Web of secrets (2)

1. Drowning lungs

*5km off the shores of Oahu*

4 months had passed since I had that conversation with Anderson. After the usual back and forth argument, he allowed me to stay on the island and keep working on my uncle's case - the catch being that I flew back to LA whenever they needed me for a mission. Unfortunately, whenever I would get a lead it would turn into a dead-end and my team in LA didn't need me a lot; the only thing that kept me going was Steve's phone calls, asking me to assist on a case. Like the one, I'm assisting on now-

"What are these rocks," Tani says as she holds up a little container, revealing the silver rock that sat inside.

Adam, Tani, Junior and I got volunteered as tributes to go down to an underwater research facility- 10,000 metres underwater to be exact. After Tani realised that a hallway wasn't as big as specified in the blueprints of the facility, she leads us to a hidden lab, tucked away behind the metal wall.

"No way!" I say as I grab the container from her hand. Confirming my suspicions after reading the label, I turn my flashlight off and continue to admire the small fragment of rock.

"Ahem," Junior coughs to grab my attention.

"Huh?" I pull my eyes away from the object in my hand to look at her.

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to know why you look like you want to marry this small piece of the earth," he exclaims.

"Don't be jealous Junes, there's more where that came from," Tani points to the rest of the similar-looking containers on the shelves behind her.

"This... This is yttrium," I put the container down on the counter and admire the rest of the rock samples.

"Yttrium?" Tani asks

Turning around to face them, I begin to explain. "Yeah, back at the company, we tried to source some for a product we were working on but Yttrium reserves are rare. It's the only element more valuable than gold,"

"Well, Nostromo definitely hit the jackpot," Tani points out

"Looks like he did, but Yttrium reserves are protected. These samples alone could get him jail time," I say

Junior scoffs, " No wonder they covered it up"

"And based on Jason Kamaka's dead body, Nostromo would order the inside man to do anything to keep it that way," Tani puts her hands on her hips as she looks around the lab again.

//

"Just contacted McGarrett, he's going to confront Nostromo about the illegal mining and hopefully get us the name of the inside man," Junior whispers when the 4 of us get a chance to huddle together.

I take a peek behind Adam's shoulders to take a look at our suspects. One of the men got stabbed but Adam did a good job of getting the bleeding to stop, the other man that attacked us when we first arrived at the facility was tied up to a chair, and the only one who seemed unharmed was tending to the lady that was inhaling the oxygen like her life depended on it. 

"Yaz," Tani diverts her my attention to her, "You don't look too good,"

"Have you seen yourself lately?" I scoff and fold my arms across my chest. 

"It does feel a little harder to breathe," Adam pulls on his wetsuit.

The smug smile on my face disappears as I tilting my head to look up at him. I notice that he was sporting the same look as Tani; his face was slightly pale and beads of sweat had formed along his hairline.

"It must be the change in pressure, the oxygen levels were fine when we got here," Junior assures us

"I don't know Junes, those guys aren't looking too good either, and they've been here for months," Tani says.

I look at the suspects again, and sure enough, they all looked like sweaty ghosts

"What-" Junior huffs

"What is it?" Tani looks over Junior's shoulder to look at the oxygen monitoring device he had in his hands.

"We're running out of oxygen," His widened eyes look up at us, "Someone messed with the controls,"

Once again, my eyes are drawn towards the other people in the room where all but one person seemed to be doing just fine. 

"How convenient for her," he gestures his head towards the redhead that sat in the corner of the room, grasping the oxygen mask as close to her face as she could.

Unfortunately, the combination of our stares attracted her attention and she makes eye contact with us. Sensing what she was going to do next, I bolt forwards to move around to the other side of the table and cut her off - well, at least I tried to. The lower levels of oxygen in my body made my movements more sluggish and she had already made it to the door before I was able to grab her by the arm. My reflexes were also affected and the next thing I know, I got a face full of the oxygen tank, sending me back into the arms of my teammates. 

"You okay?" Tani supports my weight

"Ugh, I'm going to kill her," I say after touching my lips and seeing the blood on my fingertips.  

"That's going to have to wait- she locked us in," Tani pulls on my arm to help me stand upright and we watch the men of the group try to bust the door open. 

After a few tries, they manage to open the door and Tani and Junior go after the rat. Yes rat, she hurt me and she got away so the only thing I can do is call her names.

"Are you okay?" Adam says as he walks past me and opens the first aid kit that was on the table.

"Yeah," I respond, watching him take out a cotton ball from the kit.

Closing the kit, he walks back over to join me at the table in the middle of the room and holds the cotton ball up to my face. The smell of alcohol invades my nose and I grab his arm before he got any closer,

"That's going to sting,"

"Exactly, which is why I'm doing it you weakling,"  He smirks.

I roll my eyes and cautiously take my hand off, allowing him to continue. 

Despite being gentle, the burning of the alcohol against the small cut travelled, sanitising every crease on my lip. The closeness between us made it even harder to breath and I didn't dare to look up but the silence around us was no longer comfortable. His actions were soft but I could sense the tension of his arm. So I looked up and was met with deep brown eyes. At that moment, I was wondering when Tani and Junior would grace us with their presence and gift us with oxygen because my lungs were on the verge of collapsing. 

\\

Okay guys...

I think this pandemic and staying at home is making my brain go mush-

I thought yesterday was Thursday 😅😭

I will leave you in peace because I legit have no words 😐

Stay well 💜💜