She steered the boat toward her home dock of Echo Lagoon. It was dark by the time she and Heidi arrived, and she had to flip on her headlamps. A bonfire lit the beach outside her grandfather’s house, and she could hear the thump of drums and smell the aroma of roasting pig. The familiarity eased her tension. Safe harbor. Nothing could harm them here, not with her brothers about.
Heidi bounced on the seat. “I forgot about the lu’au! Can we still go?”
“If you promise to let me teach you to hula.”
“It’s too girly.”
Heidi was all tomboy. Kaia smiled. “You’ll be hooked before the night is out.”
He watched the fish in his tank. Everything he’d ever wanted was close enough to smell and taste. His imminent success should taste like the sweetest pineapple his father had ever grown, but instead it was like mashed taro—much more bland than he’d imagined. Maybe because he had no one to share the joy with. At least that’s what he told himself. Believing that was better than backing out of what he had to do.
He had no choice but to make the tally of lost lives huge. The failure had to be big—big enough to change the course of the trials. He glanced at the wall to the left. Awards his father had won surrounded a large portrait of his father. He stood and walked to the picture and stood staring into his father’s smiling eyes. “I’m doing this for you,” he said. “You’re going to be so proud of me.”
He turned as his assistant came into the room. “What’s the status? It’s almost time.”
His assistant didn’t meet his gaze. “Remember the dolphin that arrived when the boat exploded? Lieutenant Commander Matthews has hired the dolphin and her trainer to patrol the waters with a camera.”
“So arm our divers with spearguns.” He shrugged. “One dolphin shouldn’t be hard to dispose of.” Nor would Jesse, for that matter. He examined the thought for a moment. Would there be a way to become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams and have the revenge he desired?
Five
Kaia had left with Heidi by the time Jesse reached the site. He peered over the side of the patrol boat into the gloom of twilight. The scent of the sea, fresh and invigorating, filled his lungs. Lights twinkled along the shore and in the canopy of stars above his head. Waves ran to the beach and lapped against the sand in a sound that soothed him. He needed soothing after the diver incident.
He had not anticipated an attack in the daylight. Could it be one of the “friendly” nations engaging in a bit of espionage, or was it the work of a terrorist group or some other rival nation? He was going to have to find out.
So far there was no evidence to indicate the disastrous missile test had been anything but a computer glitch—a glitch Lawton said he’d fixed. Jesse wasn’t sure. It seemed too coincidental that there’d been a death, a test failure, and a break-in pertaining to the missile. His instincts said differently, but the navy didn’t listen to intuition. If he recommended delaying the test, Lawton would be howling for proof. And Jesse didn’t have a shred to offer.
He didn’t care that much about the missile—the government was always working on something new—but the thought of civilians at risk bothered him. With sixty thousand residents and over a million visitors a year, there was a lot to worry about.
It was his fault his niece had been out there. Jillian would kill him when she heard about it. He’d been a poor substitute parent these past days. He needed to get his act together. Now. He hadn’t even gotten hold of Kaia’s old nanny. That would have to be the first thing on his list tonight. Donna was a little overeager in her willingness to help, but he needed someone who did this for a living.
“See anything?” he shouted to Ensign Masters.
His aide shook his head. “I’ve got divers ready to go down. The dolphin’s camera only showed the diver’s backside.” He made a cutting motion across his throat to signal the sailor at the helm to stop the engine. The boat slowed, waves lapping against the hull. The gloom made it almost impossible to see more than a few feet down, in spite of the rising moon.
“Send down the divers,” he told Masters.
Masters nodded and gave the order. Three divers dressed in wet suits fell backward into the inky water. The salty spray hit Jesse in the face, but he barely noticed. He stared into the clear water, but the shadowy forms of the divers quickly disappeared from view. One diver carried a camera mounted on his suit, and Jesse watched the monitor. The halogen floodlight illuminated the blackness about thirty feet in front of the divers. Fish darted away from them as they swam. A dolphin moved in to bump against the lead diver’s hand.
One diver moved to the seabed and picked up something. Jesse couldn’t tell what he’d found, but it obviously wasn’t a body. It seemed hours before one of the divers surfaced, but glancing at his watch, he realized it had been only half an hour.
“No divers down here, sir,” the SEAL said, saying what Jesse already knew. “Nothing but the dolphin.”
“Nani?” He was surprised the man recognized Nani.