of-the-art piece of Army issue. She wondered how the raft had materialized, how Parry had performed this nifty trick… but there was too much on her mind to pursue it. Ben Awai spoke as they neared the shore. “There, there,” he pointed. “Best place to hide raft. Beyond is path. I take you.”
The raft silendy glided in over the top of the turquoise sea which lazily lapped at the desolate island, much of which was barren wasteland as a target for bombing runs over the years, but this beach head looked as lush as Hana, or nearly so. The island was a relative latecomer in the chain of islands here, nowhere near as large as Maui's 729 square miles, which was over twenty times Kahoolawe's size.
There was also a conspicuous absence of construction. No condos here, no resorts, no paved roads. It was the antithesis of Honolulu, the primal, waidng jungle alone greeting them like stone vegetation, creating its own gaping maw where a foot-path showed the way. Until Ben Awai pointed out the near- inconsequential footpath, she could see no way to penetrate the dense wall of bougainvillea, kedwe trees and palms.
The raft, which Parry and Awai had pulled carefully to shore, was now quickly camouflaged.
“ We go dis way,” said Awai, leading them into the forest that hugged the bay. Behind them a small, warm light marked the boat at anchor, looking like a harbor buoy now. Soon, even this light was extinguished by the thick forest through which they trekked. A quick glance at the luminous dial of her watch told Jessica it was nearing 2 A.M. Her ankles already throbbing, she wondered how long she might hold out. It had been a strenuous thirty-six hours: first the search for Lopaka on Oahu, then the helicopter ride to Hana on Maui, followed by the dive and the bone find, and now this. She almost wished she had her cane back, just to lean on.
She felt herself beginning to limp, the old pain returning. Jim, from moment to moment, looked over his shoulder from where he followed on Awai's heels. Each man had taken turns at the lead, each chopping away at the clinging vegetation on either side of the footpath.
“ Seeing would be nice,” she said to herself.
“ What's that?” he asked.
“ Nothing, never mind,” she said.
“ You okay, Jess?”
“ Yes, damnit!” She sounded more angry than she was.
Awai just kept working at the vines ahead of him, expertly chopping away, the results visible as the foliage opened for them. Awai paid Jim and her no mind after a while, until he suddenly pulled up short, gasping for air, his hand covering his pounding heart. Parry went forward, asking in hushed tones about what had startled the big Hawaiian.
Awai pointed to a heiau, a religious temple with a totem carved out of the rock here. The devilish eyes of the god stared back at the party, an angry scowl forming features somewhat between those of an evil beast and a man. The temple, restored somewhat, or at least reclaimed from the dense vegetation growing up around it and clinging to it, showed just how effectively the ancient Hawaiians had used their meager island resources of stone and wood.
“ How far to the village?” asked Parry.
“ That way,” replied Awai as if he did not understand. “I stay here.”
“ Whataya mean, you stay here?”
“ I stay back. I no like make trouble with the chief of these people.”
“ Don't do this to me, Ben.”
“ It's not far.” The big man continued to gasp. “Go north annuder fifteen, twenty minutes maybe, Joe. Stay on path.”
“ You're going to take us there, Awai. We made a deal. We may need an interpreter, and we certainly need a guide, for which you're being paid well.”
“ I got you here. I' no interpreter.”
“ We need you,” Jessica said, adding her plea.
“ No need me. No need interpreter. Many in village speak English.”
“ You damned fool,” Parry said, tugging at the big man. “We don't want a luau with the villagers. We don't want them to even know we're here! We just may need you in the event we're spotted.”
“ We might get more cooperation if you're with us,” Jessica told the man.
He obstinately shook his head. He turned to find a log to sit on, and after he'd comfortably arranged his bulk there like a sitting bull, he looked up into the muzzle of Jim's. 38 revolver. The metal bore he stared down needed no further explanation, end of argument.
“ Get up and get ahead of us, Awai. You're being paid to guide us, so get to it.”
Awai's feelings looked quite bruised, his dark, meaty face blanched and pinched. “You haoles and your guns. Damn you, you no heah so good? Dey no like me over heah.” He indicated the general direction of the village. “Usually trade at the shore. No like dem old ways and magic. Dem people spook me, and… and some I owe goods to.”
“ Just get us there,” Parry said with bitter authority.
Awai returned to striking at the canopy of vines ahead of them. “You hard man, Mr. Parry, no menemene.”
“ No sympathy,” Jim told her.
The big man was perspiring in the cold night. She worried he could turn on Jim with the cane cutter.
“ Be careful of that machete, Jim,” she whispered, but it was a useless warning when all around them the rain forest itself came to sudden life, painted limbs reaching out to them, dark faces and eyes following, brandishing native weapons and machetes. They took hold of Jim and her before Jim could get off a shot, and before she could reach for the gun at her ankle.
Jim was knocked down, a huge spear pinning him at the spine to the earth. Awai was likewise manhandled. All other eyes, straining from behind war paint, were on Jessica.
“ Oh, Jesus,” she moaned.
They were prisoners of the island, prisoners of Chief Kowona.
Awai was cursing in his native tongue, glaring at Parry and Jessica as he was being led away by the village warriors.
They were neither tied nor abused, but Jim's weapon was taken and the native men, spears in hand, forced them onward toward the village they sought.
“ No chance we'll lose our way now,” she joked, displaying more nerve than she felt.
“ Damn me,” Parry moaned. “I should've forced you to remain in Maui. I should've left you at the hotel.”
“ I'd hate you for a long time if you had.”
“ And what, you don't hate me for this? Getting you involved in what's bound to become a very sticky international incident if we're lucky enough to ever get off this island with all our parts intact?”
“ We're not dealing with cannibals, Jim. Are we?”
“ No, but I can imagine what the old chief's going to do with us.”
“ What?”
“ Bind us over-literally-to U.S. authorities. Don't know 'bout you, but there goes my pension.”
“ Shut up, haole ilioV shouted one of the men in paint with frightening force and venom. Jessica was told by Jim that the stocky Hawaiian had just called the Chief of FBI's Hawaii Bureau a white dog with a loose tongue.
Jessica swallowed her fear and shouted back, stunning the painted warriors. “Hey, you just tell your chief that this man you call a dog is also an important chief.”
“ Jess,” Parry cautioned.
“ No, no… they have a right to know who their dealing with. Chief.”
“ Everybody knows who Parry is,” said the native coldly.
“ What? How'd you know his name?”
Parry's eyes had already fixed on Captain Ben Awai.
“ You bastard.”
“ I knew this was a setup,” shouted Jessica, pulling her arm free of a native who ushered her along.
“ This whole thing was engineered, wasn't it?” asked Parry of Awai. “When? When did you know who we were?”
“ News travels fast around the islands, especially on the Hawaiian hot line, Chief Parry. You've been watched
