A/N: Once again thank you for the continued support of reading the story, never fails to bring a smile to my face to see the numbers increase!

If you do have any questions regarding, well, anything please feel free to ask away, and I will attempt to answer them in the 'A/N' either at the bottom of this chapter or start of the next.


Chapter 7: The Facilitators

Los Angeles traffic is bad, but as the two agents rediscovered, late afternoon Los Angeles traffic is abysmally horrible. Sitting in the black car, they were extremely grateful that the air-conditioning worked as intended, otherwise this bumper to bumper traffic would have been even more unbearable than what it currently was.

Finally arriving at the boatshed after a drive that had taken them more than twice as long than it had on the drive out to Malibu in the first place. Callen led the assailant into the building closely followed by Sam, making sure the man would comply and not make any dangerous, or in their minds stupid, moves. Closing the door to the interrogation room, they had just placed the man in, the two agents gathered in front of the small screen connected to OPS to see if there are any updates in regards to the identity of the apprehended.

The screen turned on and connected them with Eric and Nell and in front of them were their operations manager.

"Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna, good work ensuring Mr. Deeks' safety. How is he?" She asked, knowing her staff in OPS had been worried about his wellbeing.

"He was pretty beat up, but nothing life threatening." Sam explained, quickly adding the last part to assure the team from OPS that he would be all right.

"Kensi went with him to the hospital to make sure everything's okay." The team leader chimed in.

"I see." Hetty responded, "And our mystery man?"

"Hasn't said a word yet. We wanted to see if you guys had anything for us before starting the interrogation." The team leader explained, the question in his statement triggered with Eric who started explaining.

"Nothing new off the facial rec, sorry guys." He stated before continuing, "But we did check the calls on the phone you texted us from." Stopping briefly to let Nell take over the explanation, knowing she had done the check on the numbers.

"There were several calls made between the phone your guy had and Mitchell and Hanson." Confirming what they had already known, she continued. "There are also several other calls made from the phone, but all to other untraceable phones." Not sure if the information would help currently, but at least it let them know that he had used the mobile device to contact others than just the two employees at Minerva Precisions.

"Very well. Gentlemen, I'm afraid we don't have anything to aid you as of right now. Mr. Beale and Ms. Jones will contact you once they have any new information." With that, the connection between OPS and the boatshed was ended.

The two agents knew what Hetty had meant in her statement, that they did not have any advantage over the man currently sitting waiting in the interrogation room they could now see on the monitor once again. Studying the screen, they could see the heavy built man sitting down in the chair provided, his whole posture exuded confidence as if he owned the room he was in and certainly not worried about being on the wrong side of the law.

After having spent almost an hour interrogating the man, or at least attempting to, it was made clear that such a thing would not happen. The unidentified perpetrator had clearly received training in counter interrogation techniques, his constant tapping in varying rhythms to throw them off, not making any eye contact at all, and of course his complete silence. No words at all, no request for a lawyer, no responses to any questions, nothing.

Walking out of the room to take a break from the lack of success from inside it. The ex-SEAL was clearly frustrated with the lack of progress, he was used to having his physique working as an intimidation factor, and if that did not work he and his partner would have an entire arsenal of different other approaches to the interrogation. All of the ones they had tried had been completely stonewalled by the individual, who refused to even acknowledge the agents presence in the room.

Thwarted from making any progress inside the interrogation room bigger agent went outside to grab some air to clear his head. He came back a few minutes later with coffee for both of them in his hands, passing his partner one. Callen turned to the screen and once more connected them to OPS hoping they had had more success than he and Sam had. Hopeful that they would have some information that would bring them closer to figuring out who the people behind the attempted purchase of Navy secrets was.

...

Upstairs in the old Spanish Mission, the technical operator and intelligence analyst had been working and typing away, concentrating fully on the task at hand, attempting to unveil anything useful from the phone they had gotten off the suspect while the facial recognition software was running in the background.

A beeping interrupted the sounds of the constant keystrokes, signaling the software attempting to identify the man had found a match. The two quickly looked at each other, a sudden positive energy between them at the fact they finally had some advancement in the case.

Looking at the picture of a man now on the screens in front of them, and then comparing it to the picture Callen had taken and sent of the man, it was clear that it was a match and no software errors had occurred. Thankful for that fact the two started reading the information in the file attached to the picture. Making sure to reread it at least once to ensure there would be no mistakes when relaying the information to the rest of the team.

After finishing reading it for the second time, but still processing the information, Eric broke the silence, "We should probably call the guys and tell them about this." Stating the obvious, his voice uneasy from the data they now had of the man.

"That is probably a good idea," Nell replied, using the same uneasy tone that her partner just had. "You call them and I'll go inform Hetty." Knowing that Eric would prefer informing the team seeing as being around Hetty seemed to make him uncomfortable, as he had once, after a few drinks, told her that it was not because he was afraid or concerned around her, he just did not want to disappoint her with lacking information. Nell had accepted that since she had no problems informing their boss, so it all worked out.

Nell made her way downstairs to inform Hetty of the new information they had gotten. As the automatic door closed behind her, Eric was about to call Callen's phone when a call request came from the boatshed.

"Hey Callen, great timing! I was just about to call you." Eric chirped at the agent he saw on the screen.

"I'm guessing you have something for us then Eric?" Callen asked hopeful of a potential briefing.

"Yeah. We just got a hit on face rec of the guy you caught." Eric explained as he pulled off some of his computing wizardry to pull up the photo of the man in question before continuing. "Bazin Aleskeevich, Russian citizen. He is wanted by Interpol for murder, kidnapping, armed robberies, solicitation along with a whole number of lesser charges as well."

Nell having come back from briefing Hetty returned alongside Hetty. She took over and continued to explain, "He is connected to a group known as 'The Facilitators'. A highly trained Eastern European group who works for the highest bidder. It was formed by former KGB members and otherwise it is primarily ex-special forces. They have been connected to several terrorist groups and crime syndicates all over the world, though primarily working for groups out of Eastern Europe."

Silence filled the two rooms as the group took in all the new information they had just received. Somewhere at the start of the briefing Kensi had joined her two fellow agents in the boatshed.

It was Callen who spoke up the first, verbalizing where the newfound knowledge left them in regards to the case at hand. "So we don't actually know who was after the information. Just who tried to get it."

A sour look on Sam's face before continuing the team leader's train of thought, "Which means they might try and get it again. And we're no closer to finding out who or why."

"It would appear as such, Mr. Hanna. However, for now we have stopped the potential bleeding of classified intelligence." The operations manager assured her team, then getting back to business, commandeering her troops, "Ms. Jones, Mr. Beale, would you share this information with the appropriate sources in Interpol? Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna, would you try to use this new information to see if we can get our Mr. Aleskeevich to talk? Ms. Blye would you go back to Minerva Precisions to brief the head of security on status quo? I have a few calls I need to make."

Although all three requests were stated as questions, the team had worked with their operations manager for long enough to know that they were orders in disguise. As such, the team confirmed what Hetty had asked them to do, and they split up once again.

The duo stationed in OPS started at the task at hand, Sam and Callen started talking over how to approach the interrogation, and Kensi made her exit from the boatshed just as quickly as she had her entry.

...

It had been several hours since the team last had met up and discussed how to further approach the situation regarding the case. Nell and Eric had informed Interpol that they had apprehended the wanted man, and were awaiting response, which should be soon since it was in the middle of the night in LA, and the time zone difference would make it midday in Lyon, where Interpol's headquarters are located.

Callen and Sam had attempted to use the information they had to get Aleskeevich to talk, but they had just as much success on their second attempt at an interrogation as they had on their first. The only reaction they had gotten out of him was when they said his name aloud, but only for a few seconds, until his mastered poker face was printed on his face once again.

Kensi had been able to talk with the head of security at Minerva Precisions, even though it was past midnight when she had arrived. The man was still around ensuring all the security protocols were as they should be and that nothing else seemed to be in danger of being leaked.

The three agents were now all sitting at their desks back at OSP. Kensi had picked up coffee for them all seeing, as they would need some caffeine in order to work through the night and still be concentrated. Normally working on an operation through the night would not require such, but considering there was not a lot of things to do since they had no tangible leads, coffee was a necessity.

The silence was broken by the sudden appearance of their operations manager. "I have spoken to our friends in The Agency." The agents only slightly startled by the unexpected sound, since they were somewhat used to the stealthy approach of Hetty as she continued, "They will be taking Mr. Aleskeevich into custody, and we will close this case on our end."

Kensi was about to protest, after all it was navy secrets the case had contained, but as she opened her mouth, she was silenced by Hetty raising her hand, "I understand, Ms. Blye, but this is not up for discussion. The orders came from above and I can guarantee you that whatever the CIA has on him will be worse than the attempted theft of classified information."

"And the attack on Marty." Kensi quickly cut in, unsure why she felt the need to make sure they remembered that part, but the lawyer had after all had quite the effect on the female agent.

"That too, dear." Hetty righted, "It is late, and seeing how the case is over from our end I suggest that you all go home and get some rest. I don't expect to see any of you before noon." After the operation manager said her 'suggestion', she turned away from the bullpen and made her way back to her office, probably to continue whatever phone calls she had to attend.

The three agents collectively looked a bit deflated over the fact that they would not be continuing the investigation, their pride always hurt after being taken off a case even though they knew that it had nothing to do with them, but rather jurisdiction or orders way above their paygrade.

Still in a sour mood over being swept aside by the bigger agency, the team started to pack up their things. "I guess we'll see each other later today," the team leader tried to lighten the mood. Sam and Kensi nodded and both said their farewell. Soon after the Spanish Mission was, once again, empty barring the usual skeleton crew that worked nights and of course Hetty.