They walked outside so they could talk without the guards hearing.
“Did the Humvee and military transport come through here a couple hours ago?” Emerson asked.
Vernon nodded. “Yup. Didn’t even stop to say howdy-do. Little Buddy and I just stayed in the hut. What’d you two find out? Did you bring me back a cheeseburger?”
“For starters, we’re wanted fugitives,” Riley said. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that the insane director of the National Park Service is tapping into the earth’s core to gather materials for making some sort of super-weapon.”
“I’ll just blow this whole thing wide open on the blog,” Vernon said. “It’ll get sorted out lickety-split once it’s all over the Internet.”
“I guess I forgot to mention the hostages,” Riley said.
“There is a hostage?” Wayan Bagus asked.
“Try a million. Tin Man’s going to blow up Yellowstone if we say even a word to anybody about it.”
“I don’t see where that’s a problem,” Vernon said. “We evacuate all the people, and all’s left to blow up are the stupid Bigfoots and stink-hole mud pots. I say good riddance.”
“The park is a national treasure,” Riley said.
“Treasure shmeasure,” Vernon said.
Everyone was silent for a beat, thinking about it.
“Off the table,” Riley said. “We are not going to blow up Yellowstone.”
“Of course not,” Emerson said.
“Very, very bad karma,” Wayan Bagus said. “The thought gives me a severe pain behind my eye.”
“First things first,” Emerson said. “We need to get out of the park.”
He walked back inside the gatehouse and knelt down to talk with the guards.
“What do you say we make a bargain?” Emerson asked them.
Four hours of being chained to a woodstove in their underwear had knocked a lot of the fight from the two guards.
“What kind of a bargain?” a guard asked.
“The best kind,” Emerson said. “One that is mutually beneficial to both sides. We’ll let you go and give you back your clothes.”
Wayan Bagus tapped Emerson on the shoulder. “I’m a little attached to the hat.”
“Except for the hat,” Emerson said.
They looked interested.
“Okay. What do we have to do?”
“You drive us out of the park to the Bozeman airport and forget you ever saw us.”
“Why would we agree to that?” the first guard asked.
“What do you think Tin Man would do to you if he knew you let us waltz into a top-secret government installation and steal national secrets?”
The guards exchanged glances.
“Good point,” one said. “Will you be needing an SUV or a sedan for your ride to the airport?”
Riley settled into the plush leather seat of the Gulfstream G550 for the seven-hour flight to Kona, Hawaii. “Didn’t you have to file a flight plan with the FAA that includes all our names? Aren’t you worried the police will be on the tarmac in Hawaii waiting for us when we land?”
Emerson handed Vernon a breadbasket and a tray of meats and cheeses from the cabin’s refrigerator.
“This isn’t my personal plane,” Emerson said. “This is a private charter. I called the owner of the company, and he agreed to help us travel incognito. It took some time for him to get the plane to Bozeman, but it was worth the wait.”
“Are you talking about Warren Buffett?” Riley asked.
Emerson selected a piece of cheese from the tray. “Do you know Warren?”
“No,” Riley said. “Do you?”
“Of course,” Emerson said. “He’s a super nice guy. Goes to bed at night and gets up in the morning just like everyone else. Of course, then he hops into his solid gold helicopter and goes to work in a zeppelin made entirely from hundred-dollar bills.”
Vernon nodded. “Well, personally, I don’t much care for him what with his, quote unquote, ‘relaxed island style’ and that song ‘Margaritaville’ playing nonstop in every restaurant in Florida.”
Riley rolled her eyes. “That would be Jimmy Buffett. Warren Buffett’s the businessman.”
Vernon paused. “Huh. No kidding? Does he have a relaxed island style?”
“Not that I know of,” Emerson said.
“Okay. Great. Then I don’t have a problem with him,” Vernon said, and he made himself a sandwich.
Riley closed her eyes just for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were flying over the Pacific Ocean. Vernon and Wayan Bagus were sleeping. Emerson was on his laptop, browsing the Internet.
“So, how are you planning on finding Tin Man and Bart Young once we’re in Hawaii?” Riley asked Emerson.
Emerson looked up from his laptop. “The director said he had a parallel program to Yellowstone in Hawaii. It has to be at one of the national parks—either Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island or Haleakala National Park on Maui.”
“And you think it’s on the Big Island?”
“Spiro’s last words were ‘Mauna Kea.’ It’s one of five volcanoes that formed the Big Island. The others are Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Hualalai, and Kohala.”
“What’s special about Mauna Kea?” Riley asked.
“It’s the biggest mountain in Hawaii at more than thirteen thousand feet above sea level. Measured from the ocean floor, it’s more than thirty-three thousand feet high. That’s bigger than Mount Everest. It’s so massive that it depresses the ocean floor beneath the island by six kilometers. One day, eons from now, Hawaii will likely collapse under its own weight.”
“Is there a government installation on Mauna Kea?”
“Several,” Emerson said. “There’s a complex of huge telescopes and observatories on the summit originally built by the U.S. Air Force, although today they’re run by an international consortium. The lower elevations of the mountain are home to the hundred-thousand-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, the largest military training ground in the Pacific.”
“And that’s where you think Tin Man and the director are headed?”
Emerson nodded. “Pohakuloa is extremely remote. Access is restricted by the army. It also has a small military airstrip called Bradshaw Army Airfield. It would be a perfect place to hide an R&D facility.”
“I assume you have a plan for what to do if and when we find them,” Riley said.
Emerson checked the flight computer. “One hour until we land in Kona.”
“You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“Of course,” Emerson said. “Break into the army base. Steal the super-weapon. Save the world from destruction. Kiss the girl, and live happily ever after. As far as the details go, I thought we would just wu wei wing it.”
“Would you like to elaborate on the ‘kiss the girl’ part?”
“It’s traditional to get a kiss when you save the world,” Emerson said.
Riley smiled. “Tell you what. You save the world, and I’ll give you a kiss that will knock your socks off.”
“I get a blister if I don’t wear socks,” Emerson said.
Riley reclined her seat and closed her eyes. She was too tired to roll them. “Wu wei wake me up when we land.”
TWENTY
RILEY STEPPED OFF THE PLANE ONTO THE private runway at Kona International Airport. She’d pictured lush tropical rain forests set against a backdrop of white sandy beaches and blue ocean. The ocean was a brilliant, shimmering blue, but that’s where her mental image ended. The paved runway was set in the middle of a huge lava desert that looked a lot like a massive torn-up parking lot. The beach was composed mostly of jagged black rocks. In the distance, a dull haze of volcanic gasses hung over the mountains.
“It looks kind of desolate,” Riley said. “I didn’t expect to see so much lava.”
“This is the dry side of the island. Kona gets very little rain every year. The only green you’ll see is what the resorts irrigate. The other side of the island is beyond wet. Around 150 inches of rain per year and nothing but waterfalls and rain forests.”
“You know a lot about Hawaii,” Riley said. “Have you spent a lot of time here?”