The building was an old shipping warehouse that was long since abandoned on the southern edge of what could barely still be considered LA. Open garage doors lined the sides of the south side of the building and provided egress while the roof provided cover from surveillance. They'd only been given the address two hours before the meet and the cartel was already in the building making it impossible to find a good position nearby to observe.
But it wasn't a takedown. It was an infil. The job today was to get Callen inserted into his role.
And then wait.
Callen and Kensi were driven into the garage by their Rising security detail, who opened the car doors and escorted them inside. The Cardenas sent six armed men to bring Callen to the cartel and they meant business.
"Smile," one of the henchmen said as he snapped a photo of Callen on his cellphone.
There were initial pleasantries exchanged as Callen confirmed the plan. The cartel was stalling for time. Then the phone that snapped the picture had an incoming message that was shown to a large, clean cut, well-dressed man – the only one not carrying an automatic weapon. His face tightened in annoyance.
Callen had a bad feeling. He leaned over to give Kensi a doting kiss on the cheek. "Careful," he said into her earwig. "Something's off."
"How touching. Look how well he plays the part," the annoyed one mocked as he introduced himself as Antonio.
"What? A man can't say goodbye to the woman he loves?" Callen asked to diffuse the tension.
But then without warning, the cartel guns took out the two security guards, firing multiple rounds as the bodies fell to ensure the outcome.
"What the hell?" Callen demanded. "We followed your instructions. We have a deal and our third party is waiting."
"Well, sorry to throw a wrench in your plans, Agent Callen."
Kensi heard the tension in her communicator as the team realized that Callen was made. There were words over comms that she tried to follow as her mind raced to figure out how they could get out of this alive.
"Did you really think you could just walk in on us? That we don't have connections? That we would just take you at face value." There were five guns trained on Callen while Antonio yelled.
They were in trouble. Kensi knew that. Callen's cover was blown before they even got started. She could hear Sam and Deeks asking what was happening in her ear. She could calculate that it would take backup too long to get there to help them. The plan was for a simple infil, it wasn't like anyone had been planning on a fight.
"We're on our way to you," she heard Sam say in her ear, but they wouldn't make it in time. She knew that.
She could see there was no cover in the open warehouse, and she knew that per the cartel's instructions, she and Callen were unarmed.
Antonio held up a picture on his phone of Callen, showing it to Kensi. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, honey, but your boyfriend is a federal agent. It's unfortunate that he lied to woman as beautiful as you. We're definitely going to kill him, but we'll bring you back to our compound and my men can … comfort … you for a while," he said, laughing along with the cartel guns.
Callen looked at Kensi, his concern for their predicament clear.
She had to think out of the box. She went over the last two days in her head and what they actually knew about The Phoenix. She steadied for a minute, finding the courage for the only play that she could think of. Then she hardened her eyes and looked Antonio square in the face. No fear in her voice. No doubt in her gaze. Fully committed.
"Of course he's a federal agent. You think you can create an arms business around here without some badges in your pockets? If you think that then maybe you don't know the territory and maybe you aren't who we thought you were."
"Good job, Kensi," she heard Sam say.
But her partner read her mind, and he wasn't as encouraging. "Kensi, what are you doing?" She shook her head to clear the distraction and walked slowly and deliberately over to Callen, running a finger through his hair and kissing him again.
"So you are telling me that the notorious Phoenix is a federale scoring a little on the side?"
Kensi laughed at him, shaking her head in mock contempt. "Are you really this stupid?" she goaded.
"Maybe we should all take a moment here," Callen reasoned.
"Are you telling me that Phoenix is a dirty cop?" Antonio yelled in Kensi's face as he grabbed her hair.
"No, you idiot," she barked as she twisted his other wrist and pushed him away. "I'm telling you that he isn't the Phoenix. I am."
Callen's head snapped to the side to look at her as her comm erupted. One of the hired guns approached Callen, putting him on his knees with a gun aimed right at his head.
"You?" Antonio questioned Kensi.
Kensi got a smug smile on her face to hide her uncertainty. Then she gestured at one of Antonio's foot soldiers. "You like the Uzi? Not a bad weapon. Compact. Good rate of fire. You've got the .45 ACP clip in now, so it's a little slower – only getting 500 rpms or so. It's an old weapon. You can hear from the tone of the discharge you have one of the pre-'86 Model B's 'cause they're easy to get your hands on. I could get you one brand new. Either way, you should definitely switch to a different gun before we meet up with our third party. Carrying an Israeli made sub machine gun to meet with Hezbollah is a mistake. They like AK's. I could get you a discount."
"No," Antonio responded, still in some amount of disbelief.
"What? Too trapped in your backward ideas about women to imagine it?" Her voice softened with a hint of seduction. "Not used to women being leggy and deadly and smart?"
"You wouldn't say that if you'd ever met my sister."
"Then let's get down to business," Kensi encouraged.
"There is no way," Antonio declared.
Kensi could feel Callen desperately looking to make eye contact with her but she was afraid that if she did she would lose her nerve.
"Kens!" she heard Deeks yell in her ear, but she'd decided on her way forward. A bad plan executed with confidence is better than a good plan executed with hesitation. She thought that was the saying. Sam would know. She'd ask him when she got back.
"I'm a businesswoman, and there's a payday on the other side of this that I need, and I think you do, too. But this federal agent," she said pointing at Callen, "is mine. He gets in the car and drives away before we go anywhere. If you touch him, there's no deal, and you get to explain to Hezbollah why the deal is off. I hear they love that. Oh, and when I get to your compound in Mexico, you tell me who gave him up. I can't have someone exposing people on my payroll. Bad for business."
Antonio looked her up and down, unsure of how to wrap his mind around the new information. She turned her back to him and gave him a good look at her hips while she sauntered around Callen. She told Callen to stand, keeping herself between the guns and her friend.
"Kens, you don't have to do this," Callen whispered with more than a hint of desperation, but she ignored him completely.
Instead, she turned back to the men training guns on them and simply said, "I'll take that as a yes," with the smuggest look she could muster. Then she turned her back on them and watched Callen walk back to the car. As she stood there she listened to her partner's voice.
"Kensi, listen." She heard Deeks say in her ear. The panic was dissipating and it was replaced with desperate encouragement and resolve. "It'll be a marathon, not a sprint. Mysterious is your friend. Silence is your friend. The most important thing is your safety. Whatever you have to do to come back to us, you do it, Princess. You don't think twice. You hear me? You come home."
"I hear you, Deeks," she whispered with more confidence than she really felt. Then she took the earwig out and dropped it on the floor, stepping on it as she turned back to face Antonio.
"And it's 'The Phoenix'," she told the cartel. "Not just Phoenix. I hate that. It sounds like my parents had drunk sex in Arizona and named me after where I was conceived. Don't' do that."
"We're going to be together for a long time. You really think I'm going to call you The Phoenix when I tell you dinner is ready?" Antonio asked, giving her the first indication that he was buying her story.
Mysterious is your friend, Deeks told her.
"Maybe I'll tell you what my friends call me when I know you a little better," she responded.
Besides, she was only supposed to be eye candy. She didn't even have a name.
()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_()_
Granger was the only calm one in the Op Center. Everyone else paced and muttered and barked.
"What the hell was she thinking?" Callen was frustrated.
"She probably saved your life, G," Sam pointed out.
"Agent Blye kept the mission in front of her and improvised her way out of a tough spot. A Marine's daughter, for sure," Granger told them.
"So that's it?" Deeks asked. "We're just going to leave her under with these guys for an indeterminate amount of time and hope for the best? They threatened to take her to their compound and gang rape her. Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea?" His confidence in Kensi's ear had been an act. He was beside himself with worry.
"We're going to let Agent Blye do her job, gentlemen," Granger scolded. "We're going to trust her instincts, which just saved Callen's life, and trust her tradecraft, which is better than any or yours. Then we're going to take down a terrorist cell, capture or kill one of the FBI's 10 most wanted, and maybe dismantle a cartel in the process."
"Guys, an email just came in on The Rising account we gave Callen to make cover corporate contact. It says: Transfer complete. We have The Phoenix. Will provide status as appropriate."
The brief message lulled the gathered group into an uncomfortable silence as they all came to terms with the reality that Kensi was really under, and there was nothing any of them could do right now but pray.
"Well, at least a status check is something," Sam said attempting to encourage the group.
"It isn't nearly enough," Callen responded.
And it wasn't enough. The whole next week was punctuated by Callen being more gruff than usual, Deeks spending too much time in Ops bothering Eric and Nell, and Sam punching things too hard in the gym. A new case came in that at least had them busy, but then the three agents were in the field when the first status check came in.
It was Nell who saw the phone number they had given Callen light up, and told Eric. She took the call and had Eric add the others onto the line in listen only mode. They could hear Kensi, but not speak to her.
"Operations," was all Nell said as she picked up the line.
"Holding down the fort?" Kensi asked.
"Of course, ma'am. How is your trip proceeding?"
"Lonely but not alone. How is everyone on the team? All personnel accounted for?"
"Yes, ma'am. Nothing out of the ordinary here."
"The deal scheduled for tomorrow – everything on track?"
"Yes, ma'am. All transactions on the books remain in play and on schedule. And your transaction?"
"Still in the vetting process, apparently, but you know what they say – slow is smooth and smooth is fast."
"Do you need anything on your end?"
"I'm bored out of my mind. Got anything for that?"
"That's enough," a gruff voice from the background growled. Then the line went dead. Untraceable, to no one's surprise, the call was short, encrypted, and rerouted more times than they had time to track. Nell had the transcript printed on the big screen, and by the time Granger and the other agents arrived, Nell and Eric were already crossing it with tradecraft protocols to get everything they could out of it.
Kensi was safe. She asked them to confirm Callen's safety. She told them that she was alone on the line but not alone in the room. She feigned interest in syndicate business to underscore her business sense. She didn't think they trusted her yet, but things were going well. They hadn't moved to Mexico, and she had no independent access to phones or the internet.
Good tradecraft could share a lot of information in not many words.
Deeks believed everyone when they told him how well that call had gone – that no distress words had been used and that she sounded good, but he was tied in knots with her gone, and he hadn't ever felt like that before. He wondered if that was what it was like for Kensi when she watched him and the agents who were like family to her sink under the murky water of deep cover. How did anyone live like this?
She was alone, surrounded by enemies, whether they knew it or not. One slip could be a disaster, that's all it would take, and there were no regular check-in's or protocols to keep her safe. She was on the high wire with no net.
