Thanks for the reviews and follows. I apologize especially in this chapter if anyone seems OOC, since this the first chapter to really include the rest of the NCIS team. I hope I have done them justice.
Warning: may include serious violence and torture.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS: Los Angeles
CHAPTER 3
Henrietta Lange sat at her desk sipping her tea as she innocently listened to her agents talk across the way at their own desks. They had been in the gym that morning, but now they sat filling out paperwork that was long overdue from previous cases.
"G, I told you not to talk about the game." Sam said.
"It was epic and we could have been there." Callen argued, his eyes leaving his paperwork and glaring in his partners direction.
"I know and I have every intention of watching the game, but you know that Michelle and I had plans last night." Sam shot back.
"But..." Callen tried to retort.
Sam cut him off. "No, G. I got the game on Tivo and I intend to watch every minute of it." He gave Callen a cold stare. " If you spoil it for me, I swear I'll..."
Kensi strolled in innocently, looking up from the phone in her hands. "Lakers kicked ass last night. Fifty-two to thirty-three." Both men starred at her. She thought for a second that fire was going to erupt from Sam's nostrils. "What, you didn't watch the game last night?"
Sam clenched his fists in anger. He didn't even realize that Kensi watched sports. "I have it waiting for me on my tivo." He said, trying to keep his cool.
"Seriously," Callen argued. "Who Tivos a game?" He and Kensi both let out a few chuckles.
Hetty smiled as her agents argued over the Lakers' game from the previous night. If she remembered correctly, it had been the start of the new basketball season. She didn't really keep up on sports though. The phone on her desk rang and she set down her tea cup gently, her gaze leaving her agents. "Lange here." She answered.
"Is this Hetty?" A deep voice asked. There was almost a panic in the man's voice.
Hetty nodded. "Yes, and to whom am I speaking with?" She inquired.
"This is Lieutenant Grant Oliver with the LAPD." He paused for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. "I'm Detective Marty Deeks' case handler."
A curious look formed on Hetty's face. "Did something happen to Mr. Deeks?" He was only supposed to go undercover with the LAPD that morning, surely something couldn't have gone wrong already.
"I'm not sure. He's missing." Grant answered. "He never showed up this morning to get briefed on this latest undercover stint and...well, we think he may have been snatched. Seeing as he's also one of your guys, we thought we should get you up to speed on things." He sighed. There was a tone of annoyance in his voice. "Typical Deeks, always in some kind of trouble."
Talking for several minutes, Grant explained what he had witnessed at Deeks car and apartment. After the call ended, Hetty went up to ops so she could brief Eric on the situation and get him started on the work that would need to be done in order to find Deeks.
Usually it was Eric who wrangled up the team and called them to ops. Callen was more than ready to hear his annoying whistle because it always meant there was a case and a case meant no more paperwork, at least for the time being. This time, however, it was Hetty wrangling them up and not with a whistle, and this time, the case was not something any of the agents would have expected. "Mr. Callen, you and you're team are needed up here immediately." She said from the top of the staircase, getting their attention.
"I guess we have a case." He said to his team. He pushed back from his desk and rose, leading his team up the stairs to the ops center.
"Eric, what do you got?" Sam asked.
"I uh..." He wasn't sure where to start.
So, Hetty started instead. "Mr. Deeks has gone missing."
Kensi was the first to react. "Wait, when did this happen? Is he ok? I..."
"Please calm yourself, Ms. Blye." Hetty said. Her own voice and body language was calm, it was always calm. She was very good at concealing her emotions, especially when the need called for it. "We think he might have disappeared early this morning."
"We?" Callen asked with a raise of his eyebrows.
"Lieutenant Oliver and I." Each agent gave her a look as if to ask mentally who Oliver was. "He was to be Deeks handler on his latest LAPD mission. Mr. Beale, I believe you can take it from here." She gestured to Eric.
Eric sighed and faced the other agents, his tablet in hand. "Deeks never showed at the precinct this morning. Oliver claims he tried to contact him for over an hour. When that failed, he decided to go to his apartment to check on him. When he arrived, Deeks car was in the lot, but his phone was smashed to pieces on the ground near the car and his gun was also on the ground." He did some quick motions on the tablet and tilted his head towards the big screen in front of everyone. Pictures appeared that Oliver had taken at the scene for evidence. "The car was unlocked, but there was no foul play inside. Oliver found Deeks wallet and badge in the glove compartment. He went up to Deeks place and the door was locked, no one was inside."
The photos on the screen showed the broken phone and the gun on the ground of the parking lot where Deeks' car was. Another was of the car itself. There was one of the inside and of the glove box in the car, where Deeks wallet and badge were. There were a few photos taken of the inside of Deeks' apartment. There seemed to be nothing out of place or at least no signs of a struggle inside.
Callen remembered back all those months ago to when Deeks had been shot. Hetty had had Eric check traffic cams outside of Deeks' place. "Can you check any of the cams near..."
Eric cut him off as he pulled a video up on the screen. "Already on it. This was around 7:30AM."
The video from the street corner at Deeks' place began to play. Deeks descended the staircase out to his car with something dangling in his hands. Probably his keys. There was a van in the lot a few spots from Deeks car, empty spots separating the two.
"Check out the white van." Sam said, thinking that it was awfully suspicious.
The video continued. Deeks reached his car, presumably putting the keys in the door to unlock it. Slowly the side door to the van opened. Deeks tensed as men from behind approach quickly. He was shoved against his car. One guy pinned him to the car as another pulled his arms back. Once his arms were tied behind him, the other guy reached for Deeks. After several more moments, they dragged a very limp detective to the van. One of the men got in with him while the other waited next to the van for a moment. They couln't see what they are doing to him once he was in the van. They saw the men exchange something, realizing a second later that it's Deeks' phone and gun. The man waiting, dropped the phone to the ground by Deeks car and smashee it hard with his foot. He fiddled with the gun, dropping the clip and gun separately. He got in the van, slid the door closed, and the van left. The video was a bit grainy, so they assumed it was the phone and gun, given what was shown in the pictures Oliver had taken. They couldn't make out the faces of anyone besides Deeks.
"The van drove north for several blocks before taking a right and that's where we lost it. Couldn't pick it up on any more cameras." Eric said when he stopped the video. "Checked the video before the abduction and it pulled into the lot at least an hour before."
"So it was waiting for him?" Kensi asked.
"It seems that way, Ms. Blye." Hetty answered.
"Did you track the plates on the van? I think there was a logo or something on the side of the van too." Sam said.
"Done and done." Eric replied. "Plates are registered to a Greg Kelly who drives a Honda Ridgeline. He called and reported his plates stolen last night." The agents tried not to show their disappointment. "The sign on the van is for a flower shop and nursery called Lilies' Garden."
"Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna. I'd like the two of you to go to the nursery, see what kind of leads you can find there." Hetty said. She glanced at Kensi. "Ms. Blye, I'd like you to stay and help Eric, since Ms. Jones is still on her vacation." She knew Kensi wasn't as technologically advanced as Eric was, but she could help analyze things at least, maybe come up with a list of people who might want to harm or get even with Deeks.
"Sending the info on the nursery to your phone guys." Eric said, making a couple of clicks on his tablet. "I've got Kaleidoscope keeping a lookout for Deeks and the van."
Callen pulled Sam's Charger into one of the gravel parking spots at the nursery in southern L.A. It wasn't a large nursery, but they could smell a variety of various plants and flowers. They both noted a small Ford Ranger in the lot with the same logo as the van that took Deeks.
They entered a small building that was attached the the nursery. "Can I help you boys?" A blonde haired, blue eyed woman asked with a slight accent. She stepped out from behind a cash register.
"I'm special agent Callen and this is special agent Hanna." Callen replied. He could see the woman tense. "We're with NCIS and we'd like to speak with the owner."
"Ah, yes. You're speaking to her." She said. This time it seemed like she was trying to conceal her accent.
Callen pulled an image up on his phone and flashed it at the woman. "Is this one of your vehicles?" He asked.
She shook her head quickly. "No." She paused and squinted at the image. "But that is our company logo." She pointed outside. Sam and Hanna followed her hand and spotted a Ford van pulling in with the company logo on it. "That's our only van. We have that and two small trucks. What is this all about?" The van in the photo was a Chevy.
Sam spoke this time. "This van was involved with a kidnapping." He explained. "One of our men was taken."
The woman formed a look of panic on her face and when the agents noticed, she tried to hide it. "I'm so sorry this has happened, but that is not one of our vehicles. Someone must have copied our logo. You're going to catch them aren't you?"
"Yeah, we'll get em. We always do." Sam assured her.
Sam and Callen finished their questioning and walked back to the car. The cold wind whipped into Callen and he would have given anything for a little sunshine. At least the rain had finally stopped. "Something seemed off about her." Callen said.
Sam nodded in agreement. "That accent...Russian?"
"Sounds like it." Callen pulled his phone out, dialing Eric.
"Yeah." Eric said.
"I want you to look up everything you can about the nursery, specifically the owner." Callen explained.
"On it." Eric replied.
Sam and Callen walked up the stairs to the ops center, hoping that Eric was able to find something out about the nursery owner. "Man, I thought Deeks would have been more careful after his shooting. I mean, I lectured him about..." Sam started to say.
Callen cut him off. "This isn't the time for that kind of talk. We find Deeks and you can lecture him again." They both walked through the door, seeing Eric with his coffee and Kensi with a doughnut.
"You know, Hetty will kill you if she found out you had food up here." Eric said to his temporary partner. "It's one of her rules, no food."
"Oh, like she'll ever know." Kensi sneered, taking the last bite of her tasty treat.
"Did you guys find anything about the shop owner?" Callen asked.
Eric tapped a few buttons on his tablet and rounded in his chair so he was facing the big screen on the wall. A California driver's license appeared of the woman the two agents had questioned. "Her name's Lillian Dmitri. She owns the nursery along with husband Isaac Dmitri." He pulled up Isaac's license. "She has no criminal record and became a citizen about sixteen years ago, which is also when she married. Maiden name is Lillian Vasily."
"Why does the name Vasily sound familiar?" Kensi asked. She had heard the name somewhere recently.
"Ah, perhaps it is because there was a Peta Vasily on the watch list that was released last week." Hetty answered from behind them. The watch list was a list of up and coming organizations, terrorists, or other criminals that the US was keeping tabs on. That was where Kensi had remembered the name from. Every few months, the list was updated and they had received a briefing on it the week before. Hetty came forward and eyed Kensi. "Are those doughnut crumbs, Ms. Blye?"
"I, what...no." Kensi argued as she took note of the crumbs on the table her elbow rested on and quickly brushed them off with her hand.
Eric shot her an 'I told you so' glare before he continued speaking. "Peta Vasily, suspected leader of the up and coming cartel simply known as Zhizn."
Callen added in. "That's the Russian word for Life."
"You think he and Lillian are related?" Sam asked.
"It's quite possible, Mr. Hanna. Perhaps she might be his daughter." Hetty replied.
Eric punched away at his tablet again. "I tried to search her records from Russia, but there's nothing on file. It's like they were whipped clean." He explained. "So I've got nothing to tie her directly to Vasily."
"Peta Vasily, he's the Russian drug smuggler right?" Sam asked, making sure he remembered correctly.
"Yes, Mr. Hanna." Hetty answered. "It is believed he is also involved with human sex trafficking and that he has brought his business over to the states."
"Alright Eric, see if you can find any ties between Lilian and Peta Vasily." Callen said with a tone of urgency. Eric whirled around in his chair facing one of the computers and started tapping away. "Also find out what you can about Vasily. Kensi, I think you should go and have a talk with Lieutenant Oliver and see if you can find out what Deeks was supposed to be working on. Maybe it has ties with Vasily or Zhizn."
"Ok, on it." Kensi replied.
Please review and let me know your thoughts. Thanks guys! I can't promise to always be this quick with the updates, what with life and all getting in the way (and a small toddler in the house), but I'll certainly try to keep them coming. I'm working on writing what I hope are the last few chapters.