Chapter Nine
Callen and Jess each took a deep breath, got out of the car and walked towards Sutton. Korianski frisked them lightly to be sure they weren't carrying, but didn't search any further than that. Jess couldn't remember ever having met Korianski at the Pentagon, but she was still relieved to see that he didn't seem to recognize her. She had fully vetted Sutton to be certain that they'd never come into contact with each other. But she hadn't done the same for Applewhite, Korianski or Baker, since they were stationed out of the country and considered non-entities as far as this operation was concerned.
They all shook hands and made basic introductions. It all seemed very amiable, with "Matty" and "Lissa" each registering the appropriate amount of shock at Sutton himself being at the rendezvous point. The three stood talking for a few moments, and then the discussion seemed to get a bit less friendly as Korianski started walking back towards Callen's car.
"Kensi … what are they saying?" Sam asked.
"I can't see it all, but it looks like Sutton is telling them to get in the SUV," Kensi said, reading lips. "Callen is arguing that that wasn't the plan, and Jess is saying something about the car. Sutton is saying that it will be fine where it is."
"Sutton's body language is totally non-threatening," Nate offered. "Callen and Jess appear on edge, but that's to be expected with the sudden change in plans."
Korianski reached into Callen's car and tossed Jess her bag.
"He's asking if they need anything else," Kensi continued.
Callen started to walk back to the car, but was called back by Sutton. There was a moment of indecision – a moment when Sam knew Callen was weighing the possibility of trying to grab Sutton right there.
"Don't do it, G," Sam said, under his breath. "Don't try it alone."
"He won't," assured Nate from the ops center. "Too risky. He could end up with Jess as a hostage, or both of them dead. There's no way to know who's hiding in the woods. He knows that."
"This was a bad plan," Sam said. "We needed more time."
"We had more time than we usually do," Kensi said, trying to help Sam see that this op was running no more or less smoothly than any other. "It's not the first time the bad guys have changed a plan at the last minute."
Sam knew she was right, but he still didn't like it.
The group watched as Callen turned, somewhat reluctantly, they thought, to rejoin Jess at the SUV. He and Jess both kind of shrugged at each other, and agreed to ride with Sutton. Callen turned to look back at his car, and cast a glance up to the forest-cam. Finally, the entire group got into Sutton's vehicle.
"We just lost tracking on Callen's car," Nate said, stating the obvious. Then, "Does he still have his keys?"
Eric punched up the tracker on the keychain. "Nope," Eric said. "Callen's moving; keys are standing still."
"OK," Kensi said, as the trio watched the SUV drive out of frame. "But Jess has her bag and her cellphone, and G's got a phone, right?"
"Yeah," Eric said, punching up more data. "But I'm not getting anything from either of them. Either Sutton's SUV is blocking the signal, or he's got their stuff and he's disabled it all."
"What about the mascara in Jess' make-up bag?" Kensi asked. That had been Hetty's 'something extra' – a tube of mascara that also held an emergency communications transmitter.
"Transmitting, but standing still," Eric said, with frustration. "Why would they toss the make-up?"
Hetty looked at the screens, clearly concerned. "And the tracking dots in their clothing?"
"They're transmitting," Eric said, "but it's spotty. The signal isn't strong."
"Well," Hetty said with a sigh. "I suppose that's better than nothing."
"And they didn't find the guns in the car," Nate added, "so the cover is still good."
The meeting had not gone at all as they'd hoped. Sutton had no reason to believe that Matty and Lissa would in any way double-cross him; maybe he was simply more paranoid than they'd anticipated. Or maybe there were more surprises on the way.
In Sutton's SUV, Jess and Callen sat in the back seat as Korianski rifled through Jess' bag. The politeness and good humor of the Sutton team upon first meeting had been replaced by a gruffness toward their two guests. Korianski pulled out Jess' cellphone and disabled the GPS, then asked for Callen's phone and did the same thing. He tossed Jess' car keys out the window along with a small bag of make-up.
"Really?" Jess said, with annoyance. "You think I'm hiding some high-tech recording device in my mascara?" The man looked back at her with a threatening expression on his face. "Fine," Jess said, crossing her arms and looking out the window. "But if we're all still together in the morning, you're going to wish I had that."
Callen smiled. "You will," he agreed, keeping his voice light. "She's scary without make-up."
Sutton chuckled. Korianski tossed the purse back to Jess and turned to face front. Jess looked at Callen as the SUV continued to drive into the woods. Callen gave her an encouraging smile and started running "what if…" scenarios in his head.
Back at base, the rest of the OSP team was playing the all too familiar waiting game.
Eric had kept the forest-cam focused on Callen's car, but no one had come to search it or move it. That seemed to be a good sign. No one was checking to be sure that Matty and Lissa Harper were who they said they were. The car had been backstopped as completely as Callen and Jess had, with the appropriate registration, service records, and glove compartment props. Even the trash in the back seat included the right types of receipts, ticket stubs, and post-it note messages to show that Matty and Lissa shared their car and drove it often. Hetty toyed with the idea of sending someone in to retrieve the vehicle – or, at the very least, remove the firearms – but decided against it. Just because they couldn't see anyone didn't mean no one was watching.
The team at the ops center and the team in the field could do nothing more as they waited for Sutton's vehicle to emerge from the Forest at the north entrance. It was about a 45-minute drive through the forest using the route Sutton appeared to be on, but that meant no stops, no deviations. They hadn't expected Sutton to be there, so it was possible that he'd decided to do the deal in the forest, under the cover of the trees. If that were the case, they would have to wait for Callen and Jess to be taken back to their car, where the support teams could nab them as they left. Provided, of course, that Sutton made the return trip.
Eric was still getting intermittent signals from the tracking devices in Callen's clothing, but nothing they could bank on for pinning down an exact location.
"They're all over the place," Eric said, watching the tracking map.
When the clock hit the 90-min mark, it was clear that the operation had changed significantly. "They should have been out by now," Sam said. "On their way to the Pearblossom buildings. Something's wrong."
Hetty, reluctantly, had to agree. She directed one of the back-up units to move from their location to the north entrance to cover, just in case Sutton re-emerged. Then she ordered Sam and Kensi to return. Sam refused, preferring to stay closer to the last place they'd seen Callen.
"You're needed back at base, Sam," Hetty said, against his objections. "Without eyes or ears on Mr. Callen, you are now team leader."
Sam and Kensi exchanged a glance as Sam started the SUV and headed for home as Hetty completed the thought.
"And it would appear that we need a back-up plan, and quickly."