The intelligence has come in a couple of hours earlier from LAPD, Eric had gotten the call from the tech guys at about 2am and knowing the importance of the information he had gone straight to work to begin his own analysis. He was already at his desk when Hetti called, he was reviewing the footage for any information regarding where it may have been filmed. He quickly realized the videos were of little value other than to make him sick so he turned to the two hundred or so pages of scanned documents while he waited for the rest of the team. The documents were written in code, he hoped Nell would hurry up, she was good with codes.
Everyone was gathered in MTAC to review what LAPD had sent over from the drug bust four hours ago. They were all well aware that the calendar on the wall said Deeks had been missing 73 days so they were optimistic but reserved. Sam and Callen stood nursing large cups of coffee, Nell was moving around booting up the last of the equipment, while Eric continued to work away at his computer. Nate had brought Kensi in, she sat in Nell's chair. In the last few days Kensi had been having trouble sleeping, they could all see the physical effect it was having on her. Hetti was the last to arrive.
"Mr. Beil, you may begin." Said Hetti.
"At about midnight LAPD busted a distribution house of the Mexican Meth Ring that is suspected of capturing Deeks, and this is what they turned up." He pressed play on his computer. "There is about 40 hours of footage, the most recent dating to a couple of days ago according to the time stamp. This is just a small sampling of the video, I can't watch most of it."
Deeks was being tortured for information and everyone on the room was moved by the pain he was suffering. Kensi was shaking, Nate had his hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her.
"That's enough." Said Hetti after noticing the Kensi was about to lose all emotional control.
Eric shut the video off.
"LAPD is looking at the video and I am having the computer look at anything it can recognize. I'm more interested in the ledgers, it includes a whole list of coded addresses."
He tapped a few buttons, "I just haven't had enough time to crack it."
And the codes were displayed.
"We have to find him." Said Kensi.
"We know. " said Callen calmly.
"GPS coordinates" said Nell.
"That's what I thought, but they don't make sense."
"Nell." Said Eric.
Nell pulled up the rest of the coding and started working. When Eric could see what she was doing he went to help. They were like that, their minds worked that same way. Everyone watched them work.
"I would put my money on this address." Said Eric pulling up a set of coordinates deep in the Boarder Lands.
"What do we know about this place?" asked Sam
"Nothing, but give me 20 minutes, I have a friend who works with the Navy Key hole satellites who owes me a favor." Said Eric.
"Have at it." Said Hetti.
Eric grabbed the phone, Nell continued to work away at the codes. Callen and Sam went back to their desks to begin planning, hopefully this was the lead they had been waiting for. Kensi followed slowly, she was unsteady on her feet and exhausted. Callen hung back and walked with her back to her desk. She was understandably nervous and on edge, but wanted to be included in the operation.
An hour later everyone was gathered again in MTAC, the big screen showed the satellite feed, while the smaller screen showed a young woman, a Navy Lt.
"Everyone, I would like you to meet Lt. Kathryn McKay." Said Eric.
"Ms. Lang." responded Kathryn to the arrival of Hetti in the room.
"Lt. McKay, I see Eric has recruited your services again."
She smiled.
"Okay, the coordinates you gave me show a small building, probably a cabin with 8 moving bodies, 4 seem to be on patrol and four more in the cabin."
"What about the ninth?" asked Callen.
"I was just getting there, my best guess it that it's your missing agent and he is being kept underground."
Everyone looked at each other.
"I've got my system running diagnostics, you can have the feed from a couple of hours." Kathryn could read the officers faces through the camera. "I will see if I can get you more time."
"Thank you." Said Hetti.
"Anytime," Kathryn paused. "Eric next time I'm in LA I want to that room of yours."
Hetti looked at Eric as the connection was broken.
"Hey, her clearance is plenty higher than mine." Responded Eric.
"People, we have op to plan." Said Sam.
Everyone understood the urgency of the situation, Kensi pushed her personal issues aside and put her professional skills to use. Everyone could see that it was difficult for her to think of this as just another operation.
Using a pair of bolt cutters Sam popped the lock on the cellar, Callen swung the doors open. Sam shone the flashlight into the small room, a body lay in the corner of the room. It was alive, he groaned at the light of the flashlight. Sam and Callen pulled Deeks from the confines of the cellar where he had been held for going on four months. He looked awful, but he was alive. He was covered in bug bites, bruises, open and infected wounds, and smelled like he had been living with his own waste.
"He's alive." Said Callen over the radio.
He could hear Kensi's sigh of relief at the news.
"Hey guys, I can't tell you how good it is to see you." Said Deeks trying to be his good humored self.
"It's good to see you too." Said Callen.
"Kensi?" asked Deeks with what little strength he could muster as Callen and Sam carried him to the waiting ambulance. "Where's Kensi?"
His voice clearly indicated that he was suddenly scared.
"Deeks, Kensi back at the ops center." Said Callen trying to calm him down.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"She's fine, you have nothing to worry about."
It was an outright lie but it did what it needed to do. The paramedics loaded Deeks and took him away with an LAPD escort. He was in bad shape. LAPD and ATF continued to secure the scene. The operation had been less about tearing down the drug operation and more about getting Deeks back. Kensi had watched the whole thing go down from MTAC with Hetty, Nate, Nell, and Eric. She had wanted so much to go with Sam and Callen but her current situation precluded such behavior. Nate stayed at her side the whole time, when they found him the relief she showed was not complete. She still had a huge hurdle to overcome before she could start healing.