Somewhere, somewhere exactly 27 minutes northwest of the alley she had met Holtz and the hooded figure, Hetty is tied to a chair in a warehouse storage room, feeling a mixture of disappointment and amusement. Carey Holtz should know from their twenty plus years of acquaintanceship that she's not the usual type of captive.

A strip search, being blindfolded during the drive, and tinted windows to block a view of outside? All child's play for Hetty Lange.

Hetty turns both wrists against the arms of her chair to feel the ropes to be just shy of cutting of circulation to her arms. By the feel of it, it'll take her five minutes tops to get out of the ropes. The white, rusty metal door on the corner of the opposing concrete wall looks like it'll take Hetty an addition five minutes to jimmy it open.

I doubt that he's forgotten about my easy escape from Li Mao's metal box of a holding cell with only a broken shard of glass, Hetty thinks. She cocks her head slightly and hears low voices behind the door. The more distinct of the two voices chuckles loudly before the flat medal handle slowly moves down, screeching loudly in the process. Holtz pushes the door open and strides in with a grin on his face. There's no sign of the dark, hooded figure from the alley.

"You're better than this, Carey," Hetty calls out. "Have you forgotten Li Mao?"

Holtz shakes his head as he admits, "You're right. I am much, much better than this. You don't even have a strand of hair out of place- how in the hell does that even happen?"

"A magician never reveals his secret, Carey."

Holtz grimaces and tightens his fist. "Shut up- you aren't as invincible as you think. Why do you think I agreed to take you instead of Micah?"

"Because you've been foolish and childish throughout this whole affair. You've lost yourself in this case so badly that you've been putting anger that should be at me instead of Mr. Deeks. With your plan falling apart, you became desperate, so desperate that when I offered myself up, you couldn't resist."

Holtz quickly grabs Hetty's wrist and glares darkly into her eyes. " You think I don't know your weakness, right? Well, my associate and I have done some planning and thinking and realized that you do. It's the job, Hetty," Holtz says. His words have some effect on Hetty, making her tense up.

"You should have Ryan in a jail cell or the ground from the moment you met him, but noooo- you had to see the potential in him and hired him. Lives destroyed because your arrogance and curiosity and now all of this is going to come back and destroy you."

Hetty inhales sharply and asks, "What do you plan on doing then?"

Holtz leans forward a and whispers in her ear, "I can't kill you, but nothing will destroy you more than watching your little agents come looking for you and die right before your eyes. You'll watch them burn, Henrietta, you'll watch them burn."

20,000 feet above California

Kensi and Deeks have been sitting in radio silence for three minutes.

Kensi is still resting her head on her partner's back. She listens to his staggered breathing and feels his chest rise and fall. "Are you ok?"

Deeks shakes his head slightly and keeps his head against the back of the chair.

Think of something….for the both of us. "Do you want to hear about your mother?" Kensi suddenly blurts out, surprised at her own words. She had looked at Deeks'- really Micah Ryan's- file for only a few minutes before they left. She sits up and hopes that he'll react in some form.

Deeks raises his head and glances over to Kensi. "What do you mean?"

"I mean- I know a more little information about your mother, Lianne. It'll get your mind off of Nell," Kensi replies. When Deeks only blinks in response, Kensi continues, " She was born in Hawaii as the daughter of an Irish-American Marine and a redheaded business woman from Wisconsin. She taught first grade- there's a picture I can show you when we land."

Deeks shakes his head quickly and looks to the thick cloud outside the window. Isabelle Brandell was completely different- a secretary at a local bank in Los Angeles. He remembers her to be such an introverted woman who was still strong enough to protect him and be married to Gordon Brandell for years. The picture Hetty showed him at the hospital showed Lianne Ryan to have such a fight and drive in her eyes that he can't seem to picture.

"Lianne's mother may still be alive, Deeks. You might have family out in Hawaii," Kensi says, "And even if you don't, you have me. And everyone else."

"If there is," Deeks sighs, "I don't think I want to meet them. Thanks for trying to distract me." His eyes suddenly widen at the sound of the beeping of the radio from Kensi's duffel bag. She rips it out of her bag and exclaims, "Nell!"

"Hi, hey- I'm here," the red-headed analyst answers. She sounds out of breath to the two agents and neither can figure out if it's because something went wrong or if because of the gunfight.

"What happened?" Kensi cries out in relief. She smiles down at Deeks, who is now sitting up for the first time. He isn't as pale as he looked when the plane had taken off, but he still looks in bad condition. There's a crackle on the radio before Nell replies, "We had a tail who took off into one of the warehouses. He got off a few shots before I took him down. Everything down here is clear, Kens."

I don't like her tone. Something's wrong. "Are you absolutely sure?" She clenches her jaw anxiously during the minute of a silence that it takes for a response from Nell.

Nell stammers lightly, "Yeah, of course! Don't worry- just call when you land, ok? I have to go….and help with the crime scene. Be safe." Without warning, Nell turns off of her radio and leaves the agents in the dark once more. The brunette agent hits the side of the radio in frustration before she drops it into her bag and drops into her seat.

"She's lying," Deeks mumbles.

"I know. When we land, I'm going to call a few friends of mine to make sure we aren't being left out of the loop," Kensi replies. She settles back into her chair before Deeks and she sit in silence. The ex-detective listens to the quiet humming of the plane's engines as his gaze moves from his partner and back to the clouds below the wings of the plane. He's planning on drifting to sleep; however, a realization that should have popped in his mind the moment they left the hospital.

"Kensi," Deeks asks, "Where are we going?"

His partner doesn't have an answer.

56th & Parkway, Northern San Diego

Two hours after Kensi and Deeks' flight departed from Van Nuys; the remaining members of the team pull into the alley behind the parked Jaguar. In the past two hours, Callen and Nell had handed over their airport suspect to two NCIS agents before meeting Sam and Eric and speeding down Interstate 5 towards San Diego in half the time. Staying true to their agreement in the hospital, no one has told Kensi and Deeks about the missing operations manager.

"Hetty's Jaguar not in a garage," Eric gasps in disbelief. He shrugs as the two older agents both raise an eyebrow at him through the rear view mirror. "What? I've always thought that Hetty would always have lasers and missiles surrounding the….ok, never mind."

"Not 100% unreasonable," Callen mutters under his breath as he slides out of the driver's seat. He immediately moves to the driver seat of the Jaguar and kneels down to face the car lock.

"You really think Hetty's car isn't going to be break-in proof?" Nell asks as she approaches him with Sam.

Callen pulls out his lock pick and replies, "She knows that we'll be coming." With a quick twist of one of his pick, he hears the soft click of the lock slide open. He opens the door and finds everything in its place except for a San Diego Union-Tribune paper on the passenger seat. Callen pulls the paper towards him and chuckles softly.

"Hetty stopped for a paper?" Eric asks with a head scratch.

"No, she left it for me," Callen replies with wonder. He runs a finger over the randomly circled letters on the opinion page. "I had a case a long time ago where I couldn't get messages out to say that I was ok so Hetty and I made up a code. The code she left for me," Callen lays the paper on the seat where the other teammates can see, "that says deal made with the devil. Trust me."

There's a trick where I had to get a message out during an OP," Callen explains as he begins marking letters on the front page. " All I had was the paper and a line of mascara- don't ask." He holds out the paper and reads aloud, " Sacrifice. Deal made. Trust me. Don't come looking for me."