Thank you so much for all your patience. I know that this chapter took a really long time. I originally wrote chapter 10 and hated it. So then I tried to fix it, finally I just scrapped it and started again. I hope that you think it was worth the wait.
Danny finished rummaging through the break room cabinets. Behind him, Page was looking at Crosby's arm injury. It was probably broken but all they could do right now was make a splint out of a chair leg and some dish towels. It turned out that ex-marines were almost as good at MacGyver medicine as ex-SEAL's.
Sarah was curled up on the floor in a corner, shaking badly. Danny had checked her over without finding any physical injuries. She appeared to be in shock but, again, there wasn't much they could do for her.
After they had taken shelter in the break room, the hallway had gone silent. Steve had risked opening the door and barely dodged a bullet. He reported that the end of the hall was being held by Wo Fat's men. HPD was nowhere in sight.
Danny looked over at Steve, who was staring pensively at the door, which they had blocked with the refrigerator, "The only things in the cabinets are some plastic utensils and a couple of coffee mugs."
Steve looked so disappointed that Danny couldn't help himself, "What did you think I was going to find? A spare had grenade? This isn't our office anymore, babe."
Steve responded with the smile that Danny usually saw just before Steve revealed some horrific new talent, like the ability to turn Danny's favorite dessert items into a deadly booby trap. Danny wondered if it was possible for his stomach to produce a spontaneous ulcer.
Before Steve could say anything, Crosby stepped forward to take charge, "I know that this situation sucks," he began, shifting his splint, trying to find a comfortable position while he addressed the group, "Believe me, I hate sitting here just as much as any of you do, but it's what we have to do. By now the building is surrounded by HPD. Wo Fat is injured; he'll have to surrender in order to receive medical attention. We're safe and the Governor is secure, so we wait."
"We don't know how badly Wo Fat's hurt," Steve protested. "It may just make him more desperate and dangerous."
Crosby was shaking his head his head, "We have to trust that we have good people out there who resolve this. Our objective is to keep the Governor safe. We play this smart."
"Who is in charge, anyway?" Danny asked, "I mean," he pointed at Page," you've only been Governor a few days. You haven't had time to get your own people in place and God knows you can't trust anyone from Jameson's staff." He made a gesture towards Crosby, "You're in here with us." His hands waved in a circular motion that seemed all encompassing, "Every time we whack one mole in HPD another pops up, so we can't trust them either."
"Eric Inouye is my second-in-command," Crosby informed them, "He'll take charge of the situation."
"There's no way he can have all the facts, "Steve insisted, "He doesn't know if the Governor is dead or alive, safe in here or tied to a chair with a gun pointed at his head. We need to let them know."
Crosby was about to protest when Page stepped between the two men, "Captain Crosby makes a valid point. The most prudent course of action is to wait here for help. We saw HPD officers in the hall, so we know that they are working on rescuing us," he gestured for Steve to let him finish, "However, if you have a workable plan for getting information to our people, I'm willing to listen."
Steve's eyes lit up in the way that Danny associated with a hail of bullets or a particularly large explosion. "Actually, I do have an idea. An idea that will get much more than intel out to our people."
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Rachel stared at her cell phone and pensively pinched the bridge of her nose. She had been trying to reach Danny for the past hour. Every call went directly to voicemail. It seemed unlikely that Danny would turn off his phone with everything that was going on.
Her first instinct was to grab her car keys and go find him, to see for herself that he was alright. Danny had gone with Steve to Five-0 headquarters, but that had been hours ago. She had no idea what kind of dangerous places the two men might have gone since.
Rachel picked up her phone again. This time she dialed one of the numbers Danny had programmed in last night.
It was answered on the second ring, "Chin? It's Rachel. I'm sorry to bother you but I can't get a hold of Danny."
Chin sat back in his desk chair and frowned, "I'm just about finished with Taro's computer. I was going to stop by the lab to see how Charlie and Kono are doing with the rest of the evidence from the garage. I'll swing by the Palace first – see if Steve and Danny are still there."
"Thank you," Rachel remembered why she had been trying to call Danny in the first place, "Chin, I spent the morning looking over all those spreadsheets. I don't understand it all, but something is happening tomorrow. It's the culmination of years of planning and smaller transactions."
"You're sure it's tomorrow?"
"Yes, but I can't tell you where or what time. There are dates and some codes that might be places or times, but there are several columns that I don't understand."
"You stay there," Chin was already heading for the parking lot, "I'll round everyone up. We'll meet back at the house to figure out what to do next."
Ending the call, Chin started his motorcycle, roaring off towards the Palace. He was still several blocks away when he realized something was very wrong. Blacks and whites were flying in from every direction, sirens and lights on.
Chin spotted Darren Crosby's second-in-command , Eric Inouye, surrounded by members of the Governor's security team. He didn't see either Crosby or Page. Chin had a very bad feeling about this.
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Catherine left the briefing and made a quick stop on the way back to her office. "You guys have anything for me?" she asked two of the junior analysts.
"That intel you asked for this morning?" the young man gave her an overly friendly smile.
Cat was used to that kind of reaction. Although most of her colleagues were friendly and professional, as a woman in the Navy she sometimes encountered men who either didn't like her for being female, or felt she was an easy target for their charms. She preferred the later – they were easy to manipulate.
"You have it already," she did an excellent job of pretending to be impressed even as she plucked the file from his hand.
"I could go over that with you, if you'd like," he offered.
Catherine kept her smile firmly in place, "Ensign, if I needed you to do that, I wouldn't have these Lieutenant's bars."
Back in her office, Catherine spread out the contents of the file. Earlier, she had been interested in the tasers that had disappeared from the shipment of black market weapons she had been reading about. On her way to the briefing, she had asked the analysts to get her a report on other arms shipments, particularly inventory that had gone missing and could not be tracked.
There was a fairly massive amount of data. Cat called up the digital copy, which had been emailed to her even before she had stopped for the paper files, and started a search for certain commonalities.
On the surface, there was nothing alarming about these discrepancies. The original manifests often came from spies or informants. They weren't the most accurate pieces of information. So when a shipment was seized, no one was alarmed when the inventory wasn't exactly what had been expected.
The computer pinged softly to signal that it was finished with the search. Catherine quickly saw a disturbing trend. Starting roughly 5 years ago, a Chinese general named Nie Renchu had begun building a very healthy retirement fund by selling stolen Chinese military arms on the black market.
Renchu was apparently well connected enough that his superiors chose to ignore his activities. A US intelligence asset had provided fairly detailed inventories of each shipment. Many – too many, in fact, to be a coincidence – had been successfully intercepted by various international law enforcement agencies. Every shipment was missing some of the original inventory. It wasn't much from any single shipment. Added together, it could equip a small army very well.
Catherine pulled up everything they had on Renchu and his few known associates outside of China. There was pathetically little, mostly just a few photos and a couple of aliases. Something about one of the men bothered her. According to the files, his name was Hong Ping, although it was also noted that it was probably an alias. He was part of the organization that received the shipments after they left China. Almost nothing else was known about him.
Catherine studied his photo more carefully. There was something there that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She wondered if maybe Steve would recognize the name. After all, the Hess brothers had been arms dealers and Steve had spent years dismantling their network.
She was surprised, and a little worried, when Steve's phone went directly to voicemail. Even if he was swimming, or otherwise occupied, Steve never turned his phone off.
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Charlie Fong was fairly certain that Kono had just taken the last corner on two wheels. "Did the police teach you to drive like the?" He had to raise his voice to be heard over the police sirens, not so much the one on the Cruz as the ones on the squad cars they were passing.
Kono glanced over at him just long enough to take in his death grip on the dash board, "Nah, the boss taught me some tricks."
Charlie's answer turned into a small shriek as she swerved around a patrol car.
They had been at the crime lab, carefully going over evidence from Taro's house, when a report of gunfire at Five-0 Headquarters came over the radio. Kono had leapt to her feet, already reaching for her car keys, before she remembered that she wasn't Five-0 anymore.
Charlie had seen the stricken look on her face. That was why, when the radio had issued the order for all HPD officers to report to the Palace, he had insisted on going with her.
Sitting beside her in the wildly careening car, he was wishing that he hadn't.
Kono took one hand off the wheel to reach for her ringing phone.
"What are you doing?" Charlie yelped, "Don't let go of the wheel!"
She slanted an amused smile his way. "Why? We're not even moving," she answered as she slid the Cruz to a stop with a group of parked police cars, about a block from the Palace.
Charlie tumbled out of the car and waited for his heart to stop racing while Kono had a short conversation with the person on the other end of the phone.
"We have to find Chin right now," she announced, shoving her phone into a pocket, "Catherine has a possible lead but she can't get a hold of Steve."
They pushed their way through the growing crowd of on-lookers until they reached the police perimeter. Flashing their credentials got them both through and, as an added bonus, one of the officers had seen Chin near the front steps of the Palace.
Spotting her cousin among the members of HPD, Kono made a beeline for him, "Chin, I think something happened to Steve and Danny. Catherine says Steve turned his phone off. He never does that."
The grim set of Chin's mouth only alarmed her more. "Rachel couldn't reach Danny either. I was already on my way over here when the call came in about the shots fired."
"What's happening anyway?" Charlie wanted to know.
"Governor Page stopped by to meet with Darren Crosby. Apparently, a group of armed men stormed Five-0's offices. They may have been planning to kidnap the Governor, but it went wrong. Now we have a hostage situation." Chin glanced around, "The kidnappers have identified themselves but I'd bet anything Wo Fat's behind this."
"Do you think Steve and Danny are inside?" Kono's imagination was easily able to conjure up all kinds of different trouble the two men could get into.
"I think it's a pretty good bet," Chin told her, gesturing to Danny's silver Camero sitting empty in a visitor's parking spot.
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The other three men in the room were all staring at Steve with different levels of disbelieve and shock as he climbed up on the table to reach the tiles in the drop ceiling. He quietly lifted up a seemingly random tile and began to fell carefully around. Less than a minute later, he smiled triumphantly and revealed a wicked looking knife.
"Really?" Danny asked, "You let me go through drawers, trying to figure out how to save us with plastic sporks, when you knew that was up there."
Steve's smirk was the only answer he needed to give.
"What else do you have hidden around these offices?" Crosby's tone was ominous.
"You haven't found out yet?" Steve seemed genuinely surprised, "I'll make you a list when we're out of here."
"Don't bother," Crosby's reply was icy, "I'll have the entire place swept myself."
"Who cares about a big knife?" Sarah cried from the corner, "Those men out there have GUNS."
Her four companions exchanged guilty looks. Once she had stopped crying, they had mostly forgotten about her.
"I'm not planning on using the knife to go up against their guns," Steve assured her. (He pretended that he didn't hear Danny's "That's a first"). "I'm going to make us another door."
Steve examined the section of dry wall that had been behind the refrigerator. He cut a few small holes until he had located the metal studs. "They're far enough apart that I can cut a hole we fit through."
"What if you cut into a wire and electrocute yourself?" Crosby asked, "It's an unnecessary risk when we can just stay here and wait this out."
"I already know the answer to this – and I hate that I already know the answer to this," Danny waved his hand at the wall, "But do you know what's on the other side? You've had this escape route planned out for a long time, haven't you?"
Steve deliberately ignored the second question, "There are a bunch of rooms along the back of the building that are used for storing old files. We go from the file room to the hall and then it's an easy walk down the west stairway, or we can even take the elevator."
Crosby was watching Page, trying to gage the Governor's reaction to McGarrett's plan, "Sir, I still thing we need to give my men time to get us out safely."
"I understand you concerns," Page clasped his uninjured shoulder for a moment, "The smart thing to do might be to wait here. However, like Commander McGarrett, I don't fancy being rescued like some damned damsel in distress."
Just like that, the decision was made. While Steve carved through the wall, Danny covered the door, just in case Wo Fat's men somehow figured out their plan and tried to rush the room. In surprisingly little time, Steve was about to open up a hole that was just big enough for them to squeeze through. Danny thought that Crosby looked just slightly disappointed when it was revealed that this section of wall did not appear to have any wiring.
Steve, of course, went through the wall first. Once he signaled the all clear, Crosby insisted that the Governor go next. Getting Crosby himself through was a bit more problematic because of the splint on his arm. The maneuvering required must have hurt, but he refused to let it show. Danny was a little afraid that Sarah might stay curled up on the floor, refusing to cooperate. She surprised him by jumping up and shimmying quickly into the next room.
When Danny finally joined everyone else, he noted that all the filing cabinets were evenly spaced, except for the two that should have been in front of their hole, "You really did have this route planned out, admit it."
Steve shrugged, "I was trained to always make note of all possible exits. It's what SEAL's do." He led them out into a long hallway that ran along the back of the building. There were doorways off one side and windows on the other. The sign marked stairs was only a few dozen feet away, not far past the elevator.
Danny noticed the frown on Crosby's face. He couldn't resist taking a swipe at the former Marine, "See how safe we are all? Steve's exit strategy worked perfectly."
Later, Danny would wonder if maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. No sooner had he spoken, then the building was rocked by what felt like a series of 3 small explosions. The crashing sound of shattered glass seemed to come from all sides as the windows exploded inward. The air was suddenly filled with thick white smoke that made breathing difficult and seeing almost impossible.
Steve tried to push Page and Crosby towards the stairway, when a door opened in front of them. Wo Fat's men poured out and filled the hallway. Two of his men were carrying the wounded crime lord.
Everyone brought their weapons to bear but it didn't matter. There was no cover. Wo Fat had them both outnumbered and outgunned. The Asian man gave them a cold smile, "If you won't help me Page, then killing you will cause enough confusion for my plans to succeed tomorrow. It's almost a shame that you won't get to see the end game, McGarrett, but killing you is just as satisfying."
Danny figured that there had to be some kind of meaning in the fact that they were going to die because Wo Fat had come up with basically the same escape plan that Steve had. Before he could begin to guess at what that meaning might be, the stairwell door was slammed open. Chin and Kono came out with their weapons drawn. Wo Fat and his men were trapped between them.
"Give up, Wo Fat," Steve ordered.
Through the grey haze, Steve heard Wo Fat's laughter. Then he heard a soft ping, "Damn it! They're next to the elevator! Don't let them get away!"
Unfortunately, in the smoky air, no one could risk shooting for fear of hitting one of their own. Steve threw himself forward, but he was too late. He collided with the elevator's closed doors. In frustration, he pounded his fists against the metal.
A second later, the former SEAL was pushing past Chin and Kono, rushing down the stairs, trying desperately to beat the elevator. Everyone else was right behind him.
The scene on the first floor was mayhem. Smoke grenades had broken the windows there, too. The police officers securing the floor had responded in various ways – some had run for cover in case the smoke was a cover for some kind of attack, some had rushed to get out of the building in case the smoke was poisonous, some had stumbled around looking for the source of the attack.
When Steve burst out of the stairway, several HPD officers pointed their weapons at him.
"Stand down!" he ordered them, not waiting to see if they obeyed before he raced towards the elevator.
The metal doors were closed. Steve aimed his gun and pushed the small round button, aware of Danny, Chin, and Kono gathering around him, also aiming their weapons at the elevator. The silver doors slid open immediately, but all they revealed was an empty, slightly bloodstained, car.
Wo Fat is injured and running out of time. Do your hero's finally have the advantage?