Chapter Two:
Steve wakes up when Wo Fat turns him onto his back. He struggles, kicking his restrained legs into his abductor's chest, ignoring the pain in his back and the numbness of his arms. He receives a strong punch to his stomach to help discourage him, and it works because it forces him to stop to catch the breath he's just had knocked out of him.
While he sucks air into his lungs, Steve catalogs himself, noting that he has bandages of some kind tapped over his back where the most damage was done. He's certain he's been tended to only to ensure his survival.
"Your message failed to make it through," Wo Fat says, pulling Steve upright and finally freeing his arms, although he leaves his legs alone. "Unless you used the message to warn Joe White away."
"I wrote exactly what you told me to. Nothing more, nothing less."
Wo Fat's face sets, and Steve shuts up, unwilling to be hit again. He is pushed into a small room, a bathroom. Years of military service have trained him to ignore the open door in favor of relieving himself. He's a little concerned that his fingers are only just starting to tingle.
The trailer Wo Fat brought him to after the mess they'd made at Steve's house used to be Frank Durran's. Steve only recognizes it for the window that's been boarded over.
After securing him again, ankles hobbled and tied to the legs of the chair, Wo Fat drags a power line from a neighbor's trailer and uses the stolen energy to cook a few eggs and toast.
On principle, Steve refuses to eat anything, opting instead to drink a still-sealed bottle of water Wo Fat had brought with them from his house.
"It doesn't matter," Wo Fat says when Steve avoids the plate set for him. "You'll break faster if you don't eat."
"Wait," Steve says. "You're still going to torture me?" He looks down at his legs, testing the strength of the bonds again. Then he looks at Wo Fat who's got his big-ass military-grade knife again, reminding Steve he's still shirtless.
"You know more than you are telling me. It's only fair I get a chance to reveal it."
"The more you hurt me, the less I'll tell you," Steve promises, scooting backward with the chair as Wo Fat stands up. Three steps and Wo Fat has him pinned on his back on the floor. He can feel the cuts break open again and blood start pooling beneath him while Wo Fat works a hand into his pants.
"I do not like sexual torture," he says as he squeezes Steve's balls. "It lacks the finesse of—"
"A cattle prod," Steve gasps out, shifting to try to relieve the increasing pressure. He shoves his hands against Wo Fat's chest, ineffectual against the increasing pressure on his balls.
"Older techniques my father taught me. But, as he sometimes was forced to resort to it, so shall I unless you give me the knowledge I seek."
"I can't give you what I don't have."
"Very well." Wo Fat pulls his hand out of Steve's pants and snaps a pair of cuffs around his wrists, dragging him to the bedroom by his wrists. Steve never stops struggling as Wo Fat heaves him up and onto the bed, wrapping a rope around the chain of the cuffs to secure it to the headboard. He tugs on the rope to test it. Satisfied when it doesn't give, he moves to cut the binding on Steve's ankles, tying each one to a corner of the bed so he's spread out. He looks unimpressed at the kicks Steve aims at his groin.
"You have six hours before I start the sexual torture. That does not mean I am not going to torture you. It just means you have six hours to give me what I want or for your message to get to Joe White. If either fails…you will see."
He leaves Steve to fight his knots while he moves around the trailer collecting different items. He makes just enough ominous clattering to worry Steve into doubling his efforts to free himself.
He grunts in frustration when the bonds won't give, fighting back the wave of helplessness that swells over him. He's unsure if he can survive this next session when he's still weak from the first one.
It takes Wo Fat several minutes to return, but when he does, Steve sees why it took so long—somewhere Wo Fat found a butane torch and a lot of metal objects that can be heated and inserted into various body parts.
He swallows hard and sets his jaw and the first—same—question is asked. He still screams when the heated needle goes through the index finger of his left hand.
ooOoo
Danny sits hunched over a stack of photographs of Steve's message while Kono points out almost words from it. Danny's pen hasn't moved even though he's holding it poised to paper, and Kono is really starting to worry about him.
"We'll find him," she says, watching him lower his head to the desk. "Do we know who has him?"
"No." Danny's voice is muffled. "All we know is he was taken because of something to do with Joe White."
"Are we looking for Joe?"
"You think we aren't? We can't locate him. He's a ghost. Listen, I feel useless sitting here looking at these pics I can't even decipher. Let Fong have a go at 'em. I'm gonna catch up with Chin to see if he's got anything on the trace collected at the scene."
Danny stops straightening the photos long enough to grab his tie and phone. Kono waits until the door swings shut before she grabs everything they want Fong's help with and leaves Danny's office.
Charlie Fong is bent over a microscope when Kono arrives, and he quickly directs her to an open table so she can start laying out the message while he finishes analyzing what he's looking at.
"Has anyone contacted his sister?" Fong asks after staring at the message for a few moments.
"I think Duke at HPD was trying to get a hold of her, why?"
"Here." Fong thrusts a magnifying glass under her nose and taps a cluster of letters around 'Joe.' "It's her name with something similar to phonetic Latin."
"Steve knows Latin?" Kono shakes her head. "Wait, why is Mary's name in the message?"
"I don't know. What I do know is you're going to have to find a fluent Latin speaker to speak the syllables into words."
"Thanks, Charlie, that's actually really helpful."
Fong smiles. "Also, I think I know a guy who can help."
Kono gives him a quick hug. "Have him call me. I've gotta update Danny. Thanks again."
All this running around with few results is going to burn her out quickly, Kono decides, idling at another red light. She pulls into a gas station, hitting the steering wheel with her head as she rests for a little while. Her quasi-nap is interrupted by her phone going off.
"Kalakaua," she grunts.
"Kono?" a tearful-sounding woman asks. "Oh, my god, Kono!"
"Mary?" It takes a few seconds, but once Kono has Steve's sister in mind, the voice clicks. "Mary, what's wrong?"
"This van ran me off the road. I came back because an HPD officer told me Steve's been taken. I barely got out of the airport."
"Where are you? Is the van still near you?"
"No, no, it drove off." Mary inhales, a pop of noise against Kono's ear. "He stopped and was going to get out, but Kamekona stopped too."
"You're with Kamekona?"
"Yeah, he took me to the hospital to get checked out. Said something about staying on 'mah bruddah's' good side. Is there any news on Steve?"
Kono bites her lip, wants to tell Mary everything because she's the boss's sister, and she's been really helpful in the past, but then again, that was with Steve's blessing. She's unsure of Danny's reaction to bringing a civilian into the investigation, especially since the governor specifically disallowed them from involving HPD beyond the basic BOLOs and contacting family.
Screw it, she decides, she'll deal with the fallout later. "Hey, Mary, do you know if Steve learned Latin?"
"He took four years of it in high school, but I don't know if he followed through with it. He didn't seem to like it—could never spell the words right." Mary laughs suddenly, something warm in her tone. "His teacher sent home so many notes, and Steve would translate them into his version before our aunt saw them."
"Could you understand Latin?"
"Yeah, I thought it'd be something we could have in common, y'know? Like Sherlock Holmes and my dad."
Kono knows now she was right to trust her gut. Mary can help their investigation move along more quickly.
"I'm going to meet you, and I'm bringing some things I want you to look at. Can you do that for me?"
"Will this help you find Steve?"
"Absolutely."
"I'm in. I'll be at Kamekona's usual spot."
"Be there in fifteen," Kono promises, glad she's already headed that way and doesn't need to turn around in traffic.
ooOoo
Almost as soon as he climbs into his car, Danny gets a call from HPD. They are assisting the Honolulu Fire Department with a suspected arson case, and could Five-Oh help, too?
"No," Danny says. "Not right now anyway. We're working on an unofficial case from the governor, something so top secret it makes undercover work look legit. But, hey, send me all your info on it, and we'll work on it if we get some spare time." He also manages to say something about trusting HPD to do a fine job without them.
"I'll email you," Sergeant Duke Lukela says, and Danny hears typing. "We have pictures of the scene and the crowd. Charlie Fong'll be processing our evidence, so you talk to him if you think you didn't get everything."
"Will do." Danny waits for a few seconds, hears Lukela suck in a breath, knows something's coming.
"Do you know why McGarrett isn't answering his phone?"
"Top secret mission. He'll get back to you as soon as he can."
"Is he missing? There's a rumor going 'round here that he's been taken."
The crime scene unit was supposed to be sworn to silence by Governor Denning, but that seems to be working about as well as Danny could have guessed. Hopefully, HPD keeps it in-house since Denning didn't want the public to know that Five-Oh had been targeted, and also because he thought they still have leaks in HPD. Personally, Danny wants HPD on their side. They have more manpower than Five-Oh and can help locate Steve easier.
"You know what?" Danny makes an executive decision, and Chin and Kono can bitch him out later. "He is missing. He was abducted by someone who tortured him and forced him to write a message with his own blood. I need you to keep it quiet on orders of the governor. Any help we can give you your case will be determined by how fast we find McGarrett."
"I understand. And Williams?"
"Yeah?"
"You catch that sonofabitch, you hear me? You make him pay."
"Absolutely. Keep in touch, Sergeant." Danny hangs up first, wondering if the case of arson might have something to do with Steve's abduction. He has no evidence of anything yet, but he decides there's a way to find out. "Chin!"
Chin, who'd been on his way to meet him at his car, follows him back inside and to the data table. Danny explains his idea quickly, and Chin searches, nimble fingers flicking over the surface with an agitated energy.
"Look at this," Chin says suddenly, jabbing at the uploaded pictures of Steve's message. He traces a few letters, and Danny starts to see it too.
"Sonofabitch," he swears quietly. The address of the burned out building—4678 Kahala Avenue—is similar to what looks like an address in Steve's message. "Can't be a coincidence," he says, too stunned to do more than stare. "What if Steve was in that building?"
"We don't know anything," Chin says. "We don't even know if that is an address."
"Voice of reason, take a hike. I need to believe this wasn't an accident."
"You also need to believe Steve's not there. Steve's not dead."
"Still, we should check it out."
"Never said we shouldn't."
"No, you didn't."