Higgins looked over the woman, confused about how she could help them when two of Magnums' best friends could not.
"Who are you and how did you get on the estate?" Higgins questioned slightly angry, that someone had managed to sneak in without triggering any alarms.
"Who am I? Such a peculiar question," the stranger said, "As for how I got on the estate, I am actually not here, but in South America so..."
Higgins exchanged glances with Rick, and TC, confused as to why the lady was here.
"Anyways, my associate and I would like to help you guys with information concerning Thomas Magnum." She said in a very serious tone, walking out of the room and beckoning for them to follow her.
"Why should we trust you? Or you associate for that matter." Higgins questioned.
"Fair point, I suppose my word is not good enough, I am a CIA officer, so legally I can not be here," She said, "As for my associate, Rick and TC already met."
Just then a young woman in her mid to early twenties of middle eastern descent, with long dark hair braided, brown eyes wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, not noticing the other three people, she said,
"Sophia, I thought you said you would be quick, I want to be a tourist, for a little bit, everything is so bright and colorful."
"Lucy, I ran into some unexcepted company," Sophia said gesturing at Rick, TC, and Higgins.
"Oh, you were being all vague weren't you, like when you got me into college here, but would not tell me, or the first time I met you," Lucy said, clearly sassing the other woman who she was familiar with.
"Guess I have to explain everything; Thomas Magnum is my older brother, since I am a CIA officer and he was a Navy SEAL we decided to erase any connections we had to each other to make it easier. So that is why you have never heard of me," Sophia said.
"What," Rick TC and Higgins all exclaimed at once.
"Deal with your shock later, anyways I can only stay three days before I have to go back to my undercover, but Thomas was not recalled, he left and I think I know why, but I need a TV for my PowerPoint," Sophia said.
"I can help with that, but I need more info," Higgins said confused.
Fifteen minutes later.
"Okay, I think that the reason Thomas left had to do with a task force, he led from 2008-2011," Sophia said plugging in a USB she extracted from her pocket, into the computer, before continuing when a picture of seven people and a dog, popped up, "The task force was made up of CIA analyst Katrina French, EoD Tech Rebecca Drew, Dog handler Tala Allen, Ranger Luke White, Air-force spec-ops Pilot James Taylor, Delta Seth Smith and second in command. They were essentially a ghost unit working under the radar, undercover, clean up, intelligence gathering, and tracking high-value targets. They suddenly all requested new assignments in the early months of 2011."
"Okay so you are saying, Magnum led a group that does not exist," Rick questioned septically.
"Essentially, they existed on paper, just by code names I think that whatever caused them to separate forced them to rejoin forces," Sophia said.
"Wait a minute, what about the girl in the photograph," Higgins asked trying to get a full picture of what was going on, and she could not shake the feeling she knew her.
"That is Natalia DeRose a French operative, my brother met in 2002," Sophia said slightly nervously, as she was sharing some of her older brother's deepest, darkest, secrets.
"What were they, to each other," TC said looking at the picture Rick was still holding, and the happiest he had ever seen him.
"I think they were dating for a while, or at least as well as a Navy SEAL, and a French spy can date," Sophia said.
"You're telling me that, Magnum started a relationship with a French spy," Higgins said, extremely surprised, and being the only one to understand the struggles of working for an international intelligence agency.
"Yes, honestly, I do not even know what their relationship was, but that is not important now, we need to figure out where on earth my brother is," Sophia said with determination burning in her eyes.
"Well, tell us what you need us to do," TC said cautiously, not really trusting Sophia quite yet, but you could not ignore the uncanny similarities in the two siblings.
"You guys probably know where Thomas keeps; his army trunk corrects?" Sophia questioned.
Rick, TC, and Higgins exchanged confused glances, as they were not sure if they knew where he kept it, upon seeing that Sophia, said,
"You do not know where he keeps it do you guys?"
"No, but the guest house is not that big it is probably in one of the closets or something," Higgins said.
"Okay, let's look for that, and it should have some information about that last mission, for the ghost unit," Sophia said, heading out towards the guest house.
"I would love to join you guys in snooping through other peoples stuff, but unfortunately I have prior arrangements, Kumu offered to take me on a cultural tour of Hawaii," Lucy said eagerly with a smile brightening her entire face as she headed towards where Kumu was standing by the gate, where Kumus scooter was parked along with two motorcycles.
With an acknowledging nod, Sophia headed into the guest house and tried to think about where she would keep the thing that contained some of their most prized possessions. Coming up with the most logical solution being the closet she headed into the bedroom opened the closet door. She was greeted by some Hawaiian shirts hanging up, and there was Thomas's trunk.
Much to her surprise, there was also what looked like a Gun safe, along the back wall, and a flag carefully folded in the case, instantly she knew that he had kept his own flag.
"He did not," Sophia whispered under her breath, much to everyone else's confusion.
"He did not what?" TC questioned.
"He kept the flag that we got when you guys were MIA," Sophia said angrily.
"What I am confused you got flags when you were MIA," Higgins asked.
"Yeah, they thought we were dead, mine is in one of Icepick's storage lockers," Rick said, before continuing, "I did not even know that Magnum had his let alone in his closet."
"Red must of gave it back to him, I told him he should burn it," Sophia said.
"Who is Red? I burned mine," TC asked.
"She is Thomas' childhood best friend, and was a member of his team for those three years, Rebecca Elise Drew, or Red," Sophia said, "I had been undercover from a couple of months before Thomas was captured to a couple of months after our mom died, the only reason I took that assignment was that Magnum was planning on finishing that tour then, staying closer to home for our mother. Red took care of our mother's estate, getting everything since, Thomas had named her his next of kin, while I was undercover and our mom was getting worse."
"Okay wow I am just realizing how little I know about Magnum," TC said.
"He has always been a private person, Red was really his only friend, so I am not surprised, that you did not know, a lot about his childhood," Sophia said.
Sophia stepped into the closet and, pulling out the trunk and setting it on the bed Sophia opened it, pulling out all of Thomas's many medals, a stack of Polaroid photographs, a single dog tag, their father's watch, a couple of knives he got in the SEALs. Once she had finished emptying it Sophia pulled her hand along the bottom, feeling for the false bottom she knew was there. Once she found it she pressed on it effectively popping the compartment open. Revealing the papers that were hidden in there.
There were many letters from Natalia, some from herself, along with some documents that he should definitely not have. Grabbing all the papers that were in there she put them on the bed.
Cario
Thomas Magnum was tired, and dirty from the journey he had taken, Magnum also had a cut along his forearm, from an encounter with a lone Taliban member. He stood in front of the hotel, which he had gotten a pamphlet for a few months ago he could only hope that Natalia was still there.
Walking into the lobby he sat in one of the chairs of the hotel and pulled his hat over his eyes, allowing himself for the first time in a while to sleep.
Magnum could feel the damp cold floor against his back, as he pried his eyes open everything hurt. Looking around he could tell that this nightmare was not over yet, he was still trapped here, in this damp dark cell all alone, with the only source of light coming in from a grate, in the upper part of one of the walls.
Suddenly the door opened and a guy came in, getting ready to strike him…
Magnum's eyes flew open as soon as he felt a touch on his shoulder, he immediately went to grab the persons' wrist, before he could act on anything, a familiar voice calmly said,
"Relax Thomas, it is just me."
"Natalia, you are still here, I was worried that you might have left," Magnum said groggily not really bothering, to talk about the obvious nightmare, even though he knew that it would come up eventually.
"The question is why are you, here but first come up to my room so we can talk in private," Natalia said, beckoning down the hallway.
"Okay," Magnum said getting up off of the chair and following Natalia down the hallway.
Natalia walked about halfway down the hallway, pulled out a key, and opened the door, she held it open and beckoned for Magnum to walk in. Magnum went inside the small stuffy hotel room, that had one full-size bed in the middle, a suitcase in one corner, along with a simple tan back-pack, in the other corner there was a mini-fridge and microwave.
Dropping his backpack on the floor, he sat on the bed not really caring that he was dirty and sweaty.
"So, what are you doing here Thomas, I mean not that I am glad to see you, but this is not like you?" Natalia said looking at Thomas with concern lacing her eyes.
"It came back to bite us," Magnum said knowing that, Natalia would understand what was going on.
"So what you came to me for what, your last goodbye?" Natalia questioned concerned, knowing this was just like Magnum to come to see her if he did not think he would live, to see her again.
"Natalia," Magnum started.
"Do not Natalia me, you, you…" Natalia started, before pausing for a moment and leaning in towards Magnum to kiss him gently on the lips quickly, before pulling away and continuing.
"You dumbass, you think you're going to die so you are visiting me."
"Natalia, you know that's not true," Magnum said somewhat confidently.
"Yeah it is, you never call, never text, and then all of a sudden you drop by, with a bag of weapons," Natalia said exasperated, tossing her hands up in the air.
"Come help me, Natalia, everyone regroups in three more weeks, but there are some people that have the info I need, and unless you are actively in the middle of something, but I know that you were disavowed after an op went bad a few years ago and never recontacted the agency," Magnum said slightly desperately.
Unknown
Tala, James, and Striker were hiking up a steep mountain, in the middle of terrain, was about 150 miles away from the base camp, and were using a GPS to pinpoint the location of the "Buried Treasure". The sun was starting to set, so they were going to most likely discover a place to set up for the night shortly.
"Tala, how do you think everyone else is doing?" James questioned from where he was walking from behind Tala.
"Kat and Luke, are probably doing good, Red and Seth are definitely bored, Magnum who knows depends on how things go with Natalia," Tala said chuckling slightly at the thought of their companions, as they continued hiking.
Kumu looked at the young woman beside her who was desperate for a cultural tour of Hawaii, back at the estate but was now staring out the window into the distance.
"There is so much sky here, and sea and green, everything is just so colorful, so pure," Lilly said looking up at the sky, much in the way that Thomas did when he first arrived in Hawaii, making her wonder what had happened to the young women before, she evidently got to Hawaii, that left her so damaged.
"I guess it is isn't," Kumu said carefully, unsure of why the young woman was so fascinated by everything.