A Taste of Vengeance – Part 5
By Diane Maher
Back at the Ilikai, Wo Fat returned to his suite. Two men in the lobby rode up in the elevator with him, got off at the 17th floor and walked the down the hall away from where he was going. He entered his suite, and then Napoleon and Illya turned and quickly and quietly ran to where they saw him enter. It was suite 1775. Illya quickly picked the lock of the door to the Hogan's suite next door and he and Napoleon entered quietly.
In suite 1775, Freiberger tied young Karla to a chair and calmly asked, "Wo Fat, are we ready to begin the final phase of the plan?"
Wo Fat nodded. "My men are in position and are waiting for the signal from me. I'll go and set off the fire alarm now. That is the prearranged signal."
Shortly, the fire alarm bells began clanging loudly and people were running to the exits. Napoleon and Illya remained in suite 1777 after noticing that the people next door didn't leave when the fire alarm went off. Illya looked out the window and saw the police cars arriving down below.
Illya pulled a small pair of binoculars from his jacket pocket and looked down. He saw McGarrett's car pull up to the front of the hotel. He watched as McGarrett, Kelly and the Hogans got out of his car and headed over to the brown, unmarked car they'd seen earlier when they left to go to the British embassy.
* * * * * * *
"Will you please show this man the picture of your children and the sketch of the man?" asked Chin.
Karla nodded, pulled out the items and handed them to the man.
"Duke, is the girl in this photo the one you saw in the car with Wo Fat and is this the other man with him?" asked Chin.
Duke looked carefully at the picture and the sketch before replying, "Yes."
Meanwhile, Steve found the hotel manager and asked, "What is going on here?"
"There's a fire alarm on the 17th floor. We've evacuated everyone in the hotel," replied the manager.
Steve looked at the front door. It was being closed by an armed Chinese man. "Not everyone, look!"
"What the? I'd better get him out before the fire department arrives," the manager began.
"You'll do no such thing! He's dangerous and as you can see, armed," McGarrett said.
Chin and the others came over to where Steve was standing. "Steve! Duke positively identified the girl in the car with Wo Fat and the other man as well. It's definitely their daughter and the man is this Rudolf Freiberger."
* * * * * * *
"Napoleon?" Illya asked quietly as he came in from the balcony.
"Yes?" asked Napoleon in reply.
"Here, take a look for yourself."
Napoleon silently stepped outside with him, looked over at the balcony of the suite next to them and saw a man holding a girl who was tied up looking at the street below. Illya recognized her as the Hogans' daughter. They retreated back into the suite before they were spotted by either the girl or the man holding her hostage.
He looked around the room and saw there was an adjoining door leading to the suite they were in. "What can we do to help her?"
"Let's see." They emptied the contents of their pockets on the table. Napoleon looked at the things they had with them: their communicators, sleep dart guns and little else. They quickly searched the suite and found no other weapons. "If they had any other weapons besides their guns, they must still have them.
"You see what is going on in the street below. I'm going to listen at the door and see if I can find out what's going on in there."
In the suite next door, he heard two men talking. "Now, Wo Fat, we are ready to complete the final phase of my plan. Go down to the lobby, inform them that the child known as Karla Hogan is unharmed and give them the demand that the woman known as Karla Hoffman is to come up here alone to negotiate the release of the girl."
Wo Fat didn't like having to play second string to this German and he would rather see Steve McGarrett in his clutches. However, he slowly left the room to go to the hotel's entrance.
Napoleon silently opened the door a crack and watched as the man next door left. He recognized him as the same man they rode up with in the elevator.
* * * * * * *
When Wo Fat arrived at the front lobby entrance, he opened the door, walked out and called, "Mister McGarrett! Please come here. My men will not harm you!" To emphasize his point, he sent his men away from the door.
"All right, I don't know what Wo Fat is up to, but this is our chance to find out," Steve said to Chin just before walking slowly towards the entrance to the hotel.
"What's your game, Wo Fat? Kidnapping isn't your style!" McGarrett exclaimed.
"Nor is letting someone get away with murder just because she is a pretty lady your style, McGarrett! Or is it?"
Steve heard the snide tone of Wo Fat's last statement. "I never let anyone get away with anything if I can avoid it!" The very suggestion that he would let a woman off the hook for murder, or any other crime for that matter, because she was pretty made his blood boil.
Wo Fat continued, noticing the lack of response from McGarrett. Obviously, his barbed remark had hit home. "The child by the name of Karla Hogan is safe upstairs in suite 1775 for the moment. But the man holding her there is quite consumed with hatred and she may not continue to remain safe. He wants the woman known as Karla Hoffman to go to the suite and negotiate the girl's release."
"No way! No way will I give you another hostage!" exclaimed Steve.
Wo Fat's eyes narrowed. "Consider your actions well, Steven. They may cost that innocent child her life."
Steve was about to leave when Wo Fat looked at his watch, then continued, "You have five minutes to make your choice. I will be waiting just inside the door."
Steve turned and walked back to where Chin and the Hogans were standing by his car.
"Well? What do they want?" Hogan asked, though he had a sinking feeling he already knew.
Steve looked at Karla, and then said, "They want you. They want you to go up there and negotiate the release of your daughter."
Karla looked at Hogan a moment, scared and then said, "Okay. I'll go."
Hogan looked at Steve and said, "No! I'll go."
Steve said, "Personally, I would rather not see either of you go. I'll go."
Karla said, "No, it's our daughter they have up there. We should go. And besides, it's me that he really wants. I won't go up without you, Robert. I want someone else to go so there is a chance to get her out of there in one piece -- especially if I don't make it out alive."
"And I know that's a real possibility," said Hogan softly.
Steve didn't like it, but realized that Karla wouldn't be swayed. "I'll go with you to make sure that you both get out in one piece." He looked at his watch, "Our five minutes are up. I'll tell Wo Fat of our decision."
McGarrett walked back towards the hotel. Wo Fat saw him approaching and came outside to speak with him.
"We have made our decision. The woman and her husband will go up there, accompanied by me to ensure that the girl is released. Unharmed." The last word McGarrett said threateningly.
Wo Fat considered this. McGarrett was putting himself into the line of fire. Perhaps he would be able to deal with McGarrett personally then. He nodded satisfactorily. "Those are acceptable terms."
Above, Napoleon watched as McGarrett went back to talk to the man they now knew as Wo Fat. Then, McGarrett signaled to Robert and Karla Hogan to join him. The three of them entered the hotel.
* * * * * * *
"McGarrett and the Hogans just entered the hotel," Napoleon commented as he came back inside and placed the binoculars on the table.
"Do we have a plan?" Illya asked.
"Yes. I'll jump over to the next balcony. When McGarrett and the others arrive, this man will no doubt take the girl out there and threaten her life. At that point, I'll grab her and protect her from him. You enter through the adjoining door and try to disarm him if possible."
Illya nodded. "It won't take long for them to get up here."
Illya listened at the door leading to the suite next door and had his gun ready to fire. Napoleon carefully stepped out on the balcony and proceeded to jump to the next balcony.
* * * * * * *
The three people arrived at the seventeenth floor and left the elevator. Wo Fat waited there and indicated which way to go. Steve noticed that Wo Fat didn't accompany them down the hall. He wondered why.
As they left the elevator, McGarrett said, "Karla, can I talk you out of this?"
"No," Karla replied.
To Hogan, McGarrett asked, "Aren't you going to try and change her mind?"
"No. When she makes up her mind, it's made up. And don't think you're going to talk me out of this either. This is my little girl that he's threatening," said Hogan.
By that time, they arrived at the door of the suite. McGarrett knocked and the door opened by itself.
"Come in!" Freiberger exclaimed and pointed his pistol towards the door, which he had left slightly ajar so he could be as far from it as possible when Karla entered. He had taken the girl, whose hands were tied behind her and backed toward the balcony of the suite.
Then, Steve pushed open the door to the suite and entered first, followed by Hogan. Suddenly, a gun was fired. Steve felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder as the bullet hit him and slammed him into the wall. He was stunned by his impact with the wall and Hogan caught him as he fell. A child's muffled scream of "Mom!" was heard the instant after the shot was fired. Karla then entered the suite. Freiberger pointed the gun back at her daughter's head and slowly backed out onto the balcony.
"Oh my God!" Karla exclaimed as she saw her daughter.
"At last, you are here!" Freiberger snarled as he started to back further out onto the balcony and pointed the gun at her. He didn't see the man who had flattened himself against the wall outside on the balcony. "My vengeance is now at hand. Andrea's and Friedrich's souls will finally be able to rest in peace with your death, Karla!"
"Why? What they did was wrong! They were caught and they were punished!" Karla exclaimed.
"NO! All they wanted was a better life for their families. After the war ended, we had nothing. Do you hear me? NOTHING!! All because we were on the losing side! The Allies broke up Germany and served it on a platter! We never had much to say about it as the losers."
Hogan slowly moved McGarrett away from the door and out of the line of fire and saw that his wound wasn't life-threatening. He then stood and started towards where Karla was standing.
"You!! You stay right where you are!" Freiberger shouted and pointed the gun momentarily at Hogan, who stopped his advance.
Outside, Napoleon made his move. He swiftly ran over and grabbed the girl from the man's clutches. Illya opened the adjoining door, quickly noted everyone's position, raised his weapon and pulled the trigger.
The man ducked, avoiding the shot. His gun was now pointed directly at Karla and he started to pull the trigger. Both Hogan and Illya saw this and moved. Hogan took two large steps and put himself between his wife and Freiberger. Illya moved in front of them just as the man fired and took a bullet in the chest, which his vest stopped. The force of the bullet knocked him into Hogan and both men hit the floor in front of Karla. If not for his bulletproof vest, Illya would have been killed.
"Now for you, Karla! You traitorous bitch!! You betrayed your country and your best friend!!" Freiberger screamed as he fired at her a second time. His arm was hit by Napoleon from behind just as he pulled the trigger and his aim was thrown off. The bullet hit Hogan in the left shoulder and threw him back to the floor just as he had started to get up from beneath a stunned Illya.
Freiberger turned his attention towards Napoleon for an instant to try and get his advantage back. He started to fire at the girl. "I'll have my vengeance one way or another!"
Napoleon interposed himself between the man and the girl. He took several shots in his vest, one in his right arm when he tried to pull out his own weapon, but managed to remain standing by grabbing the door frame with his left hand. The man started to raise the gun to fire at his head.
This gave Karla the time she
needed to act. She quickly squatted
down, pulled up the hem of her blue-green aloha dress just enough that she
could pull her SS dagger from its sheath, then stood while Freiberger's
attention was still directed towards Napoleon and getting his hostage back. Steve watched with amazement as she pulled the
dagger from its sheath, headed across the room but said nothing, only observed
what happened next. If he said anything,
there would be a massacre here.
After Hogan had been hit by the bullet, Karla was determined that this would be settled here if it was the last thing she did. She taunted Freiberger in German, "Rudolf! I'm here, come and get me!"
Hearing his first name and his native language spoken threw Freiberger off guard. He turned back towards Karla and away from Napoleon and her daughter. She took two more steps and thrust the dagger into his right shoulder.
"You BITCH!!!" He dropped the gun and howled as the dagger was buried to almost to its hilt in his shoulder. He swung his left fist at her and connected with her jaw. She staggered back and fell over the chair.
Napoleon managed to pull out his gun and shot several sleep darts into Freiberger. He collapsed to the floor, asleep. Karla closed her eyes in relief as she slowly sat up, rubbed her jaw, then stood, crossed the room and kneeled to check Hogan's wound.
McGarrett slowly pulled a walkie-talkie out of his jacket pocket and called Chin in the street below.
"Chin, get a couple of ambulances here. There are several wounded people up here," Steve said hoarsely.
"Steve, are you all right?" came Chin's voice over the walkie-talkie speaker.
"I'll survive. I took a bullet in my right shoulder. Check for Wo Fat. I think he may have tried to escape. Arrest his men in the lobby, if you can, then bring a couple of stretchers up here."
Shortly, the Chinese men previously stationed in the lobby were arrested as they had congregated near the pool by Wo Fat's orders and had their weapons out of reach when the men from HPD arrived on the scene. Duke and Chin checked the area for Wo Fat, but didn't find him. By this time, the ambulances had arrived and Chin accompanied the ambulance attendants to suite 1775.
Napoleon brought young Karla into the suite after he had managed to untie her and removed the gag from her mouth, she was safe and sound. Illya had dressed McGarrett's wound and was now working on Hogan's. Karla saw her daughter being released by Napoleon and was still on her knees as her child saw her and ran to her with a cry of "Mom!"
"Are you all right? Did that man hurt you?" Karla asked as tears of relief welled up in her eyes as she held her daughter tightly to her.
"Yes, I'm all right. No, he didn't hurt me, but he meant to take you and dad away from me forever!" young Karla exclaimed as she hugged her mother tightly. "It would have hurt me more than anything else in the world had he succeeded." She then saw Hogan lying on the floor and asked, "Will dad be all right?"
Karla turned and looked at Hogan, whose wound was being tended to by Illya. "Yes, Uncle Illya is taking care of your father."
Outwardly, Illya ignored this, but inwardly, he smiled. Then, Napoleon asked sarcastically, "Uncle Illya??? Did I miss something?"
"Yes, Napoleon, you did," Karla responded, then laughed.
By then, the stretcher had arrived. As Chin entered the room, he looked for Steve, "Steve! My God, it looks like there's been a massacre in here!"
"Not quite, Chin. I think there would have been if Karla hadn't gotten Freiberger disarmed, though."
Steve noticed her rubbing her jaw. "Speaking of that, are you all right?"
Karla nodded. "Yes. All I'll need is an ice pack for my jaw. I'm fortunate that he wasn't ten years younger, he probably would have hit me much harder."
Chin looked over to where Freiberger lay and saw the dagger protruding from his shoulder, then at Karla, who was still holding her daughter.
Karla released her daughter
who went over to Hogan. She walked over
and retrieved her dagger from the sleeping body of Rudolf Freiberger, rinsed
it, dried it with a towel and started to return it to its sheath. The ambulance attendant covered the wound when
the weapon was removed. She almost
pitied Freiberger, but knew that to him, this had been the right, just and
honorable thing for him to do, avenge his wife's and brother's betrayal and
ultimately, their deaths. She looked at
the blade she held and considered what the engraved phrase meant to her now.
"My loyalty is with my family now," Karla whispered out loud.
Napoleon gently put his hand on her right shoulder, interrupting her thoughts and said quietly, "Come on. They're ready to take Steve, Hogan and this one to the hospital. That's one mean looking dagger you've got there."
"Yes, it is," whispered Karla in reply.
"You sound as though you are mocking it," Napoleon commented.
"No. I was considering what this phrase once meant to me and what it means to me now," Karla replied.
He looked at the blade. "I'm afraid that I know more Russian than German. What does it say?"
Karla replied, "'My honor is loyalty'."
"Rather a profound statement," commented Napoleon.
"Yes. Then and now." Karla leaned down, pulled up her skirt slightly and replaced the dagger to its sheath. They then headed for the door of the suite.
Chin Ho Kelly escorted Karla, her daughter, Napoleon and Illya to the front of the hotel where the ambulances were waiting. They climbed into Steve's car and followed the ambulances to the hospital. Upon their arrival, the bullets were removed from Hogan and Steve and both were put in the same room to recover with a police guard inside and outside of it. The prisoner's wound was treated and stitched closed. The bullet in Napoleon's arm was also removed. His arm was now in a sling so he couldn't disturb the healing wound.
They all waited in the room for Hogan and McGarrett to regain consciousness after their brief surgeries. The doctors had given them all an anesthetic while removing the bullets. Napoleon woke first in the next room and Illya was waiting there for him. In the next room, Karla sat in a chair with an ice pack on her jaw.
The girl went over to the bed where her father lie and gently grasped his right hand. Just then, his eyes fluttered open. She noticed this and exclaimed, "Dad!"
On hearing this, Karla stood and went over to the bed. Hogan had regained consciousness; he saw his wife and daughter standing next to the bed, both alive and he was happy. He gently squeezed his daughter's hand.
"What happened to you?" Hogan asked.
"Freiberger punched me after I stabbed him in the shoulder. I'll survive," Karla replied.
"You what?!" asked Hogan, incredulous.
"You heard me," replied Karla.
"Oh well. I'm thankful you're both all right," Hogan said quietly.
"Thank Napoleon and Illya for being in our room instead of on the street below with the rest of the hotel guests," said Karla.
"It's good to see you in one piece, Hogan," Illya said.
"It's good to be in one piece, Illya," Hogan replied, then closed his eyes to sleep.
The doctor came over, checked his vital signs and said, "He needs some rest. You can come back tomorrow. You need to rest too."
"All right, doctor," Karla replied quietly, then smoothed back the lock of hair that had strayed onto Hogan's forehead and leaned over and gently kissed his forehead.
Shortly, Steve McGarrett woke. Chin stood and went to speak with him briefly. The doctors didn't want these patients to be disturbed for very long and were ready to shoo the visitors away if necessary.
"Steve, what happened?" Chin asked.
McGarrett replied, "I entered the room first and Freiberger shot me in the shoulder. He was obviously expecting only Karla to be coming through that door. It would appear that Wo Fat double crossed him by letting Hogan and me go up as well. Speaking of Wo Fat, did we catch him?"
"No, Steve. But did you honestly expect to?" asked Chin.
"I guess not. He's a slithering snake and those are very hard to catch. But one day, we'll catch him."
By this time, Karla and her daughter were standing next to Chin. "What did you think you were doing? Where did you get that dagger?" Steve asked Karla as he remembered seeing her stab Freiberger. It caused him to drop his gun, thus allowing Napoleon to shoot him with sleep darts.
"It's from half a world away and a lifetime ago," Karla replied. That told Steve that it was hers from the SS. He too drifted off to sleep. The doctor then saw the visitors to the hallway.
"They'll be all right. I've ordered policemen to watch the inside and outside of the rooms with Hogan and Steve as well as the prisoner," Chin said. "Can I give you a ride back to your hotel?" he asked Illya and Karla as they left the hospital and walked to the car.
"Yes, thanks. Will we need to remain in Hawaii for a while?" Karla asked when they were situated in the back seat.
"Yes, we'll need your statements when you've had a chance to get rested as well as finding out about what has been going on in England while you've been away. There's also the matter of the Interpol warrant for your husband's arrest that will need to be settled," Chin replied.
"Would you consider staying in our suite tonight? We'd feel safer if there was someone else there," Karla asked Illya.
"Yes. I'll be happy to. I don't have a family, but I understand that you've gone through quite a lot recently," Illya replied quietly.
He saw the grateful look in Karla Hogan's eyes as she looked over at her daughter who had fallen asleep with her head on Illya's shoulder as she sat in his lap shortly after they had gotten into the Five-O man's car.
* * * * * * *