All characters and all rights at 'NCIS: Los Angeles' belong to CBS and Shane Brennan Productions. The following story does not serve any commercial purposes, but was written only for the pleasure of fans. An injury of Copyright is not intended. All further persons belong to the authoress.

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Chapter 8 - No Time For Breaks

Mason Flynn. Thoughtfully Hetty gazed into space. She had not expected to hear that name ever again. He was a ghost from her past. To describe him as 'interesting' was an understatement. The man was dangerous and always surrounded himself with hazardous and dangerous friends or partners. Hetty looked over to the bullpen. There, the colleagues teased each other sedulously and laughed together. For a moment Hetty forgot her concerns and was only relieved that she finally could hear laughing from the bullpen. The past few weeks, an uncomfortable silence had dominated there. With a sigh Hetty got up. After a quick glance around, she discovered Nell in the corner of the technicians.

"Miss Jones, I want you to check someone for me." Hetty held out a file to Nell.

"Sure, Hetty." Nell studied attentively the contents of the file. Then she looked at Hetty. "That's him?"

"Probably, Miss Jones. You have to be very, very carefully. He must not notice the investigation. And also no one else."

Nell looked thoughtfully at her boss. Then she nodded. "Of course."

Eric had not realized how time had passed. Groaning, he stretched himself and decided that it was time for a coffee. Not before Eric was out of the ops, he realized that it had to be pretty late. He glanced at his watch. It was well after midnight. Eric paused for a moment on the railing and looked through the large room. Only in the technician corner was a light, everything else was not illuminated. No wonder, at this time only the colleagues of the night shift were at headquarters. Eric slowly went down.

"Nell? What are you doing here so late?"

"That could I ask you, too." Nell slammed her laptop, her face was expressionless.

Eric was confused. "I'm still working through the results of Abby and McGee. Actually, you wanted to help me." The confusion gave way to easily upset. "Can I still count on your help?"

"Of course, as soon as I finished my work." Nell did not get worked up.

Eric looked sharply at his colleague. "I've got my work done and then I took care of the data from Washington. What are you doing?"

"Just my work."

Shaking his head Eric ditched his colleague and went to the coffee machine. When Nell did a special job for Hetty, she always behaved very strangely. Eric was supposed to be used to it, but it still bothered him every time

"Women!"

Eric disappeared into the ops.

Nell watched him go. Sometimes it was not easy to do special jobs for Hetty. They created a certain distance from her colleagues. In this case, she would like to ask Eric for help. The search proved difficult, and Eric would have been a great help. Softly sighing Nell opened her laptop once more and went on.

The night was short and most of the team members were not well rested. Accordingly, the talks turned out scanty. Only Callen showed no signs of a lack of sleep and arrived first at the headquarters. He was sitting with a cup of tea on the couch, reading a newspaper. However, he had thought of his colleagues and made coffee. With a sigh of relief Joann poured herself a cup of coffee. Then she had to leap aside to get out of the way of Kensi and Deeks. The two rushed to coffee and donuts, as if they were starving and dying of thirst. Shaking her head, she sat down next to Callen.

"Always these children..." Joann put her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes.

Callen chuckled. "How much coffee have you already drunk?"

"None, G. I had tea for breakfast." Joann opened her eyes and looked piercingly at Callen. "If you had been at home, you would know that."

"Did you forget it? I had an appointment with the doctor this morning. Because of my ability to service."

"Oh, no! I did indeed! G, I'm terribly sorry!" Joann was seriously upset. How could she forget this important appointment? "What did the doctor say?"

Callen screwed up his face. "He believes I am not ready. He sends a corresponding report to Hetty."

"Damn! And where do we go from here?"

"Wait, what Hetty will say. Maybe she lets me be on office duty, like Deeks." Callen made a face. "Maybe I'd better stay home."

Joann snorted in disbelief. "And what would you do there? You won't stand it for about five minutes, with the knowing of what's going on." Joann's mouth twitched. "It will surely do you good to spend some time with Deeks." The twitching became a broad grin. "Maybe you can even teach him something. Or the other way around!"

With great difficulty Callen kept a straight face. Joann took his hand.

"G, I'm sincerely sorry that I forgot the appointment. That is unforgivable."

He gently squeezed her hand. "You've been through a lot and there's still a lot on your plate. It's okay." Callen smiled at her lovingly. "I could have awaken you this morning, Jo, so you could accompany me. But I thought it was more important that you sleep a little longer. All's well."

Joann answered the handshake and sighed quietly. She sipped her coffee and listened to the debate between Kensi and Deeks. Callen went back to his newspaper. A few minutes later, also Sam and Ray arrived. The joint rescue from Callen had changed their relationship. Now Sam regarded Ray as an equal colleague, whom simply lacked the years of work experience. Joann had been very relieved by this change, because it significantly improved the teamwork. Ray joined Kensi and Deeks, which put an end to their dispute. Sam got across to them.

"What did the doctor say, G?"

Callen lowered the newspaper a bit, briefly glanced at Sam and then became engrossed into the newspaper again.

"Oh, that bad?" Sam did not yield.

Sighing Joann got up and left her place to Sam. Dwelled on her thoughts she filled her coffee mug again.

"Yeah! I am the greatest!"

Joann winced at this loud cry and poured the coffee on the counter instead of in her cup. Kensi choked on her breakfast burrito and gasped for air. Ray and Deeks interrupted their conversation. Startled, all four looked up to the gallery. Only Sam and Callen did not let disturb them.

"What's that noise?" Hetty stepped out of her office and looked around.

Nell stepped out of the technician's corner. She had dark shadows under her red eyes and her normally carefully styled hair looked like a rat's nest. "That was Eric. It seems that he had found something in the data of Abby and McGee."

"And what about you, Miss Jones? Have you found something?"

Nell nodded. "Some, but not as much as I'd hoped. Mason has very powerful partners. One of them is an old acquaintance of us."

The analyst gave Hetty a file. When she read the familiar name, Hetty threw a questioning glance at her employee.

"Are you absolutely sure about that, Nell?"

"Yes, without a doubt. I've checked it several times."

Hetty nodded and then went upstairs to the ops.

"I think we should check out what roiled Eric so much." Joann had wiped up the coffee and followed Hetty with her gaze. "I have the feeling that something important is happening." Joann set her coffee mug aside and walked to the ops.

After a brief exchange of glances, the remaining team members got up and followed the two women.

"What is this uprising, Mr. Beale?" Normally, Hetty was very patient with Eric, but now she seemed easily irritated. "We already had clarified the issue about loud statements." She threw a quick glance at Joann.

"I know where our enemy is!"

With this exclamation Eric had immediately the undivided attention of everyone present.

"Where? And do you also know who it is?" Callen approached Eric.

"No, I have no clue who he might be. But based on data from Abby and McGee and our own, I could find out the location which was the origin and destination of the data. It is a small ranch at Leona Valley." Broadly grinning Eric let appear a map on one of the smaller monitors. "There is the ranch. I expect satellite images every moment. I can show you more then."

"What exactly did you find out, Mr. Beale?"

"The data from Washington have included the piece in the puzzle of what we've lacked. So I was able to follow the data track. The power consumption at the ranch is unusually high, especially because the ranch is no longer in operation. I'm still trying to figure out who owns the ranch. Officially it is a holding company, but who's behind it, I don't know yet. There are just too many shell companies."

Nell gave Hetty a questioning look, who nodded briefly.

"I think I can help you further. Flynn Mason is behind the holding company and all the shell companies, a criminal of enormous proportions. Initially he worked for the CIA. But after he has used his job to deal in weapons, drugs and stolen goods, he was fired. Mason has disappeared before he could be brought to justice. He did his own thing anyway, and thereby became rich. Until Hetty has caught him. His property was confiscated and he has been in jail for a long time. After he was discharged, his track got lost for a few years. Then he emerged like a phoenix from the ashes, on the side of a few powerful figures from the underworld. One of them we know. Walter van Pietso."

"To what extent is van Pietso involved in our problems?" Accustomed expressionless Callen had listened to Nell's lecture.

"He has given Mason start-up capital for new business. He also procured him one or the other contact. Including the hacker who has sneaked in at us. For this Mason procured him clients and arranges businesses." Nell now looked directly into Callen's eyes. "It has been van Pietso's contacts that made your life so difficult. And Mason still has ties to the CIA. So he could slip you the transmitter."

Callen nodded. "What about the FBI and the L.A.P.D.?"

Nell shrugged her shoulders. "Everywhere people are corruptible. Mason and van Pietso have enough contacts to get in all the authorities in which they want, even in a roundabout way. I need to follow some tracks to find out everything. This will be..."

"There are satellite pictures! We can see the ranch now!" Eric interrupted Nell and put the pictures on the big screen.

Immediately the attention of everyone turned there.

"Looks like an ordinary ranch." Sam pointed to the building. "The main house, a barn, this could be a horse stable. Here, these are probably small houses for the employees. Only one vehicle. At least from this perspective, the whole thing seems harmless."

"Show us the thermo graphic pictures, Eric."

"Right away, Callen."

Joann moved a step closer to the monitor. "This looks really interesting..." Frowning, she looked at the pictures.

Ray came up to her. "Doesn't look as there are horses in the stable. It seems to me more likely to be cars. Unless horses are newly cornered."

"Yes, and look here. The barn is completely without heat signature. It must be extremely insulated."

"Why should you insulate a barn, Joann?" Deeks was amazed. Although he has been raised in the city, it seemed to him absurd to insulate a barn.

"To hide something." Callen sounded very sure.

"Something that emits heat or cold." Sam stepped up to Callen.

"Computer. On the amount of data, which Mason needed to process, it took more than a notebook. Thereto a lot of computing power is needed. There could be hidden a small data center." Ray sounded very convincing.

Eric nodded. "I think Ray is right. This goes well with some information that I could dig up. Some time ago, fiber optic cables on the use of high speed Internet were laid to the ranch. It was quite expensive and very complicated."

"And in the age of wireless Internet, it's also really unnecessary."

"No, Kensi. Wireless is easier to hack. And from the ranch wirelessly would be possible only via satellite. But this is not nearly as fast as the fiber optic cable. For that what Mason was planning, he definitely needed a fast connection."

"Okay, guys, let's come straight to the point. Everything indicates that Flynn Mason is there on the ranch. So we should make our way there. We need at least one and a half hour." Deeks came directly to the matter.

"Moreover we need support. We can't be sure how many people are on site. The pictures show only half a dozen, but there may be more." Even Kensi wanted desperately to act .

"Eric, show us the whole area. As a thermal pictures, please."

"Sure." Quickly the computer technician followed Joann's demand.

"There are guards. Strategically well placed. It won't be easy..." Sam looked thoughtfully at the new pictures. "Switch for normal vision, Eric."

"Difficult terrain. Good to monitor. Hard to get in there without being seen. Probably the buildings are all well protected. Doesn't look as if we could be successful with a surprise attack." Thoughtful Callen analyzed the situation. "Eric, can you get access to Mason's computer from here?"

"I've already tried. He is well protected. When I try a quick access, he will notice it. I need time to come in. And that's what we probably don't have, right?"

Callen shook his head. "No. Deeks and I are still alive, Ray is again part of our team, and Hetty is still head of the OSP. Every single part of his plan has failed. He wanted to mess Hetty up, instead we got on to him. Mason is certainly clear in his mind that we will find him soon. Maybe he is starting to pull up stakes."

"He will certainly try to save as much data as possible. When he realizes that this won't work, he will erase everything. As soon as you set off the alarm, everything is gone."

Callen nodded. "Got it, Eric. Okay, guys, we have to get in there. Quick and silent. It is our aim to eliminate Flynn Mason. But we also want to save as much data as possible. We may be able to convict some of his 'business partners'." Then he turned to his superior. "Hetty, we need more people and helicopters."

"Of course, I'll take care of it immediately." Hetty left the ops and went to her office.

"And we need a good plan of attack. Right now."

With the help of satellite images, the team started its work.