pair of dog tags. But there was the swath of fabric still down there. Tuck hadn't gotten a good look at it. He tucked the tags into the inside pocket of his trunks and dove again. He kicked down to the swath of cloth, holding his nose and blowing to equalize the pressure on his ears, even as the air in his lungs tried to pull him to the surface, away from his prize. It was some kind of printed cotton. He grasped at it and a piece came away in his hand. He pulled again, but the cloth was wedged into a crevice in the reef. He yanked and the cloth came away, revealing something white. Out of breath, he shot to the surface and examined the cloth. Flying piggies. Oh, good. He'd risked his life for Presbyterian dog tags and a flying piggies print. One more dive and he saw what it was that had wedged into the crevice: a human pelvic bone. Whatever else had been here had been carried away, but this bone had wedged and been picked clean. Someone wearing flying piggies boxers had become part of the food chain. The swim back to the channel seemed longer and slower, but this time Tuck forgot his fear of what might lurk behind the vasty blue. The real danger lay back on shore. And how does one, over dinner, proffer the opinion that one's employers are murdering organ thieves? â€Å"Stay on the sly,† Vincent had said. And so far he seemed to know what he was talking about. 43 Boiling the Puppets â€Å"Oh, come in, Mr. Case. Sebastian is out on the lanai.† She wore a white raw silk pant suit, cut loose in the legs and low at the neck, a rope of pearls with matching earrings. Her hair was tied back with a white satin bow and she moved before him like the ghost of good housekeeping. â€Å"How do you feel about Pacific lobster?† â€Å"I like it,† Tuck said, looking for some sign from her that she knew that he knew. There was no acknowledgment of her appearance in his room last night or that she had any suspicion of him at all. Tuck said, â€Å"I feel like I'm taking advantage coming to dinner empty-handed. I ought to have you and the doc over to my place some evening.† â€Å"Oh, do you cook too, Mr. Case?† â€Å"A few things. My specialty is blackened Pez.† â€Å"A Cajun dish?† â€Å"I learned to make it in Texas, actually.† â€Å"A Tex-Mex specialty, then.† â€Å"Well, a fifth of tequila does make it taste a little better.† She laughed, a polite hostess laugh, and said, â€Å"Can I get you something to drink?† â€Å"You mean a drink or some liquid?† â€Å"I'm sorry. It does seem constraining, I'm sure, but you understand, you might have to fly.† She had a large glass of white wine on the counter where she had been working. Tuck looked at it and said, â€Å"But performing major surgery under the influence is no problem, right?† That was subtle, Tuck thought. Very smooth. I am a dead man. Her eyes narrowed, but the polite smile never left her lips. â€Å"Sebastian,† she called, â€Å"you'd better come in, dear. I think Mr. Case has something he wants to discuss with us.† Sebastian Curtis came through the french doors looking tall and dignified, his gray hair brushed back, his tan face striking against the gray. To Tuck he looked like any number of executives one might see at a yacht club, a retired male model perhaps, a Shakespearean actor finally finished with the young prince and lover roles, seasoned and ready to play Caesar, Lear, or more appropriately, Prospero, the banished wizard of The Tempest. Tuck, still in his borrowed clothes, baggy and rolled at the cuffs, felt like a beggar. He fought to hold on to his righteous indignation, which was an unfamiliar emotion to him anyway. Sebastian Curtis said, â€Å"Mr. Case. Nice to see you. Beth and I were just talking about how pleased we are with your work. I'm sure these impromptu flights are difficult.† â€Å"Mr. Case was just suggesting that we keep an eye on our alcohol consumption,† Beth Curtis said. â€Å"Just in case we might have to perform an emergency surgery.† The jovial manner dropped from the doctor like a veil. â€Å"And just what kind of surgery might you be referring to?† Tuck looked at the floor. He should have thought this through a little more. He fingered the dog tags in his pocket. The plan was to throw them on the table and demand an explanation. What had happened to the skel-eton, the owner of the tags? And for that matter, what would happen to Tucker Case if he threw this in their faces? Mary Jean used to say, â€Å"In ne-gotiations, always leave yourself a way out. You can always come back later.† Go slow, Tuck told himself. He said, â€Å"Doc, I'm concerned about the flights. I should know what we're carrying in case we're detained by the authorities. What's in the cooler?† â€Å"But I told you, you're carrying research samples.† â€Å"What kind of samples?† It was time to play a card. â€Å"I'm not flying again until I know.† Sebastian Curtis shot a glance at his wife, then looked back to Tucker. â€Å"Perhaps we should sit down and have a talk.† He pulled a chair out for Tucker. â€Å"Please.† Tuck sat. The doctor repeated the gesture for his wife and then sat down next to her, across the table from Tuck. â€Å"I've been on Alualu for twenty-eight years, Mr. Case.† â€Å"What does that have to do†¦?† Curtis held up a hand. â€Å"Hear me out. If you want answers, you have to take them in the context that I give them.† â€Å"Okay.† â€Å"My family didn't have the money for medical school, so I took a scholarship from the Methodist Missions, on the condition that I work for them when I graduated and go where they sent me. They sent me here. I was full of myself and full of the Spirit of the Lord. I was going to bring God and healing to the heathens of the Pacific. There hadn't been a Christian missionary on the island since World War II, and I was warned that there might be a residual Catholic influence, but the Methodists have liberal ideas about spreading the Word of God. A Methodist missionary works with the culture he finds. But I didn't find a Catholic population here. What I found was a population that worshipped the memory of an American pilot and his bomber.† â€Å"A cargo cult,† Tuck said, hoping to move things along. â€Å"Then you know about them. Yes, a cargo cult. The strongest I'd ever heard of. Fortunately for me, it wasn't based on the hatred of whites like the cargo cults in New Guinea. They loved Americans and everything that came from America. They took my medicine, the tools I brought, food, reading material, everything I offered them, except, of course, the Word of God. And I was good to them. The natives on this island are the health-iest in the Pacific. Partly because they are so isolated that communicable diseases don't reach them, but I take some credit for it as well.† â€Å"So that's why you don't let them have any contact with the ship when it arrives?† â€Å"No, well, that is one of the reasons, but mainly I wanted to keep them away from the ship's store.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because the store offered them things that I couldn't or wouldn't give them, and the store only accepted money. Money was becoming an icon in their religion. I heard drums in the village one night and went into the village to find all the women crouched around a fire holding wooden bowls with a few coins in the bottom. They were oiled and waving their heads as if in a trance, and as the drummers played, the men, wearing masks fashioned to look like the faces on American currency, moved around be-hind the women, copulating with them and chanting. It was a fertility ce-remony to make the money in the bowls multiply so they could buy things from the ship's store.† â€Å"Well, it does sound better than getting a job,† Tuck said. Curtis didn't see the humor. â€Å"By forbidding them to have contact with the ship, I thought I could kill the cargo cult, but it didn't work. I would talk of Jesus, and the miracles that he performed, and how he would save them, and they would ask me if I had seen him. Because they had seen their savior. Their pilot had saved them from the Japanese. Jesus had just told them that they had to give up their customs and taboos. Christianity couldn't compete. But I still tried. I gave them the best care I could. But after five years, the Methodist Missions sent a group of officials to check on my progress. They cut my funding and wanted to send me home, but I decided to stay and try to do the best I could without their support.† â€Å"He was afraid to leave,† Beth Curtis said. Sebastian Curtis looked as if he was going to strike his wife. â€Å"That's not true, Beth.† â€Å"Sure it is. You hadn't been off this island in years. You forgot how to live with real people.† â€Å"They are real people.† As amusing as it was to watch the perfect couple illusion go up in flames before his eyes, Tuck put out the fire. â€Å"A Learjet and millions in electronics. Looks like you did pretty good with no funding, Doc.† â€Å"I'm sorry.† And he looked as if he was. â€Å"I tried to make it on what the islanders could raise by selling copra, but it wasn't enough. I lost one of my patients, a little boy, because I didn't have the funds to fly him to a hospital that could give him the care he needed. I tried harder to convert the natives, thinking I might get another mission to sponsor us, but how can you compete with a Messiah people have actually spoken to?† Tuck didn't answer. Having spoken to the â€Å"Messiah† himself, he was convinced already. Sebastian Curtis drained his glass of wine and continued. â€Å"I sent letters to churches, foundations, and corporations all over the world. Then one day a plane landed out on the airstrip and some Japanese businessmen got out. They wouldn't fund the clinic out of charity, but if I could get every able-bodied islander to give blood every two weeks, then they would help. And every two weeks the plane came and picked up three hundred pints of blood. I got twenty-five American dollars for every pint.† â€Å"How'd you talk the natives into it? I've given blood. It's not that pleasant.† â€Å"They were coming on a plane, remember? Airplanes are a big part of these people's religion.† â€Å"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, huh?† â€Å"They always brought something on the plane for the natives. Rice, machetes, cooking pots. I got all the medicines I needed and I was able to get the materials to build most of this compound.† Beth Curtis stood up. â€Å"Oh, as much as I love hearing this story, I think we should eat. Excuse me.† She went to the kitchen area, where a large pot was boiling on the stove, reached into a wooden crate on the floor, and came up with a large live lobster in each hand. The giant sea bugs waved their legs and antennae around looking for purchase. Beth Curtis held them over the pot, puppeting them. â€Å"Oh, Steve, you got us a room with a hot tub. How wonderful,† she made the left lobster say. â€Å"Yes, I'm very romantic,† she said in a deeper voice, bouncing the bug with the words. â€Å"Let's go in now. I'm a little tense.† â€Å"Oh, you're wonderful.† Then she dropped the lobsters into the boiling water. A high-pitched squeal came from the pot and Beth Curtis went to the crate for another victim. â€Å"Beth, please,† the doctor said. â€Å"I'm just trying to lighten things up a little, ‘Bastian. Be still.† She held the second lobster over the pot, then looked at Tucker as she began her narration. â€Å"This is the crazed doctor talking. There's always a crazed megalomaniacal doctor. It's traditional.† Sebastian Curtis stood up. â€Å"Stop it, Beth!† She affected a German accent. â€Å"You see, Mr. Bond, a man spends too much time on an island alone, he changes. He loses his faith. He begins to think of ways to improve his lot. My associates in Japan came to me with a proposal. They would send me to a seminar in San Francisco to brush up on organ transplant surgery. I would no longer be selling blood for pocket change. They would send me specific orders for kidneys, and I could deliver them within hours for a cool half-million apiece. A dying man will pay a lot for a healthy kidney. In San Francisco I met a woman, a beautiful wo-man.† Beth came out of character for a moment, grinned, and bowed quickly, then went back to terrorizing the lobster. â€Å"I brought her here, and it was she who devised the plan to get the natives to comply with having their organs removed. Not only beautiful, but a genius as well, and she had a degree as a surgical nurse. She used her abundant charms on the natives† – she held the lobster where it could have a good view of her cleavage – â€Å"and the savages were more than happy to donate a kidney. Meanwhile, I have become rich beyond my wildest dreams, and as for you, Mr. Bond, now it's time for you to die.† She dropped the lobster into the pot and began to shake with a diabolical laugh. She stopped laughing abruptly and said, â€Å"They should be ready in about ten minutes. Salad, Mr. Case?† Tuck couldn't think. Somewhere in that little puppet show of the damned was a confession to cutting out people's organs and selling them like so much meat, and the doctor's wife not only didn't seem to have any regrets about it, she was absolutely gleeful. Sebastian Curtis, on the other hand, had his head down on the table, and when he did look up, he couldn't make eye contact with Tuck. A minute passed in uncomfortable silence. Beth Curtis seemed to be waiting for someone to shout â€Å"Encore!† while the good doctor gathered his wits. â€Å"What I'd like you to understand, Mr. Case, is that I – we – couldn't have taken care of these people without the funds we've received for what we do. They would have no modern medical care at all.† Tuck was thinking again, trying to measure what he could say and what he wasn't willing to reveal. He couldn't let them know that he knew any-thing at all about the Shark People, and, as Vincent had implied, he'd better find out more before he threw down the dog tags and Pardee's notebook. The doc was obviously stretched pretty tight by the situation, and Mrs. Curtis – well, Mrs. Curtis was just fucking scary. Play it chilly. They'd brought him here because they thought he was as twisted as they were. No sense in ruining his image. â€Å"I understand.† Tuck said. â€Å"I wish you'd been a little more up front about it, but I think I get all the secrecy now. But what I want to know is: Why can't I drink if you guys do? I mean, if you guys can perform major surgery when you're half in the bag, then I can fly a plane.† Beth said, â€Å"We wanted to help you with your substance abuse problem. We thought that if you weren't exposed to other drinkers that you'd relapse when you went back home.† â€Å"Very thoughtful of you,† Tuck said. â€Å"But when exactly am I supposed to go home?† â€Å"When we're finished,† she said. The doctor nodded. â€Å"Yes, we were going to tell you, but we wanted you to become used to the routine. We wanted to see if you could handle the job first. We're going to do the operations until we have a hundred million, then we will invest it on behalf of the islanders. The proceeds will assure we can continue our work and that the Shark People will be taken care of as long as they are here.† Tuck laughed. â€Å"Right. You're not taking anything for yourself. This is all a mercy mission.† â€Å"No, we may leave, but there'll be enough to keep someone running this clinic and shipping in food and supplies forever. And then there's your bonus.† â€Å"Go,† Tuck said. â€Å"Go ahead.† â€Å"The plane.† Tuck raised an eyebrow. â€Å"The plane?† â€Å"If you stay until we finish our work, we will sign the plane over to you, plus your salary and any other bonuses you've accumulated. You can go anywhere in the world you want, start a charter business if you want, or just sell it and live comfortably for the rest of your life.† Tuck shook his head. Of all the weirdness that had gone on so far, this seemed like the weirdest, if only because the doctor seemed so earnest. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was one of those things that a guy hopes all his life he is going to hear, but convinces himself that it's never going to happen. These people were going to give him his own Learjet. He didn't want to do it, he fought not to do it, he strained, but nevertheless, Tuck couldn't stop himself from asking. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because we can't do it without you, and this is something that you can't get any other way. And because we'd rather keep you than have to find another pilot and lose the time.† â€Å"What if I say no?† â€Å"Then, you understand, we'd have to ask you to leave and you would keep the money that you've already earned.† â€Å"And I can just go?† â€Å"Of course. As you know, you are not our first pilot. He decided to move on. But then again, we didn't make him this offer.† â€Å"What was your first pilot's name?† The doctor shot a look at his wife. She said, â€Å"Giordano, he was Italian. Why?† â€Å"The aviation community is pretty small. I thought I might know him.† â€Å"Do you?† she said and there was too much sincerity in the question for Tuck to believe that she didn't know the answer. â€Å"No.† Sebastian Curtis cleared his throat and forced a smile. â€Å"So what do you think? How would you like to own your own Learjet, Mr. Case?† Tuck sat staring at the open wine bottle, measuring what he could say, what answer they not only wanted to hear, but had to hear if he was going to leave the island alive. He extended his hand for the doctor to shake. â€Å"I think you've got yourself a pilot. Let's drink to the deal.† An electronic bell trilled from the bedroom and the doctor and his wife exchanged glances. â€Å"I'll take care of it,† Beth Curtis said. She stood and put her napkin on the table. â€Å"Excuse me, Mr. Case, but we have a patient in the clinic who requires my attention.† Then the whiplash mood swing from officious to acid. â€Å"She presses that buzzer so much you'd think it was attached to her clit.† Sebastian Curtis looked at Tuck and shrugged apologetically.