Orson stopped, and his dark eyes glared out of his face and into her eyes. “I have told you no before.”
“I know, and I’m sorry to keep bugging you, but this is really important to my career.” She told him about the dramatic increase in recent activity, then fell silent. She hated to beg. He was quiet, and she thought he was going to refuse her again.
Then he nodded slowly. “Show me where you want to put them.”
“I’ll get them from the Nissan.” She hurried back to her SUV and grabbed the receivers. Her foot ached from all the walking, and she was limping heavily by the time she got back to Orson.
“You are limping,” he observed.
She nodded but didn’t explain.
“Your sister said you now fear the rivers of fire.”
“Leilani mentioned my accident?”
He thrust his staff into the hard, rocky soil and followed her up the mountain. “The old gods were trying to get your attention.”
Annie gave an involuntary shiver. All this talk of gods— demons, to her mind—made her want to run back to her vehicle.
He noticed her shudder. “You are a fearful girl, Annie Tagama. You must conquer your fears.”
At least he was right about that. Annie wished she could be brave and strong like Fawn. Maybe someday. They reached the first spot she needed to get coordinates on. She showed Orson what she planned, and he consented to letting her plant the receiver. They walked the hillside together, and she marked the spots. She’d never been this high on this side of the mountain. There was so much to discover up here. Unexplored lava tubes, hot springs and pools, old fissures . . . it was a volcanologist’s dream. Now that the ice was broken between her and old Kauhi, maybe he’d let her look around once in a while.
She and Orson walked back down toward his cabin. Annie saw movement at the front door. “Looks like you have company.”
Orson scowled. “Not for long. I’ve told them three times I will not sell my land.”
“Who wants to buy it?” She suspected she knew.
“They want to put a casino here. It’s sacrilegious!”
Annie glanced toward the road and recognized the big car that was parked behind her Pathfinder. Evan Chun must be here. She was tempted to hang around and see if he’d talk with her, but after glancing at her watch, she realized she needed to get back to the office and work on Jillian’s computer model. And she had to get home on time. Her father would be flustered if she was late tonight. He was planning on taking Gina to a slack-key guitar concert at seven, and he wouldn’t be able to find the right shirt without her.
As she drove past her home, she wondered again what she was going to do if her father remarried. The thought of not being needed anymore terrified her, though she knew it was time she learned to live her own life.
When she reached the observatory, she stopped by Gina’s office and got the file she needed. She took it to Jillian’s office and seated herself in front of the computer. Annie began to go line by line and check the formulas in the model.
After an hour her eyes ached and her head throbbed. It had to be here somewhere. Some equation had to be wrong. Something was throwing the entire computer model off-kilter. She’d backtracked through all the formulas and had only five more to review. Maybe she should start at the beginning and go through it all again.
She glanced at the root formula and then blinked. It had been right here in front of her the whole time. The spreadsheet drew its results from the basic temperature and gas-mixture formula. That formula was transposed. No wonder the model wasn’t working. With the foundational equation wrong, nothing could come out right.
She corrected the formula, then launched the model. It began to spew out data that, for the first time, made sense. Annie smiled. Fawn had been saying something similar about Annie’s life. When something else is in God’s place, nothing comes out right. Annie’s life was meant to be lived with God at the center of everything, the driving force of everything. Instead, she tried to hold onto some control. God wanted to be her all, the reason she lived and breathed. She bowed her head and surrendered.
Mahalo for the ride, buddy.” Tomi stood lightly on his toes with his hand on the car door as if poised for flight. He glanced around, then got in with Mano.
“I wanted to talk to you anyway.” Mano pointed his car toward the Tagama house. “You vanished after Noah died. That’s looking real bad. Where are your dog tags?”
“My tags?” Tomi’s eyes widened. He felt his pocket. “I must have dropped them someplace.”
“Like at the murder scene.”
Tomi went white. “They were found by Noah’s body?”
“Yep. And Sam is looking to talk to you.”
“I had nothing to do with it! I don’t even know Noah, not really.” His face fell. “I’ve been set up!”