Distant Echoes (6 page)

“One more thing,” he said as she went toward the door.

She turned.

“I have an assignment for you.”

Kaia waited, wondering why he didn’t look at her.

Curtis glanced up and caught her gaze finally. “The navy needs some help, and I’ve agreed to assign you to them.”

She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “Who needs help?”

“The navy.” He finally met her gaze. “Specifically, I’ve assigned you to work with Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews.”

“You just gave me only two months to get results. I can’t be spending my time anywhere but on my research.”

“I’ve already promised our help.”

“You want me to fail, is that it?” Her eyes burned, and she fought to keep her composure. “The offer of two months’ trial was just a bone?”

“I can have Jenny take Nani and help Matthews if you’d rather. You could concentrate on the other two dolphins.”

He was boxing her into a corner. “Nani is a free dolphin. She doesn’t have to cooperate.”

“Jenny assured me the dolphin would work with her too.”

He was right. Nani loved Jenny too. She would come if either of them called. Jenny was good, but she wasn’t as attached to Nani as Kaia was. The best chance Kaia had to make sure her dolphin wasn’t injured was to take charge of the project herself.

The words seemed stuck in her throat. She swallowed. “Fine. I’ll just have to work with Nani on my time off. I’ll prove to you she can do it.”

“Don’t act like this is the end of the world, Kaia.”

“How did Jesse get to you? Did he threaten the lab?” She wouldn’t put it past him. He was probably a man who was used to getting his own way.

“Of course not. Not everything is a big conspiracy, Kaia. You probably don’t know this, but my father had a hand in creating the missile defense system that’s under testing right now.” His pride shone through in his smile. “Though Dad is gone, I want to do everything I can to help make sure this system is implemented. My brother’s business is tied to the project as well. I couldn’t refuse their request for help.”

“I bet he was smug.” She could imagine his self-satisfied smirk.

“I imagine he will be happy when he hears.”

“You didn’t talk to him?

Curtis shook his head. “My brother is a friend of his, and he asked on the commander’s behalf.”

“Figures.” How like a military man to go through channels instead of asking right out, though she admitted to herself he had asked her. She’d just turned him down, and he couldn’t take no for an answer.

“This isn’t all bad, Kaia. We’ll have the opportunity to observe Nani using all the skills you’ve worked so hard to hone. The two of you make a heck of a team. You’ll be able to work with her out in the ocean.”

Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one who would have to put up with being ordered around by Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews.

J
esse surveyed the ransacked office. Files littered the floor, metal drawers stood open, and chairs had been upended. It looked more like the work of vandals than that of a serious saboteur. Generally, spies tried to cover their tracks. If spies had done this, they were either insolent or incompetent.

He turned to his aide. “What’s missing?”

“Some papers on the missile system,” Ensign Masters said.

The shave ice he’d wolfed down sat in his stomach like a lump of cold lava. “How did this happen?”

“Someone came ashore last night, slipped through our defenses. Security detected no breach, but I found this when I opened the door.” Ensign Masters swept his hand over the room.

“Was anyone injured?”

Masters shook his head and pointed to an open window. “Whoever it was came in there and bypassed the guard outside.”

Jesse had no idea how that could be accomplished. “Post a guard inside this room from now on.”

“Yes sir.”

Jesse’s cell phone rang and he answered it.

The man on the other end identified himself as an SP on duty at the entrance. “Your sister is at the front gate, Commander.”

“Jillian?” Their other sister, Livia, was in Africa the last time he heard.

“Yes sir. Jillian Sommers and her daughter are here to see you.” The man’s voice betrayed no emotion.

“I’ll be right there.” He left the ransacked office in Masters’s capable hands and headed to his Jeep. He slung his long legs under the wheel and took off with the wind in his hair. He barely missed a flock of chickens crossing the road. He braked at the entrance and found his sister leaning against a rental car in the pull-off outside the security gate. Heidi was squatting in the sand watching an anthill. Her favorite bear, Boo, was clutched under her arm.

“How’re my girls today?”

Heidi’s head jerked around and she bounded to Jesse, throwing herself into his arms. “Uncle Jesse!”

He swung her around and kissed her soundly on the cheek then turned to his sister. Jillian had lost weight since he’d seen her last. Her high cheekbones were more pronounced, and she was pale beneath her tan, though she still looked younger
than her thirty-seven years. Her ashy blond hair lay against her head in wisps without its usual curl and bounce. Jesse wanted to strangle his brother-in-law, Noah. And if he could find him, he would, but Noah had disappeared after he’d broken Jillian’s heart.

“Hi, sis,” he said. He threw his right arm around her and gave her a hug while holding Heidi with the other hand.

“Hi, Jesse. Sorry to drop in on you unannounced, but when you didn’t answer the message I left on your answering machine, I came anyway.”

“Something wrong? I haven’t been to my place in two days. You could have tried my cell phone.” He shuffled Heidi to his back, where she wrapped her legs around his waist like a monkey and dangled Boo in front of his nose.

“I tried but it said the number was no longer in service.”

“Oh rats, I forgot to give you the new number.”

Jillian nodded. “That’s what I figured.” Jillian looked at her shoes. “Jesse, I have to go to Italy. I tried to get out of it, but it was either go or lose my job. With Noah gone, I have to work.” Her attempt at a smile fell short. “They promised no longer than a month. I’m going to have to take you up on your offer to keep Heidi. Livia is out of touch in Africa. You still cool with it?”

Jesse hated the false optimism in her voice. She used to be so sunny and genuinely cheerful. Nothing ever got her down. Pollyanna, he’d always called her. She was trying to maintain that spirit for Heidi’s sake, but he could hear the desperation under the surface.

“I haven’t heard from Livia in a couple of months either. The Peace Corps must have her in the wilds where she can’t get to a computer. She wouldn’t be much help anyway. Africa is no place for the monkey.” He hitched Heidi higher on his back. “What about Aunt Irene?” He lowered his voice. “This isn’t a good time for me. Base security has been compromised.”

“I’m not going to Aunt Irene’s.” Heidi dropped her legs from his waist, and he let her down. She came around to face him with her arms folded over her chest and a mutinous thrust to her chin. “She makes me go to bed at seven like a baby. And she always nags me about being ladylike. I
hate
wearing dresses!”

Which was the final word, as far as she was concerned. She flounced away and went to sit in the car. Jesse sighed and turned back to his sister. “I’ll have to find someone to watch her. I’m working long hours at the base.”

Jillian looked suddenly decisive. “I’ll just tell them I’m not going. Maybe I can find another job.”

She turned her head, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes. “This has been your dream all your life,” he said. “You can’t quit. I’d love to keep the monkey. We’ll figure it out. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for you. You have to go.” Feeling like the most inept man alive, he patted her on the shoulder. Her tears made him feel he was twelve again and standing at the blackboard with no clue to the right answers.

He hoped having some goal would help his sister get over what Noah had done. He dropped his voice and placed his body so Heidi couldn’t hear from the car. “Noah is bound to surface at some point. Maybe he’ll be in Italy as well. There has to be some reason for what he did.”

“What could there be, Jesse?” Jillian wiped at her face. “He took all my research and published it under his own name. What kind of man would do that to his wife? He
stole
from me. And to top if off, he vanished without a trace just before the journal came off the press.”

“I know, I know,” Jesse soothed. At least she was getting mad again. He much preferred an angry Jillian to a sad one. How could he care for Heidi though? All he knew about children was that they liked to be carted on his back and they made a lot of messes. He still remembered the way Heidi had smeared Jillian’s lipstick all over his boots one night.

Of course, she’d only been a year old, he reminded himself.

Jesse let out his breath. “Don’t worry about Heidi. I’ll take care of her. You just go and make some brilliant new discovery.” He didn’t know what he was getting himself into or who he could find to help, but maybe a teenage girl out of school for the summer would want to earn some extra money.

Jillian chewed her lip. “I don’t know, Jesse. Maybe I should just quit. I hate to leave Heidi.”

He forced optimism into his voice. “And deprive me of her company? We’ll have a great time.”

A truck pulled up to the gate. He heard low voices, then a female voice began to shout to be allowed on the base. That irate tone sounded familiar, and he turned to look. Kaia’s angry gaze met his.

She looked like she was about to spear a whale, and he was in the direct line of fire.

Four

J
esse had the audacity to smile, his teeth nearly as white as his service uniform. The air had ruffled his sun-streaked hair and left it boyishly tousled as he stood, hat in hand, talking to a woman beside a car. Kaia had a feeling he wouldn’t be reprimanded easily.

She wasn’t sure she could keep from crying while she yelled at him. His demands just might cost her the research project. She got out of the truck, leaving it running where it sat blocking the main gate.

The SP stepped in front of her with his hand on his gun. Jesse waved him away. “She’s fine. I don’t think she’s dangerous.” He lifted a brow. “Though I could be wrong.”

A lot he knew. The way she felt right now, she could toss him from the top of Mount Kilauea as a tasty treat for Pele, the goddess of fire.

He held up his hands as she drew near. “Truce. We’re going to be working together for the next few weeks. Let’s not start out squabbling.”

“Squabbling? I have every right to be upset. You knew I didn’t want to work with you, but you went around my back to my boss. That’s low, Commander Matthews.”

“I was looking out for the good of the country. And call me Jesse.”

From the coaxing expression in his eyes, she knew he expected her to be dazzled by the brilliance of his smile. She wasn’t. “My responsibility is to look out for my dolphins. I’m warning you right now that Nani had better not be in danger.” Kaia blinked rapidly. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

A frown replaced his smile. “If I thought you or your dolphin would be hurt, I wouldn’t have asked for your help. It’s a simple assignment, Kaia. Patrolling offshore, that’s all I ask. The navy hasn’t lost a dolphin in combat yet.”

“Maybe not in combat, but their callous handling has resulted in several deaths,” she snapped.

He nodded. “Those dolphins weren’t able to withstand the shock of transportation. We’re not taking Nani anywhere.”

He seemed so earnest and sincere. She wished she could believe him. “It seems I have no choice. What do I have to do?” Instead of answering, Jesse turned to the woman standing next to him. Kaia suddenly felt embarrassed by her outburst. “I’d like you to meet someone, Jillian. This is Kaia Oana. She does dolphin research.”

Jillian and Jesse shared the same blond hair and blue eyes, though Jillian was slim and petite, and her eyes were rimmed in red. Something was going on here. Kaia shook Jillian’s hand. “It’s easy to see the two of you are related.”

A small voice piped up from an invisible source. “Dolphins? You have dolphins? I’m an expert on them. What kind do you have—bottle-nosed or spinners?”

Jesse stepped aside and grinned at a little girl, a small but happier replica of Jillian, who was leaning out the car window. “I think Heidi knows more about dolphins than most trainers. This is my niece. She lives, sleeps, and breathes dolphins.”

Kaia’s
anger began to cool. “You’ll have to come meet Nani then. She’s bottle-nosed.”

“She’s yours?” Heidi asked, her eyes round.

“Well, not exactly. She and some other dolphins are part of a research project at Seaworthy Labs where I work. We have some captive dolphins and others like Nani, who are free. We treat the wild dolphins more like friends. They can come and go as they please, and we don’t train them with food deprivation. We’re working on interacting with language.”

“Food deprivation?” Heidi stepped out of the car and joined the threesome.

Kaia nodded. “The dolphins perform for food. They only want the food if they’re hungry, so in the beginning at least, most trainers keep the dolphins slightly hungry. We don’t do that.”

“That’s cool! How many wild dolphins do you have?” Heidi dropped her suitcase at her uncle’s feet.

“Three. Nani, Liko, and Mahina. Mahina is still a calf though.”

“When can I see them? I’m going to stay with Uncle Jesse while Mom chases volcanoes.”

“Volcanoes?” Kaia looked at Jillian with a question in her eyes, and the other woman nodded.

“I’m a volcanologist. Vesuvius is about to blow in Italy for the first time this century.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Kaia said, then wondered if she should have mentioned the danger in front of Jillian’s daughter. But the girl seemed too busy twirling the tie on her shirt to notice Kaia’s bad choice of words.

Kaia glanced into Jillian’s eyes and was surprised to find no excitement there in spite of her smile. Maybe it was the prospect of leaving her daughter. Kaia guessed her to be in her mid to late thirties. Her listless air detracted from her porcelain-doll good looks.