CHAPTER 18

Friday morning, Five-0 Headquarters:

Agent Kipton peered anxiously into McGarrett's office. There was a haze of smoke clouding the room, making it difficult to see the three people sitting around the desk. Kipton glanced down at his watch. They only had two hours and twenty-three minutes remaining until the auction was concluded. He hoped this wildly concocted plan worked. If it didn't…well, he would have to think about that later.

The door to the office opened a few minutes later. Danny Williams emerged, followed by Catherine Rollins. They both inhaled the fresh air provided by the open windows in the outer office greedily.

"How goes the subterfuge?" Kipton asked.

"Good, I think. Toast has successfully accessed Noshimuri's accounts and has taken over his online persona. We've just made a bid, so we will see who outbids him. Every time someone makes a bid, the data is routed to Fuentes. Catherine has set up software to trace the location. If the bidding continues at this rate, we could have Fuentes' location sometime in the next half hour," Danny explained.

"How…" Kipton began before Catherine put her hand up to stop him.

"It's better if you don't ask," she said as she walked over to the window for some more fresh air.

Kipton arched his eyebrows at that. Danny just shook his head in response.

"Most of her work is classified," Danny explained. "It's better if we don't ask too many questions. She is already putting her career on the line to help us."

"Has she done…this…before? She seems very comfortable with it, so I'm guessing it's not the first time," Kipton inquired.

"You're right. It's not the first time. She's helped us, or more accurately, Steve, out of a few tight spots."

Kipton observed Catherine by the window. She was wringing her hands as she stared out the window, the only sign she was distressed. "She seems to be taking this very hard."

Danny sighed. "Catherine and Steve have a…thing. I don't think even they realise it yet, but we can all see it. They light up when they see each other. It's refreshing to see."

Danny was about to excuse himself to talk to Catherine when he heard his name called.

"Danny!" Chin called from the doorway to his office.

"Yeah, Chin?"

"I just talked to Duke. His guys found your phone at the warehouse. He said it's downstairs if you want to collect it," Chin answered.

"Alright, thanks," Danny said. "I'll be back soon."

Why was his phone at the warehouse? Had Matt made a deal? Is that why he needed Danny's phone? Danny was about halfway down the stairs when he heard someone coming down the stairs behind him.

"Danny, wait!" Catherine called.

Danny stopped and turned to face Catherine. "Sorry, Catherine. Did you need something?"

Catherine stopped in front of Danny. "No, I just wanted to…um…I feel like I need to…" she stumbled over her words.

"…Be doing something?" Danny finished for her with a smile.

Catherine returned the smile shyly. "Yeah, something like that."

Danny clapped a hand on her shoulder. "It'll all be okay, you'll see."

"I should be used to this," she said.

Danny frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When Steve was in the SEALs, it wasn't uncommon for me to not know where he was. I often worried that he would get hurt and not come back home. Even when he was hurt, he always came back to me, with that goofy smile, like nothing happened. But this time it's…different. This time I know he's in trouble and there is nothing I can do about it!" Catherine exclaimed.

"Catherine, if I know Steve, he will fight with everything he has to get back to you. He never backs down from a fight. You are doing everything you should be doing. Without you, we would still be stuck with no direction to go in. You just need to be there for him when we get him back, okay?" Danny said reassuringly.

Catherine nodded and smiled. "Okay, thanks Danny. I'm glad he has this team looking out for him."

They walked over to Duke's office and knocked on the door. Duke answered and ushered them inside quickly.

"Here's your phone, Danny. There's a message on it for you," Duke said as he handed over the phone.

Danny took it and quickly unlocked it. He scrolled through the messages until he found one that hadn't been sent. Catherine read the message over his shoulder.

Danny,

I'm sorry for all of this. I'm turning myself over to Fuentes. I'm sorry for getting you all involved and I'm sorry for what happened to Grace and now Steve. It's my fault he's in this mess.

Fuentes is close by. He was twenty minutes from the warehouse when I called him. I'm guessing that means Steve was also nearby. Follow the dark sedan and find Steve.

I'm sorry and I love you,

Matt.

Danny dashed out of Duke's office with Catherine following close behind and back up to headquarters. Danny yelled at the others to get to the smart table. He relayed the information from Matt's message to the others, hoping they could find Fuentes' location.

Kono brought up surveillance cameras from around the warehouse district at around the time Matt left the message. She began searching for the dark sedan that Matt had mentioned. Within minutes the search revealed their first promising lead in days.

"Found it!" Kono exclaimed excitedly.

The team watched as the surveillance cameras clocked a dark sedan that pulled up near the warehouse approximately two hours ago. They watched as Fuentes exited the car with three other one. One was quickly identified as Andre Fuentes. Steve was conspicuously absent. The video footage showed the men entering the warehouse and exiting four minutes later with Matthew Williams. They watched as they all got into the sedan and drove off.

"Kono, see if you can follow that car," Danny said.

"Already on it," Kono said impatiently.

Kono was rapidly pulling up video surveillance footage along the roads the sedan could have taken. they were able to follow the car until it reached a tunnel ten minutes later. After that, there were no more surveillance cameras available. They were blind.

"Sorry guys. There are no more cameras along that road," Kono said dejectedly.

"We can work with this. Let's narrow down the possible locations. Matt said they were twenty minutes from the warehouse. Taking into account the direction of travel and traffic, we could identify some potential locations," Chin said encouragingly.

Danny watched as Chin plugged the data into a search algorithm. Within ten minutes, they had some results. There were three possible locations, all of which were large warehouse complexes.

"Why can't bad guys choose buildings that are not warehouses for their schemes?" Danny muttered.

Danny looked at his watch. They had just over an hour until the deadline. There was no way they could search all three locations in time.

Danny looked at Catherine desperately. "Catherine, is there any way you can get us visuals of these locations?"

Catherine shook her head. "Sorry, Danny. These places have extensive underground components. Even with approved access to naval surveillance equipment, we wouldn't be able to see through the whole complex. They are just too big."

Glancing at his watch again, Danny noted the time. 5:38am. They had one hour and twenty two minutes until the auction ended. They didn't have time to search all three warehouse districts. Danny groaned in frustration before contemplating their next move. Unless there was a magical way all three warehouse complexes could be searched in the next hour, they were out of options. There was no certainty that Steve was in any of them.

Danny paced, thinking about their options. They could send HPD to all three locations. They could watch the locations and wait for the auction to end. Danny was brought out of his reverie when Toast emerged from Steve's office an hour later, positively beaming.

"Guess who just won the auction?" Toast announced.

Friday morning, unknown location:

Steve was lying on his back on the cold cement floor, breathing slowly with his eyes closed. He needed to be convincing if his plan was going to work. However, Matt's anxious pacing was making it difficult. Eventually, Matt knelt beside Steve as they waited.

"Are you sure about this?" Matt whispered.

Steve opened his eyes to pin Matt with a glare. "Yes. Unless you have a better plan?" Steve said sarcastically.

"Well, I'm just saying, if Danny got my message, he should be here any second. We could wait," Matt said, trying to persuade Steve to abandon his plan.

Giving up all pretence, Steve sat up. "Matt, this is the only way to protect Danny and Grace. We don't have time to wait. I can't have them getting hurt if I could have done something to prevent it. Please, Matt. I need you to do this for me," Steve pleaded.

Matt nodded slowly. "Okay, but for the record…this is nuts," he whispered.

Steve smiled. "Now you sound just like Danny."

"That's not a good thing, is it?" Matt asked.

"It's not, not a good thing," Steve answered cryptically.

Matt was about to reply when he heard footsteps outside the metal door. The time for joking was over. Matt looked down at Steve, doubt evident on his face. Steve nodded and winked at Matt before closing his eyes again. The ominous sound of the door unlocking preceded the entrance of two men, neither of which were Pedro or Andre.

"Hey, McGarrett! Your time is up. You won't believe how much someone was willing to pay to get a hold of you. I bet you didn't realise that you had enemies so close to home," one man said loudly, taunting Steve.

Matt stood up to face the men. "Wait, I thought we had a deal! The auction is off. You have me, let him go," he exclaimed.

"Nice try. The boss has other ideas. Come on, McGarrett. Time to get up," the other man said, kicking Steve in the ribs.

Steve kept his eyes closed and didn't move.

"Hey, McGarrett. Rise and shine," said the first man as he also kicked Steve, this time in the stomach.

Still, Steve didn't move or show how much the kick had hurt.

"What's the matter with him?" the second man asked.

"I don't know," Matt answered. "He hasn't moved for the last hour."

"Ah, hell," the first man said. "He had better not be dead. Boss man will kill us if that's the case."

"It's your fault. You were supposed to check on them," the second man argued.

The two men looked at each other, then back at Steve, ignoring Matt completely. The first man leaned down, trying to shake Steve awake. As soon as Steve felt hands on his body, he exploded into action. Steve kicked out with his right leg, catching goon number one off guard. Goon number one went down hard, clutching his knee and howling in pain. Goon number two grabbed Steve by the collar of his shirt and pulled him upright. The sudden change in position had Steve's head spinning. Unfortunately, he didn't see the punch coming. Steve's head snapped back as he fell to the floor. The second goon quickly jumped on top of Steve, straddling him and delivering multiple punches to Steve's abdomen and face.

Steve could feel himself fading with each punch. He knew he had to do something, and soon, otherwise this man would probably beat him to death. Eventually, Steve got his knee under him and pushed the man off. Steve quickly rolled to the side and stood, grabbing the man from behind and wrapping the chain around his throat. The man tried desperately to escape, clawing at Steve's arm. Goon number two elbowed Steve in his already tender ribs. Steve grunted in pain, but did not loosen his grip.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Steve saw the first man recovering and preparing to rejoin the fight. Steve saw the man reach into his waistband to retrieve his gun. In slow motion, Steve saw the man aim the gun in his direction. On instinct, Steve rotated his body, using the second man as a shield and delivered a quick kick to the gunman's hand. The gun went skittering to the other side of the room. Steve watched as the first goon moved clumsily over to the other side of the room to retrieve the gun.

The man in his arms continued to struggle, but Steve could feel him starting to fade. The struggles began to cease as the man gasped soundlessly. A thump sounding from behind him had Steve turning around quickly, expecting more of Fuentes' men to appear any second. Instead, he saw the first man face down on the ground, bleeding from a head wound.

Matt was standing over the first man, pointing a gun at him. Steve was so surprised that he almost forgot about the man he was about to choke to death. Without realising it, the man had already gone slack from the lack of oxygen. Steve let go of the man, letting him drop unceremoniously to the floor.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Steve asked in an angry whisper.

"I'm sorry. You looked like you could have used some help. Next time, I will let the bad guy shoot you in the back," Matt replied sarcastically as he approached Steve.

Steve roughly grabbed the gun from Matt's hands and checked the magazine. "I thought I told you to get out of here?"

"And I thought I told you it was stupid to try and take on these guys single-handedly while cuffed to a wall?" Matt replied in an equally angry tone.

"And I told you not to come back, regardless of what was happening to me. I've handled things like this before. I know what I'm doing…But since you're here, would you mind checking these guys for the handcuff keys?" Steve asked, his anger abating.

"Oh, so now you want my help? Stubborn SuperSEAL," Matt muttered under his breath.

Steve ignored Matt's comment, but smiled at the similarity between Danny and Matt. Matt was just as snarky as Danny. It was entertaining to watch. Matt found the keys in the jacket pocket of the man he hit on the head. He quickly handed them to Steve, who made quick work of the lock.

"Nice job, by the way," Steve praised Matt, pointing at the man on the ground.

"Are they dead?" Matt asked, not sure if he wanted an answer.

Steve shook his head. "No, but they will be in a world of hurt when they regain consciousness."

Steve knelt down to check the second man for more weapons. He found another gun and a spare magazine. Steve stood up and looked Matt in the eye.

"Do you remember the original plan?" Steve asked, waiting for Matt to indicate that he understood.

"Yeah," Matt nodded. "We split up and I find Danny as quickly as possible."

Steve sighed and handed Matt one of the guns. "Okay, good. I will go distract Fuentes and draw him away. Make sure you find Danny and give him my message. Only use this if you need to."

"Steve…are you sure about this? What are you going to do when you find Fuentes?"

"Yes, Matt, I'm sure. I'm going to hit Fuentes where it hurts most. Hopefully, he'll stop looking for you and your family."

Matt nodded, he was just about to leave when Steve called him back.

"Oh, and Matt?…I forgive you," Steve said before they parted ways.