Page 26 of Wired Target

Lei handed Sophie a plastic bin that held the lower half of the blast-resistant suit, which included the footwear.

“I need a minute to try to contact Armita, my nanny, about the attack,” Sophie said.“I couldn’t get a signal inside the preserve.”

“Hurry up.Catch up with us after you make your call.”Lei turned to follow Torufu, carrying the other bin containing the top half of the suit.

Sophie wasn’t forgiven.

She held the phone, toning as it rang, to her ear as she watched the two Maui Police Department detectives hike toward the gate into the sanctuary.

The phone rang and rang, but Armita never picked up.Sophie left a message warning her that Pim Wat had made a move.She then texted her security team at the house to go on high alert.Once she had confirmation that they would coordinate with Armita, she slid the phone back into her pocket.

If she could find the drone’s operator, she might be able to redeem herself.And if that operator was Pim Wat?So much the better.

16

Lei led Torufuthrough the rough terrain she had just traversed with Sophie, ending at the small clearing where the drone had landed in thehaole koatree.

She stopped just inside the vegetation cover and pointed to the downed craft.The red light was still blinking, and the same propeller whirling.“There.”

Torufu lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes and adjusted them, scanning the object.“I don’t see anything obvious indicating that it’s rigged, but the ocular sensor still appears to be live; it could still fire one of those darts.”He turned back to Lei with a gusty sigh.“I should probably put on the suit.”

Lei lifted off the lid of the plastic bin, and Torufu picked up the blastproof helmet with its heavy faceplate and the upper body protection jacket.“Where’s Sophie with the bottom half?”

Lei frowned as she turned to look back down the trail, but no movement stirred the bushes.“She must’ve got tied up on the phone.”

“Well, I’ll just use the rod to give it a poke when I’m close enough.The weapons turret is around shoulder height; I doubt the thing would hit my legs if it went off, so just the top half of the suit should be fine.”

Lei wasn’t thrilled with that idea.“Just hang on.Let me run back and see if I can get the bottom half.”

She turned and pushed as fast as she could through the heavy vegetation toward the parking lot.She still hadn’t seen Sophie by the time she reached the highest dune—and then, she spotted the plastic bin resting on the ground just inside the sanctuary’s gate.

Maybe Sophie’d had to use the bushes for a pee?

“Sophie!”Lei raised her voice and cupped her hands around her mouth.“Where are you?”

No reply.Off in the distance, the wail of approaching sirens—backup on its way.

Lei ran on to the top of the rise that looked down into the parking lot, but Sophie was nowhere to be seen.

Her friend had gone off to look for the drone operator by herself.

Unarmed.

“Damn that woman!”If only Lei could use some of Sophie’s exotic curses to express herself, but all she had were tired old American cusswords that she let fly to vent her frustration and fear.

Lei scooped up the bin containing the bottom half of the suit.She ran down the path carrying the heavy bin and calling on a lifetime of physical fitness to get her to Torufu’s side in a hurry.

“Sophie’s gone.I think she’s looking for the operator by herself,” Lei said as she reached the big man, who had taken the headgear off to examine the drone in its resting place again with the binoculars.

“That’s not smart.”Torufu was still examining the device.

“Do you need me to help you?”Lei dropped the bin containing the bottom half of the protective outfit at Torufu’s feet.“I want to go find her.”

“You bet I do, partner.No sense having you both going off half-cocked into the bushes.Sophie’s chance of finding the perp is two clicks off none.”Torufu set down the binoculars and pulled on the heavy pants and boots contained in the bin, then donned the headgear with Lei’s help.“Here goes nothing.”

Lei forced herself to breathe calmly as Torufu, holding the metal probe, approached the potential bomb that was the downed flying device.She’d spent six months working closely with Abe as the island’s bomb squad team, before Captain Omura concluded that Lei wasn’t temperamentally suited for the job.In all that time, deactivating potential explosives had never become easier for her, though Abe Torufu seemed to thrive on the challenge.

Halfway across the open area in front of the drone, Torufu opened the long metal rod with its gripper mechanism and extended it to full length.He used the twenty-foot rod to probe the drone.

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