Author's Note: Cross-posted on AO3

Xxxxxxx

Nowhere Fast

Chapter 7

Hobbling along on the crutches was awkward and uncomfortable due to the wounds on his upper arms and his ribs respectively. Callen grunted with displeasure when he was confronted with the stairs that would lead up to the ops center.

He drew a measured breath and was about to start up when Hetty's figure appeared beside him, Sam's presence withdrawing at the same time. Callen followed his partner's retreating figure with his eyes before he turned to his mentor and glanced down, finding her weathered gaze on him. It was rare to see the worry in her eyes, then again, he guessed it was rare to see the emotions in his own as well. They stared at each other for a few moments before Hetty turned and pointed in another direction, away from the stairs.

"No need to go up, Mr. Callen. We can always reconvene downstairs," she told him with a small smile.

He would have argued, but actually it sounded good not to have to navigate the stairs right now, so Callen conceded with a nod and turned around to hobble over to the bullpen. He glanced at his partner when Sam looked up from his computer, watching him openly.

"I'm alright," Callen reassured him when he carefully lowered himself into his chair, ignoring the eye roll that Sam sent his way.

Leaning the crutches against the table, anything else he might have said got lost when the sounds of Kensi and Deeks bickering reached him. Callen glanced up, watching the junior partners make their way down the stairs with Nell and Eric on their heels.

Callen didn't jump when Hetty appeared soundlessly behind him, long used to her presence and tendency to just pop up.

After a round of greetings, they got down to business, Nell and Eric bringing them up to speed with what they had found so far - which wasn't much despite the hours since he had last been briefed while still in hospital.

They had identified the three men that Callen had killed in the hut in the middle of nowhere, but other than confirming that they belonged to the radical group that Ossam was leading and when they had entered the country, their identities didn't help them much. Satellite data showed that someone had been at the hut before Torres and his team got there, but the wonder twins hadn't managed to follow the car, so they had also lost that lead.

Kensi and Deeks had checked the evidence brought back by Torres' team but there had been nothing else in the hut that gave them any leads, so they were basically back to square one.

Callen closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, wishing away the headache from the concussion. Still, the pain wasn't bad enough to keep him from contemplating the state of things.

They knew of the hut where he had been held in the end, but that lead ran cold because the building had been purchased under a false name and paid for with a bank account that didn't exist anymore, and which also led to nowhere.

The evidence from the hut and the three dead men didn't help them either.

There was still an upscale yacht somewhere out there with stealth technology they needed to find and Aziz Al Ossam who was the leader of a violent group trying to… do what exactly.

He and Kensi had been taken from a gala in a possible set-up. Their captors had been interested in the upcoming conference and had later, by using Callen's access codes, tried to get into their systems… to do what?

"When they gained access to the dummy database," he started, blinking his eyes open and finding everyone's attention shifting to him, away from the quiet discussion that had gone on in the background while he was busy contemplating his own thoughts, "what were they looking for?"

Eric typed in some commands, and everyone turned to the screens when the new information rolled over the monitors.

"After familiarizing themselves with the structure, they specifically looked for information on what we have on the Liberation Front before checking for information on a rival group," Eric mused.

"They also looked for troop presences in Yemen and Syria and tried finding out if we had undercover operatives or CIs in those regions," Nell added.

Callen mulled over that, distantly listening to the discussion of the others on those facts but found it didn't make sense to him. "Did they look for schedules or security measures of the upcoming conference?"

Both Eric and Nell shook their heads, "those weren't in the database," Eric shrugged.

"Did they look for it? Can you check their search history?"

Eric looked mildly insulted at his question. "It's my database. Of course, I can check their search history. I can tell you each backstroke they made because they mispronounced an english word," Eric grumbled while bringing up the search history.

Callen bit back the smile, briefly glancing over towards his partner and finding the same amusement in his eyes. He turned back towards the screen when the search history came up. His eyes followed the words, checking for outliers or anything that didn't make sense.

There was silence as everyone's eyes hung on the screen, taking in the data and trying to make sense of it.

"Harpocrates," Nell muttered after a few moments of silence and everyone turned to her, waiting for her to elaborate. Her fingers flew over the tablet and moments later, the screen changed to that of a bronze statuette of a figure with his finger on his chin, the fingertip just below the lips of his mouth.

Everyone turned back to Nell in question.

"You got a thing for the pensive thinking types, Nell?" Deeks asked, snickering at the dark gaze both techs sent his way.

"Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child god Horus. He was the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality," Nell explained, not dignifying Deeks' comment with a verbal comeback.

"So, a Greek geek?" Deeks smirked, arching a suggestive eyebrow.

"Silence, secrets and confidentiality?" Kensi echoed over her partner's voice, giving him a mild shove to shut him up.

Both Sam and Callen ignored their Detective and turned towards each other. "That's a rather specific search term," Callen mused.

"Was that a shot in the dark…?" Sam wondered slowly.

"… or is there a confidential Navy project with that name?" Callen finished his partner's thoughts before they both turned back to the techs.

Both Eric and Nell turned back to their tablets and started searching, coming up empty though.

Everyone turned towards Hetty in askance.

"Nell, get me SecNav on the phone," Hetty ordered calmly and without waiting for a response, she turned and headed over to her office space.

Callen turned back to the monitor and scanned the search history. 'Harpocrates' had been the third to last search. "Eric," he called, bringing the tech's attention back to him, "see if there's anything in our real database for the last two search terms they keyed in."

Information rolled up on the screen and this time, the two words indeed heralded success, detailing two naval projects. Both were mid-level classified. One was basically an upgrade for an existing missile system and the other were plans for a Naval exercise in the Persian Gulf. Neither of them were part of the dummy database.

"So, I guess we can assume that Harpocrates is probably a confidential project and not just a shot in the dark," Deeks surmised, once more focused on the topic at hand.

"They were testing the database and after finding out it wasn't real, they left off," Sam added.

Callen rubbed a hand over his forehead, somewhat careful because of the still aggravated and reddened skin. The sunburn would take a while to fade. It was still radiating heat.

"The two last projects are not highly confidential," Nell threw in her two scents, having returned to the fold after following Hetty's order of placing a call to SecNav.

"Maybe not highly confidential, but still confidential. And if Harpocrates is indeed a project, then that one is definitely highly confidential since we don't have it in our database. So, we have to assume that they have some inside information," Callen surmised, watching the grave nods all around.

"Great," Deeks muttered darkly under his breath, "just another day in the Office of Special Projects then. What else is new?"

Callen arched an eyebrow at the frustrated outburst of their usually pretty upbeat Detective. His eyes slid over to Kensi and he noted her posture before his eyes slowly checked up on all of this team. They were all frazzled. They were functional, but the last few days had been hard and had shaken each and every one of them. Ossam's attack had been personal to this team, and they all took it to heart. He made a split-second decision to diffuse and distract. "Let's take a break. We could all use some food."

At the moment, they didn't have the right information to make the correct deductions. All of them were rattled and in this state, no one would make the right leaps to advance their case.

Xxxxxxx

Spirits were more relaxed after a break taken together. While Callen was essentially an unsocial being, shying away from close contacts and firm connections, he had by now found the value in having this team close.

The years of working here had mellowed him somewhat, but at the same time they had strengthened him. These people had proven their trustworthiness to him over and over again and they had rallied around him even in his darker moments. They had been through some dark times together and had pulled through.

Callen glanced over when his partner nudged his arm. He saw the offering of two inconspicuous pills in Sam's outstretched hand: painkillers and antibiotics. He knew he wouldn't get around the antibiotics, but he briefly wondered if he should protest the painkillers. Allowing himself a moment of introspection, he found his body exhausted and hurting. So, before Sam could press the issue, Callen reached over and took both pills out of his partner's hand, washing them down with the glass of water he still held.

There was a pleased and relieved smile that played over Sam's lips. Callen was able to decode it for the gratitude at being given Callen's trust. He gave his partner a wordless nod before returning his attention to the rest of his team that remained unaware of the brief moment between partners.

He followed their conversation without focusing on it, allowing his own mind to drift.

Hetty had confirmed that 'Project Harpocrates' was indeed a highly confidential project revolving around stealth technology. They would be briefed on that in a little more than an hour at the boatshed. Callen jolted and sat up straight.

Silence fell around the table and all eyes turned to him.

"Hetty said that 'Project Harpocrates' was a cooperative project between Navy, Air Force and the Pentagon. It's based in Washington," he said.

Everyone nodded, not yet following his train of though.

"Why will we be briefed in the boatshed if it's based in Washington? A secure connection would be the way to go, and we could do that from Ops," he elaborated.

This time he did jump a little when Hetty suddenly spoke up behind him, "because several key personnel from that project are here in LA for the upcoming meeting we were working on."

Everyone turned towards Hetty and she shrugged, "I wondered the same thing and put out some feelers. The conference was a good cover for the brass to further some of the more delicate aspects of 'Project Harpocrates'."

"So, it's reasonable to assume that Ossam and his men are after the technology and what's worse, they are after the key figures," Kensi reasoned.

"The conference isn't for two more days. Why are they already here and why haven't we been informed?" Callen asked sharply, "we need to immediately assign a protective detail."

Again, Hetty gave a slow nod. "Miss Jones, an email detailing the whereabouts of Lt. Andrew Thon, Lt. Charlotte Darper and Lt. Col. Jeremy Francis should be arriving any minute now," she glanced around at the field agents while there was a soft chime coming from Nell's tablet, "go and take them into protective custody."

When Callen made to stand, Hetty threw him an unimpressed glare. "Not you, Mr. Callen."

He met her eyes, unable to hide his frustration as he sank back down into his chair. He knew she was right, but he hated being put on the sidelines.