Beach zombie

We leave tomorrow for a few days in the Bahamas. I am so very much looking forward to swimming and napping by the pool. We've got one dinner reservation and that it is for the planned activiites. I'm going to read and write and swim and sleep as the mood takes me, and it will be awesome.

Or, it would be awesome if only I could figure out why the Emperor of the Songhai would be willing to loan his artillery to my protagonist to go save a homeland she's still not quite certain she wants to save. But perhaps the answer can be found at the bottom of a sufficiently tall glass of fruity things and rum.

Preferrably with an umbrella.