This could all be for nothing—she knew that, and she tried not to get her hopes up. One of her defense mechanisms.If you prepare for the bad, you’ll never be disappointed.Only it didn’t work that way. Instead, it made unwanted outcomes live in her head for much longer than they needed to.
“I’m scared,” she whispered to Luke.
He reached out and fumbled for her hand. “Imagine what you want, not what you don’t want. It’s my new mantra.”
They were sitting on the bow and Nalu pointed out constellations the Hawaiians used for celestial navigation. Some were the same as the ones Minnow knew—the Pleiades were calledMakali‘iand the Big Dipper was known asNa Hiku, for the seven stars that made it up.
“When the Makali‘i rises in the east, it’s the start of the Hawaiian new year,” he told them.
A few minutes later, she heard a faint buzzing and her whole body lit up.
“A boat,” she said, loud enough for the others to hear.
No lights were visible yet and the guys were all mumbling excitedly.
“Where?” someone called out.
“Near the shore.”
They all went silent again, and soon running lights appeared in the direction of Papapa.
Luke squeezed her hand. “It’s them.”
“Gotta be,” Nalu added.
They all sat quietly as Minnow counted her breaths, trying to slow them down. She could smell the boat as it drew near. Fish and blood and rankness. It made her head swim. When the Radon got up to the buoy, a bright light flashed on. The shark cage sat precariously on the back. Minnow shrunk back, sure that if the people on the boat looked their way, they’d see them. But they were all business. Two men and a woman.
The driver began shouting orders and they lowered the cage into the water. The woman then lay on the deck with a big pole and looped a rope around what must have been the buoy. The guy next to her slid into the water briefly, holding a spear. All of them oblivious to what surrounded them. When the guy got back in the boat, he and the woman started dumping out buckets into the ocean.
“Game on,” Nalu said quietly.
Behind them Minnow heard the birdcall, and off to the side another. The signal. This moment was everything she had come here for, and a feeling of love for the guys with her welled up. In an instant all three boats started their motors and turned on the blue lights Kamaki had given them. Minnow’s job was to tear the duct tape off the running lights, which she did with lightning speed. Cliff pointed a strobe light into the driver’s eyes.
“Stay where you are,” Kamaki said through a bullhorn.
The guy and girl whipped the buckets down, and the driver held an arm over his eyes and ducked away from the helm.
“Chumming within three miles from shore is illegal. You are breaking the law,” Kamaki shouted.
The boats were closing in now, and Minnow caught sight of Cliff standing up on the bow holding a three-prong spear. He looked like a fierce warrior with an aura of ancient grace. She then glanced at the boat driver of the Radon and saw that he was starting up the boat again.
“They’re going to make a run for it,” she said to Luke.
“I’d love to see ’em try.”
They were within earshot now and Cliff yelled, “Turn off your engine. We have you surrounded and I promise, brah, you don’t want to mess with us.”
The driver paused and Minnow could see the gears of his mind churning, but he stepped away from the helm and the engine sputtered. All three of them were lined up, squinting, unsure where to look and wondering who their adversaries were. No one had saidpolice, but the blue lights were suggestive.
Nalu bounced up and down, excited. “Red-fucking-handed.”
Cliff’s and Woody’s boats pulled up alongside the Radon and Nalu pulled in front of the bow a little ways off.
“What, you gonna arrest us? I want to see your badges,” the driver said.
Kamaki held up a badge, but never did he touch the gun in his holster.
“So, what, you chumming and doing shark dives? Bringing tourists out?” Cliff said.
