Chapter 5
"Where do you go," Damon asked Kalani while on a date at the annual Honolulu Freedom Carnival. "I know that you don't go to your Aunt Mary's every year for months on end."
They were walking hand in hand to the Ferris wheel, one of her favorite rides. This had been a moment she'd been dreading since he had finally gotten the courage to ask her to be his girlfriend. They had been dating now for almost three months, a bone of contention for her father.
Kalani stopped and looked up into Damon's beautiful green eyes. She had told him that she needed to go to Aunt Mary's house in California for a couple months, which had been the standard go to excuse for school for the last few years.
She sighed remembering the argument she had with her Dad. They had starting spitting at each other in Mandarin in front of Danno, Aunt Kono and Uncle Chin. The three other adults didn't like the idea but supported her. She didn't need Damon to wonder whether or not she was cheating on him. Steve knowing the three other adults didn't understand a lick of the Chinese language switched to it and started berating her. In the end Steve relented, seeing how important this was to her.
"We need to find somewhere private for me to explain this," she finally answered, looking around her surroundings nervous of the mass of people on the Midway. "There's too many people around for us to discuss this here."
Damon's eyes widened at the omission. He knew whatever she was about to say was going to change his perspective of her forever. He grabbed her hand and literally dragged her off the fair grounds and into his mother's car. She was still in kiddie land with his siblings so they would have plenty of time for whatever Kalani would have to say.
Once in the sanctuary of the car, Kalani looked at Damon and sighed, "What I'm about to tell you, you can not repeat to anyone at all. It's Top Secret...Classified Information."
Damon laughed before looking at his girlfriend's serious face. "I thought you were joking just now."
Kalani shook her head, "I don't joke. Especially about this subject matter. If this gets out to anyone with no security clearance, all who know, no matter what their age will go to jail for the rest of their lives."
Damon tried to gulp down the knot that suddenly formed in his throat. He said nothing, really because of her short temper.
"I became an asset of the United States Navy SEALs and Naval Intelligence Agency a week after my Grandpa was murdered. I'm what our country calls a Ghost. I hop on patrols, HOPs as Dad and I call them, with any one of the SEAL Teams but I have no home base. I only answer to two people. The Secretary of the Navy and The Commander-in-Chief."
Damon processed this, while thinking about all the times he egged her on at camp, "So you only answer to SecNav and the President of the United States? Why?"
"My primary objective is to take down an Enemy of the State and the less commanding officers in the mix the better. My mission takes me on Black Ops a good majority of the time. With two people giving orders, the less miss-communication. Dad and I devised Aunt Mary's visits to coincide with the length of time my deployments are for my cover. I'm still legally a minor and according to federal law I still have to attend an educational program until I receive my high school diploma. Aunt Mary is my home school teacher according to school records."
"No wonder you took the drills so seriously in military camp. You used that as additional training didn't you?"
Kalani nodded, "While the rest of you were only being taught discipline and rudimentary skills. I was being tested,evaluated and interviewed. Each summer is my annual progress report. Fail one drill I get demoted two ranks."
"You got like 90 % overall survival ranking, so far every year. I'd hate to know what's failing?" Damon asked, afraid to know the answer.
"89% is considered failing. 11% below 100% accuracy is a huge margin of error on the battlefield, hell even in some cases 90% is a catastrophe. Two summers ago you saw me being lectured by my correspondent to SecNav. The next day you saw me trying to out run, out shoot, and out attack everyone. I had been put on notice. Losing is not an option for me, in the field it could mean death. I almost lost my HOPs that year. Thank goodness, I regained my motivation."
"When is your next HOP?" Damon curiously asked deciding his brain was going on overload.
"At the end of the week. I should only be gone for a month. I'm sorry that's all I can say," Kalani finished remorsefully.
Damon took the silent meaning for what it was and let the conversation stall.
"Hey Damon," a kid walked up to Damon who was right on the tail of Gracie. "I'm sorry to hear about Kalani. I hope she is found soon man." Damon nodded too angry about the situation to do anything else.
"Thanks man," Damon finally found his voice; then stalked after Gracie. "What the hell is going on Gracie and you better not hide behind the phrase 'On going investigation' again."
Gracie gulped as she raked her hands through her hair. This was something she nor her ohana had anticipated during their Strategising.
"Our situation is worse than we anticipated," Doris McGarrett addressed a figure, hidden in a shadow.
"All I asked was that you retrieve this girl. How could it be worse," asked a masculine voice in heavily accented English.
"She claims to be my granddaughter."
"This does not bode well for our plans Shelburne," the voice answered, as the man walked into the brighter part of the room.
Not one to be intimidated easily, Doris steeled herself not to let the man before her see how intimidated she really was, "There's more, I believe she killed all of our men on the job single-handed," she confessed.
"You told me she was only capable of taking down possibly thirty soldiers. I gave you forty-five. She killed half of my personal protection team in less then twenty minutes. That kind of skill takes years to discover, how the hell did she pull that off." The man bellowed.
Having seen the footage of the scuffle from the tablet in her hand, Doris answered, "I've never seen her fighting style before in my life. There's a few elements I can pick out from martial arts that are common in the Western and Asian worlds but the rest is confusing."
The man grew increasingly quiet as he studied the woman before him. She had promised to give him valuable Intel on the United States military and their weapon systems. She promised that his escaped victim would be a vital key in said Intel. He hated when promises were broken. It took everything in him not to end this woman's life right now. "I'm giving you one more chance to find the girl who holds the key to my treasure chest or so help me I will kill you for your duplicity."
Doris nodded, bowed to the man before her and made quick retreat. She needed to find her granddaughter and fast.
Once the shower water turned cold, Kalani awoke from her cocoon in the shower's foot well. She tried to quickly right herself up onto her weak unsteady feet, only to end up having them fall out from under her. She grabbed tightly to the inside towel bar to keep from face planting onto the floor. Once she was standing up right, she tore the wet clothes off of her, making note to destroy them once they were dry.
She hadn't really realized how weakened her state would be after the sleep deprivation. She had been use to having a Team doing round robin watches, this had been a first for her. "I just need to sleep. This place is a fortress, so I'm safe. Just need a bed."
Wrapping her naked body into a fluffy terrycloth robe and wrapping her hair into a towel turban, she walked out of the bathroom and down the hall to her master bedroom. Once she laid herself out on the bed, she fell sound asleep.
She'd strategize about how to neutralize her grandmother and find out who was funding the abduction in the morning. She just added another target to her hit list.
Hetty was televised over a satellite feed in Five 0s command room congratulating everyone for Kalani's safety. "However, this joint investigation is not over. The President is flying to Honolulu as we speak to meet with you all at the Governor's Palace for briefing. He, Director Vance and SecNav want a full disclosure."
Assistant Director Granger silently nodded standing next to Hetty. "Special Agent Timothy McGee and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo will be accompanying your guests. Deeks make sure you show a sense of decorum," he chastised his most reckless agent.
Deeks crossed his arms over his chest in defiance of being chastised in front of his team mates and their allies of Hawaii Five-0. Before he could come back with a retort the call broke off.
Steve turned to his team and their visitors. "Kono and Chin get Duke on board. We need to make sure that the Palace gets put on lock down for this emergency visit. No press, no fly order and non-essential personnel ban."
Chin and Kono nodded while walking off to get their tasks done while Steve kept on barking orders. "The investigation is only half done. We need to interrogate that perp downstairs to see what he knows."
Kensi took that moment to intercept Steve's orders. "You took photos of your unsub. I found a marking that seemed odd and ran it through the international tattoo database. You're not going to like what I came up with," she addressed Steve, Danny, Sam, G., and Deeks.
She went through the process of pulling up the information file and projecting it on to the large monitor. "That is the insignia of the Egyptian Special Forces."
Sam stiffened at this new information, Arabic nations with special forces are more fierce and lethal then any other nations primarily for their unpredictability. He looked to Steve and knew his friend was understanding his train of thought.
The last most Ancient civilization still in existence had its rogues and they would do anything to destroy their fairly new democratic government at any cost. However their rebellion is quieter than ISIS and Al Qaeda jihads. They wanted the Utopian system of yesterday and if that meant stealing the most advantaged military weaponry in use, they were going to be unstoppable.
"That means I'm up to bat. I assume no one on your team besides KAM knows Arabic?" Sam asked. Steve nodded in affirmation.
Sam started for the detaining cell that Five-0 had in the basement of their headquarters, mentally steeling himself in Arabic to stay focused.
