It's been three months since the case with Clairmont, and it's been a rollercoaster ride the entire time. The case were pretty bland, but there few occasions I almost strangled Granger. One time Sam had to drag me from the bull pen, and as much as Sam wanted to give me a stern talking, he couldn't say crap to me.

It was the night before Kensi was supposed return to work, and it had been a wild ride of day. Sam Callen and I chased some man from the docks to one of L.A.'s many freeways. But a little back story about this whole scenario: there was a black market operation being run out of one of the docks, mostly in expired medicines. Sam and Callen were in one of the offices, and didn't find anything.

"That was a bust." Sam said, as they exited the building.

"Yeah, and I was so sure they were in on it." Callen said.

"I wonder how Deeks fared." Sam said.

"Hey, Deeks." Callen said into the radio.

"Yeah." I said, breathing heavily.

"You, okay?" Callen asked. The partners could hear a lot of wind, and it sounded like I had been running.

"Look behind you." I said.

Callen and Sam turned around to see a tractor trailer drive by them, but what got their attention was me walking across the top of the trailer.

"Anytime, gentlemen." I said.

Sam and Callen jumped in the challenger, and followed semi.

"What exactly is the plan here, Deeks?" Sam asked.

"You guys are back up." I said.

"Why do you need backup?" Sam asked.

"We're trying to bring these guys down right?" I asked.

"That doesn't explain why you need back up." Callen said.

"Look behind you." I said.

Callen and Sam looked in their mirrors, and saw three vehicles pull up behind them.

"Eric, get on the wire with L.A.P.D., and inform them that we are engaged in an armed pursuit, and we're are currently pulling onto the I-Ten freeway." Callen said.

"Tell them to step on it. We have three suvs with armed gunmen in pursuit." Sam said.

"Roger that." Eric said.

"The semi's all you Deeks, we'll handle the suvs." Sam said

"As if I have a choice." I said.

Callen and Sam pulled around the front of the semi as the first shot had come their way. I rig a harness to the top and side of the semi, and pull out my sidearm and fired at the closest suv. I fired off two shots before one of the people in the suvs pulled off a wild shot, and knock my gun out of my hand.

"Any other day of the week, that might seem strange." I said, as I was unhooking the harness from the semi.

"What might seem strange, Mr. Deeks?" Hetty asked.

"As I was attempting to assist Callen and Sam, one of the passengers in the suvs shot my gun out of my hand." I said, as pulled out a pair of climbing hooks, and made my way towards semi cab.

"Wow. Only you Deeks." Sam said.

"Shut up, Sam." I said.

"Guys, there's a warehouse registered to this company off of the I-Ten. L.A.P.D. has setup a roadblock near that warehouse." Nell said.

"Wonderful." I said.

"You're the one who had to climb on top of that semi." Callen said.

"I hate you." I said to Callen.

"Why? Nobody made you climb on top of the semi." Sam said.

"When you see what's inside this semi, you'll be singing a different tune." I said.

There was a moment of silence before I heard. "Really." Sam said.

"If these guys don't kill us, you'll see." I said.

"Hang on Deeks, we're about to hit traffic." Callen said.

"Awesome." I said, and said a prayer as I held on for dear life.

I could hear muffled gunfire, and the ricocheting bullets that missed me. I have no idea how long this chase lasted. All I know is there is a periodic screeching of tires, and continued gun fire. When the semi starts to slow down, I jump up and make my way to the cab. I knelt down, pull my back up sidearm off my ankle, and then dropped down. I realized that the driver was going to drive through the barricade, and the window was conveniently rolled down.

"Don't even think about it." I said, jamming my gun into the drivers' temple.

The driver was about to run the barricade, but having a gun jammed into your skull is a nice motivator for not doing something stupid, and then driver pulled the semi to a complete stop. The vehicles that were backing the semi up drove off, leaving the driver to fend for himself.

"Everything okay Mr. Deeks?"

"Was there ever a doubt?" I asked. "Sam and Callen are the ones you should be concerned about."

"We're good, Hetty." Sam said, as he and Callen approached.

"What's the word, Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked.

"We don't know." Callen said.

"Excuse me. I'm going to investigate what's inside the warehouse." I said.

"Let us know if you find anything." Sam said.

All I did was give a thumbs up as I was walking away. Sam, as usual, rolled his eyes at me. Sam and Callen were working with L.A.P.D. to clean up the scene. Once everything was clear, Sam and Callen entered the warehouse.

"Deeks, where are you at?" Sam asked.

"I, uh, um… I'm in the basement. You guys need to see this." I said.

"How bad?" Callen asked.

"No words can describe what I'm looking at. Just get down to the basement, now." I said

"On our way." Callen said.

"How bad?" Sam asked.

"Deeks is pretty unflappable, but if he says there are no words to describe what he's looking at, I'm going to say it's pretty bad." Callen said.

It didn't take Callen and Sam to find me, but what blew their minds was the apparatus in front of us.

"What the…" Sam said.

"You're right, Deeks. No words can describe what we are seeing right now." Callen said.

"Uhuh." I said.

Just before Sam and Callen arrived, I made sure the crime scene techs pulled blood samples to send to the lab for testing.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Next day: OPS-

Callen and Sam walked into the bull pen together, bickering as usual about the latest fashion trend in the Hanna household. Kensi was the third person to arrive. I arrived at work at my usual time, but I got a phone call and was delayed until well after the work day was supposed to start. When Eric and Nell were coming down the stairs, Callen asked. "Have you heard from Deeks?"

Eric shook his head, and Nell brought up the camera feed. Everybody could see me in the parking garage standing next to my car and have something between and animated/unanimated phone call standing next to my car. It was at this point, it was as if I became aware of someone spying on me. I looked at the camera and then turned my back to it.

"Were you able to translate anything before he caught on?" Callen asked.

"The only word of interest that I could pick up was I don't know. Cossack's." Kensi said, unsure what she was reading.

"Cossacks? Who or what are those?" Eric asked.

"I'll do you one better: are you sure you should be spying on Deeks? I know some of the things he has done since becoming an immortal. You know what they say about sleeping dogs." Nell warned.

"To answer your question Eric: Cossacks are an ethnic subgroup of Russians, but they haven't been prevalent in over fifty-seven years. Did you find anything else?" Callen asked.

"No, I wasn't able to gather anything else." Kensi answered. Kensi looked intently at her desk, but she was very aware of a set of hazel eyes boring into her. "Has anyone seen Hetty?" Kensi asked.

"My office, Miss Blye." Hetty said, scaring her personnel as she ninjaed out of thin air.

Kensi looked at everybody, but its Nell's disapproving look that set her off. Kensi was wondering why she was being singled out personally. It was unfair that she was taking the fall for something that Sam and Callen are implicit in also, but Kensi does feel shameful to some extent and she doesn't know why. Kensi moves away from her team mates towards Hetty's office, and she sees Hetty getting off the phone as she approaches.

"Have a seat. Your partner is very intuitive." Hetty said, as Kensi was sitting in the chair form across from her desk.

"How so?" Kensi asked.

"Before I answer that question, how are you feeling? Have you healed up nicely since the last case?" Hetty asked.

"The doctor said that it will take a few more weeks before the rib is fully healed. But I'm cleared to return to duty none the less." Kensi replied.

"I said that you partner is intuitive because he knew that I was about to scold you for eavesdropping on his conversation through the camera—uh, Mr. Deeks." Hetty said when she saw me walking in.

"Yeah." I said.

"Take Miss Jones with you and investigate the warehouse from last night." Hetty said.

"You got it. Let's go Jo." I said.

"On it." Nell said, as she hand the tablet over to Eric, and followed me out.

Eric headed back up to Ops, as Callen and Sam went a joy ride.

Over in the armory, Nell grabbing her sidearm and ammo so we investigate the warehouse properly, but I was having a very bad feeling about this.

"What do you think we are going to find?" Nell asked.

"Did you see the crime scene photos?" I asked.

"No?" she asked.

"It's probably the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The person we saw is not alive." I said.

"Can't wait to see what we dig up." Nell said.

At that moment, my phone rang. The call from was from the coroner. "This is Agent Deeks." I said.

"Agent Deeks, could you please come to my office?" she asked.

"On my way." I said.

"What's the play?" Nell asked.

"To the coroner's office. She found something interesting." I said.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Challenger-

"What do you think Deeks is talking about when he mention Cossacks?" Sam asked.

"You're guess is as good as mine. The Cossacks haven't been relevant since the nineteen fifties." Callen said.

"What happened fifty-seven years ago?" Sam asked.

"Well, from the time they were repatriated back to Russian at the end of World War II to nineteen fifty-five, they were practically in Russian concentration camps because a small group of Cossacks fought against the Russians with the Germans." Callen said.

There was a moment of silence before Sam asked. "You think there might be an anti-Cossack sentiment in the Russian government?" Sam asked.

"I mean it's possible that a member of the Russian government could have a disdain for them, but why? They suffered for twelve years, why reopen an old wound?" Callen asked.

"This might be a question for Hetty. Before Deeks took a vacation nine months ago, Hetty had him out all hours of the day doing her dirty work." Sam said.

"If we had his skillset, Hetty could have easily used anyone of us." Callen said.

"No, I think Hetty is using Deeks as judge, jury and executioner." Sam said.

Callen looked over at Sam, and he could see that this upset his partner. "Sam, don't take it out on Deeks. No matter how much it goes against your moral code. There are things we are asked to do that we may not agree with, but have to do because of the job." Callen said.

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." Sam said.

Yeah, well, there's nothing we can do about it. Callen thought, but changed the subject. And with the subject change, the bickering began again.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

OPS: Hetty's office-

After Nell and I left the bull pen, Kensi was asked. "Am I going to be disciplined?"

"Just don't make a habit of spying on your partner." Hetty said.

"Can I ask a question then?" Kensi asked.

"What do the Cossacks have to do with any of this?" Hetty asked, sensing the question before Kensi asked.

"I saw that much." Kensi said.

"There is an anti-Cossack sentiment in the Russian government." Hetty said.

"Are you trying to prevent a war, or something? I mean that has to be your endgame, or this wouldn't be on your radar." Kensi said.

"More or less, but the person leading, James Madison—"

"What does he have to do with it?" Kensi asked.

"He was influenced by his uncle, who survived Stalin's death camps." Hetty said.

"And he is looking for revenge. But it's been fifty-seven years since the Cossack were freed. Are you saying that the anti-Cossack feelings just started up again?" Kensi asked.

"That would be the best guest. I had Mr. Deeks doing what he could to thin Mr. Madison's numbers, but it seems that Madison has amassed more resources when he went underground earlier." Hetty said.

"So what is our game plan?" Kensi asked.

"We don't have a plan. We're just going to have to play it by ear for the moment." Hetty said.

Kensi nodded her head, which Hetty returned. Kensi got up from her chair, and exited Hetty's office.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Coroner's office-

"What do you have for us doc?" I asked, when we entered her office.

"Everything was fine until I opened the body for the internal examination." she said.

"What was strange about it?" Nell asked.

"Not only were the limbs from other bodies, but so were the internal organs." she said.

"What are you saying that the group we busted was doing what? Creating their own monster?" Nell asked.

"Victor Frankenstein." I said.

"Yes! Just like the short story!" she said.

Dial back the excitement a few notches will ya. I thought. "What?" Nell asked.

"It was a fictional short story based on a man who created life by piecing together parts of corpses. I doubt that's was the game plan here." I said, showing Nell the picture of the body that Callen, Sam and I found last night.

Nell saw that every section of the body, mostly at the joints, had been sown together. Even ever individual joint of the fingers and toes. There is no way this person was alive when these monsters were operating on them. Then again if they are sick enough to play God, in the vein of Victor Frankenstein, then the person could have been alive when they started to cut on him. Or her. I thought.

"Is there anything else of note?" I asked.

"Um… yeah." she said.

"What?" Nell asked, not liking the tone of the doctor's voice.

"We were able to recover all the bodies used for this, uh, little science experiment. Some of the internal organs had been… consumed." she said.

"Consumed how? And by what?" Nell asked.

"Or who?" I asked. Nell gave me a shocked look of disgust. "In our line of work, anything is possible." I said.

"Meaning?" Nell asked.

"What your associate is saying is that the organs were consumed by another human." she said.

"Consumed? As in eaten?" Nell asked.

"Yes." she said.

"Are you telling me we're chasing a real life Hannibal Lector?" Nell asked, referencing a character from a movie.

"In a word. Yes." she said.

"Hello, Clarice." I said, referencing said movie.

"Say that again, and I will stab you with this pen." Nell said, threatening me with the doctor's pen.

"That." I said, pushing Nell's buttons.

All Nell did was glare at me, but asked. "Were you able to pull anything from the eaten organs?"

"Amazingly enough, I was able to pull a set of teeth marks from some of the partially eaten organs. My estimates is that they belong to a male, and that's about I know." she said.

"Run it against every database available." Deeks said.

"Keep in touch." Nell said.

"Will do." she said, and then we left.

It wasn't until we got back out to the car when we had our discussion on what we learned.

"So what are we going to do?" Nell asked.

"We should probably head back to OPS to update everybody." I said.

"But Hetty sent us back to the warehouse to investigate." She said.

"What do you think we're going to find?" I asked.

"It's what we were ordered to do." she said.

"Fine, but I still think we should head back to OPS." I said.

"Better safe than sorry. Quick question; Do you think Madison is in on the Frankenstein mess?" Nell asked.

"Not that I would be surprised." I said.

At that moment, my phone started ringing. I saw that the ID was OPS. "What do you have, Eric?" I asked.

"You're needed to return to OPS, immediately." Hetty said.

"We haven't had a chance to return to the warehouse." Nell said.

"Not necessary." Eric said.

"Just return to OPS, as soon as humanly possible." Hetty said.

"On it." I said, ending the call.

"We could have asked about Callen and Sam." Nell said.

"We have to get back to OPS. And without delay." I said.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

OPS: bull pen-

Kensi was going through the crime scene photos, and in most cases she isn't affected by what she sees, but the jigsaw puzzle made of human parts is making her a little queasy.

"Kensi—are you okay?" Sam asked as he entered the bull pen.

"Umm… I've seen many things, but you can't always be prepared for everything." Kensi said.

"Not much we can do about that." Sam said.

At that moment, Nell and I entered the bull pen. "What's up?" Kensi asked.

"We were told to come back to OPS." Nell said.

"We're need in Ops." Callen said, from the balcony.

The four of us climbed the steps to Ops. As we entered, we saw a video feed on the big screen. When we took our place in Ops, Hetty said. "Play the vid."

Eric pressed a button on tablet, and the big screen came to life. We watched the movement on the screen, which wasn't much. Then people showed, and started loading crates onto dollies and moving them onto semis. There were about forty crates in all that were loaded. Something about this was… off, but what got my attention was the only person that we got a good look of his face. It was Madison.

"What's Madison doing there?" Kensi asked.

"Mr. Deeks?" Hetty said.

"If I had to guess, Madison is the one running the show, and—WHOA!"

None of us were prepared for what happened next. As soon as they finished loading crates, Madison had a group of his men open fire on the ones that had just finished loading the trucks. The murder lasted all of thirty seconds, but I knew. I knew that Madison was behind the Frankenstein monster, but I'm wondering if Madison is responsible for the Hannibal Lector action as well. It didn't take long for the group to clean the mess up. Something seemed really strange to me: Why are they cleaning up the bodies.

"Eric skip ahead will you." I said.

"How far ahead?" Sam asked, as Eric started to skip through the feed.

"We'll know when it—Oh, my… gosh!" I exclaim.

The next thing we all see was someone cutting on the bodies. They were all dead, but that doesn't make the scene in front of us any less disturbing. I saw a few dead bodies off to the side, what looks like a male and a female. Their clothes are a mess. The shirts either untucked, or unbuttoned. I could see the woman's bra. Their pants/skirt weren't out of place. At least from what we can see. I think.

It was at this time that the feed went dark, and static filled the screen.

"I take it this was your first time seeing something like this?" Callen asked.

"Yep." Hetty, Nell, and I all said in unison.

"Wow." Callen said.

"We're in trouble." Sam muttered.

"This case just got a lot more interesting." Eric said.

Nell and I shared a look that Kensi did not miss. "What is the plan?" Callen asked.

"Run down any leads we have. Let's see if we can track Madison's movements." Hetty said.

This is going to be a wild goose chase. I thought.