Chapter 4

Hi Everyone, thank you again for reading, reviewing, and following me. I was overwhelmed with the response. This chapter is a little shorter and not very action packed. It is a lot of planning and getting the team ready. I research a lot for some of the things I write, so all the information in here about H-3, the community college, the couple who are adventure hikers on Oahu and the WWII Bunkers on Oahu are true, The bunker description is a little different than reality as I needed it on a clif for my story. This story takes place in both the MacGyver and Magnum realms so I am cross posting in each. As always feedback is appreciated. I don't own any of the characters that you may recognize, I just enjoy writing about them.

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"So that's how you know Magnum, from serving with him over in Afghanistan." Julliette said as she set her drink down on the table next to the chair she was sitting in.

After the initial shock of seeing each other for the first time in over four years, the group had adjourned to the more comfortable chairs in the main room. Kumu had brought in drinks and refreshments as Magnum, Rick, and Mac recounted on how they had met.

"Yeah, if it hadn't been for these guys I don't know if I would have made it back home in one piece after Jack left." Mac said soberly. "They had my back for the last four months I was over there."

"Hey, that's what brothers are for," Rick said seriously. "Besides, as I remember it, you saved our hides countless times with all the IEDs you located and dismantled. We would have followed you into Hell itself because we knew you would find a way out."

Mac grew sober and stared at the drink in his hands before speaking again, "From what I heard you guys did end up in Hell, for 18 months, thanks to Hannah. When my dad said that the woman we would be hunting had gotten her team captured by the Taliban I didn't make the connection that he was talking about you guys."

"Your dad?" Magnum looked puzzled, "I thought he disappeared when you were like 10 or something."

"It's a long story." Mac huffed and shook his head, trying to figure out how to explain the complicated story of his dad. "Basically, even though he physically was no longer in my life, he was keeping tabs on me and pulling strings from behind the scenes. It wasn't until just recently that I connected back up with him and found out he was the Overwatch with the organization we work for. Like I said, long story. But what's the story with Hannah? I remember she was embedded with you guys about a month before I rotated out. She seemed pretty nice, not someone you would expect to be working with the Taliban."

"She had us all fooled, none of us saw that coming, especially Tommy." Rick said somberly.

Desi, who was pretty good at reading people, had been sitting quietly observing the group. There was no doubt that Magnum had been in love with this Hannah lady and possibly still loved her in some way despite everything. Rick held barely controlled rage under his surface. There was no doubt the rage was focused at Hannah, but Desi sensed it was not so much because she had sold them out to the Taliban, but because of what it had done to his friend. And Juliette, despite her attempt to appear annoyed and frustrated at Magnum, obviously cared very deeply for him and his friends. With this knowledge, she spoke up.

"So, since Magnum is certain that this Hannah is still on the island, how do we go about locating her and how do we bring her in without getting anyone else injured?"

Magnum sat up and leaned forward, slightly wincing at the pull on his injured shoulder and abdomen, "Although Hannah walked away from the crash, I'm sure she didn't come away from it completely unscathed. She wouldn't have any contacts since whoever she was working for is probably upset that she lost the gold. She would need to gather some supplies and then head to high ground to wait for things to settle down before trying to slip off the island."

Mac jumped into the speculative narration, "She wouldn't want her actions noticed so she would only take a couple things here and there. We would want to look for reports of small thefts of camping gear, first aid supplies, and food. If only we were certain of which way she went after the crash."

"I may be able to help with that," Juliette quietly spoke up and all eyes turned to her. "I may have reached out to one of my contacts to see if there were any satellites in that area at the time that may have picked something up. He said he would get back with me sometime today."

"And you were going to tell me about this when?" Magnum snapped, with a hint of incredibility in his eyes.

"When I was certain that you wouldn't use it to run off half cocked on some bloody ghost hunt that would only result in you getting further injured or killed. Besides, I don't even know if he was able to find anything." Juliette said a little defensively.

"Sorry Higgins, I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's alright, this situation has us all on edge."

"So take me back to when you last saw Hannah," Mac interjected.

Magnum spoke up, "The convoy was moving the gold from Pearl Harbor to the Marine Corp Base outside of Kaneohe on the windward side of the island via H-3. It just exited the Tetsuo Harano Tunnel when Hannah and her team struck. She hijacked the truck carrying the gold and continued east. We wrestled for control of the truck and it ended up flipping on its side not too much further. The last thing I remember was her walking away toward Kaneohe."

Before Rick could interject his thoughts and wishes on the fate of Hannah, a loud voice boomed from the Lanai. "Yo, Magnum, you up here? I checked the guest house and you weren't there. Hopefully Higgy's been able to talk you out of this stupid idea of.." T.C. stopped mid sentence as he entered the room and saw two other people sitting with Magnum, Rick, Higgins, and Kumu. The young asian lady he was certain he didn't know, but there was something vaguely familiar about the blond kid, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Magnum smiled at T.C's puzzled look and spoke up to make the connection that he knew T.C. was struggling to make, "T.C. you remember EOD Specialist Angus MacGyver from when we were all downrange together." Referring to their time together in Afghanistan.

"Carl's Jr.? My God, it's been forever."

"T.C., it's great to see you." Mac said as he stood up and stepped into T.C.s proffered handshake and hug. Stepping back, he gestured toward the other new face in the crowd, "This is my coworker Desi. Desi, this is T.C., the best helicopter pilot downrange."

Desi nodded her greetings and would have left it at that, but curiosity got the better of her, "Why do you guys keep calling Mac Carl's Jr?"

"It's a stupid nick name Jack gave me when we first met and he didn't like me. Unfortunately it kind of stuck. He said it's a popular hamburger joint in Texas. Really guys though, I left that name behind when I became a civilian. I just go by Mac now."

The group quickly filled T.C. in and brought him up to date on the search for Hannah.

Juliette who had been quietly working on her laptop spoke up, "My friend just sent me the feed from a satellite that was overhead during the highjacking. It's not much." Juliette flipped her laptop around so that everyone could see the screen and hit play on the downloaded footage.

The image was grainy but a figure could distinctly be seen walking away from the wrecked truck heading east on H-3. The satellite showed the figure leaving the highway before it intersected with Likelike Highway and disappearing into a small neighborhood.

"I know that area," Rick said. "There's a small community college near there. The courses they teach there and the materials they have on hand would give her everything she would need to disappear into the mountainside. I have a few contacts there I can check with to see if they've noticed anything missing."

"So Magnum, you really think she's holed up someplace in the Ko'olau Range?" T.C. asked.

"It's what I would do."

"A while back, a couple kids hired me to fly them over that area. They said they were looking for an abandoned WWII bunker complex up there. If it exists, it would sure make a good hiding place."

"I think I remember seeing a blog about that," Juliette piped up as she began typing on her laptop. "Yes, here it is. A young couple who are adventure hikers who explore remote areas of the island. It looks like they found the bunker up on one of the cliffs. There is an entrance at the top and a Pillbox on the side of the cliff about 60 meters down from the top. It is pretty remote, but plausible for an experienced hiker."

Juliette showed T.C. the website and he confirmed that they were the couple he had flown over the area. "Would you happen to have their contact information?" Juliette inquired.

"I should, back at the office. Let me give Shammy a quick call and see if he can locate the information."

A few quick phone calls later and the team had all the information they needed. Rick called and spoke with his contact at the community college where he learned that one of their wilderness survival packs had come up missing, they had originally thought someone had checked it out but forgot to sign for it so they hadn't reported it. He also learned from his buddy that one of the construction sites nearby that was doing demolition work had reported that some of their explosives had gone missing too.

Juliette called and spoke with the couple T.C. had flown around and they confirmed that it was their website that Juliette had mentioned. They advised that the hike was quite strenuous and that they did have to spend the night there as the trek into the site took 6 hours. Then they also mentioned that another lady had contacted them about the same bunker a couple days ago. Although they hesitate to provide information on their more legally questionable treks they gave her the coordinates to the bunker after she told them that her grandfather had served in one of those bunkers during WW II and she wanted to bury some of his ashes there.

"That had to be Hannah," Magnum insisted after Juliette had obtained the coordinates to the bunker and thanked the gentleman on the line.

"You can't know that for certain," Desi said, erring on the side of caution.

"I have a gut feeling about it."

"You can bank on Magnum's gut feelings," T.C. said with certainty. "They've never steered us wrong."

"Okay, so where does that leave us? The guy said the hike was very strenuous, I am sure over a heavily forested area with a significant rise in elevation. Not ideal under the best of circumstances." Rick added while pointedly looking at Magnum.

"Don't worry about me, I can keep up. We've all made longer treks in worse shape."

Mac, who had been scanning a topographical map of the area, looked up. "I think I have an idea that will save us some time and energy. T.C.,could fly us to this ridge," Mac pointed to a spot on the map, "there is an area he could drop us that is only 3 klicks from the coordinates of the bunker."

"I don't know Mac," Desi said looking doubtful at the map, "That's awfully narrow."

T.C. studied the map and the surrounding terrain for a few long moments before speaking up, "As long as there aren't any high wind warnings, I should be able to do it. I won't be able to land so it will be a hot drop."

"That's my man, T.C." Rick said with a grin, "At least there won't be any unfriendlies firing at us this time."

The rest of the afternoon the team finalized their plans. They would leave at first light. T.C. would drop them at the designated spot and then land and wait for them to radio for pick up. Rick, Magnum, Juliette, Mac, and Desi would trek to the site of the bunker. There was much discussion on how to enter the bunker. The options were through the entrance at the top of the cliff which entailed climbing down a ladder in a small dark vertical shaft for several meters or by repelling down the side of the cliff and through the Pillbox. Magnum, with his aversion to small deep pits, after having been held in one for several months by the Taliban, favored repelling down the cliff to the Pillbox and entering through that route. Mac, with his aversion to heights and especially cliffs favored the other route. In the end it was decided that Mac and Desi would enter through the shaft at the top of the ridge and Magnum and Rick would repel down the side. Juliette would remain topside and coordinate on the coms.

After an excellent meal prepared by Kumu, of Huli Huli Chicken, Poi, and generous slices of Haupia Pie, the group headed out to the Lanai where Mac regaled Higgins with some of the more humorous stories of the time he had spent with the team in Afghanistan. Although Magnum smiled and laughed with the rest of them, Rick could see the haunted distant look that filled Magnum's eyes. So when the group broke for the night Rick pulled T.C. to the side.

"Hey man, I'm going to stay here for the night. I don't think our boy Thomas is in a good place right now."

"You need me to stay and take a shift sitting watch?"

During their time as POWs, they would take turns staying awake while the others slept, so as to be prepared if their captures came to take one of them away or to be there ready to help when the individual was returned bloodied and beaten. After they had escaped and were taken to the hospital in Germany, much to the frustration of the doctors, the practice of sitting watch continued. But instead of guarding against their captures, it was to guard against the nightmares that continued to plague them by providing a comforting hand and a familiar voice. And even though over 2 years had passed since they were in that hell hole, the nightmares had a way of rearing their ugly heads.

"Nah, it's okay, I got it. Besides, I'm sure you'll be up early checking your bird and getting everything ready."

"Okay, but call me if you need me."

"Roger that."

Rick knew that the talk of their time downrange, no matter how pleasant the company and fun the stories, combined with the issue of Hannah would trigger unwanted memories in Magnum. It was just a matter of time. And so it was in the wee hours of the morning that Rick was awakened from his light sleep to the sounds of distress in Magnum's room. Making his way down the hallway he walked through the open door and found Magnum curled into a tight ball in the middle of the bed, held fast in a nightmare.

Grabbing the pillow and the sheet from the floor where they had been tossed / flung, Rick gently draped the sheet over his friend then propped the pillow up against the headboard. Sitting down on the bed he stretched his legs out in front of himself and leaned back against the pillow. Reaching over he gently ran his hand through Magnum's sweaty spiky hair. "It's okay Tommy, we got you, you're going to be okay, and if you fall, we will catch you." Rick kept up the quiet litany until the figure next to him stilled and the breaths evened out. Keeping his hand on the back of his friend's head Rick closed his eyes; and before he drifted into a light sleep he silently swore that if Hannah ever did anything to hurt Magnum again, he would kill her.