A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has commented on this story. You guys are amazing. I'm so glad you like it so far.
Gladys is becoming as bad, if not worse, than her brother.
Chapter 3: We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Doris returned home in the early hours of the morning to find all of the light on in Steve's house and the Camaro still in the drive way. She sighed to herself and rolled her eyes as she moved through it turning off the lights. Once in the kitchen she found it exactly as she's left it. Frustrated, she slammed around the dirty dishes and went about doing them herself. The hot water foamed up in the sink and as she waited she stole a glance outside to where she's left her son and his friend, but they weren't there. One beer still sat on the table between the chairs but Danny and Steve were nowhere to be found.
Doris turned off the water to the sink and moved toward the back door. She turned on the lights to the back yard and stepped out but jumped as she stepped into the broken glass with her bare feet.
"Steven?" she called into the early morning hour but there wasn't an answer.
Retreating back into the house, Doris found the case of beer unchanged from when she left. She found Steve's weapon, his badge and his wallet in his room. She found Danny's car keys by the front door - his shoes were there as well.
A sudden wave of panic came over the woman who had only just regained a son. She sprang for the land line that hung on the wall in the kitchen to call the first people she could think of as waves of possible scenarios played over in her head - none of which were what was actually waiting for her.
5-0
Doris had called Chin first, and woke him from a dead sleep. He was the first to arrive and as he walked up the driveway toward the house the sound of paper fluttering in the wind caught his attention.
"No, it can't be like this." Chin said to himself as he spotted the page of foolscap paper pinned to the windshield of Danny's car.
Without taking it, Chin used the camera on his phone and photographed the Camaro. The flash of the phones camera lit up the darkness of the early morning hour, and to confirm Chin's suspicion and to make his stomach churn with dread, the note on the car was signed with the McMahon name.
5-0
Kono was the second to arrive and she was already preparing herself for the worst. Chin had called he when he'd found the note and sent her in search of some equipment to preserve what he already knew. When she arrived she walked right past the Camaro and in through the house with a field kit in one hand, and found Chin and Doris at the back door.
"Did you bring the Luminol?" Chin asked
"I got it." Kono answered.
"Can you two tell me what is going on?"
Chin and Kono shared a concerned look as Kono placed the kit down on the floor and Chin handed Kono the letter he'd bagged and placed in his pocket.
"Did you read it?" Koko asked - afraid of the answer.
"I can't," Chin said and took the kit and moved further into the back yard. "I'll do this and you can make some phone calls."
"Kono, tell me what is going on!" Doris demanded.
"Has Steve told you about Daniel McMahon?" Kono asked and held the plastic bag with the letter in it like it was a bomb.
"He mentioned a Gladys McMahon and a court appearance."
"You might want to sit down. This is a long story."
"Give me the annotated version, I've got time." Doris said and defiantly crossed her arms over her chest and stood her ground.
"Daniel McMahon abducted Danny and buried him alive. Steve and the team were left clues to find him and McMahon hacked into all of our systems and blocked us at every turn, but we still managed to save Danny, and with Steve acting as bait, Danny shot and killed McMahon. Now his sister, who escaped prison on the mainland, has left us a clue and this time she's taken both of them."
"Are they dead?" Doris asked and there was a serious professionalism about her - rather than emotion for her son.
"Let's read the note and find out." Kono said and carefully - after having put on a pair of black latex gloves - pulled the sheet of paper out of the evidence bag.
5-0
To Whom It May Concern - or not concern:
I'll not be cordial, I'll not be kind, I'll not send you on a wild goose chase, but what I have given you is this - my account of a brilliant man with no apologies as to what I have done or what I am prepared to do.
I am Gladys Louise McMahon - as you surely know - and my brother deserves vengeance against the members of the Five-O task-force.
Daniel Alexander McMahon was a being of higher thinking, great intelligence, and sound principle - though the rest of the world is flawed and did not see his advanced intelligence as a way to save the human race. He was called a psychopath and a lunatic, and he died because he had reached out to the one man whom he believed could understand him, but Detective Williams was as flawed as the system he devotes his life to and all the rest of the world, and although he could have been made to see the new way of light, he was blinded by the rules of a flawed and dying society.
Daniel McMahon had a vision for a superior race devoid of discrimination by what was on the outside - without race, colour, country - but defined by the capacity of the minds within it. He believed that the modern world was no longer suited for the strongest, but rather, for the smartest. By ridding the world of strength of body and greed, the world's problems could be solved by those whose intelligence was superior, but his dream was shattered - ended by a shocking betrayal of a brilliant mind, and the weapons of a simply and Neanderthal society.
You have become a stupid race of sheep! You are controlled by out dated rules and weapons that any ape, with opposable thumbs, could operate. There is no imagination in any of you any more. You've lost the shine and the spark that might have opened your eyes and your minds to the greater powers. You must suffer though the knowledge that you've once again barred yourselves from the proverbial Eden. Daniel could have shown you the way, but you killed him.
I do not pity you. You deserve no such sympathy. The fault is yours alone to bare - the burden of the weigh - great indeed. And so, I have set out to finish what my brother had started - starting with the two men who failed him. I will strike without warning on you Kono Kalakaua and Chin Ho Kelly. I will go for the throats of your friends Lori Weston, Max Bergman, Charlie Fong, Catherine Rollins and the one you call Toast, but you will wait until Daniel and Steven have paid for their sins. You will mourn them as I have mourned the light that was my brother.
One day the rains will wash over all of you. They will flood the world as in the great purge, but I will give you no boats - no two by twos or mercy for the righteous. You deserve no such luxury.
When I have finished with Five-O, I will move on to spread the word of my brother's light. He who shared my blood will be avenged by the blood of your family.
This I leave to you as my manifesto and my promise.
You will not find me, nor do I want you to find your friends, but if you were smart enough to outsmart my brother - which I do not believe any of your had the capacity for except perhaps Daniel - you will find but one clue in my words. That's all you will get.
I remain your sworn enemy and nightmare:
Gladys Louise McMahon
5-0
Having struggled against his bonds until his muscles ached, and after finally coming to with a rather large lump forming on the side of his head, Danny was finally able to free one arm from the multitudes of ropes and wire that cut through his clothing and ripped at his skin, and he was able to pull the gag out of his mouth.
"Steve! Can you move, Steve?" Danny asked feeling the weight of his partner slumped and silent behind him.
They sat, tied together on the floor of a very dark room. The dripping of water could be heard off in the distance, and the place smelled of mould and salt. It was damp everywhere, and pitch dark, but Danny's eyes had started to adjust to the lack of light, and even though it was muggy and humid, Danny shivered right down to his core.
"Steve can you hear me?"
Steve groaned.
"What did they do to you?" Danny asked as he twisted his other arm free and continued working to get himself completely untangled.
"You went down like a ton of bricks and I didn't want you to get hurt anymore, so I just kept fighting," Steve answered weakly.
"I went down like a ton of bricks so that I wouldn't get hurt anymore - also I got conked on the side the head with a rifle stock, it was enough to put me out. You should have followed my lead so that maybe we could both be trying to get free from these ropes and not just me doing all the work." Danny ranted trying to assess the damage as his adrenaline ran high and his worry for Steve started to peak, as his partner continue to slump weakly behind him and his head rolled forward as if Steve was having a very hard time holding himself up and staying conscious.
Steve groaned again.
"Don't worry, I've almost got this," Danny said in response to his partner.
"Watch the wires," Steve said as he tensed momentarily and then slumped again.
"Sorry, they are cutting me too, but I'm almost out."
"I have wire cutters in the car," Steve said weakly.
"I don't think the car is anywhere near where we are." Danny stated as he freed his leg and moved gingerly to stand, although hunched over to keep his balance and to help Steve. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto."
"I can't tell." Steve said as he opened his eyes to see his partner hunched over him and working on the ropes that bound him. "Everything's a blur."
"Well you look like you took a might good beating to your head and face, so I'm not surprised that you're a little out of it." Danny said. "I can tell you for sure, this is not your back yard, and this is not the location we were beat up in. Frankly, Steve, I don't know where we are."
"What do you smell?" Steve asked.
"What do you smell?" Danny asked looking at his partner with suspicion and worry.
"I can't smell right now, I think they broke my nose. I can hear dripping water though." Steve explained.
"Yeah, I hear that too, but it would go hand in hand with the fact that it was raining this morning, or yesterday morning, or whenever depending on how long we've been out."
"But it's dripping inside," Steve commented. "We are inside something, aren't we?"
"Yes, we are inside a very dark, room." Danny stated and the remembrance of other claustrophobic spaces caused his stomach to twist, but it made him more determined to work harder at the bonds that tied his best friend.
"What do you smell?" Steve asked again.
"I smell, I smell, blood, probably yours and I smell sweat, also probably yours."
"In the room Daniel," Steve corrected with impatience.
"Well at least we know you're coherent-ish," Danny stated and Steve could see the ghost of a smile cross his partners face.
"Good evaluation of my mental faculties," Steve said with a weak grin, "but what else do you smell."
"Salt and mould," Danny stated, "maybe something metallic that has been sitting in water too long."
"The ground feels like concrete, so we can rule out shipping container."
"And coffins," Danny said as the memory of his greatest fears flooded in around him.
"We're definitely not in coffins," Steve said with a nod of his head that spoke more to what he knew had crossed Danny's mind, "and at least we're together this time."
"True," Danny said and finished untying his partner. "There, you're free. Now, can you move?" he asked.
"Give me a hand," Steve stated and reached out for Danny.
Danny pulled Steve to his feet, and then felt his partner start and buckle to his knees.
"What happened?" Danny asked with concern.
"Low ceiling," Steve stated, "can't you tell?"
Danny straightened up and felt the ceiling brush his head before he crouched again, "So we are in a small space."
"Don't panic," Steve stated as he felt his partners grip on his bicep tighten.
"I'm not going to panic," Danny retorted defensively.
"I think I know where we are," Steve stated as he forced himself to stay on his hands and knees as he began to crawl toward the sound of the dripping water.
"Wait, where are you going?" Danny asked, and although he crouched, he followed Steve.
"I think we're in a flood drain, and if the rain hasn't stopped the city will opened these flood ways to help the sewers and avoid back ups. If we are trapped down here when that happens, we're goners."
"We are definitely not in Kansas anymore."