At the arranged time, he's standing just outside Officer Morrison's office, poised to knock, when he hears an unmistakable laughter coming from inside. Steve breathes deeply, to calm himself down and get his emotions in check and knocks. Upon getting an "enter!" he opens the door and heads inside.
There are three people in the office: Morrison, another man Steve has never seen before and… Catherine. He sees her sitting down on a sofa to the left of Morrison's desk through the corner of his eye, but his first instinct is to greet the man he supposedly knows and is responsible for this meeting. Morrison shakes Steve's hand, since they are not in a military setting and then turns him halfway to his left to introduce the two other people.
"Lieutenant Commander, let me introduce you. This is Officer Carter", he says, motioning towards the man who has gotten up, in the meantime. "And this is Lieutenant Rollins, but I believe you two already know each other?" he deadpans, smirking.
Starting to feel a real dislike for Officer Morrison, and after greeting the other man, Steve looks at him sideways, not amused, while silently extending his hand to hold Catherine's. He lingers on the man's face for a moment longer and, when he turns to properly greet Catherine, she is also smirking knowingly at him, and this gesture on her part manages to defuse the situation. She squeezes his hand tight, holding it, not a word spoken between them.
If Morrison wanted a reaction out of these two, he's very disappointed, as both Catherine and Steve sit down on the couch, after Officer Carter walks past them and bids his goodbyes, giving Catherine a hug. An uncomfortable silence follows, and both Catherine and Steve look attentively at Morrison to start the meeting. Once he realises he's not going to get any other reaction from the two people sitting across from him, he sits back and clears his throat.
"Well, Commander McGarrett, given that you already know the person you'll be working with, we need to establish some ground rules and debrief you on what happened in Hawai'i and what you know. Regarding the rules, it's like any other war zone you've ever been in and I'm sure there's nothing I can teach you that you don't already know. However, be aware: the insurgents, here, are always looking for an excuse to mount deadly incursions. Recently, there have been several high-profile attacks and civilian casualties are higher now than they've ever been, more due to allied forces and the Afghan army, than due to the Taliban. The Afghan army is also known to bribe and extort the citizens to levels never before seen and not practiced by the Taliban, so all this makes for an explosive situation. You need to keep this in mind at all times and protect yourself accordingly – and my officer. She will do the same for you" he finishes, still leering, provocative, looking for a reaction. When he again gets none, apart from a nod, he continues.
"Well, Commander, shall we move to the command center and you can fill us in on what exactly happened on O'ahu?" Morrison says, getting up from his desk.
"Of course", is all Steve says, getting up and following Catherine out the door.
The CIA command center is an impressive room, about 1000 square feet full of screens, worktables much like the one he has back on O'ahu and personnel, busy tracking insurgent activity and movement throughout the Province. As Officer Hamilton reaches a work table, he turns to Steve and asks him to fill them in on what happened, in detail.
"On January 18th, three bombs simultaneously blew up in three strategic locations on the island: the airport, the water purifying plant and a Navy weapons depot. We had caught some chatter, on the grapevine, about something big about to happen, but were unable to find out what. Thirteen people died and we've been drinking water from bottles and having it publicly distributed for a week, now. Thankfully, the airport terminal that was destroyed was a domestic one, so at least there, they were not effective. The depot had just been decommissioned, so there were no weapons on the premises, but they didn't know that. They wanted us on total lockdown, but we believe that the attack was poorly planned, as they could've inflicted far more damage than they did. What the Five-0 taskforce was able to find out was that this man", he points to the screen where a clear image of the terrorist was displayed, "is the mastermind behind the attacks. When his enforcer, Ahmed Zahed, found himself cornered, he got on a plane and fled. He disguised himself as a tourist, after securing a false ID and passport and disappeared through the cracks. Due to the whole situation, customs and border patrol didn't spot him in time and he disappeared, only to be seen again in Japan, then Lahore. We were able to find one thing, though – his destination. Afghanistan. He travelled alone, after killing his accomplices on the island, mainly local perps. It makes a lot of sense that he would've fled to his native land, what better place to hide?"
"I see. So your mission, here, is to capture this man?"
"Not only that. I want to capture him, but I need to know if there are any other splinter cells planning any other attacks on US soil, namely Hawai'i."
"That is our mission, Lieutenant Commander. And it's going to take time, unfortunately, more time than I am told you have. Can we settle, for now, on the capture of this man?" Morrison says, pointing at the image on the screen. "You will have first crack at him to try and break him and extract any and all information you may use."
"That would be a great start, thank you, yes", Steve says, genuinely relieved that he is being put in the center of this op, at least.
"Well, then, now let me tell you what we know. Lieutenant Rollins?" the man says, addressing Catherine.
A slight pang of remembrance hits Steve, as he takes in the situation: he's in a CIA operation room, ready to be briefed by Catherine. Not what he expected this morning, when he got off that plane.
"We've been tracking down Al-Nazri and his crew for months, now. We knew he was trying to get his splinter cell onto US soil for some attacks, but were unable to find out in time, apparently", she says, looking at Steve with sadness. "He comes from a town 10 miles away, quite remote and inaccessible, known for its resistance to foreign invasion. He is very well connected, we think that he may quickly be going up the ranks, and this attack will surely help his cause. He's ruthless, bloody and doesn't take prisoners. He's responsible, that we know of, for the death of 23 military personnel here on the base and 9 civilian contractors. He doesn't do it himself, of course. He trains children near the border, kidnaps them from their homes, and then threatens to kill their entire families if they do not carry out these attacks," Catherine goes on, thinking of Najib. "Usually, they are suicide bombings. The population both hate and fear him. And he's been running in the shadows for months, we've been unable to pinpoint his location and capture him ever since we became aware of his presence here."
"How long has it been?" Steve asks, genuinely curious.
"We believe he rose to prominence around 2 years ago, so not that long. At the rate that allied forces kill them, they always seem to have more and more leaders in the works", Catherine says, pensive. "Anyway, our best bet to try and flush him out is around his village. I believe he must've come back to gather support and hide from us. He'll need some time to get back on his feet. Now is the time to strike, when he's all over the place."
"I agree", Steve says, looking at the map on the screen that Catherine had put up. "What kind of manpower do we have here?"
"For the moment, Lieutenant Commander, it'll be just you two and an army reconnaissance squad, who volunteered for this mission", Morrison informs him.
"Let's get going then", Steve says, extracting his pen from the computer mainframe, now impatient, eliciting a knowing smile from Catherine. "What's the plan?"
"Al-Nazri comes from Khayfan, a town south of here, and also south of the Harut river, which we'll have to cross. We've had our lookouts on maximum alert ever since you let us know you were coming, but so far, no word. We are going to take the squad and pretend that we are on a peacekeeping mission. That way we'll be able to see if all is calm, or if there is any abnormal movement, while at the same time touching base with our informants on the ground", Catherine says, looking at Steve.
"Seems like a good plan", Steve says. "Can't wait to get my hands on that son of a bitch", he mutters to himself, getting serious gain.