Guest reviewer "That Crazy Niko" pointed out a small but physically impossible mistake (Chin/Chen mix-up) which has now been corrected.
Thank you ;-)
"There are no secrets that time does not reveal."
- Jean Racine -
11. TIME'S UP
He's been sleeping again, hours it seems, as he can tell the day has moved on without him. His dreams have been filled with images, faces that he still can't put a name to; the blue-eyed man appearing more often, frowning at him, arguing with him, flapping impatient hands at him.
Yet the image of the man conjures up nothing but warm feelings, as well as a deep-seated sadness for not being able to remember who he is. He sighs as he opens his eyes, then turns his head to find Rhys. He's not in the cabin.
Frowning, he listens for noises, a sign that Rhys is busy somewhere in one of the adjoining rooms. He hears nothing, doesn't hear the sound of wood being chopped outside either. There's just silence, and somehow it unnerves him.
Gathering what strength he can, he pushes himself up on one elbow, subconsciously noticing that the pain in his back seems less severe somehow. He rests for a moment, catching his breath, then puts his right hand on the mattress, pushing down, drawing up his left arm so he can place his left hand down as well.
His upper body is now raised off the mattress, and he hangs his head as an intense wave of vertigo and nausea passes through his body, desperately swallows to keep down his stomach contents. The level of weakness he experiences is something that is utterly frustrating.
Fueled by determination, by sheer willpower, he draws up one knee, then the other one. He's now on all fours, and he doesn't have a clue what to do next. Panting like an overheated dog, he is stuck on the mattress, groaning as he knows his own weight will soon cause him to collapse on his face.
He utters a short, barking laugh, realizing how ridiculous he must look. Then he slowly moves his right knee to the edge of the mattress, sliding it over until it goes off the edge and hits the wooden floor with a loud *thunk*, causing a flare of pain to shoot up his leg.
Things sort of speed up after that.
His leg going off the mattress causes him to lose what little balance he has; his right elbow gives way, making him fall face down and onto his right shoulder into the mattress. Instinctively he reaches up with his left arm, causing him to turn over and roll off the mattress, his head cracking against a small cabinet.
As black dots start swarming in front of his eyes, the back of his head suddenly feeling very warm, he feels a cold draft as the door to the cabin is opened, followed by somebody uttering a string of expletives.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"
He opens his eyes, sees Rhys standing over him, glowering. He's still wearing his coat and boots, both covered with a liberal dusting of snow. Despite the pain in his knee and head, he gives him a goofy smile. "Take ... a walk."
Rhys shakes his head. "So the fact that you managed - barely managed, actually - to eat a bowl of porridge made you decide that today was a nice day for a stroll. Idiot; you're bleeding by the looks of it!"
He peeks at Rhys from between his eyelashes, feeling extremely stupid for having tried to get out of bed, yet somehow still seeing the humor of things. "You weren't there ... to hold my hand." He watches Rhys sigh, then take off his coat and boots.
"You're a pain in the ass, SEAL boy. Now let me get you back in bed and see what new injuries you have managed to add to your already impressive list."
Unceremoniously, Rhys pulls him up by the front of his shirt, not being able to stand behind him because of the way he has managed to wedge himself between the mattress, cabinet and wall. Then he goes to stand behind him, grabs him underneath his armpits and heaves him back on the mattress.
Putting his legs back as well, he continues to roll him over, making him feel slightly nauseous. He curtly nods at Rhys' "You OK?" and lets the other man administer to his needs. After Rhys has expertly cleaned and closed the gash he has managed to inflict on himself, he rolls him back and puts a stack of pillows behind him.
"So, what made you decide to get out of bed? Number two again?" Rhys throws him a wicked grin, meanwhile cleaning away the blood on the ground.
"Funny man." He sighs, definitely not amused by being reminded of what happened earlier that day. "You were gone. I wanted to check things out." Looking up, he throws Rhys a questioning glance. "Where were you?"
Rhys raises an eyebrow. "What, you're my mother? Do I have to tell you where I'm going every time?"
He frowns as a term suddenly pops up in his head. Suspicious behavior. Somehow, he knows he has used the term quite often, has heard it on an almost daily basis. Looking at Rhys, his mind tries to work out why.
"What are you thinking, Steve? Memory coming back?" Rhys throws him an inquisitive glance, his eyebrows raised even further.
He shakes his head. "Not sure. More ... terms I used." He pauses, frowns. "I think." Looking at Rhys, his lips go up in a little smile. "Suspicious. That's what I thought." Now it's Rhys' turn to frown.
"You thought it was suspicious that I wasn't there? Or that I don't tell you what I did?" He slightly tilts his head looking at the man in the bed.
"Both." He manages to wave his hand, dismissing the situation. "You're right. No need to know." Classified his mind burps up, and he frowns again. If only his mind could come up with complete sentences, complete images. Complete memories.
"Seems to me like your memory really is coming back, even if it's in fits and starts."
Rhys looks at the man lying in bed; a man who, although currently very weak, obviously normally has an exceptionally fit condition, a man who seems to be used to being in control, to give orders. Rhys wonders if that is why he needed to be out of the way, wonders if that is the reason why this man is considered such a threat that somebody has gone to such lengths to hide him, subdue him.
He hopes to find the answer to those questions soon.
"Meet Archibald Bradley, or 'Archie' as his friends call him." Danny looks at the image Chin has put on one of the screens. The man is somewhere in his late thirties, early forties, powerfully built with short, dark hair and cool gray eyes.
Chin continues: "Closest friend of Donald "Duck" Stevenson, the biker that got shot in the alleyway. The SDPD went to question Archie regarding the shooting of his buddy and found he had pulled up stakes and disappeared that night. Neighbors reported a break-in in his apartment a few hours later, said they saw three Asian looking men jump in a car afterwards."
Danny frowns, taking in the information. "Three Asians again, I'm guessing that's the clean-up crew. Seems Archie knew he might be next on the list and decided to beat them to it. Good work, Chin." Chin nods. "This may be a long shot, but I may have more." He pulls up an old image of five young men in uniform. "Ow, blast from the past" comments Lou.
"These are members of a Marine Expeditionary Unit in Afghanistan." He points out the men one by one. "Michael Lawson, Donald Stevenson, Ernesto Gutiérrez and Archibald Bradley." Danny stares at the picture. "They all knew each other ... So who's the fifth guy?"
"That's where it may become interesting." Chin zooms in on the man standing in the middle. "This is Thomas Moore, dishonorably discharged for accepting payments in return for providing insurgents with sensitive information." Lou hisses between his teeth. "I bet the other boys didn't take too kindly to one of their own selling them out."
Chin nods again. "You're right, they didn't. Except Duck Stevenson and Archie Bradley. SDPD found Moore's number listed numerous times on Bradley's phone bill. And get this: Moore lives in Aberdeen." Danny stares at Chin. "Somehow I don't think you mean Aberdeen, Scotland." Chin shakes his head, pulling up a map.
"No, Aberdeen, Washington. Right on Route 101, and right underneath Olympic National Park."
Chen Zhi doesn't show his two companions that he's nervous, or more accurately, terrified. Having missed Bradley by mere hours could literally mean that his death warrant has been signed. He's not prepared to give up that easily though.
They have searched the house thoroughly, and one of his partners found something which might still tip the balance in his favor. There's a little notebook next to the phone, and somebody has written down a number using such force, the digits are still visible on the next piece of paper.
When they rub a pencil over the paper, the number becomes clearly visible. Using his phone, Chen goes to a so-called 'reverse phone look-up' site to track down the person whom it belongs to. When he finds out who and where he is, he smiles.
Kono frowns at the man behind the counter, smiling at her. "Mister Li, I don't understand. I asked if you knew when the new governor would be installed, if you might have heard anything about it." The man continues to smile, then nods. "Yes Miss, I understood the question, and I gave you an answer."
"Then I apologize for misunderstanding the answer, Mister Li." Kono bows to the man, who bows back to her. Just as she's about to turn around to leave, he winks at her and points at the calendar above the door. She looks up, then suddenly understands.
"Thank you, Mister Li." Kono bows at the man again, then exits the small shop.
Archie is so tired he can hardly see straight. He's been on his bike, on the run, for almost twelve hours straight. Leaving the I-5 at Weed, he has picked up Route 97, heading for Klamath Falls.
The call he placed several hours earlier was not really welcomed, but the service he required still available. They had agreed on a price, and a time when he would come by.
When he finally arrives at the house located just off Orchard Avenue, he's almost too tired to put the bike on the side-stand. One knock on the screen door is sufficient to bring out a scruffy looking guy with stringy, greasy hair and a cleft upper lip.
Archie is invited inside. He follows the scruffy guy through the kitchen, out through a door to the garage. When the merchandise is placed on the work bench, Archie suddenly gets a feeling that maybe things will turn out in his favor after all.
Putting down the agreed on cash amount, he places the cloth wrapped package inside his jacket.
His short-lived expedition off the mattress has left him with a sore kneecap and a slight headache, as well as all his muscles screaming from tension and long-forgotten use. They intermittently spasm and contract, sending short little twinges throughout his body.
Rhys has noticed his discomfort, and despite harassing him about the stupidity of it all he does relent, understanding the growing frustration of the man.
"How about I get you and your bed cleaned and then give you a massage to get your circulation stimulated? It will benefit your muscles as well. There's snow on the roof, so it's pretty warm in here for the moment."
Rhys expects to get into another argument again, but to his surprise all he gets is a nod, the man looking weary and exhausted. He has used up every bit of the little energy he had.
"That was easy. Maybe I should let you do this more often, you're far easier to work with like that." He grins, getting a small smile in return.
He lies there, eyes closed as Rhys quickly cleans both him and the bedding, then feels himself being rolled over on his back, a towel draped over him to keep him from becoming embarrassed, the pillows removed so he lies flat. Frowning, he senses Rhys just hovering over him.
"What?" Wondering if there's something wrong, he opens his eyes and catches Rhys staring at his chest, moving from one spot to another. Then the other man lifts his eyes up to meet his, and there's a look there that he just can't decipher.
"I'm not sure I should ask this, but maybe it will jog your memory." He stares straight at him. "I've noticed these scars on your chest before. Steve, do you know, do you remember being tortured?" Rhys watches him intently, catching the exact moment when part of his memory slams back into him.
There are chains again, but this time he's suspended from them while a voice, initially calm but increasingly angrier, keeps asking him the same question over and over again. A question he cannot hear now but apparently is important enough to beat him senseless, to make him scream in pain as electricity is guided through his body, to make him try and hold his breath, desperately needing air while his mouth, his throat and then his lungs fill with water.
The memory is so realistic that each punch causes his body to jerk, each electric shock makes his body jolt, and the water being poured over his mouth results in his lungs screaming for oxygen.
Then it suddenly fades, leaving him gasping for air as the illusion of water-filled lungs lasts the longest. Rhys is holding his shoulders, letting him go and just clasping his arm the minute he senses he's coming back down to reality, not wanting to aggravate the memory of being restrained.
"It's OK, you're safe, Steve. Breathe for me buddy. Whatever happened has passed, is over."
Rhys keeps a hand on his arm, watching the wide terrified eyes blink as his mind slowly emerge from whatever horrors he just experienced. And from what Rhys has seen and heard, those horrors included being beaten severely, being electrocuted and most likely being subjected to water-boarding.
And Steve survived it all.
It bears testimony to the incredible strength and will power of this man, something Rhys has witnessed already as he has seen him fight to stay alive. Again Rhys wonders who the man really is, convinced that he is more, much more than 'just' a SEAL.
"Sorry I did that to you, man. But I'm trying anything to get you to remember who you are."
He just lies there, trying to catch his breath, slowly calming down, shocked by the sheer intensity of the memory just flooding through him. Shocked by what had been done to him. "What ... what the fuck was that?!" He stares at Rhys, almost as if blaming him for what he has just experienced.
"That probably was a memory, Steve. A pretty bad one, I think." Rhys has a bemused look in his eyes.
"Whoever you are, I think you are somebody to be afraid of." Rhys sees a frown appear, and immediately hastens to explain his last words. "I don't mean to say that you are a bad person, Steve. On the contrary. I think it's the bad guys who are afraid of you, judging from the extremes they're willing to go to."
He feels his heartbeat slowly steady down to a normal level, his breath evening out. Rhys' words somehow make sense, but still nothing clicks in his mind, nothing solid comes up to even offer the tiniest confirmation that Rhys is right.
When Rhys places his hand on his arm again, he flinches, instinctively drawing away, the fading memory still exerting some influence on his responses. "Sorry." He looks at Rhys, managing to throw him a small apologetic smile.
"Serious, man? You could've punched me in the face and I still would've understood." He flashes him a quick grin. "Not that you could've managed, but that's another story."
He smiles back. "Like I said, when I'm better." Other memories suddenly pop up, of running along a beach, working out hard. A small frown appears on his brow as he tries to grasp more details, but the memory is fleeting, dissipating quickly.
Rhys stares at him, noticing how his mind is working hard, fighting to catch more glimpses. "Give it time, Steve. It'll come." He gets up, looks down on him. "So how about this massage?"
He nods.
"What was the cryptic message this mister Li gave you, Kono?" Chin looks at his cousin, amazed at how she's been able to extract information from the Chinese community yet again. Kono smiles. "Trust me, Cuz; at first I didn't get it either. I had to do some research on the computer before figuring it out."
"The governor will come when we thank our ancestors in the extreme of winter."
It had meant nothing to Kono, until Li had nodded at the calendar. Then she understood that the man had made a reference to some type of Chinese holiday, and after some time behind the computer she had found the Dongzhi Festival.
"That reference to winter really had me thrown for a loop. I mean, come on; winter in Hawaii?" Chin just stares as her, then nods. "Not bad for a rookie, Kono. Before you know it, you'll be almost as good as us. Almost." It earns him a hefty thump on the shoulder.
Lou is slightly distracted by Danny's voice coming from his office, obviously arguing with somebody on the phone. He shrugs, then looks at the information Chin has called up on the screen. "So this Dongz or whatever they call it, what date is that?"
"It's the Winter Solstice, so the twenty-first or twenty-second of December." Kono looks at Lou, then back at the screen. Chin frowns. "Which means that, if that's the date they 'expect' the new governor to be installed, the Governor must be assassinated just before then."
Lou leans on the PC table, looks at the screen, then at Chin, frustrated. "That gives us less than a week, possibly just a few days. And we still have no hard evidence to move on!"
Just then Danny comes walking out of his office, looking angry and anxious. Another conversation with the SDPD has deprived him of what little self-control he has left by now. "Those assholes! Hand them information on a silver platter and they´ll gleefully throw it back in your face. Dammit!"
Chin and Kono simply stare at Danny's outburst. He's been having them more frequently these past few days; not knowing where Steve is has severely undermined his mental composure.
Lou lifts an eyebrow, then scrapes his throat. "I take it your request to interview Thomas Moore was declined." Danny throws him an angry look. "Yes. By now I think I've heard every possible synonym for the word 'assumption' come by. How come they have the same information as we do, but still refuse to draw the same conclusions?!"
"That's simple, Danny." Chin's eyes have a gentle, almost compassionate look in them. "Our drive to find Steve is stronger. After all, he's ohana." Danny stares at him, then looks down, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Yeah, that's right. He's ohana."
He's torn in two internally by the war between duty and loyalty, obligation and devotion.
Instinctively, he wants to pack a bag, board a plane and head out to Aberdeen, talk to this Moore guy himself, use every means, every method to persuade him to give up Steve's location. But they're Five-0, the Governor's Task Force, and the oath he's sworn includes protecting the Governor. And now that he's in charge of the team, he cannot simply dismiss his duty.
Unless that duty interferes with trying to save his friend's life.
John Yun looks at the screen of the laptop. Two more days and his plan will come to fruition; then the Triad will have control over Honolulu.
The preparations to take out the Governor have been set in motion, and with Five-0 still desperately looking for their Commander, security details around the Governor have been less tight than usual.
Now all that needs to be done is removing the trail to and on the mainland. And Yun is convinced he has give Chen Zhi enough incentive to make sure that it is done correctly.
Smiling, he closes the laptop.