-10-
The four of them gathered around the screen, listening to what the tech had to say and had to show.
"Eric, talk us in. What do you have?"
"Found you a ship. Found you a car and found you four people".
"It is called a yacht. Not a ship" Deeks interrupted. "You're used to your surfboard, but not all the other things on the water are called ship. These were yachts".
"Shut up Deeks" Kensi said. "Eric, please go on".
Eric scraped his throat and continued. "There were only some yachts occupied yesterday afternoon. We don't have clear vids, but what we have is four people walking to the ship, yacht, that you said is the Angely. Two of them seem to be forced, the other two—"
"No way!" Sam intervened, pointing at the screen. "See that? That's G, no doubt. He should be together with this one, Alec, to be the one to lead the other guy and the woman to the yacht. What happened?"
"Dunno, going to find out. But found you a car too", Eric said. "On the large parking near the boatshed". He enlarged the number plate on a grey Lexus. "Kaleidoscope tracked it by the way. It has been parked for the last four days in 'ta-da': the parking belonging to Wilshire Boulevard. Indeed".
"And it belongs to?" Jesper wanted to know.
"The boy asks the right questions," Eric said. "The Lexus belongs to Dmitri Vayavich. The boss himself".
"Eric, are there any more streams of what happened during the last 24 hours?"
It was Hetty who answered Sam's last question. "Yes, we have more footage. I suggest you all come back in here. Immediately. There's more than watching video materials only".
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"What do you mean, she won't bother us for the time being?" Callen looked up from his coffee.
Alec just told him that for the next couple of hours, perhaps until they would be sailing to the place where Dmitri would have them picked up, Chris Young would not bother them.
"Did you really think I want to spend the rest of the day and perhaps the night with her, acting like that?" his companion asked. "Let's just put it this way: there was just a bit more of a mix in her cup of coffee. Not only caffeine, you know."
"Mix what? With coffee?"
"G-riffick. You know. Just a bit more than usual, because of the effects of the caffeine" Alec said.
Callen got worried. GHB was dangerous enough in whatever combination. The fact that Alec added 'more than usual' might have the wrong side effects, especially since she had probably hardly had eaten anything. "How much, Alec?"
"Four pure grams should do the trick".
"Dammit. It could be far too much. She could be out for hours, if not worse. Have you thought how Dmitri will act when we deliver her comatosely?"
He felt the urge to rush to Chris, but managed to keep calm. "I'm going to check on her now. Be sure that when anything is wrong, it's all up to you to explain to Dmitri."
Dressed only in a black shirt and knickers, she sat on the ground, her back leaning to the door of the tiny bathroom, watching him come in. He noticed the narrowed pupils in her navy blue eyes, a sign that the drugs were working already.
"Chris, come, you should lay down."
"Don't feel well" was all she said, slightly slurring.
Callen managed to help her to get up, using only his right arm, and lead her toward the bed. Once she was in there, she nestled her head against his right shoulder, mumbling something in her own language.
All too often, he had met women who seemed to be interested in him as if he was something cute they could claim, buy or own. Kensi once told him it was because of his good looks. He had to use that 'quality' for his job too, which sometimes made him feel dirty and used. It was something he could discuss only with Kensi as she had to work like that even more often, all for the good cause. Callen wasn't interested in women who were acting like crazy fan girls. There were some great nights with nice girls, if he wanted it like that. True, he met beautiful women too.
But he had trouble with relationships in general, with trusting other people. For the time being, it was so much easier living the solitary life he was used to. Finding the right girl at the right moment was not really on his mind.
But now he fancied this special woman who distrusted him more than he wished. Chris Young - who fascinated him, not only because she looked good, but because he was interested in the person behind the good looks. And it was Chris Young who now lied sensually snuggled against his body. Though he knew all too well it was a side effect of the drugs, Callen was surprised how good it felt to hold her like this, her warm and well-shaped body against his.
She smelled fresh and vaguely like flowers and now that she was not wearing her hair in a braid anymore, her long curls were everywhere.
Seeing she had to fight the desire to sleep, it was the right time to talk to her. "I am going to get you out of here, Chris. That's my job. I'm in here to catch the bad guys, but I don't belong to them," Callen whispered as he did not want Alec to be able to overhear. He knew she heard him and hoped she still understood what he just said.
He carefully got up and covered her body with one of the throws. Then he brushed one of the long curls off her forehead. She slowly stretched and moaned softly. Looking at her, completely relaxed as she was, he thought she looked gorgeous now she slept.
As pretty as an angel.
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"What do you think Hetty meant when she said there was more to look at?" Deeks asked as they headed back to the OSP headquarters. "I mean, we could see all Eric showed us in the boatshed".
"It must be something else than, but I can't think of something she did not want us to see in there," his partner answered.
The two of them arrived just before Sam and Jesper did. Heading to the bullpen, it surprised them Hetty was the one on the small platform, using a simple referee whistle to catch their attention. "Your presence is required in here, lady and gentlemen!" their tiny office manager said.
The four of them trotted upstairs to the domain of the NCIS technical operator and intelligence analyst.
"Go on" Hetty shooed them.
"What did you mean when you said there was more than vids only Hetty?" Sam wanted to know.
"All of you are focusing far too much of what happened in the marina. For heaven's sake, there is so much more going on."
Nell and Eric looked nearly guilty. "We did find out where Callen is right now Hetty. Or at least, where we think he is". A slight smile appeared on Hetty's face. "Ah, that IS good news Miss Jones. Share with us, would you please?"
Although it was dim and the camera was far away, they all could see a woman walking on the pier, obviously disturbed by somebody who came from the opposite direction. They could see the gesturing, then the man dropped a bag with groceries. Beyond the sight of the camera something must have happened, and only minutes later, there suddenly were three persons who went back to the yacht. Forwarding the camera's feed, it was almost one hour later they saw two men walked toward the main pier. Again, unseen what happened, only one of them returned.
"We made some calls. The harbormaster told us there is one yacht missing on pier 3 right now, the 'Dolpin Hunter', which left late last night and hasn't returned yet.
Before anyone could react to that, Hetty spoke. "There's one minute left before director Vance will be on screen, sharing the intel of the most recent meeting of all the agencies. Focus on that first".
Thank you for reading!