He sat on the cot and closed his eyes, his mind drifting off to his brother, as it did daily. Had Lazzo ever made it to Hawaii? Eddie had never heard. He’d pleaded for any information, good or bad, but had always been ignored. Was it possible at all that he was still alive? And what about that envelope he’d handed to Lazzo before he flew the Americans away? What was in it? No one had told him anything. But someone was coming to see him today. Today, he’d been told, was a big day.
Today was a big day. Lazzo stepped out of his cool dark room and into the light breezy hallway of the Big House. He looked around. Nothing on the horizon but clear blue sky and the glistening waters of the Pacific. He smiled. Same old, same old. If only Eddie were here. His older brother would love this place. Lazzo crossed the bridge to the bathhouse, took a quick shower, and headed downstairs to see what everyone else was doing.
He met Hayley on the stairs. “Hey, Hayley.”
“It sounds like you’re stuttering when you say that, Laz.”
“It does, doesn’t it?”
Hayley laughed. “You going to Oahu with us later?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to. But not really feeling well.”
“That sucks.” She gently patted Lazzo’s shoulder and continued up the stairs. “Have some of Cotter’s coffee. That will perk you up.”
“The British don’t know how to make coffee, man.” Lazzo laughed. “That stuff tastes like—”
“Yo,” Royce hollered up the stairs. “There’s a kid down here. Or I’d have already shut you up.”
“Don’t worry, Lazzo,” Hayley called back. “Royce is just messing with you.”
“The hell I am.”
“Cotter!” Deacon scolded. “The kid…”
Abbey was giggling at this point. “I’ve heard you guys say much worse.”
“Sorry.” Royce shook his head. He glared at Lazzo but offered him a cup of coffee anyway. Lazzo accepted it.
Hayley stuck her head over the railing. “Where is everyone else?”
Deacon pointed out at the water. “Danny’s out there with Emily and Six. Trigger and Twix, too. Axel and Sam went over to Kauai for wood and rope with Blake and your grandfather. Kate, Reagan, and Jenna are over at Kaci’s with Keena.”
“And Dad?”
“Ryan was just here. Not sure where he went. I leave anyone out?”
“You forgot Dice,” Abbey chimed in.
“Ah, yes.” Deacon smiled. “The dog. The other dog. Dice went with the girls. It’s a lot of people to keep track of.”
“And dogs.”
“Yes, Abbey, and dogs.” Deacon flashed her a goofy grin.
“Tell me about it,” Hayley answered. “When are we going to Oahu? I’m ready to shop.”
“Soon as Axel brings the plane back,” Royce replied.
Axel landed the plane in Redemption’s cove about an hour later. Those going to Oahu had gathered there—thirteen people, including Axel. Only Reagan, Lazzo, Tara, and Ollie were staying at the island. The plane could safely hold eight people, so Axel took two trips. The Pack—Danny, Blake and the selected six—had a meeting at the Hexagon. Everyone else was heading to Pearl Harbor to shop the supply freighter that had arrived from Australia this morning. This was the one opportunity—every month or two—to stock up on books, groceries, and other supplies. It was rare anyone chose to skip it.
Navigating the freighters to Hawaii was tricky. It took roughly three weeks for each ship to get here through enemy-watched—and pirate-infested—waters. The first thousand miles, ships were safe—inside the friendly Australian security net—and the last thousand miles, they were in our coverage area. But the ten or eleven days—and 2,500 plus open miles—in between were unprotected and indefensible. They had to get lucky. They had to catch the pirates off guard.
From the Hexagon, intelligence officers did their best to monitor the open space, intercepting messages between enemy ships, launching “hot pockets”—rockets with beacons—to lure the enemy ships away, then maneuvering the freighters through enemy radar zones. Even still, the odds of a successful crossing were still barely fifty-fifty. Our own communication was easy to intercept, and the freighters weren’t exactly speedy. We’d lost a dozen or so ships heading each direction since we’d connected with Australia, including one leaving Hawaii filled with American survivors and one coming the other way with allied soldiers. As a result, for the time being, we’d stopped moving people and focused more on importing the essentials—food, fuel, medical supplies, and water.
SIX – Area 52 (Danny)
There was a rickety staircase clinging to Oahu’s Pu’ukeahiakahoe Mountain known as the Haiku Stairs—or Stairway to Heaven. The stairs were completed in 1942, and a radio transceiver was added at the summit of the 2,500-foot ascent—overlooking Kaneohe Bay—for aerial and nautical communication purposes. When the Hexagon opened at the mountain’s base in 2019—twenty miles from Hickam Air Force Base and Pearl Harbor—the government fenced off the entire mountain and installed guard posts every 250 yards with remote motion-controlled high-powered rifles and radar grids locking the entire area down. To the casual observer the security system appeared unmanned—a technological marvel. In truth, operatives in the Hexagon monitored it 24/7.
The security system had been the source of controversy locally, as many a trespassing person had attempted—unsuccessfully—to survive the climb to the top. Murdering mountain climbers seemed a bit extreme but the government wanted to make it clear that it took national security seriously. Safer to be an international terrorist than a backpacking tourist, I guess.
In all fairness, the government had sufficient reason for wanting to eliminate access to Pu’ukeahiakahoe’s peak. The old war transceiver had not only been rebuilt but also fortified. It was now the heart of the Hawaiian islands’ Shield defense system. If anyone manually disconnected the power at the top, or destroyed the transceiver altogether, the islands would be unable to defend themselves. No one knew that secret kryptonite, of course, except the governor, Reagan, and me—via the Elephant Box—and the four Department of Defense operatives who had been on duty during the chemical attacks. Those operatives were now solely responsible for Pu’ukeahiakahoe’s nonstop observation and maintenance. Though not official military personnel, they were some of the world’s most advanced electronic techies—a digital task force (DTF). They never left the Hexagon—ever—and no one other than the governor, Reagan, and I even knew who they were. In fact—supposedly—no one else alive even knew their wing in the Hexagon existed.
That had changed a month ago when I took the Pack in. I wanted them to understand the entirety of the defense system, and for the operatives to know they had additional security if they ever needed it—even if we were a hundred miles away most of the time. Each member of the Pack and the governor was given a custom built solar-powered tablet and modernized waterproof communication pager—courtesy of the DTF—that looked like a dog tag. We all wore them around our necks. One side of the pager was metal, the other obsidian, and the tag could slide perfectly into a port on the tablet. Once a tag was inserted into a tablet, we could read the daily intel reports from the Hexagon, and send private messages to each other that only the designated recipient could read.