Author note:
Hello, everyone. English is not my first language, so be easy on me. Please review if you have time, all feedback are appreciated.
Have a nice day.
"Said that one more time."
"Mary and Joan, they are on the plane." Color was drained from Steve's face as he spoke.
Danny took a moment to digest what he had just heard before he stepped closer to Steve and wrapped his fingers into Steve's hand. Danny could feel how cold Steve's fingers are. Steve turned to Danny's side and forced a smile, a gesture to reassure Danny that he was okay, he got his emotions under control, but then he gave away the worry he meant to mask.
"D-Do you know they were coming?" Danny asked.
"No," Steve whispered. "I only knew when the Governor showed me the passengers' list." Steve sighed before he continued. "But now I can guess why they were coming without telling me."
"Why?"
"Last week during the phone call, Joanie was so excited, she was going on and on about how she has figured out a perfect birthday gift for me."
Danny sighed inwardly as the reality hit him. It's Steve's birthday tomorrow. It momentarily slipped out of his mind because of the case.
"I told Mary not to go over the board with the gift and Mary told me, it was Joan's idea and I would love the gift. I didn't for once thought that they would be coming down…"
"Hey, nobody could guess that something like this would happen…" Danny laid an assuring hand on Steve's shoulders.
"Danny, about being the negotiator, I need someone I…"
"Hey, don't worry about it, I can handle it," Danny assured. He knew he needed to be strong for his partner.
"Thank, Danny. I didn't mean to put the burden on your shoulders."
"Don't worry about it. I understand. Look, I know it's a stupid question but how are you holding up?"
Steve huffed before he spoke. "Whatever I'm feeling deep down, I need to shake it off because it's going not to help me to be focused. Right now, all I have to do is breathe, walk and figure things out. You stay with Mr. Watson."
And Steve was out of the room even before Danny could utter another word. Just because Steve didn't put it in exact words, it doesn't mean Danny couldn't figure it out. Danny knew exactly what was going on Steve's mind, especially his feelings.
-H50-H50-H50-
"We shall now hear from Officer Kono Kalakaua of the Hawaii Five-0 Task Force," Eddie stepped aside from the podium before gestured Kono to take over the stage.
"Thank you," She began and chose words carefully to keep the press release as professional as possible. She knew the hostages' family members were listening as well. "At approximately, 9.10 pm tonight, a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767 from Los Angeles, California to Honolulu, Oahu with 234 passengers on board has been hijacked. At this time, we have Governor's Task Force along with Governor's elite team working together diligently to end this situation efficiently without any causalities. Roads linked to the airport were sealed. Public are refrained from traveling to the airport and becoming onlookers. Please cooperate with us on this one, we do not want to divert our attention from the case to protecting and keeping the crowds under control. Unfortunately, we do not have much information this time." Kono saw some on the crowds have erupted into chatter.
Kono saw few hands being raised up. "Yes?"
"Has contact with the hijackers been made?"
"How many hijackers are they?"
"What are they demanding?"
"What are you doing to save the hostages?"
Kono was bombarded with questions at once. "Our team are working on the situation as we speak. I know it's a tough situation for all of us. You will get updates from us from time to time. That will be all for now. Thank you." Kono quickly turned away from the podium, allowing Eddie to take over again. She wished she will have some good news when she stepped into the podium again.
-H50-H50-H50-
Steve walked out of the room and saw Lou approaching with a big paper.
"I got the plane's schematics layout." Lou handed the paper and Steve quickly took them and spread them on the table available close by.
"What are you looking for, Steve? Because the Hawaiian Airlines representative said they have their flight engineer standing by if we need anything."
"Good. Right now, I'm just looking for …" Steve's words trailed off as he bit his lip and his eyes went darting through the schematics layout.
"Steve?" Lou called when he didn't hear any other word coming out of Steve.
Steve's eyes stopped scanning, it showed signs of pleased, like it found what it was looking for. Lou was about to ask about it when Steve spoke. "Lou, I need to you to prepare aluminum ladders, at least six of them, most importantly paint them black."
"Okay, but…"
"Commander," Governor's personal secretary, Sophie came out running. "The hijacker, he answered." She panted between the words. "Detective Williams is talking to him."
Steve quickly took off with Sophie, leaving Lou to be baffled with the order he had just given. Lou looked back at the plane's schematics layout. He has traveled on a plane countless times before and he knew few times about planes, but hell, that detailed layout was way too high standard for him to understand. Clock was ticking, so he scrolled the paper and took off to take care of the job given to him.
-H50-H50-H50-
Steve entered the room and come to a stop in front of desk. He took the headset handed over by the Governor and listened into the conversation.
"…Governor's Task Force?" Steve caught the last few words.
"Yes, it's Detective Williams from Governor's Task Force." Danny exchanged a glance with Steve. "Hey, thanks for answering, how's everything going on in there?"
"Everything is going on fine for now and what happens next, it depends on you. Therefore, I'm going to jump straight to the point."
"We are listening."
"We have a list of demands but I'm going to go on with the first one and most important one. You people took something that belongs to us and we want it back."
"What is it?"
"Our brother, Jamal Syed Hussain. We know he was brought to Hawaii after he was taken."
Governor glanced at Steve, mentally asking if he recognized the name. Steve shook his head.
Understanding the conversation going on between Steve and Governor, Sophie quickly typed the name on her laptop and turned the screen to Steve.
A file appeared but the red uppercase words caught their eyes.
CLASSIFIED.
SECURITY CLEARANCE NEEDED.
Steve lifted an eyebrow and Danny rolled his eyes.
"I will call back in half an hour time with further instructions. You better have some good news if you care about the people in the plane."
"Can you at least tell me your name?" Danny prayed for information.
"I suggest you focus on task given to you, Detective."
The line went dead.
"Tell me you can declassify them," Danny spoke.
"Give me a minute." Steve stepped to side with phone pressed to his ears.
"Mr. Watson what you think…" Governor started to speak and Danny zoned out from the conversation. His eyes were focused on Steve who began to pace like wild animal caged for ages.
Steve paced back and forth for a couple of times before he shoved his phone into his pocket and walked back to join the group.
Danny lifted an eyebrow and Steve nodded back in response. Danny understood, Steve got the information they needed.
"Some words used by the hijacker might help us." Mr. Watson said. "He used the words like 'we have', 'our brother', 'we know'."
"There is undoubtedly more than one hijacker on the plane," Governor stated.
Steve nodded agreeing with Governor's statement.
"So, they are probably going to ask us to release their brother in exchange for our hostages?" Sophie inquired.
"Looks like it." Danny cocked his head slightly to Steve. "What you got?"
"Commanding Officer Wade Gutches is on his way. Apparently, Jamal was picked up by Seal Team 9 in their last mission. He will tell us more when he arrives." Steve continued. "I think we have one advantage here."
"What advantage, Steve?"
"They have no idea about their brother other than he was brought to Hawaii. They are actually depending on us for the information."
"Now that you have said it, why do I have a feeling that is not an advantage at all?"
"Why you think so, Detective Williams?"
"What if they actually know everything and their first plan is to test us?"
"Maybe… or maybe not." Steve shrugged.
"Yes, I understand about the maybe not part, but we have no way finding it out, because we take one wrong move on this one, it's going to affect the hostages."
"So what? You suggest we release the prisoner?" Steve questioned. His tone voiced his dissatisfaction.
"Hey, I'm not happy about this situation either, but Steve, we have 234 lives here. Are we really going to put their lives at stake for one imbecile?"
Sincere apologies for the mistakes if there are any. Thank you for your time. See you next week.