The main room was visible on our screen now. Danny came out of the interrogation room and into view. We watched him flip a cart full of papers and books. Everyone in the room—here on Redemption and there in Area 52—seemed to jump at once. Danny walked directly toward Blake. “This is your fault.” His punch caught Blake by surprise, and he spilled backward over the table.
Blake hit the floor and bounced right back up, rubbing his jaw. “Danny, what the hell? What did she say? Whatever it was you can’t possibly believe her. Did she say I’m the mole?”
Jenna and Kaci were beside Keena and me, screaming at Danny through the screen. He couldn’t hear them—of course—as he rounded the table, still going after Blake. Trigger and Twix moved in between them as Danny continued shouting. “I know what you did, you son of a bitch. They’re all dead because of you.”
“Danny, it wasn’t me—”
“Shut up.” Danny lunged at Blake, but Twix grabbed him. “Just shut up. Don’t you see what you’ve done? If you would have just gone along like you were supposed to. If you would have just done your job!”
“But you—”
“Don’t you dare. This is all on you. If anything happens to Hayley, it’s all on you.” Danny clawed at Twix, but the Navy SEAL held him back.
I shared Jenna and Kaci’s bewilderment, but I remained silent. I had heard everything in the other room—or I thought I had. But Danny seemed possessed by something else now. This didn’t seem to have anything to do with what Nicole had told him. What the hell are you doing, Danny?
Danny raged on. “I trusted you to take care of Hayley. You…Blake… if she’s dead, so help me God…”
Blake looked stunned. Danny slumped to the floor, and Twix turned toward Trigger and Blake. “Get him out of here,” Danny said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I don’t ever want to see him again.”
“Okay, this doesn’t make any sense?” I revealed my frustration to the rest of the room. “This isn’t Blake’s fault…”
“Ryan,” Dad chimed in.
“What?” I snapped.
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. You and Keena listened to the entire conversation in the interrogation room. Isn’t all this related to that?”
“What did Nicole say?” Kaci was yelling at me now. “Seriously? He just beat the crap out of my brother. What did she say about him?”
“Nothing.” I looked at Keena for support. “Did we hear anything about Blake in there?” Keena just shook her head.
Deacon spoke up. “Put it this way, Ryan…if you’re confused, I’m sure the mole is too. I’m with your pops on this one. I don’t know why Danny just did that, but he sure made it look good.”
Twix and Trigger quickly escorted Blake out of the room as he yelled back at Danny, “Come on… what did I do? Danny…” He sounded like he was going to cry.
We heard Twix tell him to shut up, and they were gone.
My eyes were now fixed on Danny sitting on the floor. Kate walked over to him and knelt beside him. He buried his head in her shoulder, and she sat there in silence, rubbing his back.
Jenna and Kaci remained glued beside me, eyes fixated on the screen, still trying to get some clue as to what had happened and why. We watched as Danny slowly stood up and walked out of the room, in the opposite direction of where they’d taken Blake. Kate watched him walk away, and then Nicole helped her up. “I’m sorry,” I heard Nicole say to Kate. “I wish I could—”
Kate quieted her. “It’s not your fault. We should have trusted you.” And then Kate walked out of the room the way Blake had exited.
Jenna turned to me. “Ryan, what—”
I could only shrug and look at my dad and Deacon. “Honestly, don’t ask me.”
Jenna’s sudden concern for Blake was interesting. When we’d first come to Hawaii, she and Blake had been pretty close—almost a couple. Apparently it had been some kind of rebound after Cameron’s death for Jenna, or Blake had been unwilling to risk hurting her—who knew—but one of them had called it off for some reason. And now Jenna was back to wearing Cameron’s ring, and she and Blake didn’t spend much time alone together. But clearly there was still something there.
An hour later, everyone arrived back at Redemption—except for Blake. Kaci and Jenna ran down the dock in a fury toward Danny, but Trigger and Twix cut them off. “Easy,” Twix said.
“Danny, what the hell did you do?” Jenna screamed. “What did Blake have to—”
“How dare you blame this on Blake.” Kaci pointed her finger at him, trying to squeeze past Trigger.
“Let them through, guys,” Danny said wearily. The girls slipped past Trigger and Twix. “Kaci, Jenna…he’s fine. Blake and I are good.”
“What do you mean?” Kaci yelled. “That wasn’t fine!”
Yeah, what? I was so confused. “Danny, I listened to that entire conversation, and there was nothing even said about Bla—”
“Calm down. All of you. I had to take precautions based on what Nicole told us in that room. Someone at Area 52 is watching us. Someone is making sure this plan doesn’t get derailed. Nicole told us a lot, but I couldn’t hang her out to dry. I couldn’t let anyone think I even suspected her.”
“But Blake—”
“Kaci, I know this is hard to understand.” Danny reached out for her arm, but she stepped away. “I had to make the real mole feel as safe now as they were before I walked into that room. I don’t care who it was—which one of them—but I know it’s not Blake.”
“But—”
This time when Danny reached out for her she didn’t move away. “However,” Danny continued. “I needed to put Blake in place in case I’m right. I couldn’t use anyone else. No one would ever believe I could take on either of these guys.” He pointed to Trigger and Twix. “They’d kill me. Blake was the only one who would take it—even if he could probably kill me too.”
We were silent, listening. Seems Dad and Deacon were right. “So Blake knew—”
“No, Blake didn’t know I was going to hit him. He had no idea what I was yelling at him about. I couldn’t warn him, and I couldn’t let him speak. It needed to be real. He needed to be surprised.”
“I don’t think surprised is the right word.” I shook my head.
“Fine, then maybe it worked. Hopefully it worked. If you listened to the entire conversation and still don’t get it, then the mole will probably be just as confused.”
“I get it now.”
“Okay, Dad.” Danny didn’t sound like he believed me. “Anyway, I told Twix to get him out of the room immediately, and I sent Kate after him to explain it all. She took him to the airport and had Axel hide him on a plane.”
“Hide him?” Kaci was still lost.
“What’s in the book?” I asked.
“Yes.” Danny nodded to Kaci first, before he answered me. “I can’t tell you what’s in the book, Dad, but you have a pretty good idea how important it is. Lazzo took Hayley so I’d be forced to bring the book to him—though nothing in it would be of any use to him personally, so he clearly intends to turn it over to someone. That’s what I gathered from that conversation with Nicole. It’s a gut feeling, but I think they’re having me come alone tonight with no intention of letting me come back here.”
“You think they’re going to kill you tonight? But I thought you said—”
“No, Dad. I don’t think that. The ‘come prepared’ on the note has to mean ‘bring the book.’ But I doubt they’d take it from me here on the islands—not with everyone knowing where they are. If anything happened to me tonight, they know they’re all dead. They have to be sending me somewhere else. The exchange will be taking place elsewhere.”