Chapter Four: "Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I'll sleep more easily by night." – George R.R. Martin, "Game of Thrones"
The private Bell 412EPI helicopter landed on the beach just across from Cindy Greer's home. Santa Barbara Police and EMS had traffic stopped on Channel Drive. Callen, Sam, Damien and Kim walked from the helicopter to Deeks as he watched the doors to an ambulance close.
"Kim Martinez," she offered her hand to Deeks, "DEA, Honos."
"Marty Deeks, LAPD liaison to NCIS." Deeks pointed to Kensi, who was speaking to an EMT near the house. She was carrying a laptop. "That's Kensi Blye, NCIS."
"What have we got?" Callen asked.
"The worst smelling basement probably from here to the Canadian border. We've got ID's on two of the three men. The third isn't cooperating," Deeks told the group. "The guy with nine-fingers is one Justin Dunn, divorce attorney reported missing by both his wife and his law partner two days ago. Seems Mr. Dunn and his firm helped David Bryant shield some of his assets from ex-wife number three. Ex-wife number three was wife number three for only six months. When she wanted more than the $100K in going away money the pre-nup promised if the marriage didn't make a year, David Bryant started hiding his money."
"Lovely," Kim said.
"According to Ken Fuller, Dunn's really chatty law partner, the firm was able to hide the money legally. David Bryant left one of the accounts active after wife number three was sent on her way. The money in this account – about six million or so according to last quarter's bank statements – was to be paid out to Brandon Bryant on his 65th birthday or if Brandon was involved in a project or a career that the trustees, Dunn or Fuller, found worthwhile."
"Huh?" Damien was confused.
Deeks dusted off his law degree. "The 65th birthday clause is something wealthy people do to their useless dependents. I'll make sure you won't be indigent when you're old and maybe sick but I'm going to make sure you work all your life and not live off my hard work."
"Smart man," Sam said.
"Same thing with the worthwhile provision. After the will is written, the useless dependent gets their act together and becomes a cancer doctor or teaches poor children in rough neighborhoods – they get the money for being a better person without waiting for their 65th birthday."
"So how does the divorce attorney wind up in the basement with nine fingers?" Callen asked.
"As trustees, Dunn or Fuller had access to the account once David Bryant died. Dunn was last seen in at a local bakery – Jeannine's - two days ago. While he wasn't completely coherent with the details, it looks like Dunn ran into Brandon on the street and was invited here. Dunn's BMW is the one in the garage. Once he was here, he was beaten by our un-ID'd subject and told to transfer the money into a numbered account in the Grand Caymans. After Dunn said no, someone – my bet is on un-ID'd guy - used the bolt cutter to remove Dunn right pinkie finger with the promise that parts more near and dear to Dunn would be gone if he didn't transfer the money."
"Jesus," Kim said, shaking her head.
"As the money was being transferred, a jogger knocked on the door – he heard someone screaming and was about to call 911. That's our second ID'd guy in the basement, David Nolan. Nolan is a high school teacher, also reported missing two days ago."
"Good Samaritan, bad luck," Kensi said as she walked up. "Kensi Blye," Kensi introduced herself to Kim.
"Kim Martinez," Kim replied. "Nothing on the other guy?"
"No," Kensi answered. "Nolan said that our unknown suspect roughed him up a little, forced him into the basement with Dunn and chained them to the support beams where we found them. Once they were chained up, a young woman – who has to be Ester – thanked the unknown subject in some foreign language Nolan thought was Arabic while the young man hit him in the back of the head with a tennis racquet. The suspect was chained to a support beam across the room from Dunn and Nolan. Ester left them with a couple of ice chests with bottled water, a box of power bars each and some mop buckets to use toilets."
"What, she was making them comfortable and feeding them. Why?" Damien shook his head in surprise.
"Does anything about Brandon and Ester make sense?" Kim answered his question with a question.
Kensi went back to the basement captives. "Our unknown suspect isn't talking. He's going to the ER to have his head wound checked and to see how dehydrated or underfed he is. SBPD has him handcuffed to the gurney."
"We need to talk to him," Callen said. "Not SBPD."
"I'll stay," Sam offered. "If they keep him overnight, I can stand guard and see if he'll talk. If Ester was speaking to him in Arabic, I can question him."
"No, I'll do it," Damien told Sam. "You go home to your family. Fitzgerald won't want us talking to the guy without video and rights read. I can spend the night here. If the guy talks, I have access to a translator in New York - Jana's former Army Intelligence."
"Are you sure?" Sam asked.
"He just wants that first class ticket," Kim teased. "He can swear all he wants without us around."
"What's going on?" Deeks asked, confused about the conversation.
"Tell you later but Scott is a walking swear jar," Sam teased.
"I'd say something but it's only going to cost me money." Looking at Kim, Damien said, "Tell her majesty where I am."
"What's with the laptop?" Callen pointed to the MacBook Air in Kensi's hand.
"Found this in master bedroom under the bed," Kensi held up the laptop. Showing the others the bright pink Speck case around the computer, Kensi guessed, "Unless Brandon is ridiculously secure in his masculinity, this is probably belongs to Ester. I was going to bring it back office but Commander Rehme had me boot it up and he downloaded the hard drive remotely. I'm still bringing it back. The Commander wants Eric to work on it."
"Detective Deeks, Agent Blye," one of the SBPD officers called to Deeks and Kensi. "You need to see this."
"I've already seen the basement, why do I have to see this?" Deeks wondered.
"How bad was it?" Callen asked.
"Dunn's finger was left in a rinsed out Starbucks ice coffee cup near the bottom of the stairs. Deeks nearly kicked it," Kensi said. "When they EMT's took the towel off his hand, it looked bad – infected."
"Bolt cutters are so hard to keep surgically sterile. Plus they whole mop bucket as bathroom set-up," Deeks added. "Stunk to high hell."
"What have we got," Sam said to the SBPD member who called them over. "Hanna," he introduced himself.
"Sergeant Marcus Hinton," the SBPD officer told the group. "We took a look at the tool shed because that's not the usual place people around here have security cameras and alarms."
"And?" Callen asked.
"After you," Hinton opened the door and where the lawn mower sat was a hatch door and it was wide open.
"That can't be good," Kim said.
"No it can't," Sam agreed.
"Mags, what have you found?" Hinton yelled into the opening.
"You need to see this," a female voice called to the others.
"I really don't need to see anything else," Deeks mumbled.
Callen climbed down a ladder attached to the wall of the opening. Kim, Kensi, Deeks, Hinton and Sam followed. They found themselves in a room that was 25 feet by 25 feet with a seven foot ceiling. There were several 55-gallon drums in the room along with an industrial refrigerator, a mini-fridge with a microwave on top, a complete lab set-up, a bed and a full bathroom.
"Maggie Lopez," the woman in the room introduced herself. "I can't understand the labels on the drums."
"We have people who can," Kim started taking pictures the labels on drums.
"If you look at the back leg of the bed, there is a long chain there with some sort of leg iron," Lopez pointed to the bed.
Picking up the leg irons without touching the inside of the cuff, Kensi started pulling the chain around the room. "Whoever was kept here could sleep, use the bathroom, eat, work here at the lab table and go back to bed." Pulling the chain toward the ladder, Kensi said, "They could never get up the stairs, though. Whoever was down here, they weren't here voluntarily."
"Ester's father had a hacker and his friends kidnapped in Russia. While the hacker was held in a Russian jail, the friends were held hostage until the hacker was able to break into the staff ID system at Ramstein," Kim said. "Killed the hacker, one of the hostages too."
Deeks opened in the mini-fridge. "Red Bulls, ramen noodles, jar of peanut butter, some Ritz crackers. This looks like my law school fridge."
"Can you have someone swab the inside of the cuff?" Kensi asked Lopez. "Send the results to me at NCIS."
"Sure," Lopez nodded her head. "We're sort of out of this, aren't we? SBPD, I mean."
"I'll keep you in the loop as best I can," Deeks told his fellow local law enforcement officials. "But this is a federal case with national security implications."
"Fine with me," Hinton said. "I can't even imagine who to talk to about where a civilian gets leg irons that look like props from 'Game of Thrones'."
"I'm more interested in who built this place," Sam looked around the room. After opening the bathroom door, Sam said, "This isn't the work of amateurs. That's a working toilet, sink and shower."
"Panic rooms were all the rage around the time Cindy Greer bought this house," Hinton told the group. "But the good panic rooms are inside the house, off bedrooms or bathrooms. This is something else."
"Nothing good," Deeks said, more to himself.
"We need to see if any scientists, like chemists or chemical engineers, are missing." Callen told the others.
After climbing out of the underground room, Callen called Eric with a to do list of missing scientists and local construction companies.
x-x-x
The police presence on Channel Drive, along with a news helicopter and some lookielous from the beach, made any hope of Kensi and Deeks covertly asking around about Ester and Brandon impossible. Instead, the team, minus Damien, returned to Los Angeles.
"I got the shit beaten out of me here," Deeks said as he and Kensi walked into the decommissioned power plant.
"Are you going to be OK with this?" Kensi said, worry creeping into her voice.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Deeks said and it felt like the truth - a truth that surprised him. He walked out of this place with two fractured ribs, a sore gut and as a member of a real team for the first time in his professional life. "But if the next super-secret office location is Sidorov's auto repair shop, I'm going to start to take this personally." Deeks heard Sam chuckle. Deeks was slightly amazed he could be joking about being tortured and Sam would be entertained by it.
Nell walked up to the four OSP staffers with a bottle of Snapple lemonade and a straw.
"You two are really enjoying the new place," Kensi noted.
"Eric is on his sixth Oats and Honey Kind Bar," Nell said, laughing as she walked the team to her desk. "He is very happy here."
"Do we have anything on the third guy in the basement?" Callen asked as they got to Eric's work station. Kensi gave Eric the pink laptop.
"No prints," Eric said, pulling the fingerprint scans up on his computer screen. "Literally no prints. Burned off and the ER doctor said they were gone likely for years."
"Great." Sam sighed.
"Scott got a DNA cheek swab after a bit of a struggle according to the ER doctor who was more than just a little unnerved by today's events."
"If he didn't want to give up the cheek swab," Michael said as he rolled over to the team. "Chances are he's in somebody's system, fingerprints or not. Leo Kamali had several known associates who were like uncles to Ester. They were bad men, all of them, but they were incredibly loyal and protective when it came to Ester. If the man with Damien is literally keeping his mouth shut, there has to be some connection to Leo or Ester."
"We'll check that out," Nell sat at her computer and added the new search parameters.
Eric continued his update. "Justin Dunn is in surgery. They're trying to clean up the infections around the wound but the amputation itself was fairly clean. Whoever did it knew what they were doing."
"Probably our third man." Kim joined the conversation. "Do you have anything else?"
Eric pulled up some hospital records. "David Nolan is being kept overnight for observation. Honos plans on following him for the next days. An FBI team is being dispatched from San Francisco."
"He's either the unluckiest guy on the planet or something's hinkey." Deeks said.
"Honos had someone look at the chemical drums. Two have components used in making gasses for aerosol cans. The others can be used as a chemical preservative."
"Neither of those sound good if Brandon and Ester are planning an attack," Kensi said.
"Gets worse," Nell pulled up an FDA report. "The preservative is not an especially sophisticated one. Whatever it is supposed to preserve is only going to last for a week or two. Then it will break down."
"Could that damage the weaponized small pox?" Sam asked. "Maybe render it ineffective," he hoped aloud.
"It is more likely to damage any canisters holding the small pox if they're not properly lined," Eric dashed Sam's hopes. "If it leaks, whatever Brandon and Ester have planned could start a whole lot sooner."
There was a loud beep from Nell's laptop. "I have a match for our unknown subject."
"What do you have?" Callen said.
Nell pulled up a college yearbook photo and a photo Deeks took at the beach house. "Kamir Nassib. He was at Harvard the same time Leo Kamali was there. Nassib was pre-med, Kamali was a business major."
"Anything else in common?" Sam stared at Nell's screen. "Clubs, fraternities, causes?"
"No. Nassib went to Stanford Medical School while Kamali stayed at Harvard for his MBA. Nassib wound up working for the same NGO where Ester's mother worked. He left the organization just before Leo Kamali died," Nell said.
"The NGO probably has a DNA profile on Nassib if he was working in dangerous parts of the world," Kim said.
"As a doctor could he know something about the small pox?" Deeks asked.
Nell shook her head. "Never practiced medicine. Got his medical degree and an MBA. He was a medical administrator. He'd travel with the doctors and make sure they had everything they needed to work in places like Afghanistan, Beirut, the Sudan."
"So he would know supply houses that could ship what would be needed to weaponize small pox and to make a vaccine," Michael said.
"And being an administrator dealing with companies and countries in war zones…"
Eric finished Nell's thought, "Nassib would know exactly what companies would be sketchy enough to ship chemicals to a beach house in California, no questions asked."
x-x-x
Damien Scott walked into the power plant just after 6PM. "Where's Michael?" he asked Kim as he walked to the canteen.
Kim tossed him a bottle of cold water as he took a Kind bar. "I drove him back to the hotel about two-hours ago. I'm sure he's desperately awaiting your call."
"What's going on?" Callen said as he joined the conversation.
"The little, big boss sent in a member of the Marshal Service to the hospital. Marshal Jackson looks like he could throw a jeep through a big wall. One of the biggest humans I've ever seen."
"You're going to need to be more specific about the 'little big boss'," Deeks said as he walked into the canteen. "You've seen Hetty in-person."
"I'd heard about this Hetty Lange person over the years," Kim said. "My boss at the DEA called her an urban legend. A month after I joined Honos he was replaced by her godson. Nobody ever mentioned her again. The legend is real."
"FBI made that mistake too," Kensi chuckled as she took a Big Kat Kit Kat bar. "These are excellent."
"I'm trying to keep my figure," Damien joked. "Fitzgerald also sent over an ex-Marine who runs military housing for Vandenberg. He speaks six languages. Chances are he can question Nassib in whatever language Nassib wants."
"Well, now that we're all here, Commander Rehme is doing a debrief at 6:30," Kim told the group.
"Well, here's my report to the Commander. Nassib said nothing, wouldn't even answer the doctor's questions. He had to be restrained when I wanted the DNA swab."
"What about the other two?" Sam finally joined the group.
"The nine-fingered lawyer is expected it be physically fine for someone who started his week with ten-fingers. He woke from surgery screaming, scaring the hell out of everyone in the surgical ward."
"He's a civilian. He thought the worst he'd have to deal with is an angry spouse, unhappy with the property settlement," Deeks said. "There's no law school class for what he's been through."
"There's no class for that period," Kensi added.
"What about Nolan?" Callen asked.
Scott shrugged his shoulders. "Our good Samaritan? Seems fine. Barely a scratch on the dude."
"So are we suspicious?" Kim asked. "I'm suspicious."
Sam nodded. "I think we all are. Have to be."
"It would explain the food, water and bathroom set-up. It would also explain why the air conditioner was going full blast. Upstairs was cold but the basement was comfortable," Kensi noted.
"Wasn't that comfortable. Stunk to high hell," Deeks grumbled.
"He's a neat freak," Kensi explained.
"Not wanting to wallow in putrid aroma of cut off fingers and mop bucket bathrooms does not make me a neat freak," Deeks replied.
"Guys." Nell came into the canteen. "We're looking for you. Commander Rehme is on the big screen."
Eric was right behind her. "It is so cool."
Walking to the main area, Commander Rehme took up the left quarter of the screen. He was sitting in what looked to be a home office.
"Good to see you all," the Commander said with great affection. "I told Director Fitzgerald NCIS should be the first agency she deals with in Los Angeles."
"How is Amanda?" Sam asked.
"Terrific. She loves the East Coast. We had one big snow storm last year and on a Saturday. I don't think the young kids on our block had as much fun as she did."
"Good to hear."
"First, an update on your facility," Rehme began.
Nell grimaced. "Oh yeah, we should have mentioned this when you guys got back."
"What's wrong with our offices?" Callen asked.
"When the Director spoke with your office yesterday you may remember there was no video on our end. I was walling off some malware in your telecommunications system that was trying to breach our servers."
"We have malware?" Sam was stunned.
"Very sophisticated malware. My people were able to contain it inside your system and remove it, leaving our own malware that ultimately ends any attempt the outside code makes to rebuild itself."
"What did you find?" Callen asked.
"I gave a long report to Ms. Lange and Mr. Granger…"
"She prefers 'Miss'," Deeks said absently.
"…the malware codes looked to be Russian when we first examined them."
"Looked to be?" Eric asked.
"Yes, looked to be. When the malware tried to regenerate itself, my people were able to follow the process. It was North Korean malware that translated itself into Russian code. A very clever program, truth be told."
"Any idea how long it was in the system?" Kensi asked.
"Based on the code regeneration, I'd say summer or fall of 2014. Ms. Lange and Mr. Granger were given a full update in the SCIF in Port Hueneme. Obviously, I wasn't having this conversation with them over any of OSP's telephone or computer systems."
"Of course," Sam said.
"I promised Ms. Lange to do a complete diagnostic breakdown of your computer and phone systems once this assignment is finished."
"About that," Eric started.
"If you are the Eric Beale Ms. Lange spoke about, I've been told that all video games are to be removed with extreme prejudice. You may want to get over to your office and clean out your system but for God's sake, do not take anything from there – a thumb drive or a disc – and bring it to the crib."
"Of course not sir," Eric smiled, grateful for the reprieve. "About today, sir?"
"Starting with the laptop, it is 29-months old. According to our profiler, there is an online journaling program Ester Kamali posted to regularly. It tracks the disillusionment of Ester over that time. Morgan, the profiler, will be sending you his findings but Brandon Bryant found an adoring ear in Ester Kamali, turning her against her guardians and her friends. It seems only Brandon and Ester understood his unrecognized genius."
"Based on his grades, four colleges missed on that genius too," Damien added.
"Captains Scott and Stonebridge show up from time to time. Damien, you and Michael go from being men who had to kill her father before he could kill hundreds to men who murdered her tragically misunderstood old man."
"Yeah, that's exactly what happened," Damien shook his head disgusted.
"Photos go from selfies with her guardians and her friends to surreptitious photos of Brandon and then some photos with Brandon no father would ever want to see. After that, there was some e-mail correspondence as well in the computer. Most troubling is an email exchange with a business in Culver City, Periodical Printing."
"LAPD tried to close them down for years. They provided falsified documents – fake IDs, drivers licenses, passports. We closed them down after the Oliver Johnson case a few years ago."
"They reopened with allegedly new ownership that looks like an LLC formed by Clint Mason."
"He's doing four years for supplying Johnson with fake ID's," Sam said.
"Got out in 2015. Good behavior and overcrowding. He's not involved in Periodical Printing everyday anymore, his son-in-law David Griffin is."
"And the son-in-law probably made fake IDs for Ester and Brandon," Kim said.
"Director Fitzgerald would like you to bring both men in for questioning tomorrow. Your boat shed facility is now considered secure. She prefers the crib be kept criminal free."
"Is she still in Guantanamo?" Kim asked.
"There is a prisoner there who has been helpful in the past with certain terror financing issues. He's Russian and you know she makes the Russians nervous."
"She makes everyone nervous," Damien said.
"There is a tropical storm in the Caribbean that is making her nervous so she's looking to get out soon. She may have some questions for you to ask Mason and Griffin to ask." Rehme looked at his watch. "My day started at zero-four hundred so I'm calling it a night. I recommend you all do the same. NCIS, you are more than welcome to stay near the power plant. We have three floors of rooms in the Westin Pasadena."
"Deeks and I can stay – if something happens overnight, we'll be right here."
"You just want a staycation," Sam teased.
"We didn't get to see Santa Barbara, why not enjoy Pasadena?" Deeks replied.
"You can figure out your sleeping arrangements, I'm looking forward to mine," the Commander told the group. "I'll be in the office at zero-five hundred Eastern Time but if you need something, call."
"Yes sir, good night." Sam said just before the Commander disappeared.
"If they have forged passports, they could be anywhere," Kensi said.
"I'll start a facial recognition search for Ester and Brandon in airports in the US and start moving out from there. It can run overnight and hopefully be done tomorrow when we get in," Nell told the group.
"Run a search of the Beirut airports. Also Park Tower Suites," Damien told Nell. "It is the best hotel in Beirut. Brandon doesn't seem to be a Motel 6 kind of guy."
"You may want to add known associates of both Leo and Dina Kamali. If Nassib was someone who worked for the same organization as Ester's mother, there may be other people from her parents' pasts looking to help. And the people Leo knew were all trouble" Kim added.
"Back here at six tomorrow," Callen said.
"I'll tell Michael ten," Damien looked at Kim. "Pace him."
"We're going to have a little talk tonight," Kim said. Turning to Kensi and Deeks, she asked, "Two rooms?"
"One is fine," Kensi said.
"Oh," Kim seems a little surprised, Damien more impressed.
"We'll take a room, too," Nell said.
"Nell and I share a room at ComicCons and RenFaires all the time," Eric added a bit too quickly.
"What the fu….hell is a RenFaire?" Damien asked.
"You don't want to know," Callen said with a sigh.
"There is a whole world out there you know nothing about, Scott," Kim teased.
"And I like it that way."
x-x-x
Walking into their junior suite, Kensi looked around and smiled. "A lot better than some of the places you've probably stayed in the past."
"Not a bad room," Deeks replied as he walked into the bathroom. He returned with the complimentary bottles of water the concierge at the front desk promised.
"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?" she asked as she made herself comfortable on the king-sized bed.
"What are you talking about?"
"For a man who wears Artie for days on end and who sleeps in filthy alleyways on one hundred degree days, you were really bothered by the smell of that basement."
"It stunk."
"No, the durian you cut open in the office stunk. It was foul today but it wasn't that bad."
"No, it was awful."
"You saw yourself in Justin Dunn," Kensi told him.
"What?" Deeks leaned on the desk across from the bed. "What are you talking about?"
"Dunn wasn't prepared for what happened to him…"
"No one's prepared for what happened to him."
"Agreed, baby," Kensi told him. "Completely agree. And nobody would have been prepared for what happened to you and Sam. Then we're in a secret place where someone was tied to bed. You were strapped down to a chair in Sidorov's garage."
"Yeah, well," Deeks knew Kensi was on to something.
"And then we walked into another place where you were beaten."
"No, I'm actually good with the power plant. Callen showed up, I got to go home after I was pretty sure I wasn't going home."
"Deeks," Kensi said, tilting her head.
"I probably saw more of myself in Justin Dunn than I expected. But the room still stunk. The power plant, Kens, that was different. I started feeling better when I got there. I didn't see the place where I took a beating, I saw the place where Callen walked in and I knew I wasn't going to die. I saw the window where you shot the bodyguard." Deeks joined her on the bed. "Nothing but good memories about that place."
"You can tell me if you're having problems with the case. I've always got your back."
"That was never in doubt." Deeks leaned in and gave her a long kiss. "Driving over, I was thinking about finding some decent food. Now I'm thinking maybe a shower and some room service. You need to see just how nice that bathroom is. Big shower, couple of body spray jets, a nice handset – all good."
Kensi kissed him. "Everything's all good when I'm with you." Standing up, Kensi pulled off her shirt and tossed it at his head. "See you in the shower."
-30-
