Don Winslow - Dawn Patrol

It builds from far away, lifts and rises and rolls as it seems to take an eternity to crest, and then Rain smiles at him again, lies down, and starts to paddle, her arms and shoulders strong and graceful, and she moves into the wave with ease.

Boone paddles after her to catch the wave and ride it with her, all the way in to the beach, except, as he looks ahead, there is no shore, only an endless blue ocean and a wave that rolls forever.

He paddles hard, trying to catch her, desperate to catch her, but he can't. She's too strong, the wave is too fast, and he can make no headway. It makes no sense to him: He's Boone Daniels; there is no wave he cannot catch, but he can't catch this wave, and then he's crying, in rage and frustration, until his chest aches and big salty tears pour down his face to return to the sea and he gives up and lies on his board.

Exhausted, heartbroken.

Rain turns to him and smiles.

Says, This isn't your wave.

Her smile turns to sunshine and she's gone.

Over the break.

“Where did you go?” Johnny asks.

“I was just out surfing,” Boone says. “I saw the girl… Did she…”

“She made it,” Johnny says.

Boone smiles and lays his head back on the pillow. The pain in his melon is amazing, an evil combo plate of a vicious hangover and a board bounce off the skull.

“The doctors weren't so sure about you, B,” Johnny says. “Whether you were going to come home from the Enchanted Forest. I thought I was going to have to do that paddle-out for you after all.”

It had been a hell of a scene out there.

Boone out on the ground.

The little girl in shock.

Tammy Roddick bleeding from a bullet wound. She had saved the girl's life, absorbing most of the bullet's force before it passed through her into Luce. Now Tammy's in a bed down the hallway, not far from the little girl, and they're both going to be all right.

They weren't the only wounded. A couple of mojados went seriously John Woo on the snakeheads with a shotgun and a machete, though Terry Gilman didn't think she had enough evidence to make an arrest for that, and, in all the confusion, the mojados managed to drift away from the scene.

Also on the plus side, Dan Silver with a hole in his chest you could push your fist through. Which was a temptation, except he was already DOA.

Grandfather, Johnny thinks.

I should have known Grandfather wouldn't allow the family honor to be stained without doing something about it. And, boy, he did.

Harrington fixed the scene. Put the pistol in Dan Silver's hand and asked Grandfather questions that would elicit only answers that pointed to self-defense. Which, in a roundabout way, it was. You take an old man's honor, it's as good as killing him.

“Hey,” Johnny says now.

“What?” Boone asks.

“Don't go back to sleep,” Johnny says. “You have to stay awake.”

Boone opens his eyes and looks around the room. It's crowded. Dave, Sunny, Hang, Tide, Cheerful. Pete's there, too. The nurses had objected, of course, tried to get them all out of there. But Tide had plopped himself down in a chair and asked, “You gonna move me?”

“Not without a derrick,” the nurse said.

So the crew stayed. All through the long hours when it was touch-and-go, when Beth came in, took a look at Boone's chart, and told Johnny not to get his hopes up, and one of the other doctors took Cheerful aside and asked him if Boone had a living will.

“A living will?” Cheerful asked. “He doesn't have a checkbook.”

Hang was inconsolable. Sat in a chair with his head down, staring at the floor. Dave squatted next to him and said, “Boone's too stupid to die from a few blows to the head. If Silver had clubbed his ass, then we'd have something to worry about.”

“I was mad at him,” Hang said. “He waved at me, but I blew him off.”

“He knows you love him,” Sunny said. “He loves you, too.”

Hang put his face into her shoulder and sobbed.

A few seconds later, Tide said, “Hey, not so loud-you wanna wake him up?”

Which at least made them all laugh. At some point, Sunny had left the room to go out and get coffee for people, when she saw Petra in the hallway. Petra saw her, started to walk away, but Sunny caught up with her. “Where are you going?”

“I don't want to intrude.”

“You're not,” Sunny said. “Come on, I could use some help.”

So the two of them went to the cafeteria, got some coffee and some junk food, and went back together to the room and waited together through the small hours, until Boone woke up and asked about the little girl.

Now he looks over at Sunny and asks, “You ride your wave?”

“You bet.”

“You're a big star now.”

“I am,” Sunny says. “I'm surprised I'm even talking to you.”

Boone sees Petra. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

She looks him in the eye for a second, then looks away, afraid she might start to cry, or show a sudden shyness she's never felt before.

Dave the Love God rescues her. He gets up, walks over to the bed, takes Boone's hand, and says, “Hey, bro.”

“Hey.”

“You look like hammered shit.”

“That good?” Boone says. Then he adds something that convinces everyone but Dave that he still has one foot in the fun house. “Hey, Dave?”

“Yeah?”

“Eddie never saw The Searchers. ”

Dave's still there that afternoon when Boone says, “I have to get up.”

“You have to lie down,” Petra says. “You have a major concussion.

They want you to stay here at least two more days for observation. They're going to run some tests, see if you have brain damage. Although, how'd they tell…”

“There's something I have to do,” Boone says. He forces himself to sit up, then swings his legs out and puts his feet on the floor. It's sketchy, but he manages to get his legs underneath him and stand up.

“Boone…”

He's not listening. He gets dressed and walks down the hall toward the lobby. The nurses ignore him-they have their hands full with people who want help and have no time for people who don't. Johnny follows him in case he falls, but Boone doesn't.

Petra's out in the hallway. “Dave, don't let him be an idiot,” she says. “Bring him back.”

Dave opens the door for Boone and follows him out.

They drive south on the 101.

Boone sits in the passenger seat and looks out the window.

Beautiful, beautiful day.

Deep blue ocean.

Deep blue sky.

The big swell is almost over.

“So?” Boone asks.

They've been friends forever. They've ridden a thousand waves together. They're going to tell each other nothing but the truth. Dave tells him all about his work for Red Eddie.

“Did you know?” Boone asks. “About the kids?”

“Not until that night,” Dave says. “I called Johnny. I didn't know what else to do.”

Boone nods.

They both know what to do now.

Boone paddles out.

Eddie's on the line on the inside shore break.

“Yo, Boone Dawg!” Eddie yells. Then he sees Boone's head. “What happened to you, my bruddah?”

“A little aggro.” Boone juts his chin to the outside reef. The waves aren't giant anymore, but they're big, and they're breaking outside. “Let's go outside, Eddie! You got the balls?”

“ Dangling, brah!”

They paddle out, side by side, then pull up along the shoulder beside the break.

“We need to talk, Eddie.”

“Talk.”

“The girls,” Boone said. “That was your operation.”

“No, brah.”

“Yeah, it was,” Boone says. “The whole story about Dan owing you money was bullshit. You were just trying to cover your pathetic ass.”