Steve pulled at the zip ties around his wrists. The plastic bit into his flesh uncomfortably but it didn't stop him from continuing to pull on them. For the most part the sedative they had given him was wearing off, but he still felt sluggish and unfocused.

The room he was in was cold, with a cement floor and the chair was bolted solidly to the ground. It had high ceilings, and a refrigerator door along the back wall. Two meat hooks dangled from a runs along the ceiling over top of drain in the floor. Along another wall not far from where he was bound, were two long, metal tables. He could see things along the top of the tables but not what they were exactly.

The windows were covered in some type of black cloth or paint, it made impossible to tell what time of day it was. They had taken his watch when they tied him up, so he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. The only illumination in the room came from a few overhead bulbs that cast their pools of harsh, light straight down, so anything that was past the edges was nearly impossible to see it.

His body stiffened when he heard a door scrape along the stone floor behind him and fought the desire to pull at the bindings again. He looked over his shoulder and tried to not react to whatever they brought in with them. He wasn't expecting another person. A woman, if his guess was right.

"Not good enough for you?" Steve poked. Trying to gauge them. Danny told him he was very good at making people angry. All he could see of the woman was the she was small, long flame red hair, and fair skin. He watched the younger of the two men, which was an assumption on his part, based solely on hair color and build, bounced the girl down off of his shoulder and dumped her onto one of the tables.

The older man, now dressed in a gray suit instead of the black gear he had been this morning, started unpacking camera gear. A tripod and high quality camera came out of the bag at his feet. He recognized the sound of ripping cloth and growled, his gaze caught by the purple cloth that fell off the table to the cold ground.

"Leave the shoes or not?" The younger man asked his back still to Steve.

"Leave them. For now." The older man answered adjusting the camera, not really seeming to care.

"What do you need her for? I work for the 5-0 task force. I'm a much better target than she is." Steve tried to get them to focus on him not on the young woman whom he was pretty sure now was Maggie. Her camera bag had her company logo on it. A European style dragon.

He watched helplessly as the younger man started to tie her to the chair across from him. "Let her go. You don't need anyone other than me." He pulled on the bindings again with no change from any of the other times he had done the same thing.

"Oh but Lieutenant Commander, you'll want the company after while. People are not meant to be solitary, you know." The younger mans voice dripped with sarcasm. He smiled as he placed zip ties on Maggie's ankles and wrists. He pulled them tight before sniping the extra plastic off. "Such pretty skin. So, very very fair." His voice was distracted his fingers tracing her collarbone, eliciting a whimper from her as she began to stir.

"Get your hands off her." Steve hissed. And the man laughed. It was a barking laugh, harsh and short, his fingers brushing the tops of her breasts as he stood. He walked over to the camera and attached some wires to a computer that sat on the other table. "We're live." He said with a slight nod.

"Good." They both turned leaving them alone in the room. All the other lights were turned out except for the one that hung over them, plunging the rest of the room into utter darkness.

—-

Adam sighed into his phone. There was only one person on the face of this earth he would play taxi cab for and it was Kono. Honestly though, he liked Maggie and didn't mind to pick her up. He didn't live all that far from the park, so he was able to get over to where she said she had left her car without to much of a wait.

He pulled in behind Maggie's silver car, surprised that she wasn't waiting beside it. Something about the closed car didn't sit right, prompting him to check the time on his dash. It had only been fifteen minutes since Kono had called him asking him to make the pickup. He walked over to the car, let out a groan. Her phone, purse, and car keys were still in the car. Which meant that something had happened.

"Yeah what is it?" Kono's voice came through the receiver.

"Maggie's not here. And her car is locked with her keys in it."

"What?"

"I think something happened to her. I didn't touch anything but you might want to send someone over here."

"Adam, do me a favor. Take pictures of everything with your phone. Just in case something happens between you leaving and an officer getting there. I need to fill Danny and Chin in." Kono let out a ragged breath and slipped her cell phone into her pocket.

She looked up as Chin and Danny came back from a thorough search of Steve's house. Her elbows rested on the silver edging of the smart table, as she rubbed her eyes, this day she had decided couldn't get worse.

"There's nothing much there. A sign of a struggle, boot marks on the floor but no solid prints. A chain of M-80's in the sink attached to a delay smoke bomb. Military grade." Chin said as he put his gun in the lockers along the back wall.

"And Cath said Steve's gun and his dog tags are missing. But nothing was taken. Not his wallet, money, keys, either car, or the other guns. It's really odd." Danny finished filling in.

"Well it's gotten worse." Kono said with a pained look.

"Cuz, what else happened?" Chin asked stopping mid movement his vest hanging from his hand.

"Did Maggie mess up the lunch orders?" Danny said with a chuckle. "Speaking of her I figured she'd be camped out somewhere waiting for a rental car.."

"Well thats just it. I asked Adam to pick her up. I couldn't leave, and his house is over on that side of town."

"You sent Adam to pick her up?" Chin said sharply.

"Yeah. He was fifteen minutes from her house. It seemed like the best option at the time." She answered. "Anyway when he got there, he said her car was locked with her keys and other stuff still in the car." The computer chirped as stream of photos started popping up. "I had Adam send me pictures of how everything looked before he left in case anything changes before the uniform gets there."

"You go and process the scene. I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before we find them." Danny said. "I'll go over these photos while you're on your way. Chin go over everything we got from Steve's. See if we missed anything." He didn't like giving orders to the team, but without Steve someone had to.