Sam unlocks the back door and drags Khalid out of the car. "What did you say to Molina?"

Khalid looks at Sam smuggly.

Sam slams him against the car, "What did you tell him?"

"I told him the bitch is DEA."

Talia pushes by Sam and punches Khalid in the face. Sam grabs her by the arm and holds her back from Khalid. She pulls her arm away from Sam, "I'm okay."

Khalid licks the corner of his mouth where he tastes blood. His eyes harden.

Sam throws Khalid back in the SUV and slams the door. He looks over at Talia, "Let's go."

SEVERAL HOURS LATER - SAFE HOUSE – MEXICO

Callen, the nonsleeper, wakes up first and makes a pot of coffee. Slowly everyone else gets up and makes their way into the kitchen for some much needed caffeine. They each make their way to the table and sit quietly, no one willing to break the silence. A few minutes later there's a soft rap at the door. Everyone, except for Eric, goes for their gun. Callen motions for Eric to get to the back room. There's no asking him twice, Eric, crouching, quickly goes to the last bed room in the safe house.

Eva looks over at Deeks. He nods his head in the direction of the door. She moves slowly to the edge of the door. "Who's there?"

Almost in a whisper, "It's Fern."

Eva looks puzzled, but Deeks and Callen jump up from their positions and put their guns away.

Deeks barely contains his excitement, "It's Kensi!" Eric, hearing Deeks from the back room, comes out from his hiding place.

Eva looks through the peep hole and indeed it is Kensi. "It looks like she brought some company." She opens the door. In walks Kensi, Sam, and Talia. Each looking worn out.

Kensi looks at Deeks and over at Eric, and smiles, "I didn't think blondes tanned."

Deeks gives her a small grin, "I missed you, too."

Eric interjects, "Some of us do." She nods her head in acknowledgement.

Callen walks over to Sam, "That was close."

Sam agrees, "Too close." and squeezes Callen's shoulder.

Callen quickly changes the subject, "How's Chad?"

Kensi helps herself to the fresh coffee, "He'll be alright."

Deeks concerned, "How many did he take?"

Kensi, "Two, one to his arm and the other one pierced his neck." She points to the side of her neck to indicate where Chad got shot. "The neck wound was the scary one." Both Callen and Deeks nod in agreement remembering when they each got shot.

Callen, "Well, we're all glad he's going to make it."

"Yeah, me too."

"What about Khalid?"

Sam with a large smile on his face, "Hetty has arranged for him to be transported to NCIS in LA."

Callen returns the smile, "Good, I'm looking forward to meeting him."

"I'll be happy to introduce you."

"I can't wait."

Deeks walks over to Kensi, concern in his voice, "You look tired."

Sam answers for her, "Between getting Khalid into custody and staying with Chad while he was in emergency surgery we didn't get much sleep."

Talia stands to the side watching the interaction between the partners and the team, "I hate to break up the warm and fuzzies, but I need to get back to Molina before he starts wondering where I am."

Everyone turns to Talia. Deeks jumps in, "Talia," gestures to Eva, "this is Eva Espinoza, Police Chief, Loreto, Mexico. Eva this is Talia del Campo, DEA."

The two women look each other over.

Talia, all business, "Nice to meet you." She walks over to the coffee pot, pours herself a cup, walks over to the table, and falls into a chair. She reaches into her pocket, pulls out four earwigs and puts them on the table. She takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Eva, "Let's all have a seat and talk about how we're going to take down the Molina Cartel once and for all." Everyone sits down except Deeks.

Sam, concern in his voice, "Wait a minute, Talia, what about Molina?'

"What about him?"

"Wonder if Khalid got through, wonder if you've been made?

"I'm going to have to take a chance."

Deeks places his hand gently on her shoulder and speaks softly, "Talia." Kensi takes note.

Talia turns to look up at him, "No, Deeks, we're too close to stop now."

Eva confidently, "Molina may know about you," pointing at Talia, "but he doesn't know about my operation and my undercover man."

Talia, stands up, and looks down at Eva, "This is my operation!"

Eva stands up, "In the US, but NOT Mexico." Eva glares at Talia, "If you get in my way in Mexico I will expose you."

Callen shakes his head, "Listen to me Eva, if Talia is out of the picture Molina will have to find another US distributor. That may take days. He won't want to sit on his product for that long. He'll reroute it to a different distributor, a different location; a distributor and location we won't know about."

Sam, "He won't have an immediate plan and what's worse we won't have someone as close to him as we do now on the inside.

Talia, without blinking says in a low voice, to Eva, "If you get in my way either here or in the US, I'll let Carlos know he's got a mole in the tunnel, a Mexican mole, working for the Police Chief of Loreto, Mexico.

Kensi, "Another threat, Talia?"

Talia looks from Eva over to Kensi, "Whatever it takes to maintain my cover."

Eva moves to get closer to Talia. Deeks, anticipating her move, gets between her and Talia. Deeks interjects, "Ladies. We need to work together." They both stop glaring at each other and glare at him.

Callen takes over, "Deeks is right. If we don't work together the only person who will win will be Molina. I know that's not what you want."

At that realization both Eva and Talia sit down. Deeks releases a calming breath and sits down as well.

Callen reaches into his pocket, pulls out his cell, and begins dialing ops, "The first thing we need to do is find out if Talia has been compromised."

XXXXXX

Nell has just arrived in ops when the phone rings. She sits down at her computer console. She recognizes the phone number lit up on the phone's display panel. She picks it up and can't suppress a yawn, "Good morning, Callen."

"Morning Nell, will you check Khalid's cell phone and see who he called last and when?"

"On it."

"Thanks." Callen puts his phone away. "Okay . . ." Everyone looks over at him, "let's define our objective."

Talia scowls at Eva and speaks first, "Stop future drugs from coming into the States by destroying the tunnel, confiscating the current shipment, and putting Molina and his cartel in prison."

Eva glowers at Talia, "Same."

Deeks, "Now, how are we going to achieve them?"

Sam, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you two," pointing at Talia and Eva, "were going to let Molina deliver the drugs to the States, right?" They both nod. "Then you were going to grab the drugs and Molina?"

Talia, "I was going to do both, get the drugs and Molina."

Eva, "How were you going to get Molina when he's in Mexico? DEA has no jurisdiction here in Mexico."

Talia, "I had a plan, but now that you're in the picture we can have you arrest him."

Eva throws an angry look at Talia and then to Deeks who shakes his head. She decides to follow Deeks advice.

Kensi, "We pick up the drugs when they get to the US and Eva and her people can arrest Molina when the deal is done."

Talia, "And DEA can destroy the tunnel."

Eric stating the positive, "We have access to two sources of intel."

Talia nods her head, "Me and the tunnel guy."

Eva sarcastically, "Yeah, the tunnel guy." She looks over at Deeks who's shaking his head again, but she ignores him this time and gets up so fast her chair scrapes along the floor, "His name is Paco, who without him you would have raised suspicion when you used the tunnel."

"How so? It was clean."

"Maybe then, but if the workers had been around word may have gotten back to Molina about the new guy." Pointing at Sam. Talia remains sitting her eyes never leaving Eva's. "You think it was just luck those workers weren't around?"

Talia shrugs, "Nevertheless, I'm in the lion's den, I have quicker access to intel."

Deeks trying to sooth Eva's anger, "Eva, we're lucky to have Paco in the tunnel too. He'll be able to notify us," she looks at him with a scowl, "you . . . you of any changes."

Callen, "More importantly, Talia, you may be able to persuade Carlos to alter his plans if we need them to change."

"How do you expect me to do that?"

Kensi smirks, "Ooooh, I'm sure you'll think of something."

Talia turns to Kensi. Deeks is ready to jump in between them.

Just then Callen's phone rings.

Deeks under his breath, "Thank God." He clears his throat and moves away from the table.

Nell in ops, "Hey Callen. It looks like Khalid tried to call Molina."

"Tried?"

"Yeah, late last night or was it early this morning? . . . . Anyway, I noticed the phone call on my tablet.

"So did he call him?"

"Yeah, he did."

There's a pause, "Nell?"

"Sorry. Because it was so late Molina was probably asleep and his phone went to voice mail."

"So he got a message when he got up this morning?"

Nell, yawns, "He would have."

Callen dead pan repeats, "Would have." There's a pause. "Nell, I know you didn't get much sleep, none of us did, but you have to do a little better here. I'm missing something."

"Oh right, right. Sorry. He would have received a message if I hadn't intercepted it."

"You intercepted it?"

"Yes, during the standoff. I was still tracking Khalid's and Molina's phones so when my tablet notified me of the activity during the standoff I automatically redirected his voice mail. Didn't think much of it at the time."

"Can you retrieve the voice mail?"

"Sure, give me a second." Meanwhile, Callen puts the phone on speaker and sets it in the middle of the table for all to hear.

A few moments later Nell somes back on the phone. "Okay, here it goes. It's a little hard to hear because of the gun fire in the background, but I think you can make it out." 'You reached Carlos, leave a message. Beep.'

Khalid yelling into the phone, "Molina? That business partner of yours is a cop. If I get out of this I swear I'm coming for you!"

"You're 100% sure Molina didn't get it?"

"I am."

"Nice job, Nell. You may have saved Talia's cover."

"Glad I could help."

Get some sleep, Nell."

"Will do. Good night, I mean good-bye."

Callen turns off his cell.

Sam looks between Eva and Talia, "Let's all agree that this is a joint operation and that NCIS is assisting." There's a moment's hesitation before both Eva and Talia nod their heads in agreement.

Callen, "Okay, what do we know?"

Kensi, "We know the tunnel won't be ready until the end of the week."

Eva, "We know that a large shipment of drugs will be delivered to the United States through the tunnel when it is complete."

Talia, "We know that my, AKA Nina's, people will take possession of the drugs once they've come up from the tunnel in the US for distribution."

Callen, "Is that it?" He looks at each team member for approval.

Eric, "So we wait?"

Eva, "We do, however, we now have a few more players."

"What do you mean, players?"

"I mean you'll be going undercover."

"Whoa, what?"

Deeks pats him on the back. "It means you'll be on my side of the earwig for this operation."

Eric's swallow is audible.

Callen tries to calm Eric's nerves, "What Eva means is that we have more people on our side so we have a better chance of success."

Sam, "Let's use these next few days to get into position, establish our roles, and notify each of our agencies."

Talia looks at her watch and gets up from the table. "I'm heading out. I'll let you know what's happening with Molina."

Deeks concerned, "Make sure you check in."

Talia smiles at him, "You got it." She turns and walks out the door.