Steven, God of Thunder
SEAL Commander Wade Gutches strode into Five-0 headquarters with a worried expression on his face.
Lt. Chin Ho Kelly and Detective Danny Williams were discussing something beside the smart table. Beyond them Wade could see Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett talking on the phone while Officer Kono Kalakaua fed him information using an iPad and a sheaf of papers.
Chin and Danny went to greet their visitor and shake his hand. "Danny, Chin, I was hoping to see Steve for a minute."
"He's giving the governor an update on violent crime stats," Chin explained. "He should be almost done."
Wade looked anxiously at the office. Steve spotted him, waved, held up one finger and mouthed "one minute." Wade nodded in relief.
"Is this some top secret SEAL session?" Danny joked.
"No, this is serious Five-0 business. I need to talk to Steve, to all of you," Wade said in tones that wiped all humor from Chin's eyes.
"You have a case for us?" Danny asked, wary of a joke. "Because the last I looked, Navy cases are the jurisdiction of NCIS and they're jealous of their jurisdiction."
(A fact that Danny wholeheartedly agreed with, because he was territorial about Five-0's jurisdiction, too.)
"This is unofficially official," Wade said, trying for a lighter tone that fell flat. He was worried. Both detectives could tell that.
Kono picked up her iPad, leaving the papers on Steve's desk, and left the boss' office. She held out her hand to Wade, but he pulled her into a hug instead. "No sailor worth his salt would take a handshake from a pretty lady if he can get a hug instead."
"Flatterer," Kono laughed, but gave him a second hug for good measure.
Steve finally hung up the phone and came out to greet his fellow SEAL. "That man can talk," the commander said in exasperation. "No wonder he became a politician. What brings you here, Wade?"
"I'm bringing an official request for assistance through unofficial channels. You remember Andre LeGrande."
"The NCIS chief at Pearl? What about him?"
"He happened to run into me at a bar at about 16:00," Wade said. "Except there was no 'happen' about it. His nephew is in my training company, so Andre knows my schedule pretty well. And because of his nephew, he usually comes over to chat. But this afternoon he was chatting and laughing like normal and all the time he was telling me a horror story. A Navy lieutenant and her 3-year-old son have been kidnapped. They're being held hostage to force her husband, a civilian computer programmer, to steal valuable information from NCIS."
"And NCIS doesn't want to handle the investigation?" Steve asked, puzzled.
"Andre thinks someone in his office is involved in the kidnapping," Wade said. "The husband, Chad Fleck, managed to send a couple of emails looking for help. One went to Andre's personal email — Fleck just finished upgrading the NCIS computers, so he's been in close contact with Andre. The message Andre got indicated that Fleck had sent the same information to NCIS. But when he got to the office, Andre found that email had been erased. It could have been anyone on his team."
"So he doesn't know who to trust," Kono said, getting a nod in return. She took a flash drive that Wade handed over.
"Andre downloaded the information and access codes on this. He figures the kidnappers think they stopped the leak, so the family is probably still alive."
"And he's asking for our help to find them and identify the leak?" Steve asked.
"Yes. I can have my team ready to help you on a moment's notice for a rescue mission. Lt. Fleck is one of our own and we don't leave our people behind."
"Wait, there aren't any women SEALs," Kono protested.
"No. She's the daughter of a SEAL and her son is the grandson of a SEAL."
Steve nodded understanding. This was the culture he'd lived in more than half his life.
"Pssshh." Danny's scornful noise broke the moment of SEAL bonding. "SEALs, schlemiels. You had me at 'kidnapped 3-year-old.' Can we get to work, now?"
He glared at Super SEAL and Mega SEAL, either of whom could probably crush the smaller man like an empty beer can, except that he was too smart to give them a reason to.
"Right," Steve agreed. "Chin?"
"Already on it."
Chin had transferred the information from the flash drive into Five-0's high tech computer system. It included the message LeGrande had received, his list of suspects and access to the NCIS system.
"Didn't anyone miss the lieutenant when she didn't show up for work?" Steve asked.
"She was on leave. The family was taken on the day they were supposed to go on vacation to the Grand Canyon."
Steve and Danny studied the message Fleck had sent LeGrande while Chin and Kono tried to trace the message sent to NCIS.
"The family was knocked out by some sort of gas, so they don't know where they were taken," Danny said, reading aloud so Chin and Kono could hear. "Fleck said they heard a hissing noise and got dizzy. They couldn't get out of the house before they blacked out. They woke up in what looks like one of the island's World War II bunkers."
"That doesn't help much. There are bunkers all over the island," Steve said. "Fleck hasn't been allowed outside, so he can't even guess what side of the island they're on."
"He says his wife and son were taken away and he hasn't seen them since they all woke up together." Danny imagined himself in that position and it made his blood boil on Fleck's behalf.
"Then he goes on to explain what information his captors want. Fortunately — that's his word — just because he installed the equipment, doesn't mean he knows all the passcodes, so it's going to take him a couple of days to find it," Steve said. "Then he asks Andre for help and says he sent the same message to NCIS headquarters as a backup."
"OK, I've got something," Chin announced. "I've found the message. It was deleted, but you know when you hit delete the information isn't really gone. You're just erasing the address and telling the computer that space is for rent. Until something fills the space, the message is still there."
Danny nodded. He'd learned long ago, by accidentally deleting something important, that data could be recovered. "So this message wasn't wiped out?"
"No, so I'd say that automatically eliminates two of LeGrande's suspects. Their backgrounds show too much computer training to make that mistake," Chin said.
"I can eliminate another one," Kono said. "Agent LeGrande included the alibis he'd collected without being able to ask for alibis. Agent Li had mentioned going out to dinner. I've got hotel surveillance footage that shows her and her date at the restaurant during the time in question."
Kono took Li's photo off the screen and the pictures of the two Chin had cleared. That left two men, both dark haired with light brown skin, one Asian, one Hispanic. "Agent Hashimoto and Agent Montoya." Both men had been on duty the evening the email was sent. Either could be the culprit.
"If we could question them, we could probably figure it but in no time," Danny commented.
"But we can't make them suspicious, so we do it Chin's way," Steve said.
Chin soon ferreted out the exact time when the email was deleted. Base logs showed Hashimoto arriving after that. Only Montoya was in the building when the email came in.
"Bingo," Wade said.
After that, it was easy, if roundabout. LeGrande received a chatty call from his nephew, and then sent Montoya to deliver some paperwork to Five-0 headquarters. The volume of Navy personnel on the islands ensured that Five-0 and NCIS had to work together a lot.
Montoya walked unsuspecting into the Ali'iolani Hale, where he was promptly disarmed and hustled into the interrogation room. Steve and Danny circled him like sharks.
"It isn't often that criminals walk right in the front door," Danny smirked.
"Criminals…?"
Steve slammed a chair on the floor. His thousand-yard stare was cold as a blast chiller. "Don't play dumb. You sold out a Navy lieutenant and her family to pay off your credit cards? Credit cards?"
Focused on the raging commander, Montoya didn't even notice Danny come behind him, until the detective grabbed a fistful of the suspect's curly black hair. "I'm not Navy," Danny said in a venomous hiss. "I'm not a sailor. The idea that you betrayed the Navy doesn't piss me off the way it does Commander McGarrett. What I am is a father. And the idea that you sold out a 3-year-old child makes me want to drop a grenade down your throat and hold your mouth shut."
Danny cupped his hand around Montoya's jaw and clapped it shut, just as a demonstration. From inches away, angry blue eyes bored into Montoya's brown ones.
"Now, when I let go, you are going to move that jaw and tell us everything you know about who is holding the Fleck family and where."
He did.
"I liked the grenade idea," Steve said, as they left their prisoner cuffed to the chair and went to organize a rescue mission.
"You like any idea involving grenades," Danny countered.
"That's true."
Five-0, SEAL Team 9 and the very angry remaining members of NCIS Pearl Harbor worked out their plan of attack.
"Montoya only knew the area where the family was being held. Satellite imagery puts them here." Everyone gathered around a pair of computer screens showing real-time heat signatures. There were some buildings and an extensive bunker system built into the hills.
"Nice to work with Catherine on the up-and-up," Danny muttered in his partner's ear.
Unfortunately, the people were scattered in small groups. Some were obviously patrols, but others could be mercenaries cleaning weapons or prisoners under guard. It was difficult to tell.
"We know Fleck and his wife have been split up. If we don't rescue all the hostages at the same time…" Steve didn't need to finish.
"So we need to split up," Danny mused. He pointed at two groups. "Both of these look like guys using computers. Maybe they're playing Donkey Kong, but maybe one's Fleck."
"All right," Steve agreed. "I'll take this one. You take that one."
Danny shook his head. "No, I want this group. Because … doesn't this heat signature look smaller than the others?"
"It's hard to tell, because it stays so close to the other one," Kono said in knowing tones.
The others all nodded. "Like a child clinging to his mother," Chin voiced what they all thought.
"OK, then Gutches, you take this other maybe-computer-guy," Steve decided.
He quickly parceled out the men and women, putting NCIS agents with each group because Chad Fleck would recognize them. Kono and LeGrande were with Steve and another SEAL. Danny got Chin, Hashimoto and a SEAL. Gutches had the NCIS computer expert and, of course, a couple of his SEALs. The rest of the SEALs and agents went after the roving patrols.
"Take care of yourself," Danny said, patting Steve's back, or rather the bag slung over Steve's back.
"Don't hit that too hard, Danny," Wade teased. "Not if you want to keep all your fingers."
"Why? What's in it?" the detective said suspiciously.
"A selection of grenades, some C4, some shaped charges that will blow a hole in a bunker wall if we need it," Wade said.
"That's my partner, a walking arsenal," Danny sighed.
"I thought these bunkers were meant to stand up to bombs," Chin said.
Wade gave him a look of pure condescension. "These are World War II bunkers. We've learned a few things since then."
Chin held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry."
Danny and Steve picked the winning tickets. Steve got eyes on Fleck, working on the computer under close guard in one of the cinderblock buildings. The man's face was bruised and cut. He'd obviously been beaten, but he was still alive.
Standing over him was the leader of the mercenary group. LeGrande identified him as Niko Marcos, known for collecting information through kidnapping and extortion and then selling it to the highest bidder.
Steve waited to find out if Danny's group had found the mother and child. Instead of a quiet acknowledgement in his com, the commander heard gunfire.
Danny and Chin had come upon a rape in progress. In a side room just inside one of the bunker complexes, they found a door wide open and unguarded, because the guards were inside having fun. Lt. Kerri Fleck's guards had tired of their boring job and decided to liven it up with some recreation. Two held her down, while a third shoved up her skirt. There was fury in her face, but she didn't struggle, because a fourth man held a knife to the throat of little Shane.
"Let my mommy go!" the boy shouted, then sank his teeth into his captor's arm.
The man roared and raised his knife to stab.
Danny's shot took him right between the eyes. The others fired half an instant later, taking out the three would-be rapists.
"Sorry, partner, we had a situation," Danny reported. "We've got the woman and child."
Back in the office, Marcos drew his gun.
"It came from the woman's prison, jefe," one guard reported.
"If those fools have injured her, you have my permission to kill them. Go!"
"Danny, so far Marcos thinks it's his men shooting, but you've got five coming your way," Steve told his friend. "We're moving to take out Marcos now."
He threw a couple of flash-bang grenades through the window. The disorienting lights and sounds made Marcos stagger and Fleck fall from his chair. LeGrande swooped in to drag the hostage to safety, while Steve and Kono zip cuffed Marcos and his remaining guards.
"Never met a grenade he didn't like," Danny muttered, when he heard the flash-bang.
Danny's rescue was hampered by the fact that Lt. Fleck couldn't walk. Marcos had callously broken her ankle to make sure she didn't try to escape. Danny and Chin were supporting her, when they saw Marcos' posse coming toward them.
"Into the bunker!" Hashimoto ordered. "George and I will try to lead them away."
The two men's fire gave the Five-0 duo and kidnap victims a head start into the bunker system, but they couldn't prevent the posse chasing after them. A couple of the posse guarded the entrance, while the rest pursued the woman, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to escape whoever this was that had attacked them.
Hashimoto reported Danny's plight to Steve. The coms wouldn't work deep inside the bunkers, but each team had a satellite phone for backup, so they could still reach Danny.
Inside the bunker, Danny and Chin helped Lt. Fleck limp along through the maze of concrete walled rooms. Shane Fleck ran alongside his mother without complaint. The group dodged left and right, staying out of view of the pursuers, who had to split up and slow down to investigate every room.
Danny hoped to find a back way out, but they found themselves in a dead end instead. The Five-0 officers eased the lieutenant to the ground and took up a watchful stance.
"Now what?" Danny said, as much to himself as to Chin.
Before Chin could answer, the brave little boy shivered and abruptly climbed onto his mother's lap. "Thunder," he said fearfully, hiding his head under her arm.
"What?" Chin asked, then they all heard what the youthful ears had heard, a faint rumble. The stone floor beneath them seemed to shiver.
"What?" Danny echoed Chin's bewilderment. Then his sat phone buzzed.
"We have your heat signatures on the satellite," Steve's voice said without preamble. "Stay where you are. Marcos' men are moving in from the entrance, but we're taking you out the back way."
Danny looked around at the bare concrete walls of their dead end hideout. "There is no back way!"
Danny could hear a grin in his partner's voice. "Making one," Steve said laconically.
The thunder came again, louder now, and the ground trembled. The child flinched and covered his ears.
"Oh no!" Danny said. "Oh, hell no!"
Thunder cracked, a definite explosion this time. The walls shook. Dust rained down.
"Danny, cover your ears, open your mouths and stay exactly where you are," Steve warned.
Everyone heard him and obeyed, even little Shane. His mother added to his protection, bracketing his ears with her elbows as she safeguarded her own eardrums. As he covered his own ears, Chin heard running boot steps in the corridor.
"They're coming!" he told Danny.
Danny threw himself on top of the lieutenant and her child and shouted at the sat phone, "Now, Steve! Go!"
Thunder deafened and lightning blinded. The room quaked. Men screamed.
As their pursuers ran through the door with guns raised, a perfectly placed, perfectly shaped explosive charge blasted through the side wall, spraying the enemy with shards of rock like a giant shotgun. Not a speck, not a grain of sand, went close to the trapped foursome who were dazed by the blast, but otherwise unscathed.
Navy SEALs and NCIS agents poured through McGarrett's back door, rounding up the stunned and bleeding mercenaries. Steve and Kono ran to their dust-covered friends.
"Is everyone all right?" Kono asked, as she knelt beside her cousin.
"My ears are pounding like a high surf," Chin answered in a too loud voice. "But I think I'm OK."
"Lieutenant Fleck?" Steve asked.
"I'm OK, sir," she answered, also too loudly. "Shane, are you OK?"
"I don't like thunder," the boy said with tears in his eyes.
"Neither do I, kid," Danny said, shaking his head as if he could drive the ringing away. "Blame him." He pointed at his partner. "Steven, God of Thunder."
