A group of geology students known as "The Brain Trust" engineer a fake tsunami warning, which is taken seriously because of memories of a devastating real-life tsunami in the islands. Their motives are to make all of the population of Honolulu run for the hills; then, posing as rescue workers, they will knock over a jewelry store for $6 million in gems. When one of the students, guilt-ridden over injuring a passer-by during the theft of an ambulance, decides to go to Five-O and spill the beans, he is followed to the Iolani Palace and gunned down (with a silenced pistol) within fifty steps of the Five-0 offices -- which sends an irate McGarrett on the trail of the rest of the Brain Trust.
—Peter Harris