“I doubt that.” I shook my head. I’m completely lost.
Danny spent the next few hours with the Pack. If, as expected, he wasn’t able to come back to Redemption tonight, he wanted Trigger and Twix to stick to the governor. He hadn’t let the governor in on his thought process because he knew Barnes would never let him leave with the book. That alone suggested what might be in that book.
The governor was the only person in Hawaii Danny was certain wanted to protect the islands at all costs. Danny believed Governor Barnes was willing to die—if necessary—to do so. I listened as Deacon and Royce tried to convince him to take along a fake book instead of the real one, but Danny insisted he couldn’t. He knew more than all of us did about why that wouldn’t work—we had to trust him. Of course, it wasn’t that simple.
I trusted Danny, of course, but I could also see Deacon and Royce’s point. If the contents of that book were as relevant to our security—and to America’s future in general—as I was beginning to believe, it couldn’t make sense to risk all of that for one person. But ultimately this was Danny’s decision. He was the one who had been entrusted with the book. He told Trigger and Twix if at any point the Shield system failed, it would be their responsibility to climb the “Stairway to Heaven” and reboot it manually. That seemed to make everyone feel better. Those two are a pretty good fail-safe. We realized losing the book wouldn’t necessarily be a fatal blow, but … There has to be more in that book than info on Hawaii. So what exactly was Danny risking—or what was he willing to risk, for that matter—to save his sister? And what guarantee did he have that if he did all he was asked to do he’d even get her back…that we’d get any of them back alive?
I knew the answer to that question already. There are no guarantees.
We said our goodbyes at eight o’clock. Keena and Axel were going to ride along with Danny in the boat and wait for him at Waimea Bay. Deacon and Royce had agreed to stay at Redemption with us until whenever Danny came back. They wanted his mind to be at ease. Tara walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. I could see her body shaking and knew she was crying. I heard her thank him and tell him she loved him. Danny held his hand out to me, but I pulled him in for a hug. “Bring her back,” I said, hoping he was wrong about not coming back to Redemption tonight. “Bring them all back—yourself too.” I was trying to maintain control of my emotions. “I love you, son.”
Danny cleared his throat and stepped back. “If she’s out there I’ll get her, Dad.” He met my eyes and smiled, but I could see his eyes watering too. So this isn’t just hard for me. I nodded, and the rest of us backed off to give him time with Kate.
We watched from a distance as they hugged each other for a long minute, and then Danny stepped back. They continued to hold hands though, and suddenly I heard Danny say “What?” loudly. What was that for? He got down on one knee—his hands at her side and his head to Kate’s stomach. No way! When he kissed her stomach and stood back up, I knew Kate was pregnant. You have got to be kidding me!
We edged our way toward them and heard Kate say, “We need you, Danny. Please…” He nodded and kissed her, tears visible in his eyes, and then turned away from all of us. He stepped into the boat, and they motored off. I saw him look back at us one more time, but I knew he was probably looking at his wife. Kate held one hand up high—in a wave—until she couldn’t see him anymore. When she finally lowered her hand, Tara grasped it and pulled her close. I joined in and hugged them both, thinking what I couldn’t get myself to say. He’ll be back. Now he has one more reason to come back.
TWENTY-THREE – The Story (Hayley)
Early Morning Hours.
---------- (Thursday. August 4, 2022.) ----------
Aboard the USS George Washington.
I woke up with a jolt, like someone had kicked me in the head. I sat up quickly and looked around, but it was still dark out—or in. Flynn and Chase were lying side by side next to the lamp. Lazzo remained asleep in his corner. So what woke me up? I didn’t remember dreaming. Huh. Weird. I stood up and stretched. Now was as good a time as any to have my talk with Lazzo. I picked up one of the 9mm’s we’d taken from the armory, walked over to him, and nudged him with my foot.
He too bolted up, and a moment of panic flickered in his eyes as he saw me with a gun in hand. “Hayley, what—”
“Let’s talk.”
He nodded and followed me as far from the sleeping twins as we could get. We sat down in a corner of the room with just enough light to see each other.
“The way I see it, you owe me some information now. I’ve proved my loyalty to you and your mission, haven’t I?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “You know I could have easily left you in the cell to die. You also know Flynn saved both of us. She is untouchable, do you understand? Both of them are.”
Lazzo nodded. “Hayley, I do owe you an explanation … for Sam. I’m sorry—”
“Understand your apology means absolutely nothing to me. I get that he was a threat to you. As much as I hate you, I also understand you felt you didn’t have a choice. So keep your worthless apologies to yourself.”
“Then what? What do you expect me to tell you?” He clearly wasn’t any happier with me than I was with him.
“What’s the master plan? Just give me the basics. Tell me whatever I need to know, so I’m not surprised by something that could really hurt us.”
I could see the wheels turning in his head. I half expected him to refuse to tell me any more, but he surprised me.
“Okay.” He glanced at the twins to make sure they were still asleep. “Somehow we need to get on a plane to the mainland and avoid getting shot down at the coast. We need to get close to Denver and find a place we can meet your brother, assuming he does in fact come for you. Then we make the exchange and go our separate ways.”
“You actually do want Danny to come?” I asked, mildly surprised. “And if he does—if he brings you the book—you’ll honestly let us go?”
“Hayley, you don’t have to believe me. I’m certain you won’t now. But I am a man of integrity. Danny has saved my life twice. I don’t want to hurt either of you. I did not want to shoot Sam. I wanted to kill Block when he was attacking you. I promise you…I promise you…I honestly care for you a lot.”
I chose to pretend his words didn’t matter to me—even concealing my smile at him calling Brock “Block”—but the ache deep in my chest proved I did care. I was certain he meant every word he said. I almost felt sorry for him. Still, no amount of truth or apologies would make me forget what he’d done to Sam—what he’d done to me.
“Would you really kill Dad, Tara, and Ollie?”
“No.” His reply was sufficiently firm. “I was given a bomb and chose not to leave it there. I brought it with us instead. I needed you to believe I would though.”
“Oh, I believed you would.” I kicked the wall. “Trust me.” Should’ve pushed him off the boat back in Hawaii.
“But that doesn’t mean they’re safe. The people who have the girls, they have no allegiance to me. I left Danny a clue on the boat to let him know who he was dealing with. If he’s found the boat and been to the property on Kauai by now he will hopefully have made the connection. He will know they are professionals and that they are serious—perhaps even that it is all connected. He will do what they tell him to do or none of this will matter. If I don’t make it to Denver in time—or at all—or Denver sends a message to kill them, they will kill them, no matter what I do or say, maybe even after I give them what they want. If Denver tells them to try to get to Redemption and kill the others, they will try that too. If Danny got my message he can hopefully prevent that. I do not work with these people…I do not work for these people.”
“Hang on…you say that, but here you are, doing what they want you to.”
“I was given assurances,” Lazzo explained. “My command—the Libyan commander, he says he has my family in prison in Puerto Rico. My family. I thought they were all dead, but then
…”
“What?”
“Then…I see what I think is them on a video at that house—my wife and daughter. I think I see my brother too. My brother … he is supposed to be alive there too.”
“Eddie? But he—”
“Yes, Eddie. They tell me they don’t kill him—they don’t kill my wife and daughter—they give them to me if I get them what they need.”
“Okay.” I leaned my head back, thinking. He was actually telling me a lot. “Assuming all of that is true ... what is it exactly they need?”
“The book.”
“I know that. I mean, what’s in this special book?”
I was expecting an, “I can’t tell you that” but he had completely let down his guard now. “Codes. Danny has a book with codes.” “Codes? What kind of—”
“For disarming the Shield, for breaking into the Cheyenne Mountain bunker, for launching missiles—maps, plans, secrets, et cetera … those kind of things.”
Holy shit. And he’s expecting Danny to give that to him? To Qi Jia? “Uh, Lazzo …”
“I’ve said too much, Hayley. But I owed you that. And now you know what you need to know. I don’t want to talk about this again.” He stood and walked away.
I watched him leave and reviewed our conversation. He had clearly said there were no guarantees. Even if he did what this commander expected him to, the captors could still kill Reagan and the girls. How was there any potential victory in this for us? We were entirely at the mercy of people who had never shown any.
As Lazzo sat down, I saw Flynn stand and walk toward me. She kept a suspicious eye on Lazzo, and it occurred to me she couldn’t see me in the shadows behind these crates. She might be worried about what he might have done to me. I stood up and watched the relief flood her face as she saw me step out of the dark corner. She hurried over. “Thank God …”
“He’s not going to hurt me.” I took her hand. “He needs me.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on? I mean, you don’t have—”
“No, that’s fine.” We sat down and leaned against the cold steel wall. “Flynn, you have done far more than enough to deserve to know what I know.” I told her about Sam and shared everything Lazzo had told me—save for the contents of the book. When I was finished, all she could say was, “Wow.”
“Tell me about it.” I leaned my head back.
“I’m sorry about Sam.” She rested her head on my shoulder.
“And I’m sorry about Jesse.” I tilted my head against hers. I was fortunate Flynn was who she was—when she was—and that she had the set of circumstances in her life that made her willing to help me—to go against her father. “So what happens to you and Chase now?”
I could feel her shrug. “I don’t know. No clue. But I do know we have to get you and Lazzo on one of the planes. They leave in two hours.”
She was right, but I had another dilemma. I wanted to bring her along with me, to keep her safe, but safety was even more uncertain off this ship. I might be putting her more in harm’s way. It felt like a lose-lose scenario. I finally reasoned it was unfair for me to decide. “Flynn …”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to come with us?”
She didn’t answer for a while, and I turned to look her in the eyes. Finally she nodded. “Yes, but … I don’t think I should.”
I paused for a few seconds too but then replied, “I understand. I do. Your dad—”
“No.” She grabbed my arm. “It has nothing to do with my dad. It’s Chase. He has asthma and anxiety attacks. He’s not exactly the athletic type. He tries, and he would seriously try, but he’s been sick a lot lately and … I don’t think he’d make it.”
How did this all-around beautiful person come from that monster? “Flynn …”
“I’m sorry …”
“No.” I smiled and wrapped her in a hug. “Please don’t apologize. We’re almost the same age, but you’re easily five times the person I am. How you’ve become who you are with—”
“Dad?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Put it this way … terrible people are the best examples of what you don’t want to be.” Ain’t that the truth. “I had to take care of my mother when my dad wouldn’t. When she was in the hospital—dying—he didn’t visit her once or even ask about her. So what if they were divorced? When she died, I had to take care of Chase. I love my brother, but he’s had such a tough life. Dad has been far worse to him than he’s ever been to me. We’ve both had to live with the abuse and rage and a drunken loser of a father…but Chase always had to hear how he was such a disappointment—how Dad wished he’d never been born. I had to keep Chase going. I had to keep Chase alive.”
I couldn’t even imagine. Even when Dad had abandoned Danny and me after Mom died, I still believed he loved us—he certainly never said otherwise. “Hey…you’re amazing,” I smiled at her. “Trust me. And you’re nothing like—”
A voice booming over the intercom system interrupted me. Flynn and I both jumped. “One hour to departure.”
“Nothing like him,” I said, nodding as Flynn pointed up toward the sound of the voice. One hour? Why are they leaving early? That didn’t give us much time to get everything in place. We had to get moving.
We headed over toward Chase and Lazzo. “So … Cassandra huh?” I elbowed her.
“Don’t get me started on that now. Dad’s choice, of course. He wanted Cassius—compromised with Mom on Cassandra. I haven’t gone by it in years.”
“Didn’t like Cassie?”
Flynn shook her head. “I didn’t want anything close.”
“And Chase is—”
“Evander.”
I snorted and covered my mouth. “No.”
Flynn laughed, nodding. “Yep.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, looking at Chase who had overheard the tail end of this conversation.
“Tell me about it.” At least he was smiling.
“Boxing names?” What else could they be?
“It’s his favorite sport,” Flynn muttered coldly. “Just ask Mom.”
I understood the reference to the captain’s violent nature. “I wish I could,” I replied, trying to put a positive spin on it instead.
She turned and looked at me. “You’d have loved her.”
“I’m sure I would have.”
TWENTY-FOUR – Four Prisoners (Danny)
---------- (Wednesday Night. August 3, 2022.) ----------
Anyone who’s ever taken one of those tests with instructions to read all the questions first—and then take the test—knows how hard it is to actually do it. The questions at the beginning are so easy—they beg to be answered. They get longer and more complicated but it’s hard not to keep answering them—to just finish the test. And then—at the end—there’s a line that simply says, “Do not answer any of the questions. Write your name on the paper and turn it in.”
The first time I took one of those tests, I failed it. I was a junior in high school. I felt like an idiot. The directions were so simple. In a class of seventy-two students, I was one of four who failed that test. Three of us ended up in the Marines—whatever that says. I promised myself then, that if given the chance to take another test like that, I’d do it right. I’d pass it—like I should have the first time.
Reading the instructions left for me at the gate in Kauai felt like taking one of those tests. At the first line—“Go back to the boat and take it to Pearl Harbor”—I was ready to take off, but I kept reading. I didn’t leave. Not right away. I read the instructions all the way through to the bottom—and then read them all again. I didn’t want to miss a single step. Like typos on prescriptions—every single word could be the difference between life and death.
The note was, again, handwritten in perfect English.
Take the boat and book to Pearl Harbor.
Do not return to or contact anyone from your island.
You are not to talk to anyone in Oahu.
Take a plane and fly to Colorado.
You must exchange the book for your sister at Knight’s Peak.
(Coordinates: N 38.72527 and W -104.94581.)
When we have confirmation we have the book, the prisoners will be released.
You may take a pilot with you. No one else.
We will have eyes on you until you are beyond Hawaii’s surveillance scope,
so do not try to fool us, or your sister and friends will die.
If you are caught, your sister and friends will die.
If you do not have the book with you, you will have to retrieve it immediately AND we will kill one of the hostages now.
Reveal the book or speak the name of the hostage we should kill.
Then leave.
I looked up at the camera extremely thankful I had the book. “You’re asking an awful lot, you know. How do I know Hayley is still alive? How do I know you haven’t already killed the girls?”
Reagan’s voice replied from a speaker somewhere near the camera. “Danny, she’s alive. We’re all okay. They haven’t touched the four of us.”
Four? I looked down, hoping my reaction to the word four hadn’t been obvious. It was dark out here. Maybe that was enough. There are four prisoners in there? Who else? “Reagan—”
“No more. The book.” A deep robotic voice had replaced Reagan’s.
“I have it but not on me.” I continued before anyone could interrupt me. “If you have the surveillance you say you do, you know I brought someone with me from the island and that she’s waiting for me at the marina. She has the book. You can’t think I’d be foolish enough to bring it here alone, but I’m also not hiding anything from you.”
“You were to come alone.”
“I brought someone to help me with technology. I know nothing about technology. Absolutely nothing. I didn’t bring anyone else here with me—just her. I was hoping you’d let her go with me. What you’re asking me to do…trust me…I know how important it is. But I can’t get through all the radar and defense systems on the mainland alone. There’s no way. And if you need me to—if you expect me to do this, to get the information to—”
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