“Why are you just now telling me this? I need to have a talk with baby brother.” He sounded grim. “And he hasn’t said a word about being in trouble with the navy.”
“We can’t tip him off that Pele Hawai′i is under suspicion. He might tell them.”
“I knew that group was trouble,” Bane muttered. “No good ever comes from that kind of anger.”
“There’s a guy I saw at the meeting and at the beach. First or last name is Kim. Big Hawaiian with a birthmark on his nose. Ring any bells?”
Bane frowned as he thought about it then shook his head. “I can’t say it does. What’s he done?”
She wasn’t about to tell him about the guy manhandling her. “Nothing that we can prove. But he was a diving buddy to the man who washed ashore on the base, Jonah Kapolei. We’d like to talk to him.”
“And you saw this guy at the meeting? So Kapolei was a member of Pele Hawai′i too?”
“He was the treasurer.”
“Did you ask Mano about him?”
Kaia nodded. “He wouldn’t tell me much.”
“Then how are we going to track this guy down?”
“There’s a meeting of Pele Hawai′i tomorrow night. I’m hoping you’ll go.”
Bane grimaced. “It would tax my soul to sit there and listen to them spout their treason.” He sighed. “I don’t have much choice though. What if Mano sees me?”
“Tell him you’re curious about the group. It’s the truth.”
“Yes, I could do that. Maybe I’ll just ask to go with him. You went once. He probably wouldn’t think much about it other than how he could use the opportunity to convert me.” He sighed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into our brother lately.”
Bane’s eyes had turned brooding, but for some reason Kaia didn’t think it had anything to do with Mano. “Anything wrong, Bane?”
“Nope.” Bane shaded his eyes with his hand. “Jesse’s here.” He grinned when Kaia turned to look. “I see you’re very interested in the handsome navy man.”
“We’re working together,” she reminded him. The burning in her cheeks told her she wasn’t fooling her brother.
“`e, `ê,`ê,” her brother said, indicating he heard her but didn’t believe it.
She ignored him and turned to smile at Jesse and Heidi. “Aloha.” She held out her hand to help them aboard.
Jesse took it and stepped aboard. “Mahalo,” he said.
Heidi looked around with a bewildered expression on her face. Kaia realized Jesse hadn’t told his niece much about what was happening. “Let me show you to our quarters.” She took Heidi’s hand and led her to the ladder into the galley. They stepped down into the boat’s hold, and Kaia had the little girl stash her belongings in the cabinet in the master quarters.
“Can I go swimming with Nani?”
“Not right now. I need to work with her for a little while. She gets too excited when you’re in the water with her to pay attention to me.” Kaia rubbed Heidi’s soft blond curls. “Bane brought some video games. You want to play with the GameBoy?”
“Okay! Where is it?”
“I’ll get it.” Kaia went on deck and grabbed the backpack with Bane’s game then went back below. They pulled it out and she got Heidi started on the game. “It’s best to use it below deck just in case a big wave would happen along.”
Heidi just grunted in answer as she became engrossed in the game. Kaia smiled and went topside. She grabbed her laptop and went to the railing. She attached it to the hydrophone and dropped DALE over the side into the water. She showed Jesse how to use the computer program that translated the words into clicks and whistles that emanated from the hydrophone.
She shucked down to her modest one-piece swimsuit and put on her snorkel and fins. Jumping overboard, she kicked alongside Nani. The hydrophone was connected to an underwater computer screen that showed four figures. The clicks and whistles coming from the device meant “ball.” Nani poised next to the screen then punched the picture of the ball with her nostrum. A little figure came onto the screen and began to dance. Nani swished her tail then jumped out of the water with obvious delight.
Kaia smiled at the dolphin’s joy in choosing the right figure, but though Nani could recognize the picture and replicate the noises for the picture of a ball, she had yet to recognize a real ball and call it by its name. Kaia felt like Anne Sullivan trying to help Helen Keller make sense of language. If she could make the connection with just one thing, the rest would follow, but that missing link still eluded them.
Kaia surfaced and waved for Bane to throw her a beach ball. “Keep having the hydrophone repeat the word for ball,” she shouted to Jesse.