🦋Episode 3 – The Black Site (Ke Kahua ʻEleʻele)
The morning briefing felt less like a meeting and more like a countdown to war.
Maps of Oahu stretched across the conference table, red circles marking the coordinates hidden in Tia's necklace. The air buzzed with quiet urgency the kind that always preceded trouble.
Danny leaned back in his chair, tapping a pen against the table. "Okay, before we all charge into the secret government hidey-hole, maybe we handle the part where your long-lost kid doesn't end up as bait, huh?"
Steve shot him a look. "She's not bait, Danny."
"No, but she's a ten-year-old with a world-class psychopath gunning for her," Danny shot back. "Which means somebody needs to babysit." He pointed to John. "And before you even open your mouth, Captain Doom, you're not volunteering."
John's brow furrowed. "You expect me to leave her unprotected?"
Danny gestured at the board. "No, I expect you to help us end this so she doesn't have to live in a panic room for the rest of her life." He leaned forward, lowering his tone. "Look, my daughter Grace is with me this weekend. She's a year older than Tia. They could keep each other company. Kono and Kamekona can hang around the house, and I'll have HPD post two unmarked units on the block."
John didn't look convinced. "Kono would be the only one in the house with a firearm."
Steve stepped in, calm but firm. "We'll add two undercover SWAT officers inside the perimeter. You and I will be in and out of that site as fast as possible. Chin will monitor from HQ."
John exhaled through his nose, still uneasy. "If anything happens to her…"
Steve cut him off. "It won't. You have my word."
Danny grinned. "There. Settled. One big happy family. Now let's go dig through some CIA skeletons."
Kono stood in Danny's driveway later that morning, hands on hips, watching as Grace and Tia sat cross-legged on the porch sharing a bag of malasadas. Grace was already chatting away, filling the silence like only a McGarrett-level extrovert could.
"So your aunt was a spy?" Grace asked between bites.
Tia blinked. "I… don't know. Maybe."
"That's cool," Grace said. "My dad's a detective. Which is almost the same thing, except less explosions and more paperwork."
Kono laughed, shaking her head. "You'd be surprised."
Behind the fence, an unmarked black SUV idled. Two SWAT officers leaned inside, eyes scanning the street. One gave Kono a quick nod. Everything looked calm but calm never lasted long in Hawaii.
Kamekona rolled up with a tray of shrimp tacos. "Auntie Kono! Thought the girls could use some lunch. And maybe the officers could use a snack too, huh?"
Kono smiled. "Mahalo, Kamekona. You're a lifesaver."
"Just keep an eye on the keiki," he said, lowering his voice. "Word around the docks is somebody's been asking questions. Foreign questions."
Kono's smile faded. "Who?"
He shrugged. "Didn't ask names. Just got that feeling."
Kono nodded. "Good instincts. Keep your ears open."
Across town, the Five-0 convoy rolled through the gates of a decommissioned naval storage yard. Steve, Danny, John, Chin, and Lou Grover stepped out, the wind whipping dust across the cracked concrete.
Grover folded his arms. "You boys sure about this? You find 'CIA black site' on the map, normal people run the other way You guys always call me for the weirdest backup."
Danny smirked. "Lucky for us, we're not normal people."
John scanned the perimeter, his tone clipped. "No external security. No power. Whoever ran this place shut it down hard."
Chin spread blueprints across the hood of their SUV. "According to these, the main access tunnel runs fifty meters underground. There's a secondary exit near the shoreline. If Wo Fat wants what's inside, that's how he'll get it out."
Steve nodded. "We'll sweep the upper level first. Lou, take SWAT and lock down the perimeter. Chin, you're with me on the server room. Danny, John take the lower tunnels."
Danny frowned. "Why do I always get the tunnels? You know how I feel about tunnels."
"Because I trust you to yell if it starts collapsing," Steve said, already moving.
Danny sighed. "Great. I'm dying in a tunnel with Captain Brooding here."
John didn't look up from loading his weapon. "You talk too much, Williams."
"Yeah," Danny said, checking his magazine. "It's what keeps me alive."
The tunnel air was stale and cold, heavy with the smell of rust and saltwater. Danny's flashlight beam danced across concrete walls stained with age.
"This place gives me the creeps," he muttered. "You ever think maybe we shouldn't be poking around the stuff the CIA buried?"
John swept his light ahead, scanning corners with surgical precision. "If it was buried, it's because someone didn't want it found. Which means it's worth finding."
Danny sighed. "And this is why I drink."
They reached a sealed steel door. John knelt, running his fingers over the keypad. "Still powered. Someone's been here recently."
Danny tensed. "Please tell me that someone was wearing a badge."
John didn't answer. He punched in a bypass sequence from muscle memory. The door hissed open.
Inside, rows of dusty servers flickered faintly, humming like distant thunder. On the floor footprints. Fresh.
"McGarrett," John said into his comm. "We've got company."
Before Steve could respond, automatic fire erupted from the far end of the hall.
"Cover!" Danny yelled, diving behind a column. Bullets tore through metal, sparks flying. John rolled across the floor, returning fire in controlled bursts.
"Four hostiles," John said coldly. "Trained. Moving tactically."
Steve's voice came through the earpiece. "Hold your position. We're coming to you."
Danny ducked as a bullet whined past his head. "I thought you said this place was abandoned!"
John's tone was ice. "Guess the ghosts learned to shoot."
They moved as one Danny covering high, John sweeping low, advancing down the corridor until the gunfire ceased. One body lay sprawled near the doorway. The rest had vanished deeper into the tunnels.
Danny checked the man's gear. "Mercenary. No ID, no insignia." He pulled a patch off the man's vest — a serpent devouring its own tail.
John's face darkened. "Wo Fat's mark."
Danny whistled. "Of course it is. Because my week wasn't stressful enough."
Back at the house, Kono's instincts went sharp. Grace and Tia were inside playing video games, laughter echoing faintly. But through the curtains, she caught movement a shimmer at the edge of the yard, too deliberate to be wind.
She stepped onto the porch, hand brushing her pistol. "HPD Unit Two, you got eyes on movement north perimeter?"
Static answered.
Her stomach sank.
"Kamekona," she whispered into her phone, "lock the gate. Now."
The next second, a silenced round snapped past her ear.
She dropped behind the porch railing, returning fire as two figures emerged from the trees black-clad, silent, professional. The girls screamed inside.
"Kono to Five-0! We've got hostiles at Danny's house!"
Static again.
The comms were jammed.
Kono fired twice, dropping one attacker, but another slipped around the side. She shouted to the girls, "Bathroom, now! Lock the door and don't move!"
Tia grabbed Grace's hand and ran.
Outside, Kono reloaded, heart hammering. The second attacker kicked the porch steps apart, firing low. She rolled, came up shooting, and dropped him with a burst.
The silence that followed was brutal.
Then Grace's voice cried out, "Auntie Kono!"
Kono rushed inside just in time to see a third man dragging Tia toward the back door, a knife pressed to her throat.
Her blood went cold.
"Let her go!" she yelled.
The man's voice was calm, almost polite. "Tell McGarrett the past doesn't stay buried."
He shoved Tia hard and vanished through the side gate before Kono could fire.
Meanwhile, deep in the black site, John and Steve cornered the last merc in the generator room. The man was bleeding, but grinning.
"You think you're protecting her," he rasped. "You're just keeping her warm until he comes."
John slammed him against the wall. "Who?"
The man's bloody smile widened. "Wo Fat sends his regards."
Steve's phone buzzed Kono's emergency channel breaking through the interference. Her voice was breathless, urgent.
"Steve, we've been hit. They tried to grab Tia."
Steve's blood ran cold. "Is she hurt?"
"She's safe. For now."
Steve looked at John. "They're coming for her again."
to be continued