Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(52)

Wayan Bagus put his hand on Vernon’s shoulder. “It is written by the Sage that you, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

“Thanks, Little Buddy,” Vernon said. “Right back at you.”

Alani returned with a key and handed it to Emerson. “You’re all set. I have to get to work at the observatory. Call me on my cell if you need anything.”

Alani had given them an accurate description of the dormitory room. It was a small, serviceable room with two sets of bunk beds and a distant view of the Bradshaw Army Airfield. A telescope had been placed on a tripod next to the window.

Wayan Bagus looked around the room and out the window. The sun was up and the clouds had disappeared, revealing a breathtaking view of South Kohala all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

“This is very nice,” Wayan Bagus said. “I’ve never been on a stakeout. I’m having such a good time saving the world that I almost don’t care if we find my stolen island.”

“We’ll find it,” Emerson said, peering through the telescope and adjusting it to focus on the runway.

“Now what?” Riley asked.

“We wait,” Emerson said.

Over the next several hours, a steady stream of airplanes landed on the airstrip, but none were carrying cargo or any passengers wearing park ranger uniforms.

Vernon groaned and tilted his head back. “Here’s something they don’t tell you about stakeouts. They’re really, really boring.”

“It’s about to get really, really exciting,” Emerson said, turning the telescope over to Riley.

Riley focused on a medium-size jet taxiing down the runway. It had two crossed sabers and a number one above them painted on the side of the plane.

“For a secret society, they’re not very good at keeping themselves under the radar,” Riley said.

“Pure arrogance,” Emerson said. “They’ve been an untouchable secret quasi-military unit for the past hundred years and don’t think anybody can take them out.”

“What chance do we have then?” Vernon asked.

Emerson watched the plane pull up to the terminal and power down. “If we can expose the secret they’re protecting, they’ll no longer be useful and will become more of a liability than an asset.”

“They’re crazy,” Riley said. “If we expose them, they’ll destroy Yellowstone and who knows what else. You heard Spiro. He said we’d find Armageddon waiting for us in Hawaii. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds really bad.”

Emerson focused the telescope on the plane’s door. “Then we’ll just have to steal the super-weapon they’re creating here on Hawaii, find a way to neutralize Tin Man, and then expose the secret to the world.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a walk in the park. We can do that, no problemo,” Riley said. “And then we can end world hunger by growing tomatoes on the moon.”

The plane’s door opened, and Emerson watched as the pilots walked down the stairs and waited for the passengers to disembark.

“They’re coming out now,” Emerson said. “It’s Tin Man and Bart Young. An SUV is driving onto the tarmac to meet them. And now two Rough Riders wearing khaki uniforms and campaign hats are unloading something from the cargo storage into the SUV.”

“Is it the Penning trap?” Riley asked.

“It’s a crate, but it’s the right size to contain the Penning trap.”

Emerson watched as Tin Man and Bart Young climbed into the SUV with the two soldiers. They drove through the airfield’s gate and onto Saddle Road. After a quarter mile, the SUV turned left onto a rough Jeep trail and headed into the barren wasteland.

“Where are they going?” Riley asked. “The army base is in the other direction. There’s nothing where they’re heading but lava desert.”

Emerson watched them drive for a couple more minutes in silence. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“You found their base?”

Emerson looked up from the telescope and turned to face Riley. “Not exactly. It turns out there is someplace to hide. They’ve disappeared.”

Riley looked through the telescope. There was still a cloud of dust where the SUV had passed, but no SUV. She scanned the surrounding area. Nothing but miles and miles of desert without a structure in sight.

“That’s impossible,” she said.

“It’s improbable,” Emerson said. “Clearly it’s possible, because it happened.”

“Maybe that SUV is with Little Buddy’s island,” Vernon said. “Like they both got sucked into one of them black holes and got spit out someplace else.”

Emerson returned to the telescope. “What do you think happened to the SUV?” he asked Riley.

Riley allowed herself a grimace. “I’ve got nothing.”

“So what are we going to do now?” Vernon asked. “Do we go out to look for the black hole?”

Emerson lay down on one of the bunk beds. “Nothing. We do nothing. The universe will provide the answer.”

“We can’t sit around in this hotel room forever wu wei waiting on the universe,” Riley said. “We’re sort of in a time crunch. Tin Man plans to destroy Sour Creek Dome in less than a week if we don’t either get ourselves killed or stop him first.”