There was a purple lump on Tall Man's forehead, and a line of stitches extending from his left eyebrow across his temple.
"You don't look too bad," Chase said, stepping toward the bed. "Considering."
"Yes, I do, I look like a mile of bad road," said Tall Man. "And don't you even think about touching me; I feel like a train wreck."
Chase smiled. "Ready to go?"
"Damn right. If I stay here long enough, they'll starve me to death or stick me to death... or both." Tall Man leaned forward, swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, leaning on the wall for support. Chase helped him on with his trousers and draped his shirt over his shoulders.
Ellie Bindloss appeared, pushing a wheelchair. "Sit down," she said.
"Never," said Tall Man. "I can walk—"
"Sit down before I knock you down."
Tall Man smiled, then laughed, then coughed. "You're a hard woman, Ellie Bindloss," he said, and he flopped into the wheelchair.
Max pushed the wheelchair down the hall, Ellie walked beside it and Chase and Amanda followed behind.
Chase told her about the photograph Rudi had given him, then said, "We've got to stop at the bank on the way back; I want to clear something up."
Amanda hesitated before saying, "Clear up what?"
"I don't know, the damndest thing. One of the officers told me the bank isn't holding my paper on the island anymore. He said they sold it."
"Really?"
"To a partnership. I thought for a minute they'd screwed me, sold it to Finnegan or somebody else who'd want to take over the island. But then the guy said I was one of the partners."
Amanda didn't say anything, she just kept on walking, looking ahead.
"It must be new," she said.
"What kind of name is that, the Pinniped Group? You know what pinnipeds are?"
"Sure."
"They're..." Chase stopped, and as the sense of what he was about to say hit him, the thought occurred to him that he had never felt so stupid in his life. "Sea lions. A pinniped is a sea lion."
Amanda smiled and took his arm. "We'll talk about the details later," she said. "We'll have plenty of time."
— THE END —
Peter Benchley, White Shark
(Series: # )
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