The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 41

They watched Venessa and Franck leave, walking side by side. ::Think she'll be safe?::

Hokulani gave him an odd look. ::We're hackers. We're never safe.::

He sighed. ::Let's go figure out what to do about Lopaka, if that's really him.::

They quickly made it to the edge of town and logged in.

SherpaDerpa: Can't stay long. Met with UPSsiders. They aren't bluffing.

Kodachrome44: Good to see you're back with us. We assumed the worst.

SherpaDerpa: It almost was.

Ghengis59: Good to see you back, Sherpa. Give us details when you can.

Hokulani shared her HUD with him. She had a new private message.

Char43_61_74: Goldilocks killed papa bear for the porridge. The Cheshire Cat saw everything as he faded away.

UPSOutsider98: Have the kittens in the bag drowned?

Char43_61_74: Some of the mittens have found their kittens. Some little pigs are hiding from the Big Bad Wolf.

Hokulani deleted the messages and dropped offline. She looked upset. ::Can we trust him?::

She looked up at him. ::We can. He uses literature when he's telling the truth, and history when he's lying.::

::Why the difference?::

::So he could tell me what's going on through truth or lies, as needed.::

Aoloa nodded. ::He liked you.::

::And he respected you.::

::Now what do we do?::

She looked resolved. ::We get the colony back. Sherpa has what she needs to crack things open.::

He smiled. ::I'll let you work out where they are. My guess is Asia or Australia. I'll work out how to get there.::

She spent the rest of the night on the computer while he reviewed options. They'd lost a lot of time with Switzerland. Now they were going to backtrack.

Unlike the last time, Aoloa traced a path that provided nearly continuous forest coverage. The result was a path that took them across Russia before cutting down through China into Southeast Asia. What they would have to do if their peers weren't somehow on the mainland was unclear. Island hopping or traveling to Australia would be less than ideal. Then again, they were looking at hitching rides on trucks, anyway. If they had to hitch a ride on a boat, it was what they needed to do.

He settled back to find out where they were going.