A/N: Hey Everyone, I'm so sorry to be late with this update. Truth be told, a friend of mine passed away on Monday and I have been busy getting ready for the funeral tomorrow (well today - it's after midnight where I am). I sing for funerals and weddings, and because she was a friend of mine the family asked and I am more than happy to do it. So for this reason alone I've been distracted.

Chapter 29: Behind The Walls

"What was that all about?" Steve asked as Vladimir left the office of the exhausted detective and Steve walked in to check on his friend.

"A pep-talk, or something like it, to get my head back in this." Danny answered. "I'm not sure if that is what he meant by it, but that's how I took it."

"Good, I was worried you were checking out on me."

"I was, I was going to give up. My brain, my body, my heart, all of it was checking out of this whole thing and then someone told me what I needed to hear. I'm good now, or as good as things can get in the situation. When this is over I'm going to have a long talk with my psychiatrist. She will likely admit me to some hospital, or other, because I'm insane and hearing voices, but for now I'm ready to work."

"I think we're all going to need some kind of therapy when this is over." Steve said with a laugh that fell flat. "If we don't all suffer from some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, I would start to worry that something was really wrong with all of us, but I am glad to hear you are ready because I think I have a plan and all my soldiers are in place." He said and Danny stood.

"What's the plan?" Danny asked prepared to follow his partners lead.

"I'll explain everything on the way. Let's go."

5-0

Darkness had completely fallen as Steve and Danny, in the Camaro, and the rest of their team headed up the north shore. As promised Steve explained the steps he'd taken to secure the construction compound, without a drone strike, but with military assistance. Danny wasn't sure the SEALs would be enough but at least they were something. On top of that, Steve explained his mothers progress with Gladys and their run in, and although Danny was sure that Gladys knew something was up, he was also sure that the super spy would be able to get ahead of the super villain.

"And so what are we doing, going for a drive up the north shore to clear our minds?" Danny asked when Steve had proudly finished his tale.

"We are going to take the Waiholi complex and we're going to see if Gladys reacts in the way we think she will." Steve said.

"And how do you think she'll react?" Danny asked - for arguments sake.

"She'll kill the brothers and retreat into the jungle, and my mother will follow her." Steve answered.

"That's your plan?" Danny asked in shock.

"That's my plan." Steve smiled and added a decisive nod to the end of it just to see what Danny would do.

Truth be told, Steve wanted an argument, he wanted to know where Danny's head was at, and if Danny Williams protested, acted shocked and appalled, and completely disagreed with the plan, he knew that Danny's head was still exactly where he needed it to be.

"Are you drunk?" Danny practically yelled.

"No, Daniel, I'm stone cold sober!" Steve stated and knew Danny was with him.

"You don't think she'll see this coming from a mile away? You don't think the Waiholi complex is a trap or wired to the gills, or that the Waiholis are already all dead and the brothers are totally on Gladys's side?"

"The Waiholis are a huge family, all living and working together on this complex. It's a huge piece of property. If something had happened to them we'd already know about it because I've already sent men on ahead to get the lay of the land. The bomb squad is with us and the reporters from the major news stations are taking up the rear. We are going to smoke her out with this." Steve countered. "This is going to work, trust me, Danno."

"Or, this is all a huge trap and you're putting all these extra lives in danger."

"Or it is a trap," Steve agreed, "but we have to do something about the situation. We have to try. We can't just sit on our hands and wait. And by morning, I need us to have the upper hand. We need us to have the upper hand. This has gone on long enough."

"So you're going to just sacrifice the Waiholi brothers?"

"If that is what it will come to, yes. Maybe they are more connected and trusted than we think. Maybe she really does trust them, in which case, I believe they will retreat into the jungle together and will continue to protect her to the very end. Maybe the rest of the Waiholi family is in danger, because of what Kawika has told us about their relationship with the twins. If we can save one life, Danny, just one, then I'll feel better about the situation. Either way, the twins will likely die in this whole sorry affair just like the rest of the men that have been press-ganged into helping Gladys. Sometimes we just have to deal with casualties to get to what we need."

"Spoken like a true soldier." Danny huffed.

"You know I'm right, and you are the one who wanted a drone strike."

"I also didn't want it to go this far, and what about the men we know are working with her, and the Waiholi brothers, at the hotel? Have you thought of them and what might happen to their families if we do this and we spook that woman?" Danny asked.

"I have, and I hope that this will be enough for her to run and leave them be. There are enough HPD under-covers at, and around, the hotel to take them out one by one once we know Gladys has moved on. Then we can find their families."

"They're likely already dead." Danny said.

"Yeah, I know." Steve agreed, "so what do we have to lose in doing this?"

"Our lives!" Danny spat.

"We've been risking that since day one," Steve countered.

"Where is my vest?" Danny huffed and turned in his seat.

"Don't worry, we have them in the trunk."

"And we're going to need them!" Danny stated once more and slumped into silence.

5-0

The Five-O convoy met up at the HPD barricade to the Waiholi compound. They were a safe distance from the land, the neighbouring farms had been evacuated and the preliminary search had been completed by SWAT.

"And you found nothing?" Steve asked as he was briefed on the situation.

"Not a soul to be found." The commander answered. "It was like a ghost town. Not a body, not a child, not a single breath of life anywhere. The Waiholis are known to have their own cattle and poultry, but we've found none of that either. They have dogs, cats, horses, it's a very large ranch, and family compound, but there is nothing."

"That is very strange." Danny said.

"And the mine, did you get into it?" Steve asked.

"They have a mine, like an underground, mineral, mine?" Danny asked in shock.

"Yes, it's part of the property, one of the only ones on the island." Steve answered.

"It is boarded up tight." The commander answered. "A cinderblock wall and we think it's rigged."

"Then that is where they are, and it's likely rigged with explosives. Like you said. That's where we will find the family" Danny stated and threw up his arms. "If they haven't all suffocated down there without ventilation, then all we are going to find are bodies."

"Calm down, we've got this. Don't think that deeply into it. Have a scrap of hope, will you?" Steve stated and then turned to his crew. "We need to open that mine to see what is going on. We'll take the bomb squad in, and we'll take every precaution. The last thing we need is to blow up the place. Media will stay back until we've deemed it safe. Pair up. Danny's with me. Lori and Kono, you two will cover us. Lou and Chin will lead in the SWAT team. Catherine and Toast are monitoring progress from back in the office via satellites and our own coms. Charlie is bringing in our friends with Fire and Rescue, and EMS, as well as his forensic team. Come on, it's time to put on a show." He added and before Danny could protest, Steve moved to cross the barricade.

The walk into the compound was long and slow, as people watched the jungle with night vision. The process became even slower as they reached the open gates of the compound.

"They were open when we got here." The SWAT commander explained and the bomb squad robot lead the way, followed by Steve and Danny, and the girls, and then by the bomb squad officers in full bomb gear. Behind them, Chin and Lou, and SWAT would clear the houses once more, to make doubly sure that there were no hostages or bodies, before the whole army of men and women would move on toward the open fields and pastures, past the barns that were also double checked and found empty. Finally they headed down a long winding road that lead deeper into the family owned property - to the open faced mine and then down, even further, into the quarry where they would find the underground section of the Waiholi mining operation.

The bomb robot moved to the entrance of the mine first. In front of the entrance was a wall of stacked cinder blocks. No mortar held the blocks together but the blocks themselves were hollow with plenty of spaces for explosives, wires, and triggers, and just as Danny had anticipated, the whole of the wall was rigged.

It took a very long time, with the help of the robot, to disarm and disassemble the wall, but the bomb squad was left to it as men and women of the team retreated to what they hoped would be a safe distance. The Five-Os held their breaths as they watched, from the upper lip of the quarry, for the wall to come down and once it was finally apart, the next obstacle stood between them and the entrance to the mine.

Behind the wall of cinder blocks, was another wall boarding up the actual entrance and covered in wires and triggers, which connected to the plastic explosives that had been sandwiched between the cinder block wall and the two by four boards. Again the bomb squad was set to work, calling in more disposal vehicles to take away the overwhelming amount of explosives they'd found so far, and again, all the Five-Os could do was watch.

"Well that is going to take some looking into." Danny huffed when he heard the call come from down below.

"Already on it, Detective." Toast announced in his ear.

"Really, how did these people get that much explosive materials?" Kono asked.

"That is a very good question," Steve stated and fell silent again.

"Are they trying to take out the whole island?" Lori asked almost sarcastically.

"A crater within a crater, that's what this was supposed to be." Danny stated as he watched helplessly as the bomb squad worked away. "And it was supposed to take all of us with it."

"It's not over yet, but this is what we expected," Steve said bring his people back from their disbelief.

"Not this, we didn't expect this. This is over kill. This would wipe out the whole compound, not just the mine." Lori added.

"It was meant to bury us all alive, if we survived the blast itself." Danny stated. "That's what Gladys wanted. She wanted to pull this all back to where we started, with her brother and me in a box."

"We'll we came expecting that." Steve said. "And we're working through it. For now we're safe and all together."

"And there hasn't been any explosions, so also a good thing." Lori added.

Slowly but surely the second wall came down, but before the Five-Os could move in the bomb robot was sent into the mine to do a preliminary sweep. It picked up two more trip lines and a locked gate before it came to a branch in the mine and a pair of wooden barricades.

Removing the next set of obstacles went quicker. The deeper into the mine the robot went, the less dangerous the explosives would have been. Their real purpose was to cause the mine to cave in. It would trap whomever was down there, down there for good, and so once the last of the charges were disassembled the Five-Os were called down into the mine and the two doors before them were prepared to be opened.

The air in the mine was thick and heavy the farther down they went and this put Danny even more out of sorts. Small spaced, lack of air, and the threat of being buried alive again were all too real for the claustrophobic Detective, but he moved forward because he believed they were just about to find many more people for whom their own panic was also very real.

They reached the doors and once again the bomb squad freed the two by fours that bared the way, first one side and then the other, and to everyones shock the passages on the other side were only held shut by a pair of padlocks. Bolt cutters snapped the first lock off of the door and it swung open, and the smell that hit them was horrific, then the danger was all too real all over again. Fearful animals started to appear in the darkness and pushed all the officers out of the path of the oncoming stampede, as they rushed out of a space that cattle were never supposed to find themselves in.

"How the hell did they manage that?" Danny yelled and pressed himself against the wall of the passage to avoid being trampled.

"You tell me, cow boy!" Steve yelled back.

"Didn't expect that, did you?" Danny yelled back.

Progress stopped as the animals were freed, and corralled, and then finally the second door was opened. Whispers and whimpers could be heard in the darkness as the officers moved the lights they carried into the next passage and there they found exactly what Danny had feared. Men, women and children, all crammed into a section of the mine no bigger than a hotel suite and with nothing at all to sustain them. Some still lived, but the smell that accompanied the opening of the door, proved that many had not.