Chapter 5

Steve cast an admiring eye to the palette of Mother Nature. Hawaii was one of the few places where he could look at the colors of the setting sun and admire them for their beauty and feel peaceful. In the vast majority of the countries he'd logged time in, sunset was looked upon as a timing factor - long shadows of oncoming darkness where well trained men in black clothing hid in preparation for the start of another government mission. But this was Hawaii and soon the sun would be gone and this stakeout would be well on its way and Steve was grateful he didn't have to break out the grease paint.

In the passenger seat beside him, Danny sighed. "You know in Jersey I could enjoy my dinner out on my back deck in full sunshine. It was still bright enough to follow up with a walk through the neighbourhood and when I got home, I could water the petunias and clean up the yard of all Grace's toys." Danny leaned to the side, elbow balanced on the window frame, as he rubbed at his eyes.

Steve had to ask, "You okay over there?"

"I'm just tired of conducting night maneuvers when the clock says the day is only half done. Why can't these bad guys meet in a quaint little coffee shop at two in the afternoon?"

Steve's eyes squinted, evaluating his partner's mood. "Are you in need of some caffeine or just pondering the obvious?"

"Shut up and drive." Danny grumbled as Steve grinned.

An hour earlier Kamekona had called to relay his information. The word being passed around was Terashima had a scheduled meeting with some new partners; partners that had an interest in the water lanes that, up until recently, had been traversed by Akino Salvator's Hawaiian Harbour Tours.

Kamekona's connections couldn't pin down a time but seemed confident that the meeting was happening tonight … probably … at the very latest tomorrow. But definitely at Terashima's harbour tour office.

Steve had made a quick stop on the way to pick up Danny. They had left the office only a short time ago and Steve knew his partner would whine about missing his dinner…again. He made sure to order the sloppiest burger he could find on the fast food menu. Adding in a Coke and large fries, he was sure he could prevent a long winded rant about how the normal person's work day ended at five. So upon the opening of Danny's apartment door he gleefully handed over the grease-stained paper bag. Steve managed to grab the Camaro keys before they hit him on the side of his head and had to scoot out of the doorway as it was locked behind him. On the way to the parking lot Steve silently groaned as Danny began a very vocal description of the four basic food groups and how grease and animal fats weren't among them.

Steve detoured to the trunk before settling in the driver's seat and passing the protective vest to his partner beside him. "Why are you mad at me?" He was resigned, but curious to his lot in life. "I thought you lived on take-out."

Danny gratefully accepted the bullet resistant layer. It wasn't the heavy ceramic lined vest, but as this was only a fact finding mission it passed Danny's safety requirements. Danny squirmed in his seat until he had the vest and his button up shirt back on. Taking a quick bite between fastening buttons, his reply was mumbled incoherently around a mouthful of grease and animal fat.

Steve didn't understand a single word, but the tone was clear. He sighed as he turned back to watch the road, missing the smile from behind the half eaten hamburger.

They were two minutes out from the docks when Danny finished eating. Both the napkin and the grease coated wax paper were crumpled up and shoved back into the take-out bag. Steve found himself pushed over towards the driver's door as Danny leaned around the side of his bucket seat and hid the garbage on the floor of the back seat.

Steve pushed Danny back into his own seat as he looked for Kono's red car and a parking spot. He barely managed to hear the low mumblings of his partner.

"Thanks for dinner."

"Wait. What was that?"

"There's Kono and Chin." Danny pointed, directing Steve's gaze to the Cruze parked across the street and the other half of Five-0 sitting on a wooden bench along the boardwalk. Danny's finger changed angles, "And a parking spot just up there."

"Got it." Steve signalled and pulled into the empty parking spot. "What were you saying?"

"What?" Danny raised an eyebrow, "When?"

"When?" Steve's eyes closed in effort to contain his exasperation. "Just before we parked. You were half way in the backseat, your ass up here - And you're the one always going on at me about safe driving rules." Steve turned to watch his partner as he waited for an explanation.

"Say ass again."

"What are you, twelve?" Steve felt a headache coming on.

Danny smirked as he stepped from the car.

Steve took a moment, leaning back in the driver's seat. With a hand rubbing his eyes he laughed at his partner. A moment later he was out of the car and catching up to the blond man.

Chin smiled as they approached, "You look happy to be on stakeout."

"Happy?" Danny's hands flew to his chest. "Oh no, my friend. What I have is a bolstered blood pressure so that when the bullets start flying I should, at least, last long enough until the EMT's are able to take over."

"He means I fed him and he has nothing else to gripe over." Steve explained.

"Nothing?" Danny turned and his finger poked into Steve's shoulder. "Have you called HPD for back up? Does anyone other than Kamekona even know we're here?"

"We've got Chin and Kono," Steve pointed to the two smiling locals. "We're good."

"We are many things, Steven. 'Good' is not likely to be one of them." Danny retorted.

Kono frowned, "I take offense to that. My mother always says I'm good."

"I wouldn't take on Kono's mom, Brah," Chin took up the teasing. "She'll take you down."

"Fine," Danny's hands went up in surrender. "I could use the change in luck. I'll partner up with Kono."

Chin stood up from the bench and held out a helping hand to his cousin. "Sorry man. She's family, and blood always comes first."

Kono popped up from the bench and tossed a saucy wave over her shoulder as she and Chin headed toward the dock and Terashima's tour office.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Steve yelled.

Chin and Kono paused to grin at each other before Chin answered, "Terashima knows both of your faces. Kono and I are taking the front; you two get the back door this time."

With mild disbelief Steve watched the Hawaiian half of the team take his usual position. Apparently a staff meeting was needed. It would focus on insubordination and the hierarchy of the 5-0 taskforce. With a bemused smile, he wondered how he could talk Chin into entering that into everyone's electronic calendars.

"Well Sundance, it looks like it's you and me again." Steve tossed a hand to his partner's shoulder.

"You know they died at the end of that movie, right?" Danny glared at the offending appendage before starting down the boardwalk, leaving Steve's hand to fall back to his side.

Steve looked up to the darkened sky, silently asking 'why me?' He hurried to catch up with his partner, "I associate you with the likes of Robert Redford and all you focus on is the last two minutes of the movie."

Danny only glared in reply as they continued on to the tour office. They could see Chin and Kono settling on a bench all of twenty paces down from the main entrance to Terashima's building. Amusing ways of bringing the term 'kissing cousins' into conversation leapt to mind, but then Steve remembered how accurate Chin was with that shotgun of his and the teasing thoughts quickly slipped away.

As they neared the tour office, Steve had a partial view into the back lot. Right next to the office was a reserved parking space for deliveries, and Steve had a bad feeling before he even rounded the corner of the building to get a full view of the rest of the lot. There was a single Chevy Spark parked on the far side of the small lot. Other than that and the two square, cement flower planters flanking the back door there was no cover for the men to utilize. Even the grey shadows provided by the parking lot's lone light post didn't offer adequate hiding, and the palm trees that lined the street were much too thin to hide anyone that wasn't a swimsuit model. At least they wouldn't have to worry about passersby driving into the lot. A metal chain closed off the entrance.

Looking around, Steve spotted a coffee shop with a small outdoor patio across the street. "We could watch from there and make our way back over once all the players are on the field."

A cryptic look passed over Danny's features, but after a small sigh, he was nodding his head in agreement. "Maybe they have a dessert menu to go with all that fancy coffee."

~H50~

After he convinced the server to skip the overbearing adjectives and non-essential foam, and just fill a mug with deep, rich coffee and let it go, Danny could admit that the beverage was pretty good. The opportunity to ignore the face staring at him from across the table also added to his enjoyment. This night wasn't turning out to be a complete waste after all.

The quiet echo bouncing off the water and through the flower lined spaces between buildings could have been just about anything. Could have been, but Danny knew that sound to be the distinct report of a Smith and Wesson. Even in their short time together he could recognize it as the weapon of choice for one Chin Ho Kelly. Apparently his partner also identified the sound as he was half a step in front of the detective as they raced across the street heading to the poorly lit back door of Aloha Catamaran Tours.

Danny was ten steps from the door when he pulled his Sig Pro out from his holster. He knew Steve would take the right side of the door so he aimed for the left. Suddenly a very large Samoan burst through the doorway carrying an Uzi. He lurched to a stop in surprise, and wasted barely a moment scanning the parking lot before spraying a quick burst of bullets at the cement flower bed Steve had just hurled himself behind. Then he ducked back inside and the door slammed behind him.

From inside the tour office there was a shouted warning of "Police!" followed by much yelling and crashing; the definite sounds of a desperate group of men digging in and readying themselves for defence.

"Shit!"

"You okay over there?" Danny called out over his own cement barrier.

The frustrated reply of "We're never going to hear them admit to taking out Salvator now," only made Danny want to shoot in his partner's general direction.

Instead he allowed himself no more than an eye roll and growled out, "I think we have bigger problems!"

There was a few seconds lapse before an acknowledgement was forth coming. "Yeah, you may be right." There was some scrambling in the pebbles from behind Steve's flower bed.

"Will you get down!" Danny demanded without even looking to verify his partner's head was raised above the planter wall. The lighting may have been less than ideal in this little lot, but it would only take one lucky shot to put his bull-headed partner out of commission.

"They're setting up for cover fire. I can see shadows of movement in the lights between the blinds. You have to move, Danny. Your position is too open."

Danny could only sigh in resignation, "Of course it is." Rather than knock his head against the cement wall out of frustration Danny chose to slowly pull himself along by his elbows to the edge of flower bed. "Ready when you are."

Silently counting to three in his head, and with the first shot from his partner's gun, Danny popped up and raced across the thirty feet of open parking lot and slid over the hood of the little Chevy to drop behind its protective body. Although he didn't feel like he had a whole lot more cover, he breathed out a sigh of relief for having made it this far.

As soon as the return fire calmed, Steve was shouting for confirmation that all was good.

"Yeah," Danny answered as he double checked there was a bullet primed and ready in the gun barrel. "Just your typical Thursday."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If it were Monday, I'd be bleeding."

"I don't see…you know, that's just not fair."

"I'm calling Chin to see how they're doing," Danny changed the topic as he pulled out his cell phone. "Maybe you could call Duke? I bet his evening could use some excitement. He might even bring some of his co-workers along."

"You're just full of ideas," Steve snarked back. "I'm already on it and just waiting for him to answer his phone."

Before Danny could come up with a reply of his own, Chin's breathless voice came across the line.

"You guys okay?"

"For the moment," Danny answered. "How about you?"

"We're alright," Chin's breathing was slowly coming back under control. "We found cover, but there's at least eight guys in there, all heavily armed. There's two out here, but they won't be bothering anyone anytime soon."

"What happened?" Danny asked.

Chin sounded chagrined, "Would you believe one of Terashima's guys came up through the local gang ranks? With all the hours he's logged in HPD interrogation, he recognized me as a cop and started shooting."

Before Danny could offer any commiseration Steve was yelling at him to get down. From behind the relative safety of the Chevy, Danny was covering his head from flying shards of safety glass from the windows above. He wasn't able to offer any return fire as it seemed the air around him was alive with bullets and shrapnel. Steve's Sig was mysteriously silent as well.

"Are you hit?" Danny could barely hear his own bellow over the din.

The lack of response seemed to provide a foreboding silence within the clamour of gun fire.

As soon as there was a perceived lull in the attack, Danny was on his knees, forearms braced on the hood of the car, he emptied his whole magazine at the back of the office building. It gave him enough time to locate Steve lying flat on the asphalt with his arms covering his head. Danny couldn't see any red splotches and he hoped it was because there weren't any. With his return fire, his partner was able to shift his position enough to acknowledge Danny's question with a quick thumbs up. With the departure of the final bullet from the magazine, Danny dropped back to the ground with a deep and heartfelt sigh.

There was token resistance of gun play in reply, but Danny was able to hear Steve's request for another show of force. He knew his partner needed to move. His position behind the planter was only marginally better than Danny's had been.

Pulling a fresh magazine from his pocket, Danny pushed the release and let the empty one fall from the handle. He slammed home the new magazine and made sure to chamber the first shell. Closing his eyes, he offered a quick prayer to any deity in the area who may be listening. Sister Mary Margaret from Holy Trinity Middle School would be disappointed in his cavalier appeal, but she had always told him he was on the path straight to Hell due to his lack of commitment and poor Latin intonation.

With fresh resolve, Danny returned to his knees and shot with all the accuracy and speed he had learned since his academy days. His gun clicked empty just as a dark form flew over the roof of the car and crashed to the ground beside him.

Scuttling through the shards of glass around them was less of a concern than the hail of bullets now coming at them. Both men rested with their backs against the tires while they brought their breathing back to normal levels.

"That was graceful," the rush of adrenalin still had Danny sounding winded. "Just like a bird."

The 'evil eye' thrown his way actually helped him to relax, the corner of his lips even twitched. "So now what, genius? My plans for the evening didn't include being target practise for a bunch of bad guys. Use some of that Army know how and come up with a plan already."

"That's Navy, Danny. And why do you recognize that I'm in charge only when we're in trouble?" Steve asked with a sour look, but still raised himself slowly so he could see over the door and through the empty windows of the Chevy.

"Hey, be careful," Danny whispered.

Steve ignored the warning and took a decent look at their surroundings. "We've got them blocked up in the building. Did Chin say if they were able to maintain their position at the front?"

"Are you insane?"

"What? They are okay?" Steve actually looked worried.

"Yes, they're okay!" If Danny wasn't holding on to his weapon, he would have made a point of smacking that look off his partner's face. "Do you even hear yourself? Do you honestly believe that the two of us," his left hand let go of his Sig Pro and weaved between the two of them, "have this particular scene under control? That Kono and Chin are in any better position on the other side of this building, than we are?"

Steve scrunched his eyes shut and leaned his head back against the battered Spark. "Backup is coming. We just have to keep Terashima and his men from leaving until they get here."

"Keep them from leaving? You are insane." For some reason it felt good to acknowledge the obvious.

"There's only one door, Danny. If they're stupid enough to open it, we lay down an intense barrage of fire and keep them there."

"Intense barrage?" Danny couldn't keep the sound of incredulity out of his voice. "This," Danny tilted his head to indicate the weapon in his hands, "This is my last clip. So that's twelve bullets." He had already dropped the second empty magazine from the gun when Steve came hurdling over the car. "My back-up piece," Danny referred to the Walther he kept in his ankle holster, "has seven more. That's it. After that a fat lady comes out to sing."

Steve's head teetered side to side. Danny assumed he was doing a quick calculation of how screwed they really were. Finally Steve nodded. Danny was somewhat pleased that his crazy assed partner recognized the obvious conclusion so quickly.

"We do a carefully aimed, intense barrage until back-up arrives."

Danny sighed. It amazed him how the same conclusion could look so different from an insane person's point of view.

However, he didn't have much time to worry about perspectives as Terashima's men prepared for their move. Guns were pointed out from the smashed office window and more were being aimed from between the door and its frame. The noise of the attack alone was enough to knock a man over.

"We can't let them get out!" Steve yelled as he rolled to his stomach and began his return fire from under the rear bumper of the car.

Like Danny didn't know that. Trying to keep as much of the car between him and the bullets as possible, Danny used the door frame for cover and aimed through the vehicle's front windows. He aimed for the area around the weapon parts he could see; hoping his bullets made it through the narrow openings and found a target.

For five long minutes each side seemed to hold their own. Danny was down to the last few bullets in his Walther when he heard the most beautiful sound. Sirens were just barely audible over the current din of flying bullets. Steve must also have heard it as he sat back up, using the tire to hide him from view on the other side. Danny copied his move, using the front tire to lean against.

Within moments the whole sky seemed to light up with flashing red and blue. A familiar voice boomed through a bullhorn, "This is the police. We have you surrounded. Drop your weapons and come out slowly."

If Danny was ever blessed with a baby boy, he was naming him Duke.

There seemed to be some debate going on inside the tour office, and Danny crouched, ready to bring his weapon back into play. Not that he would have much to contribute, but he'd do what he could. Steve was beside him checking his P226. He didn't look happy, probably down to half a load. Thankfully the first weapon from inside the tour office was dropped from the smashed window. Soon several others followed.

"We're coming out. Don't shoot."

Slowly the inside door was pulled open and a well built black man stood in the doorway, his hands up. He pushed the outer door and it came loose from its top hinge falling onto the man's shoulder. He caught the edge of the door and as he pushed it out of his way, he reiterated, "Don't shoot. I'm coming out."

After four men were standing in the dim light with their hands behind their heads, and it was clear no one else would be joining them, Danny shouted from his position behind the car, "Where are the others? We know there were eight of you."

Steve raised an eyebrow at the number, but kept his gun pointed at the open door.

"They're down. You'll have to send in paramedics to bring them out," the man who was first out replied.

Hoping it wasn't a lie, Danny and Steve slowly stood and were joined by six men in HPD uniforms and tac vests coming in from the surrounding lots. As four officers took control and handcuffed the men, Duke came towards Steve.

"You guys alright?"

Danny dusted the dirt and rocks from his trousers. His fingers found a long tear in the side of his left pant leg. "That's another set of pants you owe me, McGarrett."

Steve smirked, "I bet cargo pants are starting to look pretty good, hey Danno?"

Danny reached out and shoved his partner and was surprised when the man actually started to fall over. Quick reactions had Danny grabbing Steve by the arm and helping him sit down on the edge of a planter. Feeling his hand come away sticky, Danny looked to see a runny coating across his palm.

"You moron. You've been shot!"

~TBC~