Chapter 35
The H50 team landed at the military base about 20 miles south of the location. Necessary arrangements were made and they had three more individuals who volunteered to help save Sofia. Steve had a plan already prepared. After she sent the message, he felt well enough to re-examine the location, collect all of Jerry's findings, combine them with the intel from his friends at the location to make a plan. There was only one entry, so the direction of the attack was already decided.
They were at the location taking their positions when Jerry called:
"I have the number of the third party intruder." Jerry said with reference to the messages between Sam and Sofia that led to the incident.
The number was Turkish. One of the men who were at the location offered Steve his phone. Steve called it.
"Who is this?" The woman on the other end of the receiver asked. Steve couldn't believe his eyes. From the mount about fifty meters away a woman stood, at the entrance to the compound, holding a phone and speaking. "Hello!" She repeated as if she wanted to show Steve that the number belongs to her. "Hello! McGarrett, is that you?"
"Yes it is. Who is that?" Steve said.
"Jane. Jane Obrovski. Where are you hon? Close?" Jane said nonchalantly.
Steve paused to get a better look at her. It was her. Older, but certainly her, he remembered the photo Jerry pulled.
"Hello?" Jane said. "I see you're in Turkey. Are you already here?" She said turning around and looking into distance. "Where are you?"
"Who are you and how do you know me?" Steve said.
"Doris. Come on, you must have guessed by now." Jane said practically giggling. "Stand down Lieutenant and come down. Your mother is waiting for you. Well, not so…"
Steve hanged up the receiver and rushed down the mount telling everyone that they can stand down and just come to the entry.
"How could you do this? What is wrong with you?" Steve shouted furiously at Doris.
"I had no choice!" She screamed back. "Now cool it. This has not been easy."
Steve shook his head and started walking down the tunnel.
"Wait!" She pulled him back. "Sofia's not alone." She said.
Steve pulled back. "What do you mean? Who is with her?"
Satisfied that she got his attention, Doris pulled back "He's this tiny little guy… I mean, small as in I carried him out of the Iranian prison. He neutralised uranium." Doris shrugged.
"What? Is that even possible?" Steve said.
"He claims it was an accident and that he can't repeat it, but we all know that's a load of BS. We need to get him to talk. Yet… We can't exactly use our usual techniques. One, because he wouldn't survive them. And two, we need his head completely clear and untouched. Now, he has an unnatural attachment to his mother. We know that she can talk some sense into him. But! We don't really know who she is."
"What?" Steve said. "Why did you take my daughter?" He pronounced his words slowly to make sure Doris can understand.
"What was I supposed to do? Steven, it was meant to be. Listen to me. I couldn't call you or come anywhere near you or even send someone. Every spy in the world is looking for that little man. Every secret agent. Every country has deployed their best. I had to get you here because you are the only one I can trust. I was wrecking my brain how to do it and then she showed up. I mean, when something is meant to be, it is meant to be."
"Do you have any idea what you've put me through? What you've put her through?" Steve said pointing down the long hall. "And I can't even imagine…" Steve shook his head at the thought of Malina. "How do I tell them that it was you?"
"Don't tell them. Sofia doesn't know I have anything to do with this. It'll be our little secret. I'll come to your wedding… Congratulations, by the way." She smiled. "Oh, don't be like that. I wish there was some other way. I swear I do. And, who knows, maybe someday we'll all laugh about this. Someday when this world is a much safer place."
"I got engaged this morning, or yesterday…"
"Day before yesterday… Time difference." Doris added.
"How did you know?" Steve asked frowning.
"I didn't know. That was a surprise. And I am sorry that this had to happen on the same day, I really am, but what do you want me to do?" Doris tilted her head at him. "I have to get this guy to the US. Even there he won't be safe until he gives up what only he knows. I know that he will, as soon as we find his mother."
"How could you not know who his mother is?" Steve said.
"He doesn't have many friends. The guy is very strange. I think his mother is the only person in the world he's ever been close to. We tried to find the woman through our contacts, we've got some leads, but we need time." Doris nodded.
"And what then? You'll torture his mother so that he gives you what you want?" Steve said his face red with anger. "Did you ever think that maybe the world doesn't need you to save it?"
"Now you're just being hurtful. I've done a lot of good. I have sacrificed more than most people, perhaps more than I should have, but I did it for the right reasons. I thought you understood that by now." Doris replied.
"I'll never understand that." Steve said and once again tried to walk off, walk to his daughter, get her out and deal with the future as it comes.
Doris stopped him again "I know you think you've found happiness. I've seen the way you've changed since they came along. I wish I knew how they ended up living at our house, but hey, I left long ago, perhaps it's not my right to know. But, I gave birth to you. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. If you don't want to see me…"
"I don't want to see you! But you always need something that forces me to see you." Steve said.
"Fine, this is the last time. I don't think there is anything bigger than this anyway. If you think you'll be happier without me…"
"Think I'll be happier? You've just said that you've seen how happy I have been since they came into my life. You've ruined that." Steve said.
"Please don't be such a drama queen. You'll end up being the big hero. She'll love you even more after this. And what, it took a couple of days from your busy schedule? It caused you some emotional turmoil? Oh my God!" Doris squeaked. "Call the police." She turned to him with a serious look on her face "You are the police. Maybe it's time for you to grow up."
"Do you know why I've been so happy lately? It's not just that the love of my life has waltzed back from the dead, it's that I got to see that my kid has a real mother. My daughter's biggest problem is getting enough space from her mother, which she wants but also doesn't want. Do you have any idea how much pleasure I get from seeing the mother of my child get excited to make breakfast every morning? I love to see them argue, because even when they are arguing, their love is undeniable. I love seeing the bond they have; this… What did Sofia call it? Symbiotic relationship. That's it. Maybe a child is supposed to have that kind of support, the kind of support that makes them want to leave, yet keeps pulling them back. My child was brought into this world by a woman much smarter than you. A woman who knows the true meaning of being a mother. You've never lived Doris. For all your adventures and ambitions, successes and failures, you don't know the meaning of life, because you've kept the real life at a distance, afraid of what it really means to live. You wanted something grand, something big, but guess what, human is as big as this world gives. So if I haven't grown up by now, maybe that's because I never had someone to show me how."
To Doris, these were not just words of an angry man, they were a truth that she kept hidden deep inside certain that no one knows it, because the thought that someone might know it made her feel weak. She was never weak and no one had any right to think she's weak.
"Well, every boy has mummy issues." Doris stood still, her face showing no emotion. "Now we have a task to get on with. You want your kid back, I want to save the world. Both our objectives are at the end of the tunnel. I suggest you tell your men to stand down."
"My team has stood down. You've seen them at the entrance." Steve said feeling strangely liberated and light.
"No, I mean the team you had in place this morning. Very impressive, by the way. How did you communicate with them?" Doris said slowly moving down the hall.
Steve pulled her back and looked sternly at her "What team from this morning?" He asked.
"I saw at least four locals take positions, which means there are at least ten out there. I assume they are with you?" Doris frowned.
"No, I did not have anyone take positions this morning. Who would I have?" Steve said and started running to the other end of the tunnel, to Sofia. He suddenly got a very bad feeling.
Doris followed. The idea that she'd lose Khalid after all she had sacrificed made her furious, but at the same time, she knew no one could get in without them knowing.
She took out the keys and fiddled opening the door. Steve tried to look inside through the little opening in the door, but he couldn't see anything.
The hole in the middle of the floor sent them both into shock. Before they had a chance to gather their thoughts a female figure dressed in full body black Lycra suite came up from behind them. In one second she kicked Steve across the face and kicked Doris in the leg, her kneed popped, her leg bent the wrong way. Doris screamed in agony. In the following second the black Lycra figure kicked Steve again, making him raise his arms over his head to protect it. The legs kept coming, hitting him like a propeller that turned in three dimensions, spreading pain all over his body. Before he had a chance to figure the rhythm of the blows, he was hit on the leg which made him lose balance, forcing his arms down to break his fall. He received a blow to both sides of his head simultaneously, causing loud buzzing in his ears, forcing his eyes to close tight and his body to flop on the floor.
He couldn't hear or see as Doris tried to pull out her gun, which was kicked out of her hand in the same second. Doris willed her body up, but with one leg bent out and the other bent in she couldn't get her balance. Besides, the pain was making her dizzy.
The black figure pulled out a gun from the pit of her lower back. The black belt around her hips was barely visible in daylight let alone in the dim room at the end of the tunnel.
"In these last moments of your life," she said in a calm and soft voice, "I need you to know that what I'm about to do is not an act of revenge. I would never stoop that low. But you have sent a message to a very large group of psychopaths that it's okay to take Sofia. Now, I have to send a message that it is not." One bullet was fired.
Steve tried to force his eyes to open but it was as if his brain needed a shut down to recover. The buzzing in his ears turned into ringing and the ringing became quitter until Steve managed to open his eyes. He tried to stand up. Every time he moved he felt like the room was tilting. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it but it made him lose balance and he almost fell.
H50 team with a number of others ran into the room. The scene was most unpredicted. For a moment everyone just looked around. Kono spotted Sofia's phone and grabbed it, pulling it away from the wires that Khalid attached.
"Where's the guy?" The man who held the door for Sofia said. He was the first to go down the hole into a narrow and dark tunnel. Chin was about to follow him, but he rushed back out shouting 'It's about to blow. Go back' repeatedly.
H50 helped Steve, while the other group grabbed Doris's body. They were barely out of the room when the sound of the explosion vibrated through the tunnel.