Read Online Galveston by Paul Quarrington - Free Book Online

ravenous. He pulled open his own sliding glass door—he too gave out a little grunt—and headed for the main building.
    As he passed the small row of maisonettes, he heard his name called. Peering through a screened window, he saw Jimmy Newton sitting at a small table, in front of a small laptop, its screen providing the only light in a room that was unaccountably gloomy. The laptop was wired to paraphernalia, an odd little metal tower, a small sleek printer. There were pieces of paper everywhere, on the floor, the bed, even in the small sink in the corner. These were images of the storm as seen from heaven. Three were tacked to the wall.
    Jimmy Newton had a cellphone pressed to his ear, and five more lay at his feet. Newton muttered, “Jesus H. Christ,” and dropped this one down there too. “I pay for every damn system there is,” he snarled. “You’d think one of the fuckers would work.”
    “Who are you trying to call?” Caldwell knew that Newton had no family, it was one of the things he appreciated most about him.
    “I want to talk to someone at en-oh-double-eh. I need to know if they’re thinking what I’m thinking.” Newton had one more little phone to try. He flipped it open, put it to his ear. He didn’t even bother pressing any of the buttons. He threw the thing away and muttered, “Talk about a dead zone.”
    “Can’t get through to anybody?”
    “I got the computer hooked up. Gee-ess-em. I’m bouncing off satellites, baby. But here on the third stone from the sun,you and I are sitting in a black hole. You know what? This is officially the armpit of the world.”
    “Huh. So he found it.”
    “You want to try making sense, Caldwell?”
    “William Dampier. He and his Merry Boys sailed around the world, you know, looking for the ends of the earth. The end of the earth. So now you’re telling me this is it. He found it.”
    “Christ,” muttered Jimmy Newton, shaking his head. “I’m surrounded by lunatics here.”
    “You hungry? You want to get some dinner?” Caldwell could not have said why, exactly, but he craved company.
    “Gimme a sec.” Jimmy stabbed at the return button on his keyboard, leant back and watched as a new image appeared on the screen. Caldwell couldn’t see it from where he stood, but the computer screen pulsated.
    “Oh-oh,” said Jimmy Newton.
    “What?”
    “I’m looking at the new NOGAPS. It looks a lot like the UKMET.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “You know. Global baroclinic readings.” Newton rose from his seat, stretched, pulled material away from his crotch. “What the hell kind of chaser are you, anyway?”
    “No kind,” admitted Caldwell.
    “That’s right, isn’t it?” Jimmy Newton pushed through the door of Unit
A2
, joined Caldwell outside. “Whereas I am some kind of chaser. What kind? Piss poor.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, it looks like she’s deflecting.”
    “Hmm?”
    “The
storm
, numbnuts. Remember? The hurricane that we spent hundreds of dollars trying to get to? She’s deflecting.”
    “Huh.”
    “Right now the best track puts her maybe four hundred miles north.
Koo-bah.
We should have gone to Cuba. Cuba is a lot more fun than this fucking place, anyway. It’s got better booze and naked dancing girls. Fuck. We missed, Caldwell.”
    Caldwell had experienced misses before, plenty of them. He could simply have chosen to live on Guam, which is battered by more storms than anywhere else on the planet, but Caldwell liked to keep moving, like the sharks that shadowed the beach. “Oh, well,” he said. “I don’t really care. You know me. I just come for the fishing.”
    They entered the main building, went by the registration desk and into the dining room. Polly met them with a stern look on her face. “You’re late,” she said.
    “Sorry,” said Caldwell, but Jimmy Newton was less apologetic. He pretended to dig around in the pockets of his white shorts. “Hey, it’s okay, lady, I got a