“I’m coming too!” Eva ran after her.
“Stay here,” Leia told her sister, but Eva thrust out her chin and clambered aboard the boat. There was no time to argue with her. She started the engine of the Eva II, a twenty-eight-foot Chris-Craft her mother anchored in the bay. Scrambling over the deck, she got Eva into her seat then handed her sister the cat to distract her. She flung herself under the wheel and turned on the engines. Leaving Kalaupapa behind, she opened the throttle to full speed and urged the boat in the direction she’d seen the plane fall.
A sea rescue was always difficult. The reflection of the sun on the water made it hard to see a person in the waves, and she wasn’t quite sure where the plane had gone in. A craft might slip under the waves without leaving any wreckage behind as evidence. She stared into the rolling waves. Several times she thought she saw the pilot, but it was only a whitecap bobbing. The Coast Guard might soon appear if there was a boat in the area, but she couldn’t count on that.
“Do you see anything, Eva?” Eva could see an ant climbing a monkeypod tree at fifty paces. Her sister had calmed down and was staring across the water.
Eva shook her head. “Did he drown, Leia?” She pushed a wisp of hair from her eyes.
“I hope not.” Leia squinted against the glare of sun. A move-ment caught her attention, and she grabbed a pair of binoculars from where they were stowed in a cabinet. The waves parted, and she caught a glimpse of a face bobbing in the waves. Clad in an orange flight suit and helmet, the man thrashed in the lines of his parachute. He managed to free himself, then ripped off his helmet.
“I see him,” Eva said in a singsong voice. She stood and leaned over the side.
“Sit down,” Leia said, reaching toward her sister. Eva was leaning over so far that a rogue wave could pull her overboard. With the cat draped around her neck like a shawl, Eva sat on the seat but leaned forward with an eager smile. Leia turned to scan the sea again. Anxiety gnawed at her stomach. She’d lost the pilot in the swells. He had to be close. She cut the engine, and the craft slowed, then slewed to the right. A large swell lifted the boat then dropped it in a trough. A dark head popped up. “There he is.” She grabbed the life preserver and heaved it toward the man. “Grab hold!” she shouted.
The pilot turned toward her and moved feebly toward the floating preserver. He looped one arm through the hole, and she began to pull him toward the boat. When he was five feet from the side, Eva screeched.
“It’s Bane!” Eva reached over the side toward him.
Leia’s pull on the rope slackened at the familiar name, then her gaze traveled to the man in the water. Thick black hair in a military cut framed a Hawaiian face marked by strong bones and a firm, determined chin. The facial hair around his mouth hadn’t been there when she’d seen him last, and it gave him the look of a pirate. Exertion had leached some color from his dark complexion, but the eyes above the prominent nose had haunted her sleep for months. The lump that formed in her throat had nothing to do with the danger he was in and everything to do with the threat to her peace of mind he’d caused in the past year.
Bane Oana blinked salt water out of his eyes and flailed in the water. Eva screeched Bane’s name again, then Leia found her wits and resumed pulling on the wet rope. Bane helped her by swimming with one hand while hanging on to the life preserver. Within minutes he was alongside the boat. Leia leaned over the side. A wave slapped her in the face, and the warm water soaked her hair. She flinched when he grabbed her wrist but continued to haul him aboard. He collapsed on the deck of the boat.
Eva moved to kneel beside him, but Leia stopped her. “Eva, get my emergency kit,” she said, dropping to her knees beside him. “It’s in the cabinet.” She picked up his hand, and her fingers found the pulse at his wrist. It was too fast, but steady and true. Kind of like the man himself.
He tugged his hand away gently and propped himself on his elbows. “I’m fine. Mind if I borrow your radio? I need to call in the accident.” He frowned and glanced around the open water.
Leia pushed him back against the deck. “Just lie still a minute. The plane isn’t going anywhere, and neither are you until I check you out.” Hina leaped from Eva’s shoulders and landed on Bane’s chest. He jerked and pushed at the cat, who began to lick his face. Her purr was loud enough for Leia to hear over the boat engine. “She’s glad to see you. You’re the only one she treats like that.”
“How did I get so lucky?” Bane flinched away from Hina’s pink tongue. “She’s weird all the way around. I know no other cat that will come out on a boat.”