Page 76 of Eruption

“Is it important, sir?”

“A lot happened after he left that cave,” Rivers said. “And he should never have been allowed to step off this base. And I’ll just leave it at that.”

Ulani Moore told him where Sergeant Noa Mahoe had said he was going.

“You’re dismissed,” Rivers said.

“What’s going to happen to him?” she asked.

“Not your concern.”

“Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“If you’re absolutely certain you want to,” Rivers said.

“What was I supposed to do?” she asked, unable to help herself from laughing nervously. “Shoot him?”

The blue eyes didn’t blink.

“Knowing what I know now?” Rivers said. “The answer is yes.”

CHAPTER 52

Hale Inu Sports Bar, Hilo, Hawai‘i

They were seated at a table against the wall underneath one of the TV sets, holding hands and acting as if there were no one else in the crowded bar.

Noa thought Leilana looked more beautiful than ever, if such a thing were even possible. When he’d first seen her at the Ohana Grill, he had thought she was out of his league. Was sure of it. But now here they were.

“Did you run all the way here?” she asked. “Your face looks sunburned.” She touched his face with cool fingers. “God, Noa,” she said. “You’re burning up.”

His mind took him back to the base, to the shower he didn’t take, to boots he hadn’t changed.

He told himself he was being crazy. What he was feeling was the rush of adrenaline that had gotten him here, the excitement of being with her.

“I would have run if I’d had to,” he said. “I was afraid you wouldn’t wait for me.”

She asked what the big emergency had been. He told her as much as he could, making it sound like some sort ofMission Impossibleplot.

He smiled. She smiled. They had both finished their first glasses of Big Island beer. Noa already wanted another one, another cold one, to see if that would cool him off.

What he wanted to do in this moment was just press a frosty mug to his forehead.

“Is the eruption going to be as bad as they’re saying?” she said. “There’s a headline on theStar-Advertiserwebsite calling it ‘The Biggest One?’—with a question mark at the end. Can that possibly be true?”

“Don’t worry.” He grabbed their empty glasses and headed for the bar. “I’ll protect you.”

He told himself he really was Tom Cruise tonight. Noa got up to the bar, waved at the bartender. He noticed that the back of his hand was bright red. The hand without the stamp on it.

He was staring at his hand, almost mesmerized by the color of it, wondering if something was terribly wrong, when men wearing the same kind of hazmat suit he’d left on top of a pile back at the base came charging through the door.

They made Noa think of the Star Wars stormtroopers.

And they were coming straight for him.

“Sergeant Noa Mahoe?” the lead man said from behind his mask.

“Yes,” Noa said. “Yes, sir.”