Chapter 7: Where are you?
Catherine wakes up in the middle of the night. Moves her hand to the table to see the time on her phone, it's 04:00. She turns back to lay on her side and looks at Steve sleeping. She always liked looking him while he sleeps, she loves his relaxed face and his chest rising and falling gently. "You're thinking too loud, Rollins," Steve says without being fully awake. She comes closer, puts a deep kiss on his lips, and then says, "I have to take you back to the hotel, before the boys think I've kidnapped you".
"Five more minutes!" he says, hugging her. She smiles and gets of the bed, walking towards the bathroom. Two minutes later, Steve hears the sound of the shower.
When she comes out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and the wet hair falling on the shoulders, he is fully dressed, sitting on the bed and looking at her with a strange expression.
"Hey..." he says, "About the conversation we had in Hawaii the last time... I have to tell you I don't believe this is a mistake. I don't have any regrets. I've enjoyed every minute I spent with you Cath. And that's beyond the friendship between us or the deep respect I feel for the way you do your job. It's just... I mean... I've never felt with someone else what I feel when I'm with you".
"Shhh..." she tells him, approaching and putting her fingers on his lips, "I don 't think it's a mistake either... I never did. We're going to solve this, Steve".
A couple of minutes later, she wears jeans and a t-shirt, takes her keys from the bedside table and both leave the apartment. After thirty minutes, they stop at the gate of the parking lot and he gets out of the car. Quickly, comes into the parking lot, entering the hotel using the service stairs. Shortly after, he introduces the card in the lock of his room door.
Junior is sitting in bed, reading, when he sees Steve, sighs loudly, but says nothing.
"Hello! Look, I'm sorry," Steve says, while walks towards the bathroom, "I lost the track of time" He opens the shower faucet and closes the door.
Junior smiles to realize the transformation in McGarrett's mood. It seems as if, suddenly, his shoulders looked lighter. Remembers what happened a couple of months before the Rescue Mission in Nigeria and his heart shrinks when thinking about the sadness was intensified in his mentor's eyes. That sadness has always been present in his face since he knows him.
He admires McGarrett. The man is a legend, admired and respected among the SEALs; Others hate and envy him, because he's a successful man, who never stops before any challenge and Junior has seen him controlling any kind of situations without blinking. But he's also deeply sensitive and loyal to his friends. Junior also knows there is an empty space in his boss' life and sometimes hurts to see him so lonely. He only hopes the new 'thing' Steve has with Lieutenant Rollins doesn't turn back to bite his ass.
Steve comes out the bathroom, wearing a sports pants and a t-shirt. He stands in front of Junior's bed and when he sees the look in his eyes, asks "What is it?"
The young man blinks a few times and looks at him "It's nothing, Sir... It's just I was beginning to worry".
"I know, Junior. I'm sorry for that. Catherine and I were chatting, we lost the track of time and I forgot to call."
Then he sits in his bed and begins to tie the laces of his running shoes, while he asks, "Hey, last night I already didn't ask if Barket had called you".
"Yes... I talk to him about the meeting with Adler, the information Danny gave us about the SAD team and the car following us yesterday. I told him you should call him this morning".
"Okay. I must talk to him. The money must be transferred and he should make sure that its origin is not traceable" says, and looks at his watch, in Hawaii it must be 11:00. He takes the satellite phone to call Barker. The man answers at the first tone, "Captain Barker".
"Sir, this is McGarrett"
"Commander. How everything came out with Adler?"
"Everything is okay, Sir, according to the plan. We have closed the deal and we should transfer the money to his bank account in Singapore at 09:00, please tell Bunty, to make sure that both the IP and the origin of the money are impossible to track."
"Very well. I'll make sure there is so much digital trash and a signal bounce all over the world avoid them to see the original IP. I'll let you know when everything is ready".
"Thank you, Sir. Another thing. Have Roberts been interrogated?"
"NCIS has him in custody, but he has not said a word," Barker says.
"Okay. Did Junior tell you about the two guys of the SAD team who followed us yesterday"? Steve asks, while rubbing the back of his neck.
Barker replies, "Yes, but they I'm not really concerned about them. We have to find Thompson, I almost could bet he's the master mind behind of all this".
Catherine opens her apartment's door, puts one of the satellite phones, the one she use to communicate with Steve and Captain Barker, the keys and the rest of the things she takes from the pocket of her jeans, on the table. Slowly, trying not to worry, she walks to the bedroom and sits on the bed. Takes the pillow and puts it in her face, breathing deeply. She can feel Steve's presence on it.
Then she takes the phone she use exclusively to communicate with her men. Both should report last night, and only one of them did. Dials the number again. On the other side of the line, the tone is calling but no one answers. She can't avoid the concern that is beginning to invade her. "Something must have happened" thinks and quickly stands up and comes out of the room, takes her keys, and leaves the apartment to try to find him.
The man is hung from the wrists, slowly waking up from unconsciousness. The place is barely lit by the dim light of a lamp that hangs lazily from the ceiling. A never-ending drip is heard from somewhere.
Everything hurts; Adler's men have confused him with a punching bag and he's sure he has some broken ribs and bruises throughout the body. Feels the dried blood on his cheek and his eyes are swollen. He doesn't know how long he can resist.
At what point did everything go to hell? He thinks, how did Alder learned he's an undercover agent of the CIA? The men were asking last night if there are more agents involved and he told them the truth. He doesn't know that. It's an unbreakable rule, that the agents who participate in an undercover operation, shouldn't know each other. Only the supervisor knows all of them.
At that moment, a door at his left opens and he can see the silhouette of two men approaching to him. He can't see their faces until they are a couple of inches from him.
"Well, one of them says. Let's see if today we have better luck, Mr. Payne". The man takes an electric shock baton, and comes close to him, intimidating.
"Please, wait..." he says. To tell the truth, he doesn't know how much longer he can hold this. "I told you I don't know".
"Mr. Payne, we know you're a CIA agent, trying to dismantle all the Mr. Adler operations in Hong Kong, I'll tell you we have eliminated the rest of your fellow agents, but we have yet to know who is your supervisor, who is leading you. The only thing you have to do is to tell us who is he and everything will be easier for you."
The place is a damp warehouse in the middle of a thick forest, which is reached by a path mapped randomly due to the passage of men and animals. There is no one who can hear the desperate cries of the man.
After a few minutes, he gives up. The pain is too hard and he has thrown up a couple of times. He's dehydrated and his body shakes due to electric discharges.
Seeing the man with the electric baton approaches again, he screams "Kali! her code name is Kali. I don't know anything else, I swear!"
"Okay, Mr. Payne and where can we find Kali?"
"I had should contact her last night. She must be wondering where am I, and probably she'll go to my apartment to be sure everything is okay."
"Okay", the other man says. "It wasn't so difficult really, was it?" Then the sound of a gunshot pierces the silence of the forest.
It's 09:00, Steve and his team are sitting in his room, drinking coffee and waiting. At that time, the satellite phone vibrates with a text message from Barker: "Money was successfully transferred" and a reference number.
Steve stands up, leaves the satellite phone on the table and takes the cell phone. He begins to write a message for Adler "Transfer done. Shin-Han International Bank. Confirmation number B-366-57895". Ten minutes later he receives a message in response "Confirmed. Package delivery: Friday 19:00 Tai-Tam Reservation. We will send coordinates."
Honolulu
Danny and Chin gets into the HQ, to meet with Tani and Lou, who await them next to the smart table. Lou says "NCIS has not achieved anything with the suspect, I asked them to let us to interrogate him, but they refuse, saying that the information is classified. Listen man, I have a slight suspicion that you both know something that you're not telling to us".
Chin looks shocked and quickly walks into Danny's office, who begins to look at his phone to avoid meeting the captain's eyes. Lou knows him and knows that something is happening.
"It has to do with the fact that McGarrett and Junior are gone. They are on a crazy mission in the middle of nowhere, aren't they?" Seeing Danny remains silent, he walks slowly towards him, places his hands on the detective's shoulders and tells him, "Look, Danny, I'm not dumb and I know something is happening, but I also know if NCIS and the Navy are involved, it means it's something that Steve can't tell us. I'm not going to lie to you, the fact that you know something is reassuring me, because it means that you may know where is he, and somehow, you've been in touch with him. Just tell me. Is Steve okay?"
Danny smiles when paraphrases Steve "Lou, I'm really sorry. I've been where you are now, and I know it can be very frustrating when someone is hiding things from you. I can't confirm or deny anything about, but yes, he's okay, for now".
Chin stands at the door of Danny's office and whistles to attract the attention, Danny immediately comes close to him. They close the door behind them. "I found it," Chin says, walking back to the desk. Both men sit and Chin turns his computer screen so Danny can see it. "We couldn't find anything more about Isabel Müller, because that's not her real name. Here I have the record. She changed her name when his family went to live in Austria. Her real name is Irene Yadler." When he notices Danny's look, nods and says, "Yes. Yadler is a variant of the surname Adler."
Danny asks, but guesses what could be the answer "Any relationship?"
"Yes. Irene Yadler is Johann Adler's cousin. Her mother left Germany with her two daughters in 1980, running away from her husband, the family changed their surname and settled in the small town of Graz. The cousins apparently kept in touch. Adler spent a season in Graz, as an exchange student." Chin continues typing on his computer and new information appears on the screen "After marrying Thompson, the couple lived in Spain, near the NATO base, until the divorce in 2014." Danny begins to browse the file Captain Barker gave to them, stops on a page and says, "The CIA suspicions about Adler's illicit activities started at the beginning of 2014. It seems that they suspected about his involvement in a series of terrorist acts, but they couldn't get any evidence. I bet twenty dollars to Adler met Thompson at some moment between January and July 2014 ".
Chin continues with reflections "Obviously had knowledge of Thompson´s military life. And when he decided to expand his business, called him as a leader of his security team". Danny takes the satellite phone and presses the button.
Hong Kong
Steve and his team are waiting. For now, they can do nothing and that begins to despair him, indeed, patience has never been his main strength. He knows the next call to Barker will be important, because the man must organize the SEAL team so everything be ready for Friday night.
He needs to run, swim, or do something to occupy his mind. Without that he can't avoid his thoughts go back to Catherine and the amazing night they spent together.
Suddenly he gets up and says, "I'm going to go out and run awhile, does anyone want to go with me?" asks, looking at Junior, who is already getting up to change clothes. Steve smiles and thinks this guy is more like him than he thought.
At that time, the satellite phone is ringing and he presses the speaker "Hey! Guys. What do you have?"
"Steve, we've found the connection. Thompson's wife and Johann Adler are cousins," Danny says.
Steve is shocked "Are you kidding me?"
Danny and Chin begin to explain everything. When they finish, Lynx says "So, for Adler there is more in this game. What, family loyalty?"
Steve replies, "I don't think so. Adler simply needed to mercenaries and went to someone with training and military skills, someone he knew, and who knew that he could buy. Obviously by January 2014, Adler should already knew about the marriage problems of his cousin and knew that the husband was a damn bastard, but that's exactly what he needed." Steve is walking from one side to another as he speaks, then looks to Lynx and says, "You saw him last night, there are no emotions. Everything is business and the man does what he has to do. He doesn't like to do dirty work, so makes sure another do so. It's that simple." Then says goodbye to Danny and Chin "Thank you guys. We'll keep in touch".
A few minutes later, Steve and Junior go out for run, under the watchful eye of the black car guys.
Catherine parks the car. She's nervous, but tries to reassure herself until knowing for sure what is happening. The CIA safe apartment is in a five level building, located in one of the neighborhoods of upper-middle class in Hong Kong. She takes a couple of deep breaths and gets out of the car. Soon after, she's in front of the apartment's closed door. Doubts for one second and knocks on the door.
She can hear steps inside the apartment, but no one opens. She knocks for the second time, pulling out her gun.
Suddenly, everything happens very quickly. The door opens a few inches, and she kicks it. Inside, a man falls to the floor and she points her gun to him. "Where is Payne?" asks to the man. She walks two steps forward and unlocks the gun. "I won't ask again, where is he?"
At that moment, another man silently approaches behind her. A hand hits her in the nape of the neck and she falls to the ground, dazed, dropping the gun. The man kicks it away. Then, help his partner to get up, as saying, "Good. It seems Kali is much more beautiful than we expected". Both men abruptly lift her and place a bag of black fabric on her head, tying the hands behind her back. Moments later, they come out of the building and force her into a car trunk. Both men get in and the car leaves at full speed.
Steve and Junior have returned from running. They come into the room, where Crackerjack and Lynx are playing cards. "Hey!" Lynx says. "How was the running?"
"Perfect," Steve says grinning, "Moreover we didn't feel alone because we make sure that the guys in the black car saw us whenever we passed in front of the main entrance of the hotel".
Breathing loud, walks to the minibar and pulls out two bottles of water, throwing one to Junior. For a few moments, they drink in silence, until the satellite telephone rings.
Steve picks up, "Hello..."
"Commander, this is Barker"
"Yes, Sir" Steve can't help but notice the altered Captain's breathing, "Something is happening?"
"Have you talked with Lieutenant Rollins today?"
"I talked with her this morning". Steve feels the fear grips his throat
"What's happening, Sir?"
"She should call us at 08:00 and still has not done so. I've tried to call to her satellite phone, but she doesn't answer".
"I'll try to call her..." Steve says and presses the button to end the call. Then dials the number of Catherine's phone and waits. Three, five, ten tones, nothing. Dials again and she doesn't answer. Frightened thinks, "Damn it! Cath, where are you?"
