Chapter 53
Joe didn't want to abandon Steve and Mary when he sensed that they could really use his support and so delayed reporting back for duty to Naval Base Coronado, citing personal family reasons. His superiors had agreed, after all the man hardly ever requested time off. That left him with some free time and he had readily agreed to Steve's request to meet with the team at the Palace. Steve had just finished telling everyone what he could about the cartel and Matt Williams' role in it all. Danny had been beside himself, this was even worse that he had imagined. One bad decision by his brother had led to an even worse decision and on it went until the whole situation had completely spiralled out of control. Steve added, "That's why I've asked Joe to join us – his operational experience can help us plan a way out for Matt and give the CIA the name of their mole."
The team bounced ideas around until after a couple of hours they had a rudimentary outline plan. They would fly into neighbouring Venezuela and then cross over the border into Columbia using an old smuggling route. Once in the country, Steve had a contact from a previous Navy SEAL mission who would fly them closer to Marco Reyes' base of operations, the distances being too far to travel by road. Steve had been given intel on Matt's movements and every Thursday he went to make pay-offs in person to an official at the local town hall. This gave them the perfect opportunity to have someone in place, posing as a cleaner or maintenance worker, so that they could talk to the man in private – they needed to know how close he was to identifying the CIA mole and brief him on their plan. They would assist Matt in getting the intel on the mole and then create a fake 'sting', planting the $13 million in the mole's house and giving Reyes reason to believe that it was the mole who stole the money from him. A CIA grab team would be on hand to stop the drug lord from killing the mole, threatening him with ending their arrangement if he did. During the extraction of the mole, Matt would be 'killed' and they would take his 'body' at the same time. The idea was that Reyes would chalk it up to the cost of doing business, take his money back and carry on with his profitable drugs empire, all under the protection of the agency.
Steve went back to Agent Kendricks with the plan and they thrashed out the details until both parties were satisfied that it was as good as it was going to get, given the short timeframe. The only thing that was uncertain was Matt's fate. He couldn't just return to his old life, he was still wanted by the FBI and if Marco found out that he had been tricked, then his revenge would be brutal – being in prison wouldn't be enough to keep the fraudster safe. The only option seemed to be for Matthew Williams to cease to exist and enter WITSEC, but as this was a Federal witness protection program then Five-0 would have no jurisdiction and so Danny's brother would effectively disappear forever with no way to ever contact him again. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Danny, because it was not just himself to consider. Matt was also a brother to Bridget and Stella, a son to Eddie and Clara and a beloved uncle to Gracie and Stella's boy, Eric. Steve saw his friend's distress and resolved to explore all possible solutions that would keep Reyes in the dark and Matt safe, but maybe allow for some contact with his family.
That was a job for another day though, as now they had a major operation to plan. Steve had to barter with the Governor to allow Five-0 the freedom to conduct the mission and they arrived at a compromise; Steve would go to Columbia with Joe, with back-up in the form of the CIA special ops team, and the rest of Five-0 would remain in Hawaii to provide remote technical support if needed and also pick up any cases that came their way. Steve was happy with the arrangements as he didn't want Danny anywhere near this, he was way too emotionally-involved and might do something stupid if he thought his brother was in danger.
Steve and Joe made the journey to Venezuela with no problems, using military transport to avoid leaving a travel footprint. Steve hadn't spoken to Joe much on the flight, as his former CO was delighted to find that a man he went through BUD/S with was also in the belly of the massive cargo plane and the two older men spent the flight reminiscing about their former glory days.
After landing, they crossed the border using a disused smuggling route that required intense concentration to avoid rolling the jeep as they gingerly picked their way around the boulders and vegetation on the overgrown trail. The last section was used by more vehicles and so allowed them to pick up the pace and it only took another hour of driving to reach the small grassy runway. Steve greeted his contact warmly, the other man over the moon to see Steve again. The last time they had met had been during a SEAL mission when Steve's Team had rescued the man's family during a textbook extraction of a high-value target – his wife and two children had been held in the compound to keep him in line and getting his family back meant that they could all move to a different part of the country and live in safety. He was a pilot and had a small crop dusting plane that was well-suited to the short runways in the region. What would have been a torturous and risky journey by road was completed in under an hour in the small plane and the two men quickly transferred the bags of money and their kit into the jeep that was waiting for them and were at their safe house before dark.
Steve had made them a hot meal and they sat together in the small living area to eat the food. "Hey, Joe," Steve said as he looked across to his mentor, "thanks for this, you didn't have to come." Joe gave a little tweak of his mouth,
"No, I didn't. But I wanted to – I'd like to see this matter resolved before there's unnecessary bloodshed and then you'd have a very angry Danny Williams to corral. I have observed that he can be a very angry man."
Steve laughed out loud, "That he can. But he's one hell of a partner." He thought about what to say next to the other man, "Um, did you speak to Shelburne? Did she see to the re-burial arrangements for Lei Kuan Fat?" Joe pursed his lips and frowned,
"Yes, I did. It didn't go very well. I am coming to the conclusion that Doris McGarrett is a very selfish woman. However, she is genuinely remorseful about the death of Mrs. Fat and agreed to see to the necessary arrangements. She remembered which plot the unknown corpse was buried in and worked something out with the caretaker of the cemetery. Wo Fat had already paid the man to exhume the body for DNA testing, but the caretaker put the remains back in the same grave as he didn't know what else to do with them. I believe, for the right amount of money, he was more than happy to move the remains of the Jane Doe into another plot and then re-bury Wo Fat's mother in a suitable ceremony in keeping with the family's beliefs . . . I'm glad she didn't use it as an opportunity to try and make contact with you, I did make your views on the matter crystal clear." Steve gave him a conspiratorial smile,
"Oh, but she did. I saw her hiding at the cemetery and then Danny ushered me back to the rental and pretended to go back for his cell phone. I used what Danno would call my super-stealthy ninja skills to get close enough to observe his very blunt conversation with her – I think she got the point. I was close by just in case she tried to hurt him, after all she has no idea what the man means to me."
Joe looked most unhappy at the news, "Damn that woman – I couldn't have been more explicit as to your feelings towards her. I hope she doesn't try and contact you again." Steve just shrugged with a 'what you gonna do' expression on his face,
"If she does then I'll deal with it as and when it happens. Maybe she really has got the point now . . . anyway, enough about our messed-up family affairs and back to this op, how do you propose we get sufficient alone-time with Matt when we corner him at the town hall?" The men slipped into mission-mode, weighing up the pros and cons of each plan of action until they decided to call it a night and go to bed.