Interstate 90- 46 miles south of Seattle, Washington
"Matthew?"
No answer.
"Matthew?"
Callen looked up at the second call of his cover name. Kate was sitting right next to him, worryingly staring at the agent. Callen was in such a state of shock at the news headline that it was as if he had become petrified. He had never reacted to anything like this in his many years as an agent, but then again, he had never had so much on the line at one time. The agent couldn't shake out of his daze until Kate began to slowly wave her hand in front of his face.
"Yoo-hoo!" the teenager sang. "You still in there, Matthew?"
Callen blinked nervously and stammered, "Ah, yeah. Sorry about that- did you say something?"
"Yeah! You looked like you saw a ghost after I gave you my iPad. Are you ok?" Kate asked. Callen looked down to the iPad screen and back up to Kate. The teenager was batting her eye lashes in ways that Callen thought that she was one step shy of hugging him. This girl is attaching to me way too quickly, he thought. We have to shut this down.
Callen looked back down to the iPad and scanned the article as fast as he could. When he finished, Callen handed the tablet back over to Kate and mumbled, "I'm ok. Thanks for that."
"You sure?"
Callen nodded and scooted back over to the window. He held up a hand before Kate seconds before he could see Kate reaching to grab her stuff to come sit with him. "I'm actually going to get some rest, Kate. I'll talk to you later."
Kate nodded her head quickly and curled up in her seat with the iPad. Callen took her distraction as a relief and decided that he needed to run through everything in his head. He slipped on headphones to make it seem as if he were listening to music. He then closed his eyes and leaned his head against the window to think about what he had learned from the article.
Unnamed NCIS agent
Arrested at unnamed airport
Quick arrest
No witnesses
NCIS plans to bring justice
Overall, little to no details, which barely gives me anything to go on. Let's go through some scenarios
Callen started with the worst case scenario- If Deeks had been arrested, Granger wouldn't be so secretive about it. The assistant director would be on every talk show, news station, or even a street corner to brag about catching the agent who had 'committed treason'. The agent began to worry until he remembered that Kensi and Deeks were traveling together and that the news had said only one agent had been arrested.
That left Sam.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Kensi was a complete mess.
After flying into New Mexico with Deeks a few hours ago, both agents had boarded a bus that would take them to their final destination in Goldfield, Nevada. Their flight was so smooth and easy that both agents had been able to let their guard down a little, which led to continuous flirting, Deeks ranting about the end of the world, and Kensi trying her hardest not to strangle her rambling partner. Getting on the bus was easy and it had looked like a simple 12 hour bus ride until they reached Flagstaff, Arizona.
The bus pulled up for a 2 hour lunch break at a plaza that had been filled with shoppers, police cars, and FBI SUVs. On the fly, both agents had decided to get off the bus and stay out of sight until the bus would leave again. There was no doubt in either agent's minds that their pictures had been sent to every law enforcement agency in the country.
The agents separated at the bus stop and planned to meet in the library next to the plaza ten minutes before they were supposed to leave on the bus. On her way to the library, Kensi had stepped into a gas station buy a few snacks for the road. When she had gone to pay, she had heard the news about the arrested agent for the first time. Her first thought had gone to Sam or Callen, but the presence of FBI made Kensi begin to worry if Deeks being out in public would put him in danger of being arrested.
Oh crap. Oh crap! Kensi silently panicked as she walked up the steps of the library at the set meeting time. A woman in a FBI jacket was standing at the top of the stairs with a Flagstaff police officer. With her eyes hidden behind the Chicago Bears hat she wore, Kensi quickly sat down on the stairs and pulled out a book she had grabbed before running off to Algeria. Her heart was racing out of control as she listened in on the FBI agent and officer's conversation.
"There's no way that Hermain is going to hide in a library."
"You never know."
Kensi flipped through the pages of the book quickly. She took the mention of Hermian, a drug dealer that was terrorizing cities in the Southwest, to be an indicator that the FBI wasn't in town for the agents. Sounds like Deeks and I are ok!
"Hermian isn't gonna do anything in Flagstaff."
"Well, you know it wasn't my decision. Frequent sightings have my boss on edge. That's why the FBI's here."
"I know. Hell, if I were you, I'd rather be out hunting down those agents than waiting around for some punk."
"Yep, at the rate and speed NCIS is going at, there might not be any agents out there by the time we're done with this. I saw a picture of the agent from my boss- the guy they caught is big. Like body builder big."
It was confirmed- Sam was in custody.
Kensi felt her heart drop and glanced down to her watch. There was 2 minutes left before Deeks was supposed to show. Come on, Deeks. Now's not the time to be right on time or late…..