One relief in all of this was that Ethan could be kept occupied. He had a story to cover now. And there was also a juicy subplot for him—or so he’d probably like to think. Annica could tell, watching him sitting close and serious with Kalani, Ethan taking notes without breaking eye contact with the young security guard. Annica could tell things were quickly becoming personal for him. Better Kalani than her.

“Looks like Ethan has a new angle,” Jackson said, holding a towel. “The water’s back and running again.”

Annica turned to him and took the towel into her arms. It felt warm and clean. She was careful not to let it touch too much of her beach-covered body. She was warm and most definitely not clean.

Jackson said, “Maybe she’ll take the heat off you?”

“I thought the tsunami would have done that,” she said. “But he’s tenacious.”

“In hunting down a story?”

“And other things,” Annica said. “Where did you get her?”

“From the island.”

“I mean, how? You put an ad in the paper?”

“Wherever I go, I’ve always got my feelers out for extra help. It’s rare that someone passes all the tests, but when they do, I give them a call. Normally it’s just to see them in person, to see if they’re qualified. But this time, we actually needed the help, and we needed it in a hurry.”

“I’m not sure if Cole thinks she’s qualified.”

Jackson shrugged and said, “I heard there were some pleasantries.”

“He doesn’t trust her.”

“It’s understandable. But I don’t trust his friend, this Tommy person. I was happy to just dump him off at the hospital.”

“Cole wants to go.”

“He can’t,” Jackson said. “And we can’t let him.”

She tried to imagine a world where Cole would ask for that sort of permission, where they would be in charge of letting or not letting him do whatever his mind made up. A world like that didn’t exist.

“What’s wrong?” Jackson said. “Worried you can’t convince him for us?”

Annica shrugged. There was a joke to be made, but she didn’t go for it. She looked at how nice and clean the towel looked. A shower was so needed . . .

“He’ll believe us,” Jackson said, “when we can show him the proof. When it’s all said and done.”

“But how can you believe this girl so easily?”

“Kalani? We’ve vetted her. Background checks.”

“In hours?”

“Days. Her sister works at the Khan facility. There’s a personal connection.”

“Isn’t that a risk, too?”

“No,” he said. “She’s different. She’s the good sheep. Her sister, on the other hand . . . well, she’s the secretary of the captain. We all know what that entails.”

Annica didn’t. Well, she had a clue, but nothing made much sense. She also wasn’t curious. For the first time in her investigative career, she was happy to not know. “So, background checks?”

“We’ve also had Sam take a look at her,” Jackson said. “You know about Sam, right?”

She knew about Sam. Also known as the human lie-detector.

“We got her in a video call with him,” Jackson said. “Little did she know her vitals were also being monitored. She’s clean.”

“You gave her a drug test, too?”

“No,” Jackson said with a laugh. “But she’s no liar. Cole’s friend, on the other hand . . .”

“I’ll talk to him tonight.”

Jackson was smiling at her.

“What?” Annica said.

“Nothing. I was going to talk about it to Cole in my little speech, but maybe I’ll just leave that up to you. I think you speak his language.”

Annica thought so, too. At least she hoped she still did. In the events of the last hour, so much had changed. She hoped the way he felt about her wasn’t one of them.

* * *

She sat beside Cole during the briefing, careful not to let her hand wander to his body, to his leg, or into his hand. She wanted to feel him again, to let him know she was there. That she was more than just a briefing attendee, or even a teammate. But she settled for holding the towel that sat in her lap. After the proceedings, she would take a shower and then find her guest room outside. She thought of the bed there, clean and warm and in the safety of a mosquito net. And in the safety of Jackson’s defense team. She thought of sharing the bed with Cole. Her mind drifted in and out as Jackson spoke.

“. . . concluded that it was a very small earthquake. Well, an event big enough to shift all that water. But small for Hawaii. The tsunami, too. It actually hit our beach the hardest because of how steep the local ocean shelf is. But as you can see, it hardly made it a few feet up the cliffs. I’m sure the homeowner here would be happy to hear that. I know he won’t be too happy about his guests, how many of us, and what we do for a living. But hopefully this will be all wrapped up soon. Hopefully we can . . .”

She hoped it would wrap up and set her free. Free with Cole. Free to explore the possibilities.

“. . . moving away from the phone mission. In fact, we’re dropping that completely. We don’t have time for it, to sit back and wait for the data to come trickling in. I’ve talked to Cole about this, and he’s willing to step up for us, to breach enemy lies and come away with one of the captain’s laptops. That’s huge. We’re also in a rush because our intel has picked up on some emerging threats. Not threats to us, but to the facility. A rival operation is plotting some sort of attack, most likely with explosives blended into a shipment. It can be any shipment, at any time. And speaking of any time . . . USGS is saying that earthquake was just an appetizer. So who knows what’s coming our way. Earthquakes, tsunamis, bombs . . . At least we know we got our own weapon on the job. Take a bow, Cole.”

There was a quiet round of applause for Cole. Golf claps filling the room. Annica nudged him playfully until he smiled in return. Cole, finally, with an aww-shucks face, said, “Thanks, guys. It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” Jackson said. “It’s only the basis for this whole offensive here. You and Annica, combined. I didn’t like it at the time, but I’m seeing how well you guys work together. And I think tonight proved that.”

Another round of cheers.

“My only question is,” Jackson said, “will you be ready to go tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Cole said. “What else would I be doing?”

“And how about you, Kalani?”

Like Cole and Annica, Kalani had slipped into a change of clothes. She’d already had her shower. She’d already had her meet-and-greet with the rest of the team. And apparently she’d already had her background check. All that was left now was for her to join the mission tomorrow in the last offensive.

“I didn’t want to say anything before you did,” Jackson said. “About your sister.”

Kalani turned directly to Cole and said, “You know her. She’s . . . the secretary.”

Cole nodded, a sad look on his face.

Jackson said, “In a lot of ways, tomorrow is a rescue mission.”

Now it was Kalani’s turn to nod solemnly.

“So we need all hands on deck.”

“Jackson,” Ethan said, “I was going to bring it up with you privately, but . . . well, it seems appropriate now.”

Jackson waited for him to continue.

Ethan said, “I’m ready.”

“You’re ready?”

“I’m tired of just sitting around and watching the action.”

“I can see that,” Jackson said.

“I’m tired of writing about it after the fact.”

Annica understood the feeling. Though she herself felt a little done with making news. Unlike Ethan, she wouldn’t mind taking a back seat, but she was proud of him for this, for standing up like this. And it was more than just foolish, youthful hunger for attention. The look in his eyes. The glare. The concentration. He was ready.

Jackson asked, “So what are you proposing?”

“I want to make the story.”

“How?”

“Any way I can. Any way I can help.”

Jackson nodded.

“He’s already vetted,” Annica said with a smile. “No need to have Sam talk to him or anything else. I’ve seen his true character already. I’ve worked with him in the trenches.”

“The trenches of journalism is a little different than DARC,” Jackson said.

“I’ve been in those trenches, too,” Ethan said. “Maybe not DARC Ops, but it was with a gun and body armor.”

“I believe you,” Jackson said. “No Sam necessary.”

“No tryout?”

Jackson smiled and said, “You’ve already had your trial, Soldier.”

Annica hadn’t noticed, but through fatigue or attraction or an extra helping of both, she had slowly let her head lower down until it was resting against Cole’s shoulder. He hadn’t moved away. She stayed there, working to have some control over a growing smile.