Oh my goodness. I really don't know what to do with myself. I got a chance to look at the stats for this story, and I'm just staggered by the amount of views and comments and love from everyone. Thank you all so much!

So, I haven't had much time to write (nor will I, for a while), but I did manage to get this on "paper." I also edited a few things with my earlier stories. I'll do my best to keep the flow going, but apologies in advance for the coming dry spells. This is a pretty hectic month (but for good reason).

A side note: the program that I'm working with has just hit 30,000 service hours. That's like volunteering 24/7 for 4 years. I'm so blessed to be involved with such good work and great people.

Like you! So thank you, and Enjoy!

Knyle B.


The shed was a welcome place to hide while we caught our breath. Throwing myself into the shade behind it, I leaned over at the waist and tried to stop my head from spinning, gasping like a lampooned whale. I was so scared that I found myself acting completely like the thoughtless idiot I was pretending to be.

"Do you think we lost them?" a deep voice piped up.

Beside me, Iko—a genuine member of the spineless criminal lower class—looked worriedly back the way we had come as he questioned me, swiping a handful of sweat off his forehead. Breathless and desperate, he gave me a wide-eyed look that I mirrored.

"We had to lose them back there, right? There's no way…"

"Nope, no way they followed through that," I agreed, nodding vigorously. "We shook 'em. They gone, bruddah, we're good."

Iko wilted in relief, throwing his towering form against the wall with a sigh. "Good."

The silence stretched out, punctuated only by our heaving breaths. Something was wrong, though. I wasn't calming down, and I wasn't still keyed up because of the adrenaline rush, either. The back of my neck even started to prickle in paranoia and confusion. I looked up at Iko; he seemed to be having the same problem.

"Nothin' to worry about," he assured the air nervously, meeting my eyes with a frown.

I shook my head, dismissing such a stupid fear. "We're safe."

Another beat of tense quiet passed.

Without another glance at each other, my demented partner in crime and I exploded away from the shed, running like hell and the devil were right behind us.

And maybe they were.

We hit the woods and started weaving, bounding up the trails and shoving through the brush like wounded animals. I'd never run so far or so fast in my life, but I wasn't even close to slowing down. Not with those guys on our tail.

Iko saw the little house first. Almost sobbing with relief, he tore towards the shack, and I followed immediately. He had the gun, after all. If I wanted any chance against our pursuers, I'd need him handy.

If not to shoot them, then to be shot first while I ditched.

As we crashed into the yard, I saw a flutter of fabric ahead. The place was occupied. By a woman. There were clothes on the line, bright and flowery—going by them, she was small, relatively fashionable, so probably young. Seized by inspiration, I stopped and grabbed Iko's arm, motioning that he be quiet.

"A hostage could keep them off us."

Or make sure they focus on you so I can get away.

Eyes widening, he nodded eagerly. We slunk up to the first window, careful to peer in from out of sight on either side. There was the woman, slender and dark-haired. Her back was to us as she bent over a book, sitting languidly in front of the TV in the corner. Her home was small but well-kept, and there were plenty of pictures all around—I assumed of friends and family.

Nodding at Iko, I followed him to the back door and helped unlatch it, holding it open while he slipped inside. After I closed it without a sound, we split up and started moving towards the unsuspecting female. She didn't give any sign of noticing us, calmly turning a page.

Since he had the gun, Iko was left to approach her. He looked over at me, anxious, but I gestured impatiently that he get on it. All he needed to do was get her attention and flash the piece. He didn't even need to get as close as he was—what did he think he was doing, walking right up to her like that?

Before I could say anything, he pressed the gun barrel to the back of her skull and quavered roughly, "Drop the book and put your hands in the air, lady."

There was a blur and a crack—abruptly, Iko was flat on his back and squeaking in pained terror. The girl was standing over him, gun in her hands. She smiled at me, keeping my wingman pinned with the foot she had on his sternum.

"Howzit, Lua. Or should I call you Mark?"

Mark? Not good.

I gaped, my stomach dropping. She knew my name. She'd disarmed Iko in seconds. I knew that should mean something, but all I could look at was the gleaming metal death penalty pointing my way. Slowly, I started to back up, thinking of the door just a few feet behind me.

The sound of a shotgun cocking between it and myself made me freeze. A cold, authoritative voice joined the gun's noise, warning, "Don't even think about it, Harwinton."

I knew that voice.

Oh, no. Nononononono... My skin prickled. My eyes closed in acute fear. It felt like my heart had taken up residence near my toes.

It was them.

Weakly, I whimpered, "Oh, damn."

"What?" Iko saw my expression and went even whiter. He whipped his head back and forth so he could alternate staring between me and the two of them.

The girl saved me the trouble of responding to his question, smirking down at him while the man behind me grabbed my arms and cuffed me, efficiently disposing of the phone and knife in my pockets. "Officers Kono Kalakaua and Chin Ho Kelly, at your service."

Iko gulped, fish-eyed.

Her partner added, "Five-0."

"Oh shit." Iko held his hands up pleadingly, stammering up at Kono, "I wasn't going to shoot you. The hostage thing was his idea, I swear."

I glared at his pointing finger, ready to stomp on his throat, when the policewoman looked over at me, her expression hardening. "Yeah, Lua here has had a lot of ideas lately, hasn't he, Iko?"

Iko stopped and looked constipated, which was fairly normal for him. "Huh?"

"I'll bet he was the one who picked out the cars you jacked, wasn't he? And he probably sent you to drop off those packages at the Collins' house and told you where to paint those coded messages, too," Officer Kelly agreed, fisting my collar in his hand and giving me a steely look that made my gut clench. "If you ask me, Iko, you've sure been running around a lot for a guy you just met a week ago."

Damn it, I thought, feeling trapped. They know. They must have gotten to Ricky. That dirty rat.

Iko blinked, and I relaxed slightly. At least the little prick didn't seem to comprehend their hints that I'd been using him. The last thing I needed was for the brainless punk to get self-righteous and start blabbing. It had been hard enough faking like I was a dumbass with him; after all the time I'd spent enduring his stupidity while I gained his trust, I was not open to the idea of trying to make amends with him.

I smothered a scowl and decided I was done bending over backwards for him. If the cops managed to ruffle his feathers, I'd just as soon cut him loose and drop the charade once and for all. My clients paid well, but not well enough to suffer an indignity like jail whilst simultaneously pretending to be just another Hawaiian thug. The sooner I could stop having to use that disgusting pigeon-speak, the better.

Iko looked on worriedly as I glared at the policeman holding me by the arm. Turning hopefully to Kono, he inquired meekly, "Uh, can I get up now, please?"

In less than half a minute, he had been searched, pulled to his feet, and cuffed. Kalakaua was civil, at least. I'd seen officers do much worse after having to chase a suspect the way they'd chased us. Actually, scratch that. I'd never seen anyone chase like that.

My dumb partner brought that up, which I was glad for. I didn't want to ask anything of those crazy cops. As the woman was securing him, Iko wondered bewilderedly, "But you were at the marina. We ran through the docks. How did you…?"

She smiled again, this time with a wicked glint in her eye. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Kelly tugged on my arm, steering me out towards the yard. Iko and his captor followed, the former still looking like a stunned deer. I listened with mounting apprehension as the policeman pulled out his phone and brought it to his ear.

"Hey. We've got them. Send a chopper to our coordinates."

That wasn't good. Not good at all. My employers did not tolerate failure from their operatives, and the clients I was currently assigned to were even less forgiving. If word got out that I'd been caught, I was a dead man.

Well, first I'd be a tortured, screaming, slowly dying man. Then maybe they'd let me be dead.

I swallowed dryly. I needed to get out of there. Looking over at Iko, I sensed the beginnings of a desperate plan. If I could use him…

Turning to Kalakaua, I demanded, "How did you find out?"

She knew what I meant. Favoring me with a look full of that special brand of holier-than-thou triumph that I have only known do-gooders to be capable of, she shook her head. "You're not as neat and tidy as you're advertised to be, Harwinton. For a professional, you left a lot of loose ends."

Beside her, Iko couldn't help but hear our exchange. He blinked stupidly at me. "I thought your name was Kemakoa."

Chin pulled me out into the yard, just off the widest portion where the helicopter would land. Obviously, he had picked up on Iko's distinct lack of IQ. He seemed close to sympathy as he broke the truth to my paid monkey. "That's the name he gave you. In other circles, he's got a different calling card—and business—than what you were told."

"Luckily for you, you weren't in on all of it," Kono added, watching the sky for the incoming bird that we could all hear thrumming closer. "If he'd let you in on the truth, Iko, you'd be heading to the same scary hole that he is."

The other man didn't seem to believe it, at first. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, his face a mask of fierce concentration as he endeavored to put it all together. I waited impatiently, watching the chopper come over the trees and begin to descend.

Seeing it, my mood brightened infinitesimally. It was small; only the pilot and an empty bay awaited us. Luckily, the new representative from law enforcement wasn't on Five-0. He could be handled fairly quickly, once I did what I needed to do on the ground. Which had to happen right away, if I was going to get out of there.

Turning to Iko, I goaded him, "Don't listen to her, brah. She's just trying to get in your head. You can trust me. I got your back."

I purposely let my hold on the pigeon accent shiver a bit just to help him more. Hopefully, the officers would write it off as my nerves getting the better of me. It didn't matter, anyway. With my helpful nudge, Iko finally clued in to reality.

"You used me!" he exploded, suddenly ferocious.

I backed away involuntarily as he changed. His whole frame stiffened and seemed to get bigger, puffing up with his snarling rage. My satisfaction at his transformation was only slightly dimmed by the instinctive fear that crept through me at the sight of him.

I had long suspected that Iko's brain was so small that it could only handle one thing at a time. Thus, whatever entered his head, he devoted all of his energy to it. While calm, he might as well have been a puppet, he was so easily influenced. When he got angry, however, he turned into an unthinking monster.

Kalakaua could do nothing as the gentle giant turned into an ogre, throwing himself forward out of her grip.

"Bastard!"

Expecting the charge, I lurched out of the way of the oncoming tackle. Kelly took it instead, thrown to the ground under Iko's assault. As soon as the lawman's grip had been ripped off my arm, I hopped over my hands so they were in front of me, slamming my shoulder into Kalakaua while she tried to go for her gun.

I managed to knock her hand away and grabbed the gun myself, kneeing her in the kidney as hard as I could. She went down to her knees, and I kicked her in the head for good measure. I needed her alive, but fully conscious was optional for what I had planned.

By then Iko had realized he'd attacked the wrong person. Roaring, the puppy-turned-attack dog jumped up off of the downed policeman and rounded on me, infuriated that I had dodged. Cuffed or not, I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was going to kill me.

So I put a bullet between his eyes.

Harsh, maybe, but he was getting in the way. Plus, his corpse made a great obstacle, dropping backwards right at Kelly. The policeman was just getting up. Seeing the limp body falling at him, he dodged to the side. His eyes stayed averted from me just long enough to be fatal.

Kalakaua's gun kicked back twice in my hand, and her comrade fell back onto the grass beside his dead prisoner.

I looked around, seeing the chopper. My little stunt had only lasted thirty seconds, but the pilot was already bringing his craft skywards. I couldn't have that. Bringing the gun around, I fired a warning shot through his windshield, adding a new hole to the copilot's chair. Keeping the gun trained at his chest, I motioned that he set the vehicle down. He complied.

Once he was on the ground, I approached, drawing up alongside the cockpit. "Turn off the radio. Now get out, but keep your hands visible and move slowly."

Carefully, he did as I said, dismounting and coming over when I beckoned. It took me a moment to pat him down one-handed and rid him of the contents of his pockets. Then I ushered him over to the unconscious policewoman.

"Toss everything on her and in her pockets but the keys to these cuffs. The vest and belt, too."

It was time-consuming to have her searched so thoroughly, but I'd learned not to take Five-0 for granted. As long as she stayed out, she wouldn't be a problem. When she woke up, though, I didn't want her to have any tools at her disposal.

The pilot found the keys and finished tugging off her vest. I kept the gun pointed straight at him and had him unlock my restraints, transferring them to Kono.

"Now drag her to the chopper and get back in the pilot's seat."

A few minutes later, we were airborne. Kalakaua was tied down in the bay and I was sitting in the copilot's seat beside the shaking pilot. I watched the shack recede behind us with some satisfaction, glad to see the two bodies in the yard were easily obscured by the trees. I could only see the edge of Iko as we ascended, and once we'd flattened our angle he was completely invisible. Anyone looking down from above in an aerial search would have to take the time to land in order to spot them. That would give me an extra cushion before my new crimes could be broadcast.

That reminded me to turn and destroy the tracking and transmitting machinery in the cockpit. There was probably some way to still track my ride, but I'd done what I could. Any extra time that I could generate was precious, if I wanted to get to my associate's hangar and off the islands before the last two members of Five-0 came calling.

With the cuffs off my wrists and an unconscious, high-profile gift for my bosses in the back, I was starting to feel pretty good. All I needed to do was get to our people the next landmass over and I'd be home free. I might even get a bonus for taking down half of the infamous, eternally annoying police squad that had been hounding criminal activities in Hawaii.

Dialing the phone I'd appropriated from Kalakaua's belongings, I waited one ring before someone picked up on the other end. "Who is this?"

"Mark Harwinton. I'm running hot, need a ticket off the islands, fast. Got any ideas?"

I could hear the other man grinning. "How hot?"

"Just tagged one of Five-0, got another wrapped up all nice for the boss." My voice was at ease as I boasted. Keeping half an eye on my driver, I relaxed into my seat, assured that I was all but safely away. "Think you can find us a ride home?"

He swore appreciatively and told me where to meet his guy for pickup. I chuckled as I hung up and shifted my grip on the gun, giving the pilot instructions to turn towards my contact's position. We were only a few minutes away.

Forget good. I felt great. Grinning, I watched the trees fly by below, pretending they were the ocean I was about to cross sometime in the very near future. Soon, I saw the telltale line snaking through the canopy that revealed a well-travelled road below. My pilot guided the chopper to the prescribed clearing a few miles off of the byway and set her down.

I wasn't bothered that my ride had yet to show up. That just gave me time to take care of the pilot—and his body afterwards. Turning, I favored the shaking, sweating man with a feral smile. The gun in my hand kept him from bolting the way I could tell he wanted to, judging by the repeated glances he was sending out the windshield. My grin sharpened into a smirk. Stupid fool. He knew I was going to kill him, but fear of death still held him in place.

Well, time was a-wastin'. Checking backwards to make sure that Kalakaua was still lying inert on the floor, I tossed off my harness, indicating lazily with the gun that the pilot should do the same. "Time to get out. No sudden moves."

Swallowing comically, he did as I asked, climbing down from his seat onto the grass. With my eyes trained on him, I backed out and did the same, climbing down carefully. I intended to walk around the front of the helicopter, herd the trembling ninny into the woods, and empty a round into his skull. Nice and neat. A shallow grave that I could manage in a short amount of time, just enough to keep him out of sight until the boars dug him up and made a meal of him.

Metal clicked on metal behind me. I froze.

"Harwinton."

Five-0.

How—?

The voice was ragged and rough, edged through and through with weariness and perhaps pain. Desperation seized me. If the cop was in bad shape, maybe I'd have a chance.

Whirling, I kept the gun raised defensively, ready to get my money's worth out of the bullets in it. I'd shot a policeman twice already that day in the hopes of escaping the island; apparently, the third time really was the char—

Impact on my forearms halted my revolution, and both wrists cried out in agony as the gun was ripped away with a harsh twist. I grunted when something hard and unforgiving collided with my cheekbone, dropping gracelessly back onto the grass.

The world was spinning. Strange lights swam over my vision. Moaning, I curled forward, cradling my aching face. At the sound of approaching footsteps, I brought my head up, my swirling eyes following the boots, jeans, and bloody vest up to the face of my assailant.

Chin Ho Kelly looked down at me with stone cold fury in his eyes.

I gaped as the decidedly not murdered officer leaned down towards me. My hands flew up in surrender of their own accord, open and pleading for mercy from the vengeful specter advancing upon me. Kelly stopped and shifted the shotgun in his hands, drawing it back to hover beside the black mask of his face. I cowered away without thinking, struck dumb by the blazing danger of his gaze and the shock of seeing him back from the dead.

"Don't ever touch my cousin again."

Then the handle of the shotgun flashed down, and the lights went out with a painful burst of pressure on my temple.


All rightie. It's pretty rough yet, but I only have so much time.

What do you think? Thanks a bunch, see you soon(ish)!

Aloha -

Knyle B.