Luna for Life (eBook)

The Early Years of Duke Kahanamoku and Jessie Ohana

William Pitman (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
412 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-7786-8 (ISBN)

Infos

'Luna for Life' is a story about Duke Kahanamoku and Jessie Ohana's early years in Lahaina. Jessie, his best friend and neighbor, also plays a significant role in Duke's life. Duke and Jessie, along with Lili, Jessi's cousin, encounter a dangerous abduction incident at Lahaina Harbor, forcing them on a perilous journey that includes a daring rescue mission and a challenging swim to the island of Lanai. Despite facing life-threatening situations, their unbreakable bond and resilience help them overcome adversity. The action with Duke attending the Naval Academy , SEAL Training, algorithms predicting a Dictators actions and a spirited adventure escaping North Korea. The narrative highlight's themes of intelligence, creativity, survival, and the strength of the human spirit. Through their shared experiences, Duke and Jessie's relationship deepens, and they find solace in each other's company, reaffirming their commitment to each other and their mutual success.

After graduating from Texas A&M University, William Pitman was commissioned as an officer in the US Army Field Artillery. He was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War as a nuclear security officer and commander of the 8' Howitzer delivery platform. Upon returning to the U.S., he earned his CPA certification and became the Chief Financial Officer of the largest privately owned homebuilding company in America. He later founded his own successful homebuilding business, constructing both affordable and luxury homes and over a million square feet of rental properties. William has also owned an interior design studio, an antiquarian book business, an international stamping company, and an international laptop case manufacturer. His ventures extend to oilfield safety, restaurants, and pecan farming. He has served on the boards of national banks, a title insurance company, and an international hospital equipment manufacturer. He owns property in Maui, where he spends as much time as possible. He is also a talented ukulele player with a conversational understanding of Spanish and German.

Textauszug

5

DISCARDED

They awoke the next day at their home in Lahaina. Duke had breakfast and went to check on Jessie. He knocked on the bedroom door and called out, “Are you awake?” When he had no response, he went inside.

She was just stirring, waved at him, and offered, “Aside from being sleepy, I feel pretty good. How about you?”

Duke came in and sat on the corner of her bed, “I feel great. We made it and survived with only minor injuries.”

Jessie reached out and held Duke’s hand. “Do you remember when we were young? We held hands wherever we went. I miss that.” She pulled Duke towards her and wrapped her arms around his neck. “We are going to hold hands always, forever.” Duke eased into the bed beside her and they held each other tight.

The holiday season passed and the next few weeks were a time of recovery and mental adjustment for all three of them. Lili was two years older than Duke and Jessie was a senior at Lahainaluna High School. Lili was well known for her beautiful voice and natural stage presence. She wrote and recorded a dozen songs, receiving high praise and acceptance locally.

Just weeks after the kidnapping, Lili recorded her new song, “Loving and Living,” which was a tribute to her two friends who had risked their lives to save her. It became an immediate hit on the local radio station. As it spread across Maui, a successful Hawaiian singer and writer, Willie K, heard the song and decided he wanted to meet Lili.

Willie K was on schedule to perform at a fundraiser for Lahainaluna High School the next week and reached out to Lili. He asked her to sing her song with him at the school fair. They were a big hit. Willie was so impressed that he invited her to perform at his upcoming music festival at the Maui Arts Center the following month.

“Lili,” Willie said, “your song and your voice are a bomb. I want you to write more music. We can work together on the arrangements. You can introduce yourself to Maui and all of Hawaii next month. Let’s work to make this a successful debut for Lili Kama.”

Lili was ecstatic and posted pictures of her and Willie on her Facebook page, telling everyone all about her upcoming show. Her 800 friends and followers all pledged to attend the show and support her debut. Willie had also friended her on Facebook and the comments and excitement grew as all of Hawaii learned about Lili Kama. Thousands of people followed Lili’s Facebook page, including Chin-woo.

“I have a firm price and commitment for this bitch,” he told the four men on the ship. “We can get her at the show. I know that place and the backstage is isolated and near the exit. I’ll pay each of you a thousand dollars for one day’s work. The Maui Arts Center is near the commercial docks and I will have an agent with a container to put her in. We will earn our money as soon as we get that container on the ship. By the way,” he told them, “If we can get both her and her friend, I can sell them both. There’ll be a bonus to all of us if we can do that.”

Chin-woo secured commitments from the four conspirators and began to lay out the plans to kidnap Lili, and hopefully Jessie, at the show that next month.

The weather was beautiful on the afternoon of the festival. Lili was nervous and excited about her performance with Willie K. The entertainment started at ten in the morning and ended at ten that night. Performers were on back-to-back all day. Willie K and Lili were to perform on stage at 1:00 that afternoon. Jessie and Duke were her special guests and were with her backstage while she paced, anticipating her introduction in a few moments.

“I feel a little queasy,” said Lili.

Duke offered to go out front to see if anyone had antacid tablets to settle her stomach. After Duke left, Lili and Jessie walked away from the dressing room to the area behind the stage. Lili felt she needed more room to pace. Chin-woo and his four goons were waiting. The plan was to capture them and go directly to the Dragon Shipping offices at the commercial dock in Kahului Harbor. As soon as Lili and Jessie walked into the parking lot, they pounced on the two unsuspecting friends.

Jessie immediately went into battle mode and struck one of the attackers across the bridge of his nose, knocking him to the ground. Lili, with lingering insecurity from her abduction, kept a small but powerful Taser at hand all the time. The Taser was about the size of a roll of quarters but delivered a million-volt charge. She immediately discharged this into Chin-woo’s chest. He went down hard, and she broke and ran towards the stage. As Jessie turned to follow her, one of Chin-woo’s gang struck her on the back of her head with a leather sap and she fell unconscious.

His team had missed Lili but captured Jessie and took her to the waiting van. They turned to go back to get Chin-woo when a commotion broke out. Lili, followed by security guards, had come back to take control of Chin-woo. The abductors retreated and jumped into the van, speeding away. “At least we got one of them,” they said. “Chin-woo is going to be mad.”

Jessie awoke as they reached the shipping docks and the offices of Dragon Shipping. The leader took her picture with his iPhone. One of her kidnappers remained with her as the other three went into the offices to complete the sale. When they entered the office, the man at the desk said, “Have you got the girl?”

“Yes, we do. Here is her picture. She’s right outside.”

The Dragon Shipping manager compared it to the photo he had on his phone and responded, “This does not look like the same girl. Let’s see.”

When they came to look at Jessie, he said, “This is not the girl we were promised,” he argued. “We will not pay for a substitute. Get out of here now!”

The kidnappers protested, “We have her here, take her to the boat and pay us what you can.”

They could not reach an agreement and left the parking lot with Jessie, driving a short distance to where their tender was temporarily docked. Jessie struggled but they successfully dragged her aboard as they released the lines, powered up and headed out into the ocean.

Back at the Maui Arts Festival, Duke was looking for the girls in the parking lot and learned of Jessie’s abduction. He recognized Chin-woo lying inert along the curb. Lili returned to the parking lot with Security and asked them to secure Chin-woo.

“What happened?” Duke asked the crowd that had gathered. “Where is Jessie, my girlfriend? She is a Hawaiian teenage girl, five-feet tall about ninety pounds.”

“One of them hit her over the head with a blackjack. It looked like they knocked her out,” said an older man.

The woman standing with him said, “They took the girl and put her in a white van. We called 911 but no one has come.”

When the police arrived, Duke and the security guard holding Chin-woo dragged him to the police cruiser. Duke explained the history of Chin-woo and the story behind the kidnapping a few months back. The officer in charge insisted on taking Chin-woo to the police station for questioning. Duke objected, “They have my friend, Jessie, and we need to know—now—where they are taking her.”

After no cooperation from the police, Duke followed the police car and Chin-woo to the station and engaged the desk sergeant. “We need to know where they took my friend. They tried to kidnap us and another person last month and then they tried to kill us. We need to know where they have taken her NOW!”

The detective assigned to the case came forward and allowed Duke to accompany him into the interrogation room.

“We know about you, Chin-woo. We are going to charge you with attempted kidnapping of three people and kidnapping of the girl who we rescued at sea. You are never going to see freedom again. If anything happens to the girl you took today, you will face the death penalty. Kidnapping and murder qualify for the federal death penalty.”

Chin-woo was silent at first. After five minutes he asked if he could make a deal.

“What kind of a deal,” asked the detective?

“Take the death penalty off the table and I’ll tell you where they took the girl,” he said.

After discussing it over the phone with the local FBI office, the agent said they could agree, in principle.

“I sold her to a shipping agent at Kahului Harbor and he would then take her to a buyer somewhere. I don’t know where. But I gave the agent the picture of the other girl, the singer, so I’m not sure how he will react when he sees the girl they took. I planned to take them both but had not specifically arranged to sell him two girls. I was hoping we could negotiate that if I got them both.”

By this time, it had been two hours since Jessie’s abduction. Chin-woo told them that he had negotiated the price with an agent at Dragon Shipping named Mr. Loo. He had met him at their dock offices at the harbor, north side. This was only ten minutes from the police station.

Five cruisers left the station with lights on and sirens blaring. As they pulled up in front of the small building with a Dragon Shipping sign, the police streamed out of their vehicles, brought Chin-woo and stormed the door. Inside were two people who immediately held up their hands.

Duke pushed to the front and asked, “What did you do with my friend, Jessie?”

“I didn’t know her name. but I did nothing. She was not the one in the picture so she was not cargo. We are in the cargo business nothing else.”

“Then where...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.12.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-7786-8 / 9798350977868