Chapter 4

While the children went into the assembly, the investigation was gaining a silver lining. In Kalani's office at Five-O headquarters, Kalani's computer was coming to life.

"Steve come here," Sam beckoned. He and Callum were using Kalani's office as a makeshift NCIS Command Center while Deeks and Kensi used Gracie's office.

Steve strode into his daughter's office to see his friend looking at his daughter's computer screen with a befuddled look. He looked at the screen and saw a map of Russia and a red blinking light. He looked at his friend with a stony stare. He knew what it meant and relief flooded through him.

His shoulders visibly sagged and it wasn't missed by his friend either. "Why is there a blip flashing over this map of Russia?"

Steve had to compose himself before looking back at Sam with a smile on his face. Sam was quick to pick up on the meaning of Steve's face. "We found her didn't we?"

Steve walked up to his daughter's computer and started clicking keys. Avoiding the question while he tried to determine whether or not this was a false alarm.

"Kalani has several safe houses set up around the world. Only her bio metrics can grant access to them. But any attempt at a break in will also set off alarms." He turned on the security cameras to see a camouflaged figure get the door open. He then saw the figure rummage through the kitchen and pillage the fridge for food.

"It's her. We found our girl. We found our girl," he yelled and several people came running into the office.

"Where?" Kono asked with relief only a maternal figure could ask. Steve hugged his would be sister-in-law tightly

"She's in a Russian Provence called Vladivostok," Nell Jones answered over the satellite monitor in Kalani's office. "The property is deeded to a ...Yaroslava ..."

"Shirinova...Yaroslava Shirinova is Kalani's Russian Alias." Chin Ho replied while patting his friend on the back. "Kalani and I scored through thousands of Russian family names before picking Shirinova and thousands of given names before coming to Yaroslava."

"Yaroslava is quite a recluse in Vladivostok." Nell supplied clicking her keyboard. "She owns a dress shop in the main village to keep her Russian cover. She has auburn hair and gray eyes. She has fuller breasts than Kalani and according to her passport she's a full three inches taller than Kalani," she answered perplexed.

Steve nodded, none of this was new to him. Every time she landed in Russia, she headed to the US Embassy and had a stylist die her hair. In case of emergencies such as this she had supplies stocked. She had thousands of the gray eye color contacts in a safe in that house. She also had three other safe houses in Russia. One in Moscow, one in Novosibirsk and one in Yukistak.

"She's preparing to come home," Steve addressed the group. If his calculations were correct, she should be home before the end of the month for debriefing; unless some of situation occurred.

Silence filled the room. "Her abductors must not be very happy to have her escape." Deeks stated what was on everyone's mind.

"What's going on here," an uninvited female voice asked the group. Nine heads turn to see Catherine Rollins steaming at the ears and hands on her hips.

"Cath, what are you doing here, you're supposed to be in Afghanistan." Steve asked his on again, off again girlfriend in confusion.

"My child is abducted and you don't think I have a right to know!" She lit into him, "Hi Sam." She greeted her former Navy buddy then turned back to Steve, "What right do you have not to inform me about this," she demanded.

The pride Steve felt at how fiercely protective of his daughter she was immeasurable. He liked the mama lion in her, if only she had accepted his marriage proposal.

"How did you find out she went missing?" Steve inquired.

Catherine pushed her own hair out of her face, placed her hands on her hips and looked up into Steve's eyes. "I still have contacts on the inside. When Eris goes missing, it's cause for alarm. The NIO is all up in arms but they went into Black Ops mode as soon as you called into NCIS. I can't get anything out of them. That meant I had to come back home and figure out what the hell happened."


Kalani breathed a sigh of relief when she entered into her safe house. She was starving and been on the run for three days. Having only ate fruits and berries she found in the forests. She drank water from brooks. It gave her enough energy to stay alive and get to safety.

She knew that if her father was leading a man hunt, the best place would be to stay put. Her computer at Five-O had been rigged to alarm when any one of her safe houses had become accessed.

First thing she did when she was granted access into her own home was raid the refrigerator. She had the fridge stock with fresh food weekly in case she had to get emergency refuge. She had never been more grateful for always being prepared.

Not caring that her whole body from head to toe was cake with soot, dust, dirt, leaves and any other kind of filth imaginable; she grabbed at the chicken and ate all the meat off the bone. Then she moved to the steak and ate it all. She didn't stop eating all the animals in the fridge until her stomach started protesting.

She then ran to the bathroom and purged the toxins, she consumed on her journey here. She must have vomited for twenty minutes. She didn't stop heaving until only bile was being projected.

Having little to no strength, Kalani crawled on her hands and knees to the shower. Kalani used the last of her strength to turn the shower on with full heat. She crawled into the shower curling up in a ball in the middle of the basin, still wearing her clothes which were now beyond tattered and torn.

She stayed like that and fell asleep with the hot water beating down on her.

She felt like she was in a cocoon which was a far cry from what she had been experiencing the last few nights. She hadn't had more then a total of four hours sleep when she was on the run.


"It's survival of the fittest when you go dark," the Sargent bellowed to Kalani's camp cabin. "Your will is tested. The weak will find a way to kill themselves when placed in a terrifying situation. The strong-willed, strong-minded will use their surroundings to gain the upper hand and survive."

The irritable man paced back and forth in front of the fifteen children standing at attention and staring out at nothing. Pointing his finger at a table filled with nuts, berries, fruits and plants, "these are just examples of what you can find in the forest. These will help you survive when you don't have the means to kill animals for your next meal."

Kalani knew all of the edibles on the table, she had studied botany prior to coming to camp.

"Our next simulation will be a weekend camp out in the woods. You will only have your mess kit and a knife. You'll be divided up into teams of three. You are to lean on each other to survive the weekend. You are to kill a large animal and survive on these fruits and plants."

The kids groaned and all glared at Kalani. Nobody wanted the know it all on their team. To Kalani, it hadn't occurred to them that they could really benefit with her on the team. With her high intelligence her team would probably be first to the finish line. Kalani's prediction had come true. Her team had indeed been the first to achieve each task and returned to camp first.