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“Not that I know of,” Emerson said.
“Okay. Great. Then I don’t have a problem with him,” Vernon said, and he made himself a sandwich.
Riley closed her eyes just for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were flying over the Pacific Ocean. Vernon and Wayan Bagus
were sleeping. Emerson was on his laptop, browsing the Internet.
“So, how are you planning on finding Tin Man and Bart Young once we’re in Hawaii?” Riley asked Emerson.
Emerson looked up from his laptop. “The director said he had a parallel program to Yellowstone in Hawaii. It has to be at one of the national parks—either Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island or Haleakala National Park on Maui.”
“And you think it’s on the Big Island?”
“Spiro’s last words were ‘Mauna Kea.’ It’s one of five volcanoes that formed the Big Island. The others are Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Hualalai, and Kohala.”
“What’s special about Mauna Kea?” Riley asked.
“It’s the biggest mountain in Hawaii at more than thirteen thousand feet above sea level. Measured from the ocean floor, it’s more than thirty-three thousand feet high. That’s bigger than Mount Everest. It’s so massive that it depresses the ocean floor beneath the island by six kilometers. One day, eons from now, Hawaii will likely collapse under its own weight.”
“Is there a government installation on Mauna Kea?”
“Several,” Emerson said. “There’s a complex of huge telescopes and observatories on the summit originally built by the U.S. Air Force, although today they’re run by an international consortium. The lower elevations of the mountain are home to the hundred-thousand-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, the largest military training ground in the Pacific.”
“And that’s where you think Tin Man and the director are headed?”
Emerson nodded. “Pohakuloa is extremely remote. Access is restricted by the army. It also has a small military airstrip called Bradshaw Army Airfield. It would be a perfect place to hide an R&D facility.”
“I assume you have a plan for what to do if and when we find them,” Riley said.
Emerson checked the flight computer. “One hour until we land in Kona.”
“You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“Of course,” Emerson said. “Break into the army base. Steal the super-weapon. Save the world from destruction. Kiss the girl, and live happily ever after. As far as the details go, I thought we would just wu wei wing it.”
“Would you like to elaborate on the ‘kiss the girl’ part?”
“It’s traditional to get a kiss when you save the world,” Emerson said.
Riley smiled. “Tell you what. You save the world, and I’ll give you a kiss that will knock your socks off.”
“I get a blister if I don’t wear socks,” Emerson said.
Riley reclined her seat and closed her eyes. She was too tired to roll them. “Wu wei wake me up when we land.”
TWENTY
Riley stepped off the plane onto the private runway at Kona International Airport. She’d pictured lush tropical rain forests set against a backdrop of white sandy beaches and blue ocean. The ocean was a brilliant, shimmering blue, but that’s where her mental image ended. The paved runway was set in the middle of a huge lava desert that looked a lot like a massive torn-up parking lot. The beach was composed mostly of jagged black rocks. In the distance, a dull haze of volcanic gasses hung over the mountains.
“It looks kind of desolate,” Riley said. “I didn’t expect to see so much lava.”
“This is the dry side of the island. Kona gets very little rain every year. The only green you’ll see is what the resorts irrigate. The other side of the island is beyond wet. Around 150 inches of rain per year and nothing but waterfalls and rain forests.”
“You know a lot about Hawaii,” Riley said. “Have you spent a lot of time here?”
“My father owned a three-hundred-acre ranch in North Kohala. Vernon and I spent a month there every summer when we were kids. Since I now own the ranch, and we can’t risk staying at a hotel without being recognized, I thought we’d stay on my property.”
Vernon stepped off the plane with Wayan Bagus and stretched. He looked at Emerson. “Did you say we’re going to the ranch?”
