You've all waited so patiently. This is a hefty chapter.
Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!
Fact #36: Some view dragons as nothing more than animals.
Season: Midway through Season 3
Part II
The salty spray coming off the waves speckled her weathered face while she supervised the goings on at the stern of the ship. Sunlight rained down, glittering and shimmering on the wet deck, catching fish scales in its beams and causing them to sparkle brightly as they were pressure washed overboard. Her eyes crinkled up at the churning water in the wake of their unfortunately slow pace through the ocean. One could not go at full speed when awaiting arrivals.
One of the men sloshed one last bucket into the water, sending the sharks into a frenzy again. "That's the last of it, Ma'am. The White Tips certainly enjoyed it."
She nodded slowly. "It's a pity that we couldn't save more of him."
"You know what they say," the man said as he shrugged out of his rubber coveralls and left them for the other man to hose off. "Can't use the meat after it's been dead for more than two hours. At least we got the hide, scales, and bones."
She reached behind her head and tightened her ponytail, smoothing her graying hair as she did. "I would have preferred we had known sooner that he was dead, at least we could have harvested the heart and liver if not the meat."
The man was a skinny bloke with a farmer's tan and with long black hair tied back. He motioned for them to get out of the sun into the expensively decorated cabin. They made their way up a set of stairs and through a door into the air-conditioned stern most cabin, that of which happened to have a better view than the bow most cabin. He scrubbed his hands clean in the sink and grabbed a bottle of beer out of the refrigerator from where it was tucked in with various bottles of champagne.
"Can I get you anything, Ma'am?"
"No," she shook her head and sat on one of the fancy couches that had a grand view of a bank of windows that overlooked the wrinkled cerulean blanket that was the Pacific Ocean.
"When is Krimshaw due back from the other ship?" the man leaned against the cedar wood countertop in the kitchenette. He drained half the contents of the bottle in one swig.
"This evening. There was an overdosing incident on the Ostara's Charm that required his attention," she said. "In the meantime, we have a couple coming out in an hour to look at our stock and see if any of them catches their eye."
"And the Farthings?" the man asked.
The woman grinned slightly. "Thankfully, they're not coming until tomorrow evening."
"Good," he finished the bottle off and tossed it into the trashcan hooked to the cabinet door under the sink. "Wouldn't want to have a clash of the rich snobs."
"Jeffrey, bridle your tongue," the woman tsked, but her mouth quirked upwards at the corners.
"Well, I can tell you one thing," Jeffrey crossed his arms and raised a brow with a grin. "I know for a fact one of the ones they're going to pick."
"Is that so?" she steepled her fingers and motioned for him to continue.
His head bobbed in the affirmative. "They're going to pick that Cliff. Him and probably that black scaled Wyvern or that Arboreal crossbreed we've got down there."
The woman silently admitted that he was probably right. Her new Cliff was going to be very popular.
Danny tapped his claws against the metal floor in an offbeat rhythm. They were on a ship. Or a boat. He just knew it certainly wasn't a dinghy. It must have either been a large vessel or they were going slowly, because the motion of rolling over the waves was almost imperceptible. Let it be the latter option, please, at least his team would have an easier time locating him if they hadn't gotten far out to sea.
"Sweetheart?"
He glanced upwards, mindful of the tug from the nasal tube in his left nostril. Tamarin's talking had dropped off for a while after he had quit answering her while he let the stunned realization of being on a ship sink in. Sighing deeply, he brought his claws up to his face and felt the metal band around his snout again. He needed to be able to speak.
"If you're tired, I'll let you sleep."
He tapped once. The persistent beckoning of the drugged sleep had worn off who knew how long ago and it was only plain old exhaustion beckoning him to rest now. Even if he had been unable to battle the drugged sleep, he was well versed in staving off exhaustion in favor of getting work done. And he had one giant mess he needed to work to get out of.
"Okay. Are you getting restless, sweetheart?"
He jerked his leg, making the thick chain rattle as a reply to her.
"Oh. They've got you chained, too. You must be a fierce thing, you know that? Last time someone was chained it was–"
Who? Who was it? The way her voice faded gave his anxiety a chance to start creeping back up from where he had been trying to keep it caged. Its slender tendrils fingered his heart and his stomach twisted up into a pretzel.
"Sorry, it was a big brute that resisted the drugs better than I think they thought he would. If I'm recalling correctly, he had been using steroids and they hadn't anticipated that. Kind of funny, when you think about it. A bad habit almost got him out of here."
Almost. That was the word he latched onto. It almost got him out of here. There could be no almost for him. He had a daughter to get back to. Grace, with her sweet smiling face and silky pigtails. Grace, who he couldn't let Step Stan raise. He had a team to get back to, too. Despite his grouching, he took pride in his job and didn't want an early retirement.
His eyes narrowed into defiant slits. He was going to get out of here. No more waiting on the team. He had faith that they would be there to back him up when the time came. He had to have faith. But now he was taking his rescue into his own hands.
Kono finally threw her hands up in the air and faced her boss fully. She was this close to decking him to get him off her back. If they hadn't been in the situation they were in, she would have. The only thing saving his face at this point was the fact that she knew why he was behaving this way. The way he was looming so closely and watching her every move as she scanned through not only the manifests and marina records, but also old cases, was the straw that finally broke her back.
"Steve! Back up!" she made a shooing motion. "I can't work with you hovering and hounding me."
"Kono–"
"Oahu is a major port. There're so many ships and boats coming and going, commercial and private and military, that I have no freaking clue where to even start! We don't even know when or if he's left the island, or even–"
"Easy, cuz," Chin walked in briskly, sliding his phone back into his pocket. "They confirmed that the boat Caroline described left at four o'clock this morning, heading due south. It was a small fishing vessel and the dock master said it just looked like a couple of buddies getting an early start to their day."
Steve turned his intense look towards Chin. "Did you get a description?"
"One white guy with long black hair and one oriental guy with a big tattoo of a shark on one leg," Chin said. "It's not much."
"No, it's not," Steve exhaled harshly through his nose. He let off a cloud of steam with the exhale and glared at it as it swirled away.
"Hey," Chin waited until he had his attention on him again. "We're going to find him. Danny's tough. He'll hold out until we can get there."
Steve didn't say anything, but nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. Chin pulled his phone back out as it rang, recognized the name, and set it on the smart table.
"Go ahead, Fong, you've got all of us," he said.
Steve unfolded his arms and braced his hands on the smart table as he listened. Kono leaned in, too.
"That vial you found at the suspect's house? You're never going to believe what was in it."
"What was it?" Steve questioned.
"Mostly it was stabilizers, but there were significant amounts of an unidentified toxin."
"Toxin?" Kono echoed, looking worriedly between the other two.
"Not a toxin per se, but actually a compound found in a toxin. I had a gut feeling and sent it over to Max. He just got back to me with a positive confirmation of what it's from."
Steve had no time for dramatic reveals or showmanship. "Fong, today would be nice."
"The compound is only found in the toxin that's produced by Black Dragon Eels."
The three of them shared horrified looks with each other.
"Black Dragon Eel toxin is what made you guys shift before, right? That's what Max had said," Kono looked at him.
"Steve," Chin's eyes locked onto his.
"Yeah, I know," Steve scrubbed his hands down his face as it contorted with a whole new layer of stress. "They know Danny's a dragon."
Danny had barely started to examine the shackle on his ankle when he heard the soft voices approaching from outside of the container. He struggled back into the position he had been in when he had first woken up, grunting when his leg and wing protested at having his weight lying on them again. Tamarin had clammed up as well and he was thankful that she didn't seem to plan on giving him away.
His eyes slammed closed as the bar on the big heavy door slid back and the hinges creaked. He saw bright light through his eyelids, but refused to acknowledge anything. As far as they were concerned, he was drugged up to his eyeballs and unconscious.
"This is our newest addition."
The gravelly voiced woman. The one that made him on edge with her warm voice that was belied by its cold and soulless undertones that probably only he could detect.
There was a delighted squeal and a much younger, giggly voice spoke. "You guys have a Cliff?"
"I must say, I wasn't sure what to expect, but you do have a wide variety, don't you?" That was a young man's voice. He sounded aloof and like the kind of man Danny would want to smack with a two by four.
"Only the best for our clients. Now, I take it that you want him?"
"Oh, most definitely. Look at those colors and those scales and those wings, he's gorgeous!"
"Honey, are you sure? Cliffs are fire breathers and look at those claws."
Honey, wouldn't a much smaller dog suit your tastes? Maybe something that can't tear up the mansion while we're taking a champagne bath in our solid gold tub? What the hell? Was he up for sale? The two young dopes were talking about him like he was a Labrador puppy in a pet shop.
"Baby, I know what I want, and I want him."
Well, as much as he hated the idea, if he was auctioned off he may have a chance to escape in transit. These two didn't sound the brightest, and how could they be if they were planning on buying a dragon? A living, breathing being that was in the same class as a human when it came to rights and laws? Trafficking was still trafficking, dumb schmucks.
"Alright, dear, I suppose he'll do."
"Fantastic. Do you want to look at some of the females, or are you–"
"Oh, no. No, no, no, and lose this body? No, thank you. We'll look at the females."
The heavy door swung shut and the bar locked in place again.
Danny sat up shakily, head spinning with the conversation that had just transpired. They wanted him. They wanted him like a person wanted a greyhound from a pedigree breeder. And they wanted a female. A woman. Yet another living, breathing being that deserved respect, not this.
He stayed half way sitting up for a good long while until he was certain he could no longer hear their voices or the clack of the young lady's heels.
"I'm sorry. I'm–"
The words were almost so quiet he missed them entirely. He tapped the side of the container in question. Tamarin's follow up sent chills down his spine.
"They liked you. I'm so, so sorry."
"Boss, I've got a lead."
Steve snapped his head up towards her, motioning for her to wait for a moment as he was on the phone. She nodded and bounced on the balls of her feet at the doorway while he finished up his dreaded conversation with Rachel.
"We're doing everything we can. Kono has a lead," Steve said with a great deal of effort put into keeping his voice controlled and even. "Tell Grace that we're going to bring Danno home. Okay. Bye."
"How're they doing?" Kono asked.
Steve sighed. "They're scared. Grace keeps asking where he is and Rachel is terrified that someone's going to come after them. What's your lead?"
Kono gestured for him to follow her. She tapped at the screen of the smart table and with a flick of her fingers sent the files up to the hanging screens for him to see. Bank statements, company files, and identity checks among other things popped up.
"Remember Jerome Caine?"
Steve snorted. "How can I forget? He tried to kill all of us with those malasadas."
"Did you ever think that maybe it was a bit odd that he used Black Dragon Eels to target us?" she asked, and the question genuinely surprised him.
"No, but now that you mention it, there are easier ways to kill people."
"Exactly what I was thinking," she came to stand by him and pointed at one of the files from that case. "And look at the dates of when he admitted to smuggling the eels in and when he was alerted that we were onto him."
He squinted and then frowned. "He already had the eels on the island when we burned that third alias."
"So, that made me think that he didn't pull all those strings to get them to kill us. He just used them because he had them on hand."
"He was going to sell them to someone. Who?"
"I went back through his bank statements and found one transaction that at the time didn't seem to be related to anything he was being convicted of, but when I started digging into that particular business it fell apart. It doesn't exist."
"It was a front."
"It was like one of those handkerchiefs that a clown pulls out of his sleeve. The more I tugged on it, the more fronts and nonexistent people appeared. And then I think I finally reached the end," she reached behind her and tossed one picture up onto the screens front and center. "Meet Jeffrey Mills."
White guy. Long black hair. Narrow face. Brown eyes. Mid-thirties. Scruffy looking. It was a face that Steve now seared into his memory. He matched the loose description of one of the men at the dock where Caroline had delivered his partner. There was a name to the face and Steve hoped that Jeffrey could feel the crosshairs locking onto him. There was no escape now that he was in his sights.
"What do you have on him?" he asked.
"Other than a money trail that leads from Caine to him, not much," Kono muttered. "He's lived on the island for the last decade, but there're no records of him in the HPD database or any other database. Just a driver's license and an employment record."
"Where does he work?"
Steve glanced at Chin as he entered the bullpen while Kono pulled up Jeffrey's work history. The man looked tired and wore a stormy expression on his face.
"That was the Coast Guard," he said.
"Did they find anything?" Steve asked, already knowing the answer from the tone of Chin's voice and his body language.
"No. No sign of the boat that they took out, either in the ocean or at any of the marinas or docks around this island or the others," Chin set his hands on his hips and exhaled, staring at the ground a second before looking back up. "Duke also called. They finished the sweep of Samuel's place."
"And?" Steve asked, but this time his abdomen clenched at the tone and body language.
"They found dragon parts in the basement," he said quietly.
His stomach roiled and a cold tingle traveled up and down his limbs, making his palms break into a sweat and raising the hairs on his arms and neck. He almost didn't want to ask as the very real and new possibility of his partner's whereabouts opened up.
He barely choked it out. "Danny?"
Some of the tension eased when Chin shook his head. "Older. They found a heart, bone powder, Wyvern talons, and a piece of Serpent hide."
The tension was quickly replaced by a building rage. His hands tightened into fists and his teeth gritted against each other. He needed to have another conversation with Samuel down in their interrogation room where no one could hear him scream.
He was turning on his heel when Kono spoke.
"Looks like Jeffrey works for a Marilyn Walker," she brought a picture of the woman up. She was older with a weathered face and dirty blonde hair that had almost completely grayed to a platinum color. "She's lived here on the island for most of her life and owns a mansion up on the North Shore."
"What does he do for her?" Chin asked.
"Seems like he's just a hired hand, doing odd jobs," she said.
Steve snorted. This wasn't helping. He wanted to get back into the interrogation room and put some of his training to use in making Samuel talk. Apparently, their earlier conversation hadn't scared him enough even though he had seemed thoroughly rattled at the time. He would fix that. This time the man would be petrified.
"Hey, get this," Kono once again stayed him. She swept a document up onto the screens. "Marilyn owns the Hathor's Joy."
He perked up at that. "The one Jeffrey and the other guy took from the dock this morning?"
"Nah, brah," she shook her head. "She doesn't own a boat."
Steve faced her. "What? You just said–"
"She doesn't own a boat. She owns a ship."
The cuff on his right hind ankle was some form of thick metal. Shifting was not an option, apparently, seeing as when he tried his headache worsened and he had the distinctive feeling that some type of drug or toxin was responsible for the forced shift and for him having to remain in dragon form.
With that out, he went through his other options. Had he been able to stoke, he could've melted down another piece of metal and maybe used the molten slag to weaken the cuff enough to break it. He might have been able to bite through the chain if he could get it between the heavy duty molars at the back of his mouth. As it was, not being able to open his mouth left him with limited options.
His heart pounded and he remained stock still at a shuffling sound, but relaxed slightly when he pinpointed it as Tamarin moving around next door.
Focus, Danny, focus. What would Super SEAL do? Use a grenade to blow off the chain. Forget the fact that his foot would be collateral damage. A small, manic laugh bubbled in his chest as his panic rose. No grenade. Use brains, not brawn.
He took a few slow and steady breaths before continuing. The cuff was too thick for him to worry about using his claws on as was the chain. He could pull a 127 Hours and cut off his own foot, but even though the situation was desperate it wasn't there yet. If the cuff, chain, and foot were not options, then what?
He leaned in closer and ignored the tug of the nose tube. What was the chain attached to?
Unlike the nose tube that ran through a little hole to the outside of his prison, the chain was anchored to the inside. Bolts held a half loop of metal to the wall and that was where the chain's last link was attached. Orange and brown discolored the silver metal. It was rusty.
Gripping the chain, he slid his claws along it until he had picked up the slack and then increased the tension on it by leaning his weight back. The anchor squeaked and came away from the wall just the smallest fraction of an inch, but it was enough to bolster his resolve. He continued to pull the chain by leaning more of his weight back. Come on, come on.
Danny huffed. A fraction of an inch was all he was going to get.
Clenching his teeth, he slid his claws along the length of the chain again and stopped when he reached the anchor. Wedging the tip of one claw under it and making tiny wiggle motions, his heart soared as the bolt started to give. Righty tighty, lefty loosely.
The bolt falling to the ground was almost deafening in his quiet confined space.
"Sweetheart? What're you doing?"
Escaping.
With a few more moments of finagling he freed the other bolt and pulled the chain loose of its anchor. His triumph beat back his panic and anxiety from earlier, forcing them to lie still and shut up for the time being.
Now free to move, his next obstacles were the band around his mouth and the actual escape from the container. And he had a decidedly McGarrett worthy idea of how to do that.
To be specific, Marilyn owned an older, smaller cargo ship that had been converted into what was essentially a massive yacht. From what the two frantic tech wizards could gather, it was a floating party mansion that catered to the rich and wealthy. To add to that, it was only accessible by those that had connections and Marilyn's approval. The Hathor's Joy, much to their annoyance, was not docked nor did anyone have any clue where it was.
Steve set his hands on the smart table and rolled the stress kinks out of his neck. "Okay, the dock master said that Jeffrey and his buddy left the dock at 0400 hours and headed due south."
"You're thinking that they were going out to meet her ship," Chin stated.
Steve slipped his phone from his pocket and dialed, putting it on speaker and laying it on the smart table's screen.
"Personal assistant to Steven McGarrett, how can I help you?"
The cousins chuckled at Catherine's opening line.
"Cath, we need your help," Steve's mouth twitched with a faint hint of a smirk at her voice, but the worries of finding his partner overrode his pleasure.
"Steve, what happened?"
"Danny was abducted."
"Oh my god, is Grace okay?"
He smiled at the concern. "Yeah, she's fine."
"How can I help?"
"We know that Danny was put on a boat early this morning and we think the boat was meeting up with a ship owned by Marilyn Walker," Kono said.
"But we can't get the ship's coordinates," Steve added.
"Do you have a general idea where it is? I can't just pull coordinates out of thin air."
"The dock master said the boat headed due south at 0400 hours this morning," Steve said.
"The ship we think it was going to meet with is called the Hathor's Joy, and is a converted cargo ship. Very high end and pleasure oriented," Chin said. "The last place it checked in at was Panama when it came over from the Caribbean a month ago."
"I'll see what I can do. Do you have a manifest for where its next stop is?"
"We can't turn up anything," Kono shook her head.
"Okay. I'll let you know if I find anything. And Steve?"
"Yeah?"
"Please be careful, and bring Danny home."
Tamarin was startled by the sudden thrashing that came from the container her newfound companion Danny was in. He had kept quiet after the couple had visited, but now it sounded like Godzilla was beating the metal walls and her heart pounded a staccato rhythm against her ribs.
"Sweetheart? Danny, what're you doing? What's wrong?"
Forgetting her own pains, she sat up and pressed her head against the wall. Amongst all of the clanging and banging and the strange echoes they produced, she heard the familiar tapping of his claws on the wall against her container.
A fearful yet hopeful smile caught on her face and tears welled in her eyes as the puzzle pieces came together. At least, she hoped that it wasn't her desperate mind clutching at straws.
"You are fierce, sweetheart. Incredibly fierce."
He was preoccupied with strapping on his vest and it took Chin's disgruntled hum for him to pick his head up and see Mauna standing there in the bullpen with her hands on her hips watching them gear up.
"What're you doing here?" he asked. He wasn't as harsh as he had been that morning, because now they had a plan and he'd had some time to let his unfounded anger at her cool off.
"You guys are going to need a doctor when you find him."
"You're not coming with us. You're a civilian," he grunted as he checked his gun and slid the magazine back in.
"Do I look like I care?" she asked.
"Does it look like I do?" he shot back.
"Listen," she hissed and then paused, taking a deep breath and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I want to help. He disappeared from under my care and that's eating me. Let me come."
Steve shared a look with the cousins at the unusually low and soft tone she was speaking in.
Mauna's eyes met his. "If you're worried about me being around a hail of gunfire, don't. I can handle myself. I've seen lots of scary things in lots of scary countries."
As he once again looked at the cousins he could tell they were thinking the same thing. The Black Dragon Eel toxin would have forced Danny to shift and they had no clue what kind of shape they would find him in. Having a doctor the four of them already knew and one that seemed versed in dragon care tagging along with them may not be such a bad idea.
"Please," Mauna added.
Steve finally relented. "You wear a vest and stay with one of us at all times, understood?"
Mauna saluted him with two fingers and went with Kono to get geared up.
His muscles throbbed and the headache angrily pounded in his head as he threw himself around his prison. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. Lying on his side, he was mimicking a seizure with violent thrashes and kicks and clangs, using the leading edge of his wing to hit the top of the container and thumping his tail down repeatedly. He had even bit his own tongue and resisted gagging at the metallic taste filling his mouth.
Through the cacophony of his own movements he barely heard steps thundering towards him. A slot slid back and a pair of eyes peered in at him.
"Damn it, he's seizing. Open the crate, open the crate!"
The heavy door swung open on its creaking hinges and through partially lidded eyes he counted two people and only two. One had a gun and the other had a black duffle bag, which he set down as he dropped to his knees to examine him. Show time.
Danny made a choking gasp and spit blood.
"Crap, we need to get this muzzle off and get at least his head upright so he doesn't aspirate," the kneeling man said. "Give me a hand with this."
The other man set his weapon aside and bent down on one knee. He wrapped his arms around Danny's neck and hefted his head off the ground, trying to hold him steady against the spasms. He felt the first man's fingers scrabbling at the muzzle on his snout as he tried fit a key into the lock.
Then the metal band clattered to the floor.
Danny slammed the man holding his neck into the side of the container. As he slumped into a heap he cuffed the other man's head into the other side of the container. He heaved himself to his feet and clambered over the bodies into the lit corridor, which actually looked more like a basement now that he was seeing it.
The lighting wasn't as bright as he had originally anticipated and blamed it on his unadjusted eyes. In the moderate lighting, he could make out five metal shipping containers on one side of the room and then five more on the other side. Most of them had a bag of whatever hanging to the side of the door with the tubes disappearing inside, presumably going into the nostrils of more dragons.
With a disgusted look, he snaked his own nose tube out and blinked as his eyes watered once it was free. He shoved the heavy door shut and slid the big locking bar into place. Black fuzzy spots edged his vision from the sudden burst of activity, but he pushed through them and made his way to the stairs on the far side of the room with the chain on his ankle rattling behind him.
"Never thought I'd be so happy to see sunlight," he muttered to himself, wincing at the stinging on his tongue from where he'd intentionally cut it on a lower canine.
The stairs, which were narrow and hard to navigate in his dragon form, were lined with an embellished wooden rail that was far too elegant for a basement. The stairs emptied out of the floor like a trapdoor into a fancily decorated room with floor to ceiling glass windows. Bright afternoon sunlight drizzled lazily through them and he could see a more functional metal deck railing on the other side of the windows and beyond that was the ocean.
Fortunately, he didn't see anyone else coming.
He hooked a claw on the hatch, pulling it shut as he backed down the steps. The jangling chain was making too much of a racket for whatever cockamamie scheme he was going to inevitably enact. It would give him away. With a grunt and a muttered curse, he positioned the chain between his molars as close to the shackle as he could get and bit down.
The links groaned deeply like the sound of sheets of ice moving before breaking loose. The chain sheared two links away from the shackle, now short enough not to clatter and hinder any stealthy movements he might need to perform. Swallowing the bits of metal still trapped in his mouth, he turned his attention to the next step of his escape plan.
"Tamarin?" he called. He cleared his throat and felt the last of the metal slide into his stoking chamber as he approached the container that was to the right of the one he had been in. "Tamarin?"
He slid the locking bar back and opened the door, squinting into the darkness.
"Danny?"
"Yeah, babe, it's me," he laughed softly.
His face went slack and his eyes widened as she limped out of the container towards him.
She was an Amphibian/Serpent crossbreed covered in steel gray-blue scales with handfuls of white and navy freckles across her nose and back. He could see the Serpent with her long body, delicate whiskers, and the horns with nubby tines coming off of them. Nearly translucent turquoise fins running from her forehead down her neck and then from behind her shoulders down to mid-tail along with her shorter, more rectangular face gave away the Amphibious part. She was gaunt and dull looking with sunken eyes ringed by dark circles. It wasn't even the fact that she was missing her left hind leg from the knee down that startled him.
No, he was startled by the fact that she was very obviously heavily pregnant.
According to Catherine, the Hathor's Joy wasn't as far out to sea as they had feared. They'd considered taking one of the Coast Guard's helicopters out, but bailed on that idea on the basis that they didn't want to be heard or spotted coming in case whoever was holding Danny decided to cut their losses and kill him. Instead, they'd taken the Coast Guard's fastest boat and one of their captains with a second fully manned boat speeding behind them.
"There it is," Steve pointed at a tiny speck on the horizon. "Chin, I want you guys to wait ten minutes before approaching."
"And our backup?" Chin asked with a nod over his shoulder at the second vessel.
"They know to hang back until you radio them. I don't want any more people than necessary to know about Danny."
"Careful out there, brah," Chin patted his shoulder and turned to his cousin. "Kono, be careful."
"Don't worry, cuz," she hugged him briefly and then followed their boss.
Steve stripped and didn't wait for her as he dove into the water off the stern of the boat, shifting smoothly as he disappeared beneath the waves. He tightened the straps of his waterproof bag around one foreleg to ensure their sat phones, spare clothes, and weapons didn't float away. He felt rather than saw when Kono plunged in seconds later and shifted as he had. He caught her eyes as the nictitating membrane slid across his to protect them from the saltwater. She gave him the thumbs up.
Surfacing for a breath of air, he filled his lungs and dove. The two sea monsters powered under the surface of the ocean and made a straight line for the ship they were gambling that their friend was on.
It was then that Danny fully grasped what this place was, who he had been kidnapped by. The tidbits he had heard earlier, the couple that had been shopping around, Tamarin, it all clicked into a gruesome picture. It was a nightmare inducing story that cops whispered about around the precinct and it made his stomach churn. But he couldn't think about that right now. Right now, all that mattered was that they needed to escape.
"Tamarin, are any of the others awake?" he asked. After spotting the other crates he had hoped he could possibly rouse a mutiny, but taking in her appearance made him think that anyone that had been here longer than him would be in the same shape, even if they weren't drugged.
She shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, sweetheart. They keep the men drugged and usually only pregnant women are left awake."
"Are the drugs in the nose tubes or are they administered some other way?" he asked. He went to the container to the right of Tamarin's and shoved the door open, revealing a subdued Drake that didn't even stir. He hesitantly shut the door on the container.
"Honey, I don't know. I've been here so long they've changed things," she whispered.
Danny pivoted to face her, really taking her in. The smooth and kind voice didn't seem like it should be coming from such a miserable looking being. And was he right? Was she as young as he was guessing despite the tired eyes and battered fins?
"Tamarin, how old are you?" he asked softly.
"Twenty-four, maybe," she replied, swaying slightly on her three legs.
He reached out to steady her and felt like a giant for once in his life. Her head probably only came up to his shoulder in dragon form and her thin limbs reminded him of a withered reed that could snap should the wind blow hard enough.
"Sit down for a second, okay? Just, take it easy and don't worry for the moment, huh?" he said, helping her sit on her haunches. "How long have you been here?"
She glanced down at her nimble front feet with their painfully short claws and counted silently. Her pale eyes bored into his when she looked up again. "Five years."
"Five years? Five years?"
It started as a low rumble in his chest and blossomed into a thoroughly intimidating growl. His wings trembled with a barely controlled fury as he stalked back over to the stairs. He snapped his teeth on the fancy wooden railing, pulling bits and pieces of it off and swallowing them down into his stoking chamber. If there was ever a time to be put his fire breathing capabilities to use, this was it.
Confused voices came from the room above his head and made him pause.
Should they barricade themselves in? It was a defensible position, but for how long would it remain that way? They could be trapped in the basement for hours or longer, depending on who got the upper hand. And he had no clue when his team was going to miraculously show up, he just knew that they would at some point. However, as long as that point remained undetermined, he needed another plan.
"How many guys are there?" he asked.
She grimaced and hissed through gritted teeth, "I don't know. I've counted six that regularly check on us down here and then the woman in charge, but there could be more."
Danny watched her carefully. The husband and father part of him realized what was going on half a second faster than the rest of his brain. "Are you in labor? Babe, you're having contractions, aren't you?"
She nodded subtly.
"Why is the only thing that I can ever count on Murphy's Law?" he flicked one set of claws out in imitation of his hand gestures. The voices above came closer. "Tamarin, hide in your container."
Her eyes widened and she looked alarmed.
Stupid, stupid! She'd been locked in a container for five years, of course she wouldn't want to go back into one. "Hey, hey, Tamarin, sweetie, I promise that it'll only be for a couple of minutes and then we're getting out of here, okay? Okay?"
Reluctantly, she groaned as she gathered her only hind foot under her and limped back into the container. The door creaked most of the way closed.
The fire building in his chest grew in intensity and the heat spiked every time he inhaled and delivered oxygen to the inferno. This was the kind of heat he preferred over the feverish, burning veins and uncontrolled vomiting reactions that he often dealt with. This was comforting. This was invigorating.
He was waiting for them under the stairs and hidden in the shadows. Two of them had guns, but they were slung over their shoulders in a rest position. Clearly, they weren't worried.
They should have been.
He pounced on one's back, using his front foot to keep him pinned while he pivoted on his feet and used his thick tail to clothesline the other one when he raised his gun. Broken ribs for sure on that one, definitely a concussion on the other one from his forehead connecting with the unforgiving floor.
"Okay, that's four of them," he muttered as he dragged the pair of them to the container he'd been locked in and dumped them unceremoniously on top of their compatriots.
Smoke drifted hazily from his nose. The tendrils left a slightly bitter aftertaste from the sealant that had been on the wooden railing and from the bits of chain, however, the pungent woody smell came out on top. He was prone to savor that taste, but he had more pressing things to worry about.
After scaling the stairs and checking to see if anyone was close by, he was surprised when he couldn't see anyone on deck. It was a ghost ship.
Steve slithered up the ladder onto the low part of the stern with Kono on his heels. His face crinkled at the scent of fish guts and blood as did hers. He had wondered why there had been so many White Tips hanging around the slow moving ship. They must have dumped their leftovers overboard, be that fish or something more disturbing.
The pair of them shifted back down into humans and hastily dressed. They strapped on their tactical vests, checked their guns, and clipped their sat phones to their belts.
Steve waved his hand forward and they fell into an easy rhythm of staying low and checking every nook and cranny as they moved towards the bow. It was a big ship, not as big as the cargo ships that ported in Oahu or that carried stacks of containers, but bigger than any yacht either of them had been on.
Kono neatly and quietly dropped one guy that appeared behind them. She zip tied him to the deck railing and relieved him of any weapons he was carrying.
"You know, for a ship like this, I thought there'd be more people on it," Kono murmured once they continued sweeping the area.
Steve agreed. "How many people did you find on the ship's roster?"
"Only twelve," she said. "Must be a skeleton crew."
"Fewer people make for fewer security breaches," he put his hand up and they halted.
Shouting came from around the edge of the stern most cabin. Steve glanced around the wall and instantly recognized the one doing the talking. Jeffrey Mills.
"I don't care what's happened, but get it contained. Now!" he waved two men off. "And none of the stock better be harmed, understand? If Miss Walker sees one scratch on that Cliff, she's going to have your heads."
Kono growled. "Son of a–"
Steve held his hand up to silence her. Though sharing the same sentiment, he motioned for her follow him as he gave Jeffrey a wide berth and continued on his forward march to the bow. They would worry about Jeffrey later. He wanted to deal with the men that were heading towards his partner.
Marilyn sighed heavily to herself. This situation was unfortunate. She hated for anything to go wrong when they had such a good stock on this ship. Four females that were an Amphibious/Serpent, an Arboreal/Drake, an Arboreal, and a Wyvern and then originally six males, now down to five since the death of their Amphibious/Drake. The first and foremost of the remaining males she was determined not to lose was the newly acquired Cliff. His rarity would allow for her to push for higher prices and draw in new clients that simply couldn't pass up the chance to own a Cliff crossbreed.
She checked her handgun and then headed below to the storage deck. Staying on the upper steps, she cautiously gazed through the hazy smoke and floating ashes that filled the area. Six men had gone down and not a single one had come back up. Obviously one of the dragons had gotten loose and judging by the smoke she decided it was the Cliff.
However, there was no sign of him and another container's door was left ajar.
"Damn."
He had absconded away with her pregnant Amphibious/Serpent female. The Farthings were expecting that baby tomorrow evening and if they didn't receive it, she would not be collecting the second half of the payment.
She cast one last glance around the quiet storage deck and concluded that the pair of them had gone out the secondary door that was used to move the containers in and out.
Knowing where they were heading, she set off to intercept them and radioed Jeffrey for assistance.
Chin and Mauna had slipped aboard not five minutes ago, leaving the Coast Guard captain in control of the boat and instructing him to follow at a close distance. Quite frankly, Chin was stunned by how quiet it was. The skeleton crew of twelve must not have had a noisy run in with Steve and Kono yet. Their approaching boat hadn't even raised any alarms.
Chin caught his cousin's eye as she emerged from the shadows and prowled up the five short, wide steps into the bow most cabin. She nodded imperceptibly and did a quick sweep of the smaller cabin before motioning for them to come in.
"We've taken down one guy so far, and we're following two others to where they're hopefully holding Danny," Kono explained. "We're keeping it low and slow. So far no one knows we're aboard."
"I can tell," Chin said. "Where'd the two guys go?"
Kono made a face. "We don't know. They walked towards this cabin ten minutes ago and then they disappeared. We saw Marilyn Walker walk out and then she disappeared, too."
"Weird," Chin commented.
"I know, it's super weird."
"You guys smell that?" Mauna asked suddenly.
The cousins sniffed the air and frowned.
"Smells like something's burning," Kono said.
"Smells like it's wood, though, not oil or gas," Chin said. A small grin appeared. He'd smelled that scent before around Danny. He was stoking.
Mauna agreed and stepped towards the windows, her foot thudding hollowly on a section of the flooring. She dropped into a crouch. Her fingers searched around the floor and flipped a hidden latch up. With a hard yank, a secret hatch opened.
"What do you want to bet there're secret passages like this all over the ship?" Chin said as he held his gun at the ready and descended the narrow stairs into the dark.
It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust, but when they did the gravity of what they had stumbled upon hit them like a ton of bricks.
Shipping containers, five on each side of the room, took up most of the space. The moderately dim lighting illuminated the struggle that had gone on. Part of the railing was missing and smoke hung in the air. A single container amongst them had its door thrown wide open. But the smell that was underlying the smoke was stale and depressing.
Chin slid back the bar on one container and pulled the door open. Words eluded him. There were no words. Absolutely no words. He sighed heavily and Kono echoed him. Mauna cursed unintelligibly on the other side of the room where she was pulling open more doors.
Chin and Kono whipped towards the narrow stairs when they creaked. They lowered their weapons and Steve did the same.
"Danny?" he asked quietly. His face was a darkened scowl and every muscle in his body was strung as tight as a piano string as he took in the room.
At Chin's unsure look, Steve set about pulling open the rest of the containers on the left side of the room. Chin covered him while Kono covered Mauna as she bent to examine one of the sedated dragons.
The second container from the end was the open one and it was empty. The two of them glanced each other, wondering the same thing. Maybe Danny had escaped. Steve slid the bar back on the last container and heaved the door open. He brought his weapon up.
"I think they're unconscious," Chin said. He eased his shotgun down.
With two sets of hands working they managed to zip tie all six men in nearly a minute. Only one of them was awake and mumbling weakly, but sounded dazed and of no threat. Three of the others had bleeding head wounds and facial bruising, but the last two reeked of smoke and bits of their clothing were charred.
"Danny?" Chin perked a brow.
Steve nodded. It was Danny's work for sure. He turned the flashlight on his gun on and used it to start exploring every inch of the container. Chin pulled out his flashlight and did the same. The container was twenty feet long and eight feet wide, probably eight and a half feet tall. It was a tight fit for anything that wasn't a Drake or a small dragon. It was dark and cool, and the wadded up blanket on the floor would've provided little comfort in the pathetic prison.
Chin's fingers curled into a fist and he glared at the floor for a second. A glinting caught his attention.
He stooped and picked up the circular metal band, holding it up in the beam of his light for Steve to see. "What do you make of this?"
Steve stalked over and took it out of his hand with a glower. He vented an irritated puff of steam. "I don't know."
"Hey, Boss, there's another door over here," Kono called.
Steve tossed the unidentified metal loop back on the floor and jogged over to meet the two women standing by a large opening that had been hidden on the other side of the last container on the right side of the room. It looked like a garage door and it was definitely big enough to allow for fully shifted dragons to be moved in and out.
He pulled the slide back on his gun and cocked it. "Let's go."
Danny paused to take a deep breath. The air was fresh and laced with a subtle salty scent. Sunlight warmed his scales and he could almost physically feel it pouring down on him like honey drizzling on his face and wings. Privately he made a promise he would never again complain about the amount of sunshine that Hawaii received. A bank of lumpy white clouds lined one part of the horizon, but even they looked friendly and warm.
There was a soft gasp from behind his head.
Evoking a bit of his partner, he had taken a 'leave no man behind' attitude. While he couldn't wake the other seven dragons in the basement, he refused to leave Tamarin behind. Without knowing exactly how many bad guys there were or what they would do should they find that he had escaped and released her, he made sure she stayed close.
On his back, in fact, where he could feel her contractions becoming longer and closer together. Right now, though, she sounded overwhelmed by the sunlight.
"I haven't been outside in so long."
His teeth clenched and his brows lowered as he shuffled along between the wall and the deck railing with his wings slightly out to keep the lightweight Tamarin in place. She had been the one to point out the second door. It had led into a corridor big enough to fit a shipping container through and it had eventually emptied out in the stern of the ship, coming to an end behind a false wall surrounded by fancy lounge chairs.
"What's the plan, sweetheart?"
"Ah, I didn't actually think I'd make it this far," Danny said sheepishly.
"Well, that's reassuring."
Going in the water had seemed like the only option to getting off the ship. They could float until his team found them or until the Coast Guard did. Except, the longer that plan sat in his mind, the more dangerous and stupid it sounded. There was no way of telling if his team had even found out he wasn't on the island anymore and who knew when the Coast Guard would find them. If he was by himself, there was a higher chance he'd risk it.
As it was, he didn't float very well in dragon form and there was no way he'd be able to keep the pregnant and in labor Tamarin floating if he was in human form. And what if the baby came while they were at the mercy of the open ocean? Nope, the diving into the water plan was shelved until push came to shove.
"Don't worry, we'll get off this floating freak show," he stopped again, this time listening for any signs of people over his own ragged breathing. His legs shook slightly and the headache thumped incessantly at the base of his skull.
"You're very fierce. So, what are you? Coming out of Hawaii, I'd say Danny the Navy boy?" Tamarin hissed through a contraction.
Danny clucked his still raw tongue. "Detective Danny. My partner is the Navy boy."
Tamarin froze for a moment. "You're a cop?"
"Second in command of the Five-0 Taskforce," he said.
"What's Five-0? Is that a special Hawaiian thing?"
He stopped. Was that talking? He strained to see if he could make out words or if it was just the water washing off the sides of the ship. He couldn't tell as he started his snail's pace walk again, rounding the edge of the stern most cabin.
"I was unaware that Hopkins had gotten his hands on a police officer."
The familiar gravelly voice rose the ridge of scales on the back of his neck. He stiffly turned to face the woman and the man with the rifle leveled at him.
"He really should be more careful," the woman tsked. "Now, what did you do with my men?"
Danny let Tamarin slide off his back. He stepped in front of her, angling one wing down so that she was hidden from the two others. They were on the lowest part of the ship where it smelled of fish and gore. The textured decking was slick with the spray that came from their wake and he instinctively dug his claws in to maintain traction.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. He may have to go with the diving into the water plan, after all. It was a fifteen or twenty foot plunge to the ocean off the deck they were on, but he was unsure if he could get Tamarin over the railing fast enough.
The woman shook her head. "Never mind. Stand down and come with me."
"You know, for once in my life I'm enjoying this famed Hawaiian sunlight, so I'm going to stay right here, okay?"
The man glanced at the woman, raising the rifle a little. "Ma'am?"
"Hey, you shoot me and then you lose your Cliff, and you don't want that, right?" he reminded them. If he had the rarity card then he might as well play it.
"I hate to damage a specimen such as yourself, but if you refuse to stand down and relinquish that female you're trying to protect, then we'll have to ground you," the woman said.
Danny snorted and then growled, "That female has a name, if you'd care to know. Dragons are not animals, we are not something that you can just steal and auction off! What kind of messed up in the head do you have to be to run an operation like this, huh?"
The woman's cold eyes held his. "A business forward head, and if it gets me called names then so be it. Jeffrey, if you would."
Jeffrey sighted him in. Danny tensed.
"Five-0, don't move!"
His heart stuttered.
He had never been so relieved in his entire life as his team closed in around the man and woman.
Chin, with his big beautiful shotgun, and Kono, looking like a deadly beauty with her handgun, kept their weapons trained on the pair as his insane and yet decidedly best friend relieved Jeffrey of the rifle and roughly zip tied his wrists behind his back.
"This is Five-0?" Tamarin whispered up to him.
He nodded light headedly and sat his butt on the ground before he fell.
"Stay here," Steve ordered and left the cousins to keep an eye on the two while he walked over. "Hey, man, long time no see."
"Never thought I'd be so happy to see your ugly mug, you Neanderthal," Danny exhaled shakily. He extended his left wing and wrapped it around Steve as his partner gave him a one-armed side hug. "Steve, this is Tamarin."
Steve looked around him and smiled charmingly at her before his eyes widened.
"Sweetheart here had the same reaction," Tamarin said and patted her belly.
"We've got to get to a hospital," Danny forced himself back onto his feet. "She's in labor."
"She's in what?"
The familiar smoky and stern voice brought him a small comfort. Mauna peeled out from behind the cousins and gave him a quick glance before lowering to her knees next to Tamarin. She muttered something about not being an obstetrician before quietly conversing with Tamarin while taking the vitals she could without any instruments.
Danny sighed. When he looked up again he caught Steve staring at him, at his face in particular. The undivided attention made him uncomfortable.
"What? Why are you staring at me? If you're going to start asking questions again, I'm not in the mood, Steven," he grumbled.
Suddenly Steve broke away and walked back towards the cuffed pair. His fist snapped out quick as a snake and cracked Jeffrey across the jaw. Rubbing his knuckles and leaving the cursing man on the ground, he came back over and pointed at him.
"That was a jaw clamp we found. They had you muzzled, didn't they?" Steve was pissed, more pissed than Danny had ever seen him.
Danny reached up and lightly touched his snout. The nicks from his desperate clawing earlier had scabbed over, but he would bet that it was chafed looking and likely bruised. The tough hide and much smaller, thinner scales on his face wouldn't hide the vivid purples and reds and greens like the rest of his scales would.
Steve scrubbed a hand through his hair and addressed the others. "Alright, let's load up the boat and let the Coast Guard handle this."
Tamarin breathed out heavily and then looked up at them. "What about the other one?"
The team turned as one to look at her.
"The other one?" Danny questioned.
"Don't you dare, you little whelp," the woman hissed at Tamarin.
"Shut up," Kono snapped.
"Tamarin," Steve's voice softened and he crouched in front of her. "What other one?"
Tamarin looked fearfully at the woman, shrinking back against Danny. He draped his wing over her and Mauna set a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She swallowed and narrowed her eyes defiantly. "It's another ship called Ostara's Charm. It's never far behind this one."
Steve radioed in and the cousins marched the two criminals into one of the cabins. With a grateful and drained sigh, Danny sank down onto the ground. His team always came through for him. They were the one other thing he could count on besides Murphy's Law.
"So, according to Mauna the Columbian Water Claw extract she gave me Monday was what kept their sedatives from keeping me out as long as they should have," Danny's hand waved through the air slightly as he and Steve walked down a hallway at King's Medical Center late Wednesday morning.
"If you hadn't have gotten bitten by that snake in the first place you probably wouldn't have been kidnapped," Steve said sourly.
"True," Danny nodded. His fingertips danced tenderly across the bruising on the bridge of his nose and the scrapes there. "But, if I hadn't have gotten kidnapped, then we would've never known about this operation and wouldn't have been able to shut it down."
Steve couldn't argue that fact. Danny could see his jaw pull taut like he wanted to, but it was the truth. Marilyn Walker's operation had been operating under the noses of countless authorities for a number of years without anyone being the wiser. It was only because he, a cop and the best friend of a reserve Navy SEAL, had been taken that her operation had come into the limelight, otherwise there was no telling how long she could have gone on undetected.
"So, are the nut jobs talking? Did you guys get anything out of them?" Danny asked.
He had gone straight to the hospital for monitoring as soon as they had gotten back and the Black Dragon Eel toxin had worn off enough for him to shift. A member of his team stayed with him every minute of every hour and an HPD officer staked out his room until he was released earlier that morning. They had kept him partially updated, but not on every detail of the case.
"Jeffrey's talking, Marilyn's not," Steve said and crossed his arms tightly across his chest. "Doesn't really matter. Jeffrey's confession along with Doctor Noah Krimshaw's confession will put them all behind bars for the rest of their lives."
"Krimshaw? I thought that he wasn't onboard the other ship when the Coast Guard hit it?" Danny's brows went up. From what Chin had relayed to him last night, the doctor was missing.
"The police on the Big Island arrested him at 0600 hours this morning and shipped him over to us," Steve quirked a smirk. "He was trying to charter a private jet to the mainland."
Between the Coast Guard, HPD, and Five-0, they had arrested twenty-seven people implicated with the operation. More were popping up as Chin and Kono shredded through employment records and false identities, and they were having to coordinate with mainland authorities to catch people like Samuel and Caroline in the cities of Houston, New Orleans, Miami, San Francisco, Portland, basically if it was on the west or south coast there was a high chance the local police had been sent a wanted picture.
"What are we doing here? I thought you had been cleared to leave this morning?" Steve asked as they rounded a nurses' station.
"Are you blind? Did you not notice what floor we're on? Tamarin wanted me to come see her this morning," Danny glanced at his phone and slipped it back into the pocket on his sweats. It was almost noon, but still technically morning. He turned to one of the nurses at the station. "I'm looking for Tamarin?"
The nurse pointed around the corner to a cracked open door with a police officer standing in front of it.
Danny and Steve thanked her and then nodded to the officer who let them step inside the private room. Luckily, Tamarin hadn't given birth on their way back to the island. From what Mauna had told Danny while she had been checking him over, the young woman had shifted into human form and successfully delivered her healthy baby at the hospital.
The small woman sitting upright in the bed had a long face with a narrow nose and short dark choppy hair. She was thin and still had deep set circles around her eyes, but a grin graced her face as she spied them standing by the door.
"Hey, babe, how're you doing?" Danny asked with a small grin of his own.
"You look pretty fierce as a human, too, sweetheart," she teased lightly. Tears trailed down her face but her grin remained. "My mum and dad are flying over from England."
"That's great," he said. He pointed to the bundle cradled to her chest. "Boy or girl?"
"Boy," she hugged the sleeping baby closer and let out a shaky sigh, more tears running down her cheeks. She scrubbed them away with one hand. "Sorry, I just…I never…I never got to hold the other ones."
Danny swallowed the lump in his throat and Steve made a disgruntled sound behind him. His hands hesitantly fluttered about before coming to rest on the foot of the bed. "I'm sorry, Tamarin. What they did to you, this and your leg–"
Tamarin huffed quietly. "The leg wasn't them, sweetheart. That was my own doing when I was sixteen and snowboarded into a tree. But the baby…that was all them…."
The three of them sat in silence for a minute, the hurricane of emotions pervading the room. It was a cold and sour tang that even the sunlight spilling through the windows had a hard time warming.
"Two," she whispered, looking down into her baby's face.
"Two?" Steve repeated.
She nodded. "I had two others. Then there was a miscarriage between the second one and this one. I don't even know if the other two were girls or boys."
Danny's knuckles turned white from his grip on the rail at the end of the bed. He wanted so badly to make all those people suffer like they had made Tamarin suffer, but he wouldn't lower himself to their level. It took a particular kind of heartlessness to partake in an operation like that.
"Because of you, we found and rescued thirteen dragons from the Ostara's Charm and arrested everyone aboard, including Doctor Krimshaw," Steve said.
"They're never, ever going to bother you or anyone ever again," Danny added and patted her foot.
"I just…I can't even…I can't even begin to thank you," her sweet and kind voice cracked. "If it weren't for you, sweetheart, I would've…they would've…so many other people could've been kidnapped and…just…."
"Five-0 is taking them apart and they're going to pay for what they did. It may seem like kind of a weak punishment compared to what they deserve, but they're done. All of the dragons off of the Hathor's Joy and the Ostara's Charm are going home," Danny assured her. When she simply nodded and wiped the steady stream of tears off her cheeks again, he decided to change the subject. "What's the little guy's name?"
Tamarin's face split into a genuine grin and she held his eyes. "I named him Danny."
Phew, that was a draining story to write. But it's done now. Maybe. I mean, lots of things could still happen since not all of the bad guys are dead, if you've got suggestions. *hint hint, wink wink*
Art page has been updated, so check that out. If you still need the link, sign in and either comment or PM me.
Next week on "Dragons", after the rough week that the team has endured, Steve forces them all to take a respite on an uninhabited island where he plans to do team building and bonding.
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