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Hilo International Airport, Hilo, Hawai‘i

The two jets arrived roughly thirty minutes apart, both on runway 8-26, the longer of the airport’s two runways.

The first to land, at 2:00 p.m., was a Peregrine, a modified Gulfstream G550 business jet, one of the many jets that belonged to billionaire tech legend J. P. Brett, friend and occasional business partner to Oliver and Leah Cutler.

On this Saturday, the Cutlers and their film crew were on board. They’d been picked up in Iceland after Oliver Cutler called Brett and explained why they needed to get to Mauna Loa as fast as humanly possible.

“Is it dangerous?” Brett had asked.

“I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t,” Oliver Cutler told him. “And we wouldn’t be going if it weren’t.”

“You want company?”

“Always, my friend.”

“Then I’ll get there as soon as I can,” Brett said, “as soon as I wrap up some business with my friend Zuckerberg.”

“Do it quickly,” Oliver Cutler said.

“I always do with that particular gentleman.”

When the Cutlers deplaned, Henry Takayama was there with the Rivian R1T truck Oliver Cutler had requested that would take them all to the new Four Seasons property and the villa that Leah Cutler had requested, although Takayama knew that request wasn’t the right word.

The crew packed their equipment into an SUV Takayama had rented for them. There was another new resort in Hilo, the Lani, but the crew were staying at the Hilton.

There were no reporters waiting to speak to the Cutlers at the airport, although they had initially “requested” the press. Takayama had managed to talk them out of that, at least for now.

He needed the Cutlers—they were his way of finding out what was going on inside the army and at HVO. The Cutlers wanted to be even more famous than they were, the heroes of this particular drama.

Henry Takayama wanted to be more powerful than he had ever been and to once again feel like the biggest guy in town.

When they had all settled into the crew cab of the electric pickup truck that handled like a sports car, Leah once again raised the possibility of a press conference before they met with the big brass.

Or the biggest brass, in this case.

“There will be enough time for the spotlight later,” Takayama told her.

“There’s never enough time for the spotlight, Henry,” Oliver said. “By the way, is that asshole MacGregor still running point on this?”

“None other,” Takayama said. “It’s one of the biggest reasons why the two of you are here. The arrogant son of a bitch doesn’t know it yet, but you’re about to outrank him.”

Takayama smiled a self-satisfied smile. “And so am I,” he said.

As they drove off, a second Peregrine landed at the airport, this one carrying J. P. Brett.