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drugs were toxic when he distributed them.
    ***

Chapter 7
    At midday, Alicia saw Kimo swimming off Ha’ini Beach, where he’d told her he would be training sea creatures to follow his beach-attack commands, attempting to improve on his abilities. Moanna had said that some of the future recruits would be able to lead certain species of sea life, and in preparation for that, Kimo wanted to be able to teach the newcomers the best methods of getting their animals to assault the major Hawaiian beaches, under his overall tactical command.
    Thus far, Alicia had not shown any ability to lead marine animals—just the ability to generate small waves and stand on top of them, something that did not seem to be of any use in the beach operation. She intended to practice with waves anyway today, to see if she could improve her skills. She also wanted to see if she could generate tubular surfing waves, and for that she’d brought along her board, which lay on the sand near her.
    Alicia wore a waterproof backpack, containing the list of potential volunteers in a sealed plastic bag. Kimo had told her to bring it along, in case they wanted to look at it for any reason and discuss it. With additional research they had two hundred fifty-three people on the list to recruit now, with only thirty-four additional names unverified.
    Standing on the shore in a two-piece swimsuit, she used binoculars to identify schools of large fish around Kimo, including yellowfin tuna, swordfish, blue marlin, and bonito sharks. The young Hawaiian man was swimming in the midst of the fish, going in a small circle, motioning them into formation and calling out to them with some of the aquatic sounds she’d heard him use. Moments later, the tuna and swordfish spread to the right and left and gathered behind Kimo, keeping their species together, and the blue marlins reformed behind him, too, but at the center—thus forming a line of large fish in the rear of Kimo. Then, in front of him, between him and the beach, the bonito sharks took a central position. It looked like an ancient precision military maneuver, of Roman soldiers shifting on a field of combat before a battle, except this was in the water.
    At a signal from Kimo, the entire assemblage went into a vee-formation and began to swim toward the shore, and pick up speed. At the last possible moment, the sharks veered off to each side, while behind them came the other three species, a mass of large and powerful creatures with Kimo in their midst. As the formation rushed toward her, Alicia found the display impressive, an operation that would surely send any human swimmers fleeing in terror.
    When all of the creatures finally changed direction and sped back out into deeper water, Alicia left her pack and binoculars on the beach, then dove in the water and swam out to join Kimo. “Are you sure that maneuver won’t hurt anyone?” she asked. “It looked pretty frightening to me.”
    “Exactly as it’s supposed to,” he said, swimming in place. “Sure, there could be a few minor injuries, maybe even a heart attack or two among older people—but it’s necessary, don’t you see? A small price to pay for the terrible damage humans have inflicted on the ocean.”
    “We can discuss it later,” she said, not entirely convinced. “Come into shore with me. I want to talk about what we should do next.”
    “Is your grandfather going to help us with the finances?” Kimo asked, as they swam on gentle waves that lapped toward the beach.
    “No,” she said. “We’re on our own.”
    “That’s exactly what I expected.”
    Reaching shallow water they waded, and then stepped onto the beach and sat on the sun-warmed white sand.
    “Grandfather was very upset by what I told him,” she said. “He doesn’t believe we can dive deep in the ocean, or anything I told him about Moanna. He says it’s all an elaborate trick to separate him from his money.”
    “A trick? That’s ridiculous!”
    “I know it, and you