A/N: Thank you (once again) for the immense support you guys and girls have been showing. Absolutely incredible and so humbling. Hope you'll enjoy the 25th (yes 25 already!) chapter. All the best!
Chapter 25: Breach And Clear
The female agent gasped loudly. As the camera had continued to rotate, the easily recognizable features of her boyfriend was now on the screen in front of her, his lax blonde, fluffy hair and scruff combined with the professional suit made mistaken identity an impossibility for her. Her whole body stiffened as the blood in her veins turned to ice and she forgot how to breathe, her mismatched eyes wide in terror at the sight as she continued to look at the monitor in disbelief.
Her two colleagues and the Sergeant had yet to realize what she had when Nell spoke up, "Isn't that the lawyer from a few months back?"
"Damn, I think it is," the team lead confirmed her question. "I think his name was-"
"Marty," the female agent exhaled, remembering how to breathe once more.
"Yeah, that was it," Callen agreed, still looking at the monitor intently. He had been too focused trying to remember the name of the man to notice the strained voice of his colleague.
Kensi violently shook her head, attempting to force away the shocked expression she was sure was visible. She knew, that she was now too close to this case, but there were absolutely zero chances of her sitting out any rescue attempts if it came to that. As such, she needed to compose herself in order to hide her true relationship with the man who was now taken hostage.
Although his partner had missed the strain in the female agent's voice, Sam had not. As he looked back over his shoulder to where the woman was standing, she was forcibly shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts. He lifted one of his eyebrows, looking at her quizzically for her reasoning, but she continued to stare at the monitor in front of them.
"You alright, Kensi?" He finally asked, when she did not respond to his look.
"Huh?" She finally looked at him, unaware that he had been staring at her. "Yeah I'm fine, just a bit of an unwanted surprise I guess," she answered weakly.
"You sure?" The larger agent pushed, sensing that she was not entirely truthful.
Inwardly, Kensi berated herself for her lack of convincing lying. She would have to put on the perfect show for her coworkers if she was to be able allowed to stay in the field. Deciding that half-truths would be the best way to convince her teammates, she started explaining herself further. "Yeah. It's just… I went to dinner with him once." She took a breath, as she looked at Sam, Callen, and Sergeant Ramirez to make sure they believed her. Satisfied that they were listening, she went on to explain. "After we'd rescued him, he insisted that it was the least he could do." She shrugged. "It never went farther than that, but he was nice."
The team lead narrowed his eyes at the youngest agent, trying to decipher what she was saying. Deciding that she was telling the truth and she had, just like him, also been surprised to see the lawyer, who by now could compete in, and most like win, a 'most unfortunate person in Los Angeles' competition.
Sam, however, was not entirely convinced that his colleague was telling the entire truth, but seeing as how Callen looked convinced, he decided to let it go for the moment. He made a mental note to keep a closer eye on the female agent, and decided that he would not speak up, as long as she continued to seem and act level headed.
Inwardly Kensi was trembling, she recalled how nervous she had been when they believed, that The Facilitators had targeted the unfortunate lawyer for a second time, and that was before they had even had the opportunity to go out for dinner together. That feeling of anxiousness she had felt back then was nothing compared to the dread that she currently felt at the thought that the man, whom she cared the most about in the world, was taken hostage by six heavily armed criminals, of which they had no idea why they had taken over the building.
On the outside, however, she was cool as a cucumber. The special agent finally having gotten control of her micro expressions, her exterior now an unreadable façade as she asked, "How long do we give hostage negotiation before we breach?"
"At least an hour," The team lead started. "Since we have cameras on them, we'll be able to see if they start acting irrationally in there, and we should be able to act in time, but I don't want to jump the gun and possibly get any of the hostages hurt unless we have exhausted all other options." Callen explained, logical as always.
"Alright, I'll go brief my guys, make sure they're ready when or if need be," Sergeant Ramirez nodded to the lead agent, and headed out of the tactical van towards his SWAT unit, leaving the three NCIS agents and the intelligence analyst.
The waiting time was abysmal, whilst Nell, and probably Eric, was busy typing away, trying to find any information about the hostage takers and hostages alike, the negotiation team was working on finding ways to attempt to establish contact with the culprits, leaving an extremely impatient and agitated special agent to wait without having anything productive to currently do.
It was dreadful, knowing that the most important man in your life was currently at the mercy of some lunatics who had captured a building and taken the people inside hostages, she thought to herself, as she left the van in order to get some air.
...
It had been thirty very long minutes when the tiny, redheaded intelligence analyst chimed up, "Guys, you've got to see this!"
The three agents rushed to see what their colleague was pointing out. Through the security camera, they could see two of the culprits ruffling through some documents, throwing their encasing manila folders to the ground, obviously looking for something specific, and by the looks of it, quite frustrated by not having found it yet.
"How long has this gone on?" Callen asked.
"They've been looking through the documents for the last five minutes, but they've only just started becoming frustrated. Eric's trying to work out what the documents contain."
Kensi felt her stomach turning to a knot at the sound of the hostage takers turning more frustrated, she knew from experience, that frustration generally lead towards more aggressive behavior. Whilst the nervous feeling made itself known in the pit of her stomach, she had noticed, that Sam had glanced over at her more often since she had told them that she knew Marty, and as such, she continued to keep her facial expression perfectly unreadable.
The team lead walked the few steps to where the hostage negotiation team was situated. He asked them of status quo, wanting to know how much, if any, progress had been made trying to contact the culprits. When he walked back towards the team not even a minute later shaking his head, they had their answer.
They stood mutely for a minute, continuing to watch the screen intensely, before the leader of the team broke the silence. "Alright, we're going to gear up, ready to enter. Nell you let us know over coms if their aggression changes focus towards the hostages, if that's the case we'll enter."
Looking around, Callen saw he got nods all around from his three friends and colleagues, as such, they made their way towards the entry point, but not before Callen had informed Sergeant Ramirez of the change in behavior of the culprits and the plan to enter if they started turning aggressive or violent towards the hostages. The Sergeant quickly readied his men, hopeful that they would not be forced to breach by the culprits, but ready to go at a moment's notice nonetheless if the lead special agent called for it.
The hostage negotiation team was still unable to establish any forms of contact, the men inside seemed more interested on whatever they could not find in those documents rather than negotiating with the people sitting in the tactical van as one of the hostages phone continued to ring upon deaf ears. Finally one of the armed men grabbed the phone, but the hope that the negotiating team had felt upon watching that was quickly shattered, as the man violently threw the phone into the wall, breaking it instantly.
Not even fifteen minutes later, another one of the armed men punched one of the hostages in frustration, it was now clear, that the behavior of at least some of the culprits had taken a turn towards more hostility, forcing the hand of the NCIS agents and SWAT team.
As planned, the two groups entered from different sides of the building, the three agents using the emergency exit stairs from the alley behind the building, whilst the SWAT members entered from a service door, they had managed to pry open.
After having been told the room they were about to enter was clear, the three NCIS agents entered quietly on the third floor into an empty room. The room was the furthest away from where the hostages were in order to make sure no one was able to hear when Callen forced open the window.
The SWAT team silently moved throughout the bottom floor of the building, both teams were getting updates on the whereabouts of the six heavily armed men currently in the building by Eric, who was following their every movement from OPS, since he had more space and monitors available to keep track of everything. He confirmed to the two teams, that all the culprits were still situated on the third floor of the building.
Since they had confirmation, that those were the only hostiles in the vicinity, the teams were able to neglect clearing all the rooms they passed, SWAT making quick work of getting to the stairs and in position, and Callen, Sam, and Kensi moved into a hallway, quietly moving closer to where they knew the hostages were held.
The agents moved along the narrow hallway, when Eric chimed in their ears. "Guys, there's one headed your way from the second door on the right." He quickly informed them.
Just as the unfortunate culprit entered the hallway, the ex-Navy SEAL met him immediately with a punch to his, stunning him briefly. Kensi quickly moved behind the man, locking down a rear naked choke, whilst the larger agent kept control of the weapon. A few seconds later, the man had been taken down quietly, Callen grabbed some of his flex cuffs, and tied the man to the table that was in the room he had previously emerged from. They made sure he was properly gagged before they moved on, as they did not want to give him any ability to forewarn any of the other culprits.
Whilst the three agents took down one of the armed men, the SWAT team had been equally successful in silently restraining a man guarding the stairway they had just exited.
Callen, Sam, and Kensi made their way to the end of the hallway, but as they opened the door in front of them, all hell broke loose. Gunfire erupted through the open door, forcing the agents to jump to the side, seeking cover by breaking line of sight.
The sound over the coms that they were pinned down were unnecessary, as the SWAT team had no problem hearing the roaring of bullets currently filling the building.
Kensi dared not even peak to see if there were any opportunities to return fire, as the three culprits though the door interchanged their fire, ensuring that there were always bullets travelling down the hallway, making any movement or retaliation an impossibility.
After another minute in the predicament, the team head the relieving sound of suppressed shots followed by an immediate halt to the rain of bullets flying down the hallway they were in. The SWAT team had, with the help of Eric's guidance, been able to flank the three armed men before swiftly neutralizing the danger, leaving just a lone culprit left in the building.
The two teams moved in tandem towards the room the hostages were in, making sure to check every room they passed as they made their way.
Callen kicked in the door, quickly stepping aside afterwards to let his fellow agents and the SWAT team into the room. Kensi was the first to barge into the room, pistol at the ready.
The sight she was met with froze the blood in her veins. The last culprit stood behind the shaggy lawyer, who had a bruise already forming around his nose and eye. The gunman had an arm around his throat and a pistol aimed directly at the man's temple. "One more step and I'll shoot," he screamed at the agents.