Distant Echoes

by Colleen Coble

  She scanned it, and her heart fell. “Oh great. Another lab says they’re close to having a breakthrough in dolphin communication.” She tossed the paper aside. “And here I’m stuck with this navy detail when I could be working more with Nani and the others.”

  “You think the paper is right?”

  “There are a lot of groups working on the same thing.” She tried to treat it lightly, but in truth, it looked like all her dreams might come crashing down. She glanced at Mano. “Would you mind running me over to the base to get my truck?”

  “Sure. No problem.” Mano drained his glass. His eyes grew wide, and he threw the glass across the yard.

  “What is it?”

  “A scorpion in the glass.”

  Kaia shuddered. Scorpions were even worse than spiders, if that were possible.

  “Was it still alive?” Bane walked to the glass and scooped it up. He began to grin. “This your big, bad scorpion?” He dug into the glass and came out holding a hideous-looking specimen.

  “Don’t touch it!” Kaia said.

  When her grandfather began to chuckle, she knew they’d all been had. “Tutu kane, is that rubber?” she scolded.

  He laughed, a delighted sound that made him sound sixty years younger.

  Mano flushed, then he began to laugh too. “You’d think I’d learn after all this time.”

  “Life is meant for laughter,” Tutu kane said. “Not for dwelling on gloomy things.”

  “What enjoyment do you get out of making us look like fools?” Bane asked. The amusement on his face softened his question.

  Their grandfather shrugged. “A cheerful heart is good medicine,” he said, quoting Proverbs 17.

  “If that’s the case, you’re never going to die,” Mano quipped.

  They all laughed, and Kaia felt her spirits lifting. Her grandfather had always been able to do that to her. In the dark days after her mother left, he’d kept a cheerful banter going that soon made her forget her abandonment. Or at least she’d tried to.

  Oke smiled at her. “How about I fix us all lunch tomorrow after you get off work and have a rest.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “There is something I want to talk to you about,” her grandfather said. “But it can wait until tomorrow.”

  “What is it?”

  He waved his hand. “No matter. We can discuss it tomorrow. I want all three of you to be here.”

  She frowned. Tutu kane didn’t often call a family meeting. “I guess I have to wait then.”

  “You are always so impatient, lei aloha. It will keep.”

  She wasn’t going to get anything out of him today. He was still smiling inanely over the rubber scorpion.

  She ducked inside and brushed her teeth with a spare brush she kept at her grandfather’s. She checked in the mirror for any spots she’d missed then put her toothbrush away and hobbled outside.

  Mano’s truck was back from the garage, and he brought it around from the back. Shiny black, the big Dodge Ram truck was his pride and joy. She settled onto the plush seat and rolled down the window. The trade winds lifted the hair on the nape of her neck, and she breathed in the scent of plumeria. Her stomach rumbled.

  “I heard that,” Mano said. “Let’s stop and get something to eat. I’ll run through Pacific Pizza and we can share. I’m hungry too.”

  “Perfect.” She rubbed her ankle while she considered how to bring up the subject of Nahele.

  “You’ve got something on your mind. I can see the wheels turning.” Mano pulled onto Highway 50.

  “I was wondering if you’d seen Nahele lately.”

  Mano’s eyebrows winged up, and he swerved across the center line. Mano gave a shamefaced grin. “Sorry. That would be more like something you’d do.”

  “Hey, I’m not that bad a driver.” Was he trying to avoid her question? Her spirits sank.

  He gave her a sidelong glance. “Nahele had me come by yesterday. Why?”

  Rats. She had hoped Mano was completely out of it. “Do you mind telling me what he wanted?”

  “It had to do with business stuff.” He shifted in his seat.

  “This is important, Mano. I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

  “It’s nothing to do with you, Kaia,” he said.

  “He was just outside naval property yesterday. And one of his goons manhandled me last night.”

  Mano’s fingers tightened on the wheel. “Manhandled you?” He stopped at Pacific Pizza and killed the engine. “I think it’s about time you told me what really happened to your ankle.”

  Kaia hadn’t seen him look so grim in a long time. Maybe never. Mano had always been her easy-going brother. The intensity he’d shown over this Pele Hawai´i thing had surprised her.

  She sighed. “I think Nahele is trying to sabotage the missile tests.” Mano rolled his eyes. “Mano, if Pele Hawai´i had anything to do with Laban’s death—”

  Mano shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

  She told him what had happened the night before. His eyes grew flinty when she showed him the bruises on her arm where Kim had grabbed her and dragged her toward the boat.

  “I’ll take care of it, Kaia. You stay out of it. I think you should quit working with the navy on this.”

  “I wish I could. I just want to get back to my research. But my boss has ordered me to do this project. I need to finish it out and get back to Seaworthy Labs. This piecemeal research isn’t getting me the answers I need.”

  “I don’t want you hurt.”

  There was more he wasn’t saying. She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to see the determination in her brother’s face. He was involved in this somehow.

  Eleven

  Jesse was waiting at the boat when he saw the headlights of Kaia’s truck. She’d left a message on his voice mail saying that her brother had taken her to get her vehicle and she would meet him at the boat at ten. It was fifteen after. Nani was waiting for them when he arrived. She splashed around in the waves and flipped water all over his uniform. She seemed to laugh at him when he scolded her. That dolphin was really something. No wonder Kaia was hooked on her research.

  Kaia parked and got out of her truck. Carrying her backpack, she half jogged, half limped toward the boat. “Sorry I’m late.” She hopped on the boat and smiled when she saw his damp clothing. “Looks like Nani was getting rambunctious.”

  “You could say that.” He took her backpack from her and laid it on the deck.

  She felt through her pockets then frowned. “I bet I left my cell phone at home.”

  “I’ve got mine.”

  “I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached.” She clicked her tongue at Nani.

  Jesse watched her. “You look a little tired.”

  She didn’t answer, but he saw her lips tighten. She untied the rope from the dock and tossed it on the deck. “Let’s get out there.”

  She must not want to talk about whatever had shadowed her dark eyes. He guessed it was worry. “You got it.” He slung his legs under the wheel and started the engine while Kaia coaxed Nani into allowing her to attach the underwater camera. Then the boat puttered out to sea, and darkness swallowed up the security lights at the dock. Nani followed.

  “Where we headed today?” she asked.

  “I thought we might hug the shoreline tonight.”

  As Jesse turned the boat northward, Nani sprang out of the water then crashed back, throwing water over them. The dolphin surfaced again, chattering in agitation.

  “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, cutting the engine.

  Kaia looked at the camera monitor but couldn’t detect anything unusual. “I think she sees something. I’m going in.” Kaia started pulling on her wet suit.

  “Not without me.” He grabbed his own suit and thrust his legs into it. She had her fins and mask on before he could get his arms into the neoprene fabric. She shrugged her shoulders into the BC, then he heard a splash as she went overboard.

  Fuming, he fumble
d with his suit before he succeeded in getting it zipped. He grabbed his BC and got the tank on his back.

  Kaia surfaced just off the starboard bow. “I forgot my flashlight,” she said. “It’s in my backpack. Would you throw it to me? Turn it on first.”

  He ought to make her come after it. She was disobeying orders already. Rummaging in the backpack, he found the halogen light. It should have been clipped to her BC. He turned it on and tossed it to her. It landed about a foot from her right hand and floated in the waves until she grabbed it.

  Nani was circling, still agitated. Jesse rubbed anti-fog on the inside of his mask, then rinsed it out and adjusted it on his face. He looked around for Kaia but found only a dim glow from her light under the waves. He took a deep breath and joined her.

  Under water, it was impossible to see more than the area illuminated by the light—about thirty feet in a straight line. Beyond that, it was like staring into space—a blackness so impenetrable it brought an atavistic fear at the gut level. Anything could lie in that inky well: man o’ war colonies, sharks, giant squid. Jesse always required a moment to adjust to the differences of nighttime diving.

  His fear safely stowed away, he swam after Kaia. He joined her where she floated with Nani. She was peering at a sea cave, aiming her light toward it. His light was bigger and more powerful, so he did the same.

  The cave’s shadows fled and revealed the cause of Nani’s agitation. A diver was caught. Her airlines had been snagged by a rock-fall. She was gesturing wildly and trying to tug herself free. A flashlight lay at her feet, but the lens was shattered and dark.

  Jesse and Kaia shot forward. Kaia grabbed her octopus regulator and offered it to the young woman. She shook her head and pointed to the bubbles still escaping from her tank. She had enough air.

  Jesse pulled out his knife and pried on the rocks that held the woman’s lines. He could feel the blood pounding in his ears as he worked. A million things could go wrong before he got her free.

  Nani hovered over them all, seemingly at peace now that Kaia and Jesse were helping the diver. The lava rock was soft and porous, crumbling under his sharp knife, though it still took five minutes to release her hoses. As soon as the rock released her, they all headed to the surface as fast as they dared. Jesse rose on relief alone. The moon was bright as their heads broke the surface.

  The woman spit out her regulator and pulled her mask down around her neck. “I thought I was a goner!”

  Jesse glanced around to make sure Kaia’s head was above the waves. She was floating with her hand on Nani’s dorsal fin. He dropped his mask and took out his regulator. “What were you doing diving alone? It’s bad enough to do it in the daytime, but never at night. You’re lucky Nani found you.” Fear made him shout.

  “You’re right,” the woman said gravely. She swam toward the boat and climbed the ladder.

  Kaia and Jesse followed her. Jesse insisted Kaia go up the ladder first, then he followed. He was eager to get a look at the reckless young woman and find out what she was doing out here. The fact that she was just barely outside navy waters was suspect.

  He grabbed a towel and rubbed the salt out of his eyes then turned to stare at her. Under the boat’s lights and with her mask down, she was older than Jesse had thought. Probably thirty-five, with straight dark hair and hazel eyes.

  “Jenny Saito! What were you thinking?” Kaia scolded. “You know better than to do something like this.”

  “You know each other?” he asked. Kaia looked mad enough to shake the other woman.

  Jenny nodded. “I’m Kaia’s research assistant.” She took the towel he handed her and began to dry off.

  “Then you’re a professional. You know how insane it was to go out there alone,” he said.

  Jenny shrugged. “I was bored tonight and thought I’d do a little shore diving. I’ve done it before. I saw Liko and Mahina playing off the point and thought I’d join them. Liko took my light and dropped it in the sea cave. I went to retrieve it, and you saw the results.”

  Kaia shuddered. “Don’t ever do that again, Jenny. That was stupid.”

  Jenny dropped her gaze, but not before Jesse saw the flare of rebellion in her eyes. He began to wonder if the woman was telling them the whole story. A little investigation into her background might be in order.

  When she left Jesse at the dock, Kaia was still charged from the night’s excitement. Working at the lab for an hour or two before heading home to get some rest wouldn’t kill her. She changed into the clean shorts and top she’d brought in her backpack then took DALE down to the lagoon. The rising sun made her blink, but it kept her awake.

  She worked with Nani for an hour; then her lids began to grow heavy, and she knew she had to get some rest. On her way to the truck, she heard the phone ringing in the office over the loudspeaker. They had it set up that way so no one felt they had to stay inside when they could be working with the dolphins. No one was here but her. Maybe it was Jenny. Kaia hoped her coworker didn’t have any ill effects from the night’s escapade.

  She entered the office and grabbed the phone. “Seaworthy Labs.”

  An unfamiliar man’s voice came over the line. “I was about to hang up.”

  The guy sounded irritated, and Kaia’s back stiffened. “We’re actually closed,” she informed him. “It’s Saturday.”

  “Is Mr. Latchet around?”

  “No, like I said, the lab is closed.”

  “You can take a message. Tell him Aloha Sea Park called, and I need to reschedule my tour of the facility. I don’t want to cancel it though. I’m very interested in partnering with Mr. Latchet in building a sea park.”

  Kaia promised to relay the message and hung up. Anger drove away her exhaustion, and she considered heading straight for the Latchet house to plead with Curtis to stop all plans to capture her dolphins. But she knew she’d get nowhere when she was this mad. She glanced at her watch. She could go see Mano. Worry about what he was getting into with Pele Hawai´i wouldn’t leave her alone. She still hadn’t decided whether to confide her fears to Bane and ask him to try to extricate their brother from his involvement.

  She drove out to her brother’s house. A block one-story house, it was basic and plain, but Mano had spent a lot of time and money on the yard, and flowers bloomed along the lava-chip path to the door. As she approached, she saw Mano talking with another man. The man wore a navy uniform, and she saw the captain’s bars on his shirt. Mano stood at attention, but even from here she could see the tension in his jaw matched the rigidity in his back. His hands clenched and unclenched as he stared the other officer in the face.

  Maybe she should stay in her truck. She didn’t want to interrupt something important. The officer shook his finger in Mano’s face, and it was all Kaia could do to stay in her vehicle and not fly to her brother’s defense. Mano wouldn’t thank her for humiliating him by interfering. She’d tried that once when he was in high school. He’d been in a schoolyard fight, and she’d launched herself onto the pad to pummel the back of a boy who had pinned him.

  It had been months before Mano deigned to look at her or speak. Guys were weird about girls defending them. Kaia rolled her window down, but the wind was blowing the wrong direction for her to be able to hear. It rustled the leaves in the monkeypod tree along the driveway. She was going to have to wait it out.

  Her nerves were already strung as tightly as vines through the jungle. She wondered if Mano’s obsession with Pele Hawai´i had gotten back to the navy. They wouldn’t be happy about one of their own putting himself in a potentially traitorous position.

  Chewing on her thumbnail, she wondered what she could do to prove to Mano that his so-called friends were behind the problems at the base. Kaia was sure Nahele and his cohorts had been planning something the night she ran into them at the lagoon. If only she had some kind of proof. Mano was too firmly entrenched in their camp to listen.

  Leaning her head back against the headrest, she closed her eyes. Her anger toward
Curtis had waned, and the night’s hard work was beginning to take its toll. The buzz of insects outside and the rustle of the wind in the leaves soothed her, and she felt her muscles relax. She sank down into the welcome arms of sleep.

  Kaia awoke and sat up. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly eleven. She’d been sleeping here for an hour and a half. She heard the roosters crowing, something that occurred any time of the day. Groaning as her muscles complained of their cramped position in the truck, she got out and headed to the house.

  “Mano?” She opened the screen door and went inside, but her brother wasn’t in the small three-room house. He had a hobby shop in the shed out back. Maybe he was there. She went through the kitchen and out the back door. The shed’s door stood open, and she could hear the murmur of voices as she approached.

  She recognized the deep tenor of her brother’s voice. The shop door opened outward, and she paused behind it where she couldn’t be seen. She shouldn’t be eavesdropping on Mano, but she had to know what was going on.

  Peeking through the crack by the hinges, she could see the two men with her brother. One was a big Hawaiian. When he turned slightly, she could see a birthmark on the side of his nose. She thought she might have seen him at the Pele meeting she’d attended.

  Nudging nearer the crack, she listened.

  Mano was raising his voice. “I don’t know how you can question my loyalty. The navy just told me I have to quit the organization. I told them no. Because my boss likes me, he’s giving me the option to resign my commission or I’ll be court-martialed.”

  The big man spoke. “We heard. But you’ve got to prove it to us one more time. The navy has taken our land long enough. They’re going to find out they have no right to be here.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Mano’s voice was low and intense.

  Kaia tensed. Surely her brother wouldn’t strike at the military. He’d been proud of his military service until Pele Hawai´i had twisted his values.

  The other man laughed, but it wasn’t a nice sound. “I was thinking a nice, big bomb. Something that will put us on the front page of every paper.”