Harper smiled. “A call from the director of Net Force is enough to knock all the tired out of me,” he said. “Can’t say it wasn’t a surprise. But from what I understand, there’s a chance we’ll have to hit the ground running.”

Carmody nodded. Thirty or thirty-five, Harper was thin and tall, with short sandy-blond hair, alert eyes and sharp cheekbones. He looked and sounded like he was from Missouri and belonged on a white horse.

“How much did Carol Morse tell you about why we’re here?” Carmody asked.

“Actually, I spoke with Director Michaels,” Harper said. “To be honest, he didn’t say a whole lot. I was told we need to take a close look at a cargo ship in the harbor. He was clear it couldn’t wait.”

Carmody nodded again. Behind him, everyone was getting off the plane.

“There someplace we can talk?” he said.

“We’ll bring you and your people to the station. It’s four minutes from here if we putter over.” He motioned toward a JLTV. “Come on, I’m driving that one.”

Carmody fell in alongside him.

“Sure,” he said.

They reached the complex in three minutes. Harper hadn’t quite puttered.

United States Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point edged on a wide strip of beach across the water from a humpbacked coral atoll. The JLTVs turned into an entry road bordered by tall royal palms, passed a checkpoint booth with an orange stucco roof and pulled up to one of the buildings.

Carmody exited a moment ahead of Harper and stood facing west. He felt the nearness of the sea. He saw the dark outline of the atoll rising in the distance. He remembered his long days on the beaches outside Lanai City when he was nine and ten and eleven. Sometimes he would grab some of the boys from school, hike out to the dunes and climb up to the old concrete pillbox with the American flag painted on its side, pretending they were soldiers, there to defend the shore against evil invaders. Sometimes he went alone to look for shells and starfish or sit for hours to watch the clouds and identify them by their shapes.

He realized Kali had come up to him.

“This place reminds me of Malta,” she said. “It has a life apart.”

Carmody looked at her. “I grew up not far from here,” he said. “Lanai’s about eighty miles due east. There’s a ferry across.”

She nodded silently. Harper had gotten out his door, and they turned to join him. Then the three of them went over to the others gathering outside the JLTVs.

“We prepared a conference room,” Harper said. “There’s coffee and snacks.”

Carmody looked at him. “Musubi?”

“Homemade,” Harper said. “This is Hawaii.”

Carmody smiled a little. “Keep it up and you’ll be stuck with me,” he said.