Malakai (Stone Society #13) - Faith Gibson Page 0,102

before he took off running. “Nikolas, you come too,” Henry called over his shoulder.

“I’ll be right back,” Kai told Josie.

He and Nikolas caught up to Henry as he entered his home. What Kai saw brought him up short. “What the hell?” he muttered.

“Holy shit. You have as much stuff as Julian.”

Henry waved them off. “I need some information. Like where was Pono headed. When did he leave?”

Nikolas told him what he asked for, and Henry typed madly at a flat keyboard. There was no sound of skin against plastic. There was only the muted tapping as Henry’s fingers made contact with what looked like a rubber mat.

“Oh, this fucker’s good. Too bad I’m better.”

Kai and Nikolas looked at each other then back to Henry. Kai had no idea his nephew was computer savvy much less capable of going head-to-head with a computer genius like Lachlan. If it was Lachlan.

“That’s one,” Henry muttered. Sefina and Kili ran into the room.

“Kili, I need your help.”

Henry’s mate pulled out the spare chair and sat next to Henry. “Sefina, tell Pono to change frequencies to forty-seven megahertz. Kili, I need you to watch the algorithm I’m sending you and make sure it doesn’t glitch. If it does, restart it.”

“Hirini?” Pono’s voice came through a surround-sound speaker. It was like he was in the room with them.

“Pono, I’m here. I’ve locked onto the bastard trying to take you down. The engines are going to stop and restart alternatively, but it’ll be enough for you to land.”

“I’m forty kilometers from the coast—”

“I’m charting your trajectory. There’s an airport in New North Bend, Oregon. Get on the horn and issue your PAN-PAN.”

“You mean MAYDAY. Henry, I’m too far away.”

“I’ve got you, Pono. Trust me. You won’t need a MAYDAY.”

“What’s the difference?” Kai asked.

“Simply stated, PAN-PAN means he’s alerting them to a problem and needs to make an emergency landing. He would issue a MAYDAY if he were going to crash,” Sefina explained. To her mate, she said, “Do it, Pono. We’ve got your back.”

“Yes, my Teuila.”

Everyone stayed quiet so Henry could concentrate. Kai had no idea how Henry could manipulate the engines from his computer. It didn’t give him the warm-and-fuzzies about flying if anyone could hack in and take down a plane.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. Not even from Julian,” Nik whispered.

“There’s someone else in the system, but it looks like they’re working with us,” Kili said. “Henry, the other system went offline. I can’t see it.”

“Yeah, they stopped fucking with the engines. Do you think Julian is helping?” Henry asked Nikolas.

“I’d bet on it.”

After waiting twenty minutes to make sure the engines weren’t going to malfunction again, Pono checked in. “Hirini? Thank you. Thank all of you. Sefina, I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Sefina returned.

Nikolas clapped Henry on the shoulder. “Nice work.”

Henry stood and stretched. “Thanks, but I had help.”

“You and Kili make a good team.”

“I was talking about Julian, but yeah.” Henry grabbed his mate’s hand. “Yeah, we do. And we would be honored to move to New Atlanta if you’re serious about the job.”

“I was definitely serious, and after seeing what you’re capable of? I’d probably kidnap you and take you anyway if you turned my offer down.” Nikolas clapped his hands together. “While you go tell your family the good news, I need to call mine and tell them what happened.”

Kai exited Henry’s home in search of his mate. Now that they knew Lachlan was behind the issue with the plane, Gregor would throw the male back behind bars. Or worse.

Julian cursed into his empty house. With several males guarding the outside, he was able to focus his attention on his computer. The same system Lachlan was using to sabotage another plane. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. That would be someone else not only countering his every move but also restarting the engines as soon as Lachlan disabled them. Whoever it was didn’t need his help, so Julian focused on shutting down the system Lachlan was using.

He pressed a few buttons in the keyboard to call Gregor, then went back to the task at hand.

“Jules?”

“Can you get to the Pen? Lachlan is behind the plane going down.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m watching him trying to do it again.”

“Shit. The decoy worked.”

“Decoy?”

“Yes. We had Deacon tell Lachlan the mates were headed to Italy instead of Samoa. Malakai’s brother is flying the plane.”

“Why didn’t someone fill me in?”

“We would have if you’d answered your phone.” Gregor’s surly tone