“My father owned a three-hundred-acre ranch in North Kohala. Vernon and I spent a month there every summer when we were kids. Since I now own the ranch, and we can’t risk staying at a hotel without being recognized, I thought we’d stay on my property.”
Vernon stepped off the plane with Wayan Bagus and stretched. He looked at Emerson. “Did you say we’re going to the ranch?”
Riley thought she heard some hesitation in Vernon’s voice. “What’s wrong with the ranch?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Vernon said. “You’re going to love it. It’s real pretty. It’s only that some of the people in the community are a mite eccentric. By the way, you like cows, don’t you?”
“Let me get this straight,” Riley said. “Where we’re heading, you and Emerson are the normal ones?”
Wayan Bagus took a deep breath and smiled. “I am happy to be back in the Pacific. It has been my experience that the only normal people are those you don’t know very well. In any event, I am quite fond of cows. The ranch sounds very nice.”
A car was waiting for them on the tarmac. The keys were in the car, and four flower leis were on the dash.
It was an hour’s drive to the sleepy little town of Hawi in North Kohala. Riley headed out of the airport, turning left onto Route 19, the belt road that hugged the coastline and encircled the island. Twenty minutes of lava fields later, they passed the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, a man-made green oasis of golf courses, luxury homes, and bungalow-style thousand-dollar-per-night hotel rooms.
Vernon groaned as they passed. “I don’t suppose the ranch has a hot tub, all-day room service, and somebody to bring you ice cream sundaes while you sit by the pool?”
“I don’t suppose so, unless there have been some upgrades since we were there last. It does, however, have a tidal pool and a fruit orchard that’s open twenty-four hours a day,” Emerson said. “Riley will probably be particularly interested in the tidal pool. She’s a swimming enthusiast.”
Riley cut her eyes to Emerson. “Your time will come.”
“Are we almost there?” Wayan Bagus asked. “I would like to have some fruit and swim in the tidal pool and see the cows.”
“Not far now,” Emerson said.
Riley continued north on Route 19, passing a number of other four-and five-star resorts. As she drove, the lava fields were slowly replaced with scrubby brown grass, arid patches of dirt, and the occasional tree. She turned onto Akoni Pule Highway and passed through Kawaihae Harbor into North Kohala. As she rounded the northern tip of the island, the scrubby brown grass became progressively greener and more lush. Tall guinea grasses swayed in the trade winds.
“This is absolutely beautiful,” Riley said as she drove through the little town of Hawi, with its art galleries, restaurants, and little shops.
Emerson pointed at an unmarked dirt road to their left. “It’s about half a mile down this road.”
Riley bumped down the road, avoiding potholes as best she could. After a couple minutes, the woods and brush opened up into open pastureland. A herd of Black Angus cows looked up in a lazy greeting as their car passed under a sign reading MYSTERIOSO RANCH.
“Oh man,” Vernon said, “I hope we don’t run into Alani.”
“Alani was Vernon’s first girlfriend,” Emerson said to Riley. “She still lives in Hawi and works as an astronomer at the Keck Observatory. She and Vernon had a small difference of opinion, and Vernon hasn’t been back here since.”
“She ran me over with an ATV,” Vernon said. “She’s got anger issues.”
“Is she one of the eccentrics?” Riley asked.
“She’s the eccentric,” Vernon said.
Emerson looked at Vernon. “In fairness to her, that was preceded by the Unspeakable Incident.”
Vernon leaned over the front seat and clapped his hand over Emerson’s mouth. “Hello. It’s called ‘the Unspeakable Incident’ for a reason. Anyway, I’m sure she’s forgotten all about it by now. It’s been years, right?”
Wayan Bagus rolled down his window to get a better look at the cows. “It is written by the Sage that never by hatred is hatred conquered, but by readiness to love. That is the eternal law.”
“I reckon the Sage might feel differently if he had a girlfriend who ran him over with an ATV,” Vernon said.
Riley parked the car in front of a small one-story Bali-style house. It sat at the edge of a one-hundred-foot sea cliff with the island of Maui in the distance, separated by the thirty-mile-wide Alenuihaha Channel.
Everyone got out of the car and stood in awe at the sight and sound of the ten-foot swells crashing into the cliffs below.
“It’s almost sunset,” Emerson said to Vernon. “Why don’t you and Wayan Bagus walk into town and buy us some food for dinner. I’ll show Riley around the ranch.”
Riley watched Vernon and Wayan Bagus disappear down the driveway.
“Is this the only house on the property?” she asked Emerson.
“The ranch manager has a house here, and there’s a larger house that my father preferred. This was built as a guesthouse, but I find the scale more comfortable than the main house. Vernon and Wayan Bagus won’t be gone long, but we can do a little exploring. Would you like to walk the perimeter of the property or would you rather see the tidal pool?”
“The tidal pool.”
“Good choice,” Emerson said. “The tidal pool has always been my favorite spot.”
They walked along the cliff for a quarter of a mile in silence before coming to a deep gulch. Seabirds flew overhead, trying to find their roosts before dark, and the occasional humpback whale breached just offshore.
“There’s a trail to the bottom,” Emerson said. “It’s a little rough, but it’s worth the effort. It’s also the reason for the cowboy boots. That and the cows.”
Riley followed Emerson down the muddy, slippery trail, and the pastures gave way to a lush rain forest that smelled of mango trees and freshly cut grass. Behind her, a hundred-foot waterfall plunged down a green cliff into a stream hidden by the thick jungle. In front of her, the jungle opened up onto a rocky beach with a large pool, fed half by the stream coming from the direction of the waterfall and half by the warmer ocean waves.
“We used to swim here every day,” Emerson said.
Riley put her hand into the pool. It was a perfect temperature.
“Makes you want to jump in, doesn’t it?” Emerson said.
“Are you going to jump in?”
“No,” Emerson said. “Unfortunately there’s no time. We want to head back before we lose the light. The gulch gets super dark at night because of the double canopy of vegetation.”
Thank goodness, Riley thought. Plotting to catch Emerson in the altogether was one thing. Coed naked swimming was something entirely different. She wasn’t ready for coed naked swimming. Her head was in other places. She had to save the world and make sure she didn’t end up like Spiro.
“How are we going to find the National Park Service research facility without getting killed?” Riley asked.
“No problem. Mauna Kea is very different from Yellowstone,” Emerson said. “Once you reach the higher elevations near the training area and the observatory, it’s basically an arid, treeless moonscape.”
“Is that good or bad?”
Emerson and Riley started back up the path out of the gulch.
“A little of both,” Emerson said. “The good is that there’s no place to hide an R&D facility, so it should be easier to find. The bad is that there’s no place for us to hide either. I have a plan, but it requires a certain amount of diplomacy.”
Riley looked at Emerson. Emerson was a lot of things, one of which was definitely not a diplomat.
“We’re doomed,” Riley said.
“My thoughts exactly,” Emerson said. “That’s why I wanted to talk with you first, without the others.”
“This is going to be good,” Riley said. “Let’s hear it.”
“We need an inside man. Someone who can get us close to the Pohakuloa Training Area without arousing suspicion.”
“You have somebody in mind.”
Emerson nodded. “Alani.”
“Vernon’s Alani? ATV Alani? Vernon’s going to freak out.”