Still here…two chapters to go….
Hunkered behind a four foot wide post and a stack of bushel baskets, Callen is feeling an odd sense of paranoia and pure annoyance at the events that have just transpired in the past five minutes.
First off, he's just received a call from a soldier back at the base in Abu Dhabi, revealing that their prized and injured detective isn't where he's supposed to be. He took the news slowly at first, dissecting every possible outcome of finding and keeping Deeks away from Nahili, until Kensi's roar through the earpiece had cut into his thoughts.
"What in the hell are these people talking about, Callen? Where is Deeks?"
Those weren't her words exactly, but as he listens to the bullets flying back and forth throughout the open field that separates one of the entrances of the camp from Nahili's center tent, it's the cleanest and quickest translation he can think of. The lead agent knows that Kensi has probably darted away from any gunfight she may have been a part of and is moving towards Callen's side of the camp with a mission to find her partner.
The second event, which makes him grip the arm of his rifle tightly is the news he had heard through his earpiece minutes before the call from Abu Dhabi. It came from an Abu Dhabi police officer, a smart and well trained man, fighting along Callen's side in the camp.
"I believe I see Agent Hanna. I repeat, I believe I've just seen Agent Hanna."
"Damn it," Callen curses under his breath. Two things are clear right now, besides him making a mental note to literally lock down someone in protective custody next time around- he needs to get as close as he can towards the tent and he needs to do so while keeping an impossible eye out for rouge detective and his partner and the-not-likely-to-be-free right now partner of his own. The agent forces his attention onto the gunfight in the open field where he pokes out the muzzle of his M-16 around the side of the pokes post and sees one of Nahili's men collapsing on the ground from a gunshot to the chest.
I can only count four men of Nahili's left. This might actually work.
"I can confirm it - I saw Agent Hanna moving from the southern entrance of the tent. He appears to be dishelved."
Never mind. Callen snaps the M-16 to his sling and scans the open area. With no sight of Sam from his view of the camp, Callen radios, "This is Agent Callen. Send me your location and get Agent Hanna into safety, copy? Kens, do you see him?"
No response.
"Kens, do you copy?"
No response.
"Someone answer me- someone….Sam?" A sudden sight of his haggard partner hobbling under one of the wooden scaffold that outlines the border of the camp stops Callen dead in his words. He reacts rather calmly and fires a shot one of Nahili's remaining men too close to shooting Sam for comfort. Sam doesn't react as Callen did early and begins blindly running in Callen's direction- he doesn't stop until he's a few yards away where he suddenly looks up to Callen and say, " I need Deeks."
"What the hell are you talking about-"
Sam supports the hyper focused look in his eye that Callen hates to see. "I need to find Deeks."
A bullet nearly whizzes past Sam's head and it brings Callen back to reality. He lunges forward and pulls Sam down behind the post. "How did you get free and why the hell do you need Deeks?" he hisses.
"Because that psychopath took Michelle hostage and threaten to blow the whole damn camp up if I don't come back with Deeks."
"We left him in Adbu Dhabi and how the hell are you planning walking back in there with Deeks?"
"My wife and everyone's life is on the line and yes, I know that going in," Sam pauses to release a breath and close his eyes, " I don't deserve to ask Deeks to do this, but it's my wife, G, and I don't know what else to do."
"What about a plan B? How about you let me in and let all of us, Deeks included, huh?" After Sam nods in agreement, Callen turns his head to start planning what he hopes to be a hell of a better rescue plan and finds he doesn't need to.
A new sight throws the idea of a new plan out the window.
"Sam, get down!" Callen roars. Sam's eyes widen and whips around to see Nahili holding Michelle in a choke hold. In his right hand, Nahili holds the dead man switch inches away from the black vest he wears. There is a peacefulness mixed in between the insanity usually seen in the man's eyes, a peacefulness that both Callen and Sam had seen in men ready to die. Callen aims his M-16 and feels a sudden breeze on the back of his neck. It's Kensi, quiet and in position to fire her Beretta M82.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk…." Nahili states, "Where's the Detective, Agent Hanna?"
"I was getting him," Sam growls. He unconsciously takes a step forward and then immediately regrets it when Nahili tightens his grip on Michelle's neck. "Let her go and let me go get him!"
Nahili rolls his eyes. "I'm not stupid, Agent Hanna. I know damn well that you were trying to get out of this. You knew damn well that I wasn't going to let you walk out of here either way."
Sam holds up a hand with his eyes locked on the dead man's switch. He's never been a begging man but the loss of control in Nahili is making him desperate. "Don't…don't do this, man. I-I-I lied. Detective Deeks isn't in the camp- he was kept back for his protection."
Nahili's stare suddenly flickers upward and then he suddenly begins to chuckle menacingly. Sam doesn't follow Nahili's eye line but Callen does. He finds himself looking at Deeks standing on the second level of the wooden scaffold just to hear, "Are you sure about that?"