Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii 5-0. I loved last Monday night….sure wish I could write a script like that.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 12
"Easy Danny," Chin said placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. He sounded a lot calmer than he felt but knew that shooting Downing would only lead to greater trouble. "I'm sure that Mr. Downing can see that not cooperating is not in his best interests."
Danny drew back a bit but did not let go of Downing's shirt. He took great satisfaction in seeing a look of worry in the man's eyes rather than the smugness that had been present earlier.
"Well he's wasting my time. I need to call the Governor and get the wheels in motion to make sure that Downing gets his just punishment," Danny stated, his gaze boring into Downing's before releasing his grip on the man.
"Okay…..okay, I don't know what I can tell you but I'll try to help," Downing caved in. "I can't give you Mr. X's real name, I never wanted to know."
"What can you tell us about him? You're a smart man, fill us in," Chin said firmly. "How did he contact you?"
"He's a Latino and so were the two men with him. I would guess he was from South America; I just didn't get a Spanish vibe from him. He reached me first on the internet and when I felt it was safe I provided him with a disposable cell phone number," Downing responded.
Chin and Joe exchanged meaningful glances as Danny pulled a photo from his pocket. They could see what Danny was going to ask next. The blonde detective stuck the photo in front of Downing.
"Is this Mr. X?" he demanded.
"Yes….that is him," Downing confirmed with a swallow. He was tempted to ask the man's identity but figured that in this case ignorance was truly bliss.
Danny looked at Chin and Joe, seeing that they were thinking the same thing he was. They had believed it was Santos Arantes who had Steve from the beginning but now it was confirmed.
"I really do need to speak to the Governor," Danny sighed. "We need to mobilize on this right now and see if he can give us an assist in making Arantes believe we've sprung his cousins. Chin, put this character somewhere secure, we may have more questions for him later."
"Sure thing Danny," Chin answered as Danny headed out the door with Joe right on his heels.
As Danny reached their offices, he saw he did not need to make that call to the Governor after all. The big man was waiting in Steve's office while two of his men were hanging around just outside the room. Kono was heading towards the exit and relief flooded over her face as she saw the new arrivals approaching her.
"Danny….Governor Denning just arrived, I was just coming to find you," she said quickly. "He knows we have Downing."
"Thanks Kono," Danny said and entered the room without a spare glance for the two men guarding the door. Joe and Kono followed him inside. "Hello Governor, I was just going to call you sir."
"I understand you have a high profile suspect in custody, Detective Williams. I would have thought that a call to me would have come before questioning the man," Denning stated seriously.
"I see your point sir but time is getting short to find Steve. I felt any information that Nicolas Downing could provide on his client needed to be discovered as fast as possible," Danny explained, not getting upset. "Downing has confirmed it was Santos Arantes who paid him to kidnap Steve. He claims he has no idea where Arantes has taken him."
"Do you believe him?"
"Yes. I believe that Downing makes very little effort to know who hires him as long as the money is good."
"So we are now no closer to finding Commander McGarrett?" Denning inquired.
"Not because of Downing, no sir. But the good news is he's very popular with several countries who would like to put him on trial. And we can link him to the plot to kidnap Michael Tremain so we can get this guy locked away and look good doing it," Danny said hoping to appease the Governor.
Denning nodded as he processed the information. He often disliked McGarrett's methods but he was concerned for the man's safety. And he had to admit that Downing's arrest would look good on his own political record.
"So what do we do now?" he asked pointedly. "And who is this Santos Arantes?"
"Santos Arantes is a Colombian drug lord who last year supplied his cousins, Bernardo and Javier Alverez with cocaine when they set up shop on Oahu last year. Their first move was to hire a hit man to kill Steve in hopes of shutting down 5-0. They almost succeeded but we arrested them and they are currently our guests in Halawa," Danny informed him. "Now Arantes has Steve, hoping to force us to release his cousins."
With a shake of his head, Denning reacted to that last statement first.
"We do not bargain with drug dealers," he stated firmly. This whole situation bothered him and he refused to be manipulated by a drug kingpin, even for McGarrett's life. He vaguely remembered the incident making the news last year but Governor Jamison had not consulted him about the circumstances. He was familiar with how many of these drug cartels dealt with those who stood in their way. There was very little hope that Commander McGarrett would be found alive.
"I am not asking you to bargain with Arantes. We are exploring other ways to find him and rescue Steve but I'm thinking that if we make it look like we'll release the Alverez boys we can buy McGarrett some time," Danny told him, not caring that he was very close to pleading with the Governor. He had to try anything he could to increase the odds in getting to Steve while he was still alive. Danny refused to believe that it might all ready be too late for his partner.
"Do we have any leads where this Santos Arantes might be staying on the island? Any clue?" the Governor asked, not sure he wanted to be involved in any scheme to fake the release of prisoners held in Halawa. This could blow up in his face and ruin any chance of being re-elected once he finished filling Jamison's term. He was beginning to suspect it wasn't just McGarrett who didn't follow protocol but rather the whole team. It did not make him happy that Lori Weston was tied up with ICE on the Big Island and could not be his eyes and ears on this job.
"We have every reason to believe that Arantes is somewhere up on the North Shore, in a secluded area," Kono spoke up. "I have been going through recent rental leases in that area and have several listings that could fit the bill. I also ran a check on recent property sales." She smiled apologetically at Danny and held out a few sheets of paper. "There is one that looks very much like what Arantes would want. I just found these and was not able to tell Danny any of this yet," she told the Governor.
"Good work Kono," Danny said with heartfelt praise. He looked over the sheets that Kono had handed him. He read the information on the listing that Kono had highlighted that was in the Kawela area. The fact that the Governor was looking at him expectantly faded into the background as he focused on this new lead. "This is in the middle of nowhere, isn't it?"
"It's in the Ko'olau foothills, in a pretty rough area with few neighbors," Kono replied.
Chin had entered the office and went to look over Danny's shoulder at the printout.
"That's some dense jungle area. We won't be able to see anything from the air and it's going to be dark in a few hours," he observed.
"We need to move now," Joe chimed in.
Denning could see the team had forgotten about him as they began to plan their attack on this place. He could not fault them for the fact that they were immersed in their plans to rescue McGarrett. It was time to let them do what they were best at.
"I will leave you to your work people. Good luck and let me know when you have Arantes in custody. I hope this means we do not need to concoct a fake prison escape to recover Commander McGarrett," he announced.
"Yes sir," Danny said quickly. He did not have time to play nice with the Governor when they had a lead on Steve. He turned back to his team. "Okay, I need to see a map; we have to figure out the best way into this place."
*H 5-0*
In the seclusion of the property that Arantes had set up on the north part of the island, the drug dealer and his two enforcers headed out to the concrete block building. Before he made a second call to 5-0 to see if they would release his cousins, he planned to exact some revenge on McGarrett for their incarceration.
Arantes sent one man into the small space first, figuring the ex-SEAL had had plenty of time to plot an attack. The sound of grunts from his bald soldier confirmed that assumption and he quickly sent the other man in to help subdue McGarrett before he followed him in. It was his plan to make the 5-0 leader pay for trying to escape and he would enjoy making the man suffer greatly before he died.
End chapter.
Things are moving along. We have the team closing in and we have Arantes turning nastier. Whump is coming up. Please share your thoughts. Thanks for reading.
