Mari & Ilna: What can I say? I'm enjoying this adventure every bit as much as I was on day one. Maybe more.

REAL Worlders-thanks for all the enthusiastic support. You guys are the best.

A Ghost from the Past (1/1)

The Five-0 team looked up from the smart table where they were reviewing the evidence on their latest case and saw two large, serious looking sheriff's deputies, who they recognized as being part of the governor's protection detail, come into the bullpen. One of the deputies remained by the door as the other did a visual examination of the room, checking Steve's office and peering down the hall.

"Is there anyone here other than the four of you?" he asked as he approached the team.

A feeling of uneasiness began to work its way down Steve's spine. He was used to the governor's security measures, but he read an increased level of tension coming off the deputies today. "No. It's just us."

The deputy nodded to his counterpart who opened the door and allowed Leah and Catherine to enter. The somber looks on their faces did nothing to put Steve's mind at ease. His eyes immediately sought out Catherine's and their shared silent communication let him know this was not an average visit. "What's going on?"

"Can we go in your office and talk?" Leah requested, her fingers clutched tightly around a manila folder. "This is a very sensitive matter and I can't chance anyone walking in and overhearing."

Danny nodded towards the two deputies. "Fat chance of that happening with them on duty."

Leah smiled tightly.

Danny looked at Steve but immediately realized his partner had no idea what the visit was about either. Chin shut down the overhead screens as the rest of the team gathered their things to head back to their respective offices.

"I'm sorry," Leah said. "I should have been clearer. We need to talk to everyone."

The uneasiness Steve had been feeling began to spread to the other team members as they filed silently into his office. Leah took a seat on the couch along with Danny. Chin and Kono turned the visitors' chairs to face the governor. Steve and Catherine remained standing.

Leah took a deep breath and addressed the group. "As you're all aware, HPD has been running an investigation into some items that have come up missing from the evidence storage."

The team all nodded.

"I thought that was going well." Steve leaned against the edge of his desk. "Duke briefed us a few days ago and said they had some pretty good leads."

"They do. They've done some excellent work on this case." Leah's pride in the police department was unmistakable. "They've narrowed it down to a handful of suspects who all work for the transportation company that moves material from HPD to the warehouse."

Danny leaned forward slightly. "How can we help? Do they need some back up when the bust goes down?"

"Actually," Leah reached for the folder she'd placed on the coffee table, "it's not that case we're here to talk to you about. It's something else that turned up during the investigation." She opened the folder and removed three pictures. She passed them to Danny who looked at them then passed them on to Kono.

At first glance there was nothing unusual about the photos. They looked like standard police surveillance. One was of a meeting of three men on the docks, the next was several men exiting a restaurant, and the third was of a group of men outside a warehouse. They'd all seen similar pictures thousands of times.

The photos made their way around to Steve who studied them closely in an attempt to see what had Leah and Catherine so on edge.

He saw nothing unusual.

"These photos were just three of hundreds that HPD sent over to my office," Leah continued. "I asked them to keep me apprised of the investigation. I take any breach of security when it comes to law enforcement very seriously."

"What was so special about these three photos?" Chin asked.

"The HPD had earmarked them because there was one man in them that couldn't be identified," Leah replied. "They tried all normal channels, including Interpol, but came up empty. They contacted Homeland Security but were told there was a backlog and it would be a six week wait for results. They wanted to know if I could expedite the process and get them some quicker answers."

"Did you?" Kono asked.

"I didn't need to. I sent copies of the pictures to Catherine's office to see if she could talk to some of her military contacts and see if they knew who the man was but …" Leah looked at her chief of staff. "Why don't you take it from here?"

"I didn't need to call anyone," Catherine said grimly. "I recognized the man right away. He's older, and he's shaved off his facial hair, probably to avoid detection, but I'd know him anywhere. His name is Almas Fairiborz. He runs one of the biggest crime syndicates in Afghanistan."

Steve's brows creased. "How does a guy like that even get out of his own country, let alone freely walk around here? Isn't he under surveillance?"

Catherine's features tightened. "No, he's not. Because according to the Department of Defense he's been dead for eight years."

"What?" Danny's voice rose slightly. "How does something like this happen?"

"Investigating Fairiborz's organizations was one of my first assignments when I got to Afghanistan," Catherine explained. "He is absolutely ruthless. He tortures and maims innocent civilians regularly as a message to others in the town to keep their mouths shut. His level of brutality is extreme even for that region. We got close a couple of times but unfortunately he has powerful friends in the government that protect him. We were never able to get him into custody."

Steve shifted closer to Catherine in a show of silent support. He knew how much many of her old cases from her time in the navy stayed with her. How she wished she would have been able to completely clean up the country she had grown so fond of.

"Eventually we had to move on to other cases but over the years me and a few others in the intel community kept tabs on Fairiborz as best we could. Every once in awhile we'd convince my superiors to take another run at him, but we could never get any real traction. It was impossible to get anyone to turn on him. They were all too afraid of what would happen to their families if they talked."

"I don't understand," Kono said. "Why does the government think he's dead?"

Catherine jaw tightened even further. "A few months before I was transferred stateside, we finally got the break we needed. We managed to get some information from an old man named Fazir, whose grandson, Kochi, was working for Fairiborz. Fazir's wife and his only son had been killed in a roadside bombing the previous year along with his daughter in law. He told us everyone he loved was gone and he didn't care what happened to him as long as he could save his grandson who had been recruited by Fairiborz in the wake of his parents' death."

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

Catherine took a deep breath and continued.

"We planned the raid out down to the smallest detail. Everything was in place. We were just waiting for the go ahead from our superiors. Days passed. Then a week. The Afghani government had somehow gotten word about what was happening, and they were exerting pressure on Washington to kill the raid. We were afraid we were going to lose our chance but finally we got approval to go and planned to move at first light."

"Before we could move in, somewhere around midnight, there was a massive explosion at the compound. By the time we were allowed in it was nothing but a smoldering pile of rubble. They pulled 31 bodies out over the next few days. The official story was that Fairiborz was one of them."

"But you didn't believe it," Steve said. It was more of a statement than a question.

Catherine shook her head. "None of us who were there on the ground did. We knew he'd been tipped off. We figured he planned the explosion as a diversion to get away." Her eyes narrowed. "He had no problem killing dozens of his own people to save his own skin. But there wasn't much we could do. We tried appealing to our superior officers, but we were told it was a closed case. As far as the United States government was concerned, he was dead. A few months later I was assigned to Pearl. I've talked to some people over the years who were still working the case, under the radar of course, but as far as anyone could tell he was laying low."

"But now he's here in Hawaii," Leah said worriedly.

"The question is what's he after," Danny said.

"Whatever it is it's bad news." Catherine's tone was both grim and determined. "And we can't let him slip through our fingers again. This time we need to nail him."

"Well then …" Steve's spine straightened. "Let's get to work."

THE END

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