Sorry updates are taking so long. I'm on a jury right now so I don't have a lot of time for writing... or reviewing all the awesome chapters and new stories I've read on breaks. If I've reviewed on earlier chapters of your story before and not on recent chapters, it's because time's a bit of a premium for me right now but I am most definitely still reading your work!
Also, thanks for the reviews of earlier chapters, I'm sorry I didn't get back to people thanking them but my love goes out to all who took the time!
Anyway on with the show! Hope you're all still reading...
"Detective, I was wondering if, when this is all over, you would be willing to be a part of a study on the durability of the human body." Danny looked up from the oxygen mask as Max pulled it off his face. The days events had been one for the record books, despite the fact that not all that much happened.
Danny had known he was in trouble the moment he and Chin had left the office for Steve's house. His arm was throbbing but more so the world seemed to keep skipping and hiccupping. By the time they reached their bosses house, Danny was struggling to see straight.
But being the stubborn man he was, Danny had tried to get out of the Camaro only to have his knees buckle. Chin must have literally vaulted over the car's hood to save Danny from face planting into the ground. The Hawaiian had ordered Danny to stay in the car while he went in search of the phone number.
After all, what could happen right? It was a simple job of going into Steve's house, searching a foot locker and back out again.
So Danny had stayed, closed his eyes and leaned back waiting for Chin to return.
But the sound of a heavy engine had brought him back to the waking world. He couldn't believe what he had seen when Steve, in full Tac gear practically fell out of the back door with two equally intimidating men on either side of him.
Steve had looked like something the dog dragged in, ate, then threw up. His face was pale, his eyes were glazed and sunken and he really just looked like nothing in the world would ever matter again.
It had taken every fibre of Danny's being not to jump out of the car right then and there. The problem was, not only could Danny barely see straight, he knew their was no way he'd be able to get his friend away from those fully armed men.
So Danny had waited, he let it play out while giving Kono a quick call to let her know what was happening.
The sound of a gun shot nearly had Danny mobile only to freeze in his seat and duck down low when the three men reappeared. This time, Steve was being hauled back toward the SUV with a clear leg injury. When Steve had glanced in his direction, Danny's heart nearly stopped. The look had started with a glimmer of hope but then blanched into utter disappointment and pain.
As heartbreaking as it was, Danny waited until the SUV was gone before getting inside the house as quick as he could. A little roughed up but okay, Chin quickly spewed out a phone number demanding Danny write it down. Once that was done, he'd freed Chin from his cuffs and turned toward the front door again.
Suddenly everything had gone dark.
Danny didn't even remember feeling the slightest bit faint. One second he'd been up, getting ready to call Kono and the next, he was coming around to Max and Chin standing over him concern written all over their faces.
Now, an hour later, Danny sat on Steve's couch having just received the OK to stop with the portable oxygen.
"If I survive, I'm all yours buddy," Danny joked grimly. Max gave a nod as if it hadn't been a joke at all and was actually excited at the prospect of using the Jersey native as a human experiment.
"To have suffered as much physical trauma as you have it's quite astounding that you're able to move around as much as you are," the Medical Examiner went on. "I wasn't quite aware the adrenal glands could produce the amount necessary to supercede the demands of such an extremely injured body in effort to literally adhere to "Mind over matter" as I believe it is said. Truly it's a wonder you're so... conscious." Danny frowned at the small man, not quite appreciating the fact that Max was essentially telling him he should be dead three times over.
"Or reckless," Chin snorted as he rubbed the new bandage on his head. "You should rest Danny." The Jersey native wouldn't hear of it however and shook his head.
"You saw the look on Steve's face, Chin," he replied. "I'll rest when I'm dead but right now, we need to get him the hell away from those guys… Has Kono phoned back about that phone number yet?" he asked. Chin shook his head.
"Not yet," he replied. Danny sighed as he tried to shake the last few remaining stars of unconsciousness clear from his vision.
"When you talked to her what did she say Lieutenant Cross had told her?" he asked.
"Not a lot," Chin shrugged. "But mostly because she doesn't have all that much. Turns out she was brought in by the CIA but when she hit a glass ceiling and realized how serious things were they authorized her to bring in Five-0. She'd done her research and knew Steve had a connection to the former SEALS involved… she just didn't realize how directly this case relates to Strawberry Fields. She's working with CDC to try and figure out if any bio-weapons have gone missing recently or as far back as Steve's mission."
"Go team," Danny grunted. He pushed Max away who was still prodding at him like a specimen and slowly rose to his feet. The world spun for a minute but fortunately and yet again, Chin was right there to help.
"Danny this is lolo, brah," the Hawaiian sighed. "You really, really need to take it easy. In case you forgot, you were shot a few days ago… twice."
"Thank you because the searing pain wasn't reminder enough of the hot metal that tore through my body," Danny snapped. However he took a deep breath realizing they didn't have time to argue. Particularly with the man who was currently holding him up. "Sorry," he sighed. "I just… this ain't exactly fun."
"Biological warfare and terrorism never are," Chin grinned. Danny chuckled before giving his friend a nod that he was finally stable on his feet.
"Let's get back to the office an-" he was cut off when his cell-phone started vibrating on his belt. Using his good arm, he pulled the thing off and looked at it. Seeing a number he didn't recognize, he answered it on speaker phone and directed it toward Chin.
"Chin-Ho Kelly," the Hawaiian dutifully answered.
"I know he's there Kelly," Anders said over the line. "I know now Danny isn't dead… can you put him on the line?" Chin glanced at Danny with a look of "it's your call". Taking a breath Danny brought the phone back to his ear.
"O'Reilly?" he answered.
"Hey Wills, kinda nice to know you're not dead," Anders tired voice replied. Danny quickly gestured to Chin to find a way to trace the call. There was something in the man's voice that struck a chord deep in Danny's gut.
"Anders… where the hell are you and what's going on?" the detective demanded. There was a heavy sigh and a pause before the CIA man came back over the line.
"I heard you've been looking for me… Falcon wont stop trying to get me in trouble by contacting me on every channel I have. Starting to get a little annoying actually."
The tone that Danny had just heard was very different from the actual spoken words. It wasn't said with Anders' normal cocky bravado. As far as they'd known one another, Danny had always been used to a slight arrogant tone to Anders voice. Which made sense considering the man was apparently the worlds best liar. This time, however, the words were different. They were broken and there wasn't a shadow of a doubt that they were 100% genuine.
"Where are you?"
"Green Palms Motel," Anders answered. "Room 9." Danny nodded but then realized the man couldn't see it. However another question dawned on him at the same time.
"Cahill?"
"I'd rather not stay in one place to long. Are you coming or not?" was the only response. Giving a heavy sigh, Danny nodded then looked Chin in the eye.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," he replied. There was an odd pause over the line before Anders was back again.
"Wills?" Danny stopped mid-step on his way to the door.
"Yeah?"
"McGarrett might not have much time left." And like that, any fatigue, any pain, meant nothing at all. Danny was out that door like a marathon runner with Chin hot on his heels.
They reached the motel in record time and found room nine minutes later. Chin knocked while Danny practically leaned into the cheap plywood.
"Anders! It's Danny and Chin-Ho, open up!" A moment and a click later, the motel room door slowly opened. Anders looked like the dead walking, his eyes were sunken and troubled.
"Gentlemen," Anders said stepping back from the door to let them in. Chin and Danny walked inside then turned as the CIA man closed the door. For a moment, Anders didn't move to face them, instead focusing on the door before him. Then his shoulders dropped in defeat and he turned with a heavy sigh.
His eyes glanced from Chin then locked in on Danny's;
"The bio-weapon we've been looking for… I know what it is and how to find it and I think that phone number Chin picked up might help us stop the guys from Team 3." Danny stood up as tall as his broken body would allow.
"And why the hell are you only telling me this now!?" he barked.
"Because I had to be certain, god damn it!" Anders spat back. "You have no idea, no idea what you're dealing with! What Commander McGarrett has…" Suddenly the CIA man snapped his head to the left and down. Suddenly the floor was extremely interesting. Danny's gut bottomed out, a feeling of intense dread washed over him and he took a daring step forward.
"Commander McGarrett has, what?" he demanded. Anders worked his jaw and Danny was rapidly losing what little patience he had left. "What? Anders? What aren't you telling us?" he snarled. Anders shook his head and let out a breath. Once again Danny noticed how absolutely broken the man looked.
"What Commander McGarrett has become a carrier for," the CIA man replied quietly. At last, he looked up again and found Danny's wide eyes. "McGarrett's was infected with the virus but like the three SEALs he's with, his body was able to, partially forced to, adapt into becoming a carrier and not violently ill." Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Steve… is the bio-weapon?" he asked.
"What kind of weapon are we dealing with?" Chin asked every the pragmatist.
"It's fairly new and so top-secret it doesn't even have a name yet," Anders replied. "It's a hybrid virus with some nano-technology to make it reproduce faster. It's also that bio-technology that can be programmed into deciding who's a carrier and who's going to die."
"That's insane," Danny breathed. "You sound like you're writing a science fiction."
"Science fact," Anders replied. "And as of yet, there's only one sure way of getting rid of the virus." Now Danny knew he wasn't going to like the answer, particularly because of what he'd just been told about his friend.
"How's that?" he asked. The look in the CIA man's eyes was dark, disturbing and oddly enough apologetic.
"Total destruction of the infected vehicle," he replied. "Those SEALs… McGarrett… we need to get to them and we need to make damn sure there's nothing left." When Danny wavered, Anders took a step forward but stopped when Chin caught the detective and held him steady.
"That's not going to happen," Danny spat out once the world stopped spinning.
"Wills…" Anders began.
"No!" Danny barked. "Killing McGarrett is not an option. I don't care how many bullets I have to take, Steve's not dying on my watch. And I promise you this… I swear on my mother, if you or any of your other CIA nut jobs or any other federal agency go anywhere near Steve with malicious intent, nothing will stop me from putting your skulls through a cement wall. Capiche?" Anders snorted then shook his head.
"I figured you'd say that," he sighed. Curiously, he then turned to Chin, "Do you remember all the digits to that number?"
"The SEALs took it from me, I have no idea what it is," Chin lied. Clearly the CIA man didn't buy that for a second. He shook his head again.
"Right," he scoffed. "You don't have to tell me what it is but you should know, it's McGarrett's only hope. In fact, now that this thing is weaponized inside those SEALs, that number could be the only thing standing in the way of a very bad, almost unstoppable outbreak." Danny turned to Chin grimly.
"We need to get back to the office," he said. Then looking back to Anders he frowned, "And I think it's time we brought Spider in for a little chat." The CIA man's eyes went wide and his face paled, whatever he was thinking, Danny was finally glad he finally felt as if he'd regained some sort of control over the current situation.
Five-0 wouldn't let their fearless leader down. Not today, not ever.
###############################
Steve woke to searing pain. Every nerve ending was on fire, every inch of his skin screamed abuse. He tried to move, tried to writhe away from the hurt but nothing was working.
"Whoa there!" said a distant amused voice. "Okay, okay, I get it, it hurts! Hang on a sec Commander. Let's fix you up… there we go." After a brief spike in pain, things started to dull and then slowly reach a tolerable level.
Steve blinked the fog of confusion from his eyes only to find himself inside a military style field tent. He was handcuffed to the cot he lay on as and IV drip funnelled into the needle stuck in his right arm.
"Wha…" His tongue was thick and he couldn't remember ever feeling so weak in his life.
"Easy Commander," Simmons said appearing at his side. He was just putting the cap on a now empty syringe and eyeballing the IV drip. Once he was content with whatever he was looking at he looked down at Steve with a smile. "Congrats McGarrett… you survived."
Though he was heavily drugged at the moment, Steve knew something wasn't right. He knew from the second the pain ebbed away that he felt… odd, different somehow.
"What… have you done to me?" he slurred. Simmons face blurred and was fading in and out but the grin was the one thing Steve was absolutely sure off.
"I made you one of us Commander as well as evening the odds," Simmons replied cryptically. Suddenly the man leaned in so close Steve could feel Simmons breath on his face. A surge of adrenaline pumped through Steve's body forcing the world into a clear focus.
Simmons eyes were sharp and mysterious like a cat.
"If you don't get killed within the next few days, you'll undoubtedly take your own life shortly there after," he said with deadly calm. "In fact… as we speak there are a lot of people gearing up to make your final moments very explosive; Probably even including your Five-0 buddies. So you don't have much choice; help us find the cure or we leave you hear to die alone." The last sentence surprised Steve and allowed another rush of adrenaline to keep him awake a few moments longer. Finding a cure meant the man before him was potentially infected. Why else would he go through so much trouble?
"Cure?" he croaked out.
"That's right," Simmons nodded. He held up a small piece of paper in his hands, Steve could barely see it but he did recognize a phone number. "You had the answer to everyone's problems this whole time. Your man would still be alive if you'd written this number into your report after Strawberry Fields."
"You made me kill him," Steve snarled suddenly finding a surge of rage boiling through his veins as he thought about Danny. Curiously, Simmons just smiled at his reaction and stepped back out of arms reach.
"And I'm going to make you kill a lot of others," the man replied. "In fact…" he chuckled. "… in a few hours you're going to want to kill a whole lot of others."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Steven snarled.
"It means your anger is going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better," Simmons replied. "At which point this country is seriously going to regret putting guns in our hands, ideas in our heads and expecting us to blindly follow orders."
"This country didn't ask us to do anything we didn't sign up for!" Steve spat out even though it came out a bit more slurred than he would have liked. The back hand came hard and fast and nearly knocked Steve right off the cot if the cuffs hadn't kept him in place.
"You'll see," Simmons growled back shaking ever so slightly. "You'll see and you'll pay."
########################
Danny sat back in the chair he'd been provided with as he couldn't stop his heart from pounding in his ears. Amazingly, it wasn't due to his physical condition but rather the video he, Chin, Kono, Anders and Marissa had just finished watching on the big screen.
"My god…" Marissa whispered.
"Not all that pretty is it," Anders grunted. Beside him Kono shook her head in disbelief.
"All that in only…"
"14 hours," Anders finished for her. Danny sucked in a breath and looked at the frozen image before him.
Almost as soon as they'd returned to H.Q. Anders had pulled out a small flash drive and handed it to Kono to play on the computer table. She pulled it up while Chin brought Danny a chair and they sat back to watch one of the most horrific things they'd ever been party too.
Part of the detective was suddenly jealous that Falcon had left shortly after their return. While Kono was bringing up the video file and checking it for viruses, Chin and Danny and amazingly even Marissa, had convinced Falcon it was time to bring Spider in to get some answers.
A minute after the man left, Kono announced they were up and running.
The video wasn't great quality, clearly someone wasn't supposed to be recording the experiment but probably knew there had to be some sort of documentation.
On a hospital bed in a dark room, a young man with neatly cropped hair was guided into the room by a person dressed in full decontamination gear. The young man sat on the bed, smiling at the hooded figure before him.
It had seemed so harmless, the man, soldier as it turned out, even looked happy he was there. He handed over his dog tags and pulled off his shirt before he was gently pushed back onto his back.
And then a needle was injected into his arm.
A half hour later the smile had vanished from the young soldiers face. In fact, his body language had changed entirely. He started to fidget, started to say things that unfortunately due to no sound, Danny couldn't hear. For the sake of time constraints, Anders would occasionally ask Kono to fast forward the video and stop it at key moments so as not to be sitting there for almost a half day of torturous images.
An hour after the soldier was injected, two hooded figures had to rush in, pin him down and restrain him to the bed. The man appeared to be in pain but also seamed extremely agitated and enraged when he was pinned down and sedated.
At the seven hour mark, the soldier was shaking violently, lesions had developed all over his body and were growing at an alarming rate. The tint of the man's skin had gone from a warm, cream-white to a deathly pale almost blue tinged.
At the ten-hour mark the man started coughing up blood and his hair and nails started to fall out. That and his eyes that had been so bright with life now had a cloudy sightless haze over them.
Eleven hours; the man tried to break free one last time in his weaken state only to have his arm snap at the lightest of touches from one of the medical staff holding him.
Twelve hours; the man was put on a respirator after vomiting nothing but red and clearly unable to breathe on his own.
Finally at fourteen hours the young soldier, who now looked decades older than before, convulsed once, twice and went still. There was no doubt in anyone's mind, the poor bastard was dead.
"Jesus Christ," Danny muttered. "It's like… Anthrax on steroids."
"I wish," Anders commented. "There are two versions of this bio-weapon. The one that infects and the one that makes a person a carrier. The problem is, the one that infects is actually smarter than the one that turns a person into a carrier."
"How's that?" Chin asked looking a little green around the gills.
"The original virus with nano-technology is like a baby, not sure what to do other than to infect and destroy human tissue," Anders replied. "But put that into a carrier where it can learn and grow then infect someone…"
"And it could attack in any number of ways," Danny sighed. "Maybe even search out a bodies weakest point and pray solely on it."
"Doctors would have no idea what to look for and by the time they do, they've become infected themselves," Anders replied. Danny ran his good hand through his hair.
"Only a short while later and yet again we got another potential world ending event," he said sadly. "The hell is wrong with this world?" Chin nodded sympathetically.
"The carriers may not even know they're carriers and those infected will never stand a chance," he commiserated.
"Why would someone create something like this!?" Kono blurted out. "Who created it is a better question."
"We did," Anders said without taking his eyes off the corpse on the screen. "That is to say, the U.S. government did."
"Why!?" Danny exclaimed. Suddenly Anders spun around and glared at him as if he'd just asked for the moon.
"Are you serious?" he snorted. "Wills… in case you've forgotten, we live in the United States of America, the greatest country on earth and the last remaining super power. Unfortunately, unless your heads been stuffed with pineapple, you've noticed that we ain't doing so well economically, socially and politically on the global stage. There hasn't been a day of actually peace since mankind began and you're seriously asking the question of why we created something like this?"
"So what?" Danny came back. "If we can't be number one, no one can?"
"Damn right," Anders snarled back. He took a step toward Danny only to have Kono step in between the two of them and actually push the CIA man back.
"How about you answer the man's question," the Hawaiian cousin demanded. Only under her protective body language did Danny realize Kono looked almost as pissed off as he was. Chin, ever the ninja was hiding it well but there was no denying the twitch of his eyes from time to time.
And why shouldn't they be? Steve was out there and he needed their help. Anders clearly took a moment to take in the faces of the people in front of him. He even glanced at Marissa whose arms were folded across her chest and her neatly plucked brow was raised accusingly.
"Odds are it was never meant to be put into practical use," Anders explained after his pause. "But we have no idea who's out there and who's thinking what. The U.S. needs to prepare itself for anything so we need to create super antidotes. How do we do that unless…"
"You create a super virus," Chin spoke up. He unfolded his arms and planted them on the computer table. "We don't need to worry about why this thing came to be, we just need to know how to stop it and how to get Steve back healthy." Anders however shook his head.
"It's not that easy, yes I believe there's a cure out there but with Steve carrying and the volatile situation we're in, there's a strong chance he'll infect one or all of you before we can get it to him," he replied. "It would be easier to pinpoint their location and-"
"Finish that sentence," Danny said slowly rising out of his chair and narrowing his eyes. "I dare you; finish. That. Sentence," he growled.
Needless to say, Anders wasn't a stupid man. He rolled his eyes and shook his head but backed off.
"Wait… how did the guys from SEAL Team 3 get infected?" Marissa asked. "I mean I saw them taking injections but I figured they were just using drugs. They couldn't possibly have done this to themselves, could they?" Anders held Danny's gaze for a second longer before turning to the woman.
"That part I don't know," he replied. "They could have been turned into carriers during or even before Strawberry Fields which is why they're so hell-bent on getting the cure before anyone else or they have the weapon, turned Steve and want the cure so they can sell it all off in one big batch auction."
"That's just sick," Danny pointedly added. But then he forced himself along the same track that Chin had tried to put them on moments ago. "Kono, did we get a GPS location on that number?" he asked. The fire in Kono's eyes died a little as a bit of sorrow leaked in.
"Sorry Danny, it's pinging off cell towers all over the world and whenever my algorithm thinks it's pinpointed a location, that primary site changes and it starts all over again," she replied with a sigh. Danny gave her a sympathetic smile letting her know he didn't blame her in the least. The detective turned back to Anders, only to find the CIA man appeared to be deep in thought at the moment.
"Where did you get this information? Maybe that can help us figure out whose number we have," he tried. After a moment of finishing his thought, Anders looked up again.
"Jackson," he replied. "He's uh… he's a much better hacker than we ever thought possible and… and a hell of a lot more well-connected then I could have ever anticipated."
"So get him here, maybe he can triangulate some coordinates," Danny said without hesitation. In fact, he'd been so blasé about it that the only one who didn't look surprised at his words… was he himself. "What?" Danny asked. Anders blinked only to snap out of his shock and work his jaw.
"I can't bring him in here, he's busy," he replied. At first Danny thought he might have mis-heard due to his current physical state. But it was clear by the look on Anders face, the man wasn't going to give up Cahill's location anytime soon.
And that hurt more than anything else Danny had just been party too.
"Fine," he snorted.
"Wills-" Anders tried.
"No," Danny interrupted. "Falcon should be back any moment, when he is, we grill Spider and find out what his brother did with that antidote before he died."
"Yeah," Kono nodded. "Though you have to wonder where Mathers got it or the potential for this bio-weapon in the first place."
"Easy," Anders shrugged. "His brother gave it to him." When everyone looked at him as if he'd grown a third head, the CIA man dipped his shoulders again and raised his hands. "There are still a lot of answers I don't have," he went on. "But I have figured that much out. Spider joined Falcon's Ghost team shortly after Strawberry Fields to be able to keep a closer, unhindered eye on McGarrett and the other SEALs involved. During Strawberry Fields he was the CIA contact that was directing the SEAL's."
"He was selling out his own brother?" Chin asked.
"Or helping him, I have no idea which one," Anders replied. Danny heaved a breath before plopping back into his chair.
"Great," he grunted. "So Spider's either going to be a huge help or he's going to take his first opportunity to sell us all up the bio-weaponized river."
"One way or the other Danny," Chin said stepping behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Steve would want us to see this through." Never truer words had ever been spoken. Danny looked at his Hawaiian friend and offered up a tired smile to which Chin gave a knowing nod.
"One way or the other," Danny repeated. Then he waved back to the horrible frozen image in front of them. "Just hope "the way" we choose doesn't mean we all go straight to were ever that poor bastard went."
"Amen to that," Marissa muttered.
Just then the main doors to Five-0 opened and in walked Falcon, Bob, Nano, Hawk and Spider. Danny climbed from his seat, adjusted his sling and turned to face the group. All eyes but Falcon's, widened in shock. For a moment, no one moved.
"You're… alive!?" Spider spat out. Danny narrowed his eyes in anger.
"Sorry, your plan didn't work out so well," he spat. However when Spider cocked his head to one side and frowned in confusion, Danny's heart stopped.
"What are you talking about?" Spider asked.
Time slowed.
And that was when Nano, not Spider, slipped his sidearm expertly from its holster and fired.
I had fun with this one. Did you!? Don't worry Danny and Steve will see each other again... eventually...
Writing's awesome sometimes... :)
Hope y'all will read and review!
