Here's another chapter. Enjoy. Got about another four chapters to go and an epilogue.
As the four of them reconvened back at ops the next morning, Callen started with a briefing on what he and Sam thought of the owners. "Lennon seemed a little too interested in getting us to have that party with him."
Sam handed Callen his usual bacon breakfast as he continued. "Especially when we mentioned that we were from Pendleton."
"What about Luke?" Kensi asked as she put her stuff down and opened her breakfast burrito.
"Unlike his brother, he was more concerned about telling us what they could provide in terms of entertainment." Sam continued, looking irritated at both Callen and Kensi's breakfast choices. "Of the two, I'd be more inclined to look into the older brother, Lennon."
Callen nodded his agreement around a mouthful of bacon and scrambled eggs. After swallowing, he turned to Kensi and asked what she found out.
"May started there about six weeks ago. She keeps to herself mostly, but she did mention to one of the others that she has a mother back in Canada. Dad is from Sydney, died when she was a kid, finished school there before returning to her mother in Canada when she got sick." Kensi managed to speak around her burrito, causing another glare from Sam. "One of the others mentioned that she could have come from Lennon's club there because she knew her way around."
"What makes them think that?" Sam asked after swallowing his mouthful.
"It might be because all of their clubs have the same layout, land size and permits permitting." Nell said as she joined them. She smiled as Callen gave her a second box hiding under his.
"What's that?" Eric asked, standing beside her as she lifted the lid.
"An omelette on bacon." She answered.
"Really G?" Sam asked, his eyebrows rising. "That's who you got that for?"
Nell sighed as she opened the lid and steam rose from it. Inside, Eric could see scrambled eggs sitting on several pieces of bacon, arranged to look like a plate. It was covered in cheese and sauce. Eric grimaced and backed away, taking a container from Deeks.
"This is more my style." The others looked on as he unwrapped it and revealed a normal looking burrito. "Poached egg, lettuce, tomato, cottage cheese and those little spade shaped leaves." His face was pulled into his thinking face as he tried to remember.
"Spinach?" Sam supplied. The team chuckled as Eric's face lit up and nodded before he tucked into his wrap.
"Deeks, that is totally not the type of thing I would have thought you would buy, being something completely normal." Callen said as he finished he meal, wiping his hands on the napkin and tossing it and the container into the bin next to him.
"Who said I bought it." Deeks replied, biting into another one.
While the others finished, Callen took the tablet from Eric and looked at the layout of the other clubs.
"It's what makes their clubs different. They have set them up like a retail chain, with the same layout in every store. When they bought 'Bounce', they guttered it and changed the layout to match the others. Might have to look into how they managed to get it done in six weeks." Nell spoke up as she leaned over Callen's shoulder and pointed everything out.
"Kickbacks to cut corners?" At her nod her continued. "We'll inform the building inspectors. That could be why the others think she came from one of his other places." Callen said. "Any word back from your queries?"
"As soon as I'm finished here, I'm headed up to see." She held up the last of her breakfast.
Callen nodded and turned his attention to Deeks. "Anything from your stinky CI?"
Deeks pulled a face as he finished his breakfast, ten-pointing the wrapper into Callen's wastebasket from the edge of Sam's desk. "Yeah." He wiped his hands on a napkin and pulled out some pages he printed off at the station before he headed home that night. "He literally bumped into some of them. He's a former army ranger and spent some time in Afghanistan after the invasion. And before you ask, no I don't know his real name. He told me when he became my CI." He saw Sam about to ask if he knew the guy's name. "He learnt enough Arabic to get the job done, and I guess it stuck."
Deeks went on to tell then that 'Ranger' had been doing his weekly rounds of collecting bottles to take to the recycling facility when he turned a corner and crashed into a man. After apologising to him and helping him stand, he noticed a smell that he hadn't come across since his time in the army; a mix of diesel fuel and ammonium with a hint of gunpowder. He pretended to continue on his way until the man and his companion turned a corner then followed them.
"They're holed up in a disused car shop. Ranger said it looked like they had been there a while. He spotted enough parts to build a bomb big enough to level a block." He handed out some of the sheets he had printed off. "He's a decent artist and managed to draw a couple of faces for us. I ran them through FRS and came up with these names."
He handed out more paper. These were colour photographs that matched the drawings pretty closely. Moreover, the names matched some mentioned in the SSgt's notes.
"There's a half dozen that he could see. He didn't want to risk hanging around any longer so he went off in search of a patrol car that could arrest him when he tried to break into a car. He did these for me while telling me everything." He waved at the pictures he had handed out.
"He see anything that could point to a target? Anything that indicates that they are aware that the SSgt is onto them?" Callen said as he sifted through the information that Deeks had gathered together the night before. While the man maintained that his hair was 'styled by pillow' and continuously tried to bring 'healthy' foods for the rest of them to try, he knew how to mine for information. It must had taken several hours for him to put this together, meaning he most likely crashed at the station, rather than go home the night before – Callen thought.
"Not from what he was able to see, he didn't want to linger and have them get suspicious." Deeks shook his head as he retook his seat.
Callen looked through the information one last time before closing the file. "OK. How long would it take for you to get into your homeless clothes?" He ignored the groan that emitted from their partners. While the outside of the jacket smelled like a bin, the inside was surprisingly clean, something he had noticed when he wore it several years ago. The smell coming from the outside more than masked the cleanliness hidden inside; hence why Deeks had been annoyed at Callen wearing it. After a while, and Callen kept the secret of the clean inside, Deeks had forgiven him.
"Seeing as I've already shaved this morning, tomorrow." Deeks perked up at wearing one of his favourite jackets, undercover or not. His face crumpled a moment later as a thought popped into his head because of an early night; "That means I miss the strippers again, no fair Callen."
Callen chuckled at the man's grumbling, "We're not going back in, not until this May person shows up again. Deeks, I want you and Kensi head over and set up surveillance this evening, if she shows, see if you can get her to go with you Kens."
"Mr Callen, we've had some activity on the names we set up for you and Mr Hannah." Hetty said as she came over to join her lead team. "It seems that someone has taken an interest in the two of you."
"Don't you mean Lt Makepeace and Sgt Reeds?" Callen smirked at her.
"What sort of activity?" Sam asked, breaking their attention before Hetty could respond to his remark, which would then lead to several comments from both.
"The wrong kind. It seems they've been looking into their bank accounts and partnership status. As you know, Mr Hannah, we've set Sgt Reeds up as a respectful marine, recently engaged to your high school sweetheart; hence the reason for asking about the bachelor party package. Raising two children, one of whom is the daughter to another woman."
"Close enough to the truth, while at the same time, making it look like they won't be able to get him to keep anything from his fiancé." Sam answered. "Since she knows about the other woman, he'll be more inclined to tell her of anything that may or may not happen."
"Precisely."
"While his best friend, Lt Makepeace, has a secret back account and a hidden mistress in San Francisco." Callen leaned forward "What have they done with the information once they found out that we're part of the intelligence branch at Pendleton?"
"Nell?" Hetty turned to her young protégé as she returned from gathering her and Eric's tablets from the ops room.
Nell slid what she had onto the screen behind Sam and Deeks as she spoke. "Well, they seemed to mine what they could publicly about your covers then they posted a summary on what looks like a site for blackmail information. They also stated that they have been successful on getting even more from previous targets with them being none the wiser."
"By using Stalemate." Sam concluded.
"Right. Now from what we can tell, one of the names that Deeks found out matches with one of the names that looked at the information." Eric brought up footage from an internet café. "Now who ever that was also contacted a number of other people using the same computer. Whatever group they were a part of, never got around to teaching them the importance of never using the same computer."
A few taps on his screen and he had over a dozen people on the tv. "These are the people he contacted. The owner of the café noticed unusual activity on the computer whenever this guy showed up, so he kept a record of everything done on it. When we contacted him to see if he had anything, he handed it over."
"We've managed to find the majority of these men, however, there are still five or six that we've had no luck tracking." Nell highlighted the men as she read out their names and what their suspected rank was. The team could see that the ones that Ranger had laid eyes on were the ones missing.
"Tash's notes might be able to help with that. He might also be able to give us something that isn't in the notes. Sam." He nodded to Kensi and Deeks to get started on the notes while he and Sam headed to the hospital.
Throughout the day, word trickled in as each member of the group was found and put under surveillance until the only the ringleaders were left. Not wanting to tip them off, no one was getting arrested until Deeks was under and able to confirm their whereabouts.
The day passed slowly as the team looked through the notes and information and sent LAPD officers, NCIS and a couple of FBI agents to places indicated within them.
Late afternoon arrived, sending Kensi and Deeks to the club. Deeks didn't even start up the license plate game, which showed how deep in thought he was.
"You ok?" Kensi asked when he didn't make a comment on the women starting to trickle into the club to start the night shift.
"Yeah, just thinking about the area the repair shop is in."
Kensi nodded and settled back into her seat, knowing how focused her partner got when he was about to go undercover.
They were there for about two hours when May showed up. Unfortunately, Blue was at the door, and without knowing who was in on the drugging, there was no way Callen was going to let Kensi into the club alone. So they settled for plan B, which was to wait until May finished for the night.
