""Ah yes. The Incognito technology," Janvier said with a nasty smile.

"You know about it?" Callen asked incredulously. "How?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out," Janvier said quietly, as, suddenly hit violently from behind, Callen crumpled to the floor.


CHAPTER FIVE - PRESENT DAY

Early Monday morning, Sam pounded the streets, concentrating on the rhythm of his footfalls and his breathing as he ran, and trying not to let the unwanted thoughts enter his head. Mile after mile, he just couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. It was a feeling he had increasingly often these days – nothing tangible, just a deep-seated unsettled feeling at the bottom of his gut.

This time, it had started with the conversation he'd had with Callen on Friday, and furthermore Callen's lame excuse not to come with him to the game on Saturday night. Callen was shutting him out, lying to him even, and Sam didn't like it. Now he had this mysterious phone call playing on his mind. Nell had traced Callen's phone to his house before the three of them left Ops yesterday evening, which should have reassured him, but made no sense at all as Callen had told him he'd be flying to Washington and staying in a hotel on Sunday night. More lies. Unable to let it go, Sam had tried ringing Callen's cell several times overnight without success.

Maybe the past few months were finally catching up on his ex-partner, Sam thought. The caseload had been heavy, even after the tragedy that had hit their team hard, with Fatima killed and Devin Rountree severely injured in a major firefight gone bad. None of them had really had a chance to take stock, to ground themselves. The loss of an agent was always hard to take, and now that Callen was in charge of the entire Office of Special Projects operations, Sam knew that it would have weighed extra heavy.

The knock-on effects for the whole team at OSP had been huge. For Sam, Kensi and Eric, it hit even closer to home, for if they allowed themselves to, they could still easily remember Dom's harrowing death over a decade ago. Through it all, Callen appeared to have taken the loss of Fatima if not easily, then at least as an expected part of the job from time to time – but now Sam began to wonder if the young agent's death had knocked Callen more than he realised. It shocked him to think that he honestly had no idea. Always a closed book, Sam realised now that he and Callen had drifted apart so much that he couldn't even begin to tell what was going on in Callen's head – and that in itself was unsettling for he had always been the one person who prided himself on knowing Callen best. How had it come to this, Sam pondered regretfully.

While in the aftermath of Fatima's death the team had pulled together, Callen had pulled still further apart. Ostracised anyway from the group by his new role, Sam wondered if Callen had had anyone to turn to over the past few months. In the past, he might have sought solace in Hetty, but even of that now, Sam was no longer sure, and he himself had been too busy patching holes in the sinking ship of his younger colleagues to have paid his uncommunicative ex-partner much attention.

Nell's grief for Fatima had oddly pulled her back into the fold. Although she had not confided as much in Sam, it was clear she felt immense accountability that had she still been working in Ops at the time, Fatima would not have died. Whilst they were all pleased to have her back, especially Eric, it was with a tangible sadness, and Nell's irrational guilt wasn't helping. Since Nell's return, Kensi and Deeks had drifted apart, as Deeks announced for the final time he no longer could work in such an environment. He had pulled back to LAPD and his work at the bar. Although they still crossed paths from time to time nothing seemed to persuade him to return to the OSP team, and by now they had all given up trying. Deeks had begged Kensi to give up her job too, but she couldn't. Instead she had thrown herself into her role with more tenacity, more resolve than Sam and Callen had ever seen. She had become detached, cold, an agent through and through, and no trace remained of the softened and happy young woman who had finally dared to believe in happy endings. Sam often wondered how things might have been different if she had managed to get pregnant, but that topic was strictly off limits. He hated to see how what had happened had changed her.

It had changed him too, Sam mused, slowing now to a walk. He missed Devin Rountree. The young agent had been impulsive, kamikaze at times. But he was bright, good fun, and he had all the makings of a great agent. Sam had thoroughly enjoyed working with him, had revelled in a new role that sat somewhere between father figure, mentor and friend. Although Devin had survived the firefight, the injury to his leg had left him walking with a limp and unable to work in the field. He had transferred to the DC office: Sam was glad he had stayed with NCIS. They still exchanged emails from time to time.

Now, Sam had just three agents in his team, and one of those was greener than Dom had been all those years ago. It had taken them so long to find Connor Hill, Sam was losing hope of ever finding a fourth team member. They had pulled Callen back into the field for a couple of tricky ops over the past few months, and each time it highlighted to Sam how hard it now was, working with anyone other than his ex-partner. Alongside Callen, he could focus on his own role. Working with Connor, Sam felt like he had to take responsibility for the safety of them both, had to watch both his front and his back. It was exhausting, and it was taking its toll.


Despite the miles he had put in before breakfast, Sam was in the office before anyone else. That wasn't always so unusual in his new role as lead agent, but this time he was there even before Nell arrived to open up. Even so, the intelligence analyst greeted him with little surprise, and made no comment when he followed her up to Ops, takeaway coffee still in his hand.

"Anything?" he asked as Nell fired up all the machines.

"Nothing from Callen, if that's what you mean."

"Of course it's what I mean… what else would I mean?"

"You're really worried about him?" Nell raised her eyebrows.

"I just can't shake this feeling," Sam admitted. "His cell kept going straight to voicemail all night."

"Heyyy, good morning!" They were interrupted by Eric arriving, cheerfully greeting them both. "You're early. Did I miss an alert?"

"No, but I was wondering if you guys had tracked Callen down yet," Sam repeated.

"What's going on with Callen?" Kensi slipped into the room. She'd arrived and noted Sam's bag on his desk down in the bullpen, and come up to find out what was going on. "I thought you said he was up in Washington again for some meetings for the next couple of days?"

"I think something has happened to him," Sam said flatly.

"What?!" Kensi exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"He rang me yesterday evening," Sam said. "At least, I'm sure it was him…" He explained the mysterious call to Kensi. "He's not answered his phone since, and no one seems to be able to explain why."

"Hang on a minute though, Sam…" Kensi said. "That's a bit of a stretch to assume something has happened… There could be any number of explanations…"

"That's what I said," Nell agreed, but to pacify Sam she began to run another trace. Her logical mind still didn't totally see the need for alarm. Although she did agree with her senior agent that it seemed a little odd Callen's phone would be at home when Callen himself should have been in Washington, in her mind, it made all the more sense then that he might have borrowed a cell if his own wasn't with him. And whilst it was rare for two to be so close together, trips to Washington weren't entirely unusual for Callen these days. It had never been unusual for him to be reclusive either.

"Maybe it's nothing…" In the company of the others, the urgency of the previous evening was beginning to seem out of place even to Sam now, but he still couldn't shake the unsettled feeling he had deep within him. With a rush of emotion he could only describe as guilt, and that he tried to hide from the others for he couldn't explain it himself much less expect them to understand, Sam had a surging desire to have Callen right there now in front on him so that he could apologise and make up for how he had treated his best friend over the past two years. He waited impatiently while Nell tapped away on her various devices.

"His phone's not responding this morning – must have run out of battery from all those calls you tried making to him," Nell teased Sam gently, but the big man wasn't comforted. "I'll get hold of Vance and find out what hotel he's staying in," she added reassuringly. "But right now we've got a bigger problem." She flashed an image up on screen. "There was a minibus of prisoners being transported to LAC* yesterday. The bus ran into some sort of accident, and all the prisoners escaped."

"How on earth did THAT happen?" Kensi asked with disbelief.

"Why are we on it, Nell?" Sam asked. He didn't want anything to get in the way of finding Callen and making sure everything was okay.

"The prisoners aren't our concern… LAPD is on it… But they found a body at the scene. Paul Ruddings. He's an ex-marine, although he left active duty some time ago, and he's been off the grid completely for two years. Preliminary investigations show he has no connections to anyone from the prison. They want us to find out where he's sprung up from all of a sudden, and why and how he's involved in this. We'll be working alongside LAPD for now…" Nell shot a sideways glance at Kensi, who remained focussed on the screen.

"Okay," Sam sighed heavily. "Kens, you okay with this?" Kensi nodded with a tight little smile. "Then when Connor gets here, take him and go check out the scene of the accident, see what you can find out. I'll go see the body, and you guys," he turned to Eric and Nell, "Find out what you can about who this dead guy is… Full background, service details, home life, everything you can. And find me Callen too okay? Something feels off about this, I want a word with him before I talk to anyone at the prison."


"Sam!" Eric yelled down the stairs, in a voice that didn't sound quite his own, to the bullpen just as Sam was zipping up his bag and preparing to leave for the morgue. Both he and the other two agents jumped in their seats, swivelling round to look up at Eric.

"What the hell, Eric!" Kensi exclaimed, reaching for some tissues to mop up the tea that she'd split. Connor, who occupied what used to be Callen's chair next to her, put a hand on her arm in a steadying gesture whilst handing her more tissues as Eric continued urgently.

"You need to come up here guys, you need to see this. NOW!"

Already rising, Sam and Kensi exchanged worried glances at Eric's tone, and they all hurried for the stairs. Rushing in through the doors, they found Eric pacing agitatedly in his dark domain. Nell huddled on her chair looking pale. She was trembling slightly, and Kensi quickly crossed to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What is it Eric?" Sam asked with trepidation. It was unlike the two techs to be so rattled.

"You're… You're not going to like it…" Eric paused, rallying his strength to deliver the bad news. "It's Callen. I've called Director Vance. He's flying down here now. It's bad, Sam, it's very bad. You need to…"

"Beale! Slow down!" Sam exclaimed, interrupting the incoherent speech. "Callen? Where? Is he with Vance? What's going on?" Sam took a breath, realising he himself needed to slow down. With one final question, he gestured to Eric to continue. "Has Callen been in touch?"

"In a manner of speaking," Eric said nervously. "A video file was wired to us live on a private channel yesterday evening, not long after we left…" He gestured clumsily to encompass Nell as well as Sam and himself, before continuing. "And don't ask me how it was sent, I don't know! It's taken me this long to decrypt it. I can't find out the source, the location, anything! But, well, see for yourself…" He pressed a sequence of buttons on his tablet, and the big screen behind him was suddenly filled with an image of their leader. An image that burned on the retinas of each of them in the room, and would haunt them for a long time to come, for never before had they seen Callen so vulnerable.

"G!" Sam breathed, and at the same time, beside him, Kensi whispered, "Oh my God!"

Sam was stonily silent, staring at the picture as if he could make eye contact with his partner – ex-partner – through the very screen itself. A million thoughts, none of them good, raced through his mind as he took in the sight of Callen, bruised, bleeding and bound, before him.

"Say it!" A voice hissed on the video, out of shot. Callen stared defiantly into the lens. His cold gaze filled the operations room where the agents and Eric stood silent, as if turned to stone in their shock.

"I said say it!" The voice in the background spoke again, louder this time, and Sam and Kensi met each other's eyes, horrified. That voice… there was no mistaking that voice.

"Sam?" Kensi's voice trembled ever so slightly.

"Let's just watch," Sam said flatly. It was all they could do.

Callen remained silent, and on the edge of the shot a hand and arm whipped into view as Callen was backhanded across the jaw. In Ops, Kensi and Nell gasped, but the men watched with resolute silence.

Even across the video feed, defiance still hung almost tangibly in the air, but eventually, Callen spoke.

"I am being held by Marcel Janvier," he said flatly, holding his direct stare into the camera lens. A trickle of blood ran down his jaw from his split lower lip. "He says he will soon have possession of the Incognito software. He wants to make a deal…"


*LAC = Los Angeles County State Prison

A/N: I'm super sorry if there's been any confusion with the timeline of this story. If I'm honest I'm still not 100% happy with bits of this chapter, but I appreciate how hard it is to follow a story when there's a large gap between chapters and so I wanted to get this one up to clarify some of the open threads. Putting this story together with all the elements in the right order when the two main characters have been in different places has been a huge headache - if anyone has struggled, it'll all slot into place more after the next chapter, and then become more linear (I hope - some bits are still being written and the plot bunnies do have a mind of their own at times!) I'd hoped I'd written enough references/overlaps between chapters to keep everyone on the same page - if not apologies, I'm still learning as a writer...!

(To me, reading it all in one block, it flows, but because I have been so slow getting each chapter up I haven't given you my readers that opportunity. So if anyone is really struggling, I suggest waiting til the next chapter and then re-reading the last few all together...)

Also sorry to anyone who thought Deeks was the 'lost agent' Joelle was referring to in my previous chapter - it never even occurred to me that readers might think that because I know I would never meddle with the characters in that way! Sorry if that spooked anyone! Deeks will appear later, I promise.