T-minus 12 hours and I'm free from exams.

Chapter 175: The Honeymoon Part Four

Bora Bora - 13:32 PM

After Emily paid the cheque, the four of them headed back to Keith and Naomi's room-turned-lab workspace. Now that they have bad people searching for them and the diamond, they need to act quickly. The only issue is that they still haven't cracked any real ground into decrypting it.

"Okay, we need to buy time or at least create more time because we're barely scratching the surface of an impermeable gem," Naomi states.

"We have to get rid of the baddies but they'd know something's up," Keith says. "They're after that diamond and we've been around any mission long enough to know they won't go down without a fight. Literally, none of us were meant to fight."

"So let's give them a different diamond," Daniel suggests. "They want coordinates so let's just make them think they have it."

Keith scoffs. "And where are we gonna get another diamond?"

Emily mocks his scoff. "I'll handle that. You three decrypt the one we got."

Daniel holds her arm to stop her. "No, you stay and help them decode. I'll get it."

-o-

After Daniel left to go to a jeweller in the resort to get their fake diamond, Keith and Emily started getting some clues on the diamond's message.

"Okay, we got the letters N, S… W," Emily says, scribbling them down.

"NSFW?" Keith guesses with a playful grin. "That'd make for an interesting message."

Emily smiles. "No."

"E," Naomi says as the fourth letter appears on the screen. "We got an N, S, E, W. Seems like the message will be some coordinates."

"Coordinates for the weapons shipment?" Emily asks. "Coordinates for Gen's ditch?"

"Presumably the former, but I don't know why a set of coordinates would have all four directions. None of us are geographers so I won't ask if something can be southwest northeast and vice versa. Anyways, we have what they're looking for given that they'll need the location even if they don't have the weapons. They're coming for us."

"Then let's keep the decoding going. We just can't leave it here or stay here."

Keith nods. "Stark's onto something. We need to get caught. Keep them running after us so they won't even think to come back here. Hide our work while we, well, give ourselves more time."

Naomi throws her hands by her sides. "We literally just discussed how we're not meant for fighting."

"Daniel's getting the fake diamond, isn't he?" Emily questions rhetorically. She reaches into her purse and takes out some sunscreen to lather on herself. "We just need to clean up the room and get out."

-o-

With a fresh diamond in his pocket that looked identical to the one they had to decrypt, Daniel came back to the makeshift on-site lab but stopped outside the door when he noticed the do not disturb door sign wasn't there anymore. Daniel looks around the hallway and notices the maid's cart by the elevator. His first guess is hospitality services but he's skeptical. They're decrypting so why would they suddenly want fresh towels?

Daniel slowly opens the door and he knows something is up when it's unlocked. He peeks inside and the room is oddly empty, cleaned out. It's as if nobody was staying here. Daniel double-checks the number on the door and he's in the right room.

He's about to call for Emily but hear footsteps coming from the ensuite. He quietly closes the door behind him and scurries onto the balcony. Daniel slides against the wall beside the window and peeks inside.

It wasn't Emily, Keith, or Naomi. Daniel sees armed men talking amongst each other in harsh tones. He doesn't pick up everything they're saying but he hears all he has to.

Diamond. Weapons. Location.

Quickly, Daniel looks onto the beach below. He ignores the ocean and beautiful skies. He focuses on the people on the sand. Couples and families walking along the shore, playing in the sand, taking pictures. Then his attention diverts to three people jumping in the sand and throwing their arms in the air as if they're signalling a plane.

There's his wife. He knows it. Daniel knows how to spot her from afar because he knows every curve, birthmark, angle, everything.

Why and when did they go to the beach? Where was their work? Was he used as bait? They wouldn't do that to him … he'd like to believe.

Daniel focuses on Emily and squints, locking in her location. He mutters trajectory equations, taking in her jumps and the wind direction and speed as he rolls back the shoulder of his throwing arm to loosen it up.

They wanted to buy more time for the decryption, right? It's not like Daniel knew the plan since he was busy getting their new diamond. Either way, time to start running but they needed someone to chase them.

Daniel turns around and looks back into the hotel room. He knocks on the glass and waves with a smile when the armed men on the other side start yelling at him and each other, especially when Daniel takes the fake diamond out of his pocket to show them.

"Looking for this?" Daniel teases.

When he looks back onto the beach, he sees Emily and whips the diamond. Daniel isn't sure if the throw dislocated his shoulder but he doesn't think before leaping off the balcony. He didn't even look down. He knows he'll make it. It's not like he could've gone back into the room and used the elevator.

Lucky for Daniel, he lands on the canopy above the resort's front entrance. He doesn't stick the landing and stumbles, rolling off the edge. Doesn't land like a cat and falls right into a bush. Daniel crawls out grumbling to himself but he's happy the hotel staff and tourists in close proximity were too preoccupied with their jobs and their vacations, respectively, to look at him. They don't even ask if he's okay and he's, ironically, okay with that.

"Thanks for telling me the plan…" Daniel mutters to himself as he fixes his glasses.

-o-

Despite having seven PhDs between the four of them, they weren't as quick on their feet as strategists. Like the decrypting diamond, they needed time they didn't have to think of something. After they hid their work and cleaned up the room to the point where it looked untouched, they fled. While scrambling for a plan, they wounded up on the beach and remembered Daniel when they saw him on the balcony.

They knew they forgot something.

At least he was outside. They weren't sure if their room was compromised so they started jumping on the beach to try and get his attention. They were relieved when Daniel was looking at them but confused when he threw something at them and then jumped off the balcony. The three of them were confused until they saw armed men run out on the balcony.

"At least we know where they were," Naomi says. "Daniel threw the diamond!"

"He just tossed it and jumped. He has to teach me that," Keith mutters.

"Now the baddies know we're here."

Emily hasn't taken her eyes off the balcony the moment Daniel jumped. She knows he locked in on her location and calculated a flight path for the diamond. She takes a shot at what equation he used and works backwards in her mind to start from her location which was his end result. Her eyes divert to a glint in the air, right where she knew it would be based on the seconds she took to do math in her head. Emily hopes to Thor no bird swoops in to snatch it.

She bounces on her toes as she sees the diamond flying towards her. Emily leaps up, slight mistake on her part, but at least she catches the diamond right in the cleavage of her bikini top.

Naomi looks at her in pure amazement as Emily takes the diamond out. Keith accidentally looked for a second but quickly diverted his eyes.

Emily laughs proudly. "That was the man I married. Let's run."