FALLING LIKE DOMINOES, by Elszy

part 1

-.-.- G. CALLEN -.-.-

'Sit down, Mr Callen. Would you care to join me?' Hetty Lange pointed to the fragile china tea pot and ditto cups and saucers that sat on a tray at the far end of her desk. 'Nothing like a good cup of Earl Grey to soothe a raw throat.'

Although Callen wasn't exactly a fan of Hetty's teas, he nodded. He was weary to the bone, his eyes were were still watering, the coughing had worn him out. For once, a cup of tea didn't sound too bad now.

'Good,' said Hetty, poured the steaming hot liquid in a delicate millefleurs-strewn cup and put it down on the table top in front of him. 'Now Mr Callen. In your own words, please. What happened?'

Callen swallowed a couple of times to suppress another bout of coughs. 'It was a total screw-up, Hetty. The intel was incomplete. If we had known about the chemicals...'

'Start at the beginning, Mr Callen, if you'd please. The warehouse near the docks?'

Callen nodded. 'Right. The loading doors were closed but there was a wicket door slightly ajar, Alfonse's Mercedes stood outside. Eric had told us the call came from inside and Sam peeked in. We counted three: Alfonse was holding the girl, Carpenter was alone. A black Chrysler van was parked behind him. We sneaked in, they were too busy minding their own business to notice us. Sam and I stayed in the shadows to the right, Kensi and Deeks took the left. Eric had told us the warehouse was no longer officially in use and the building was to be taken down soon, but there was a lot of stuff still standing all over the place. Crates and boxes and machine parts - obviously it served Alfonse's purposes well and while it lasted, he used the place.'

The agent paused to take a sip, and experienced the comfort of the tea Hetty had made.

'The mission was simple: get in, get the girl and arrest Alfonse.'

'But it went wrong,' stated Hetty when Callen paused.

'Yes. The girl was a pawn, nothing more. Carpenter was after Alfonse and raised his gun to kill him. I understood when I saw it: it wasn't Alfonse we were after, it was Carpenter all along. When Alfonse snatched Carpenter's mistress, he thought he had Carpenter on his knees. But the girl was nothing to Carpenter. It gave him the ideal opportunity to put an end to Alfonse's involvement in the drugs business.'

Hetty nodded slowly and thoughtfully. 'Carpenter set it up?'

'Yeah. The girl was expendable,' said Callen disgusted. 'He only used her because she had been in Alfonse's company once or twice.'

'And?'

Callen paused for a second to get his mind around the events. 'We called out, told them to freeze, drop their weapons. As I said, Sam and I moved in from the right, Kensi and Deeks were approaching from the left. Alfonse suddenly pushed the girl forward, Carpenter fired and although aiming at Alfonse, hit her. And then suddenly the shit hit the fan. Two of Carpenter's men got out of the van and started shooting. Alfonse had men hiding in the shadows and they opened fire too. It was instant chaos… ugh-ugh-ugh...' Callen had to stop to cough. The filthy smoke he had inhaled was still painfully present in his lungs.

'Easy, Mr Callen,' said Hetty and waited patiently for the coughing fit to subside. 'Easy does it.'

'… ugh…. ugh… Carpenter made for the van. I saw Alfonse going down, hit by a gunshot from Carpenter. Alfonse had been carrying a briefcase and when he fell, it fell too and the next thing I knew there was an enormous blast that threw us off our feet. It must have been pressure-activated: when Alfonse let go of it, it blew up. Carpenter's driver hit the gas and sped towards us, but the van hit a couple of racks as it made its way for the loading doors.'

'Racks, Mr Callen?'

'Lots of them. Top to bottom filled with chemicals in jerrycans and tins and canisters and bottles. Deeks lunged aside to avoid the van. The racks toppled over like dominoes. Sam and I were returning fire, we were shot at from the van and Kensi was fighting off one of Alfonse's men. The explosion from the suitcase Alfonse had been holding had set the place on fire, so when Kensi knocked out her assailant, we made for the door. By that time the air had become nearly unbreathable. The fire combined with the chemicals that had fallen to the ground when the van hit the racks, rapidly caused dangerous fumes. We could only fall back.'

'And Carpenter and the van?'

'Crashed through the doors. Scraped the Mercedes that stood parked outside and although we fired, it got away. By then, we were so…ugh-ugh-ugh.. the fumes were……ugh-ugh-ugh..' Coughing, more coughing, Callen had the feeling he was choking. The tea cup fell over when he grabbed the table for support. Hetty stood up, walked toward the water cooler in the corner of her room and came back with a plastic cup. In her hand she held a little white pill.

'Take this, Mr Callen.'

'...ugh… wha...ugh… whadsha...ugh…' Callen managed to utter.

'Doctor's orders,' Hetty said with further explanation and Callen popped the pill. The cool water felt good in this throat. He closed his eyes for a second, wiping away the unwanted tears that blurred his vision once again.

On his back he felt a little hand. Warm. Caring.

'Easy does it, Mr Callen. Take your time.'

Callen drank the rest of the water. His chest heaved up and down, but after some time he nodded he was alright. The little hand on his back disappeared and Hetty sat herself down in her own chair again.

'Where was Miss Blye at that moment?'

'She came out a few seconds after us. Same as Sam and me, coughing, streaming eyes. Apart from that, she was alright.'

'And Mr Deeks?'

Callen rubbed his forehead before he answered in a soft, guilt-ridden voice: 'He was a no-show.'

(tbc)