"Umm. Guys?"
Those were words that often kicked off an unfortunate series of events. When Eric found something and said that into comms instead of coming to get people in the bullpen with his normal flair it meant bad news. There was a level of urgency tinged with a hint of unease that drew the agents up to the Ops Center at a good speed.
"What do you have, Eric?" Callen asked as he was last through the door.
The big screen was full of documents and photos from The Rising case. They'd closed it two days earlier after weeks of Sam and Callen being undercover. The Rising was a new arms syndicate just making a name for itself. They were based out of Los Angeles and right on the edge of graduating to the big time. Sam and Callen posed as hired guns who protected merchandise during buys. It didn't take long to get to a place where they could take the syndicate down, but they did it quietly so that buyers that didn't get arrested in the first bust wouldn't be scared off and NCIS would get another run at them.
And Eric and Nell had just found the mother of all loose end.
"The Rising just completed the details for a complicated upcoming transaction. Seems like it is a three-way deal." Nell explained.
"Ooh. Sounds steamy," Deeks joked prompting a simultaneous smile and eye roll from Kensi.
It appears that The Rising's plan to put their name on the map involved allowing the Cardenas Cartel in Mexico to broker a deal for them with a terrorist cell run by Ansar al Alawi - part of the Hezbollah network making inroads in Central America.
"Alawi is bad news. He's making his way up the FBI's Most Wanted List. Intel says he's on the short list for a major Hezbollah leadership position," Sam told the room.
"Then it will only take one really big bang to solidify his standing in the organization," Kensi suggested.
"Well," Nell said, grabbing everyone's attention back, "it looks like he has a plan to make it happen."
Nell and Eric seamlessly took turns explaining what they had found. There was decrypted correspondence in The Rising's data laying out a plan for the head of The Rising, an elusive arms dealer named The Phoenix, to be brought down to Mexico by the Cardenas Cartel for a meeting with Alawi. There they would complete a materials list and settle on price. Then the cartel would smuggle The Phoenix and the Alawi cell back into the US to complete the sale and conduct the attack.
All good terrorist plots needed the same components: a plan, the material to effectively attack the target, personnel to execute the attack, and the ability to transport the weapons and people where they needed to be. Alawi had the people, The Rising had the material, and the cartel had the network to move people into the US to make it happen.
"We delayed their plan in shutting down The Rising, but they'll find another supplier. We need to think about how to take that cell out," Granger pointed out to them.
"We need someone to go under," Callen stated matter-of-factly. It was clear that the 'someone' was him. "We took The Rising down quietly. They're still in play. There are no pictures or recordings of The Phoenix, not even a physical description – just a note that he has a brown-haired girlfriend with him sometimes. We know he's dead, and the girlfriend is, too, but no one else does. I go in as The Phoenix, go with the cartel to Mexico, meet with Alawi, come back to the US with the cell and we get everyone at once."
Kensi shook her head. "I don't like it."
"There's a little bit of mutually assured destruction here that works to our advantage," Callen assured her. "Everyone has a vested interest in this going well."
"It could take weeks or months to come together, with you in deep cover and no overwatch. Too many variables," she insisted. "And the communications talk about having to go through an initiation of some kind before the Cardenas will arrange transport. That sounds pretty ominous," Kensi continued.
"Ending the Alawi threat needs to be the first priority here," Granger stated to end the discussion. "If we can bring Alawi in for intel that'll be great, but if we just end him and shut the cell down – that's still a win."
"Alright people," Callen instructed. "Let's get to work."
It was two very intense days of studying. The team took every detail from every piece of intel they had ever seen on The Phoenix and tried to paint a picture. Callen added mannerisms, voice, sense of humor – deep cover required deep thought. There were hints of how The Phoenix liked to do business, contact methods, favorite weapon, even favorite way to kill someone, but he'd never been seen. It was like playing a ghost, but maybe that worked to their favor. It's much easier to make up a cover than to impersonate someone. At least The Phoenix was a blank slate.
Kensi agreed to go to the meet as the brown-haired girlfriend – she was always there to see the Phoenix off on trips. They had two hired hands from The Rising who didn't realize the gig was up that would be providing security, and Sam and Deeks would be nearby if needed. Granger would run the infil from the Op Center. Once Callen was in the hands of the cartel there was very little they could do but wait and react.
Kensi made sure Callen made the most of the forty-eight hours. She drilled him on who the players were, what had been said in the communications that he needed to know. She quizzed him on prices for merchandise that Alawi might request. And she got his favorite take out. She'd just run to pick up his favorite Thai food, enough for the whole team, and while she was out of the building Deeks used the opportunity to ask the other agents a question.
"Is there something going on with Kensi that I don't know about?"
"Ahh, that's right," Sam answered with a smile and a laugh. "You've never seen Kensi go from little sister to mama bear."
"Mama bear?" Deeks repeated, confused.
"Yeah," Sam confirmed. "She gets nervous when Callen goes deep cover. She hovers over him for a day or two before he goes in. She'll be back to normal soon."
"No picking on Kens," Callen said as he looked up from his explosives pricing guide. "Her heart's in the right place."
"I'm a little more method when I go under," Deeks pointed out. His hand waiving off all of the study guides on Callen's desk. "Gotta kind of find the character myself."
"Well Kensi prefers to leave as little to chance as possible."
Deeks thought back on the cases that had come through the office in the three years he'd been there, and something finally occurred to him. "Does Kensi actually go deep cover?"
He saw the way the other two men seized up a little, and worried he had wandered into dangerous territory.
"Kensi can drop into a cover at the drop of a hat," Sam said, trying misdirection. "You can literally snap your fingers and she can be whoever you need her to be. No one does it better."
"Yeah, absolutely," Deeks agreed. "But that's usually eye candy and fast talking. She doesn't go deep cover, does she?"
It was Callen who stepped to where Deeks was standing and answered the question he was really asking.
"No. We don't put her in deep cover alone."
"Ever, or anymore," Deeks asked, letting his lawyer and detective skills do their thing, but he got no response. Callen and Sam exchanged a knowing glance but said nothing.
"So what happened?" Deeks prodded, wanting more. Kensi was his partner, and he knew they trusted each other, but there was still so many landmines from her past. He was hoping for insight, understanding.
There was silence for a moment before Callen started answering.
"You've been in deep cover - on your own finding your own way. I even think it suits you, and that's not a dig – you have good instincts. You can make decisions on how to gameplan a situation, on how to approach your mark, on how to handle the isolation."
"Yeah," Deeks said. "That's why it's called deep cover."
But Sam didn't love his tone, and he snapped back a little. "You get to decide if you want to add the complication of getting close to someone. You set the ground rules for who you let get close and how close. You decide when you need to connect with someone to get the job done. Sometimes that's a luxury that your female colleagues don't have. Sometimes guys don't like hard to get."
That conversation had just taken a turn Deeks didn't see coming and didn't like.
"I would never put Kensi in a situation where she had to choose between protecting her cover or protecting herself," Callen explained. "Someone left her in a bad spot once before we were a team, and I won't put her there again."
Deeks felt a tightening in his chest and the implication Callen was making.
"If you like having all your limbs I suggest you don't mention it to her," Sam warned.
"No. Yeah. I hear you," Deeks assured them.
Deeks settled in to his desk and moved papers around to seem busy, but didn't really read them. He thought about his partner and how angry he felt at the idea that someone had put her undercover and not had her back. Even knowing that it was years ago, and even though he had verifiable proof that she was ok, the anger still hit him.
He watched as she returned, food in hand. She set it up over by the coffee counter and handed plates out to the team. As Deeks stood next to her to make a plate, he had a sudden and almost overwhelming urge to be take care of her – to make up for any moment where someone else hadn't. It wasn't the first time. It was happening more and more.
"Any interest in getting a drink tonight?" he asked. He tried to be casual. He prayed he pulled off casual.
She smiled, but shook her head. "Not tonight. Tonight Callen and I are going over email addresses and phone numbers in case he gets the opportunity to communicate." She yelled it over her shoulder to make sure Callen knew what his night looked like.
"I was thinking of calling it a night, Kens," Callen said hopefully.
"You don't sleep, Callen," she responded. "And preparation is the key to a successful mission. You're stuck with me."
"Tomorrow, then? After Callen heads off on his little Mexican vacation?" Deeks tried again.
"Yeah, I'd like that."
