“I don’t know.” Kaia rubbed her head. “What do we do?”
He whirled the steering wheel and turned the boat toward shore. “The first thing I want to do is talk to Duncan. His father was part of the design team who came up with this new system. Duncan would know if it’s even possible for someone to tamper with it like that. His house is near here.”
The boat sped toward the shore. Jesse docked it at Duncan’s pier and tied the boat to the piling. “This shouldn’t take long. You want to wait here or come with me?”
“I’ll wait here.” Kaia wanted to try calling Nani again.
Jesse nodded then headed toward the steps that led from the pier up the hill to the house on top of the cliff. “He’s not going to like me waking him at this hour.”
Kaia watched him disappear at the top of the hill then called Nani on DALE again. Still no sign of her dolphin. She stepped from the boat to the dock. Her muscles were stiff and sore. A walk might help. She kept her reef shoes on and stepped into the soft sand. She walked toward a small lagoon where she often swam with Nani.
A low stone wall separated her from the lagoon’s beach. She stepped over it then pushed through a thicket. Maybe Nani had come here. It was a favorite spot. She half expected to see her dolphin floating dead or injured in the water. The mental image dogged her. She couldn’t imagine why Nani would refuse to answer . . . unless the dolphin couldn’t.
In the middle of the thicket, Kaia came up short at the sound of men’s voices. At the edge of the lagoon, she saw two men talking. Duncan Latchet and someone she did not recognize. She started forward to tell Duncan their problem.
Duncan clapped his hand to the man’s shoulder. “We’re all set. In this game, all we need are two strikes, and they’re out. And it looks like we’ll be in.”
Kaia paused and ducked down behind a shrub. Two strikes. What kind of strike? The sight of the missile veering off course crossed her mind. If this morning’s missile test went awry . . . She told herself not to be ridiculous. Duncan’s father had helped develop this missile system. He would have no reason to want to see it fail.
“Meet me at the satellite. We should have a bird’s-eye view of the fireworks.” Duncan’s voice was filled with excitement.
He was talking about the missile test. He had to be. Kaia backed away as quickly as she could. She and Jesse had to get out of here before Duncan saw them. She escaped the thicket and ran along the sand back to the boat. She saw Jesse standing on the dock.
She raced to the end. Grabbing Jesse’s arm, she pushed him toward the boat. “Go, go, let’s get out of here.”
“What—” he began.
“I’ll explain later. Just get us out of here.”
Jesse jumped to the deck of the boat and helped her aboard. “As quietly as possible,” she whispered.
He nodded and started the engine. Though it purred quietly, Kaia hoped the white noise of the surf would muffle their departure as well as it had their arrival.
At a safe distance out, Jesse accelerated, and the boat sped out to sea. Then he cut the engine and turned to stare at her. “What was that all about?”
“I saw Duncan talking to another guy. He said something about two strikes. I couldn’t hear everything he said, but I think he means to sabotage this morning’s test.” Her voice rose as fear began to vibrate through her.
A smile touched Jesse’s mouth. “Not Duncan, Kaia. He wouldn’t do something like that.”
“What else could he be talking about?” Kaia knew he didn’t want to believe it, and neither did she. She’d always liked Duncan. “We should call the police.”
“I can’t go charging him with something like that without proof,” Jesse said. “And there’s no time for them to investigate.” He frowned. “His office is over by the base. Let’s go see if we can find anything there.”
“How do we get in?”
“I’ll think of something when we get there,” he said.
Kaia sat in the bow of the boat as he directed the boat toward Barking Sands Naval Base. Events were spiraling out of control, and she felt as helpless as the time she took the dingy out to sea without a compass.
The Latchet building bordered the naval base. Jesse cut the motor at the nearest civilian dock, grabbed a flashlight, and helped Kaia ashore. They jogged toward the buildings.
“Is there a guard?” Kaia whispered.
Jesse nodded. “I think so. They deal with some top-secret stuff.”
Security lights illuminated the parking lot, and their hum seemed loud when Kaia and Jesse were trying to be quiet. A row of windows looked out to sea, but only a few dim lights shone in the halls.
“Do you see the guard?” Kaia stopped and peered in.
“Yeah, he’s at the desk.” He pointed, and she saw a man slumped back in a chair with his eyes closed.