Higgins had worked as a double agent, a triple agent, and, for eleven insanity-inducing months, she had even been the only quadruple agent known to have been active anywhere in the world at that point in time. She had dealt with traitors and terrorists as easily as she had politicians and military leaders. Her poise under pressure was the culmination of hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of training and untold hours of hard-won experience. Her mental agility was the end result of countless hours of study and carefully honed natural ability. Physically speaking, she was still maintaining the peak she had reached at the age of twenty-two when her close-quarters combat instructor had compared her to a hand grenade.
In her time working for the British government, she had helped to expose and dismantle an international marketplace for weapons of mass destruction. Her service of Her Majesty the Queen had once led to her spending two days trapped in a Jeep with three other people in a Siberian snow storm, surviving on vodka and the driver's stash of American candy bars. If Magnum thought his piddling little HALO jump into North Korea was impressive, his brain would literally explode at the truth behind some of her exploits.
Which was why, if that ridiculous little man child thought he was going to get the better of her like this, he was going to have to think again. If she had to beat that new thought into his head, so be it. For all that he was taller and stronger than she was, for all that he had received some of the best military training available, she knew that, if the two of them ever did come to blows, she would have a definite advantage over him. Unlike Magnum, Juliet Higgins was no gentleman.
She was, however, an impeccable hostess with an exquisite understanding of the subtleties of society. And so, she didn't even so much as blink as Luther's voice got louder. Any reaction could have been noticed by him and might have given offense. Her grandmother would roll in her grave if her granddaughter were to be ungraceful in the execution of her duties as hostess. Okay, Luther being a guest in her car was straining the definition somewhat. But it was the only thing stopping her from stamping on the brakes, dragging him out of the passenger seat, and leaving him on the side of the road. That, and the knowledge that Magnum was expecting her to be frustrated by spending so much time in such close quarters with Luther. If she were being perfectly honest, her refusal to let Magnum get the better of her was driving her more than her deep-seated knowledge of etiquette.
"I mean, what did he expect me to do? I like Magnum; I really do. But this client was far too much for him to handle. The poor guy would have floundered under the weight of a case this complicated. If you think about it logically, I was doing him a favour!" Luther hadn't stopped talking for longer than it took for him to inhale since before he had climbed into the Rover.
Higgins fixed Magnum's stupid grin firmly in her mind's eye before answering. "I completely understand." Oops, that tone was so sweet it was almost sickly. Anyone who knew her at all would have raised an eyebrow. Someone who knew her well would have looked anxiously for weapons.
Luther, falling into neither of these categories, kept right on talking. "I knew you would get it, Juliet. After all, you're the sensible one. But Magnum is just so sensitive sometimes, you know? That's why I didn't tell him right away. I knew he would take it personally and upsetting a guy like Magnum is like kicking a puppy. Sometimes it's necessary, but it always makes you feel bad."
"At what point have you found kicking a puppy to be a necessity?" There was nothing but genuine curiosity in her tone, but, in her mind, Higgins' grandmother immediately began admonishing her, using words like 'uncouth.' Grandmother Marion had harboured a great fear of being considered uncouth. Swearing was uncouth, unless of course it was a man and he had been moved to a great emotional disturbance. Crying in public was uncouth, unless of course it were at a funeral. Even so, one had to be cautious and not make a spectacle of oneself. Questioning your guests was on the more severe end of the uncouth spectrum.
"Obviously I didn't mean kicking puppies. I meant upsetting Magnum." Luther somehow managed to make it sound as though Higgins were to be pitied for not understanding what had been said. He even reached over and patted her hand as if offering her sympathy. "He tries his hardest and I respect that. But sometimes his best effort just isn't enough."
"And that's where you come in." Grandmother Marion was not at all impressed and had put on her best 'we are not amused' expression. 'I know what you're doing young lady,' she warned. 'Don't think that tone of voice can disguise your rudeness from me.' Grandmother Marion's mental ghost was on its own; Luther was utterly oblivious to Higgins' exasperation.
"For the sake of the client, of course," he said, his tone and expression almost pious. "My job as a private investigator is to make sure that the client gets the best possible service."
Higgins would have argued that a private investigator's job was to investigate, but she didn't care to start a debate. Her head was starting to hurt, she was annoyed with Magnum for dumping his problems in her lap, and she was reasonably sure that she was being tailed.
That last item was far more pressing than the other two, and she pushed the headache to the back of her mind with an ease that spoke of far too much practice ignoring pain. The annoyance was a little harder to brush off, but the ability to bury their emotions was something covert operatives depended on to survive assignment after assignment. One deep breath was all it took for thoughts of Magnum and the casual ease with which he had made Luther her problem to be relegated to a small part of her mind labelled 'To Be Dealt With At A More Convenient Time.'
"It's not like I had to ask Magnum for help. I was perfectly capable of dealing with Reyes and his skeevy little blackmail schemes on my own. I just thought that Magnum might appreciate a little extra cash. The man's lack of funding is practically common knowledge at this point. It's a wonder the criminals aren't using it to their advantage." Either Luther really hadn't noticed that Higgins wasn't paying any attention to him or he really didn't care. He kept on talking as Higgins made several erratic moves, cutting across lanes and racing red lights.
The blue car she had noticed stuck with her, forcing at least one other driver to brake hard to avoid an accident.
She was just reaching for the 'call' button on the steering wheel, debating between calling nine-one-one or dialling Katsumoto, when the other car turned down a side street and vanished. Next to her, Luther was still explaining why he was a better P.I. than Magnum, but Higgins still wasn't listening. She was sure that the blue car was trouble and wasn't happy to realise her attempt at evasion had led her away from the main road. She kept driving just under the speed limit and kept scanning the mirrors as well as the street ahead for any sign of the blue pest or any other vehicle acting suspiciously.
"What are you looking for?"
Higgins glanced to the side to see Luther peering through the passenger side window. It was just her bad luck that the blue car chose the same moment to reappear, tearing out into the road in front of the Rover and coming to a stop. Higgins slammed on the brakes, reaching to throw the car into reverse. But before she could, the driver's door of the blue car was flung open and a man stepped out. The gun he was holding was aimed directly at her, and she knew from experience that her car wouldn't turn fast enough to take her out of the line of fire before at least one bullet found its mark. Of course, in her experience, she was the one holding the gun and not the target. But there was no reason to assume this man had slower reflexes than she did.
"Do we get out?" Luther's hands were over his head, fingers splayed wide.
Higgins took in the look of fear on his face and instantly, if ungraciously, decided that, whatever happened next, he would be a burden rather than an asset. "Yes, Mr. Gillis." Her voice was smooth, not a trace of the annoyance or worry that she was feeling. "We get out. And we do as we are told." Years of babysitting as a teen had served to cultivate a no-nonsense tone that troublesome children responded to almost instinctively. Years of experience had taught her that scared adults often responded well to the same authoritative tone, and, to her relief, Luther was no exception. He immediately dropped one hand to the door handle, and Higgins allowed herself to think that she might just be able to keep control of the situation.
But, as she opened her door, the armed man moved towards her, guestering impatiently for her to stand in front of him. She did so, making sure to keep her hands out in front of her. They stood like that for a long moment, neither of them moving or talking. Out of the corner of her eye, Higgins could see Luther standing in front of the Rover, mimicking her pose. Then the man in front of her pulled his gun back slightly.
For a fraction of a second she thought he was adjusting his aim, that Luther must have been trying to make a run for it. But then the gun flew forward before she could react. The end of the barrel caught her on the temple, and she crumpled as the world sparked and shimmered around her. By the time she could make her vision focus, she had been tied up and dumped in the trunk of the little blue car and there was nothing to see.
She tried to shift and ease the pressure on her left arm, but a quiet 'oof' made her freeze.
"Luther?"
"Of course it's me. Who did you expect?" He sounded annoyed, and Higgins wondered vaguely if he actually understood the seriousness of their current situation.
"I didn't realise you were in here too," she muttered, suddenly feeling her stomach churn and quickly adding 'mild concussion' to her mental list of problems.
"Well, you were unconscious."
She wanted to argue that she hadn't actually blacked out, but she wasn't so sure anymore. Instead, she closed her eyes and took bets with herself over how long Luther could talk about the difference between a car's trunk and its boot before needing a new topic.
"I can't believe you got Higgins to agree to drive Luther back to his office." Rick shook his head as he spoke, watching the Rover pull into traffic.
"Luther's not that bad," Magnum admonished, although the laughter in his voice spoiled the effect somewhat. "Besides, we're going in the opposite direction." He would never, even with a gun to head, admit just how much he had enjoyed throwing Higgins' words back at her. At least, not until he thought enough time had passed that he could make her laugh over it. He climbed into the Ferrari and handed his phone to Rick, a map already pulled up on the screen.
"How sure are you about this tip-off?" Rick questioned, wrinkling his nose at the area the phone screen was showing him. "This is a long way to go for nothing." Beside him, Magnum shrugged as he pulled into the traffic.
"It's the only lead I've got," he admitted, glancing to the side to see if his friend looked annoyed.
Rick just shook his head and settled back in his seat. "Lucky we have this wonderful car with its top of the range suspension." He said it with a big grin that Magnum returned. "And it's such a nice day for a drive." The accent he put on was outrageous, and both men laughed.
Magnum reached over and flicked the radio on, the sounds of the newest pop sensation that neither of them recognized filling the air.
After a few minutes, a quiet beep from Magnum's cell signaled an incoming call. Rick glanced at it to see 'Luther Gillis' on the screen
"He's probably calling to say Higgy dumped him out of the car." Rick laughed and let Magnum's bluetooth pick up the call. "Luther, how can we help you now?"
"...even have feet, they have tires. So why a boot?" Luther's voice spilled from the Ferrari's speakers. "At least 'trunk' tells you what it is."
Magnum and Rick exchanged a confused look.
"How do you butt dial someone while you're sitting, not moving, in a car?"
Magnum opened his mouth to reply, no doubt ready with a joke at Luther's expense, but Luther was talking again.
"Of course, it doesn't make a difference when you're trapped in it. Trapped is trapped after all, whether it's in a trunk or a boot."
"It has to do with horse drawn carriages, I believe." Higgins, while distant, sounded vaguely ill, and Magnum frowned.
"Luther!" he called loudly. "Hey, Luther! The line's open!"
"Tying us up was so unnecessary. Not to mention painful. And you with that cut on your head."
At that, Magnum glanced in his side mirror and then threw the car into a tight u-turn.
Higgins' voice was back, saying something about not realizing that she was bleeding, and both Magnum and Rick felt their stomachs clench.
"Call Katsumoto," Magnum said quietly, not noticing Rick was already pulling out his cell. "Tell him we think Higgins and Luther have been kidnapped and that Reyes might have something to do with it."
They listened for the rest of the drive to HPD as Luther expounded on the oddities of British English, touching on chips, pavements, and brollies, before coming to a sudden stop just as the Ferrari was pulling up to the curb. Katsumoto was waiting outside and hurried over, snapping his mouth closed as Magnum held up a hand.
"Are we here?" Luther sounded scared, and the three men unconsciously leaned toward the speakers to hear the ongoing call.
"I'd expect so. Either that or we've broken down." Higgins' voice actually sounded slightly stronger than before, and Magnum and Rick were relieved for a moment.
Then they heard the clunk of a trunk opening, and Luther gasped.
"Please don't hurt me, I'm sorry for whatever Juliet did that annoyed you!" A quiet 'oof' and some confused sounds told them Luther had been dragged out of the trunk and dropped to the ground. A cry of pain echoed across the line, along with an affronted sort of shout from Luther, and there were long seconds of crackling and smothered sounds as something moved across the microphone.
"What the hell? Who are you calling?"
Another cry of pain, masculine this time. Then a beep as the call was dropped.
"I have officers on their way to pick up Reyes, and tech working on tracing the call. They're looking for the GPS trace on Higgins' car too." Katsumoto was doing his level best to remain calm and professional, ignoring the voice in his head that was parroting back facts and statistics about kidnappings and recovery rates. He also ignored the fact that the Ferrari was in a no-parking zone as they hurried into the station to check on the success of the tech team.
Higgins was feeling decidedly miserable and trying her best not to show it. Luther was behind her somewhere, tied to a chair like she was. Her own seat was in the middle of the room, leaving her feeling oddly vulnerable, like she was on display. And her feet were freezing. Whoever this man was, he had tugged her shoes off after making Luther tape her wrists and ankles to the chair and dragged her over to an old tin tub more than half full of water. The chair had been tipped back, making her head spin, and she had been dropped forward again, feet in the water, before she had recovered from the dizzy feeling.
She didn't waste her energy glaring at her captor, settling instead for a distant sort of look which had driven more than one would-be tormentor to distraction in the past.
"What's your name?" came from behind her, and she nearly rolled her eyes. "I'm Luther. And I'm sure we can work this out. You look like a sensible sort of guy. Maybe we can double what your boss is paying you for kidnapping us?"
"I'm Nicholas." Now that was disturbing. They had seen his face and had a name to put to it. Never a good sign. "And I'm not interested in your money." He hadn't moved from where he was standing directly in front of Higgins, and he kept his eyes on her as he spoke. "Your boyfriend, the one with the bad taste in shirts, has been poking around in things that don't concern him."
"You mean Reyes and his blackmail schemes? Hey, as far as we're concerned if a politician is stupid enough to take photos of himself with a hooker, then he deserves to be blackmailed. Right, Juliet?"
Higgins still didn't say anything, and Nicholas rolled his eyes.
"I don't give a damn about Reyes' penny ante crap; he did that on his own. What I care about is what Reyes knows about me. Your fella has been sticking his nose into things. You're going to tell me what he knows."
Higgins met Nicholas' gaze for the first time. "I can't tell you anything." It was the truth. Magnum had mentioned something about Reyes having other pots on the boil, but he hadn't gone into detail and Higgins hadn't thought to ask. Not that she would spill her guts anyway. Interrogation, even enhanced interrogation, could be resisted with the proper training or experience, or even with nothing more than determination and stubbornness. And she had all four. She held Nicholas' eyes as he smirked.
"I've had people tell me that before," he said, quietly enough that she thought he was trying to sound threatening. To her, determined not to allow him any measure of fear, it just sounded like he needed to clear his throat. "I've always been able to persuade them to change their minds." He spun on his heel and walked out, doubtless imagining his prisoners would be scared by his words.
Higgins just rolled her eyes and allowed herself a moue of distaste at his theatrics.
Behind her, she could Luther tugging fruitlessly at the tape holding him to his chair. "Did he just say he's going to torture us?" he cried, his face screwed up in horror.
Higgins didn't bother trying to turn her head to see him, just spoke to the wall in front of her. "Actually, Mr. Gillis, he said he was going to torture me." She kept her voice as matter-of-fact as she could and made sure her expression was at its most aloof, even though he couldn't see her. "All you have to do is sit there and stay quiet."
"Oh, is that all?" Luther said, adding extra syllables to every single word in an attempt at conveying sarcasm rather than fear.
"Yes that's all," Higgins snapped, regretting the display of emotion the instant it escaped.
"It's not like I can tell him anything anyway," Luther groused, actually managing to sound put out by Magnum not sharing case details with him. "I don't know the first thing about whatever it is he's been whining on about. All I was investigating was some blackmail. Whatever Magnum found, he kept to himself."
"Exactly. I strongly suggest that you remember that because I guarantee that whatever this man is about to do to me will look like a spa treatment compared to what I will do to you if you attempt to give him any information at all." The huff that met her words told her she'd managed to offend Luther, and she was pretty sure he was planning on replying, but the door swinging open put a stop to whatever he was going to say.
Nicholas had a car battery slung over his shoulder and a set of jumper cables in his hand. Luther made some sort of strangled noise, but Higgins didn't react except to square her shoulders. She'd known what was coming the moment she'd seen the old tin bath.
'You've done this before,' she told herself firmly even as her heart began to race. 'You can see the battery has been limited. It's not going to kill you. You can deal with this.'
Nicholas grinned at her as he finished fiddling with the battery and leads and touched the clips together, making them throw sparks. "I can see you're scared," he crooned, as if he was talking to a date rather than a victim. "I don't want to hurt you." He adopted a look of pious benevolence. "I can let you walk out of here without a mark on you."
Higgins kept her voice purposefully steady, looking him dead in the eye as she replied. "I can't tell you anything."
She had less than a second to draw in a breath before Nicholas, his face abruptly twisted in rage, lunged forward and pressed the metal clips to her skin. Her whole body jerked as the current flowed through her, stealing her breath and making her heart lurch. It was only a few seconds, maybe five at the most, but it was long enough to leave her panting. Luther was muttering to himself, repetitions of "no, no," and "oh please," and Higgins used the sound of his voice to ground herself, calming her breathing.
"Tell me." Now Nicholas sounded cold and threatening, and Higgins smiled to herself in grim satisfaction. He hadn't managed to keep up his facade of control for long, and that meant he wasn't as experienced as he had tried to make her believe. True torturers were a rare breed who knew it took patience as well as brutality. Losing control like this meant Nicholas was going to either kill her or give up, but whatever happened she knew for certain now that she could hold out until it ended.
"I can't tell you anything." Her voice was clear and steady, and this time she was expecting the jolt of electricity and breathed in deeply.
Nicholas pushed the ends of the clips against her with a snarl and she felt the sick rush of adrenaline and helplessness. When he took the clips away, she tasted blood and realised she had bitten her tongue.
"Tell. Me," he demanded, holding the leads close to her face.
She spat at him instead, taking advantage of his proximity. He slammed the metal against her chest, the force breaking the skin. The shock lasted a lot longer this time; she was dizzy when it stopped and the sickly sweet smell of boiling human blood made her stomach churn. She coughed as her chest heaved, struggling to catch her breath while her muscles continued to twitch.
Nicholas leant forward again, breathing heavily. "I don't want to keep doing this," he said, his tone belying his words. "So tell me what Magnum knows and we can all go our separate ways."
Higgins forced her head up, ignoring the twinge that told her the spasms had pulled more than one muscle. "I can't tell you anything." Her voice was quieter this time, but the words were still clear.
Nicholas swore violently as he jerked away from her, throwing the jumper cables to the floor. They landed together and threw off sparks for a brief second before the force of the current moved them apart. He leant in again, as close as he could, resting his arms on top of hers and bringing his lips to her ear. "I think I'm gonna enjoy this," he whispered, loud enough for Luther to hear.
He responded with a shaky gasp.
Higgins responded by throwing her head to the side. It was a dumb move, hurting her as much as it did Nicholas, but it felt satisfying. She couldn't hide her smirk as he fell to the floor, hand covering his bleeding lip.
He pulled himself upright with a huff and a glare. She returned his look with a raised eyebrow and he backhanded her across the face, hard enough to topple the chair. Landing hard on her side sent a shock of pain through her entire body. Higgins thought she heard Luther yell something, but Nicholas took advantage of her new position to kick her hard in the stomach, and her world turned into a speck of light surrounded by dancing black spots.
It took every ounce of her energy not to pass out as the kicks kept coming, making her lungs burn as she fought just to breathe. A fire raced suddenly around her upper stomach, at least one rib breaking under the assault, and she screamed as best she could with no air in her lungs. By the time she'd managed to breathe without coughing, Nicholas had left the room, taking his battery with him, and Luther was calling her name.
"Juliet? Are you still alive?" His relief at her answering snort of laughter was palpable if short-lived. "Why are you laughing? Are you hysterical? I can't slap you to snap you out of it you know." Higgins found herself focusing on his voice, using it as a lifeline, following the rhythm of his words to claw back control over her breathing and heart rate. She couldn't afford to pass out or panic; that would give Nicholas the chance to regain his composure, and she wanted him angry and emotional. The more he let his emotions control him, the more likely it was that he would mess up somehow. As long as he was unsettled, she had the upper hand and he didn't even know it.
"Are you… are you asleep?" Luther was asking, and Higgins forced herself to pay attention instead of letting his words wash over her. "Should I stop talking?"
"No," she answered quickly, tipping her head back as far as she could to look at him. "Don't stop talking, please." She knew she sounded desperate, but that was okay; if Luther thought she was scared, she wouldn't need to waste time explaining to him that she was trying to rest as much as she could, trying to steady her nerves and keep her resolve strong. Sure enough, he started rambling, telling her something about his childhood. For the life of her she didn't know why, but it didn't matter. As long as he was talking she knew they were alone in the room, and she could take advantage to catch her breath, let her aching muscles relax a little.
'Take any opportunity to recover, recoup, and force some more metal into your backbone,' she had been told once. She had used the same line when she was running a counter-interrogation workshop.
As soon as Luther stopped talking, she would know Nicholas had come back. As soon as Nicholas came back, he would be moving on to whatever his next attempt at interrogation would involve. But until then, Higgins would focus on breathing and remind herself that she had been through worse. And that this time, rather than a handler who was too worried about his reputation to raise the alarm, there were people looking for her who would tear the island apart to find her.
HPD's tech team was good but, as Peni Iosua explained to Katsumoto, tracking a moving signal wasn't easy, especially when they had to compete with spotty reception. Peni didn't waste time throwing curious glances at Magnum and Rick; most of HPD knew Detective Katsumoto was friendly with a local P.I. and recognized Magnum on sight. After Magnum explained that call was the only way they had to track the victims of a kidnapping, a case that had only been called in a few minutes ago, and Katsumoto had stepped away to field a call, Peni carried on explaining the difficulties he had faced.
"There aren't many cell towers in the area where the call ended, so triangulating it was next to impossible. I had to try to track it through adjacent towers and extrapolate a location. In the end, I had to admit partial defeat."
"Partial?" Katsumoto had returned and, seeing the stressed look on his face, Peni started talking a little faster.
"The programs we have aren't quite as advanced as TV would have you believe, but they're not bad. I managed to narrow down the area a little." He guestered to a map sitting on his computer screen with a disappointingly large circle drawn on it. He wondered who the kidnapping victim was as he watched emotions play over the faces of the three men as they stared at the map.
It looked as though it was mostly open areas with only a small number of buildings, but the apparent lack of well-maintained roads and the vast spaces were going to slow them down.
"Any chance of flooding the area with police?" Magnum didn't look away from the map as he asked, but Katsumoto shook his head anyway.
"The governor is doing one of his publicity stunt visits. Almost everyone is tied up with security along his route." His tone of voice suggested he was currently entertaining some rather colorful opinions about that fact.
"Would it be worth asking T.C. to fly over do you think?" Rick didn't sound hopeful and wasn't surprised when both Magnum and Katsumoto shook their heads.
"A lot of this area has been affected by mudslides in the last few years. It should be reasonably stable now, but it's mostly abandoned. Any view from the sky will be blocked by the overgrowth." Katsumoto gestured to the satellite photos that had just been pulled up on the nearest computer, and Magnum nodded at the detective's words.
"We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." He didn't sound happy about it. "Just going by what we heard on the phone, we can be pretty sure that whoever this guy is, he's dangerous. Luther sounded terrified, and Higgins has already been injured." He sighed through his nose before turning resolutely away from the computer screen. "I'll call T.C. and see if he can meet us up there. We can split the area into three." He didn't suggest Rick going to get his own car, preferring not to waste the time, but there was no question in his mind that Katsumoto would be coming with them.
Sure enough, Katsumoto took his car, Magnum and Rick took off in the Ferrari, and, after a brief phone call, T.C. raced over to cover the remaining third of their search grid in his van. Katsumoto had arranged for armed response to be on standby, anticipating a need for many heavily armed officers based on nothing more than Magnum's involvement. Or, possibly, to control Magnum and his friends. But first, they needed an address to attend.
After only ten minutes of searching, Rick called to say he and Magnum thought they had something. The 'something' turned out to be a couple of local teens in the girl's father's car. Looking up from each other to see an armed man at each window was more than enough to kill their mood. Unfortunately, it also also affected the moods of the four men, and they all felt an increase in tension after the false alarm.
In the end, it took over an hour to find the right location; the car with the open trunk, half-hidden beneath a large branch that seemed to have been broken from a nearby tree, immediately drew T.C.'s attention thanks to what he'd heard about Luther's phone call. He called Magnum, conferencing in Katsumoto.
"I think I've got it." He looked around wincing. "It's an old campground. There's a lot of buildings to check." He could hear the roar of the Ferrari's engine over the phone line as Magnum put his foot down and suspected Katsumoto had done the same. "I'm gonna make a start on…"
Katsumoto cut him off. "Wait until we get there." He wasn't offering a suggestion, it was an order. "We don't know anything about the kidnapper. And he might not be working alone." There was a beep as Katsumoto hung up, and the line was silent for a second.
"T.C.? Do you have a gun in your van?" Magnum's voice was strained and T.C. recognized the tone immediately. This wasn't Thomas the Private Investigator; this was Lieutenant Magnum speaking, the Navy SEAL.
"You know it," and T.C. knew his own voice was carrying the same stressed tone.
"Good." And another beep told T.C. Magnum had hung up too. He nodded, taking just a moment to prepare himself to run into battle before reaching for his gun.
Higgins was actually relieved when Nicholas came back in and lifted her chair upright again; she'd been afraid that, with all the water in the old tub handy, he would decide to try his hand at waterboarding. She wondered if he was intelligent enough to realise that his inexperience would mean that particular technique would, quite literally, be the death of her. And then she wondered what he had planned instead.
She looked on with something approaching genuine interest as he walked out again and returned with a small box in one hand and a hammer in the other. Not drugs then; that was another relief. Her time in Russia had led to her developing a more than healthy aversion to pharmaceutical interrogation methods. And there was the fact that training couldn't equip you with a resistance. The last thing she wanted was for this idiot to believe her when she said she couldn't tell him anything.
She distracted herself by staring at the hammer and thinking of the toffee hammer sets her mother used to buy with three solid bars of toffee and a small metal hammer to break them up. She'd bought one every weekend and had always made a big deal of handing the hammer to her daughter, telling her it was her job to smash the toffee into pieces that were too small to stick their teeth together. Higgins concentrated on the memory while Nicholas crouched in front of her, running his fingers over the box in a gross mockery of a loving caress.
"I don't expect you to know what's in here." He had a smile on his face as he spoke, and Higgins felt the adrenaline start to flow again, stealing the memory away from her as it sharpened her senses. She blinked as Nicholas opened the box, revealing a messy pile of thin metal needles. They glinted in the light spilling down from the single bulb, and Higgins knew exactly what they were for.
She set her jaw and pushed every emotion down to the very depths of her mind where she knew they would never show on her face. Even when Nicholas stretched out an arm and ran one finger lightly over the top of her left foot, Higgins didn't so much as blink.
"The skin beneath the nail is so delicate. So fragile." He plucked a needle from the box and placed it gently beneath the nail of her little toe. "Just one little tap, and it'll slide it straight in."
She felt the slightest hint of pressure as he leant a little on the needle.
"Maybe I'll give it a wiggle. Just to make sure you're getting the full experience." And he reached out his free hand and caught up the hammer, then looked Higgins dead in the eye.
She held his gaze as he cocked an eyebrow at her in silent question. "I can't tell you anything." Damn, her voice had shaken a little and it made Nicholas grin. Higgins couldn't help but compare the cold smirk to the warm smiles Magnum threw her way, and she clung to the image, fixing his face firmly in her mind. If Nicholas realised he would have to go to the source for information and got his hands on Magnum, a man who had already suffered so much in the name of 'interrogation,' she would never forgive herself.
A red-hot flash of pain made her jump, and she didn't even try to hold back the half-gasped cry of pain, screwing her face up as it tugged horrifically on her ribs. Stoicism in the face of pain looked good on film when it was the action hero resisting the attentions of the villain, but, in the real world, it was a pointless waste of energy.
"Why don't you just tell me?" Nicholas' voice seemed to be getting louder, more smug, and Higgins felt her stomach drop as he realised just how much enjoyment he was getting out of causing her pain.
She quickly reviewed her assessment of him. Not adept at torture for sure, but enthusiastic. If it weren't for his need to extract information from her, Higgins was almost certain he would have some other poor soul trussed up in her place for no reason other than the pleasure it would give him.
'Someone without the training or wherewithal to endure it,' she told herself firmly. 'Better you than someone else.' And she meant it. Even as Nicholas was making a big show of lifting another needle from the box, Higgins told herself it was fine, that she could handle it. But every breath made it feel as though her foot was caught in a vise, she still felt dizzy from the blow to her head, her muscles were shaking from the electric shocks, her chest was resisting every breath she took, and Nicholas was droning on again.
"It can all stop," he purred, looking up at her from where he had rocked back on his heels. "Just tell me." He reached out and flicked the needle beneath the toe nail and Higgins whimpered at the feeling. "Such a little thing to do, just a quick conversation." He tapped the needle with his nail again, driving it in a little deeper, and Higgins dug deep to steady her voice.
"I can't tell you anything." She put heavy emphasis on the last word and ignored the way her breathing was slightly ragged.
Nicholas didn't respond, he simply placed the needle he was holding under the nail of her fourth toe and brought the hammer down on the end with a rough tap. He smirked again as Higgins yelled at the pain, the sound ending in a sob as her lungs warned her that her ribs weren't playing nicely with them. Nicholas had a third needle in place before she had caught her breath, and he dealt it a firm blow.
Higgins couldn't have held back the scream even if she had wanted to. "Stop, stop!" she begged, letting the fear and pain leech into her voice.
"Tell me what I want to know. Every last scrap of information Magnum has on me."
"I will," she gasped, chest heaving as she fought to suck in a full breath through the burn and the fire. "Every bit… every bit of information." She pulled in a lungful of air and let an awful, shakey smile spread over her lips. "Vegetable, animal, and mineral." And she giggled, a terrible, near breathless sound that Luther, sitting in horrified silence, would hear in his nightmares for weeks after.
Nicholas growled deep in his throat and snarled as he grabbed another needle and slammed the hammer down on the end. The blow was so hard it buried the needle in the delicate skin of the nail bed, and Higgins howled in pain for the briefest of seconds before her eyes rolled back in her head, and her body slumped against its restraints.
As Higgins' head dropped to her chest, the door burst open as if in response to some sort of command concealed within the shriek of agony. Magnum came bursting into the room, covering the left side of the room as Rick slipped in beside him and covered the right. T.C., who had stepped aside after shouldering the locked door open, came in behind them as they left the doorway. Every move was well-practiced. All three men scanned the room, took in the situation, and took aim at Nicholas. He had leaped to his feet when the door opened but then stood frozen, staring in horror at the three guns pointing at him.
"HPD!" came a voice from outside the room and Nicholas jumped as Katsumoto came hurrying in, his own gun finding Nicholas. T.C. and Rick both moved out of his way, though their guns didn't leave their target. Magnum didn't move, and the detective gave him a worried sort of look.
"You can't kill him, Magnum." His voice was firm. "He deserves to spend a long time in jail, not get off nice and quick with a bullet."
There was no time for Magnum to reply. Nicholas gave an incoherent yell and took a step toward the four men. Four guns discharged so close together no one would ever be able to say for sure who had fired first. Nicholas jerked and fell, blood instantly spilling to the ground beneath him, spreading too quickly for the wounds to be anything other than fatal.
Rick and T.C. stayed where they were, guns still trained on the crumpled body in front of them as Katsumoto hurried over to check for a pulse. Magnum ignored the fallen man completely, trusting his friends to watch his back if he needed them, and crossed the room to crouch by Higgins. He patted her cheek gently, calling her name, trying to wake her up. He studiously avoided looking at anything other than her closed eyes. He didn't want to have a list of her injuries running through his head.
"C'mon, Juliet. It's okay now. It's just me." The tiny groan she gave made his heart break, and he stopped tapping her face and rested his palm on her cheek instead, thumb lightly rubbing her jaw.
"M'num?" Her eyes were still closed, but she was leaning her head against his hand, and he shifted so he could put his other hand on her shoulder.
"I'm here. We're all right here."
Her eyes fluttered open at that, and she looked around as far as she could without lifting her head. Rick and T.C. came over at Magnum's look, Katsumoto's head shake having told them Nicholas was no threat to anyone any more. A tiny smile curved Higgins' lips as she saw her boys standing over her, and she let her eyes drift shut again. She didn't need to see the anger and horror on their faces as they took in the damage Nicholas had inflicted. She really didn't need to see the look on Rick's face as he carefully cut the duct tape off her wrists and ankles. Somewhere, it sounded like a long way away, Katsumoto was yelling at someone. Something about foolish politicians and ambulances, but she was feeling so tired and everything was going sort of fuzzy around the edges. Her head drooped as the hand that was supporting it moved, and she nearly asked what was going on. But then she felt a hand sliding around her back and another under her knees, and a rush of fear flooded through her.
"Shhh. I've got you. I got you, girl." That voice. She knew that voice. As soon as Magnum lifted her, she turned her head, breathing in the warm, slightly citrusy scent that was somehow synonymous with the man and let it distract her from the blaze of pain that flared up. Each step he took made her hurt just a little bit more, but each rush of pain made her feel that little bit more distant, and, by the time Magnum had reached the door, Higgins was unconscious again.
She didn't even hear Luther calling out for someone to carry him too.
"Umm…" Higgins stared at the piece of card in her hand in confusion.
"It's a coupon for an hour of my time," Luther said expansively, clearly thinking he had handed her a great gift.
"That's wonderful. But you do know that I live with a P.I. who owes me no end of favours, right?"
"Yes, but it's only Magnum." He either didn't notice her struggling not to laugh or just didn't care. "Call me when you need me, Juliet." And with that he was gone, with a wave thrown over his shoulder.
Higgins turned to see Magnum shaking his head, his grin telling her he wasn't the least bit offended by Luther's words. The pair sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Higgins had only been discharged from the hospital the day before, and Magnum hadn't left her side except for the few hours she had spent in bed. After she woke screaming, she had let herself into the guest house and curled up on the sofa. Magnum hadn't commented on it when he'd gotten up to find her there, just offered to make coffee.
They'd sat side by side most of the day, Magnum fetching and carrying for Higgins after she'd stumbled and banged her foot against the table leg. Katsumoto had swung by, claiming he needed them both to sign some paperwork. But he'd spent more time assuring himself Higgins was all right than worrying about their statements. Rick and Kumu had both popped in with various different foods - "The better to tempt you with, my dear," Rick had said, looking pleased with himself when Higgins had laughed - and T.C. had appeared with the most bewildering assortment of chocolates, some of which Higgins had never even heard of.
After spending the last ten minutes with Luther, Higgins was starting to feel like all the coffee in the world couldn't keep her awake, and she shifted slightly so she was resting against the arm of the couch.
"Ready for more painkillers?" Magnum had misinterpreted her moving, and she smiled at the protective tone as she shook her head. She was pretty sure it would get annoying soon, but, for now, she was happy to have him hovering over her.
"No, not just yet. But there is something I do want." Magnum tipped his head at her and she smiled again. "I wanted to thank you."
He cocked his head at her. "For what?" At her shrug, he added a raised brow to his look of confusion.
"For finding me before Nicholas got carried away and killed me. I mean, I didn't doubt for a moment that you would find me. I just…" She licked her lips to hide the pause, feeling uncomfortable as ever with an expression of emotion but knowing Magnum deserved to hear it. "I wasn't sure you would find me in time. And I was scared. So, thank you for being there when I needed you."
Magnum moved closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He gave a gentle tug, and she willingly shifted to lean against him instead of the arm of the couch. His shoulder could have been tailor-made for her head, and she could feel the drowsiness creeping over her.
"I'll always be there for you," Magnum whispered. "We all will." It was the last thing she heard before drifting off. She didn't even manage to say, "I know," though she dreamt that she did.
Magnum stayed where he was, holding her close as she slept. Even after his arm went numb from the awkward angle, he still didn't move. If she needed him, even if it meant him being uncomfortable, then he was going to be right there.