In the airport's only warehouse, Callen cowers behind a construction vehicle. He holds his Sig close to his chest and listens for the shooter, the man who had popped out of a black Chevrolet Malibu parked a half mile from the SRX behind the gate and darted into the warehouse. Nell had quickly run to the back door entrance of the warehouse and warned Kensi to take off before the suspect fired two shots blindly. Now after crawling through a window, Callen is ready to take down their man.
"NCIS!" Callen yells, "It's over. Put your hands up and surrender." He leans to his right and can see the Gulfstream G650 faintly in the sky. "If you came here to stop the flight, you failed!"
"I'm not doing a damn thing!" the man screams from where Callen assumes to be behind the large stack of airplane parts near the warehouse door. He sneaks a peek over and sees Nell slowly inch her way across the back wall.
"We know about Holtz! We have people on their way to arrest Holtz this moment!" Callen yells.
"You think that's going to stop him? You think that's going to stop any of us?" the man bellows. He blindly fires off another bullet that ricochets a few inches above Nell's head. She drops to her knees and sprints behind a red tool chests. She sticks her hand out and aims her Sig at the clear shot she has of the man. When she turns on the laser sight and the dot appears near the man's temple, he panics, holds his hands in the air and says, "Alright, alright, alright- I'm done."
He gives up? Callen thinks anxiously as he stands and walks over to Nell. "What happened to not doing a damn thing?" he calls out.
The man shrugs and answers, "That was before the pixie had a shot at my head."
"So jail is a better option, especially for a man that works for Holtz?"
"My ma hung herself a few years after Agent Ryan killed my old man," the man states in a proud Boston accent, " If I go to jail knowing that I avenged my old man, I'd be alright with that."
Callen forcefully pushes the man's arms behind his back. "So what I'm hearing is that you're just another pathetic kid who thinks torturing the son of Ryan is enough for redemption, right?" Callen states. He pushes the man onto his stomach and places a foot on his back. It's not hard enough to cause the man pain, which is what Callen wishes he had less self-control to do.
"I'll go do a perimeter sweep and then check in with Kensi and Deeks. My radio is in the car," Nell volunteers. She holsters her gun and breaks off into a light jog towards the warehouse main door. Callen pulls out his cellphone and immediately dials his partner. He's hoping that Sam had luck with Willcock and Leo.
"Tell me they're in the air," Sam mutters irritably after the first ring. "I've gotten nothing out these two idiots."
"They're safe. We have a man in custody who fired two shots in a warehouse, though. He has the same stupid mantra that messing with Deeks will give them redemption. They gave you nothing?"
Sam groans so loudly that Callen has to pull the phone away from his ear. The image of Sam and their suspects causes him to smirk for a half a second. " Well on the bright side, Leo had been helpful at least once throughout the case."
"That's not a bright side, G. I'm sick of these idiots. Deeks and Kensi are in the air so I say we bust down the San Diego office doors and drag Holtz out down the front stairs," Sam exclaims, "We make him hand over everything and end this right now, G. "
Callen takes his foot off of the suspect and takes a step back. When he had parked the SRX near the gate to watch Kensi and Deeks board the jet, Callen had activated a GPS chip tracker; after Hetty had bolted without a word to Romania, Callen had placed a micro GPS chip on the floor of the trunk in Hetty's Jaguar to track her when needed. He's never had to use it, but something in his gut told Callen that with their track record for luck, Henrietta Lange is not on her way back from San Diego.
And when he checks the GPS location and finds the Jaguar randomly parked in an alley, Callen says to Sam, "I think something is wrong- I activated the GPS I put in Hetty's car-"
"You chipped Hetty?"
"By pure luck," Callen says, " According to the GPS, Hetty's parked in an alley in San Diego. How fast do you think you could make it down here with Eric?"
Callen can suddenly hear multiple voices in the background on Sam's end, all LAPD officers and NCIS agents by the sound of it. Sam replies, "Thirty minutes once I get Willcock and Leo into custody. Wait, are we going to tell Kensi and Deeks?"
Callen sighs. "No. From now on, we leave them out of this."
When the Gulfstream G650 begins to cruise at its assigned altitude, Kensi doesn't waste a second to radio Nell. As Kensi is now sitting on the other side of the aisle next to her partner, she presses her finger to the intercom and says, "Nell, I know you said not to call, but you have to tell me- what the hell happened down there? We heard gunshots!"
No answer.
Kensi looks over to her partner, who is leaning against the back of the chair in front of him with his eyes closed. She places the radio in her lap and wraps her arms around his body. Kensi also lays her head on his back and whispers, "She'll call us back."
"No, she won't. If someone followed us, they're probably dead," Deeks answers back weakly.
"Deeks…..we'd know…." Kensi trails off after another quick glance at the radio. She can't think of anything profound, inspiring or anything at all to say, really. Once more, half of her team could be dead and Deeks is losing hope. Screw it, Kensi thinks as she kisses Deeks' shoulder, I'll be helpful and stable tomorrow.