Danny was waiting for them at Hickam, smiling in relief when he saw them step off the plane, safe and sound.
"You both are a sight for sore eyes," he said, as they climbed into Steve's truck.
"It's good to be home, Danny," Steve said.
"Any luck?" Danny asked. "Did you find answers?"
Steve sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, but not the ones we were looking for, Danno."
"Sorry, buddy. What next?"
"We rest, regroup. Start again tomorrow," Steve said. "Let's go home, yeah, Riley?"
Riley smiled and nodded in agreement. Home. She was surprised, but that's exactly what it felt like, driving back to Steve's house. The McGarrett home. Her home.
It was shockingly easy for Joe to take Riley from the safety and security of that home.
He knew Steve's schedule too well; knew that the early morning swim would be impossible for him to resist. The SWAT officers posted at the front and back doors were dispatched with ease; they were fine officers, he was sure, but they weren't SEALs. They also had no reason to suspect that the uniformed commander was a threat; they assumed he was there for Steve.
He put the gun to Riley's head just as Steve reached the chairs and paused to dry himself off with a towel.
"I have two snipers ready to take the kill shot; they're locked on Steve and they will not miss." Joe said quietly, stopping Riley just as she was about to step out onto the lanai. "Come with me, quietly and quickly, and I swear to you he won't be hurt."
Riley didn't hesitate. She winced as Joe forcefully grabbed her by the back of the neck and guided her to his waiting car. Steve didn't even hear the engine over the gentle, familiar sound of the waves breaking softly behind him.
Steve knew something was wrong the minute he started walking to the house. The SWAT officer that had wished him a good morning and a good swim was nowhere to be seen.
Steve hastened his pace and glanced around frantically. He saw the heel of the officer's boot underneath the shrubbery by the back door. Desperately, he scrabbled for a hold on the tac vest and pulled until he could feel for a pulse. It took a few seconds, but it was there, weak but steady.
Steve barreled in his back door.
"Riley?!" he called out.
Nothing.
He reached in a drawer and grabbed his SIG, and picked up his phone from the table. He dialed Danny as he moved quickly to the front door. No sign of the officer there, either. He looked around until he located the officer. Thumbing his phone onto speaker, he laid it down and felt for a pulse. Barely there. He hung his head in frustration, just as Danny came on the line.
"Danny!" he barked into the phone. "Get everyone over here now – call Grover – someone took out the SWAT detail. Riley's gone."
"What do you mean, gone?" Danny asked, incredulous.
"Gone, Danno," Steve's voice broke. "I think . . . I think WoFat may have her."
They processed the house in grim silence.
"Nothing?" Steve asked, again, as he paced the living room.
"I'm so sorry, Steve, there's absolutely nothing. No prints, no residue, nothing." Kono shook her head. "Are you absolutely sure nothing's been moved or disturbed?"
"I'm sure . . . her coffee mug was still warm when I got back in the house," Steve said.
"Maybe she left," Chin offered hopefully. "Maybe she hid. Someone took out the officers, she got spooked, and ran. There's no indication of a struggle, right? And Joe trained her; you said she took out three assailants when you were with her in Korea."
Steve nodded. "She can handle herself, no doubt. But someone quietly and efficiently took down those officers, took them by surprise. She wouldn't have run, Chin. She would have fought, sure, but she wouldn't have run scared. If there's nothing here . . . let's head back to the Palace. We'll get statements from the officers as soon as they're cleared from the ER; go from there."
He went to close the doors and pick up his badge and cell phone from the kitchen counter. Danny watched as he wrapped his fingers around the mug left on the counter. For a moment, Danny thought the mug was going to become shrapnel, but instead, Steve gently rinsed it out and placed it next to the coffee maker. He gripped the counter so hard Danny could see his knuckles turn white, see the veins stand out on his forearms.
"Babe?" Danny called quietly.
"I . . . Danno, I just found her. I can't lose her," Steve gritted out. "If WoFat has her . . . "
"One thing at a time, Steve, yeah? Let's go see what we can find out. We'll get her back, Steve; we will."
"Both officers have the same account," Chin said, walking into the squad room. "They didn't see or hear a thing – caught completely off guard in a chokehold. They were left just barely breathing . . . their assailant didn't want them dead but they were put down hard."
"WoFat," Steve said grimly, his knuckles gripped white on the smart table.
"Or someone from that damn Special Activities Division," Danny added, "like Joe White."
Steve paused, a glimmer of hope flickering in his eyes. "He might want her; Special Activities must have a vested interest," he said. "And he wouldn't kill her. The problem is, we haven't been able to find Joe, we have the SAD breathing down our necks and making threats . . . what do we do?"
"Yes, Governor, it would be my pleasure to assist in the search. I will notify Five-O immediately if I uncover any information at all."
Catherine hung up the phone and smiled. She picked up her personal cell and sent a text.
Operating under special request from Denning. SAD no issue. Will give you updates ASAP.
She hit send, paused a moment, and then sent another text.
We'll get her back.
"Okay, so Denning has managed to pull SAD off us for the time being; he even tasked Catherine to help us using Navy Intelligence channels. If Joe does have Riley, he's not going to be able to hide indefinitely. If it isn't Joe that has her . . . "Steve hesitated. If they were wrong, they were wasting precious time.
Chin frowned at the display on the plasma screen. Hours had passed with no leads and his eyes were growing weary with fatigue. He thought he saw something but . . .
"Kono, check this out," he said.
Kono came out of her office and stood next to Chin at the console.
"What is it?"
"Look at this – remember that cover file you had at the ready, when Agent Fielding came in?"
"Yeah, it was something Steve and I worked out after that last IA debacle. Something that I could throw up in a split second to cover tracks if I needed to."
"Well, it keeps turning up like a bad penny, almost like a computer virus," Chin said.
"Hunh, that's weird. It's definitely not a virus," Kono said. "Let me see what's going on."
She typed several commands and the file collapsed and then reappeared on the screen.
"Wait, that's different," Kono said, her hands flying over the keyboard. "That file segment; that's not part of the original file."
"What is it, then?" Chin asked.
Kono typed in a few more commands and isolated a line of code hidden in one of the restaurant menu options. "This – this line of code has nothing to do with a menu. It looks like . . . "
She turned and looked in Steve's office. He immediately sensed the change in her posture and came charging from behind his desk.
"What," he demanded. "What have you got?"
"Steve, it looks like coordinates. I think Riley sent us her location."
Danny had an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu as they geared up. The last time he had seen this look on Steve's face was when they had found that bloody tooth on the floor of Mary's apartment.
"Steve, what's going through that head of yours?" Danny asked.
When he saw the expression on Steve's face as he turned to look at him, he almost wished he hadn't asked.
WoFat smiled at his companions.
"The old man thinks he is sending his protégé' in under his control, and his design. By now, he's revealed the identity of Shelburne to her. Let's alleviate him of his burden, shall we? It's time."
They arrived at the warehouse within thirty minutes of Kono's discovery.
To their surprise, they met no resistance at the door. Steve kicked it down in frustration anyway.
"Joe?"
He raised a hand for the others to pause. Joe was in the center of the room, tied to a chair, beaten within an inch of his life. A table behind him was covered with computer equipment, some of it smoking. Several bodies littered the floor, blood pooling under them.
"Joe . . . Joe, hold on," Steve muttered, as he and Danny worked to release Joe from his bonds. Chin was already calling an ambulance, Kono was calling in a forensics team.
"Steve, I'm sorry, son. I thought I could protect her."
"Joe, you arrogant bastard. What the hell have you done?" Steve was torn between fury and concern. "Where is she?"
"WoFat has her, Steve. I couldn't . . . I didn't anticipate this."
Steve paced outside the hospital room.
When the doctor emerged, Steve didn't even pause long enough to hear a medical update. He honestly didn't care.
"Tell me," he demanded hoarsely, standing over the foot of Joe's bed.
"I needed her, Steve. I needed her to create a history for Shelburne."
"Damn it, Joe, give me answers, now!" Steve yelled, gripping the railing at the foot of the bed.
"I'm trying to, son –"
Steve held up his hand. "Don't. Don't ever call me that again."
"Okay, Steve." Joe passed a shaking hand over his bruised face. "WoFat has been in league with the Yakuza for decades. Your mother worked with me in Special Activities. We were working to bring down the Yakuza. She got too close, her cover was compromised."
"My mother was CIA," Steve said. It wasn't a question at this point.
"Yes. I recruited her myself, as part of Special Activities. When she became a Yakuza target, I helped her fake her death and relocated her to Tokyo. Riley was born not too long after. The foster parent story was to keep Riley in the dark; it was a risk, but your mother wasn't willing to give her up."
Steve cringed. She had been willing to give him up, though, and Mary.
"And my father?" Steve demanded. "What did he know, Joe?"
"Nothing. It would have been better if he had left it alone, but he didn't. He started to suspect that she had been murdered – not true, but the explosives we used to fake the accident led him down that path. He suspected that the Yakuza had murdered her; not far from the truth, but not the truth. Still, it strengthened your mother's cover story so we let it go."
Steve nodded. "What about the baby? What about Riley? Did my father know about the baby?"
Joe was silent for a moment. "I don't think that's pertinent to this discussion, Steve."
"Oh, so now you're going to focus on the truth? Convenient, Joe," Steve snarled.
"I'm going to focus on helping you find your sister before WoFat kills her."
Steve gripped the rails of the bed so hard that they groaned under the pressure.
"Okay, go on," he gritted out.
"When Riley was about sixteen, WoFat began closing in on your mother again. We're not sure how he picked up the trail but he had. She had no choice but to go further off the radar. I took Riley to Frank, to keep her safe. Taught her to take care of herself, just like your mother had been doing."
"Yeah, we went back to see Frank. He told us about your training. How benevolent of you, Joe, to torture a sixteen year old girl."
"It was for her own protection," Joe insisted.
"I think you better keep talking, before I dwell on that particular topic," Steve warned.
"We realized that with her specialized training, and her obvious talent and intelligence, Riley could be a force to be reckoned with. When Mokoto offered to fund her education at the university of Tokyo, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We convinced the Kkangpae to serve as protection; we thought they would be motivated enough by their hatred of the Yakuza to protect their interests by protecting her. We didn't realize that WoFat would connect the dots but he did, far more quickly than we ever could have anticipated." Joe stopped, grimacing in pain.
A nurse stepped in. "Sir, we need to administer some pain medication for him."
"Not. Yet." Steve said in a menacing tone. "He doesn't deserve it. He can get it, though, when he gives me enough information to rescue an innocent girl."
The nurse beat a hasty retreat.
"So he kidnapped her, took her to North Korea to wait for Jenna to deliver me. What is Shelburne, and why does he think we know?"
"Shelburne . . . is the code name of the CIA operative who killed his father. He is hell-bent on revenge, Steve. You can relate, can you not?" Joe half-smiled at the irony.
"Tell me, Joe, who is Shelburne?" Steve demanded.
"Your mother. Your mother killed WoFat's father. And his mother, in the cross-fire. She felt so guilty that she raised WoFat for a while, until the CIA and Special Activities made her give him up. He wants revenge . . . for his father's death, and for the time you and your sisters were able to spend with your mother that he wasn't." Joe coughed weakly.
Danny had slipped into the room, having been begged by the nurse to intervene on behalf of her patient.
"What were you doing with Riley, Joe? With the computers?" Steve demanded. He was afraid that Joe was simply going to lose consciousness before he could get the answers he needed.
"Creating a better cover, Steve. We thought that with Riley's cooperation, we could convince WoFat that your father was Shelburne. If WoFat would believe that his father's death had already been avenged; and that your life, and Mary's, and Riley's had been sufficiently destroyed, that he would leave all of you alone."
"Why not just take him out, Joe? If you knew what he wanted, knew what he was after, why not just send someone in to finish the job? Come on, we both know what the CIA and the SAD are capable of."
Danny's heart broke at the pleading tone in Steve's voice. He knew they were both dreading Joe's answer, because it would betray every last confidence that Steve had in him.
"WoFat is still . . . useful to us. There is a higher purpose to his interaction with the CIA and the SAD. The lives of individuals are secondary to the greater good." Joe's voice was weakening.
Steve looked at him in horror. "You used us. You used my father . . . he sent us away, thinking he was protecting us . . . we were essentially orphans. And Riley . . . Joe, you and my mother . . . you experimented with her. CIA training, SEAL training, computer forensics . . . what the hell were you trying to do to her?"
"We thought that we could start from scratch, create someone who could outsmart WoFat. If I had just had enough time to prepare her, she could have gotten inside his operation, convinced him that she was cooperating with him . . . fed us intel . . . your mother could have come out of hiding."
Steve could barely contain his rage. "WoFat found you before you could put your plan in motion? Is that what you're telling me? You planned all along to turn her over to that son of a bitch; you just needed to get her prepped so that she could serve your purposes when you did it?"
"I'm sorry . . . " Joe said weakly.
Steve paused, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry that we didn't have time to complete the mission . . . "
It took all of Danny's strength to slow Steve down long enough to shout at him.
"Steve! Steve! Wait, you need to ask Joe where WoFat took her. Joe might know where WoFat would take her, Steve."
As security and staff rushed in the room, Steve allowed Danny to push him out into the hallway. Danny and Kono gently but firmly pushed Steve into a small family waiting room.
Danny was prepared for an explosion of anger and rage, so he was shocked when Steve paled and dropped into a chair.
"My mother . . . and Joe . . . " he mumbled, eyes glassy and unfocused. "They knew – they knew all along. They played god, they used her like a gamepiece in their sick, twisted game. I was never supposed to know about her; they would never have told me."
"Steve, we're going to find her, we'll get her back. Chin is going in to talk to Joe, see if he can get any leads at all on where WoFat may have taken her," Kono soothed, cautiously rubbing Steve's shoulders.
"Danny, that bastard has her. WoFat has Riley. He has my sister, Danny, and she's going to do everything she can to resist telling him what he wants to know . . . and this time, he knows for sure that she has the information."
Danny's eyes were full of sympathy. "I know, babe, we're going to find her, I promise."
Kono barely got the trashcan under Steve in time, as he retched violently at the thought of his sister in the hands of WoFat.
"Okay, Chin, keep me posted," Catherine said, her eyes filling with tears as she hung up the phone. In the few days that she had been with Steve and Riley, she had witnessed the beginning of a hesitant and tentative bond, but she had sensed Steve's affection and protectiveness toward Riley, even before the DNA test. Steve did not handle it well when any of his people were threatened.
Despite her desire to leave immediately and go to the team, she knew that her talents were best employed right where she was: behind a multi-million dollar, highly sensitive, government satellite.
Her fingers rapidly entered commands into the computer, and soon she had pulled up imaging from the coordinates provided by Chin. She scrolled through the footage; Joe entering the building with a reluctant but cooperative Riley, and two other men; then a black SUV pulling up, with six men piling out and entering the building. Two men left, dragging an unconscious Riley between them. Both men were limping, but managed to shove Riley into the back seat and peel away. She started scrolling again, until she got to the footage of Steve and the team breaching the building.
She was back on the phone with Chin. "Chin, they were in a black SUV, and they headed north – so away from the docks, which is good. Maybe they haven't left the island. I'm sending you the plates on the SUV now. And Chin – how many bodies did you say were left in the warehouse?"
Catherine shook her head when Chin repeated that six bodies were left.
"Well, Joe only went in with two. He and Riley somehow managed to take out four of WoFat's henchmen. If any of them are still alive . . ."
Chin didn't stop to explain, he just took off at a dead run toward the emergency room.
When the rest of the team caught up with him, he was already leaning over a man in a hospital bed.
"Tell me where they were taking her," he demanded.
"What's going on?" Steve asked.
"Only two of the six bodies dropped in that warehouse were Joe's men. Four of them were WoFat's – Joe and Riley almost managed to take them all out," Chin explained. Turning his attention to the patient, he once again demanded, "Tell us."
The man just gave a sickening smile.
Steve reached up and pulled the privacy curtain.
"Danny, I think that you, Chin, and Kono need to go check on something in another part of the building. Now."
WoFat smiled at Riley.
"Are you comfortable, Miss McGarrett?" he asked politely.
"Quite," she bit out, ignoring the trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth.
"I'm sorry, my men were instructed to bring you to me unharmed."
"They don't take instruction very well," she said, "or maybe it was the fact that I was busy breaking their kneecaps."
"Ah, yes, it's possible that I underestimated our mother's excellent training for you."
Riley's eyes widened in horror.
"Oh, did Uncle Joe not explain it to you? Pity. We have so much in common. You . . . me . . . Steve."
"I don't believe you, and it doesn't matter anyway," Riley said. "I don't know anything more than I did the last time we tried this."
"But you do, Riley, you do. You've been busy. Integrating yourself into Five-O, searching for Uncle Joe, flying to Korea looking for me. I could have saved you the trip, I've been here waiting. I knew that it was too risky to try to get you away from Steve. He's very possessive, Steve is, especially of his sisters. But Joe . . . dear Uncle Joe, he planned to turn you over to me anyway. I just moved up his timetable, caught him off guard."
Riley struggled against her bonds.
"Now, I propose we pick up where we left off," WoFat said, picking up a syringe.