Page 23 of Forgotten Promise

“Three keyholders.” Benjamin leaned on the arm of his seat to be closer to them, to his trinity. “And together you’re the acting leadership? Or you decide who becomes Grand Master?”

“No. The keys decide.” Kailani put her hand over her chest, an absentminded gesture. “I guess you could say the Grand Master who created the keyholders decided, over a century ago. Each of the three keys opens the first door of the waihona. To open the second door, you need all three keys.” She held her hands up, forming a triangle with her fingers. “The keyholes are set in a triangle, and whichever key fits in and opens the top lock, that person becomes acting Grand Master.”

“Shouldn’t you know which key fits in that lock?” John asked. “If the same families have the same key, you’d know based on the last time this happened.”

Kailani shook her head, her expression strained. “The keyholders have never been called before.”

“But if this is what happens every time a Grand Master dies…”

“It’s not,” Benjamin said. “When the Grand Master dies or steps down, their heir takes up the position of Grand Master.” Benjamin looked at Kailani. “Which means the current Grand Master either doesn’t have an heir…or isn’t dead.”

“The person who called didn’t say, but I think you’re right,” Kailani agreed. “If the Grand Master was permanently out of the picture, I think there are other plans, protocols to select the new Grand Master if the old one didn’t have an heir.”

“So the Grand Master has been incapacitated in some way,” John said. “Hence a temporary transfer of leadership to one of the keyholders.”

“Exactly. But we won’t know who it is, which keyholder, until I get the other two keyholders and take them back to Oahu.”

“Again, why can’t you just call them?” John asked. “It sounds like your instructions are outdated, and if time is a factor…”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kailani said. “And even if I did disobey and go rogue, I don’t think the others would believe, or act on, a phone call. My family is the only one contacted by Boston when the keyholders are activated. The others, their instructions say that someone will come in person to tell them it’s happening. They won’t get their key and come to the Hale’ekolu unless they see a fellow keyholder show up on their doorstep, key in hand.”

“That’s a hell of a risk,” Benjamin said. “It means potentially days without an acting leader while the keyholders travel.”

“True. But I guess it was the safest thing they could come up with at the time. Nothing about the keyholders has been updated in…I think since my tutu’s time. Except the names of who actually has the keys and their location. That’s why I went to the waihona earlier. The Grand Master sends a sealed letter every time there’s a new keyholder. We don’t open it, we just put it in the waihona until we need it. I just got a new letter last year, so hopefully we’re going to the right place.”

“Back to the fire. It’s possible someone else knows,” Benjamin said. “The arson at the Hale’ekolu might have been set by the same entity that attacked the Grand Master. Or it’s a hell of a coincidence.”

“I don’t like coincidences,” John said. “We need more information about what happened in Boston. Can you call Devon? I assume he’s close enough to the Grand Master that he’d know what’s going on.”

Benjamin nodded. “He’s probably on the current council.”

“That wasn’t his voice on the phone though,” Kailani said.

“No, but Devon on the council explains why he was there during our binding ceremony. And why he said he’d talk to the Grand Master.” Benjamin pulled his phone from his pocket, connecting to the satellite Wi-Fi. He sent a text, figuring he’d wait to call if Devon didn’t text back.

“If they know about the Hale’ekolu, is it possible they know the names and identities of the other keyholders?” John said. “Do we need to warn them?”

“That’s a good point,” Benjamin said.

“I can maybe believe that someone knew about the waihona,” Kailani said. “It hasn’t changed or moved since it was created, and whoever donated or provided the contents probably had to be told where it physically was.”

“So you think that only you, only the hotel, is compromised.”

“As far as I know, the only person who knows the exact names and addresses of the other keyholders is the Grand Master, and the keyholder families. It’s possible someone accidentally said something about the Hale’ekolu over the years. That’s more likely than some outsider having access to current keyholder information.”

“It might not be an outsider,” John said softly. “And there are ways of getting information from someone.”

“You mean they might have tortured the information out of the Grand Master,” Benjamin said.

“If you were going to torture the leader of American’s most powerful secret society, is this what you’d ask about?” Kailani countered. “The Trinity Masters have plenty of other, more valuable secrets.”

“True,” John conceded.

They sat in silence for a few moments, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

“I should warn the other keyholders.” Kailani grabbed her purse. “Maybe it’s breaking protocol. Maybe it’s the wrong thing, but if the fire was an attack… I might already be too late to warn them.”

“You’re fine,” John said soothingly. “Because you’re right, everything you said is right. Their identities are probably safe.”

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