ratherastory (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratherastory) wrote2012-04-06 12:04 pm
ratherastory) wrote2012-04-06 12:04 pm
Entry tags:
Ho'opakele (1/2)
Title: Ho'opakele
Summary: Written for a prompt by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sylvanelfqueen for the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
h50_exchange. When kidnappers take Grace's class hostage, Steve must race against the clock to save his partner's little girl while Danny is away on the mainland.
Characters: All of Five-0, Grace, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence that doesn't exceed show levels
Word Count: 15,607
Disclaimer: Playing in CBS' sandbox. No harm intended.
Neurotic Author's Notes I owe a huge debt of gratitude tothelastcity, who beta'd this creature and beat it into submission with the big Club of Proper Grammar and Syntax. Without her, it would be a much poorer story. Any remaining mistakes are, of course, my own, and should not reflect upon her mad betaing skills, since I poked at it afterward. Also, my apologies if I butchered the Hawaiian in my title. /o\
Grace has always loved field trips. What she loves most about field trips, apart from the fact that she gets to spend a whole day outside of the classroom, is that there's very little difference between the field trips she used to go on in New Jersey and the ones she gets to go on now. There's still the excitement of packing a lunch, of arriving at school early and lining up to get on the big yellow bus that's been specially chartered to carry them all. She pairs up with Tommy as her field trip buddy, because Tommy knows lots of things about science and he doesn't spend all day talking about hair and makeup and clothes the way some of her other friends do. She picks out seats toward the back of the bus but not right at the back, because riding all the way at the back makes her carsick, and besides, the back is where all the bullies and bad kids go to sit, and they put their feet on the seat backs and kick people and stick their gum under the seats where it gets all gross. Grace doesn't want to get her new jeans ruined with gum―they're pretty and have a little flower design sewn onto the pockets—and gum doesn't come out if you sit on it by mistake.
Jessica and Aidan take the seats right behind them, so it's shaping up to be a really good field trip. Jessica and Aidan have been best friends since pre-school, but when Grace started first grade Jessica decided they were all going to be friends. Grace doesn't have a best friend yet, but she doesn't mind so much. She has a few friends and they all get together on the weekends and sometimes they play dolls, but mostly they swim in each other's pools. A lot of them all have the same tennis instructor, which is fun, even if the instructor gets mad at them when they talk too much instead of practicing their serves and their backhands.
Grace doesn't see them on her weekends with Danno, but she doesn't mind that because she loves having her Danno all to herself those times, even if sometimes she's had to ask him if she can go to her friends' birthday parties instead. He always says yes, but then it means she doesn't see him for nearly three weeks, and she hates the sad look he gets in his eyes that he tries to mask by smiling a smile that isn't really his. Danno's out of town right now, though, gone to the mainland because Uncle Steve needed him to go question some bad guys, and he's not going to be back until the weekend, but he's going to pick her up Friday night and then he promised to take her to the aquarium on Saturday so she could see all the fish and the dolphins.
"Waimea Valley has forty-eight different kinds of native plants and flowers," Tommy tells her, reading from the glossy brochure that the teacher handed out. He's wearing cargo shorts and a blue t-shirt that reminds her a little of what Uncle Steve might wear if he was on a field trip. "They've got a big conservation project there."
"Cool. That's a pretty picture," Grace says, looking over his shoulder as the bus bounces along the road.
"It's Hibiscus brackenridgei. That's the Latin name for the Ma'o hau hele," Tommy informs her huffily. "It's our national flower, dummy."
"I'm not a dummy! You take that back!" Grace snaps. "I bet you if you moved to New Jersey you wouldn't know the state flower right away, either."
"Grace Williams, lower your voice!" The command comes from Mrs. Blake, the teacher, who's sitting at the front of the bus. "There will be no shouting on this bus!"
Grace flushes at the injustice of getting yelled at for something that's all Tommy's fault. "I'm sorry, Miss, but Tommy's calling me names," she says hotly.
"I don't care who started what, you know better than to shout. If Tommy starts something, it's up to you to end it!"
The unfairness almost takes her breath away, but before she can say anything to defend herself, the bus jerks suddenly as the driver swerves to avoid something she can't see. It leans alarmingly to the left, throwing her against the window, and she can hear all the other kids screaming as it feels like it might roll all the way over. Danno taught her what to do if the school bus ever crashed, so she ducks her head down as far as she can over her knees and laces her fingers behind her head, waiting for the bus to come to a standstill one way or the other. The driver is good, though, and the bus straightens out, even though she can feel that they're no longer on the road, hurtling at top speed downhill, everything bumping and jolting and jerking.
There's one last shuddering jolt, and the whole bus comes to a halt. There's the sound of metal screeching, a few last, quiet wails from her classmates, and then nothing except the quiet squeaking of springs as the bus settles and the sound of the wind in the trees. Then she hears a sound that she can't figure out, a kind of grinding followed by stomping, and the next thing she knows there's a man shouting, his voice booming so that it feels like it's bouncing right off the back of the bus, echoing in her ears.
"Nobody move!"
There's more screaming after that, surprised shrieks from the girls closer to the front of the bus. There are strange men climbing into the front of the bus―Grace can see now where they pried the doors open―and they start filing down the aisle toward the back. She can't see much beyond their heads, their faces hidden by ski masks that look like they must be really hot in this weather, but they're holding really big guns. Grace feels herself start to shiver, hears Tommy moan quietly beside her.
"Okay, kids!" It's the first man, still standing at the front of the bus. "Here's how this works. You pay attention, you do as I say, and you all get to go home when this is over. You don't do as I say, and my colleagues and I are going to shoot you, one by one."
A girl next to him screams again, and Grace hears the sound of a violent slap, followed by sobbing.
"Rule number one! No screaming. You can cry if you want, but you cry quietly so you don't bother us. Rule number two, no talking. Not to each other, not to your teachers, not even to yourselves. Keep your mouths shut. Rule number three, keep your hands in your laps at all times until we tell you otherwise. Understood?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "Now, my colleagues are going to go around and collect your bags, so that none of you get the bright idea of using your cell phones to call for help. No bags, no cell phones. That's rule number four."
No cell phones is a bad rule. The other rules aren't good, but Grace knows enough about Danno's work that she's heard about all the times they've tracked down a bad guy or found someone who was lost just by tracing their cell phone. Hers―still in the pink case that Mommy bought her when Step-Stan bought her the phone to begin with―is in the outside pocket of her backpack, right at her feet. She glances up, sees the men walking toward her, and pulls her bag into her lap, making sure the pocket is against her stomach. The men are grabbing the other kids' bags as they walk by, and she has just enough time to slip the phone out of the pocket and push it down the front of her jeans, hoping her shirt will cover it up enough that they won't notice.
Tommy flinches when the men get to him, but he hands over his bag without saying a word. Grace bites her lip, but she knows he needs his bag.
"You can't take Tommy's bag," she pipes up. "He's got his medication in there!"
"Hey, boss!" one of them calls back. "What about kids with meds?"
"Good point. If you've got anything you need in your bags―inhalers, pills, epipens, whatever―you tell my colleagues and they will let you remove just those items, under supervision. Like I said, we're not in this to hurt you. Do as you're told, and we all get out safely. Got it?"
Grace holds up her own bag as soon as Tommy's pulled his inhaler and his epipen out of his bag, and the man snatches it, hands it back to his friend, who tosses it toward the front along with the other bags that are rapidly piling up by the driver's feet. Soon there won't be room to move at all. The man who's been giving orders all along seems to realize this, because he gestures to the bus driver with a jerk of his chin.
"Get this crap out of the way. Don't try anything."
Grace still can't see much, too busy trying to keep her head down. Step-Stan once had his security guy tell her what to do in case she was ever kidnapped, but that was if she was kidnapped all by herself and forced into a car. She doesn't know what to do about this―there are twenty-two other kids in her class and the teacher as well as the teacher's assistant and the driver. She's not even in a car, so she doesn't know how much use any of the security man's advice is going to be. She wonders if they're going to stay here, if they're going to be let out of the bus, if they're going to be taken anywhere. She wishes Danno were here. He'd save her. Danno would never have let the men get on the bus to begin with.
"All right," the leader calls out when all the backpacks are gone. "We're not staying here. So I want you all to get up now. We're going to get off the bus, single file. You guys were on a field trip, so stick with your field trip buddy for the duration. Anybody hurt?"
Grace shakes her head, even though she knows he can't see her. As far as she can tell, no one else is hurt either, even though Tommy is shaking and white as a sheet. He's wheezing a little bit, but she thinks it's because he's scared more than anything else. He has his inhaler, though, so it's okay. The kids in the first rows are already getting off the bus. The leader has stepped aside to let them get off, and the fourth man, who wasn't with the two men collecting the bags, is standing outside with his gun, making sure everybody lines up. It feels like one of those drills at school, except that everyone is really afraid, and the danger is for real this time.
The phone slips a little bit as she gets up, and for a second she thinks it's going to fall and her heart starts beating so hard in her chest that she's sure everyone must be able to hear it. The phone doesn't slip too far, though, it gets caught in the elastic of her underwear and sticks, and she tries very hard not to look as relieved as she feels. Tommy's wheezing a little more loudly next to her, so she grabs his hand that's not holding his inhaler and his epipen and squeezes it.
"It's okay," she whispers. "My Uncle Steve is going to hear about this, and he'll come save us. That's what he and Danno do for a living."
"No talking!" the man nearest her barks, and this time when Tommy flinches she flinches too.
The steps of the bus are hard to get down ―they're kind of high up to start with, and the bus is sitting on an incline, so she has to let go of Tommy's hand in order to climb down. She can see Jessica and Aiden right behind Tommy, and both of them have tears running down their cheeks, their noses red and running. Jessica keeps rubbing at her eyes with her fists like a baby, but Grace supposes that she never had someone like Danno to tell her what to do if something like this ever happened. Jessica's Dad works in the stock market and spends all day spending other people's money. That's what Danno says the stock market is, and Step-Stan wasn't able to give her a better definition than that, so that's what she's sticking with.
The man outside points to where all her classmates are standing in line right next to the bus, "Stand next to your friends, hands folded in front of you where I can see them. Don't fidget, don't look at each other, look at me or at the ground. Got it?"
Grace nods a little frantically. She wants to see if Tommy's okay, but she doesn't want to give the men any reason to hurt her or any of the other kids. She ends up with Tommy on her left, and a boy named Jason on her right. Looking down, she can see that Jason's pants are wet in front, but no one's saying a word about it. He's crying too.
"All right!" The leader has stepped off the bus. Grace sneaks a quick look, sees that all the kids are lined up, but there's no sign of the driver or her teachers. "You're going to follow me back up the hill. My colleagues here are going to walk alongside you, just like if this was a regular field trip. Take the hand of the classmate who was supposed to be your field trip buddy and hold up your hands so we can see who's paired off!"
Obediently Grace grabs Tommy's hand and yanks it up, and sees all her classmates obey out of the corner of her eye. The men pull them out of line two by two, line them up behind each other, and the leader starts a quick march up the hill, so fast that they all have to scramble a bit, but not so fast that they can't keep up. One man walks alongside them toward the middle of the file, and one brings up the rear.
"Where's the fourth man?" she whispers to Tommy, but he doesn't answer.
It doesn't take long to get to the top of the hill and back onto the road where a big covered truck is idling. The leader doesn't say anything, just motions to the girls at the front of the line to get in, and they do. Most of the kids are crying by now, but they all remember the rules: no screaming, pay attention to what the man says, and be quiet if you're going to cry. Grace bites down hard on her lip, determined not to cry in front of these jerks. If Danno were here, he'd already be arresting them, and she's not going to make him ashamed of how she behaved in front of the bad guys. She climbs into the truck and sits on the floor with her back to the wall on one side, Tommy wedged in just in front of her, still breathing really hard.
"Use your inhaler," she says, nudging him with her knee, and he nods, eyes wide in his face, puts the end in his mouth and takes a puff. A minute later he's not wheezing as badly, and he gives her another nod, but his eyes are trained on the two men standing at the back of the truck, watching them.
There might not be another chance to use her phone, but she can't be sure they won't see the light of the screen if she tries right now. She hesitates, trying to figure out just what Danno would be telling her to do right now. Before she can do anything at all there's a loud cracking noise from outside, and then another, and a third, and she knows that those are gunshots because Danno took her to the range once so she could see what it was like, and real gunshots don't sound exactly like they do on TV. She feels tears well up in her eyes when she can't think of anything at all. She swallows down a hiccup, tells herself sternly that Danno and Uncle Steve wouldn't be crying right now, they'd be coming up with a plan to get everybody help. But Grace is seven and three-quarters, and she's not a cop like Danno or a super-SEAL like Uncle Steve, and right now all she can think is that she's really, really scared because the only people here are kids like her and four really big, bad men with guns, and now they've shot her teacher and she doesn't know what to do at all.
She peers carefully over at the men at the back of the truck, but no one is watching her. She slips the phone out of her pants, hoping no one will see the light of the screen in the dark. There's a loud wooshing noise in her ears now, her blood pumping in time with her heartbeat, and for a second she thinks she might throw up, scared that she won't hear the men if they yell at her. She looks up again for a second, because how can they not hear her heart when it's beating this loudly, but they're still not turning around, and she hits 'send text message' to Uncle Steve's number and types as fast as she can.
4 bad guys took us on a truck I think they shot mrs. blake pls help
She puts down the phone as soon as she's sure the message has sent, shoves it back in her pants because the screen is glowing so brightly it feels like the light is filling up the whole truck. Tommy is staring at her, eyes wide in his face.
"They said you weren't allowed!" he hisses frantically.
She glares. "Don't you dare tell! My Uncle Steve is going to come save us now. How else was he supposed to know where we are?"
"Quiet!" one of the men snaps, and she shuts her mouth again while Tommy flinches.
The truck engine starts up with a roar and the smell of exhaust fills the back of the truck. Grace almost falls over when the truck lurches forward, and she hears some of the other kids cry out in surprise when they get jolted, but they go silent quickly after the men yell at them again.
Please, please come fast, she prays.
~*~
When Steve got up this morning, he never suspected for a minute that this would turn into one of the worst days of his life. Sure, he's never entirely happy when Danny's away from home―not that Danny really considers this place home, but that's an argument for a different day―but it's not the first time he and Danny have been apart and it certainly won't be the last. Besides, this witness on the mainland is their best possible lead in the case, and it only made sense to send Danny, who has a lot more experience interrogating witnesses in a way that doesn't violate all their constitutional rights and maybe the Geneva Convention ("Only a little, Danno." "There is no such thing as violating the Geneva Convention 'only a little,' you goon!"), along with Lori, who hasn't had much of an opportunity to showcase her profiling skills yet.
So Steve stayed behind and put up with Chin's understanding looks and Kono's much less gentle teasing about being separated from his favourite haole ("Remember, brah, absence makes the heart grow fonder!"), and spends the first few hours of his morning busily typing up his notes on the case and thinking that Danny will be really pleased with how methodical he's being about the whole thing this time. He might even stoop a little and buy Danny some malasadas first, before even showing him his notes, because he enjoys the look on Danny's face when he's enjoying them, and because he's going to enjoy revealing that the malasadas are not, in fact, a bribe to get Danny to forgive him for messing up the paperwork even more.
He almost doesn't hear his phone vibrate, buried as it is between two stacks of paper. He should have turned the ringer on, he thinks with some annoyance as he rummages on his desk to locate it, because there's no way of telling who called him. Then again, it stopped ringing almost right away, so it might have been a wrong number.
It's not a wrong number. He presses the little button thing at the bottom of the screen (Chin has told him what it's called a million times, and even though Steve can remember the detailed specs of every Navy vessel he's served upon, his iPhone still eludes his comprehension) and feels his heart skip a beat when he recognizes Grace's number and sees the first few words of her message.
"Fuck!"
He's up and running for the door within seconds. "Chin, I need you to get a location on Gracie's cell phone right now! We've got trouble."
To his credit, Chin doesn't so much as pause to ask what's going on, just drops what he's doing and goes to his computer, firing up the software. It's Kono, who doesn't have an immediate task, who asks.
"What's happening?"
"She just sent me this," Steve holds up the phone to show her, and Kono's face goes pale.
"Oh my God."
If this were any other kid, then Steve would wonder if it wasn't a prank, but Grace is a good girl, serious and responsible even for a kid her age, and he knows she wouldn't mess around with something like this. Rachel and Danny raised her well, even if the rest of their marriage was a shambles. Oh, God, Danny, he thinks.
"I have to tell Danny."
Kono puts a hand on his arm. "Wait," she says. "Call him when we've got something concrete. He's thousands of miles away, all you're going to do is make him crazy. Wait until Chin's got something. I'll alert HPD, put out a BOLO. Can you call her back?"
He shakes his head. "No, can't risk it. Even if the phone's on vibrate, there's no telling what's happening there. The kidnappers could hear it, and we'd be risking her life needlessly. Chin, how's it coming?"
But Chin shakes his head. "Something's interfering with the signal. Her text said they were going in a truck?"
"Yeah. Four guys, that's all we've got so far."
"Could be a portable jammer. We're lucky she was able to get out a text message at all―she must have sent it just before they activated it. It's going to make her phone impossible to track, though. We'll have to find a different way."
Kono's already on the phone, talking to HPD. She glances up, though, and covers the mouthpiece with her hand. "Call her school, see what was happening. If she got taken at school, we'd have heard about it by now. And she said 'us,' not 'me.' Who do you think she meant? Friends?"
"That's what we're going to find out," Steve says grimly, and heads back to his office to start making calls.
It doesn't take long after that for the phone to start ringing. First it's the Governor's office, responding to Chin's alert about the possible kidnapping. Of course, Chin didn't say 'possible kidnapping,' but those are the words the Governor uses, because he's a politician first and foremost, and if there's anything Steve has learned, it's that politicians hate to use definitive terms even at the best of times, and this is not the best of times by any stretch of the imagination.
"Yes, sir," Steve answers his immediate query. "I just got off the phone with the school principal, and she informs me that Grace's class was scheduled to go on a field trip today. They left this morning at oh-eight-hundred on board a yellow school bus bound for Waimea Valley."
"But the only report you've had is this one text message from Detective Williams' daughter?"
"That's correct, sir. We have yet to receive a ransom demand or hear of any other call for aid. We've tried to contact both the teachers who were with the students as well as the bus driver, with no success. Our working theory right now is that the kidnappers are still en route to their destination, and that we'll be hearing from them once they get there."
Steve can almost feel the Governor's hesitation. "You're certain there's no way that this could be a hoax? A prank by Detective Williams' daughter? Perhaps to get attention?"
He forces himself to stay calm, to push back the red veil of anger that threatens to cloud his judgment. After all, he himself was forced to entertain the theory for all of one second before dismissing it. "No, sir, she's a well-behaved kid, no history of acting out in any way like this. Besides, can we really afford to take the risk of not believing her?"
There's a sigh on the other end of the line. "No, no we can't. Has HPD been contacted?"
"Yes, sir. We haven't yet been in touch with the parents of any of the children in question, but they should be notified as soon as possible, maybe brought in for questioning so we can determine if there's a motive other than money for this kidnapping."
"That can be arranged with my staff, to keep your team available for strictly operational affairs on this."
Steve nods, even though the Governor can't see him. "Much appreciated, sir. We'll need to check with the school personnel, too, see who was aware of all the details for this trip, figure out where the kidnappers might have gotten their information. I'll have my team work on that, start tracking down leads, and HPD should be able to assist with interviews as well."
"And what about Detective Williams and Ms. Weston?"
He pinches the bridge of his nose. "The plan is to notify them as soon as I've finished my call with you, sir. They're on the mainland, interviewing a witness for the Del Rio case. They don't know anything about this yet, and they're too far away to be able to be of any immediate assistance."
"All right, keep me posted."
Steve is dialling almost before the Governor hangs up, starting with Danny's number. He deserves to know first, and he can fill Lori in afterward. It rings for what feels like an eternity, goes to voicemail, and Steve barely manages to refrain from smashing his fist against his desk in frustration.
"Danno, it's me. Call me back, it's an emergency."
He hits 'redial,' waits again, and this time Danny picks up. "I swear to God, McGarrett, you have the worst timing―"
"Danny."
Danny must sense the urgency in his voice, because he immediately goes quiet. "What is it?"
"It's Grace."
The rest of the call goes about as well as could be expected. Danny stays very quiet, his voice deceptively calm. So quiet that Steve can hear Lori behind him, anxiously asking questions until Danny must wave her into silence. It takes depressingly little time to bring Danny up to speed on what they know―and mostly on what they don't know.
"Okay," Danny's still quiet. "I'm booking the next flight out of here. I will keep my phone on until the last possible minute, and I want you to call me if there's anything. Anything at all, you hear me? I'm coming back right now. If you speak to Grace―" and that's when, for the first time, Steve hears his voice shake, ever so slightly, "―you tell her I'll see her soon, and that I love her."
Steve swallows hard before he trusts himself to answer. "You got it, Danno. You'll have her back before your plane lands."
Danny's answer sends chills down his spine. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Steven."
Steve leaves Chin in charge of the comms at headquarters, with a promise to bring him in the moment they've got a more substantial lead than Grace's cell phone to go on, and takes Kono to the school with him. HPD officers are already in place, their lieutenant chatting with a middle-aged Chinese woman in a crisp brown business suit and skirt who Steve guesses must be the principal he spoke to over the phone. Grace's school is the best on the island, the best money can buy anyway, and over here, that says something. Say what you will about Stanley, he wants nothing but the best for his wife's little girl. Danny might feel like he's trying to buy her affections, but Steve has spent enough time in Stan's company that he knows it's not like that. Stan loves Grace as much as Steve does, would probably lay down his life for her if push came to shove. Corporate asshole aside, Stan's not a bad guy in all.
Lieutenant Mahelona hurries over to meet him as soon as he sees Five-0 approaching. He's only a little older than Steve, newly-promoted if Steve's information is right, and clearly hungry to prove that he's just as capable as his predecessor, under whom Danny worked briefly before being reassigned to Five-0.
"Commander, thanks for getting here so quickly. We're trying to disrupt school activities as little as possible for the other children, but it's a little tricky. I've got uniforms talking to all the teachers involved with the Grade 1 class, and to all of the school staff who might've interacted with them over the past few days. Oh," he turns just as the woman he spotted a moment ago makes her way over to them, her sensible heels clicking against the asphalt. "This is Principal Huang, she's helping us to concentrate our efforts."
The principal reaches out and shakes Steve's hand in a firm grip, giving him a look down her nose even though she's shorter than he is, and somehow managing to make him feel like he's a misbehaving ten year old again. "Commander, so good of you to come. I have arranged with the Governor to have the children's parents brought here to our main hall, as we already have the facilities to host that many people, and that way we'll be able to keep them out of your hair."
Steve gives her an appraising look. "This isn't the first time you've dealt with something like this, then?"
She smiles thinly. "I am sorry to say that it's not, although it's never been anything on this scale. We've had one student taken from school grounds before―orchestrated by the child's nanny, I'm afraid. Now, we've set aside several empty classrooms should you wish to conduct informal interviews there in order to speed along the process. We've moved the children to classrooms farther away, so that you'll be ensured as much privacy as possible. Is that acceptable?"
He grins in spite of the knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach that seems to grow with every passing moment. "More than acceptable. Mrs. Huang, if you ever decide you want to give up education, you should think of applying at HPD, or even at Five-0. We could use someone with your skills."
That gets him a slightly less thin smile. "I am quite happy with my career, thank you anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have forty or so very stressed-out parents about to descend upon me. Please let me know if you need anything at all."
"We will, thanks."
Lieutenant Mahelona clears his throat. "God help whoever gets in that woman's way when she's trying to get somewhere. We've got a likely-looking guy over in one of the classrooms. I don't exactly know what it is he does here―it's like an internship or something, except he's not an education student or anything. Anyway, he helped to organize the field trip and he's been squirrelly as hell ever since we got here. You want a crack at him, or you want us to go ahead?"
"No, we got this," Steve shakes his head. "Thank you, though. Do we have a detailed copy of the field trip itinerary yet?"
"The school secretary's off printing one up for us now. Shouldn't take too long."
"Good. If they have an electronic copy, get them to forward it to Sergeant Kelly at Five-0, and he'll distribute copies to everyone who's got a phone or a PDA. Where's our suspect?"
"Witness, right now. He's in 401B. All yours. You need a recorder?"
Steve pulls his out of his pocket. "I'm covered, thanks."
The suspect is, as stated, squirrelly as all hell. By the time Steve gets to the classroom where he's been sequestered the guy is pacing in circles, dark sweat stains on his shirt under his arms and on his back. He starts as Steve opens the door, and when he turns Steve can see he's barely in his twenties, still suffering from a remnant of teenaged acne spattered across his nose and chin, brown eyes all but hidden under greasy bangs.
"Hey, brah, they put me in here but they won't tell me why. I got work to do, so can I go soon?"
Steve pulls up a chair behind the teacher's desk and motions to the guy to take a seat on one of the smaller plastic chairs reserved for students. "Depends on your answers to my questions." He places the recorder on the desk, switches it on. "This is Commander Steven McGarret, Five-0, and the time is currently ten forty-eight. I'm with Brendan Ma, for the purposes of conducting an interview. Mr. Ma, this is not a formal interrogation, but it will go on the record. Do you wish to cooperate now, or we can take this down to Five-0 headquarters, we can call your lawyer, and waste all of our time?"
The guy shakes his head. "No. Uh, I mean, we can stay here, it's fine, I don't mind."
"Good choice," Steve smiles at him, but judging from the way the guy turns pale he suspects his smile must look a little predatory. "I understand you helped Mrs. Blake plan the field trip that the Grade 1 class are taking today?"
"Uh, yeah. You know, I went there when I was a kid, it was pretty cool. So I suggested it to the teacher."
"And are you usually this forthcoming with ideas for field trips when you don't actually work directly with any of the classes here at the school? What is it that you do here, exactly?"
"Uh, I'm a technician. They have a lab here for the older kids to do their science projects and whatever. So, you know, I help clean up and I set things up in the morning and sometimes I help when the teacher's busy."
"That takes you all day?"
Brendan shakes his head. "I help out in shop, all the classes where there's equipment that needs maintaining and whatever."
"Okay. So tell me about this field trip. How come you're suddenly making suggestions to teachers about where to go?"
Brendan shrugs and looks uncomfortable. "No reason. I just mentioned it, you know? No big deal."
"You talk to anyone else about this field trip?"
"No. I mean, maybe? It's not like it's a secret or nothing, man."
"You talk to anyone outside of school about it? Like, where the kids were going and on what day?"
"I dunno, maybe?" Brendan's not meeting his gaze, fidgeting in his chair like someone's just poured a thousand fire ants down his pants. "It's not a crime, right? I mean, it wasn't a secret, right?"
"It's a crime, Brendan, if you deliberately gave out the information concerning these kids' whereabouts to people who you knew were planning to hurt them." Steve glares, and feels the kid quail under his stare.
"Look, man, it's not like that! They're not planning on hurting the kids, they swore no one would get hurt, okay?"
"Who, Brendan?" Steve snaps. "Give me names!"
He shakes his head, shivering miserably now, more from fear than anything else. The smell of sweat in the room is getting deeply unpleasant. "I dunno their names. I mean, I know one guy, he said he had a crew. His name is Jerry, but I dunno the others. They said no one would get hurt!"
Steve spares a thought for just how pissed off Danny would be if he hauled off and punched this guy before he could give up all his information. ("If he's unconscious, Steven, he can't give us the information we need!") It's Gracie out there, he can't afford to make any mistakes.
"Okay, Brendan. You're going to walk me through exactly what you told this guy about the field trip, and then you're going to tell me everything I want to know about him and his crew and what they were planning. Start now, and maybe we'll go easy on you when it comes to putting up charges."
Fifteen minutes later he's loading Brendan into a patrol car, hands cuffed viciously behind his back, and packing him off to HPD for booking. He wishes Danny were here so he could give him that particular satisfaction of booking one of the scumbags responsible for putting his kid's life in danger, but Danny's still too far away. He considers calling, but they still don't have much more than before, and he decides against it. He'll call the minute they start moving on a lead, he promises himself, and tries to delude himself into believing it's not because he can't stand to hear the poorly-controlled anguish in Danny's voice when it's his little girl at stake.
Kono comes running over. "Boss!" she calls out. "We found the school bus!"
Thank God, Steve thinks. Finally something concrete to go on.
~*~
Part II
Summary: Written for a prompt by
sylvanelfqueen for the h50_exchange. When kidnappers take Grace's class hostage, Steve must race against the clock to save his partner's little girl while Danny is away on the mainland.Characters: All of Five-0, Grace, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence that doesn't exceed show levels
Word Count: 15,607
Disclaimer: Playing in CBS' sandbox. No harm intended.
Neurotic Author's Notes I owe a huge debt of gratitude to
thelastcity, who beta'd this creature and beat it into submission with the big Club of Proper Grammar and Syntax. Without her, it would be a much poorer story. Any remaining mistakes are, of course, my own, and should not reflect upon her mad betaing skills, since I poked at it afterward. Also, my apologies if I butchered the Hawaiian in my title. /o\Grace has always loved field trips. What she loves most about field trips, apart from the fact that she gets to spend a whole day outside of the classroom, is that there's very little difference between the field trips she used to go on in New Jersey and the ones she gets to go on now. There's still the excitement of packing a lunch, of arriving at school early and lining up to get on the big yellow bus that's been specially chartered to carry them all. She pairs up with Tommy as her field trip buddy, because Tommy knows lots of things about science and he doesn't spend all day talking about hair and makeup and clothes the way some of her other friends do. She picks out seats toward the back of the bus but not right at the back, because riding all the way at the back makes her carsick, and besides, the back is where all the bullies and bad kids go to sit, and they put their feet on the seat backs and kick people and stick their gum under the seats where it gets all gross. Grace doesn't want to get her new jeans ruined with gum―they're pretty and have a little flower design sewn onto the pockets—and gum doesn't come out if you sit on it by mistake.
Jessica and Aidan take the seats right behind them, so it's shaping up to be a really good field trip. Jessica and Aidan have been best friends since pre-school, but when Grace started first grade Jessica decided they were all going to be friends. Grace doesn't have a best friend yet, but she doesn't mind so much. She has a few friends and they all get together on the weekends and sometimes they play dolls, but mostly they swim in each other's pools. A lot of them all have the same tennis instructor, which is fun, even if the instructor gets mad at them when they talk too much instead of practicing their serves and their backhands.
Grace doesn't see them on her weekends with Danno, but she doesn't mind that because she loves having her Danno all to herself those times, even if sometimes she's had to ask him if she can go to her friends' birthday parties instead. He always says yes, but then it means she doesn't see him for nearly three weeks, and she hates the sad look he gets in his eyes that he tries to mask by smiling a smile that isn't really his. Danno's out of town right now, though, gone to the mainland because Uncle Steve needed him to go question some bad guys, and he's not going to be back until the weekend, but he's going to pick her up Friday night and then he promised to take her to the aquarium on Saturday so she could see all the fish and the dolphins.
"Waimea Valley has forty-eight different kinds of native plants and flowers," Tommy tells her, reading from the glossy brochure that the teacher handed out. He's wearing cargo shorts and a blue t-shirt that reminds her a little of what Uncle Steve might wear if he was on a field trip. "They've got a big conservation project there."
"Cool. That's a pretty picture," Grace says, looking over his shoulder as the bus bounces along the road.
"It's Hibiscus brackenridgei. That's the Latin name for the Ma'o hau hele," Tommy informs her huffily. "It's our national flower, dummy."
"I'm not a dummy! You take that back!" Grace snaps. "I bet you if you moved to New Jersey you wouldn't know the state flower right away, either."
"Grace Williams, lower your voice!" The command comes from Mrs. Blake, the teacher, who's sitting at the front of the bus. "There will be no shouting on this bus!"
Grace flushes at the injustice of getting yelled at for something that's all Tommy's fault. "I'm sorry, Miss, but Tommy's calling me names," she says hotly.
"I don't care who started what, you know better than to shout. If Tommy starts something, it's up to you to end it!"
The unfairness almost takes her breath away, but before she can say anything to defend herself, the bus jerks suddenly as the driver swerves to avoid something she can't see. It leans alarmingly to the left, throwing her against the window, and she can hear all the other kids screaming as it feels like it might roll all the way over. Danno taught her what to do if the school bus ever crashed, so she ducks her head down as far as she can over her knees and laces her fingers behind her head, waiting for the bus to come to a standstill one way or the other. The driver is good, though, and the bus straightens out, even though she can feel that they're no longer on the road, hurtling at top speed downhill, everything bumping and jolting and jerking.
There's one last shuddering jolt, and the whole bus comes to a halt. There's the sound of metal screeching, a few last, quiet wails from her classmates, and then nothing except the quiet squeaking of springs as the bus settles and the sound of the wind in the trees. Then she hears a sound that she can't figure out, a kind of grinding followed by stomping, and the next thing she knows there's a man shouting, his voice booming so that it feels like it's bouncing right off the back of the bus, echoing in her ears.
"Nobody move!"
There's more screaming after that, surprised shrieks from the girls closer to the front of the bus. There are strange men climbing into the front of the bus―Grace can see now where they pried the doors open―and they start filing down the aisle toward the back. She can't see much beyond their heads, their faces hidden by ski masks that look like they must be really hot in this weather, but they're holding really big guns. Grace feels herself start to shiver, hears Tommy moan quietly beside her.
"Okay, kids!" It's the first man, still standing at the front of the bus. "Here's how this works. You pay attention, you do as I say, and you all get to go home when this is over. You don't do as I say, and my colleagues and I are going to shoot you, one by one."
A girl next to him screams again, and Grace hears the sound of a violent slap, followed by sobbing.
"Rule number one! No screaming. You can cry if you want, but you cry quietly so you don't bother us. Rule number two, no talking. Not to each other, not to your teachers, not even to yourselves. Keep your mouths shut. Rule number three, keep your hands in your laps at all times until we tell you otherwise. Understood?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "Now, my colleagues are going to go around and collect your bags, so that none of you get the bright idea of using your cell phones to call for help. No bags, no cell phones. That's rule number four."
No cell phones is a bad rule. The other rules aren't good, but Grace knows enough about Danno's work that she's heard about all the times they've tracked down a bad guy or found someone who was lost just by tracing their cell phone. Hers―still in the pink case that Mommy bought her when Step-Stan bought her the phone to begin with―is in the outside pocket of her backpack, right at her feet. She glances up, sees the men walking toward her, and pulls her bag into her lap, making sure the pocket is against her stomach. The men are grabbing the other kids' bags as they walk by, and she has just enough time to slip the phone out of the pocket and push it down the front of her jeans, hoping her shirt will cover it up enough that they won't notice.
Tommy flinches when the men get to him, but he hands over his bag without saying a word. Grace bites her lip, but she knows he needs his bag.
"You can't take Tommy's bag," she pipes up. "He's got his medication in there!"
"Hey, boss!" one of them calls back. "What about kids with meds?"
"Good point. If you've got anything you need in your bags―inhalers, pills, epipens, whatever―you tell my colleagues and they will let you remove just those items, under supervision. Like I said, we're not in this to hurt you. Do as you're told, and we all get out safely. Got it?"
Grace holds up her own bag as soon as Tommy's pulled his inhaler and his epipen out of his bag, and the man snatches it, hands it back to his friend, who tosses it toward the front along with the other bags that are rapidly piling up by the driver's feet. Soon there won't be room to move at all. The man who's been giving orders all along seems to realize this, because he gestures to the bus driver with a jerk of his chin.
"Get this crap out of the way. Don't try anything."
Grace still can't see much, too busy trying to keep her head down. Step-Stan once had his security guy tell her what to do in case she was ever kidnapped, but that was if she was kidnapped all by herself and forced into a car. She doesn't know what to do about this―there are twenty-two other kids in her class and the teacher as well as the teacher's assistant and the driver. She's not even in a car, so she doesn't know how much use any of the security man's advice is going to be. She wonders if they're going to stay here, if they're going to be let out of the bus, if they're going to be taken anywhere. She wishes Danno were here. He'd save her. Danno would never have let the men get on the bus to begin with.
"All right," the leader calls out when all the backpacks are gone. "We're not staying here. So I want you all to get up now. We're going to get off the bus, single file. You guys were on a field trip, so stick with your field trip buddy for the duration. Anybody hurt?"
Grace shakes her head, even though she knows he can't see her. As far as she can tell, no one else is hurt either, even though Tommy is shaking and white as a sheet. He's wheezing a little bit, but she thinks it's because he's scared more than anything else. He has his inhaler, though, so it's okay. The kids in the first rows are already getting off the bus. The leader has stepped aside to let them get off, and the fourth man, who wasn't with the two men collecting the bags, is standing outside with his gun, making sure everybody lines up. It feels like one of those drills at school, except that everyone is really afraid, and the danger is for real this time.
The phone slips a little bit as she gets up, and for a second she thinks it's going to fall and her heart starts beating so hard in her chest that she's sure everyone must be able to hear it. The phone doesn't slip too far, though, it gets caught in the elastic of her underwear and sticks, and she tries very hard not to look as relieved as she feels. Tommy's wheezing a little more loudly next to her, so she grabs his hand that's not holding his inhaler and his epipen and squeezes it.
"It's okay," she whispers. "My Uncle Steve is going to hear about this, and he'll come save us. That's what he and Danno do for a living."
"No talking!" the man nearest her barks, and this time when Tommy flinches she flinches too.
The steps of the bus are hard to get down ―they're kind of high up to start with, and the bus is sitting on an incline, so she has to let go of Tommy's hand in order to climb down. She can see Jessica and Aiden right behind Tommy, and both of them have tears running down their cheeks, their noses red and running. Jessica keeps rubbing at her eyes with her fists like a baby, but Grace supposes that she never had someone like Danno to tell her what to do if something like this ever happened. Jessica's Dad works in the stock market and spends all day spending other people's money. That's what Danno says the stock market is, and Step-Stan wasn't able to give her a better definition than that, so that's what she's sticking with.
The man outside points to where all her classmates are standing in line right next to the bus, "Stand next to your friends, hands folded in front of you where I can see them. Don't fidget, don't look at each other, look at me or at the ground. Got it?"
Grace nods a little frantically. She wants to see if Tommy's okay, but she doesn't want to give the men any reason to hurt her or any of the other kids. She ends up with Tommy on her left, and a boy named Jason on her right. Looking down, she can see that Jason's pants are wet in front, but no one's saying a word about it. He's crying too.
"All right!" The leader has stepped off the bus. Grace sneaks a quick look, sees that all the kids are lined up, but there's no sign of the driver or her teachers. "You're going to follow me back up the hill. My colleagues here are going to walk alongside you, just like if this was a regular field trip. Take the hand of the classmate who was supposed to be your field trip buddy and hold up your hands so we can see who's paired off!"
Obediently Grace grabs Tommy's hand and yanks it up, and sees all her classmates obey out of the corner of her eye. The men pull them out of line two by two, line them up behind each other, and the leader starts a quick march up the hill, so fast that they all have to scramble a bit, but not so fast that they can't keep up. One man walks alongside them toward the middle of the file, and one brings up the rear.
"Where's the fourth man?" she whispers to Tommy, but he doesn't answer.
It doesn't take long to get to the top of the hill and back onto the road where a big covered truck is idling. The leader doesn't say anything, just motions to the girls at the front of the line to get in, and they do. Most of the kids are crying by now, but they all remember the rules: no screaming, pay attention to what the man says, and be quiet if you're going to cry. Grace bites down hard on her lip, determined not to cry in front of these jerks. If Danno were here, he'd already be arresting them, and she's not going to make him ashamed of how she behaved in front of the bad guys. She climbs into the truck and sits on the floor with her back to the wall on one side, Tommy wedged in just in front of her, still breathing really hard.
"Use your inhaler," she says, nudging him with her knee, and he nods, eyes wide in his face, puts the end in his mouth and takes a puff. A minute later he's not wheezing as badly, and he gives her another nod, but his eyes are trained on the two men standing at the back of the truck, watching them.
There might not be another chance to use her phone, but she can't be sure they won't see the light of the screen if she tries right now. She hesitates, trying to figure out just what Danno would be telling her to do right now. Before she can do anything at all there's a loud cracking noise from outside, and then another, and a third, and she knows that those are gunshots because Danno took her to the range once so she could see what it was like, and real gunshots don't sound exactly like they do on TV. She feels tears well up in her eyes when she can't think of anything at all. She swallows down a hiccup, tells herself sternly that Danno and Uncle Steve wouldn't be crying right now, they'd be coming up with a plan to get everybody help. But Grace is seven and three-quarters, and she's not a cop like Danno or a super-SEAL like Uncle Steve, and right now all she can think is that she's really, really scared because the only people here are kids like her and four really big, bad men with guns, and now they've shot her teacher and she doesn't know what to do at all.
She peers carefully over at the men at the back of the truck, but no one is watching her. She slips the phone out of her pants, hoping no one will see the light of the screen in the dark. There's a loud wooshing noise in her ears now, her blood pumping in time with her heartbeat, and for a second she thinks she might throw up, scared that she won't hear the men if they yell at her. She looks up again for a second, because how can they not hear her heart when it's beating this loudly, but they're still not turning around, and she hits 'send text message' to Uncle Steve's number and types as fast as she can.
4 bad guys took us on a truck I think they shot mrs. blake pls help
She puts down the phone as soon as she's sure the message has sent, shoves it back in her pants because the screen is glowing so brightly it feels like the light is filling up the whole truck. Tommy is staring at her, eyes wide in his face.
"They said you weren't allowed!" he hisses frantically.
She glares. "Don't you dare tell! My Uncle Steve is going to come save us now. How else was he supposed to know where we are?"
"Quiet!" one of the men snaps, and she shuts her mouth again while Tommy flinches.
The truck engine starts up with a roar and the smell of exhaust fills the back of the truck. Grace almost falls over when the truck lurches forward, and she hears some of the other kids cry out in surprise when they get jolted, but they go silent quickly after the men yell at them again.
Please, please come fast, she prays.
~*~
When Steve got up this morning, he never suspected for a minute that this would turn into one of the worst days of his life. Sure, he's never entirely happy when Danny's away from home―not that Danny really considers this place home, but that's an argument for a different day―but it's not the first time he and Danny have been apart and it certainly won't be the last. Besides, this witness on the mainland is their best possible lead in the case, and it only made sense to send Danny, who has a lot more experience interrogating witnesses in a way that doesn't violate all their constitutional rights and maybe the Geneva Convention ("Only a little, Danno." "There is no such thing as violating the Geneva Convention 'only a little,' you goon!"), along with Lori, who hasn't had much of an opportunity to showcase her profiling skills yet.
So Steve stayed behind and put up with Chin's understanding looks and Kono's much less gentle teasing about being separated from his favourite haole ("Remember, brah, absence makes the heart grow fonder!"), and spends the first few hours of his morning busily typing up his notes on the case and thinking that Danny will be really pleased with how methodical he's being about the whole thing this time. He might even stoop a little and buy Danny some malasadas first, before even showing him his notes, because he enjoys the look on Danny's face when he's enjoying them, and because he's going to enjoy revealing that the malasadas are not, in fact, a bribe to get Danny to forgive him for messing up the paperwork even more.
He almost doesn't hear his phone vibrate, buried as it is between two stacks of paper. He should have turned the ringer on, he thinks with some annoyance as he rummages on his desk to locate it, because there's no way of telling who called him. Then again, it stopped ringing almost right away, so it might have been a wrong number.
It's not a wrong number. He presses the little button thing at the bottom of the screen (Chin has told him what it's called a million times, and even though Steve can remember the detailed specs of every Navy vessel he's served upon, his iPhone still eludes his comprehension) and feels his heart skip a beat when he recognizes Grace's number and sees the first few words of her message.
"Fuck!"
He's up and running for the door within seconds. "Chin, I need you to get a location on Gracie's cell phone right now! We've got trouble."
To his credit, Chin doesn't so much as pause to ask what's going on, just drops what he's doing and goes to his computer, firing up the software. It's Kono, who doesn't have an immediate task, who asks.
"What's happening?"
"She just sent me this," Steve holds up the phone to show her, and Kono's face goes pale.
"Oh my God."
If this were any other kid, then Steve would wonder if it wasn't a prank, but Grace is a good girl, serious and responsible even for a kid her age, and he knows she wouldn't mess around with something like this. Rachel and Danny raised her well, even if the rest of their marriage was a shambles. Oh, God, Danny, he thinks.
"I have to tell Danny."
Kono puts a hand on his arm. "Wait," she says. "Call him when we've got something concrete. He's thousands of miles away, all you're going to do is make him crazy. Wait until Chin's got something. I'll alert HPD, put out a BOLO. Can you call her back?"
He shakes his head. "No, can't risk it. Even if the phone's on vibrate, there's no telling what's happening there. The kidnappers could hear it, and we'd be risking her life needlessly. Chin, how's it coming?"
But Chin shakes his head. "Something's interfering with the signal. Her text said they were going in a truck?"
"Yeah. Four guys, that's all we've got so far."
"Could be a portable jammer. We're lucky she was able to get out a text message at all―she must have sent it just before they activated it. It's going to make her phone impossible to track, though. We'll have to find a different way."
Kono's already on the phone, talking to HPD. She glances up, though, and covers the mouthpiece with her hand. "Call her school, see what was happening. If she got taken at school, we'd have heard about it by now. And she said 'us,' not 'me.' Who do you think she meant? Friends?"
"That's what we're going to find out," Steve says grimly, and heads back to his office to start making calls.
It doesn't take long after that for the phone to start ringing. First it's the Governor's office, responding to Chin's alert about the possible kidnapping. Of course, Chin didn't say 'possible kidnapping,' but those are the words the Governor uses, because he's a politician first and foremost, and if there's anything Steve has learned, it's that politicians hate to use definitive terms even at the best of times, and this is not the best of times by any stretch of the imagination.
"Yes, sir," Steve answers his immediate query. "I just got off the phone with the school principal, and she informs me that Grace's class was scheduled to go on a field trip today. They left this morning at oh-eight-hundred on board a yellow school bus bound for Waimea Valley."
"But the only report you've had is this one text message from Detective Williams' daughter?"
"That's correct, sir. We have yet to receive a ransom demand or hear of any other call for aid. We've tried to contact both the teachers who were with the students as well as the bus driver, with no success. Our working theory right now is that the kidnappers are still en route to their destination, and that we'll be hearing from them once they get there."
Steve can almost feel the Governor's hesitation. "You're certain there's no way that this could be a hoax? A prank by Detective Williams' daughter? Perhaps to get attention?"
He forces himself to stay calm, to push back the red veil of anger that threatens to cloud his judgment. After all, he himself was forced to entertain the theory for all of one second before dismissing it. "No, sir, she's a well-behaved kid, no history of acting out in any way like this. Besides, can we really afford to take the risk of not believing her?"
There's a sigh on the other end of the line. "No, no we can't. Has HPD been contacted?"
"Yes, sir. We haven't yet been in touch with the parents of any of the children in question, but they should be notified as soon as possible, maybe brought in for questioning so we can determine if there's a motive other than money for this kidnapping."
"That can be arranged with my staff, to keep your team available for strictly operational affairs on this."
Steve nods, even though the Governor can't see him. "Much appreciated, sir. We'll need to check with the school personnel, too, see who was aware of all the details for this trip, figure out where the kidnappers might have gotten their information. I'll have my team work on that, start tracking down leads, and HPD should be able to assist with interviews as well."
"And what about Detective Williams and Ms. Weston?"
He pinches the bridge of his nose. "The plan is to notify them as soon as I've finished my call with you, sir. They're on the mainland, interviewing a witness for the Del Rio case. They don't know anything about this yet, and they're too far away to be able to be of any immediate assistance."
"All right, keep me posted."
Steve is dialling almost before the Governor hangs up, starting with Danny's number. He deserves to know first, and he can fill Lori in afterward. It rings for what feels like an eternity, goes to voicemail, and Steve barely manages to refrain from smashing his fist against his desk in frustration.
"Danno, it's me. Call me back, it's an emergency."
He hits 'redial,' waits again, and this time Danny picks up. "I swear to God, McGarrett, you have the worst timing―"
"Danny."
Danny must sense the urgency in his voice, because he immediately goes quiet. "What is it?"
"It's Grace."
The rest of the call goes about as well as could be expected. Danny stays very quiet, his voice deceptively calm. So quiet that Steve can hear Lori behind him, anxiously asking questions until Danny must wave her into silence. It takes depressingly little time to bring Danny up to speed on what they know―and mostly on what they don't know.
"Okay," Danny's still quiet. "I'm booking the next flight out of here. I will keep my phone on until the last possible minute, and I want you to call me if there's anything. Anything at all, you hear me? I'm coming back right now. If you speak to Grace―" and that's when, for the first time, Steve hears his voice shake, ever so slightly, "―you tell her I'll see her soon, and that I love her."
Steve swallows hard before he trusts himself to answer. "You got it, Danno. You'll have her back before your plane lands."
Danny's answer sends chills down his spine. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Steven."
Steve leaves Chin in charge of the comms at headquarters, with a promise to bring him in the moment they've got a more substantial lead than Grace's cell phone to go on, and takes Kono to the school with him. HPD officers are already in place, their lieutenant chatting with a middle-aged Chinese woman in a crisp brown business suit and skirt who Steve guesses must be the principal he spoke to over the phone. Grace's school is the best on the island, the best money can buy anyway, and over here, that says something. Say what you will about Stanley, he wants nothing but the best for his wife's little girl. Danny might feel like he's trying to buy her affections, but Steve has spent enough time in Stan's company that he knows it's not like that. Stan loves Grace as much as Steve does, would probably lay down his life for her if push came to shove. Corporate asshole aside, Stan's not a bad guy in all.
Lieutenant Mahelona hurries over to meet him as soon as he sees Five-0 approaching. He's only a little older than Steve, newly-promoted if Steve's information is right, and clearly hungry to prove that he's just as capable as his predecessor, under whom Danny worked briefly before being reassigned to Five-0.
"Commander, thanks for getting here so quickly. We're trying to disrupt school activities as little as possible for the other children, but it's a little tricky. I've got uniforms talking to all the teachers involved with the Grade 1 class, and to all of the school staff who might've interacted with them over the past few days. Oh," he turns just as the woman he spotted a moment ago makes her way over to them, her sensible heels clicking against the asphalt. "This is Principal Huang, she's helping us to concentrate our efforts."
The principal reaches out and shakes Steve's hand in a firm grip, giving him a look down her nose even though she's shorter than he is, and somehow managing to make him feel like he's a misbehaving ten year old again. "Commander, so good of you to come. I have arranged with the Governor to have the children's parents brought here to our main hall, as we already have the facilities to host that many people, and that way we'll be able to keep them out of your hair."
Steve gives her an appraising look. "This isn't the first time you've dealt with something like this, then?"
She smiles thinly. "I am sorry to say that it's not, although it's never been anything on this scale. We've had one student taken from school grounds before―orchestrated by the child's nanny, I'm afraid. Now, we've set aside several empty classrooms should you wish to conduct informal interviews there in order to speed along the process. We've moved the children to classrooms farther away, so that you'll be ensured as much privacy as possible. Is that acceptable?"
He grins in spite of the knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach that seems to grow with every passing moment. "More than acceptable. Mrs. Huang, if you ever decide you want to give up education, you should think of applying at HPD, or even at Five-0. We could use someone with your skills."
That gets him a slightly less thin smile. "I am quite happy with my career, thank you anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have forty or so very stressed-out parents about to descend upon me. Please let me know if you need anything at all."
"We will, thanks."
Lieutenant Mahelona clears his throat. "God help whoever gets in that woman's way when she's trying to get somewhere. We've got a likely-looking guy over in one of the classrooms. I don't exactly know what it is he does here―it's like an internship or something, except he's not an education student or anything. Anyway, he helped to organize the field trip and he's been squirrelly as hell ever since we got here. You want a crack at him, or you want us to go ahead?"
"No, we got this," Steve shakes his head. "Thank you, though. Do we have a detailed copy of the field trip itinerary yet?"
"The school secretary's off printing one up for us now. Shouldn't take too long."
"Good. If they have an electronic copy, get them to forward it to Sergeant Kelly at Five-0, and he'll distribute copies to everyone who's got a phone or a PDA. Where's our suspect?"
"Witness, right now. He's in 401B. All yours. You need a recorder?"
Steve pulls his out of his pocket. "I'm covered, thanks."
The suspect is, as stated, squirrelly as all hell. By the time Steve gets to the classroom where he's been sequestered the guy is pacing in circles, dark sweat stains on his shirt under his arms and on his back. He starts as Steve opens the door, and when he turns Steve can see he's barely in his twenties, still suffering from a remnant of teenaged acne spattered across his nose and chin, brown eyes all but hidden under greasy bangs.
"Hey, brah, they put me in here but they won't tell me why. I got work to do, so can I go soon?"
Steve pulls up a chair behind the teacher's desk and motions to the guy to take a seat on one of the smaller plastic chairs reserved for students. "Depends on your answers to my questions." He places the recorder on the desk, switches it on. "This is Commander Steven McGarret, Five-0, and the time is currently ten forty-eight. I'm with Brendan Ma, for the purposes of conducting an interview. Mr. Ma, this is not a formal interrogation, but it will go on the record. Do you wish to cooperate now, or we can take this down to Five-0 headquarters, we can call your lawyer, and waste all of our time?"
The guy shakes his head. "No. Uh, I mean, we can stay here, it's fine, I don't mind."
"Good choice," Steve smiles at him, but judging from the way the guy turns pale he suspects his smile must look a little predatory. "I understand you helped Mrs. Blake plan the field trip that the Grade 1 class are taking today?"
"Uh, yeah. You know, I went there when I was a kid, it was pretty cool. So I suggested it to the teacher."
"And are you usually this forthcoming with ideas for field trips when you don't actually work directly with any of the classes here at the school? What is it that you do here, exactly?"
"Uh, I'm a technician. They have a lab here for the older kids to do their science projects and whatever. So, you know, I help clean up and I set things up in the morning and sometimes I help when the teacher's busy."
"That takes you all day?"
Brendan shakes his head. "I help out in shop, all the classes where there's equipment that needs maintaining and whatever."
"Okay. So tell me about this field trip. How come you're suddenly making suggestions to teachers about where to go?"
Brendan shrugs and looks uncomfortable. "No reason. I just mentioned it, you know? No big deal."
"You talk to anyone else about this field trip?"
"No. I mean, maybe? It's not like it's a secret or nothing, man."
"You talk to anyone outside of school about it? Like, where the kids were going and on what day?"
"I dunno, maybe?" Brendan's not meeting his gaze, fidgeting in his chair like someone's just poured a thousand fire ants down his pants. "It's not a crime, right? I mean, it wasn't a secret, right?"
"It's a crime, Brendan, if you deliberately gave out the information concerning these kids' whereabouts to people who you knew were planning to hurt them." Steve glares, and feels the kid quail under his stare.
"Look, man, it's not like that! They're not planning on hurting the kids, they swore no one would get hurt, okay?"
"Who, Brendan?" Steve snaps. "Give me names!"
He shakes his head, shivering miserably now, more from fear than anything else. The smell of sweat in the room is getting deeply unpleasant. "I dunno their names. I mean, I know one guy, he said he had a crew. His name is Jerry, but I dunno the others. They said no one would get hurt!"
Steve spares a thought for just how pissed off Danny would be if he hauled off and punched this guy before he could give up all his information. ("If he's unconscious, Steven, he can't give us the information we need!") It's Gracie out there, he can't afford to make any mistakes.
"Okay, Brendan. You're going to walk me through exactly what you told this guy about the field trip, and then you're going to tell me everything I want to know about him and his crew and what they were planning. Start now, and maybe we'll go easy on you when it comes to putting up charges."
Fifteen minutes later he's loading Brendan into a patrol car, hands cuffed viciously behind his back, and packing him off to HPD for booking. He wishes Danny were here so he could give him that particular satisfaction of booking one of the scumbags responsible for putting his kid's life in danger, but Danny's still too far away. He considers calling, but they still don't have much more than before, and he decides against it. He'll call the minute they start moving on a lead, he promises himself, and tries to delude himself into believing it's not because he can't stand to hear the poorly-controlled anguish in Danny's voice when it's his little girl at stake.
Kono comes running over. "Boss!" she calls out. "We found the school bus!"
Thank God, Steve thinks. Finally something concrete to go on.
~*~
Part II