Sorry it wasn't up first thing this morning. I wasn't happy with it and had to do some last minute edits.
Shout out to Phoebe Miller for putting up with me!
Fact #125: Dragons have always been associated with secrets and treasure.
Season: Between 4th and 5th Seasons
Walking into the Five-0 bullpen was always a gamble. If one was lucky, it may have been calm and composed, full of dedicated people tirelessly working to solve the cases that were too big, too hard, or too sensitive for HPD to handle. If one was unlucky, it might have been a scene of chaos with people arguing, with enough bloody bandages between the five of them to wrap a whole mummy, with the screens displaying the most horrifying crime scenes imaginable. Sometimes a victim or perp was crying. Sometimes EMS was there. Sometimes Jae Mahelona wanted to turn around and walk right back out the door.
As a delivery man, he had an obligation to not do that, but that didn't mean the urge wasn't there. He didn't like gore or raised voices, nor did he ever want the Commander or the Detective to turn on him if they were in a mood.
Today, he paused outside the elevator and took a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever lay before him. He rolled his neck. As soon as he walked around the corner and through the glass doors into the heart of the Five-0 offices, he was brought to a grinding halt.
He gagged.
Steeling his nerves, he pulled his shirt collar up over his nose and approached the smart table. He picked what he felt was the least dangerous one to approach, which only meant they were the least irritated looking one.
"Lieutenant Kelly," he greeted stuffily.
"You picked a hell of a day to deliver a package, brah," Officer Kalakaua said from across the smart table.
The lanky officer didn't look happy. Her normally fluffy hair was frazzled with saltwater and a bruise was blossoming on her cheekbone. He looked at the others. None of them looked happy. Jae wasn't sure any of them had ever been happy when he'd delivered a package.
While the Lieutenant signed for the package, he glanced around the bullpen, searching for the source of the awful smell.
The Commander was as steely as ever. His eyes intense. Back rigid. Jae hoped he was never on the receiving end of that look. It was too predatory and sent a chill down his spine.
Next to him, the Detective was all hands, rapidly explaining something to the big hairy guy Jae didn't recognize. The Detective was always talking when he came in to deliver something. Or ranting. Sometimes arguing. But always talking. Talking and making wild hand gestures. Jae had gone to high school with an Italian kid who had talked like that. He wondered if that was a cultural thing.
"Here you go," the Lieutenant said.
Jae traded him and clipped the scanner on his belt.
"What is that smell?" he asked.
"That would be chum, my friend. Pure, unfiltered, chopped fish guts and blood," the Detective said.
Jae blanched.
"And why did we get chummed, you ask?" the Detective looked up at the Commander.
The Commander grunted. "No comment."
"Then what's that?" Jae pointed at the stock tank sitting on the far side of the room, as far away from the smart table as it could possibly be without being in another part of the building.
"Just evidence," Lieutenant Rollins said.
The big hairy guy nodded seriously. Too seriously. Jae doubted it was 'just evidence', but he wasn't one to be upfront about his doubts.
"Okay." He shrugged. "Hope your day gets better."
He made a beeline for the nearest door.
Once in the elevator, he was dismayed to find he could still detect the aroma of chum. Frowning, he sniffed his shirt.
"Man," he groaned. "Gonna have to burn this uniform."
At least he had some good material for his blog. He always did after delivering to Five-0 and HPD.
Chin shook his head once Jae had disappeared rather quickly. "Poor kid's gonna reek for the rest of the day."
"What about us? He was only here for a few minutes, we were sprayed, doused, and lathered in it," Danny said.
Kono glared at him. "No, I was soaked in it, you got the backsplash."
"I'm going to have to bathe in Axe body spray just to mask the smell," Danny continued.
"You use Axe?" Steve raised a brow at him.
"No, but it's so offensive it'll cover over this offensive odor," he explained.
"And then you'll be two hundred percent offensive," Kono said.
Danny pointed. "Hey, hey, better watch it, babe. At least you didn't get jabbed by a fishing gaff."
"Your sca–" she glanced at Jerry nervously observing the back and forth. "You're fine. Barely a scratch. I'm going to smell like chum for a week."
"Should I go?" Jerry asked, pointing towards the door.
"No, Jerry, stay," Steve said. "Danny, shut up. Kono, I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"Hey, hold on, wait a minute! Why are you telling me to shut up and apologizing to her?" Danny questioned, flinging a hand at Kono and then himself.
Steve soundly ignored him. "Jerry, please continue."
Jerry nodded and tapped on the smart table. "Okay, you know how I told you about the Firebird before? The Wyvern pirate from the late 1700s-early 1800s?"
"She burned ships to ashes, murdered captains, and eventually wound up buried in a cave on the island with her treasure," Danny summarized. "We know. We found her and the treasure last year, remember?"
"Part of her treasure," Jerry corrected. He brought up a map on the hanging monitors of the waters around the islands with various pinpoints marked. "Many people still believe that most of her treasure is on another island somewhere in the Pacific, or at the bottom of the ocean with her ship."
"Great, more treasure hunters," Kono muttered.
"I don't think these guys were hunting for the Firebird's treasure," Jerry said. He gestured to the map. "If they really were where you say they were, they were pretty far off from any logical places her ship might be resting."
Chin narrowed his eyes at the map. "It's too shallow."
"Want to know what I think?" Jerry asked.
Danny motioned for him to continue. "Please."
"I think they were inspired by the rumor of the chest of Dragon Eye Pearls in the Firebird's missing collection," he said.
Cath's eyes lit up. "I've heard of those. Extremely rare. They go for quite a bit."
"As far as they can tell from old logs, record books, and journals, the oysters that produce Dragon Eye Pearls are found in shallow waters around islands in the Pacific Ocean and produce a peculiar smell when removed from the water. Of course, divers in recent days have never conclusively found one, and most jewelry featuring the pearls are heirlooms that have been a family for generations," Jerry said.
They all looked at the stock tank on the far side of the room. The one currently housing the oysters they had found on their perp's boat. The ones that smelled like Sulphur.
Danny jerked a thumb at the tank. "Think I might be able to retire early if I crack one open?"
"If those are the oysters that produce Dragon Eye Pearls, then we need to get a marine biologist over here to identify them and get them into a better tank before they croak," Jerry said. "What if they're some of the last known specimens of the species?"
They voted Kono to do the calling since she had more contacts within that community. Danny hoped Grace would be a part of that community one day and not a part of the one that got chummed. Sighing, he simply folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the smart table, staring at the tank in thought.
"You ever notice how rare, deadly, or exotic things tend to have the word 'dragon' in their name?" he asked. "Black Dragon Eel, Fire Wyrm, Dragon Eye Pearl, etcetera."
"Wandering Dragon Spider, Wyvern's Barb Scorpion, Dragon Tooth Nettle," Steve added.
"You know, there's a probable chance that our government started trying to breed Black Dragon Eels back during the Cold War," Jerry said.
"But why? They're not only sometimes deadly to dragons, they're nearly always fatal to humans. Not exactly a good target specific bioweapon," Danny pointed out.
"The government's tried a lot of things that would make the general public squeamish," Steve said, and the way he said it so simply made Danny's skin crawl.
"They tried, but they couldn't replicate the right conditions for them to breed, so they moved on. Supposedly. Ticks are much better choice of animal to tinker with," Jerry said. "But, according to here-say in the exotic fish keeping community, there's a South American relative to the Black Dragon Eel that can be bred in aquariums."
"Oh, fantastic. That makes my day to hear," Danny grumbled. He glanced at Steve. They'd have to keep that in mind.
"Have you heard about the genetic experimentation they did in the '70s and '80s on dragons? They attempted to find out both how to weaken a dragon and how to turn them into super soldiers," Jerry said, clearly becoming more excited the more he spoke.
Danny still had a handful of nightmares of getting eaten by one of those genetic experiments.
"One of the marine biologists from the aquarium is coming over. Said she'll be able to tell us if these are Dragon Eye producing oysters," Kono said as she walked over, sliding her phone back into her pocket.
"Do they pay cops finder fees for something like this?" Danny asked.
"Brah, I wish," Kono said and grinned at him. "But I don't think they'll crack them open if they are rare."
Danny exhaled heavily. "I guess these particular dragons get to keep their privacy."
Next week on "Dragons", Grace goes to a show with her mom.
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