“That’s all we’ve got?” Danny asked.
“Afraid so,” was the soft reply on the other end.
But who was who? “And we can’t see who they are any better than that?”
“I’m sorry,” Nicole confirmed.
Keena spoke up then. “Nicole, is it just me, or did that boat coming back not look like it was heading to our island?”
What does she mean by that?
Nicole understood the question. “No, I thought that too. It almost looks like the line of the boat’s path is headed about a mile south of your island.”
Son of a bitch. Toward the USS George Washington.
Danny was already on it. “Governor, that boat had to have been heading for the Washington then.”
“It’s possible. But they’re too far out to reach now. They’ve been gone since four or five this morning, and at forty miles per hour or so, they’d be 250 miles out—easily.”
“We can’t even reach them from Area 52?” Kate asked.
Governor Barnes and Nicole spoke at the same time but with two different answers. Nicole’s “Well…” was the response we chose to hear.
“What, Nicole?” Danny asked.
“We could try sending them an ELF.”
“An ELF?” Tara asked.
EMP… ELF… Sometimes I hate military language.
“Extremely low frequency message,” Keena explained. “Russia, India, and America are the only countries with systems to send them, and we have three transmitters—in Wisconsin, Michigan, and across the Kaneohe Bay from us at the Marine Corps Base Station. If the carrier has a Reed-Solomon code page in its book, and someone catches it coming in…it could work.”
She didn’t sound confident.
“Danny, why can’t we just call them?” Tara asked.
“We could, but they’re in an open communication zone. Any message we send toward the mainland could be intercepted and put the entire ship at risk. If Qi Jia learned we had a boat out there, the mission would already be over. We’d be sinking our own boat.”
Tara didn’t like his response, but she was smart enough to know Danny would be pushing for calling the ship if it were even a reasonable option. Of the two most important people to him in the world, Kate was standing right beside him…and the other had been in that boat last night, too. Everyone knew Danny would do anything for Hayley.
I could see the wheels spinning in his head. He and Keena were going to work on putting a coded message together for Nicole to send. Best-case scenario, we’d have some form of response from the carrier in an hour or two. The governor promised to stay at the Hexagon all day, and he insisted Danny contact him for anything he needed.
Meanwhile, we were trying to figure out the answers to a dozen questions. Who or what fell overboard? Based on the heat signature sizes the fuzzy infrared feed had shown us, it didn’t appear to be either of the kids, but we couldn’t be certain. Still, that deduction had been a little settling to Tara. Her eyes and voice communicated hope that Emily was alive.
That left Reagan, Hayley, Sam, and Lazzo. None of us believed it was Hayley, as Sam surely would’ve gone overboard to save her, even risking his own life. But wouldn’t Hayley have done the same for anyone—everyone—else? Though none of us wanted to say it aloud, I was pretty sure we were all of the same mindset. Sam hadn’t done this, and Reagan would have never put her little sister in danger. If someone had hurt one of the others and taken the rest prisoner, the offender had to be Lazzo.
So where did he take them? The other members of the Pack had maps of Kauai spread out across the tables in Blake’s office. According to the areas Nicole had told us were blacked out, there were only three main roads they could have gone on and stayed out of sight. It could take days to search that area, and by then the aircraft carrier would be halfway to the mainland. We don’t have that much time. And what about that boat with the two people in it? Who was that? Lazzo and…? Or was it not Lazzo at all?
Danny, Blake, and Keena joined the other Pack members at the tables. They were dividing everyone up into search groups. Keena was going to stay in Blake’s office with Jenna to monitor the computer and keep in touch with Area 52. Axel was going to take the rest of the Pack and Tara—who insisted on going—over to Kauai so they could begin their search. Then he was going to come back for Dad and me to go searching for the missing boat, even though none of us thought we’d find it. Kate and Kaci volunteered to stay with Ollie.
Before heading out, Danny reconnected with Nicole. “Nicole, here’s the ELF I want you to send. USS GW. Two stowaways on board. Potential terrorists. Identities unknown. Search and report.”
I was a little uneasy about Danny using the word terrorist—what if Hayley was one of them—but I understood he wanted the carrier to take the threat seriously. Surely they wouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later.
Nicole read the message back to him, and Danny confirmed it. Then everyone split. We all had important jobs to do and no time to waste doing them.
FIFTEEN – Hide and Sleep (Hayley)
The last thing we wanted was for anyone on the carrier to know we were on board. The second-to-last thing we wanted was to hear the long shrill blasts of the alarm sounding throughout the ship. This can’t be normal. This can’t be good.
Lazzo immediately jumped to the worst conclusion. “Damn it, Hayley. I told you we couldn’t trust her.”
I didn’t say anything at first, and when I finally opened my mouth to speak, a loud voice boomed over the intercom, cutting me off. “Everyone report to the main deck immediately. Gather beneath the tower. Right now.” Captain Baker. Danny and Blake’s disdain for the guy made perfect sense to me now.
To be honest, I was kind of surprised. Even though I thought I’d pegged Flynn better than that, I couldn’t fault her. I probably would have done the same. Why should she have covered for us? It was, however, curious it had taken this long for the alarm. It was almost 7:00 p.m. now, and she’d left here almost ten hours ago. If she’d been intent on outing us no matter what, wouldn’t she have gone directly to her dad? Had she eventually confided in her brother, and he’d turned us in? The timing of this wasn’t quite right.
Lazzo was fuming though, cursing me and shaking his fist, muttering over and over how we should have killed Flynn—and how he wasn’t going to listen to me again. I finally turned to him and snapped, “Will you shut up?”
“Don’t—” He raised a finger and pointed it at my face.
“Well, what do you want me to say? If I was wrong about her, then yes, it was a stupid move. You think I don’t know that?” He looked angry, but what was he going to do? Hit me? “On the other hand—”
“There is no other hand.” He didn’t let me finish, and I rolled my eyes. “We need to move somewhere else, Hayley.”
“Lazzo, will you stop being so damn stupid?” I knew I was pushing it, but I almost wanted him to hit me. I wanted him to give me a reason to hate him more than I already did, if that was even possible. “If she went to her dad, don’t you think he would have come directly to where we are with all his men? Jeez, think about it.” I could see I’d finally gotten through to him.