“It’s an option,” Kate said, “but it’s going to have to be their choice, because there’s a good possibility that when Horace and Jasper run out of patience, no one is going to be safe on this beach.”
“Point taken,” Jake said.
Jake marched back to the beach, and Kate led her group back into the rainforest. After a quarter mile she found a spot that felt secure, and everyone dropped their packs.
“Don’t wander too far away,” Kate said. “If you hear me whistle, hide as best you can and stay there until I give an all clear.”
Hamilton and the Kahuna went to the stream to refill their water bottles. Nick and Kate sat on the forest floor with their backs against a moss-covered tree trunk.
“I’d kill for a bacon cheeseburger,” Kate said.
“I’d kill for another shot at the waterfall scene,” Nick said. “We have some time before Jake shows up. There’s a private little pond up ahead.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
“We’re babysitting those two,” she said, pointing toward the two men at the stream. “Plus, there’s a small army of mercenaries after us.”
“So if there wasn’t an army of killers after us, it would be game on?”
“Only if it included a bacon cheeseburger.”
“A bacon cheeseburger can’t compare to what I have to offer,” Nick said.
Kate closed her eyes. “I’m too tired and hungry to process that. You need to come up with a plan to get us out of this mess. Something that doesn’t involve Cosmo and Vicky falling off the trail and plunging to their deaths in the middle of the night.”
“And?”
“And something that doesn’t involve getting me naked.”
“I’ll try,” Nick said, “but fair warning. All my best plans involve you getting naked.”
* * *
—
At 11 P.M., Kate heard Jake calling for her near the Valley Trail junction. She made her way out of the dark jungle to the trailhead with Nick, Hamilton, and the Kahuna. Jake was waiting for her there with Bob. “Where are Vicky and Cosmo?”
“They’ll be here in a couple minutes. Horace and Jasper are all over the campground. We split up, so we wouldn’t draw more attention to ourselves.”
“What about Bob?”
Jake smiled. “Before Bob moved to Kalalau and became a wizard, he was a United States Marine. Turns out he’s collected a couple souvenirs that might come in handy right about now.”
Bob reached under his robe and pulled out a Heckler and Koch M320 military-grade grenade launcher with a night vision scope. “I got it in the First Great Wizarding War. I also got a crate of old plantation-era dynamite, but I’m saving it for a special occasion.”
Kate took the M320 from Bob and looked it over. “It’s a bit of an overkill, don’t you think?”
“Fortunately, that happens to be my favorite kind of killing,” Jake said, holding up a seventeen-inch-long, forty-millimeter-in-diameter gray torpedo with two sets of fins.
“That doesn’t look like a grenade,” Nick said.
“It’s a Pike mini-missile. Powered by a rocket motor. Laser guidance system accurate to within five yards. Range of more than a mile. Designed by Raytheon to be used with the M320. Unfortunately, Bob only has this one, so we’ll have to make it count.”
Kate shook her head. “You promised not to shoot anybody.”
“And I’m not going to have to, since there won’t be anything left to shoot after this baby blows them into a million pieces.” Jake held up his hand. “I know, I know. You don’t have to say it. How about if we only use it in an emergency?”
Kate tilted her head back. “Ugh.”
“Great.” Jake gave her a thumbs-up. “I’ll take that as a hard maybe.”
The Kahuna looked down the trail toward the campground. “I think somebody’s coming. Maybe it’s Vicky. Did you tell her I’m here?” he asked Jake.
Jake fiddled with the night vision scope on the M320. “Sure, I did. Right after we had a cup of tea and talked about our feelings.”
The Kahuna smiled. “She’s a firecracker, but it’s not the first time I’ve gone on an impromptu walkabout. She’s usually pretty cool about it.”
Hamilton grinned. “Last time she slipped you a Mickey, and when you woke up you were on a Japanese fishing trawler in the middle of the Indian Ocean.”
“Best two weeks of my life. I’m going back out with those guys next summer. Like I said, she’s a firecracker.”
Kate watched as Vicky rounded a corner, just ahead of Cosmo, walked up to the Kahuna, and gave him a big kiss.
“Hey, dummy,” Vicky said. “Looks like they found you. Off on another one of your boondoggles?”
“It wasn’t that much fun. Someone was trying to kill me.”
“Whatever. I maxed out the credit cards and sold your Porsche, so I guess we’re even.”
Nick put on his backpack. “We should probably get moving. It’s going to be a long night.”
“How are we going to slip past Horace and Jasper?” Cosmo asked.
Bob took his flute out of his pocket. “I could cast a Confundus Charm on them.”
“Would that work?”
“It might. It’s a hard spell to master. Maybe I should try a test run.” He waved his wand at Hamilton. “Confundo.”
Everyone stared at Hamilton for a beat.
“Do you feel confused?” Bob asked.
“I don’t know,” Hamilton said. “About what?”
“Maybe we should go with plan B,” Kate said. “One that doesn’t involve spells.”
Bob looked at Kate. “You could be right. Technically, I’m not really supposed to perform magic in front of Muggles. There’s an old game trail through the rainforest that will get you out of the valley as far as Red Hill. After that, there’s no choice. You have to follow the Kalalau Trail back to Hanalei.”
“Sounds good,” Kate said, “or at least as good as it’s going to get. Let’s go.”
Bob led them into the valley and along a muddy narrow path snaking through the dark jungle.
“Everybody turn off your flashlights. I hear people talking,” Kate said. “It sounds like Czech.”
Nick strained to listen. “I think it’s Horace and some other guy I don’t recognize. How far away from the main trail are we?”
“Not far. Maybe a hundred feet,” Bob said. “This path runs pretty much parallel to the main trail.”
“That means no more flashlights until we’re past the guards, and we keep the talking to a minimum,” Jake said. “He turned on the night vision scope on the M320. “I’ll take the lead. Let’s stay close together, and I’ll look for any hazards.”
Kate and the others crept along the pitch-black path, stumbling over roots and rocks, stopping every few minutes whenever they heard the sounds of the patrol coming from the main trail. An hour later, they stepped out of the forest onto the same bluff with its spectacular view over Kalalau Beach that they’d stopped at yesterday. Kate paused in front of the Little Free Library and looked around. The nearly full moon was already high in the sky, illuminating the beach behind them and Crawler’s Ledge ahead.
“Red Hill, as promised,” Bob said. “This is as far as I go.”
Kate and the others walked the length of Red Hill’s open expanse and began picking their way along the narrow cliffside trail that would lead them back to civilization. Bob backtracked into the rainforest.
“Look on the bright side,” Kate said to Nick. “Maybe it’ll be less windy at night.”
“I don’t think so,” Cosmo said. “I hear it howling, just around the next corner. It’s a funny sort of wup, wup whooshing sound.”
“Now I hear it too,” Vicky said. “It’s sounds like it’s getting closer.”
; Nick and Kate looked at each other.
“That’s not wind,” Kate said.
A helicopter sped around the corner and streaked past them, continuing down the coast toward Kalalau.
“Do you think they spotted us?” Cosmo asked.
Kate watched the helicopter bank hard right over the ocean and turn back toward Crawler’s Ledge. “I’d have to say yes.”
Nick looked around. “We’re completely exposed on this ledge. There’s no place to hide. This is a bad place for this to happen.”
Kate and the others watched as the helicopter slowed and hovered just in front of them. A spotlight pierced through the night sky, illuminating them as they stood with their backs to the cliff.
“Everybody down!” Kate yelled.
A spray of bullets ricocheted off the rock walls all around them. The helicopter backed off and repositioned.
Hamilton was on the ground holding his bloodied leg, while his father knelt beside him. Nick’s shirtsleeve was soaked in blood.
Jake shouldered the M320 grenade launcher. “I’m going to overkill the heck out of those guys.” He loaded the Pike mini-missile into the M320, aimed the scope directly at the helicopter, and fired. The Pike rocketed away, leaving a small cloud of fire and smoke in its wake, and exploded into the tail of the helicopter a second later.
Kate watched the helicopter as it struggled to stay aloft then began to spin wildly out of control. “It’s headed right for us,” she said.
She pushed Vicky and Cosmo back down to the ground, and Nick and Jake flattened themselves over Hamilton and the Kahuna. The rotorless helicopter groaned and collided with the face of the cliff, exploding in a giant fireball. Helicopter parts flew in all directions. A large piece of a razor-sharp blade bit into the cliff directly in front of Kate.
Jake stood up and watched the wreckage burning in the sea two hundred feet below. “Outstanding. I’m going to have to get me some more of those Pikes when I get home.”
“Not so outstanding,” Nick said. He pointed at the path in front of them. “We’re missing about a hundred feet of ledge where the helicopter exploded. We’re trapped on this side.”
Jake pulled a knife out of a sheath on his belt and cut Hamilton’s cargo pants off at the knee.
“I have a first aid kit,” the Kahuna said, rummaging through his pack, handing it over to Kate.
“I see an entry wound and an exit wound,” Kate said. “I don’t see any bone fragments. I’m going to do a fast cleanup and pack it with pressure to slow down the bleeding. We need to get out of here. We have to assume Horace and Jasper know we’re up here. Even if the helicopter didn’t radio them, there’s no way they could have missed the explosion.”
“We need to get everyone back to the valley,” Nick said. “We can hide in the jungle.”
Cosmo shook his head. “We’ll be trapped there.”
“It’s better than staying on this cliff.”
Kate looked at Nick’s blood-soaked sleeve. “How bad is it?”
“Not bad,” Nick said. “I just got nicked. It’ll keep until we’re in a better position.”
* * *
—
Hamilton was on his feet, propped up by Nick and Kate.
“Can you walk?” Kate asked him.
“Yeah. It hurts like hell, but I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up anymore.” He limped a couple of steps, testing out the leg. “I’m going to get mad respect from the guys surfing Peahi. The only thing better than a bullet scar is a shark bite.”
They made slow progress back along the ledge toward Red Hill. Afraid to use a flashlight, they crept carefully in the moonlight, crawling when necessary. They reached the perimeter of the red dirt dome, and everyone gave up a sigh of relief. The most dangerous part of the trail was behind them. The relief was short-lived when they reached the overlook. Kate was first in line, and she could see Horace standing near the Little Free Library, scanning the terrain. She motioned for everyone to fall back into the deep shadows created by a massive clump of giant sisal plants.
A forty-something man wearing fatigues and built like a six-foot fireplug was using a machete to poke through the brush at the forest perimeter a short distance from the library.
“There’s some old pig path through the forest over here,” he said, his voice carrying up the hill to Kate. “Plenty of fresh tracks in the mud, but they’re all leading away from the beach. They must have gotten past us this way, but it doesn’t look like they’ve returned yet.”
“Keep looking,” Horace said. “They can’t be far away. I’ll keep walking the trail to the top of the dome.”
“They’re blocking our way to the valley and the rainforest,” Kate whispered. “We can’t get around them. We’re going to have to go over them.”
From their hiding spot, Jake aimed the night vision scope down the hill. “More trouble. Jasper’s not far behind. He’s at the bottom of the hill, maybe a quarter mile away, and he’s got two other goons in tow.”
“You take Vicky, Hamilton, Cosmo, and the Kahuna into the rainforest,” Kate said to Nick. “Dad and I will distract Horace and the other guy long enough for you to rush past them and get away. We’ll meet you at the hermit’s cave.”
Jake put away his scope and unsheathed his knife. “I’ll take the big chunky beast with the machete. Give me a minute to get a little closer. I’ll have to commando crawl on the downside of the dome. I’ll wait for the secret O’Hare family signal before I do anything.”
Cosmo watched Jake creep around the sisal and disappear into the night. “What’s the secret family signal? Is it a birdcall? I’ll bet it’s something awesome like an eagle or an ostrich.”
“A birdcall? Not exactly. You’ll know it when you hear it, and that’s when you all run past the bad guys.”
Everyone went silent as the sound of hiking boots scuffing along in the dirt got closer, and Horace approached the clump of sisals.
Kate pulled a nine-millimeter Glock from her waistband, stepped out from behind the sisal plant, and shot Horace in the chest.
Nick, Cosmo, Vicky, the Kahuna, and Hamilton froze in horror for a beat before realizing they’d just gotten the signal. Nick shoved Cosmo forward, and they all skirted around Horace and hustled as best they could over the dome.
Horace staggered back from the impact and looked down at his chest in stunned disbelief. “What the . . .”
Kate stared at Horace. No blood. Not a good sign.
Horace narrowed his eyes, charged at Kate, and knocked the gun from her hand. “Body armor under my aloha shirt, girlie,” he said. “I’m going to have a bruise. And besides giving me a bruise, I don’t like that you tried to kill me.” He dragged a tactical knife with a seven-inch blade out of a sheath on his thigh. “I’m going to cut you into a thousand pieces.”
“No gun?” Kate asked.
“Yeah, I got a gun, but I thought it would be more fun to gut you like a fish.”
“You’re an idiot,” Kate said, taking a fighting stance, curling her hands into loose fists. “You have your gun tucked under your body armor, don’t you? You can’t get at it. And don’t call me girlie.”
“I don’t need it,” Horace said, rushing at Kate, slashing back and forth with the knife. “And I’ll call you whatever I want, girlie.”
Kate moved to one side and landed three quick jabs to Horace’s face, knocking him back a couple of feet and bloodying his lip.
Horace wiped his mouth with the back of his free hand. “Looks like you can fight, girlie. Had a little training, have we?”
Kate circled him, continuing to throw jabs. One of Horace’s knife thrusts caught her on the upper leg, tearing through her pants and drawing a trickle of blood.
Kate looked down at her ripped pants. “What the heck! These Fjällräven pants are expensive. Now I’m going to have to wear a pair o
f ridiculous hippie overalls until I can get back to L.A.”
“I have bad news for you. You’re not getting back to L.A,” Horace said, continuing to slash at her.
Kate ducked and kicked Horace in the knee. He buckled, fell facedown to the ground, twitched a couple of times, and went still.
Kate toed him. “Horace?”
Horace didn’t move. He didn’t make a sound. Blood oozed out from under him. Kate turned him over with her foot and saw that he’d partially decapitated himself with his own knife. It was still stuck in his neck.
“Crap,” Kate said with a sigh.
She walked to the edge of the overlook and found Jake downhill, standing by what used to be the makeshift library but now seemed to be demolished. She waved and rushed down the Red Hill trail to meet him.
He was holding on to a metal pole. The chunky guy was lying in the middle of a pile of books and the splintered remains of the little wooden box that used to hold them.
“He looks dead,” Kate said.
Jake nodded. “I know. Wasn’t my intention. Smacked him in the head with the Little Free Library, and he just collapsed. I guess they’re not making hired goons like they used to.” He looked down at the ground and then at the pole in his hand. “Or libraries. All that’s left of it is this pipe. How’s your guy?”
“Dead too. Fell on his own knife.”
“Jasper and his crew are on the trail, about three minutes away,” Jake said. “We should take cover and regroup.”
Kate and Jake moved far enough off-site to be hidden but not so far that they couldn’t eavesdrop on Jasper.
* * *
—
The three men lumbered up to the library and stood over the man sprawled on the ground.
“Dead?” one of the men asked.
Jasper gave the body a good hard kick and got no response.
“Dead,” Jasper said. He scanned the area. No Kahuna. No Horace. He directed one of the men to go to the overlook and report down to him. He stood, hands on hips, waiting for the report.
The Big Kahuna Page 12