On Kauai, the marina buildings and houses lining the west coast—including the prisoner compound—had been demolished. Left in their place were piles of trees, mounds of mud, and mountains of debris. There were a few people moving about the debris, but Damien wasn’t able to identify the Pack specifically—by satellite—and their beacons weren’t showing up on Area 52’s tablet. That, in and of itself, wasn’t alarming—yet.
Oahu had been hit as well, but the damage here didn’t appear to be as bad. The surge level hadn’t reached nearly as high—though a dozen ships had been flipped in Pearl Harbor.
As soon as the power had been restored on the islands Stacy and Dewey came back down from the transmitter. They claimed to have been shocked pretty good—manually powering up the Shield—but were both otherwise fine. They had the next shift so they went to get some sleep.
Nicole thought she should check on the governor, given that he likely had no idea what was going on. Damien’s goals were to find the Pack, try to contact them and remove the blackout zone covering Redemption. He had no way of knowing the extent of damage out there, but he was assuming—based on Ni’ihau’s feed—that it was bad.
It took him twenty minutes to get a satellite feed of Redemption established and the imagery horrified him. Only a handful of trees remained upright, there were no buildings of any kind and thermal scanning revealed only two red dots—there were only two survivors. Damien managed to track down a chopper pilot and instructed him to get out to Redemption as soon as it was safe enough to fly out. Even with his training and skills, the pilot told Damien it would be another hour or so before the hurricane would allow air travel. They’d have to wait.
When Nicole reached the governor’s mansion, she was drenched through to the bone. She rang the doorbell multiple times, and he answered the door himself. He ushered her into the main room, eager to know what was going on. “What took you guys so long to get here? Why didn’t anyone come check on me?”
“Sir, why didn’t you come to the Hexagon?”
“I was ordered to stay here, no matter what.” His reply was calmer, but still loaded with frustration.
“And even in all this—you thought this was the best place to be?”
“Well…” Barnes handed Nicole a towel and some of his wife’s gym clothes he’d grabbed from the laundry room. “I’ve erred before by not following my instructions. This time I just did as I was told.”
Nicole wrapped a towel around her waist. “Okay.”
He turned away so Nicole could change, and she quickly shed her wet clothes. “The power outage scared the shit out of me though.”
“We had to do it.” Nicole tossed the sports bra on the couch. The governor’s wife was petite. That wasn’t going to work.
“What?” the governor turned his head slightly sideways watching her in the mirror as she pulled a shirt over her head.
“I said we had to.” Nicole met his gaze in the mirror and he quickly looked away. “We had to shut the power off for the rescue attempt.” She pulled a hooded sweatshirt on over the shirt and stepped into the laundry room to toss her clothes in the dryer.
“Rescue attempt? But what if you guys had been—”
“We shut the power down everywhere.” She knew what he was worried about. “The Hexagon, all the islands—everything. No one knew what we were doing.”
“The Shield too?”
“Everything.” Nicole nodded. “For three hours. We didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t take the chance anyone could tip them off.”
“So, did it work?”
Nicole paused. “We don’t know.”
“You don’t know? How do you not—”
“Well.” Nicole took a deep breath and shook her head. “When the power was off, we were slammed by a meteotsunami.”
“A what?”
“Storm surge on steroids, basically.”
“Holy shit.” Barnes sat down. “Hurricanes don’t…storm surge?”
“Yes, sir.” Nicole sat down across from him. “Damien’s trying to get some answers now—from Kauai and Redemption. We haven’t reached the Pack or anyone else out there yet. We know the prison compound house and walls in Kauai are completely gone. There’s nothing there—nothing but rubble.”
“But my wife—” It suddenly occurred to him that Nicole might not know his wife was being held captive.
“We know she was there.” Nicole read his mind.
“You do?” The governor looked up at her.
She nodded. “The Pack filled us in.”
“Shit.” Barnes put his head in his hands.
“Sir, I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”
He looked at her again. “But you know what I’ve done?”
Her bobbing head confirmed his fears. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s all my fault. All of this—”
“Sir, I’m sorry.” Nicole moved over and sat beside him, placing her hand on his knee. “But that’s just not true. I don’t know of anyone who wouldn’t have done exactly what you did.”
“Nicole, I appreciate what you’re trying to do—and what you’re saying—but no one else is the governor. I vowed never to do exactly what I have done.” Barnes stood and walked over to the window.
“Sir, you’re human, and even if what you did defied all national security protocols, you did it for love—you did it for your wife. There’s no question you’ll lose your job, and you probably deserve to, but that doesn’t mean—”
“It was wrong no matter what, Nicole.” He sighed deeply and stared out into the darkness. “Did that metro-whatever hit us too?”
“It did,” she replied, standing as well. “A little. There’s some damage in Pearl Harbor, but not nearly as…” She paused. “Not nearly as bad.”
“Nothing from Danny’s family yet? Nothing from anyone out there?”
Nicole shook her head. “No, sir. No contact at all from Redemption.”
“Do you think it’s okay if I go with you to the Hexagon now?”
“Yes, sir. Let’s go.” Nicole stood. “You have any rain jackets.”
“For?”
“Grab ‘em.” Nicole walked towards the door. “We’ll need them.”
“It’s just rain. We’ll be all right.” Barnes followed her to the door.
“Trust me, sir.” Nicole held the door open for him, pulling the hood up on her sweatshirt. “It’s not just rain.”
FIFTY-SEVEN – Corner of a Circle (Hayley)
Danny must have heard the shot. I know he did. But I hadn’t heard a response from him yet, or seen him for that matter. All I could see were the men spreading out in a circle around me. It was getting light quickly—had to be close to 6:00 a.m.—and in minutes they’d have their kill shot. My bow was useless at this point, as I’d never be able to kneel—or stand—and aim before they’d get me. They knew exactly where I was and probably had me pinned by a sniper or two—beyond the six of them.
Two quick shots thundered through the valley. Then another two. Or maybe they were single shots with echoes. I couldn’t tell. Another bullet tore a chunk of rock off above my head. I flinched and ducked even lower than I already was. Do they think I’m shooting blindly at them from behind this rock?
Another four shots rang out—or two with echoes—this time from below me to my right. I hadn’t even seen anyone coming that way. Crap. I’m more exposed than I thought. I pulled my body in tightly, making myself as small as possible, and closed my eyes tightly.