Robert Walker - Primal Instinct

“ Our hotel's on the other side of the island? Near this bay that looks out over Kahoolawe? Then you knew all along?”

“ I feared all along, the moment it sank in that the bastard had escaped Oahu, yes. It's a hole-in-the-wall, a place where a parasite like this might find refuge. There is no law there as we know it, Jess.” Parry drove onward to their next destination, his teeth set and clenched.

“ You've known where you're going all along… known about Lopaka's run for Kahoolawe all along? Hell, you forwarded our luggage there!”

“ I didn't know Lopaka was related to the big muckety-muck on Molokai, not at first. Hell, over here Kowona's as common as Smith in the States. But after you told me about what the old man said, Kaniola's great-granduncle, I began to wonder and to consider the geography of it all.”

“ Lopaka's boyhood village was supposedly on Molokai,” she said. “And everyone's trying to rivet our attention there. So you, being of a suspicious turn of mind…”

“ Yeah, but in the meantime, over the last year or so, his people removed to Kahoolawe. Who better to reclaim the island for the PKO when the U.S. Navy relinquished their hold over it.”

'Tell me more about this unusual island and its special status,” she asked. “Isn't there some way around it, given the circumstances, the dire-”

“ The kid'll have diplomatic immunity there, simple as that…”

“ God damn it!” she burst out.

He wheeled the car now back out to the main highway off which they'd descended into the town of Makawao. Back on U.S. 37, they made a beeline for the other side of the island and the Alalakeiki Channel.

“ The island was used as a bloody bombing target for aircraft and naval vessels by our armed forces since 1942 and-” he began.

“ Christ, it must be one helluva piece of screwed-up real estate.”

“- and for a hell of a long time only wild goats and sheep lived there, but since the Hawaiians have gained in political power and influence, they've gained the island back and along with it this special status. Some of the traditionalists, the tribesmen from all the various islands in the chain, returned to Kahoolawe to re-colonize-”

“ Re-establish their culture, you mean?”

He nodded, adding, “Living purely by ancient means, or so everyone says.”

“ You're not so sure?”

“ I have my suspicions they're not about to turn up their noses at certain modem devices.”

“ Such as?”

“ Motor boats, nautical equipment, firearms.”

“ Firearms, really?”

“ There's scuttle that they've been amassing their own arsenal against the day when we-the U.S.-decide to reclaim Kahoolawe. Next time, they intend to fight to the death. Anyway, they're big on fishing. And they do some trading in canned goods and other foods and necessities with the Maui islanders.”

“ And what do they have to trade?”

“ Fish mosdy, exotic and authentic shell leis, some ancient arrowhead artifacts. Couple of archaeological sites found on the island now belong wholly to the tribesmen, too.”

“ So, they've worked a trade for the return of a native son, and we can't touch him?”

“ Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe he declined their invitation. Maybe he did go on to the big island south of here… maybe…”

He didn't sound convinced. The island traffic had thinned to a trickle here, the road bordered on one side by a sugarcane field through which the wind raged, setting the stalks into a frantic dance as the car sped by.

“ Where to now, Jim?”

“ I know some friends in the vicinity who might take me to Kahoolawe.”

“ What?”

“ For a price.”

She took in a deep breath of air and stared out at the pineapple fields on either side of the road now, wondering why Jim seemed so hell-bent on destroying his own career.

It appeared that Jim Parry meant to track Lopaka to the ends of the earth if necessary, to see justice done. Still, his obsession was her own.

“ What the hell're you going to do, Jim? I mean, even if you can determine that he's on that island, you… we have no juice there. You can't take him off the island, not without risking your own career, not if the government says stay out, that it's not the jurisdiction of the agency.”

“ At this point, Jess, I just want to get my hands on him.”

'To kill him?”

“ Look, if I can take him alive and get him off the island without anyone's knowing I was there, then he's my prisoner.”

“ I see. And you think that's possible?”

“ I don't know, but I'll never know if I don't get within spitting distance.”

She fell silent, scanning the incredible scenery as it flew by. Jim, having been introduced to the island long ago, raced full ahead toward their next destination.

“ I could use a bath, you know,” she complained. “Get this seawater off my skin. I got sand in places I didn't know existed.”

“ There's lovely accommodations the other side of the mountain range along the ocean. Don't worry on that score.” When they arrived, she began to see familiar sights. It was the area of the island where she had dived in the marine sanctuary and a haven for snorklers and scuba divers, Molokini island and its underwater crater just off the coast and Kahoolawe just beyond; in fact, she had seen Kahoolawe island in the distance and had asked about it, but the Hawaiian dive-master had said it was no place for diving, and she'd let it go at that.

“ We'll have to go in under cover of darkness,” she told him.

“ We? There'll be none of this 'we' stuff here, Jess. One FBI agent getting his ass canned for this kind of a stunt will be quite enough.”

“ I'm going with you, Jim. We've acted as a team this far, and this is no time to start acting any differently.”

“ Jess, this is something I have to do. You… you can walk away from it, return to D.C. tomorrow knowing you did a fine job.”

“ Not without Lopaka's head on a stick, no way. I feel as strongly about this damned, bloody case as you, Jim. You owe me. I'm going in, too.”

“ We won't be able to land a boat there. We'll have to do this frogman-style, Jess, and it'll be dangerous.”

“ What the hell do you call the Spout? And now you're planning to leave your diving partner behind? No way!”

“ Jess!”

“ If I don't go, you don't go.”

“ Are you absolutely sure?”

“ Absolutely.”

They came careening out of the mountains and around a cliff to come into view of the distant small island that was taboo to the Westerner, Kahoolawe, their next destination.

The Wailea Sun Resort Hotel provided a place to catch one's breath, clean up and relax until nightfall, before they would attempt the dangerous landing on Kahoolawe. Jim had showered and rushed out before she was even settled, saying he had to coordinate things with the local authorities, see to it they were doing everything in their means to locate and apprehend Kowona, and seek out an underworld figure here who would see to it they had passage to Kahoolawe.

The time alone, waiting for Jim to return, was passed with her own showering and freshening up, and a brief nap after a call to room service for a cheese and wine tray to be sent up. She'd gone out on the balcony, put her feet up and after a few glasses of wine, had dozed against a pillow. When she awoke, native birds had roosted on the table and were sampling the cheese and crackers while the sky all around had softened into a cloud of lavenders and purples.

Night was descending rapidly now and she feared Jim had left her, believing she'd be safer left behind, the thought infuriating her. She lashed out at the birds, shooing them off. Then she quickly dressed in jeans and a pullover, and was about to storm out the door when the phone rang.