“What do you mean?”
“He lost his son on 9/11 at the Pentagon. It devastated him. I know because he told me. Early on, that’s how he manipulated me to look the other way. Things like dogs being overworked and Dr. Levski’s failed experiments. Treating infections and putting dogs down became a full time job. But once Dr. Sato came on board, things became…”
“How about evil?” Jake finished for her. “Human experiments? How could you look the other way?”
Montoya’s eyes found the floor again. “I never saw any experiments myself. But I saw status reports and heard them discussing results. It didn’t seem possible.”
“Yeah, well, it is. I saw a man get bit... And then he wasn’t a man anymore. What is that shit?”
“Like rabies but a thousand times worse.” Montoya shuddered. “Instead of hours or days to react, it takes only minutes. Levski created canine teeth to transmit the virus without infecting the dog. In the beginning, it didn’t work well, to say the least. A lot of dogs were lost, and it was pretty goddamn awful.”
Jake tried to gather his thoughts. “Why not just quit? Pack up and leave?”
Montoya scoffed. “You think I didn’t try? That’s when the blackmail and threats began. My mother started getting crank phone calls saying I was already dead. The vet that was here before me went missing. Guess why.”
“Well, someone has to be able to help. Call the cops.”
Montoya threw her hands in the air as if she were talking to an idiot.
“Corruption is rampant here, Jake. Even the chief of police got arrested for embezzlement. Notice how nobody came to investigate Ahi’s death? What’s that tell you? Someone’s getting paid off.”
Jake paced around the cell like a caged animal. Then he remembered what Cooper said.
“What about Koa?”
Montoya crossed her arms as if to keep herself from falling apart.
“With what you saw, Geddon’s not going to let you leave. Not now, Jake. Far as I know, I could be next… after I put Koa down.”
Jake snapped. He rushed Montoya, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“The hell you are!”
Montoya fought Jake off. “Let go, goddammit. I came to help you!”
“By telling me you’re going to kill my fucking dog? That’s bullshit!”
Jake turned and slammed his hand against the wall. His mind exploded with rage, imagining ways to kill all these fuckers. He grew dizzy and short of breath, unable to think.
Montoya grabbed his shoulder. “Jake. Please, listen.”
He shrugged her off, but then she grabbed him in both hands and spun him around.
“Look, I might be able to get you and Koa out of here. If you’ll help me.”
Something in Montoya’s dark eyes and voice, a need for redemption, told Jake to trust her.
“I’m listening,”
“Geddon told me to put Koa down, and if I don’t do it, Levski will… So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
TWENTY-NINE
Noelani and Evan sat in his car in the Kapiolani Community College parking lot. Across the street, the harsh, sun-baked landscape of Diamond Head rose in front of them. She replayed the day’s events to herself as they waited for nightfall. It gave her confidence that what she was about to do wasn’t crazy. She had no other choice.
When Noelani awoke that morning, her intuition had told her the same thing as yesterday—Nathan was somewhere inside Fort Ruger. She knew Detective Lim wasn’t going to get off his ass and do anything about her statement yesterday. She would have to find out the truth on her own and go to the FBI with better evidence.
They had driven around the crater since late afternoon, discussing their plan and entry points. Considering the no trespassing signs and rumors of patrol dogs, they decided to go up ewa, the ocean side. It was steeper terrain but offered more cover from surveillance. And now they waited.
She was relieved Evan agreed to come with her, although he didn’t need much convincing. He not only made her feel safer, but he also brought his camera and a long lens. During the past few hours, he had totally geeked out on her, explaining camera ISO, lens aperture, and focal lengths. She pretended to know what he was talking about, but her mind was elsewhere. He began checking his gear again.
“You sure you can take pictures in the dark with that?” she asked.
“No problem. Sky’s clear and we’ll have some moonlight. My camera’s full frame, but I’ll crank up the ISO, anyway.”
Noelani nodded. “Good idea.”
They killed more time talking and listening to music in the car. For dinner they had spam musabis made with rice and split a malasada from Leonard’s Bakery. During a short walk exploring the KCC campus, Evan held her hand. She smiled nervously, but mostly from their imminent hike up Diamond Head. Her editor’s warning about what she might find echoed in her head.
When the sky turned purple, Evan drove them closer to their starting point. He parked near the lighthouse and they grabbed their gear. Waves crashed the shore, but multimillion-dollar homes blocked the view. After crossing the street, they put their headlamps on and found a semblance of a trail. They began hiking.
The elevation gain was steeper than Noelani expected. It wasn’t long before her lungs burned and her legs grew heavy. It reminded her of climbing Koko Head, but without the railroad ties for stairs. They took a water break.
“Damn, I’m out of shape,” Evan said, sucking air.
“Can’t be much farther. I hope.”
Noelani took several deep breaths and panned her headlamp, lighting up their surroundings. Scattered trash, dirty clothes, and an old tarp indicated they were passing through an abandoned homeless camp. They hiked onward.
A while later, they cleared the tree line near the top. The moon was pinned to the velvet sky like a pale button. With enough moonlight to see by, they shut off their headlamps. They now had to be extra careful to avoid being spotted.
They used their hands to scramble the rest of the way over sharp volcanic rock. The terrain was treacherous, but at last, they crested the ridge of the crater. They high-fived and drank more water. A breezy trade wind was a welcome relief, drying their sweat.
With the moon above, they had a panoramic view of the vast silvery ocean. From this elevation, the shoreline was a distant whisper. Battery 407, overlooking Waikiki, was above them to the right. They caught their breaths and admired the view.
Straight down in the womb of the crater was Fort Ruger. Supposedly the operations center for the contamination cleanup, she didn’t see any cleanup happening. Noelani wasn’t surprised. There were a handful of small buildings and truck trailers surrounding the parking lot, but from this distance, it was hard to see much else.
“We need to get closer,” Noelani said.
Evan removed his camera from his pack and clicked off a few shots. He pointed to a rocky dirt path.
“That trail leads to an access road. We can take that all the way down. But uh, we should probably keep our distance.”
“How much distance?”
Evan held up his camera. “I can crop for extra zoom. This has twenty-four mega—”
“Never mind. Let’s go.”
Noelani started down the trail with Evan following behind. The earth was like asphalt, too compact to leave footprints. The trail dipped over a rocky ridge, blocking their view below. They soon merged onto a paved access road.
An ATV was parked off to the side.
They froze.
No sooner did they spot the ATV than a dog began barking. Coming down another trail was a man with a dog, heading their way.
The man held up a flashlight. “Hey!”
“Shit, run!” Evan said.
He turned and ran back the way they came. Noelani could only watch as the man unleashed his dog. It began running toward them—insanely fast.
“Come on!” Evan yelled behind her.
She finally turned and ran but it was uphill and her
legs were fried from the hike. Evan charged over the ridge and disappeared. He left me?
“Evan!”
She willed her legs to run faster, but it was no use. She was cooked. Sounds of beating breath and rushing feet came from behind. She whipped around as the dog was upon her. It suddenly stopped, skidding in the loose dirt. It barked and lunged at her, snapping its teeth.
She moved away and the dog lunged closer. She stopped and the dog backed off. If she tried to run, there was no doubt the dog would bite her.
“Evan!” Noelani screamed. “Help me!”
Evan didn’t answer or return. The man showed up instead. He was a white guy with dark hair and a scruffy beard. He had mean-looking eyes and a gun strapped to his leg. With a hand signal, his dog sat and stopped barking.
“Well, hello there, little lady. You know you’re trespassin’, right? Don’t you know how to read?”
“I… I’m sorry. My friend and I just came to see the view. We thought nobody would see us at night.”
The man spat in the dirt and waved his arm around the crater.
“We got motion sensors everywhere. Somebody went and set one off last night, too. It’s like a goddamn invasion all of a sudden.”
Noelani backed up and the dog suddenly lunged, snarling. The man whacked the dog with the end of the leash.
“Hush! She ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
The dog sat and licked its lips. The man came closer and noticed something on the ground. He shined his flashlight behind Noelani. It was Evan’s backpack.
“What do we have here?” The man picked it up and unzipped the pocket. He pulled out Evan’s camera and whistled. “Nice hardware. Bet this cost a few pesos. Let’s see if my dumb ass can see what’s on it.”
The man switched the camera on and turned a dial with his thumb. He looked at the pictures on the display, and then turned to her. He dropped Evan’s camera on the rocky dirt, cracking the lens. He came closer and shined his flashlight over her, head to toe.
“Damn, that’s one naughty body. What’re you doing with a loser like that guy? Just run off and leave his girl behind like that.”
“Please, sir, just let me go. We just wanted to see the view from up here. That’s all.”
“That’s all, huh? Pictures don’t lie, darlin’. So why you lyin’ to me? What are you lookin’ for?”
The man stepped close enough to smell his warm, minty breath. His dog sniffed her leg and growled. Tears began welling in her eyes as she pointed at Fort Ruger.
“My… My brother is down there.”
The man turned, following her gaze. “Where? Down there?”
“Please tell me.” Her lips trembled. “Is he okay? Whatever he did, it wasn’t his fault.”
“Well, hang on, now. What’s he look like?”
“He’s ten years old. Dark skin and hair. Hawaiian.”
The man scratched his beard. “Huh. Skinny little feller?”
Noelani swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded.
The man snapped his fingers. “There is a younglin’ like that. And I’ll be damned if he ain’t a spittin’ image of you.”
“Oh my god!” Noelani cried. “Please let me see him. Please! I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
The man sighed and lowered his voice.
“I’m just gonna be honest, darlin’. I don’t think you’d be happy to see him, but he’d sure be happy to see you.”
“Sir, please just—”
The man slapped her with the dog leash.
“Shut up. I ain’t got time for this. I got shit to do.”
The man squatted next to his growling dog. He pulled its lips back, exposing metal fangs that glinted in the moonlight. The dog’s dark yellow eyes watched her. Noelani’s knees became weak.
“Nice chompers, huh? Trust me, you don’t want to be on the receivin’ end of these.” The man scratched his beard as if thinking. “Tell you what. I’ll give you thirty seconds to get that tight little ass of yours back down this mountain. You make it down alive, you can get all the help you want. Call in the marines for all I care.”
Alive? “No, sir. Please—”
The man smacked her with the leash harder. Her cheek erupted in pain as the dog began barking.
“Shut up. I just gave you the best chance you’re gonna get. If I were you, I’d run real goddamn fast ‘cause my boy ain’t had dinner yet.”
Noelani started walking backward, shaking her head.
“No. Please don’t do this.”
The man held up his left arm, looking at his black watch. He pressed a button and the display lit up.
“Thirty seconds. One… Two… Three… You still here?”
Noelani turned and ran, driven by adrenaline-fueled terror. She reached the ridge of the crater and looked down. Her breath seized in her chest.
“Evan!”
Evan was lying twenty feet below, his body sprawled near the edge of a rocky cliff. His motionless head faced the ocean at a weird angle. Noelani looked on in shock, her pulse pounding in her ears. Behind her came the sound of pitter-patter feet.
She turned and kicked just as the dog attacked. Her foot connected with the side of its head. The dog shot past her with a grunt, sliding into the dirt on its face. It jumped up snarling and came at her again.
Noelani screamed as she fought the dog off. The dog went for her foot and bit into her shoe. It thrashed its head, ripping her leg sideways. Something in her knee popped.
She cried out, kicking with her free leg and missed. The dog’s eyes rolled back as it dragged her over sharp rock slicing her skin.
The man caught up to them, wearing a big fucking smile on his face.
“Shii-it, that wasn’t very far! I seen fat retards run better’n that.”
“Call your dog!” she screamed.
He looked down at the dog and said, “Los!”
The dog continued yanking on Noelani’s foot. She cried out again, her knee burning. The man went to the dog and yanked on his collar.
“Los, goddammit!”
Finally, the dog let go and sat, panting and wild-eyed. Noelani squeezed her eyes shut from the pain shooting from her knee and foot.
The man walked to the ledge and looked down. He stared for a few seconds and laughed.
“Guess that explains where your boyfriend went. He don’t look so good.” He turned to her and smiled. “Since nobody’s comin’ for you now, you might as well come with me. I got someone for you to meet.”
THIRTY
She rode down the trail on the back of the man’s ATV. Her hands were zip-tied behind her and holding onto the storage rack. The dog trotted alongside them, watching her closely.
“Best hang on tight,” the man said. “You fall off, he’s gonna think you’re a bouncin’ chew toy.”
She couldn’t run if she tried. Her knee was swollen and throbbing. Her hiking shoe saved her foot from the dog’s crushing bite but still hurt.
“Where are you taking me?” she cried. “I need a doctor.”
The man laughed.
“Funny you should mention that.” He keyed a button on his radio. “I got intake. Meet you in receiving. Out.”
Seconds passed before there was a response.
“Copy,” a man’s voice replied.
They followed the headlight beams of the ATV into the gaping mouth of a tunnel. A large steel door closed behind them on giant machine-like hinges and locked into place. The surrounding air became more pressurized, like in the cabin of an airplane.
They continued riding down the tunnel. It was well lit with overhead lights reflecting off smooth cement floors. Conduit and heavy-duty cables attached to the walls ran the length of the tunnel. The dog continued watching her as if she were a human meatball rolling away.
They passed intersections of tunnels branching off into other corridors. Noelani was amazed at how big and modern this place was. It was nothing like the pictures she had found online. A lot of recent work had been done, work tha
t must have cost millions of dollars.
They exited the tunnel into a cavernous bay with high ceilings. Tire tracks ran to another large metal door at the opposite end. There were racks of supplies and a large yellow container with a biohazard symbol on the front and sides.
“Here we go,” the man said. “End of the line, sweetheart.”
A door opened to their left and a tall Asian man wearing a white lab coat came out. His dark eyes took her in, creeping Noelani out. Something about the man was off, all wrong, and then she realized who he was.
Professor Sato.
Forgetting her fear, Noelani erupted from pent up rage. “You took my fucking brother!” She screamed. “Where is he?”
Sato said nothing. He just stood there, watching her like someone studying an insect in a jar. The man with the dog went to a tool bench and returned with a roll of duct tape. Noelani screamed and cursed until the man ripped a piece off and slapped it across her mouth.
“Damn, darlin’.” He winked. “I bet you’re one hell of a screamer between the sheets.”
He left and returned with a wheelchair. He picked her up and sat her in the chair, zip-tying her hands and feet to the supports. Dr. Sato held the door open as the man wheeled her through the other side. One of the wheels squeaked like an old shopping cart.
They soon turned down another corridor, narrower than the others, and it reminded Noelani of pictures she had seen of old prisons like Alcatraz. The air was clammy, as if they were going deeper underground. There were old metal doors carved into the rock walls. Alpha-numeric signs were above each door. They all started with the letter C.
One of the doors suddenly opened and a dark-haired man limped out, followed by another man holding a gun. The gunman motioned for the man to keep walking. The man had a nasty facial scar and the look he gave Sato could have set him on fire.
“Where are you taking her?” the man demanded. He looked at her with strained, blood-shot eyes.
“Family reunion, Mr. Decker. You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”
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