Why were his informants always the weird ones? Even Deeks' informants were never as weird as his was and that was saying something. Seriously. Callen tried not to roll his eyes too obviously at the kid, though the guy was probably twenty-three of so, excitedly chattering to him about some sort of shady goings on at a mechanics he did odd jobs at. On that note, why was it always a mechanics? This informant was turning out to be weird and cliché. Great.

To be fair to the kid, he was providing useful information. Callen just found it a bit disconcerting at how enthusiastic the guy was about giving him all this good information (and possibly some imagined or made-up stuff by the amount of rambling he was doing). There had to be some sort of a catch - though it didn't seem to be very forthcoming. At least Eric and Nell could fact check almost anything. Also, the guy - his informant - had referenced "spy movies" and "How cool it was doing stuff that was in them" multiple times. People like this always ended up nearly getting themselves (and him!) killed. And, truth be told, Callen didn't really want to get killed, who would have thought?

"And then this fat dude passed this gall, skinny dude something under the counter and, like, gave him a real shifty look like they were using code or something." the kid babbled.

See, this was a good reason why all spy movies should just be straight up banned.

"Are you sure?" Callen still had to ask patiently. "There's no way to pass something under that counter." And then he gestured at the mechanics in question.

The mechanics that quite obviously had a small desk that could barely be called a counter which was also clear. Completely see through.

The kid's face fell briefly, looking like a kicked puppy before perking up again.

"Maybe there's like a secret door or something!" he said excitedly.

Callen just stared blankly at him. "Huh?"

The kid nodded his head excitedly, looking very much like a bobblehead. "Yeah! Maybe it's where they stash all of their mafia stuff!"

"Mafia? What? They're drug cartel members, probably not-"

Callen was just ignored as the kid started talking more quickly in his excitement. "Yeah, I saw this movie where"

And that's where Callen very firmly put a stop to this and get the kid back on track. They didn't have all the time in the world, after all.

"Why did you call me out here again?"

He could only avoid writing reports for so long, after all. Even if he was chasing down a potential lead on something. What this something was going to turn out to be.

The kid actually shut up and blinked rapidly. Kind of like Callen had sent him into a reboot or something.

"Oh, I think there's a bomb over there," he said as casual as could be," pointing towards the car park. "I think I heard the guys say something about retaliation and destroying some documents. But like I was saying-"

"What?" yelped Callen, running towards the car park and fishing his phone out of his pocket. "You should have started with that!"

A brief conversation with Eric and giving him his location, Callen hung up his phone and came to a skidding halt next to the device in question, the kid, of course, close behind. What do you know? It was actually a bomb.

Callen's heart sank into his stomach. This looked way too complicated to even think about poking at. Where was Sam when you needed him? Okay, his lack of a partner was really his own fault. After all, he had told Sam that he was going to meet with the kid alone because Sam's very presence would just intimidate him into silence. But he would be very useful to have right about now.

There were wires poking out in several different directions, most attached to the engine of the car, as far as he could see and of course, not one but three cell phones and an extra fuel tank. Because why not. Oh, and of course there was a timer. There was always a timer. It wouldn't be a cliché bomb without one, would it? It currently read 2:57 and it definitely was referring to hours and minutes.

He had just wasted fifteen minutes listening to utter nonsense! Utter. Nonsense. Callen swung around to glare at the kid, who recoiled.

"Why the hell didn't you say something sooner?"

"I was gonna," he whined. "But the USB thing was way more important."

Callen looked at him incredulously. "More important than-? You know what? Never mind. There is no way in hell that the bomb squad is going to get here on time. I need to evacuate the surrounding area and -"

Callen trailed off as he saw that the kid was looking completely unconcerned at the information he just rattled off. In fact, he was ignoring Callen completely and peering closely at the hood of the car that was wired to explode!

"You need to-"

"Dude, I think these equations have something to do with it."

2:21

Against his better judgement, Callen approached the hood of the car, praying it wasn't miswired and they actually did have just over two minutes to make their escape. There was a typed sheet full of equations stuck there. Great. Trust him to get a freaking maths genius for a criminal. Now he really wanted Sam.

"I saw this in a movie!" The kids said excitedly, praying vibrating in his excitement. "The solution to those equations will be the code that disables the bomb!"

Callen gave him a dubious look. To be fair, that could be the case but there was also a very good chance that it wasn't and entering any sort of code would just get them blown up. The timer now said 1:39 and he didn't want to take any more chances. He really did prefer to remain in one piece and, you know, not dead. Not dead was always good.

The kid gave him a confident look and informed him, "I've got to do this. It's like fate. All I need to do is solve these equations."

As if PhD looking equations were nothing of concern. There was just one, tiny problem.

"But you never went to school," protested Callen, tugging the kid away from the car so he didn't do anything stupid but he was shaken off.

Literally, the kid had been bounced around so much that he barely had an elementary school education.

1:12

"So?" the kid asked indignantly. "That doesn't mean I'm illiterate."

Great. He had hurt his pride. Too bad. Bombs tended to lower his patience.

"Literacy has nothing to do with calculus and disarming a bomb!" Callen said through gritted teeth after taking a deep breath. "Now, if you would just-"

He was waved away again.

0:43

"Just give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute." growled Callen.

Deciding that he very obviously wasn't going to be able to persuade the kid to do the sensible thing and get the hell away from an explosive device, Callen decided to take drastic action. Literally. Hefting the kid over his shoulder in an incredibly ungraceful fireman's carry, he sprinted as fast as be physically could.

BOOM

The surrounding windows rattled and there was an awful lot of choking smoke produced. Coughing as well as trying to catch his breath, Callen put the kid down. None-too-gently too.

Stumbling a bit and rubbing at his ears, the younger man looked shocked. But at least he was alive.

Ignoring him for a minute, Callen cautiously looked around him, expecting carnage from the volume of the explosion and his inability to clear the admittedly empty area. Bit, as the smoke was clearing, it became evident that there was none. Not even a decimated car. It was a smoke bomb? What the hell?

Fears of casualties thankfully assuaged, be looked back at the kid - feeling a bit guilty at what he had just gone through. No one deserved that. He was just a low-level informant who Callen was trying to help out a bit. He shouldn't be anywhere near stuff like this. Though, the kid didn't seem to agree as he was practically beaming.

"That. Was. Awesome!"