Chapter 51

U.S. Military Reserve, Hawai‘i

Sunday, April 27, 2025

When the cleanup inside and outside that cave was over, Sergeant Noa Mahoe was one of the first out and back to the military base. He'd been a good soldier and done his duty, but he had plans.

Noa had a date.

And not just any date. He was meeting Leilana Kane at Hale Inu Sports Bar, their favorite spot. They had planned to meet there at eleven, after she got off work—she was a hostess at the Ohana Grill—but when Noa heard about the spill at the cave, he'd called her to say he was going to be late.

Before tonight Noa had never been inside the cave known as the Ice Tube. All he knew about it was that it was some kind of top secret storage facility. When the alarm sounded, they all got into their gear, drove up the mountain, and cleaned up the mess, but no one gave them any information about what they were cleaning up.

Their problem now, not his.

His problem was getting off this base and into town, and he was going to do that before the rest of the guys who'd been inside the cave with him even made it back to base. He knew what the protocols were: Leave the protective suit in a pile with the others in what they called the Haz Hut. Shower with the special disinfectant soap. Change into clean clothes. Go through the dose detector, at which point you got your hand stamped.

All because they'd been near some kind of waste that had been stored inside that cave since the 1990s, or so they'd been told. Then they were told that everything that had happened tonight was classified and not to be discussed with civilians, including family.

But Noa didn't have time for that whole process, not tonight. Leilana was waiting and her roommate was out of town and this was the night.

So he slipped back into his boots, threw on jeans and a white T-shirt, went back to the deserted barracks, took a fast shower there, and headed for the front gate. Even after his shower, for some reason, he was sweating like crazy. He worried that he was going to walk into the bar with sweat stains all over his shirt. He felt hotter now than he had inside the hazmat suit, inside that cave, which had felt like an oven.

Maybe his body thought he was still back there. Maybe it was because his heart was racing. You're just on fire because of Leilana, he told himself.

As he approached the gate, the guard called out his name. "You must have been in the first wave," Sergeant Ulani Moore said. "A lot of the guys aren't even back yet."

"Yeah," Noa said, "they wanted to get us out of there tonight. It's late."

"You got your stamp?"

He moved closer to her. The two of them had enlisted at the same time. She was probably his best friend in the army. He said in a low voice, "Listen, I did everything I was supposed to do, but the thing is, I've got a date."

That got a smile out of Ulani. "So miracles do happen."

He told her who the date was with and where he was going and how late he was already. "Can you do me a solid and let me out without the stamp just this one time?" Noa said.

Ulani looked around. "Go," she said.

She opened the gate for him and Noa broke into a run as he headed down the road toward the civilian parking lot.

Still on fire.

Thirty minutes later, Ulani Moore was in an office in front of General Mark Rivers. If she hadn't been a sergeant in the U.S. Army, a female sergeant who prided herself on being as tough and strong and capable as any man on the base, she might have cried.

She felt a combination of fear and intimidation. She had made a grave error in judgment, and she had gotten called on it fast. And not just by her own commanding officer but by pretty much the commanding officer of everybody everywhere.

"I've seen the video of you opening the gate," Rivers said. "But because the young man wasn't in uniform, we couldn't identify him. So you're going to do that for us, aren't you, Sergeant?"

He wasn't yelling, but somehow Ulani felt as if he were.

"Am I going to be discharged over this, sir?" Ulani asked. "I have to tell you, all I've ever wanted is to be a soldier. Sir."

Rivers either hadn't heard what she'd just said or simply didn't care.

"Who was it?" Rivers said.

"He's my friend."

"I won't ask again." His whole body was completely still, Rivers's cold blue eyes fixed on her, as if they were frozen in place.

She told him.

"Did he tell you where he was going?"

"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."