Sorry for the delay in getting the next chapter uploaded! I've struggled with this and the next chapter, and I'm still not sure I'm entirely happy - but maybe I'll never be, and the story had to get moving somehow!

The good news is I have pretty much finished the whole thing, so I'l get each chapter uploaded much quicker now.


CHAPTER TWO

*TWO DAYS EARLIER*

"You sleep here again or something?" Sam teased his partner, who was already sitting at his desk, laptop open and a mug of tea in progress. "I thought I was early today."

"I had a couple of things to finish off," Callen replied, gesturing to his laptop. "Some of us have more paperwork to deal with than others."

"Some of us leave it to the last minute, more like," Sam shot back.

"I can only work on what's passed up to me," Callen grumbled, looking pointedly at the pile on Deeks' desk. "I bet half of what I need is buried in that pile our charming liaison calls a filing system!"

"Speak of the devil," Sam muttered mischievously under his breath to Callen, seeing Deeks arrive. Callen smirked, leaning back in his chair as he so often did, watching the others interact.

"Our charming who what now?" Deeks enquired, the usual gaiety in his manner, setting his bag down carefully on his desk to avoid toppling over the piles of paper lining the edge.

"Who's charming?" Kensi said, a step behind, takeaway coffee in hand. "Wait, Deeks isn't flirting again is he?"

"You know, talking of charming…." Deeks began, and the other three groaned in unison.

They were interrupted by a whistle from Eric. "Got a case, guys," he called, disappearing back into his eyrie.

"I guess now you'll never know," Deeks joked.

"Who says we want to?" Kensi teased playfully as the team obediently trooped up the stairs and through the big doors into Ops.

"What have we got, Eric?" asked Sam, leaning against the central table, flanked by Callen on one side, and Kensi and Deeks on the other.

"Lieutenant Colonel James Briggs was badly injured earlier this morning, opening a parcel in his own home." Eric said, flashing crime scene photos up onto the big screen. "These are from Forensics and LAPD, who have secured the scene, but because of Briggs' military rank, and the contents of the parcel, it's been handed straight up to us."

"What was in the parcel?" Kensi asked incredulously.

"Some sort of weapons grade powder, by the looks of things," Eric replied. "When Briggs opened the package, it poofed up into his face! He's got bad chemical burns and there's a good chance he'll be permanently blind." The four agents looked at each other, serious expressions as they began to process the possible scenarios and implications.

"Charrrrming," Deeks drawled, with a sideways look at Callen and Sam which earned him a nudge from Kensi. "Where the hell was the parcel from?"

"That's the worrying thing," Nell piped up. "The outer packaging of the parcel indicated it was from a major online retailer, Xingu, who ship direct from various automated warehouses on a daily basis. Our initial look into his bank account shows that he was a regular customer with the company, but his expected recent order was for a computer game. And there's nothing to suggest Lt Col Briggs was a specific target, he has an impeccable service history to date, with no controversial missions on his file."

"A computer game?" Sam echoed, eyebrows raised.

"Yes. He has a 12 year old son. Most of what he buys appears to be computer games and related tech."

"So, how did a genuine internet order for a computer game end up being delivered as a chemical weapon?" Callen mused rhetorically.

"That is indeed the question, Mr Callen," said Hetty, entering Ops in her usual stealth-like manner. "One I hope you will soon be able to answer. The MD of Xingu, a Mrs Jorgensen, is waiting for you at the boat shed. Take Ms Jones. Mrs Jorgensen will explain how their system works, and answer any questions you have. As soon as HazMat have any further details on the powder, it will be forwarded on to you all." Callen nodded, and turned to Kensi.

"Okay. Kens, why don't you and Prince Charming here go and visit Mrs Briggs and her son at the marine hospital."


"Well that wasn't exactly helpful," Callen sighed as they all got back into the Challenger. "What do you think Nell?"

"I would certainly agree that their system has been hacked," Nell responded confidently. "Eric and I will start looking into it. But why? What's the point? We've already established LtCol Briggs is unlikely to be the victim of a targeted attack. Why would anyone go to all the trouble to hack into a massive corporation like that, just to send him some weaponised powder?"

"Unless…." Callen considered slowly.

"Unless what, G?" Sam prodded.

"What if this genuinely was an unfortunate accident as far as Briggs was concerned?" Callen continued. "Has anyone with a similar address ordered through the Xingu website recently? It could simply be that the package was delivered to the wrong address."

"That still doesn't explain why military grade weaponised powder is being sent via courier from an online retail company," Sam muttered. "Or where the powder came from. Eric hasn't found any reports of any missing or stolen."

"No," Callen agreed. "That's a problem, agreed. But if we can find out who the package was intended for, we might get closer to working out who sent it, and where it came from."

"If it is military, then someone is on the bad guys' payroll," Sam said. "That stuff isn't exactly easy to steal, and it should all be accounted for."

"Let's see what Nell and Eric can dig up regarding any other customers, and start from there," Callen said as they pulled up outside the Mission and entered the secret old building, separating off to their respective domains to follow the leads they had so far. Callen crossed the hall to update Hetty, not that they had much to brief her with currently, and she quickly dismissed him back to his work.

Before long, the silence was broken as Eric clattered down the stairs and into the bullpen, closely followed by Nell. "We've got something!"

"A Mr John Bates was on the delivery list for the same courier, also an order from Xingu, and his address is only two digits different from LtCol Briggs – 3103 Lakeside, and 3130 Lakeside, look." Nell said, flashing two order confirmations side by side on the screen for Callen and Sam to see.

"But get this," Eric leapt in. "Mr Bates was NOT the one who placed the order. It was placed from a different IP address, who we've traced back to a Mr Peter Henderson."

"We can't find a link between the two men yet," Nell pre-empted Callen's next question. "There doesn't appear to be any family relationship or connection, no birthday or anniversary, nothing to explain why Henderson would buy something but have it shipped to Bates. However, Mr Henderson is certainly interesting."

"Interesting how?" Callen asked.

"He is a former marine," Eric said triumphantly. "AND he has a dishonourable discharge. From what we can see, he used to work in a stock control capacity within the weapons store at Camp Pendleton, and, well, let's just say that quantities of weapons and ammo in the store weren't as expected after he was discharged."

"You think he could have stolen the powder?" Sam asked. "And stored it, for how long? Why? What for?"

"We can't answer the why," Nell said, "but certainly, he had the opportunity to steal the powder, and ammunition too. He was discharged nine months ago. The powder would store perfectly safely in certain conditions. Perhaps he was planning to sell it?"

"You'd make a hell of a bomb with that powder," Callen said thoughtfully.

"Absolutely," Nell agreed. "An explosion of the powder itself would do minimal damage, but the lingering effects of the powder in the air would be colossal in a populated area. Direct contact with skin or eyes would burn, and depending on the detonator used, if it ignites from the explosion the fumes are highly toxic." She paused. "It's also interesting how the order for Bates was processed. Someone – Henderson? – definitely hacked into Xingu's retail system. The system and warehouse are semi-automated, using individual product order codes to pick the items and send them out to the couriers. Bates' order has a code, but no product description, and the code does not match any of the product codes in the list supplied to us by Mrs Jorgensen. So we don't actually know what Bates' order was supposed to be, only that it turned up as the powder, somehow."

"Okay," Callen said. "So we have a dirty ex-marine, who has managed to steal some weaponised powder, and we're assuming some ammunition as well? What about explosives?" Nell shook her head negatively.

"Unconfirmed," she said. "But doubtful. Explosives and detonators would have been much harder to steal, they're very stringently accounted for."

"So should the powder and ammo be," Sam said stonily, disliking the possibility of a traitorous marine.

"Henderson steals the powder and ammo," Callen continued. "To what end, we're not exactly sure. Not to build a bomb himself, if he hasn't got detonators and explosives, so maybe as a middle man to sell on the black market. Find out if he has any connections to known terrorist groups…" he turned to Nell and she nodded. "He somehow arranges for a parcel containing the powder to be delivered via Xingu's courier to Bates, but the courier makes a mistake and it is delivered to Briggs instead – who opens the package because he is legitimately expecting a parcel from Xingu. What caused it to 'poof', as Eric so 'charmingly' put it?" Callen winked at Sam who rolled his eyes.

Eric looked embarrassed, but answered, "It would appear the powder was highly condensed and very tightly packed. It would be wrong to say it 'exploded', but when LtCol Briggs opened the package, which, by the way, was shaped and sized as a computer game case, it blew out into his face."

"Nasty," Callen commented.

"Very nasty," echoed Sam.

"Fill in Kensi and Deeks, Eric. Can we locate Henderson, Nell?" Callen asked. "I think Sam and I need to bring him in for a little chat."