Vengeance: Chapter 1
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Hetty sat solemnly at her desk, a small lamp and her computer screen providing the only light in the room. The small news item Nell had sent her was now added to the file she had been keeping since returning from Washington last spring. She frowned at the latest information before scanning back through a few of the bits and pieces in the sparse file, and then shook her head as she tried to make some sense out of it all. There wasn't much to go on, but Nell had been resolute in the task Hetty had set before her, sending her whatever information she could discover that might lead to the location of Owen Granger. She had been informed that Director Vance had set up a special unit to try and trace him, but she wasn't satisfied with that. Deeks was her agent and she wasn't about to be unprepared if Granger slipped by them and tried to make good on his threat to do him harm.
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Deeks glanced over at his former partner once again as he pulled into the parking lot at Surfrider Beach. He watched him closely as he took his board off the roof and wondered if a surf lesson was what he needed right now. It was very early and the beach wasn't too crowded yet, which would make Joe's lesson a little easier, but he hadn't said much on the ride over and that worried him. He knew he had just come off a tough assignment and he wondered if it had been too soon for him. He had only been certified for fieldwork a month ago and as he watched him remove his shirt he could see a few colorful bruises around his ribs. Surfing had always been his way of decompressing after an assignment, so he figured it might do the same for Joe, at least take his mind off whatever was bothering him.
"We can skip this you know," Deeks said with a tease in his voice. "If you're scared, I mean."
Joe looked up at him quickly with a glare on his face, but a smile flickered briefly when he saw Deeks raise his eyebrows and smile.
"Wiseass," Joe said as he hefted his board up under his arm and headed for the beach.
"If you're gonna babble like this all day, I may need to put in some earplugs," Deeks said as he hurried after him.
Joe ignored the barb and didn't wait for Deeks to catch up until throwing his towel down and dropping his board in the sand. Deeks decided to let him be for now and they waxed their boards in silence. Deeks could feel the muscles in his body slowly relax as he got into rhythm. He hadn't pulled his wetsuit all the way up yet and he basked in the warmth of the early sun on his back. He never tired of prepping for a surf and he smiled at the familiar routine he had missed so much the past spring. When he was finished, he pulled his wetsuit up and walked alone toward the wave line and stood watching the breaks, lost in his own private world. The wind was up and his seasoned scan of the sweeping waves sent a surge of adrenaline through his body.
"Sorry, man," Joe said as he came up behind him. "I've been a shit this morning."
"No argument there, buddy," Deeks said softly. "What's up?"
"Diane and I had a shouting match last night," he said as he stared out at the turbulent sea.
"What about?" Deeks asked, his eyes still roaming over the wave sets.
"She asked me about the op I just came off of and I told her it was none of her business," Joe's voice sounded hollow.
"Now who's the dumb-ass?" Deeks said as he turned to look at his friend.
Joe laughed and shook his head and turned and walked back to his towel and threw himself down. Deeks dropped down next to him and waited for him to continue.
"I know she was just trying to be supportive," Joe said. "But, I didn't want her to know what happened, because I knew it would scare her."
"She just wants to know you're okay, man," Deeks said. "She's not used to this so you need to reassure her, especially after what happened to you on our last op. You don't need to be specific, just let her know you can handle it."
"I missed you out there," Joe said.
"Well, don't tell her that," Deeks laughed. "She'll get jealous."
"You are so full of shit, Deeks," Joe laughed and pushed him over onto his back.
"I'm not the one in the dog house with his girl," Deeks said with a crooked grin.
"Yeah. She threatened to leave," Joe said sadly.
"You've been living together for three months now, right?" Deeks asked. "You need to take her on an anniversary date."
"What anniversary is that, broken dishes?" Joe said quietly.
"She threw dishes at you?" Deeks said as he tried to keep from laughing. "I knew there was a reason I liked her."
"Yeah? Well, she missed," Joe laughed.
"Lucky you," Deeks said. "Try explaining that kind of injury to McLoughlan."
"I love her, Marty," Joe said. "I asked her to marry me."
"Seriously? Was that before or after she threw the dishes at you?" Deeks asked.
"Funny," Joe said. "After, dumb-ass."
"I knew you were serious about her, but I didn't think you'd plunge right in, buddy," Deeks said slowly with a soft smile spreading across his face. "Did she throw anything else at you or did she accept?"
"She said yes, Marty," Joe replied, smiling broadly and suddenly laughing out loud.
"Are you kidding me? You are one lucky bastard," Deeks said as he pulled his friend to his feet. "At least I know what to get you for a wedding present."
"Dishes," they said in unison.
Deeks slapped Joe enthusiastically on the back and pulled him in for a quick hug. The two men stood and stared at each other for a minute. Deeks' mind flashed back to the image of Joe lying badly wounded on the deck of Lee Chao's cargo ship and he swallowed hard at the dark memory. In that instant he had thought he had lost him and he remembered how devastated he'd felt as he struggled to reach him. Their bond was cemented in that frightening moment between soul searing fear and the fierce hope and belief that Joe was strong enough to survive.
He threw his arm around Joe's neck and walked him toward the surf. He felt an overwhelming happiness for a man he was as close to as any true brother could be. He laughed and then suddenly rushed Joe madly out into the churning white water and dunked him under an incoming wave. Joe gasped as the cold water hit him and he quickly managed to gain his feet before tackling Deeks into the turbulent white water. Anyone watching them wrestle and laugh together would have thought they were acting like a couple of kids, and they wouldn't have disagreed, but in that moment they didn't care what anyone else thought as they celebrated life.
"When's this happening, man?" Deeks asked as he stumbled out of the surf and shook the water out of his hair.
"Next month at my Dad's ranch," Joe said.
"Won't it be covered in snow in September?" Deeks asked.
"It's Wyoming, Deeks, not the Arctic," Joe said, shaking his head at the LA boy.
"Well, I'll have to check my social calendar," Deeks said in mock seriousness, getting a solid punch in the arm for his effort.
"I want you to be my Best Man, Marty," Joe said softly. "So you better be there or I'll have an FBI SWAT team track you down."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Joe," Deeks said quietly. "Besides, you probably don't have any other friends you could ask."
"I see you're still annoying," Joe said with a warm smile.
"So, you still want that second surfing lesson, Kook?" Deeks said as he picked up his board.
"Who are you calling a kook?" Joe asked quizzically.
"A kook is someone who doesn't know what they're doing on a surfboard," Deeks laughed.
"I'm not that bad," Joe said, reaching for his board. "And I looked much better my first time on a surfboard then you did on Sheila. You were shakin' in your boots, man."
"At least I didn't fall off my horse. If I remember right, you fell off your board about a bazillion times on your first lesson," Deeks said. "And, when you finally got up, you lasted less then four seconds."
"Riding Sheila is like riding a rocking horse," Joe shot back.
"Well, let's see what you got, cowboy," Deeks said as he ran toward the crashing waves and dove onto his board.
Joe stood watching him for a moment with a smile on his face, before pushing his board into the tumbling water. The lesson turned serious and the two men's competitive natures soon came into play as Deeks yelled snide, wiseass comments at Joe as he struggled to maintain his footing on the moving board.
"I thought you said you used to do bucking bronco riding, or whatever it's called?" Deeks yelled over the crashing surf. "This is just a little surf board."
"Yeah, well there's nothing to hold on to," Joe sputtered as he came up for air after his sixth try. "I thought you were supposed to be encouraging me."
"I would if there was anything to encourage," Deeks laughed. "Who knew a trained FBI agent could be so uncoordinated."
Joe splashed water in Deeks face before tackling him and shoving him underwater. They came up laughing together and then swam for shore, both knowing the lesson was over for the day. Their walk back to the car was silent until the boards were strapped to the roof.
"Let's do dinner tonight, buddy," Deeks said as he turned to stare at his good friend. "We'll drink champagne while Di and Kens talk about wedding dresses."
"Am I crazy to do this, man?" Joe asked quietly. "I mean, you know how dangerous our jobs are and I really can't tell Di much about it."
"Well there's no question you're crazy, but that has nothing to do with you asking Di to marry you," Deeks said with a wicked grin. "But, she accepted, so that makes her crazy too."
"I think McLoughlan might be willing to be my Best Man," Joe said as he got in the car, his face quite serious. "I think I'll call him right now."
"I have a gun in the trunk, dude," Deeks said as he grabbed for the phone.
"You can't be Best Man if you kill me," Joe said with a grin.
"True. And I already have a couple of ideas for the bachelor party," Deeks said happily. "Can we have it here in LA? I mean we have great clubs here. From what I remember about your hometown, the only place suitable for a party had a mechanical bull in the middle of it."
"My dad told me, Hetty has a thing for mechanical bulls," Joe said. "Are you making fun of my hometown?"
"No, just it's night life." Deeks answered.
"Okay, you win," Joe said with a grin. "Not everyone will be able to fly to Wyoming for the wedding, anyway."
"Can I tell everybody?" Deeks asked.
"What if she changes her mind, Marty?" Joe asked seriously.
"Then she would be crazy," Deeks replied. "Now, tell me what your Dad said about Hetty and that mechanical bull."
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The man caught briefly on an airport security camera wore a full beard and a Panama hat, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. Nell couldn't be sure it was Granger, but she decided to follow her instincts and catalogue it. The file she was compiling for Hetty was filled with these kinds of possibilities, some were indistinct images culled from security cameras around the world or photos and gifs from social networking sites. Most were blurry and unsubstantiated, not good enough for facial recognition to get a match. If they did turn out to be Granger and a timeline established, when they were analyzed and put together, it might give them some idea as to where Granger had been and where he would finally settle.
The latest image had been picked up from Basel, Switzerland. She had tagged it, because the man looked similar to someone she had spotted in a photo on a photographer's blog from Frankfurt, Germany. The photographer shot society events, and the man with the beard could be seen in the background in a few of the images talking to a couple of men known to have been former agents with the East German Ministry of State Security otherwise known as Stasi. When she had shown one of them to Hetty, she had seen her blanch before ordering it sent to her personal home computer. Nell didn't know much about Hetty's history with Granger, but she knew they had been partners for a little while on a couple of assignments in Eastern Europe in the eighties. From Hetty's reaction to that photo, Nell was fairly certain that she knew the men in that picture and that they scared her. That Hetty was scared of anyone at all frightened the hell out of Nell.
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