A/N- Many thanks for favorites and reviews! Glad so many are still enjoying it over 10 chapters in. Good job to those who guessed the water bottle! Mild language warning for this chapter.

Kurtis Foster took a step back and dodged the water bottle that was hurled in his direction. It hit the wall and fell to the ground with a dull thud. The man inside the cell threw himself forward, yelling agitatedly about poisoned water, but Kurtis ignored him. He checked his watch and listened again for any noises from the floor below. It shouldn't be too long now…

As the drug kicked in, Commander McGarrett became too weak to stand and sank slowly to the floor. Kurtis tapped his foot impatiently, but he only stepped forward when the man's eyes had closed and the last twitches had stopped. He checked the Commander's pulse, then unlocked the chain from around his foot. Looping both arms under the unconscious man, he lifted him up and dragged him slowly from the room.

…

Chin and Danny surveyed the empty space on the other side of the concrete ledge. Signaling Danny to cover him, Chin holstered his weapon and pulled himself through low profile window, dropping lightly to the floor inside.

Danny's stomach churned at the thought of crawling through the narrow opening, but then he thought of Steve and slid on his stomach across the ledge after Chin. The thin window opened into a fairly large room, musty and mildewed with disuse. As Chin swept the room with his flashlight, the only occupants, a pair of stray cats, fled through a dark doorway into the blackness beyond. Danny squatted on the floor next to Chin.

"You ready?" Danny whispered as he attached the light to his gun.

Chin nodded.

Stepping into the black hallway, they stopped and listened for any sound of the bunker's other occupants. As quickly as they could, they cleared the top floor, which was rather small, and descended the ladder to the fourth level.

"I've got blood," Chin whispered, gesturing to spatter on the floor.

Danny hissed between his teeth as he saw the stained concrete. "Looks like he was cuffed here," he stated, pointing to fresh scratches on the rungs. "What did Foster do to him?"

"Don't think about it," Chin said, shining his light down the corridor. "Just focus on finding them first."

They cleared the fourth level quickly as well when it became apparent from the dust and lack of footprints that Mr. Foster and his prisoner had not progressed beyond the ladder on this level. Returning to the ladder, Danny gave the blood spatter one last glare before he descended to the third level.

Here, the structure of the bunker changed. Instead of several open rooms, they found themselves on a long hall with a series of steel doors. Pushing open the first one, they found a discarded desk, several empty file folders, and some dead rodents. Behind the second, boxes of outdated medical supplies. Behind the third, a stack of old newspapers and several broken desk chairs. The fourth contained nothing more than a cracked wall and water-damaged ceiling.

The fifth door opened with deafening screech. A first glance revealed nothing more than a stained mattress in one corner and another weather-damaged wall. Then Danny noticed the chain attached to the rebar and the blood on the mattress and felt the heat rise in his face. How often had he called his partner a Neanderthal animal? And now here was evidence that Steve had been chained up like one. "I'm going to rip Foster limb to limb when we find him," he growled.

"You'll have to get in line," Chin said darkly. He passed a hand over the lumpy surface of the mattress and looked up, startled. "It's still warm."

"What?"

"Danny, the mattress is still warm. They were just here!" Chin passed his flashlight over the room again but there was nothing else in the small space except a discarded bottle of water near the door. "No indication of where they went, but they must be nearby."

"I'm wondering if we shouldn't go topside and call Kono for SWAT and a Medivac copter," Danny returned, his attention still on the chain in the wall.

A distant clanging brought them both out of the room with guns raised. The sound echoed dully through the corridor, bouncing back and forth between the concrete walls. Danny frowned a silent question at Chin who shrugged in return. With the shoddy acoustics, it was impossible to tell where the noise had originated. With a nod, Chin motioned forward and they continued stealthily along the grimy hallway to the next door.

The next few rooms held nothing of interest. The bunker remained obstinately quiet, unwilling to yield the location of the criminal and his prisoner hiding somewhere within. With only two doors left, one on the left and one on the right, Chin and Danny opted for the right and kicked it in.

The room was lit by a small lantern sitting on a makeshift shelf of old storage crates. A variety of tools were scattered across the crates and Steve's backpack sat in the corner. On the opposite side of the room, a dental chair sprawled in the shadows. Holstering his gun, Chin moved toward the chair, leaving Danny by the crates.

"Base of operations," Danny said in a low voice as he studied the tools and a folder of papers. "But what kind?"

"Torture." Chin pulled out an evidence bag and tweezers and picked up something from the floor beside the chair.

Danny squinted and came closer. "What is that? Is that a..?"

"Fingernail," Chin finished, tucking it into the plastic evidence pouch. "I've got more."

"Son of a… is that more blood?" Danny asked, squatting beside him and eyeing the dark stains on the concrete.

"Looks like it. There's more over there beside the backpack."

Danny moved to the backpack and studied the small pool of blood. "Chin, this looks like a lot more than a few lost fingernails. If I had to guess, I'd say there was a fight or something." Standing, he swept the room with his flashlight and stopped at a flash of brass in the wall. "I've got a bullet." He dug it out and held it up to the light. "Blood on it." He looked around the room again. "Someone was shot here- or grazed, based on the amount."

"But who was it?" Chin asked. "Foster or Steve?"

…

Kurtis Foster froze as voices drifted across the hall and filtered into the cavernous storage room where he now crouched with the unconscious commander. God, the man was heavy! It was taking much longer than he planned but, if the whispers and echoes he heard were any indication, he still had some time to finish.

He cocked an ear, listening carefully. There seemed to only be two of them, which he found surprising given whom he had abducted. His initial thought had been to take both of these cops as well but then he realized there was no point to it. What could he do with them? What purpose could they possibly serve? Nothing good would come of that and so he had resorted to his other plan.

Bending down, he grasped the unconscious man under the arms and dragged him backwards across the ground toward the gaping hole in the floor in the center of the room. Reaching out, he snagged the long chain that hung down through the hole and pulled it toward him. Almost done… He just needed a few more minutes.

…

Danny balled his hand into a fist, struggling to contain his anger at the evidence of the torture his friend had suffered. The folder contained emails between Colin and Steve, and Colin and his father, further evidence that Kono's theory had been correct. More troubling, however, was the ME's report detailing the injuries Colin sustained at the hands of the terrorists and the small, firm checkmarks penciled next to them. After reading the list, Danny could only hope that the few items that were checked were all that Kurtis had done to Steve. What if they had been an hour or two later and Kurtis had progressed to the next item on the list? Danny shuddered.

"Psst!" Chin motioned at him suddenly and drew his weapon. Although he hadn't heard anything, Danny mimicked him and they moved together into the hallway, leaving their flashlights off as they waited for the noise to happen again. But the bunker remained cold and dark and once more silent.

Danny was about to turn away when he heard a slight noise behind the last door. He pointed to Chin and they moved into position. Throwing open the door, Danny burst into the room.

"Five-0!" he shouted, his light flashing across the room. Unlike the other rooms along the hallway, this room was massive, a cavernous hall filled with filing cabinets, furniture, crates, boxes, and other clutter stacked in crumbling, pyramidal piles. For whatever reason, the army had begun clearing out the bunker but never finished.

Danny swept the space slowly with his flashlight. "Detective Danny Williams, 5-0!" he yelled again. "Show yourself!"

From behind one of the stacks of crates, a dark figure jumped out of the shadows and raced across the room. Danny raised his gun, but the person darted back and forth between the piles, making a clear shot impossible. "Stop!" Danny yelled and chased after him, leaping across old crates and running past a massive hole in the floor as he rushed to catch up. The figure wove back and forth, disappearing momentarily behind a pile of desks, then skirting around a cluster of rusting filing cabinets.

"Mr. Foster, we know who you are! Surrender now- running won't help you!" Danny called out, but the man ran on.

"Danny!" Chin shouted behind him. "I've found Steve!"

Danny hesitated. Ahead of him, a dark doorway loomed. If Foster reached it, he would escape. Anger driving him, Danny ran forward, vaulting a decaying exam table and closing the distance as Foster neared the doorway.

"Danny, he needs help!" Chin called urgently.

Just a few more steps. Danny lunged as Chin's voice rang out behind him.

"DANNY!".

With a yell of frustration, Danny fired off several shots, but Foster had already darted into the blackness and disappeared. "Dammit," he muttered. He could hear footsteps fleeing deeper into the bunker as he turned away. His anger abated slowly, nervousness filling the void as he picked his way carefully back across the maze. He found Chin crouched over the hole in the floor.

"I thought you said you had Steve?" he asked in confusion.

"Take a look." Chin shone his flashlight into the hole. Suspended between the floor and ceiling of the level below them, Steve hung limply by his wrists on a chain. His head rested on his chest and Danny could see a myriad of red stripes decorating his back as he twisted slowly in a circle.

"Steve? STEVE!" Danny called. "Is he alive?" he asked frantically of Chin.

"Hard to tell until we get him up," Chin said.

The next few minutes were the longest of Danny's life. Chin snagged the chain which hung down through the hole in the floor and set about creating a makeshift winch with the junk available. Danny helped wordlessly, following the older man's instructions and directions until they had pulled their leader through the opening.

As Steve's unconscious form twisted slowly back and forth on the chain, Danny got his first good look at his injuries. Long, thin cuts. Blood. Bruises. Dirt. Grime. Tattered swim trunks that were only on his body because the dried blood had practically glued them to his legs. Damp hair that had never fully dried. Streaks on his face, down his cheeks, which meant-

"Danny?"

Danny started. Chin reached out and gently laid a hand on his arm. "You with me, brah?"

Danny nodded mutely. He couldn't bring himself to speak.

"He's breathing," Chin said, indicating with a nod the slight rise and fall of Steve's chest. "He's alive. He's going to be okay. You know that, Danny. He's going to be fine."

Danny nodded again and finally found his voice. "Yeah. Okay."

Chin squeezed his arm and then gestured toward their backpacks. "Get the emergency blanket out," he instructed as he rotated Steve toward the edge of the hole. Danny unfurled the blanket on the ground and they carefully maneuvered their friend onto it. "Watch his hand," Chin added as they prepared to lay him down.

"Remind me to tell SuperSEAL to lay off the snacks," Danny grunted as he struggled under the weight.

Chin pulled a notepad and pencil from the backpack. "You inventory injuries, I'll get vitals," he said, crouching beside Steve's head.

Danny began a verbal list: "Multiple cuts and lacerations on his back… thin scarring around the neck…" Danny lifted each hand and studied it. "Let's see… possible dislocated wrist, missing fingernails… gunshot wound to the thigh… lacerations on the legs and left foot…" Danny lifted Steve's arms and passed the flashlight over his chest. "Heavy bruising under the arm here… nothing broken, though, I don't think… probable infection here… and here… and, well, everywhere… and… I think that's it."

Chin placed two fingers at Steve's neck. "Pulse is a little slow," he noted, catching Danny's eye as he jotted the numbers down. They pulled the crinkly blanket over his body and tucked it in around him.

"I'll call Kono and have her alert the rescue team," Chin offered. "Keep him warm; see if you can rouse him. I don't think our first aid kit can do much for him."

"What about Foster?" Danny looked around nervously. They hadn't heard anything since he disappeared from the room.

"I'm not sure we have much of a choice," Chin said. "If he knows what's good for him, he's long gone by now." Taking the backpack with the sat phone, he hurried away, leaving Danny to stand guard over his unconscious partner.

Listening cautiously, Danny thought he heard a door somewhere below them open and shut. He shone his gun through the hole in the floor but couldn't make out anything more than a pile of rubble in the lower room where the ceiling had collapsed. As Chin's footsteps disappeared above him, he sat down next to his friend and took Steve's good hand in his own.

"Just hang in there, big guy," he murmured as he tried to rub some warmth into the cold skin. "Help is coming, just hang in there a little while longer."