The Honolulu courthouse was a three-story square-shaped building with white walls and a red roof, showcasing the typical style of the tropical plantation era. The central courtyard still preserved several tall palm trees.
The pillars lining the corridors around the courtyard were each the width of a person and carried a hint of modified Greek influence. Although not as grand as the ten Corinthian marble columns at the entrance of the New York Supreme Court, the design had its own distinct local charm.
Just as Danny had arranged over the phone earlier, HPD officers stood in a line in front of the courthouse. When the flashing lights of the Ford F-150 screeched to a halt at the entrance, the officers all turned to look with respectful attention.
Compared to the mainland, the Hawaiian Islands—being the command center of the U.S. Pacific theater and home to the Pacific Fleet—hosted over 60,000 U.S. military personnel, along with nearly twice that number in military family members.
It was also a popular tourist and recovery destination, and with its extremely strict gun control laws, it ranked among the safest regions in the U.S.
Here, household gun ownership was below 10%, and most of those were handguns. Annual gun-related deaths and injuries were fewer than a hundred. You could say Jack's vacation alone had raised those statistics by several percentage points.
Because of this, even elite units like "Five-O" rarely carried heavy firepower like assault rifles during regular operations. The shotgun in Cheng Hao's hands earlier was the only long gun Jack had seen so far.
Similarly, the HPD officers stationed around the courthouse weren't heavily armed either. Despite the dense deployment, most of them didn't even wear bulletproof vests due to the heat.
Maybe that's why, when the four people stepped out of the F-150, the surrounding officers couldn't hide their astonishment.
Danny and Cheng Hao looked relatively normal—though clearly overheated in their vests, they didn't look too bad. But Jack and Julie were another story.
After spending half the day trekking through the tropical jungle, Julie's once-light blouse was now just a few shreds. If not for the bulletproof vest Jack had given her, she would've been completely exposed.
Jack looked even more dramatic. After rolling through mud and water, he'd removed his shirt entirely to wrap his wound, and now walked out of the car with a bandaged waist and sharply defined muscles gleaming in the sun—looking like a governor fresh from a fight with the Predator.
The four jogged into the courthouse. A beautiful female prosecutor had been waiting in the corridor. When she saw Julie, the tension on her face visibly melted away.
But when her eyes landed on Jack, she froze completely, mouth opening slightly, forgetting whatever she had planned to say.
"Prosecutor Roberts?" Cheng Hao, clearly familiar with her, greeted her.
"Ah!" she snapped out of it, awkwardly tearing her gaze from Jack and nodding to Julie. "I've got spare clothes and shoes in my car. Come with me—we need to get ready."
Julie turned and threw her arms around Jack, murmuring over and over, "Thank you, Jack. Thank you for everything. You're my hero."
"It's okay. It's over now. Go get changed. I'll wait outside."
Jack gently reassured her, watching as she followed the prosecutor away, then headed to a nearby restroom to clean up.
Neither Danny nor Cheng Hao could lend him a shirt—both were much smaller than Jack. In the end, he borrowed a spare from a uniformed officer outside, finally freeing himself from the awkward attention.
Danny patted Jack on the shoulder, full of emotion. "Hard to believe. I still remember when you were skinny as a stick—"
He didn't get to finish the thought. Cheng Hao's phone rang, and Kono's frantic voice was loud enough that they didn't even need speaker mode to hear her.
"Facial recognition came back. The cleaner is a blonde female, 5-foot-7, currently working as an assistant attorney in Allen Bryner's defense team. She's inside the courthouse right now."
"Shit!" All three stiffened at once, seeing the same alarm mirrored in each other's eyes.
"I'll search the corridors. You two check the prosecutor's office and courtroom—alert the officers outside," Jack said, immediately sprinting off in the direction Julie and the prosecutor had taken earlier.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated the courthouse's size. Unlike in New York or L.A., he wasn't familiar with this layout. After running one loop of the second floor and asking several staffers, no one could tell him where Julie and the prosecutor had gone.
Just as anxiety was about to overwhelm him, Kono appeared at the stairwell and shouted, "Jack! This way!"
At that moment, in the courthouse's southeast corner, Prosecutor Roberts and the freshly dressed Julie were being led into a conference room. A blonde woman, holding a memo pad and smiling strangely, gestured politely for them to enter.
"Where's the lead defense attorney? What kind of plea deal are you offering?" Roberts asked, frowning at the woman's forced smile.
This woman had been working in Allen Bryner's legal team as an assistant. She had intercepted the two earlier, claiming that the client was ready to plead guilty and provide a list of names.
The prosecutor hadn't suspected anything, and after a brief exchange with Julie, agreed to hear the terms.
Bryner wasn't only facing this one case. Even if they struck a deal now, he still had two more major charges coming—one for the murder of HPD officers, and another for the attempted murder of a federal agent.
Still, if they could extract names of Baja cartel ringleaders, that would be a big win. So the prosecutor accepted the meeting.
The assistant had said the lead attorney was already in the conference room, but once inside, the room was empty. The prosecutor didn't realize anything was wrong yet—but Julie was already frowning.
"He'll be right here," the blonde said, placing the file on the table. Using the desk as cover, she turned to the side, lifted her skirt at the thigh, and pulled out a silenced pistol, aiming it at them.
Just then, a flurry of footsteps rang out. Kono burst into the room, grabbing the woman's gun-wielding hand and wrenching the weapon away. Jack skidded to a stop right behind her and calmly re-holstered his half-drawn pistol.
His job was done. Kicking the fallen weapon aside, he even stepped back several paces to give them room.
The two women were already grappling. The blonde clearly had no formal combat training—her wild scratching and choking didn't stand a chance.
Kono, though slender, had proper police academy training. Her moves were sharp, precise, and in control. She easily pinned the attacker.
When Danny and Cheng Hao rushed in, they arrived just in time to see Kono land a clean sidekick, knocking the blonde unconscious.
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