Kidnapping on Kaua'i (featured by Wattpad 2014)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

After shoring up my courage, I left the house and began to run down the path to the secret field. My mind was running with me, spinning out terrifying scenarios of what could be happening to Auntie. By time I'd sprinted to the end of the path, I was so worried and exhausted, I could barely breathe. The rain had made the path slippery with mud, and I had to fight for my footing as I pawed at the leaves, searching frantically to find the opening to the tunnel. For a few frightening minutes, I couldn't find it. Finally, my hand pushed through into nothingness and I fell into the tunnel. My nerves were so jangled, I didn't grab onto a vine until the last minute. If I'd waited even a half a second longer, I would have shot out into open air.

As I stabilized myself against the rock wall, a sickening, acrid odor hit my nostrils. It smelled like a mixture of burnt rubber and hair, but worse. It was so bad, I had to focus on not throwing up as I slid down the vine. When my feet hit the ground, I saw where the stench was coming from-the entire field had recently been burned. The leafy green trees were now black twisted sticks, and smoke rose in between the raindrops from the burnt leaves scattered on the ground.

My sense of danger flashed like a beacon. Who had burned the field, and why?

There was no time to figure out the answer; I needed to get the kernel, fast. After pulling the collar of my t-shirt up over my mouth, I snuck along the side of the smoking field, hunched over as low as I could manage. The wind whipped at me with such strength it almost pushed me sideways, and my shorts were soaked through with rain.

I ran up to the trailer with no clear idea of how I would get in. Out of desperation, I tried the door, and, thankfully, it swung open. I barreled inside, anxious to get out of the caustic air, but as soon as I closed the door behind me, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. Gerry was in the trailer, rifling through the cabinets. Behind him, I could see his black truck with the green leaves painted on the cab through the windows, parked on the side of the trailer. Why hadn't I thought to check around the trailer before I'd barged in?

"Lani," Gerry said, turning his head.

"Mr. Lee, I-I thought you'd left the island."

"I'm afraid a slight detour was necessary." He reached down to twist a knob on a safe inside an open cabinet. "So, Lani, how much do you know?"

"Me?" I held my palms up. "I don't know anything."

Gerry opened the safe, took out a box and then stared at me. I wanted to run out of the trailer, but I knew I had to look for the kernel before I left. With Tutu and the rest of my family gone, I was the only one who could get the help needed to save Auntie.

"This field is private Sanbello property, Lani. Why don't you tell me why you keep trespassing here?" Gerry caught my look of surprise. "That's right, I know about the other times you visited. There are surveillance cameras all over this field. You must have known you'd be caught."

My throat felt like it was closing off. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean any harm."

"Well, you caused harm, Lani. A lot of harm. This hidden field was picked specifically for its privacy. It was never supposed to be found by anyone outside the project, especially not a high school kid. We were doing something important here, something groundbreaking. If the experiment had succeeded, I would have been a candidate for the CEO position at Sanbello." Gerry gave me a cold sneer. "Do you know how much the CEO makes, Lani?" he asked. "Any idea?"

I took a step back. "N-No."

"Fourteen million dollars! That's how much your little escapades have cost me! Actually more, because the company's profits were guaranteed to skyrocket when we introduced the world to this gem." He stabbed his finger at a diagram on the trailer wall depicting one of the fruiting trees. "Imagine, controlling the seeds of a previously undiscovered fruit!"

Gerry looked out of the window as if he saw money falling from the sky instead of raindrops. Then he closed his eyes, like he couldn't stand the pain of the scene before him. "But, you had to trespass on my field, steal my precious fruits, invite your friends to gawk at my hard work...forcing me to destroy it all."

Suddenly, I noticed an empty can of kerosene on the floor. Gerry had burned his own field down before the rain came, I realized.

"I've been having you followed you since you first snuck onto the field," he continued. "My investigator trailed you to your doctor's office." He opened a folder from a cabinet, and I realized with shock it was my medical records. "Glyphosate poisoning," he read.

"I won't tell anyone where I got poisoned, I swear!"

He snapped the file shut. "You're right, you won't."

A chill ran up my spine. I glanced around the trailer one last time: maybe the kernel was in plain sight, and I could grab it and run. I practically jumped with shock as my eyes ran over a framed photograph on the counter. Was that the same picture of a sailboat I'd seen in Principal Aihue's office?

"I'll still become one of the richest men in the world," Gerry continued. "It'll just take more time." He opened the box and looked down as if he was gazing at a beloved infant. "I still have the only living seed."

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what lay inside the box. It was the kernel. Golden in color, it practically vibrated with the potential for life. I sucked in my breath-I had to have that kernel.

A strange noise came from outside. After a second or two, a monotone roar rushed through the trailer, like we'd been sucked inside a jet engine. The roar was so deafening, all other noises ceased to exist. Paralyzed by sheer terror, I realized it was the sound of Hurricane Makani, bearing down on us like a speeding locomotive. The supercharged wind punched the trailer's windows out in an instant, spraying the interior with shattered glass. It looked as if a bomb had exploded. Then, the entire trailer began to rock. The trailer was nothing more than a glorified mobile home; there was no way it could withstand this storm like this. I knew I had to get out, but I couldn't leave without the kernel. I lunged at Gerry and tried to grab the box, but the voracious jaws of Hurricane Makani came in for the final kill just then. The winds screamed like a person in pain above our heads. The walls of the trailer shuddered and the metal door began to peel steadily downward towards the floor, like a piece of wet, limp paper. Gerry stared at the door in horror and amazement. I was terrified too, but I recovered in time to snatch the kernel from his hands.

"No!" he yelled, moving to grab at me, but the framed photo of the boat flew off the counter and hit him square in the temple. Gerry collapsed on the floor next to the shattered frame.

Exhausted and relieved, I tried to run away, but I could barely move, because the wind kept pushing me backward, Yet, I kept struggling through the torn doorframe. Pulling myself along hand over hand, I finally managed to reach Gerry's truck. Sofie's bike was lying in the truck bed. I grabbed it and dragged it over to the road carved into the mountain pass, where the steep sides blocked most of the wind and rain, and I was finally able to rest. I zipped the kernel into an inside pocket of my jacket, where I knew it would be safe. Then, I leaned back against the rock wall, my legs quivering with fatigue as I stared at the trailer and prayed that Gerry wouldn't wake up before the storm passed.