Vendetta

Chapter 2

Wo Fat continued to smile at Danny.

"Stop that. You're really beginning to creep me out now."

"Well, I'm just glad that you recognize me. It saves a lot of time introducing myself," he said.

Anger filled Danny's body and he tried to stand again, but once again nausea and dizziness over took his body.

"I wouldn't try to get up, at least not for a little while. The drug's quite powerful."

"What the hell did you dose me with? No, forget that, how did you get into my house –"

"You do have a lot of questions, Detective. I guess it comes with the job, doesn't it? Your house wasn't exactly Fort Knox. After all, Hiro's men bypassed McGarrett's security system without a problem –"

Danny's face and demeanor changed from anger to concern.

"Where's Steve?" Danny asked, his concern now shifting away from his own predicament to needing to know if Wo Fat had Steve too. After all, Steve had pointed a gun at Wo Fat, had threatened him for being involved in his parents' murders.

Wo Fat laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"I wouldn't worry about him right now."

"Don't tell me what to worry about you son of a bitch," Danny said his anger returning.

"Careful, Detective. You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea," Danny retorted back, his tone condescending.

"You wouldn't want anything to happen to your daughter, now would you?"

Danny's face then changed to rage at the threat to his Grace.

""If you touch her, if you even go near her, so help me God, I will kill you," Danny said his voice even more menacing than when he had threatened Hoffman with the same fate.

Danny was suddenly feeling pain in his gut and it was slowly growing. He was struggling to hide it, trying not to give Wo Fat any satisfaction, but it was getting harder and harder to do.

Wo Fat watched and kept on smiling. All Danny could think about was how he would love to wipe that smile off his face.

"As long as you cooperate with me, no harm will come to her. I have no quarrel with you, not now, but press me and I have the means to make my threat a reality. Right now, you're just a means to an end."

"What are you talking about?" Danny groaned out, trying to temper his anger for Grace's sake.

"That pain you're having right now? That's just the beginning. You see, the drug we dosed you with is…well, let's just say it's a special formulation. As for McGarrett, he'll be joining you soon enough."

"What's that supposed to mean? Cryptic, much? This is all sounding just a little too melodramatic. Why me?"

"Because you know as well as I do that McGarrett cares very little about his own personal safety. His vulnerability is people he cares about."

"Then you got the wrong guy, we just work together. That's where it begins and ends. Personally, he drives me up the friggin' wall," Danny tried to downplay.

"You underestimate me, Detective and you're really a lousy liar. I hope you don't play poker. No, everyone in 5-0 is important to McGarrett. He's a soldier, first and foremost. Loyalty is paramount and being the leader of the task force makes him feel responsible for everyone who serves under his command."

"You still haven't answered my question. Why am I here?" Danny asked in as defiant a tone as he could muster.

"What do you cops call it? Bait and trap? You're the bait and McGarrett will take it. He'll have no choice."

Danny swallowed hard.

"Now who's doing the underestimating, huh?" Danny said trying to hide his doubt.

"You know he will, Detective and when he does –"

"And when he does, you're a dead man because believe me, I've watched the man at work. He has anger management issues."

"At what cost? Your life? The lives of the others? No, I know the man better than you give me credit for. He'll sacrifice himself before he does any of you."

Danny had no pithy come back because he knew that Wo Fat was right. He had seen Steve's love for armed combat. Sometimes Danny wondered if he thrived on it.

"What do you want from him?"

"Revenge is a dish best served cold," Wo Fat said grimly.

"What? You're quoting Wrath of Khan to me now?"

Wo Fat only laughed again and then just walked out of the room.

Danny curled into a ball and let out a groan. The pain hitting him was intense.

"Damn it," Danny said, wondering what Wo Fat had dosed him with and if he would survive whatever revenge he wanted to exact on both him and Steve. Somehow he didn't think he'd be coming out of this alive unless by some miracle rescue and that made Danny wonder at what cost would that come.

The other thought in his head was what he had told Steve when he had gotten shot by Duran.

"I am not getting myself killed for your vendetta..."

When the pain started to subside, he allowed himself an internal rant, "poor choice of words there". He also thought of Grace and worried about her safety. He had to protect her. He didn't know how he could do that trapped where he was, but he was going to try even if it meant getting himself killed in the process and that thought had brought up another memory.

"Yeh, maybe I don't know, you know? There's three ways of looking at it. One, I could get myself killed chasing some meth head scumbag and then what kind of father would I be?"

Danny, tired and weak, smiled then uttered to no one, but to his own echo, "Hmmm…hadn't considered a psychopath."

As he found himself drifting into unconsciousness, he made a mental note that if worse comes to worse, whatever revenge Wo Fat was seeking from Steve, he'd find a way to make sure that he didn't get it, that he would keep Steve from sacrificing himself. He didn't know how he was going to accomplish it, but the decision was a done deal.

TBC