Page 22 of Wired Target

“Is there anything I can do?”Sophie reached across the table to touch Lei’s hand.“I’ve been through violence as well.”

“Yeah, you have.Maybe you could talk to him when we get home tonight?Encourage him to get real with Dr.Wilson, at least.”

“I’ll do that.”Sophie wasn’t confident that Lei’s husband, who’d always been warm but impersonal toward her, would be open to any advice.“I’ll certainly give it a try.”

“Good.”Lei waved for the check.“We just have time to get ourselves out to the Albatross Sanctuary for a look at the area before the board members arrive to meet with us.”

The Maui Albatross Sanctuary was only thirty minutes away from downtown Kahului where the women had eaten breakfast.Sophie was glad she’d worn sturdy black athletic shoes and easy-movement pants as she trekked after Lei as her friend led her out of an unpaved dirt parking lot where they’d parked Lei’s extended cab Toyota truck.

The two women hiked up a narrow dirt footpath between stuntedhaole koatrees bent in the direction of the prevailing wind toward a rise of land.Typical native plants grew among the short, shrubby trees, including the kind ofipomoeaor beach morning glory vines that Sophie’d recently planted at her new home in Kailua.Coconut palms rose from the brush here and there, along with gnarled, thornykiawetrees.This area wasn’t a lush jungle; whatever plant could thrive in dry and inhospitable conditions fought for life in the arid, reddish, sandy soil.

The two topped another small rise, and suddenly Sophie could see for miles in every direction: a wide-open stretch of dunes backed an empty coral sand beach bracketed by black, lava rock cliffs in one direction, and a bluff covered in ironwood trees the other.

Lei pointed to a tall chain-link fence a few hundred yards away.“That’s the beginning of the albatross sanctuary area.”

“The conditions at this site bear a resemblance to the nesting grounds at Ka‘ena on Oahu,” Sophie said.“Even the wind directionality is the same.”

“The albatrosses ride in on the wind to make land.They’re so big they need to run in an open area and launch themselves off raised ground to get airborne when they take off,” Lei said.“Doesn’t surprise me that this mirrors the Oahu site.”

As if to illustrate this, an albatross came soaring in on an updraft, tucked its wings, and dropped gracefully to the ground, where it trotted out of sight behind a clump of bushes.

“I can see how getting that much size off of the ground is a bit of challenge,” Sophie said.“Those wings have to be six feet wide, at least.”

“Yeah.I wanted you to get a look at the protected area before the members of the Albatross Sanctuary board meet us at the parking lot.”

“I wish we had longer to explore.I’d love to walk around and see the nests.”

“Me too.If only keeping the birds safe was as simple as fencing out the predators,” Lei said.“For a long time, that’s all people thought it would take—and that was hard enough to do with the land in danger of development, and the cost of building and monitoring that barrier.”

The pair turned around, but not before Sophie had taken one last, long look at the stretch of rugged coast with its wide-open sea.A distant plume of whale spout set off a row of flamboyant cumulus clouds that marched along the distant bluehorizon.

“I never get tired of where I live.”Lei’s gaze was on the view.

“Nor do I.”Sophie tightened Marcus’s borrowed MPD ball cap so that it kept her curly ponytail from the wind’s mischievous fingers.She smiled as she met Lei’s eyes.“I love it here in Hawaii.I never want to be anywhere else.”

Though she enjoyed the tiny Thai island of Phi Ni, it was too small and isolated for any great length of time; even Maui would be too quiet for her.Sophie relished the city life, and the many cultural and natural activities that busier Oahu offered.

Back at the parking lot, Lei introduced Sophie to three of the Albatross Sanctuary board members who’d arrived: Sari and Mahmoud Gadish, an older couple dressed in matching Columbia hiking wear, complete with hiking poles, and a tall, leathery-looking woman with a blunt gray bob named Dr.Danica Powers.

“Retired state biologist.”Dr.Powers had a strong, dry grip that put Sophie in mind of weightlifters she’d known.“Glad to have you here.”

“I’m privately contracted to investigate the Moli Massacre on Oahu.This is strictly a volunteer side trip for me, since the cases might be related,” Sophie said.“Tell me what each of your volunteer responsibilities are, please?”

“We’re the financial backing,” Mahmoud Gadish said.“We’ve paid for most of the fencing project.Maui is our home now that we’ve retired, and we want to help protect these magnificent birds.”

“And our son, who is deceased, told us in a dream that he was returning to earth as an albatross,” Sari Gadish added.“We wanted to make sure he had the best chance he could of survival, since he’d chosen the body of amoliin which to spend his next life.”

Sophie scanned Gadish’s face for any sign of humor; there was none.Clearly, the woman believed this.

A Maui Police Department blue and white cruiser bumped over the rutted road and pulled up in the lot; Lei shaded her face with a hand to see who was at the wheel, and then grinned, trotting over to the car as it parked.“Abe!What are you doing out here?”

Sophie remained standing awkwardly with the board members as Abe Torufu, a massive Tongan man she’d met at one of Lei’s house parties some years ago, unfolded himself from the low-slung sedan to stand.He was a detective Lei’d partnered with during a brief stint on the island’s bomb squad.

“Hey, Lei.”Torufu gave Lei a brief greeting hug.“Had to come out to the emergency meeting of the Albatross Sanctuary board.I’m the treasurer of our little nonprofit.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”Lei punched Torufu in the arm, and then shook her hand as if her fist had hit a boulder.“I wouldn’t have taken this on if I knew you were already involved.”

“That’s my fault.”Dr.Powers waved to attract their attention.“I asked Abe to find another cop down at the station who’d care about the albatrosses and rope them in to help with our cause.”

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