CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Title: "Salvation: Forever and Always: Our Love, Our Legacy"
Author: Michelle Heath
Rating: MA for adult situations and language
Summary: Story #8 in the Salvation series. The Five-0 family face challenges that make them all re-evaluate their lives.
Disclaimer: I so do not own Hawaii Five-0; unfortunately! All original characters are the property of the author!
Date Written: September 24, 2011
(Sam and Danny walk out of the interview room leaving a distraught, broken man sitting forlornly at the table. Tony and Chin are already working on obtaining the current status of Alexei Kasavich and running down a name to go with the photo of the young woman on Adm. Harte's phone. Danny wants to follow up on Sims' beach house and Sam heads into the conference room and shuts the door behind her so she can have a private conversation with her husband. Mike Thrasher and Allen Henderson walk into the interview room where Bill Harte sits in total dejection. He glances up with a resigned look in his eyes as the two other men take seats in the chairs across the table from him. All three men are uncomfortable; sadness, disappointment, and, yes, even anger are visible on the faces of both Adm. Thrasher and Adm. Henderson, and Bill Harte realizes that his misguided efforts to protect someone close to him have cost him more than he ever thought imaginable.)
"Why, Bill? Why didn't you report your suspicions about Sims to your superiors?"
"Ted Sims' father and I go way back. His father was also Navy and he was killed in action when Ted was nine and I became a sort of surrogate father to him. He dated my oldest daughter when they were in high school and I had hoped that they would be married one day, but Ellen had apparently had enough of Navy life and ended up marrying an architect. Ted was destroyed when she broke off their relationship their senior year of college, so I decided to 'help' his career along. That's why I appointed him as my personal aide, and, for six years, he did an outstanding job. When I began to suspect that he was involved in something, I . . . I didn't want to believe it; I couldn't believe it, so, instead of reporting my suspicions, I checked into things myself. When I didn't find any significant or specific evidence against Ted, I told myself I was just being paranoid; as I told Det. Williams and Cmdr. McGarrett, in my line of work, I sometimes catch myself being overly suspicious of people. When the threat about an attack on Honolulu came to my attention and Ted suggested recalling Lt. Cmdr. McGarrett because of his intimate knowledge of the Kasavich brothers, well, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time."
"And now?"
"And now I know that Ted was using me to further Alexei's and Dimitri's agenda. . . I'm so sorry, Mike. If I had not been so trusting, your son-in-law, and the men with him, would not now find themselves in such a dangerous position."
"I've known you, respected you for many years, Bill. When I heard you had been named as the Navy's liaison to Homeland Security, I couldn't think of anyone else better suited for the job."
(Mike stands up, leans toward Harte, and plants both his hands on top of the table.)
"But let me tell you something, and hear me; loud and clear. If my son-in-law has so much as a scratch, if any of the men on his team are hurt on this op, you will wish you had never met Ted Sims. Your resignation from Homeland Security and from the U.S. Navy will be just the beginning, because I will find a way to make your life a living Hell up to the second you draw your last breath!"
(Mike, visibly shaking with suppressed anger, strides out of the room and leaves Harte and Adm. Henderson sitting in silence. Finally, Allen Henderson slowly stands up and walks to the door. Just before stepping through it, he stops and, still facing away from Harte, adds his own promise.)
"I'll have Lt. Montgomery bring you a secure, non-networked laptop shortly. When you're ready for your resignation to be emailed to the Pentagon, I'll see that it's sent after I've reviewed the document. . . . I agree with Mike. You'd better pray that those SEALs get back here in one piece, because, if they don't, I, too, will never allow you to know a moment's rest."
(Mike has joined Danny, Chin, and Tony in one of the smaller conference rooms they are using and finds Chin working diligently at one of the computers. Facial recognition software is rapidly scanning multiple databases searching for a name to go with the photo of the woman on Harte's phone. Adm. Henderson enters the room and asks Tony to take a laptop to Harte before walking over to stand next to Mike who is staring out the window with his arms crossed in front of him and looking extremely disturbed.)
"What do you want to do, Mike?"
"There's nothing we can do, Allen, except finish the mission. We need to find Sims and question him; he may have information about Alexei Kasavich that would help our SEALs, but, one way or the other, we have to finish this mission. There's still a biological weapon out there that Kasavich cannot be allowed to get his hands on, and Kasavich needs to either be taken into custody or eliminated, and my son-in-law is just the man to get it done."
(Chin's computer screen stops scanning and a soft beeping lets the other occupants of the room know that the program has found a match. A few moments later, Chin stands up and shares the results with everyone else.)
"We've got a positive match. The woman in the pictures Adm. Harte took in Istanbul is Elena Sarkov; she is the girlfriend of Alexei Kasavich."
(There is no doubt, now, that Ted Sims is working with the Kasavich brothers and apparently has been for some time. It is imperative that they locate Ted Sims and do it quickly; Steve's life and lives of his men may depend on their finding the traitor.)