Firstly I want to say a massive thank you for all the great reviews with a special thanks to LadyAlith for the congrats. Here is the fifth instalment of the first story of the Seven Series and will the team find Grace in time?
"Danny!"
Seven and Steve dropped to their knees beside the Detective, the Medic ripping her gloves off and immediately laying on hands. Steve felt helpless as he watched Seven's hands fly over his partner's body, her eyes tight shut and her brow furrowed.
"Seven?"
The medic opened her eyes and turned her white gaze to him. The sight was very disconcerting but Steve held her gaze,
"He has a severe laceration to the scalp and a concussion, his left wrist and fore arm is broken in three places, he has two broken ribs on the right side and a hair line fracture to the pelvis and a partial displacement of the right knee...the wounds are consistent with a high impact car crash"
Steve winced. Seven closed her eyes again and her movements became slower, focusing on one area longer and when she gripped Danny's wrist Steve could hear the bones sliding back into place and the noise made him grit his teeth. Steve's phone rang,
"Chin...yes it's ok we have him here, no he's in a pretty bad way but Seven's with him now. Chin get a HPD crime scene unit down there, who ever did this they've taken Grace...yeah...thanks Chin"
Steve cut the call,
"Chin and Kono came across Danny's car on their way here, its a wreck. Danny managed to walk here but there's no sign of Grace"
Seven had finished working on Danny's body and had moved to kneel at the Detective's head. Her hands cupped the blonde mane of hair her fingers spread along the sides of his face. She was bent over, her nose almost touching Danny's. The medic didn't acknowledge what Steve had said to her but instead began to talk, soft and low...almost dream like,
"A red SUV hit Danny's car pushing it off the road, two black SUVs pulled up and two men in ski masks took Grace whilst another struck Danny with the butt of his pistol"
At that point Danny groaned and opened his eyes. Seven slumped and Steve managed to wrap an arm around her pulling her against his chest whilst making sure Danny stayed lying down,
"Stay put Danny, you've just gone through a major healing"
Danny struggled to get up but Steve pushed him back down,
"But Grace they've got Grace...I need to find Grace"
"We'll find her Danny"
"You can let him up Steve...just be careful Danny get up slowly"
Steve glanced down at Seven, she was still leaning against him and was quite pale. Her eyes were back to normal but it was clear she was tired. Steve remembered the explanation she had given them, Danny had had extensive injuries and Seven must have used a substantial amount of energy to heal him. Danny got to his feet as slowly as his frayed nerves allowed, his heart was thundering in his chest and his left wrist was sore but he was 100% better than he had been twenty minutes ago. He caught sight of himself in one of the glass panels, he looked terrible and suddenly that sight brought his anger to the fore and what followed was about five minutes of absolute feral behaviour. He was almost beyond words, swearing, snarling and growling, his fists clenched and shoulders hunched over defensively. He stalked back and forward across the room as Steve helped the now recovered Seven to her feet.
"Danny you need to calm down, we know there were three cars involved, one red and two black SUVs and three men in ski masks"
Danny spun to Steve,
"I didn't tell you that"
"No Seven did when you were unconscious" just then Steve's phone beeped,
"They've found the red SUV, damaged but empty, CSU are with it now"
"Its Feng Li, I know it is"
"Danny you don -"
"No Steve! I know it is, he told me there would be a reckoning...revenge Steve, he's taken my little girl to punish me!"
Danny's phone rang,
"What!"
"Ahhh Detective nice to hear you're sounding so well all things considered"
"What have you done with her you son of a bitch!"
Steve crossed to the computer table, motioning for Danny to switch to speaker phone and place the phone on the sever so he could start a trace,
"Now now Detective that's not the tone you should take with me if you want to see your daughter again"
"What do you want?"
"I believe you owe me some money, that drug shipment you disrupted was worth around oh say eight million dollars. I want it by tomorrow night Detective"
Danny clenched his fists,
"I want to speak to my daughter" Feng Li's sigh translated as a rush of static over the speaker, then a small, scared voice said,
"Daddy?"
Danny felt a lead ball drop in his stomach. That bastard had his baby and she was terrified,
"I'm here Grace baby don't worry Danno and Uncle Steve are coming to get you ok? Are you hurt Grace, have they hurt you?"
Grace was sobbing now,
"No" she squeaked, "I'm scared Daddy"
"I know baby, I'm coming to get you Grace...I love you Monkey...Grace? Grace?"
"Tomorrow night Detective"
"No, wait!" Danny pleaded but Feng Li had cut the connection, Danny thumped the table hard enough to make his phone bounce. He was shaking, his face flushed with anger. Seven, gloves back on, placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling his muscles clench. She touched the bare tip of her little finger to Danny's neck and the detective sighed as the tension across his back and shoulders lessened.
"I've got a trace on the phone, some where in the northern sector" Steve said, eyes on the screen,
"The northern sector? Can't you narrow that down a bit?"
Steve looked up at his partner,
"Go and get cleaned up Danny, Seven will help you"
Danny opened his mouth to argue but Steve's voice had taken on the 'don't argue with me tone' so he let Seven guide him to the teams private bath room.
Seven had insisted on accompanying him in the room, she pressed a bottle of water into his hand and made him drink. It was only when his took that first gulp did Danny realise how thirsty he was. He managed to remove his tie but his hands were trembling so much he couldn't undo the buttons of his shirt,
"Here, let me"
Seven undid the buttons for him and peeled the shirt off his shoulders, the cotton sticking to his skin where it had been saturated with blood. She folded it and put it in an evidence bag. She turned to find Danny looking at his phone, head bowed. She ran some warm water in to the sink and wetting a wash cloth began to wipe the dried blood from Danny's back, neck, shoulders and chest. By the time she was finished the water was pink. Running more clean water, she gently took the phone from Danny's hand and gave him the wash cloth.
"Wipe your face"
She looked at the picture on the phone, a beautiful dark haired girl, she had Danny's deep blue eyes.
"Shes beautiful Danny"
Danny smiled sadly, wringing the cloth in his hands,
"She is...like her mother, oh shit Rachael...I'll have to tell her"
"We'll deal with that Danny don't worry"
"She's everything to me you know...since me and Rachael split up, I even followed them all the way out here, if anything happens to her I don't know what I'll do"
Seven slung a clean shirt around Danny's shoulders and grasped the top of his arms,
"Nothings going to happen to her Danny, we'll get her back and then you can take the bastard into a room for half an hour of bonding time...I'll turn a blind eye and I know Steve and the others will as well...those stairs out there are steep you know"
Danny looked directly at her for the first time since they had entered the room. There was something ominous about the tone in Seven's voice and her eyes seemed darker, but he couldn't have agreed with her more.
Steve greeted them half way down the corridor brandishing his phone,
"I've just had Chin on the phone, they found a napkin from a bar up in the northern sector in the SUV"
Danny adjusted his gun belt whilst Seven put on her helmet,
"Lets go then"
Seven strode out strode out of the door in front of them but Steve stopped Danny,
"I don't know if you should come with us on this one Danny"
Danny pulled away from his partner,
"No I promised Grace...I need to be there...don't worry Boss I'll do as I'm told"
Steve drove the teams black chevvy SUV pushing the machine as fast as it could go. Seven was just behind them hunched low over her bike, blue lights flashing. Steve glanced at her in the rear view mirror then pressed the call button on the cars panel,
"Commander?"
"Seven I want you to go ahead and do a recon, do not engage understand?"
"Yes sir"
Seven pressed her chest to the fuel tank, knocked the bike down a gear, twisted the throttle and flicked the bike around the SUV. With a roar the bike sped past leaving the boys in its dust. Danny and Steve gaped, the SUV was doing 130mph and Seven had left them standing. Even Danny had to admit, despite the situation, that was cool.
Seven weaved amongst what little traffic there was on the road. She tipped the bike around a corner, her knee an inch from the tarmac. The road to the bar was an old dirt track and the rear wheel of the bike skidded slightly as it kicked up dust. There was a sentry standing by the side of the road and when he saw the blue flashing lights on the bike he stepped out, brandishing a gun. Seven punched the throttle and before the man could get off a shot she hit the brake, flicking the back wheel of the bike around the machine smacked into him, sending him crashing into the undergrowth by the side of the road.
Seven cut the engine, resting the bike on it's kick stand. She hopped off, locating the injured man. He was alive and not badly hurt, he was even conscious. Seven rectified that by slipping her fingers under the back of his neck and locating a nerve cluster. The man's eyes rolled back in his head, she kicked his gun away and left him there. She crouched low peering through the vegetation at the remote bar. Surprisingly for such a backward location the building was modern and well maintained and the vehicles parked outside gave an indication of the kind of clientèle that frequented the establishment. The windows on the front of the building were mirrored so the magnification filters in her helmet were useless, she manipulated the controls and switched to thermal. The landscape in front of her changed to various shades of red, pink, orange, yellow, green and blue. She zoomed in on the building in order to filter out interference form the surrounding landscape. There were definitely people in the bar, men and women. Some were standing or milling around, others were sitting, but all of them were adults. She patched through her comm system to Steve,
"Commander?"
Back in the SUV Steve smiled slightly, Seven had switched back into military mode,
"Go ahead Seven"
"I have eyes on the building now, approximately fifteen occupants. One guard outside, he is no longer a problem but he was armed so odds on those inside will be as well. There is no sign of Grace though"
Beside him Danny put his head in his hands,
"Ok Seven, Chin and Kono are coming in from the other side and there's a HPD team on the way. Our ETA is three minutes, stay put until we get there"
"Yes Sir"
Three minutes later the SUV skidded to a halt followed a few seconds later by Chin and Kono in the red chevvy. Seven's bike was resting on it's kick stand by the side of the road but there was no sign of the black clad medic. Steve put his ear piece in and checked his weapon as Kono ran up to Danny,
"Are you ok Brah?"
"As well as I can be"
Kono's brow furrowed in anger,
"I know Brah" she rubbed his shoulder soothingly then drew her gun,
"Where's Seven?"
"I'm here"
The Medic emerged silently out of the vegetation. Steve took control of the situation,
"Ok so HPD are still five minutes away"
Danny groaned in frustration, his daughter might not be here but it was the first step in getting her back and some one in there would know where she was and come hell or high water he would find out who and beat that information out of them. Seven spoke up,
"I think we can go in with out HPD"
"Fifteen to five is not good odds Seven"
"But we have something they don't have"
"And what's that?"
Seven put her hands on her hips,
"Me"
A minute later after an argument that Seven had won, Chin and Kono were making their way around the back of the building whilst Danny, Seven and Steve took cover in the thick vegetation at the front. The problem they had was the glass wall that made up the front section of the bar and although the mirrored surface made it impossible for them to see in they were in no doubt that the occupants inside could see out, so walking up the front door was out of the question. Seven obviously had a plan and Steve, although a bit miffed that he had given up control, was interested to see how she operated in the field. She had instructed them to put on ear protectors and goggles and was currently attaching an additional cylinder to her gun.
"After I'm gone wait ten seconds then follow me in"
Neither Steve nor Danny were happy with this plan but they had no choice but to trust her. She levelled her gun at the glass and fired four shots in quick succession. A globule of a clear sticky substance splattered against each of the glass panels and two seconds later they exploded. Seven was up and running before the glass and smoke cleared. She leapt through the debris throwing a hand full of black capsules into the midst of the chaos she had already created and a series of flashes and loud bangs caused many of the occupants on the room to dive to the floor. Black smoke swirled around the room and those who managed to draw weapons couldn't see a target to shoot at. One man received a vicious blow across the jaw, another a jab to the solar plexus, another felt his ribs crack as a boot impacted against his chest. A scantily clad waitress screamed as a dark figure loomed over her, gun drawn. Danny and Steve barged into the room as the smoke began to clear weapons up and ready as Chin and Kono kicked in the back door. They found Seven crouched on the bar, she turned the PA up on her helmet,
"Listen up, this is 5-0, cooperate and no one gets hurt. Place your weapons on the floor in front on you and place your hands on you head, no sudden movements or we will shoot you"
Chin and Kono began collecting the discarded weapons whilst Steve and Danny began to stalk through the sharply dressed men,
"We want Feng Li, where is he?"
No one answered,
"I won't ask again" Danny growled. Suddenly one man made a run for it, his route took him away from the four officers but directly into the path of Seven who launched at him from the bar, dragging him to the floor. They scuffled for a moment, the man was clearly panicking and Seven easily flipped him on to his front pinning him to the ground with a knee on the back of his neck.
Steve and Danny crouched next to her, helping her keep him down. At this point a HPD SWAT team raced in and stopped dead, surveying the scene that met them,
"Right on time" said Danny sarcastically.
