Prologue

All my life, all I could remember was having this need to protect and serve. My father said it was something that was ingrained in our DNA. The McGarretts came from stubborn stock which made us all very volatile forces to be reckoned with.

While other children were out in their yards riding bikes and playing make-believe; I was at a firearm range learning how to assemble and disassemble all forms of firearms.

By the time I was eight years old, I had won over hundred junior national championships for marksmanship. I also won about the same amount of tournaments for martial arts. If you think that is a harsh environment for a girl you would be right. However I wasn't an ordinary girl by any means. I am a genius. My Intelligence Quotient is 170 just ten points above Albert Einstein's of 160. I've lived with Grandpa my whole life, Dad fluttered in and out of my life depending on his deployments. Grandpa and Dad have been the only parental figures I could rely on. My biological mother whom I'm named after died when I was an infant.

Even with Dad's inconsistent home visits, he still had a primary role in my day to day life. Grandpa also took Dad's decisions about my health and education and relayed them to my doctors and educators. Dad would have home-schooled me if he hadn't been in active service of the United States Navy SEAL Teams as I tend to get easily disinterested in school. My teachers call it daydreaming. I call it tuning out.

Dad is a third generation Navy Sailor and second generation SEAL. His dedication to honor, justice and truth makes me strive for the same sense of duty. However his active status came to an abrupt end when Grandpa was murdered. Dad requested Reserve status and came home to Hawaii to find my Grandpa's killer.

Grandpa was close friends with Hawaii Governor Patricia "Pat" Jameson. Governor Jameson enlisted Dad to be the leader of a special task force to find Grandpa's killer, handle special victims cases, and counter terrorism. Being military trained makes Dad's tactics of police work very unconventional which gives his team lots of headaches.

Dad and Grandpa in the line of police work I hear are completely different in comparison to each other. Grandpa left the Navy and entered the police academy, so the two became third and fourth generation Hawaii Police officers. I heard that Grandpa was a good, caring and strictly by the books officer. I've seen Dad in action and I can tell you he's a by any means necessary man which makes complete sense since he's in his late thirties and has been a Sailor since he was nineteen. He went to Annapolis, was a Naval Intelligence Officer for five years and an Active SEAL for six years. Fifteen years of military training makes him calm in battle and strictly regimented in everything else.

When my father was a teenager my Grandmother was presumed dead, killed in action. Fearing for their safety Grandpa sent Dad and his sister Mary Ann to live on the mainland. However due to contacts in the Department of Defense Grandpa found that Grandma faked her own death and went off the grid for a deep cover mission. Grandpa never told Dad that he knew Grandma was alive.

How do I know this information? I know this is going to sound ostentatious but this militant raised girl was approached by the Secretary of the Navy and the President of the United States of America to find my fugitive Grandmother. You can imagine my surprise that my theology of my Grandmother went down the gutter when the government came knocking at my door.

Due to the fact that I was brought up to not condone deception, I jumped at the chance to find the Central Intelligence Agency's most wanted Ex-Operative and collect answers.

"God damn it, Kalani!" The expletive breaks my inner monologue. "How many times do I have to tell you keep your damn eyes and mind on the target!"

Gunshots ceased as everyone around me and my father turned their eyes to us. I could see out of the corner of my eye, my cousin Gracie Williams giving me her 'I told you so' eyes.

Looking at my father, I grabbed my pistol off the rest beside us, pulled the trigger three times. Then looked towards the practice target. Three perfect holes shown on the training apparatus, a head shot, a heart shot and a shoulder shot. Classic SEAL take down Distraction/Non-Fatal (shoulder), and Fatal Double Tap (Head and Heart.) Then looking at Dad gave him a pointed look. Ever since I was two years old the man before me has taught me how to be aware of my surroundings at all times, this included being deep in thought. Not to mention both he and Grandpa have been bringing me here since I was two years old. I could destroy this targets with my eyes closed.

Crossing his arms, Dad stares me down, "I taught you better than to show off." He spoke in a seething whisper.

"I wasn't showing off, I was proving to you that I wasn't distracted." I countered.

"No you were being petulant," Dad roared. Steven John McGarrett never lost his cool in front of large crowds. That being said I was in for a world of trouble. Pretty soon we would be fighting in Mandarin.

This was typical this time of year for the past six years. Grandpa gets killed, Dad has to come back and he finds government officials seeking permission to secretly train his daughter to be an extractor.

Dad is overprotective of me and I understand why. My mother KaPua Kalani Kalakaua died while giving birth to me. She was shot in the abdomen. It was lucky I even survived. An emergency cesarean saved me, however my mother wasn't lucky enough. She died on the operating table.

Police report said it was either a random mugging or drive by shootout that caused the shot to my mother's abdominal area. My Aunt Kono Kalakaua, her sister, and my Uncle Chin Ho Kelly, their cousin, found her killers and disposed of them before Dad could. Then nine years later Grandpa was murdered while talking to Dad on the phone. I was at school when Grandpa was abducted and subsequently killed. I knew something was up when Aunt Kono picked me up from school.

Dad has had a lot of loss in his life. Every year since I've been scooped up by the Department of Defense Dad becomes hostile the month before I get deployed. My deployments are never more then two months but in those two months its radio silence. He has no idea where I go and which Team I'm with which was the agreement we made with SecNav and the President. Six years this arrangement has been going on and I can see why Dad had wanted to make himself a Career Sailor. I plan on retiring as a Sailor as well.

"I ship out at 0600 hours Dad. Can't we just make the best of this," I try to placate. "It's going to be for three months this time. Three months of radio silence. Two months of radio silence is torture. We haven't been apart this long since you were active."

Dad sighed and dragged one hand through his hair. I gave myself an inward smile. He was about to say something when his cell phone blew up.

I rolled my eyes and looked over to Gracie. I tilted my head toward Dad's pick-up truck. We grabbed our ammo, firearms and equipment bags and started running for the vehicle. Work called and we ran.

I considered Gracie Williams, my cousin because her Dad...Danny Williams is on Five-0. We both call him Danno. Danno and Gracie hail from New Jersey. Gracie's mom Rachel married her second husband Stan Edwards. When Rachel and Stan got married, they moved here to Hawaii. Danno transferred from New Jersey. He was a police detective there. He came here to be closer to Gracie.

Dad, Danno, Aunt Kono, and Uncle Chin all make up the original Five-0 Task force. Former HPD SWAT Captain Lou Grover, Catherine Rollins, USN Lt (Ret), and Jerry Ortega all joined 5-0 as consultants or team members.

Dad, Aunt Kono, Uncle Chin, Grover, Danno and HPD Medical Examiner Dr. Max Bergman are all close. We all spend time at each others houses all the time. We are closer than any Ohana and its because of our intense situation. Five-0 is HPD's version of SEAL Team VI. All the kids in our group are closer than siblings but we call each cousins. We all as a whole would lay down our lives for each other.

Dad slides into the driver's seat, jams the key into the ignition, pulled the gear into drive and peeled out of the parking spot. Next thing we know the three of us are zooming down Interstate H-1 to a crime scene.

"Get your gear on. I don't have time to get you guys home," Dad ordered.

Gracie and I groaned. It was becoming a pattern that the two of us had to be apart of the team. I'm use to these situations but Gracie being thirteen was just getting use to the routine.

We quickly reached behind us and grabbed our SWAT gear and started protecting our chests. I pulled on my sniper gloves and goggles. I looked to Gracie and see that telltale smile she has every time she sees me gear up for combat. I start braiding my long hair in one long plait. She calls this my Tomb Raider mode. I affix my combat holsters to my thighs and my knife holster to my upper right arm.

Once I was kitted out we were at the scene. The three of us are out of the vehicle and meet up with Danno, Aunt Kono and Grover. Uncle Chin must be on recon.

I go into full surveillance mode to find a good vantage point. Aunt Kono and I are the group's snipers. Aunt Kono usually is the sniper but since she has more field time with 5-0, Dad uses me as the sniper when I'm around. I put my earwigs in and attached them to my COMM.

Before Dad could give me orders, I was running to a rooftop about 500 yards from the infiltrated building.

"How does she do that," Gracie mumbles. I smirk knowing she didn't realize her COMM was on.

"She's a trained SEAL. She already had the plan in place once she stepped out of the truck," Dad answered.

"Eris you in position," Grover inquired over the COMM.

"You have eyes in the sky," I confirm as I situate my Heckler & Koch PSG1 w/ bi-pod sniper rifle. I lay on my stomach and keep surveying the area. Suspicious activity caught my eye to the west. "We've got a runner in the southwest corner of the perimeter."

Knowing Dad would want to interrogate the suspect, I look through my sight/scope for a shoulder shot. "Eris take your shot!" Dad ordered!

I keep my sight on my target, I still had the shoulder shot. I pulled the trigger and the bullet took its target. With a triumphant smile, I saw my target fall to the ground babying his shoulder, "UnSub down," I confirm. Even though I got a target, my job still wasn't over. I keep surveying the area until the rest of my team cleared the scene. More movement caught my eye in the north. Looking through my scope I saw a struggle happening. "We've got a hostage situation in the north quadrant. I can't get a shot!"

Damn it! I wouldn't be able to get down to street level in time to help. I hate hostage situations only because I have experience being a hostage. Four years ago I was a POW. Enemy combatants ambushed the team I was shadowing. They took me and three others. The four of us were knocked unconscious. Once we came to, we were tortured and beaten. I got the worst of it because I reverted back to my primary language Mandarin. It was the worst three months of my life. Everyone said I was lucky I wasn't raped. What no one knew was that I killed a potential raper while he tried to defile me. Shortly after that three of us were rescued. One got killed during the first month there.

Snapping out of the memory, I look through my scope to see Gracie and Aunt Kono engaging the kidnapper. I see an emblem on his skin and freeze. "We have him contained!" I hear and breath a sigh of relief. "Area clear!"

That was my clue to break down my base and return. I heard movement behind me and quickly turned to see a suspect advancing towards me with the same tattoo. I immediately went into defense mode. If this S.O.B. Thinks I'm going down without a fight, he has another thing coming.

I don't engage until he advances on me. He immediately tries to knock me on the head. I duck, stamp my heel on his foot. With his momentary distraction I take advantage of slipping a few feet away from him. Apparently my attacker didn't like my choice of evasive maneuvers. He lunges at me and starts swinging.

I start blocking his blows, with upper arm shield thrusts. I then ducked down to my hunches and executed a perfect low roundhouse kick, knocking him on his ass. I spring backwards, then forwards landing on my feet.

I'm not one to kick anyone while they are down but I purposely kicked my attacker in the ribs and his groin. I heard a satisfying crack, then a groan and howl.

"What the hell is going on up there?" I hear Dad demand through the COMM.

"Well, Steve," I stressed Dad's name, "I'm kind of busy in a fight right now." I answer while my attacker, stands up holding his right rib cage. Then turn as the guy before me becomes more frantic because a female just incapacitated him.

I lean towards the left avoiding his punches again, then leaned right avoiding punches. I closed my hand into a fist and forced a punch in the staggering man's solar plexus. I smiled in triumph as the man before me was rendered unconscious.

I take several zip-ties from my pockets and bound the man's wrists as well as his ankles. Judging by his height I can only assume that he was in the two hundred pound bracket. Crap! My limit for a fireman's hold was at most 175 pounds.

"Need some..." I felt blunt force to the back of my head and everything went black. This wasn't good.