Chapter 2
Danny pushed the doors open and waved a hand at Steve sitting in his office as he walked past. Steve got up and followed him. "Hey, partner. You busy today?"
"Depends. It's paperwork and catching up, unless we get a case." Danny dropped his car keys and phone on his desk. "Is it bad that I'm hoping we get a case?"
Steve grinned at him. "How about if I gave you something to do that would get you out of paperwork?"
"Does it get me out of the paperwork, or does it just delay it?"
Steve pursed his lips and shrugged. "Does it matter?"
Danny thought for a second and shrugged in return. "I'd rather you volunteer to do the paperwork for me in return for whatever crazy thing it is you want me to do."
"It's not crazy."
"Our definitions of crazy generally differ, my friend." Steve waited patiently until Danny sighed loudly. "Okay, what is it?"
"The governor has asked for a member of our team to participate in an event today."
"Oh, yes, this sounds promising."
"His Council on Innovation and Technology is hosting a gathering of industry and government officials from the mainland to showcase Hawaii as a good location for new businesses."
"A gathering."
"A meeting, if you will. Our good friend - and boss - the governor has asked Five-0 to send a representative to talk about how we use technology to help keep the island safe."
"Yeah, that would be Chin."
"He was going to do it, but now he's testifying in the Barrett case today."
Danny sighed again. "Why me?"
"Because your charm and wit will no doubt win over everyone in attendance." Danny stared at him, eyebrows raised. Steve laughed. "Okay, because I hate these things. Plus, you actually have a story to tell about moving out here. You have a kid in a local school." Steve clapped a hand on the other man's shoulder. "And, when you let yourself be, you can be a charming guy."
Danny closed his eyes. Sighed - again - and opened his eyes to glare at Steve. "I hate you."
"I know. But you'll do it anyway."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yes. I will do this great favor that you ask of me. If," he punctuated the words with a finger pointed toward Steve, "you will do my paperwork."
Steve nodded. "Done. Let me fill you in on the details of the event."
Danny was expecting a room full of suits, and there were a few, but mostly the people at the governor's meeting were dressed more island-friendly. He recognized one of the governor's staff, a native Hawaiian woman in her mid-50s, talking with a group of attendees and nodded at her in greeting. She excused herself from the group and met him near the edge of the room.
"Detective Williams, I'm Linda Hale; we met at the governor's last fundraiser." She reached out to shake Danny's hand. "I'm the Director of the Governor's Council on Innovation and Technology. Thank you so much for agreeing to participate today. Let me introduce you to our moderator, who can tell you more about the agenda. I know the Governor asked you to speak to the group as a whole, but I hope you'll stay for the entire day, sit in on some of the workshops, and lend your expertise to our small group sessions."
"Ah, small group sessions?"
She looked kindly at him. "We'll ask everyone to break out into groups we've assigned, mixing up their fields of expertise. Hopefully that will encourage them to build a more comprehensive network and result some innovative thinking in the group exercises."
"See, you had me right up until group exercise." Danny smiled at her to take some of the sting out of his words.
"I promise, it's less touchy feely than it sounds. We're focusing on solving local problems, so we'd like some of local experts to offer their thoughts."
"You have a group focusing on crime?"
"Actually, yes, but we're trying to let our experts expand their networks, too. So you'll be in the emergency management group."
Danny nodded. "Okay. I can do that."
"Wonderful." She directed him toward a younger man, who welcomed him warmly and went over the agenda for the morning, answering questions about the program and explaining his introduction.
About an hour later, Danny realized that it was almost his turn to speak. The morning had been more interesting that he expected. The head of the state's Small Business Council had talked about the variety of businesses on the different islands, and how the state encouraged new businesses that hired local residents.
There were a few representatives from the surrounding military facilities, who talked about the need to hire the spouses of military men and women stationed there, noting the vast array of skills and experience those people brought with them.
In a more fun presentation, one of the island's biggest coffee growers and the brewmaster from a new brewery on the Big Island spoke about a collaboration they were working on to create a local microbrew.
Danny applauded along with the crowd as the speaker before him left the stage. The moderator stepped back up to the podium and thanked the speaker. He then turned and waved Danny up on stage.
"By now, you've heard how we like to do things a bit differently here than our cousins on the mainland. We like to apply that thinking to law enforcement as well, and it's worked well for us. Six years ago, a special task force was appointed by the governor to tackle crime in a more strategic fashion, and their work has been instrumental in bringing down organized crime groups and human and drug trafficking rings, and in making the islands a safer place to live and do business. To tell us more about their work, I'm honored to introduce Detective Danny Williams."
Danny shook hands with the moderator as they traded places. He stood behind the podium and lifted one hand in a brief greeting to the crowd. "Um, good morning. I was asked to speak a little about how we use technology as part of the Governor's special task force on crime, or as we're known Five-0. Technology is absolutely critical to what we do. It's something we use every day, and I am so not the person to talk about how it works. To me, it's like magic." He emphasized the last word with a flashy wave of his hands. The crowd laughed.
"I may be the worst person to explain the how behind the magic, but that makes me the best person to talk about how important it is that our tech be both useful and usable. Solving crimes takes the same skills it always has: determination, instinct, a willingness to keep asking questions, and the ability to find the right questions to ask. Technology is just another tool."
He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "You might think that all the tech we have makes our jobs easier. And - most of the time - it does. But if we didn't back it up with our people, the tech wouldn't matter." One hand lifted, palm up. "The machines analyze evidence, but it's the person who carefully looked through a crime scene to collect it and the person who looks at the analysis and remembers that it matches something from an unsolved case three months back to make the machine's work mean anything. Our human connection - to our community, to our team, to the victims and their families - is at the foundation of both what we do and how we do it."
He looked over the crowd. "So you may have noticed that I am not from around here." He got a laugh from the attendees. "If any of you are from Jersey - or even New York - feel free to come find me later today." He grinned at them. "And if you brought pizza or bagels with you, please come find me." Another laugh, even warmer. "Things move differently out here. Island time isn't a saying, it's just the way things are. That doesn't mean we don't have some of the smartest, sharpest, hardest-working people in the country here - we do. Many of them are from here, many of them call some part of the mainland home, but they're all here to get something done."
Danny talked for a few more minutes about Five-0's work, and how they fit into the state's law enforcement structure. He spoke about the decrease in crime, giving much of the credit to local organizations like HPD. He wrapped up by talking about how the governor's trust and confidence made it possible for them to try mixing innovative methods with good old fashioned police work, and how they returned that trust by working hard for the people of Hawaii.
He thanked the audience, who gave him an enthusiastic round of applause. He shook the moderator's hand and returned to his seat on the front row.
"Thank you, Detective Williams. If I could one more round of applause for all our excellent speakers this morning, we're going to take a quick break then move on to our small group sessions."
Danny was immediately surrounded after the moderator dismissed the group for a break. A couple of mainland business owners had questions about the crime statistics he'd used, and a few other people wanted to tell him they enjoyed his talk.
He spent a few minutes chatting with people, then as he was getting ready to walk into the other room, someone just behind him said, "Detective Williams, can I introduce you to another one of our attendees?"
Danny, recognizing Linda Hale's voice, turned to say sure and found not only Ms. Hale, but another familiar face there, with a small, conspiratorial grin directed at him.
Linda said, "This is Cassandra Wallace. She's heads up NASA's Technology Innovation program."
