by S. L. Menear
“I live to serve you.” I raised my glass in salutation.
“In my dreams.” Lance raised his bottle of Kona Longboard lager. “Cheers!”
Soon the feast was served, and bronze-skinned girls in grass skirts rocked their hips in perfect timing to the drums and music. Everyone was in a festive mood as the Champagne and rum punch flowed.
After the meal, the dancers dragged Jack, Rod, and Lance onstage and fastened grass skirts over their jeans. The hula dancers must’ve thought Lance was a celebrity because of his movie-star good looks. As a laid-back Texan, he always went with the flow.
I deluded myself into thinking the evening might turn out okay after all. Then a Polynesian fire dancer joined the hula girls and drunken actors on the stage. His performance was going smoothly until he twirled his double-ended torches and tossed them into the air.
Rod pushed him aside and caught one. When he tried twirling it, he lit Jack’s grass skirt on fire.
“Fire!” Rod yelled. He dropped the torch and ran off stage.
Lance shoved Jack into the sand between the stage and the luau table and smothered his skirt with sand. The flight attendants helped, and the fire was out in seconds.
Rod ducked behind Carlene and me.
Jack glared at Rod. “Clumsy imbecile! Why can’t you be more like your character in our action movies?” He looked like he wanted to punch Rod until the flight attendants started fussing over him and smothering him with kisses.
I grabbed a waiter. “Tell the limo drivers to pick us up in five minutes.”
Soon our group was headed back to the hotel. When we exited the limos, I stepped behind an enormous urn and waited for everyone to disperse.
Checking my escape path, I spotted the man from the luau who looked like one of my attackers in Florida. He glanced around the lobby and entered the bar.
I took an elevator up to my room, bolted the door, and congratulated myself on avoiding the kidnappers from Florida and also uncomfortable situations with the actors.
It could be a long two weeks.
That night, I dreamed about three women standing back-to-back atop a giant black pyramid. One of them looked like me. Later, I dreamed men armed with MP5 submachine guns chased me through a jungle.
When I awoke, I decided on an activity that would avoid unpleasant situations from my dreams.
Surfing at crowded Waikiki Beach seemed like a safe choice.
Four
Dundee, Scotland
The soft whirl of an electric fan blended with clicks and whirrs from a bank of computers and sound-recording devices. A stocky middle-aged man wearing wire-rimmed glasses pulled off his headset, pushed back his chair, and stretched in the dimly lighted room.
His lone coworker sat hunched over a keyboard, too focused to notice him, so he tapped him on the shoulder.
“Looks like that’s all for now. I’m going outside for a smoke. Want a coffee?” he asked in a Scottish accent as he pocketed his glasses.
A young sandy-haired man with bad skin and muscles bulging against his T-shirt swiveled his chair toward the older man. “I’d rather have an energy drink.” He gave him a handful of change from his pocket. “Thanks.”
The older man walked down a long hallway and through a heavy metal door into the cold air. He pulled out a mobile phone and hit a preset number.
“Where is she?” an impatient sounding Lord Edgar Sweetwater asked.
“Hawaii. Her charter flight leaves for Hong Kong at ten this evening Hawaiian time. After a brief stay, she’ll go to Delhi and Aqaba, and then spend three days in Dubai for the film festival. Her return trip stops in Paris where she plans to meet her boyfriend.” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
“Excellent. She won’t expect anything to happen during her trip around the world. We’ve been careful to let her see only the team in Palm Beach. They ruined her peace of mind. Soon, she’ll never feel safe again.”
The spy closed his phone and lit a cigarette. The moist Dundee air felt frigid on his face. He exhaled and watched the smoke swirl toward the nearby harbor and military base. How much longer could he operate under the noses of the British Special Forces without being discovered?
Lord Sweetwater was a hard man who rewarded success but dealt harshly with failure. He wanted to conclude the mission while it was still in the win column.
He squashed his cigarette and carried it into the lavatory to be flushed down the toilet. Back in the hallway, he rubbed the coins with his handkerchief, dropped them into the soda machine, and punched the button for the energy drink with his elbow.
After handing the cold can wrapped in his handkerchief to his young coworker, he opened an alcohol wet-wipe packet and wiped down everything he had touched that day.
On his way out after donning gloves and wiping the doorknobs, he flushed the tiny paper packet. He repeated the same ritual every day before he left work.
His vigilance had kept him out of jail and alive. He intended to remain a survivor in this dangerous occupation, unlike his coworker who was not old enough to realize the genuine possibility of his imminent demise. Inexperience and overconfidence might seal his fate.
Honolulu
I headed for the surfboard rental shack on Waikiki Beach. It was the usual picture-perfect day in Hawaii, eighty degrees and sunny with long glassy waves rolling in like a machine had made them. I chose an eight-foot surfboard with enough flotation for easy paddling and headed out past the breakers.
A minute after arriving outside the break, I caught a six-foot wave, cut a hard right, and crouched down as the crystal-clear water curled over me and cradled me near the open end of the tube. I looked down through the wave to the coral-covered bottom fifteen feet below.
A warm salty mist caressed my face as the water roared around me. The wave closed out on the aft end of my board and fired me out the tube like a cannon ball. Supercharged from the rush, I executed a switchback maneuver, followed by a right turn, and rode the wave until I kicked out twenty yards from shore.
I paddled out past the break again and waited for my next ride. Every wave glistened like a tube of turquoise glass. They rolled past in an endless parade of perfection.
I caught another six-footer. Racing across a rolling liquid powerhouse as clear as air filled me with euphoria. I tucked inside the curl and waited for the slingshot effect when the wave closed behind me.
After shooting out and whipping my board around in a sharp left turn, I cranked it back right and ripped up and down the face of the wave as it whisked me toward shore.
“Ahoy, surfer girl! Ride that board over here.” From the beach, Lance waved me in.
I turned, rode toward him, hopped off in the shallows, and lugged the board onto the beach.
“Nice bikini. You look good in Hawaiian-print Band-Aids.” Lance gave me a wolfish grin.
“For your sake, I hope you didn’t call me in just to admire my bikini.” I thrust my hands onto my hips.
“I already admired your bikini with my mini binoculars. I want you to go snorkeling with me in a secret cove. I rented a scooter and gear for two, bought a disposable underwater camera, and packed a delicious picnic lunch. The concierge told me the fish and coral there are spectacular, and it’s unspoiled by tourists.”
“Sounds nice. Too bad we can’t scuba dive. Our flight leaves too soon. We’d get the bends.” I squinted in the sunshine.
Lance pointed at his scooter. “How about it, surfer girl?”
“Okay. Hand in my surfboard while I rinse off the salt and comb out the tangles in my hair. Good thing we only had one drink last night. I bet the celebs are dealing with major hangovers.”
“They probably won’t wake up until early evening. That gives us a day off from babysitting duty. Let’s carpe the diem.”
“Roger that.” I handed him my surfboard and headed for the beachside showers.
Five minutes later, I was toweled dry and wearing a short beach dress over my wet bathing suit. My hair was slick
ed back into a long ponytail.
“A mini-dress and flip-flops aren’t exactly sensible attire for riding a scooter, so please be careful,” I said.
“Aye, aye, Captain, no wrecking allowed. Now climb aboard and hug me tight.” Lance patted the seat behind him.
We putted along the road to Diamond Head on the Vespa.
I leaned in to Lance. “I hope this wussy scooter can make it up those steep hills.”
“We won’t break any speed records, but we’ll get there. The secret cove is a few miles past Hanauma Bay.”
I glanced around. No men with MP5s. Simply wonderful.
An hour later, we dipped into the sparkling waters of a secluded little cove. The sun penetrated the clear-as-air water and illuminated the multi-colored coral reef. A school of brilliant blue and gold fish darted past us and circled back to check us out.
Lance grabbed my hand and pointed down to the left. A neon-green eight-foot moray eel meandered between coral formations ten feet below us.
I froze.
The eel shot forward and swallowed his unlucky prey. A nearby blowfish inflated like a prickly balloon. Frightened fish scattered every which way in a kaleidoscope of color.
Something shiny reflecting the sunlight caught my eye. I broke the surface and turned to Lance. “There’s something I’d like to check out down there, but I don’t want to tangle with the green monster. Look big and scary so the giant eel stays away from me.”
“Don’t worry, Sam. Moray eels only attack when cornered. The big fella won’t hurt you.”
“Yeah, well, my fear of snakes goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. That eel looks like a big-ass snake. I learned in my college marine biology class that morays don’t grow longer than four feet, so excuse me if I don’t believe this one won’t attack in open water.”
Lance grinned. “Alrighty then, I’ll convince the critter I’m bigger and badder, even though he’s got almost two feet on me.” Lance inhaled and dove straight down waving his arms.
I held my breath and dove to investigate what looked like a gold coin inside a hole in the coral.
Lance waited for me at the surface. “What did you find?”
“I’m not sure. Could be treasure.”
“I already found my treasure.” He pulled me close and kissed the nape of my neck.
A jolt of energy tingled down my spine. Damn my unfaithful hormones. “Whoa, cowboy, this filly is taken.”
“The Great Kahuna made Hawaiian waters neutral territory for people in relationships. Think of this as a no-harm/no-foul zone where you’re free to enjoy life without consequences.”
Although Lance was insanely hot, I wasn’t about to do anything that would ruin my relationship with Ross.
“Geez, that was the most creative BS I’ve ever heard. How do you think up this stuff?” I splashed him.
“I’m a man of many talents. You should let me give you a private demonstration.”
“Let’s start with your underwater photography skills. I’ll dive down and point at the gold. The flash should keep the eel away.” I sucked in a deep breath and swam down fifteen feet to a coral wall.
I turned and pointed at the hole with the treasure.
Lance snapped several pictures. When he signaled thumbs up, we rose to the surface. He treaded water beside me. My body had its own built-in Mae West life preserver, so floating was effortless for me.
“Did you see something gold and shiny in that hole? Let’s try to get it out.” I dove back down to the reef.
Lance followed me and used a stick to poke around the gold. A tiny piece of coral broke off and revealed part of the face of a gold Rolex watch with a gold band.
I couldn’t hide my excitement when we surfaced. “We found a men’s Rolex!”
“Looks like it. No telling how long it’s been there. Even if it doesn’t work, the gold’s worth a lot. Too bad my hand’s too big to get it.” He studied the spot from the surface through his mask.
I grabbed a floating four-foot branch and handed it to Lance.
“We can use this to scare away anything hiding around there. I don’t want an eel biting my hand when I reach in to pull out the watch.”
“You’re planning to reach inside the hole?” His eyebrows lifted.
“Yeah, but not until I know it’s safe.”
He wielded the branch like a sword. “Okay, wait until I clear the area.”
I gave Lance a head-start before diving behind him.
He poked the stick in the hole, and a lone clown fish darted out. He signaled OK.
I reached inside and gripped the watch. Just when I thought I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, it pulled free.
The big moray streaked past me as I kicked for the surface behind Lance.
After a few gasping breaths, I pulled the mask atop my head to inspect my prize.
“Rolex Submariner!” I waved it in front of Lance.
“Hot damn, woman! Every trip with you is an adventure. I would have been content with a little snorkeling, a nice picnic in this secluded cove, and maybe an afternoon delight to complete a perfect day. Then you find a freakin’ gold Rolex!”
“Correction, we found the freakin’ gold Rolex. Things have definitely improved since our explosive adventure in June and my Highlands vacation in August.”
I handed it to him. “Take it. I know you love scuba diving as much as I do.”
“I’ll give this watch a good home. It’s far better than my Seiko.” He secured it on his wrist. It fit perfectly and displayed the correct time.
He shoved the Seiko dive watch into his zippered pocket. “Wow, thanks, Sam.” He hugged me and planted another kiss on my neck.
“There you go again, trying to get me in trouble with Ross.” I laughed and splashed him. “Let’s go back to the beach and have lunch.”
We swam to shore, toweled off, and relaxed on a beach blanket. While Lance studied the Rolex, I studied him—his broad shoulders, wash-board abs, and muscled physique. No harm in looking, right?
He turned his liquid-green eyes on me. “I’ll have a local jeweler verify it’s genuine.”
He opened the picnic basket.
“Hungry?” He offered a sandwich. “Chicken teriyaki.”
“I love the teriyaki sauce in Hawaii, which is good because they put it on everything. Thanks.” I took a bite and savored the sweet tangy flavor.
We dined in silence. I stared out at the cove. Are more treasures hidden there?
“Earth to Sam, come in, please.” Lance pressed a cold bottle of water against my left arm.
“Sorry, I was daydreaming about whether or not there are more goodies out there.” I took a sip from the water bottle. “I guess no one found the watch because this isn’t a well-known dive spot.”
“Or you’re incredibly lucky when you’re not busy being a danger magnet. It’s God’s way of compensating you for your harrowing adventures.” Lance faced me stretched out on his right side with one hand propping up his head.
“Or maybe moray eels are like dragons and collect shiny stuff. He’ll be angry we stole his stash.” I leaned back on my elbows and glanced at Lance.
Texans and Scotsmen rang my bell big time. Both had sexy accents and tended to be confident manly men, like Lance. Is he about to make another move?
I froze when I heard car doors slamming. Had the kidnappers tracked me somehow? Loud rap music made me think otherwise. Then I spotted a group of teenagers setting up folding chairs and coolers forty yards to my left.
“Damn the luck.” Lance looked crestfallen. “Have I mentioned how much I hate teenagers?” He took a long draw from a cola can.
I pulled on my beach dress and turned to glance at the teens. Three girls had stripped naked and were giggling as they splashed each other in the shallow water. They motioned for the boys to join them.
They chugged their beer before yanking off their swim trunks.
Lance glared at the naked youths. “This is so unfair. Why is God
mocking me?”
That’s when I noticed a bush was obscuring a sign with bold letters spelling NUDE BEACH.
“Well, aren’t you the sneaky one! This is a nude beach, and you knew it. There’s no way the concierge wouldn’t have mentioned that. This wasn’t about snorkeling and a picnic. You tricked me!” I snatched up the basket and stomped off to the scooter.
Lance strolled up a few minutes later, avoiding eye contact, and secured the blanket, masks and fins, and basket on the scooter.
He sighed and straddled the Vespa. “Climb aboard. We’ll talk about this later.”
I wanted Lance to believe I was steamed so he wouldn’t try anything back at the hotel. I was determined not to cheat on Ross, and I didn’t want to be forced into a no-win situation where turning down Lance would create cockpit tension for the next two weeks.
We had too much time to kill. Our flight wouldn’t depart until late in the evening, and it was only two in the afternoon. I had to be strong.
No more alone time with Lance.
The drive back to Honolulu led us over some steep terrain. As we crested a high point, a black Hummer ran us off the road. Lance managed to stop short of a cliff where water rushed from a culvert beneath the road and carved a narrow path through the thick foliage.
I was about to tell them off when I noticed MP5s slung over their shoulders as three men exited the vehicle. They were the same gunmen from the Florida attack, minus the murdered one.
Lance must have seen their weapons. He scooped me up and leaped into the white water. We vanished into the depths of the jungle before the gunmen reached the scooter.
Lance held me on his lap in an effort to protect me from whatever rocks we might encounter in the shallow water during our rapid descent down nature’s waterslide. The cool water splashed our faces.
I squinted against the spray as we sped downward. It felt like we covered a long distance in seconds as my heart pounded against my chest. I decided this might be a good time to test the emergency button on the dive watch DARPA had given me. Our thrill ride ended with a ten-foot drop into a small secluded pond.