HIGH TIDE (22 page)

Lights flashed in the distance.

“It looks like they’re here already. So see, Briana. It’s all under control.”

“I don’t see Nick’s jeep down there.”

Briana strained to look past the slow-moving traffic. “Why don’t you pull over in this parking lot and we can go on foot to the other.”

“You are off the charts, Bree. Let it go. It’s being handled and you can watch it on the news tonight.”

“Nick and I are witnesses to that stash of explosives. He shouldn’t
handle
it alone.”

“I’m guessing he wanted it that way. I’m sure he doesn’t want you anywhere near this...this...
Merryweather
.” Naoki tapped the brake. “I’m starting to like the guy.”

As they pulled into an auxiliary public beach parking lot, they found it to be filled with a collection of motorcycles and rental cars. Briana searched for the red Wrangler, but could not locate it.
 Parked with the engine idling, she squinted through the windshield towards the pier nearly a quarter-mile away. It was impossible to tell from this distance if the
Merryweather
was still docked there. Judging from the trio of flashing cop cars, she hoped that it meant that it was.

She opened the door, frustrated when she felt Naoki’s hand latch onto her arm.

“I’ve got a bad feeling, Bree.”

“Shhh, Naoki. What type of trouble can there be if the police are already here? It looks like everything is under control. Perhaps I can ID the men that captured us.”

Naoki removed his glasses. “Fine, but I’m going with you.”

“Alright, alright.
  Sheesh.” Briana shook her head, her hand already on the door, “You open your mouth and your grandmother’s voice comes out, you know that?”

Briana swung the car door open, and stared straight into the muzzle of a gun. Before she could react, it was pressed against her arm, a zap of cold metal in contrast with the hot, humid air.

“What—
oh
!” Shocked into compliance, Naoki’s hands hoisted into the air.

The passenger door yanked open further, and the jerk of the thin barrel was used to prompt Briana outside.

Composed on the outside, nonetheless, Briana reeled as she slid out of the seat and stared into the hostile eyes of Joy
with no last name
.

“Joy!” Leaning over the passenger side, Naoki’s hands lowered. “What are you doing?”

“Hands on the wheel.” Joy shifted the muzzle from Briana towards the driver.  Naoki shrank back in the seat. “Hands on the wheel now or your boss is dead.”

Perspiration dotted Briana’s forehead as she glanced up at the squelching sun directly overhead. It had to be closing in on noon, and though three cop cars were within eyesight, they were not within shouting range. Even this parking lot, though it was filled with cars, lacked human presence. Most people had parked early in the morning and were out on the water
for the remainder of the day.

She watched Joy’s attention waver for a second as the young woman focused on Naoki.
 Briana sought a means to disarm her, and as if Joy sensed this, her tan arm swung back to pin her.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Look,” Briana began, “you have me. Naoki is not involved. Let him go.”

Joy smiled. It was a beautiful smile full of even white teeth and full, glossy lips. But the green eyes above it were cold and empty.

What had occurred in this woman’s life to take the gleam out of her eyes?

“Actually, that’s exactly what I intend to do.” Joy smirked
and switched her insensitive gaze towards the driver. “You know for
old time’s
sake and all. It’s really Briana they want. Not you.”

“But
Joy,” Naoki injected nervously. “W-why are you doing this, I can’t believe after everything we’ve been through.  How did you get hooked up with these guys?”

In vain, Naoki sought to process what was happening. He started to stutter.

“W-w-what are you doing with a gun, and what are you d-doing with Briana? Come on, Joy this is just mad. This isn’t
you!
”

“How the hell do you know who
I
am?” she hissed. “You know what I allowed you to know, and that’s it. Do you honestly think you picked me up at that bar?” She snorted. “I’ve been watching all of you. This damn development has been nothing but a thorn in our side. We were digging off the Windward Coast long before your construction ever started. And this one here—” she waved the gun in Briana’s face, “started getting too nosy.  Her and her damn boyfriend.”

Briana
’s eyes followed the erratic path of the gun. As long as she could keep it trained on her, Naoki was less apt to get hurt.

“Perhaps if you didn’t use explosives on the ocean floor you wouldn’t have produced the waves that caught our attention. You wouldn’t have destroyed innocent sea creatures.
That
is what stirred up our curiosity
.
”

Briana succeeded. The gun drew back to target her forehead. She struggled to stay composed, but her fingers itched with desperation.

“Shut up.” Joy sneered.

“I mean, that’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?” Briana challenged. “Setting off explosives under water? For God’s sake
, why?”

Naoki moved to get out of the car and shuddered when Joy took a step and immersed the muzzle in Briana’s hair.

“Drive away now or I shoot her and you get wounded or killed in the fallout.”

To convey her point, Joy extended the gun, the barrel tipping Briana’s head back. “And don’t get any idea
s of running over to the police over there. We will be watching you, and we will send your boss’s body floating in with the next tide.”

“Go Naoki.”

“No, Bree, this is insane.” He made a move, but the barrel cut into Briana’s forehead, tilting it at an awkward angle.

“Oh God,” Naoki’s hands fumbled with the ignition. “What do I do?”

Managing a nod despite the cold steel pressed to her flesh, Briana encouraged Naoki with her eyes,
Go
.

With staged courage, she backed from the car under Joy’s direction, but her thoughts turned bleak
as she watched Naoki drive away.

Briana’s mind raced in time with the pulse that thudded under the pressure of the gun.

Okay, Joy was younger, with athletic muscles, but there had to be a way she could overtake her.

The screech of the pier gate
arrested her attention. Two figures crossed the parking lot, their black wetsuits glinting under the harsh sun. If she thought this was salvation in the form of midday revelers, she was wrong. She recognized the
Merryweather’s
crew.

Any chance of escape had just
vanished.

***
  

“See anything?”

Nick lowered the binoculars and shook his head.

“No, take her down to Kahala. That’s where it should be moored.”

The only way to goad Keo out to sea had been to tell him the truth, and Nick suffered the verbal repercussions of that. Even now, Keo was muttering about how stupid
haoles
could be.

But Keo was above all traits, loyal to a fault. To Nick and to the island of
Aloha
that someone threatened with their amateur explosives.

“All right,
Nikolo.”

For the tenth time, Nick stared down at his cell phone, cursing the
grayed-out signal.  A call to Briana to satisfy that she was safe would put him in a better frame of mind, not to mention that he simply wanted to hear her voice. If he closed his eyes, he could feel her fingers dance across his chest, the delicate stroke of a temptress.
God, how he wanted to touch her again.

“Let’s head back first. I’ve got a call to make—then we’ll
continue down the coast.”

Keo’s perceptive grin was concealed behind a meaty arm as he swiped at the perspiration dripping from his forehead.

***

A line of
tramped grass formed beneath Naoki’s pacing. Helpless, he watched from a thicket of palm trees as Briana was jostled into a speedboat. Even from this distance, the safest point to pull his car over, Naoki saw the men hustle her from sight and wondered at the rotten luck that no spectator other than he witnessed this abduction. He stared helplessly at the red and blue flashing lights in the distance, torn with the desire to sprint over there.

We will be watching you, and we will send your boss’s body in with the tide.

Distressed, he observed Joy with her long black mane aglow in the midday sun as she stood two paces behind, looking remarkably cool with that flash of metal in her hand.

Letting out a cry of despair, Naoki yanked the cell phone from his pocket. He aimed for the Honolulu Police Department on the auto dial, but hesitated before pressing the button. An unwanted image of Briana’s body rolling lifelessly to shore made him moan again.

Blindly, he stared at the phone, expecting it to enlighten him. In the end, he pressed the speed dial for the office.

“
Moku Land Inc. may I direct your call?”

“Lena, is Kathy there?”

“Kathy? Umm, let me check.” The ukulele sounded distorted through the bad connection.

“Hello?”

“
They have Briana
!”

“Naoki? What do you mean they have Briana?” Kathy’s voice rose, making her sound like a teenager.

“It was, it was—” Naoki sighed and hanged his head. With glum finality he uttered, “It was Joy.”

“
Joy
? You’re not making any sense, Naoki. Where are you?”

“At the pier. Listen, can you get a number for Nick McCord? Call the University or something.
 I know he may be out on the water, but maybe they have a way to contact him.”

The desperation in his voice spurred Kathy’s fingers into life across the keyboard. She spoke through the mouthpiece as she tucked the phone between her shoulder and chin. “Have you called the police?”

“I can’t.”

“Alright.
”Reading into that bleak declaration, she took a deep breath.  “Look, I’m going to find Nick, and I’ll be down to the pier in fifteen minutes.”

“
Fifteen minutes?
It takes a half hour to get here without traffic!”

“It’s always the quiet ones who are hell on wheels.”

If circumstances were different Naoki might have smiled at that. “Be careful, Kathy.”

Soft, but urgent, she whispered, “You
too.”   

For the umpteenth time he raised his arm and stared a
t his watch, cursing the second-hand that crept too slowly. Naoki came alert when he saw an impressive vessel chug into the bay. Even from this distance, the huge letters USGS were boldly visible on its side.

Hypnotized by the sluggish approach of the behemoth boat, Naoki began to jog parallel to it along the shore.
 Aware that he was being watched by Brianna’s captors, he pondered a way to arrest the attention of who was hopefully Nick aboard this approaching USGS cutter.

Nao
ki’s cell phone chimed in his pocket. He tore it out and dropped it in the sand. Stumbling to retrieve it, he cried out, “What?”

“I found his mobile number online. Here it is.” Kathy
rattled off the digits.

Running and punching keys, Naoki barked into the connection before anyone even answered, “Mr. McCord!
Nick!”

***

“Alright, there’s the pier, and the
Merryweather
is still there.” Relief stole over Nick. “Anchor here and I’ll take the launch in.”

Evidently they were finally in range of a
cell tower because Nick’s phone was vibrating in his pocket.

Briana.
 

The thought of hearing her voice
had him grinning like a lottery winner.
God, I’m gone.

The phone number was not one he recognized
, though. He held it up to his ear to answer, but heard shouting on the other end. He listened and then charged out onto the deck, noticing the man in khaki shorts and a yellow polo shirt jogging along the beach.

“Stop moving!” he shouted into the phone at the figure in the distance.

His tone arrested Keo’s attention. Their eyes met and Nick nodded to drop the anchor...
now
, he mouthed.

But he knew
. Nick knew that the anxious message was about Briana. The realization clamped down on his chest like a pallet of bricks.

“Okay.” He saw the young man hunched over as ragged breathing sounded through the phone. “Now
, repeat that.”

“They’re gone!” Naoki cried. “They have about a fifteen-minute head start,” he stuttered his defense. “I tried Nick, but she had a gun—”
    Sorting through the anxious bedlam, Nick strove for composure. Had he heard Naoki correctly?