Just moments before….
Just after Callen had inserted the USB-drive he heard Sam call him.
"G, we've got company," Sam called as he saw a couple of shady men approaching the house with guns.
Callen moved towards the living room as he grabbed his gun.
"How many?" Callen asked.
"I count two. They are here either to finish Speedle or to find something in his house." Sam stayed covered but kept looking at the front door. "One guy going around back."
"Got him," Callen replied and he moved towards the backdoor.
Callen stayed covered and saw the man moving towards the backdoor. Slowly the backdoor opened. Callen had his gun on the door as he waited for the man to come inside.
"Federal agent!" Callen yelled as she man stepped into the house.
The man was shocked to see Callen there. A moment later Callen had to duck away from a flying bullet. He fired back at him as the man ran out the backdoor again. Callen followed him and chased him into the alley behind the house.
"Callen, I'm in," Callen heard Eric call in his earwig, but he was a bit busy now to respond. "Callen, you there? Callen, can you hear me?"
Callen kept chasing the guy across the alleyway. "Federal agent! Freeze!"
The man turned the corner but it was a dead end. The man realized that there was no way through and he stopped.
"Federal agent! Hands where I can see them and turn around slowly," Callen told him as he held his gun on him.
Callen watched the man, wondering what he was going to do. He saw the man slowly turning around but he noticed the gun in his hands.
"Drop the gun!"
Slowly the man turned around and aimed the gun at Callen. But before he could get a shot off Callen had already shot him in the arm, making him drop his gun. Callen ran up to the man and cleared him off his gun.
"Sam, one guy in custody," Callen replied as he cuffed the man.
"Got mine too," came the reply from his partner.
"Eric, you there?" Callen asked.
"Yeah Callen, I'm here." Eric responded. Zoë let out a relieved sigh when she heard Callen's voice. "You okay?"
"Yeah, we just had some unwanted guests but it's all good."
"I got into the security system but for today I couldn't find anything, nobody broke in. Speedle left this morning around 6am and then nothing until you guys came in. I will scroll back further to see if I can find something. Let you know if I find anything."
"Thanks Eric, got two pictures coming your way for an ID, find out who are unwanted guests are and oh yeah can you send an ambulance, I shot one of them in the arm."
"On its way."
Callen took the guy back to the house where Sam was. Sam's guy was fine, just a little banged up when Sam punched him. A little later an ambulance was there, they stitched Callen's guy up before they were transported to the boatshed. Callen put his guy in the downstairs room while Sam put his guy in the upstairs room before going to the main room. Callen hit a few buttons on the phone and called OPS.
"Hey G, Sam," Zoë responded when she saw the boys on the screen. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, it's all good. Nothing to worry about," Callen answered. "Did you find an ID on our two guests?"
"Yes," Zoë replied as she put two ID's on the screen. "Hu-Son and Kyu-Son Park, they are North Korean, flew into LAX two days okay. No connection to Speedle so far."
"North Korean huh?" Sam remarked. "They could be after something classified that Speedle was working on, wanting it for themselves."
"Any idea who they work for?" Callen asked.
"No, nothing yet, on the surface them seem clean but we'll look deeper."
"Alright, let us know if you find something. We'll question them."
Callen disconnected the call and he went to the downstairs room as Sam went upstairs.
"You shot me!" Hu-son spoke as Callen walked into the room. "I need to be in the hospital."
"The ambulance checked you out, you're fine," Callen replied as she sat down opposite from him. "What were you doing at the house?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"Yeah, well I'm asking you first. What were you doing at the house? Looking for some information?"
"I'm not gonna tell you."
"My partner is talking to your buddy, you know what happens if he talks first? He's gonna get a better deal than you, he's gonna pin this all on you."
"No way he's gonna talk. You can throw anything at us, we won't talk."
Realizing Callen wasn't going to get anything out of him he walked back to the main room, hoping Sam had better luck or that Eric and Zoë had found something. Just as he walked into the main room Sam came walking downstairs as well.
"You got anything? Callen asked his partner.
"No nothing, you."
"Nah, nothing." Callen contacted OPS again.
"Hey Callen," Eric answered.
"Hey Eric, have you heard anything back from Nell and Deeks?"
"They didn't find anything at the scene. They are on their way now to Speedle's parents, see if they can tell us something."
"Anything on our two guests yet?"
"Not that much yet," Zoë interjected. "Whoever they are, they managed to hide their tracks pretty well, which tells me that they might be spies."
"Hang on," Eric interjected. "Just got a hit on kaleidoscope. I was looking at traffic cameras near the accident scene and I caught our two Korean guests taking Speedle out of the car and putting them in his car. Kaleidoscope tracked the car to a warehouse in Koreatown. Address is on your phones."
"Thanks Eric, we'll check it out."
Sam and Callen left once Agent Castor was at the boatshed to keep an eye on their two prisoners. They went to the warehouse and Sam parked his car a little down the street. They grabbed their vests and thigh holsters. They suited up before going towards the warehouse. Sam looked at the warehouse but he couldn't see anyone or any cameras. Carefully they made their way up to the warehouse. Callen peeked through the window, in the main room they couldn't see anyone. He tried the door but it was locked. He looked at Sam to have his back as he got down to pick the lock. Once the door was open Callen got back up. He briefly looked at Sam, who nodded at him, before Callen opened the door. Sam went in first followed by Callen. They first cleared the main room before going a separate way. There were some other rooms in the warehouse so they went to check them one by one.
"Sam, got Speedle," Callen suddenly remarked as he walked into a room. "Eric, we're gonna need an ambulance."
Sam finished his sweep before he joined his partner.
"How is he?"
"He was badly beaten but I've still got a pulse."
Minutes later the ambulance was there and they took Speedle to the hospital. Callen and Sam looked through the warehouse to see if they could find something there. They saw a table with a chair standing there with a space for a laptop but there was no laptop or anything anymore. Perhaps they had gotten what they needed from Speedle already. After looking through the warehouse Callen and Sam went back to the boatshed, hoping to get something out of their two guests now that they had Speedle.
"You again, when can I get out of there? You can't keep me here," Hu-Son said when Callen walked into the room.
"Yes, me again. And yes I can keep you here, for as long as I want. And your game is over. We found your little warehouse."
"What warehouse?" Hu-son replied, pretending like he didn't know what Callen was talking about.
"Your warehouse, where you kept Speedle."
"Speedle? I don't know a Speedle."
"Don't play dumb with me, we know you took him." Callen pulled his phone out and showed the footage of Hu-son and his brother pulling Speedle out of the car. "Now that looks a lot like you and your brother."
"Alright we took him, we delivered him to the warehouse but that was all we did. Then we went to his house to see what we could find there. But that's all we did, that's what we were told."
"Told by whom?"
"If I tell you that I'm dead man."
"If you don't tell me you're gonna spend a lot of years in prison. Well, that's not entirely true. You're gonna spend years in prison anyway. But if you help us it might help you."
"They'll kill me anyway, whether I'm in prison or not."
"This is your last chance."
Hu-son kept quiet, Callen could see he was definitely scared of someone. Callen left the room and went back to the main room. Callen called OPS.
"Hey G," Zoë answered the call. "I believe someone else has had a hand in this. Hu-son said he just delivered Speedle to the warehouse, nothing more. Are there any cameras near the warehouse that could've caught someone else there or where they went afterwards?"
"Nothing so far, but we'll keep looking. The hospital called by the way, Speedle is awake."
"Great, Sam and I will head there. Any word from Deeks and Nell?"
"Yeah they had a talk with Speedle's parents up in Santa Clarita, they are almost back at the office. They didn't know anything about who might have been after Speedle. As far as they know he didn't have any problems."
Hetty walked into the screen. "I just got off the phone with Captain Thomas. Speedle's classified files were just accessed. They got access to a new weapons system the navy is developing and they found out where they are storing the items. You and Mr. Hanna need to head there now and stop them from taking it. I'll send Mr. Deeks and Ms. Jones to the hospital."
"Got it Hetty," Callen replied just as Sam walked back downstairs. "Gotta go Sam."
"Whereto?"
"I'll explain on the way."
They quickly got in the Challenger and Sam drove them to the address and Callen explained what Hetty told him. Once at the address they quickly put the vest and thigh holster on and grabbed their riffles before going into the building. They found a guard lying dead by the entrance. With their riffles drawn they walked into the building and searched through the rows of big racks with equipment on them. Suddenly Sam came across them trying to unload a few items.
"Federal agents!" Sam yelled as he rounded the corner. He immediately had to duck away from bullets flying his way.
Callen had heard the gunfire and went the way of the sound. He approached from the other side and started firing, hitting on the guys in the back. There were four guys left. Two of them turned Callen's way and started shooting at him. Callen fired back whenever he could. After what seemed like an eternity the guys were either dead or wounded. The partners approached and cleared the weapons.
"Eric, we're gonna need multiple ambulances. Sam and I are fine."
"G, you're not fine, you're bleeding."
Callen hadn't noticed it but one of the bullets had grazed his upper arm. "It's just a scratch, no biggie."
The dead were taken away by the coroner and the injured where patched up and taken to the hospital. One of the ambulance personnel patched Callen up as well. They wrapped up at the scene and went back to the office.
"I just got off the phone with Captain Thomas, Lieutenant Speedle is gonna make a full recovery and all of his classified documents are back in safe hands and nothing was taken from the storage facility," Hetty spoke as she walked into the bullpen.
"That's good to hear," Sam remarked.
"Good work everyone today, I will see you tomorrow."
Hetty left and they agents finished packing up before going home. Callen was the last one to leave since he waited for Zoë. About ten minutes later Zoë came down the stairs.
"Hey G, you ready to go?"
"Yes I am."
Callen grabbed his bag and together with Zoë he walked out and drove them home. They just relaxed around the house before going to bed just after 11pm. When Callen took his shirt off Zoë noticed the bandage around his arm. He had changed shirts at work before Zoë saw his ripped shirt.
"Oh my god! G, what happened to your arm?" Zoë spoke worried.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's just a scratch. One of the bullets grazed my arm."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"It's nothing to worry about honey."
"You were shot at!" Zoë almost yelled at him.
"I get shot at almost every day."
"Yeah, but this time you got hurt. I would've like to know sooner, is that too much to ask?"
Callen walked up to Zoë and put his hands on her hips. "No, it's not. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner honey. But I'm fine, I promise. It's nothing."
"You're my fiancé, I would like to know when something like this happens to you."
"I know, I'm sorry. Next time I will tell you sooner okay."
"Okay, but let's hope there won't be many next times."
"I will do my best not to get shot."
"Good."
Callen gave Zoë a soft sweet kiss and took her into his arms. Zoë rested her head against his chest.
"I'm fine honey, I promise," Callen spoke as he gave her a soft kiss on her head.
Callen gave Zoë another kiss before they finished getting ready for bed. Zoë crawled close to Callen once they were in bed and gave him a kiss.
"Goodnight G."
"Goodnight Zoë."
Zoë gave Callen another kiss before she snuggled against his chest and Callen wrapped his arm around her.
…..
That weekend they decided to look over some wedding details. They had to set a date, but for that they first needed to find a venue. There were a lot of wedding venues in LA, from ranches to hotels, from beach weddings to estates. Callen looked at the list that Zoë had made for the things they needed to cross off.
"Damn that's a lot of things we have to take care off," Callen remarked as he looked over the list.
"Yeah, there a lot of things to be taken care off."
"If it were up to me I would take you to city hall today to get married but I know you want a beautiful wedding so I'm okay with anything. As long as I get to marry you in the end."
"Oh, you're a real romantic," Zoë teased.
"Oh just wait till you see what I have in mind for our wedding night," Callen spoke to her with a smirk. Hmm that damn smirk of his made her go week in the knees every time. "You just pick out a few things for the wedding and we'll pick one together but leave the wedding night to me."
"Deal." Zoë gave Callen a quick kiss before turning back to her computer. She started looking through venue.
"Oh G! This one is perfect!" Zoë yelled excitedly after a while.
Zoë turned her laptop a bit so Callen could see it too. "Oh wow that does look beautiful yeah."
"I'll give them a call to see if they are available over the summer." Zoë grabbed her cellphone and dialed the number that was on the site and she put it on speaker so Callen could hear it as well. A few rings later someone answered and Zoë told her that they were interested in the venue for a wedding in the summer.
"Let me check if we have something available," the woman on the other end said. "We have a few days available in July, twelve, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-three and thirty."
"I think the nineteenth would be perfect honey," Zoë spoke to Callen.
"Yeah, the nineteenth is great."
"Can we come and have a look at the venue before we officially agree?"
"Yes of course, but I can't hold the date for long. When can you come and visit?" The woman replied.
"Do you have time this weekend?"
"No unfortunately we have an event this weekend but you can come on Tuesday."
"Tuesday is perfect, can it be in the evening around seven?"
"In the evenings is a bit difficult, can it be around three?"
"Yeah, I think that can be arranged."
"Alright great, see you Tuesday. What name can I write down?'
"Moore, yeah see you Tuesday," Zoë replied and ended the call. "We almost have a wedding venue!"
"Yes we do. And I'm sure we can arrange with Hetty to let us go for a little bit."
"Yeah I'm sure we can."
…
They had arranged with Hetty that they could go the venue for a bit. Callen was out for a case so he would meet Zoë there.
Zoë was there a little bit before three and waited in the parking lot for Callen.
It was now 3.15pm but there was still no sign of Callen.
"Damn it G!" Zoë remarked as she grabbed her phone to call Callen.