A month? Wow. I'm sorry. I didn't realize how much time had passed. I got stuck. I don't remember how many times I've redone this. I sort of lost the story. I think I have it back now and I will do my best to get this done in a timely manner.
Comments will be most welcome. Several of them put me back on track this time.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA.
As everyone filed out of OPS Ash followed Callen down the stairs. As he hit the bottom landing, she grabbed his hand and led him toward the gym. The rest of the team had the good sense to act like they didn't see it happen.
After getting inside and making sure it was empty, Ashley wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. "I'm so glad that you are alright."
Callen was surprised by the sudden action but recovered quickly. He wrapped his left arm around her back and ran his right hand through her hair. "I'm fine. We are all fine."
Ashley looked up at him. "I know you do this all the time and you are used to it, but I'm still new to the whole imminent danger thing. I'll try to cope better but right now I would like it if you would just hold me."
Callen tightened his arms around Ash. "You don't have to get used to it."
Ash pulled back suddenly like she had been slapped. "Are you breaking up with me?"
Confusion rolled across Callen's face. "What? No. Not at all. I'm just saying that I will hold you when you need me to. You don't have to be strong about things like this all by yourself."
Ash placed her head back on Callen's chest and snuggled in. "Oh. Well, ok then."
The two stood there for several minutes. "Eventually we are going to have to go back to work." Callen pointed out.
"Yeah, I know." Ash sighed.
"Two more minutes?" Callen suggested.
"Two more minutes." Ash agreed.
Hetty and Granger walked into the bullpen. The team were at their desk, but were more waiting for the next shoe to fall, than doing any real work. Everyone looked up as they walked in.
"I've spoken with the Senator. The entire event has been cancelled. It is being blamed on a gas leak at the convention center. That will keep individuals from showing up at the event even though it has been cancelled." Hetty informed everyone.
"While I understand the reasoning, it does leave us with nothing." Granger pointed out. "With the initial weapon and target gone, we have no idea what they will do next."
"Maybe they will just bail. Take this as a sign, leave, regroup, and try again later." Deeks offered.
"Not likely." Kensi responded.
"Yeah, I know. I can hope though." Deeks responded.
"So, what next?" Sam asked.
"We wait." Callen stated flatly.
That's when Eric came flying down the stairs. As soon as he hit the landing his shrill whistle cut through the air. Everyone turned to face him. "You all need to see this. Now." Without waiting for any sort of response he turned and bounded back up the stairs.
Callen and Sam both headed for the stairs followed by Kensi and Deeks. Hetty and Granger followed at a distance.
"I'm too old to go sprinting up stairs." Granger groaned.
"Speak for yourself Owen." With that Hetty started taking the steps two at a time.
Granger was the last to enter OPS. Everyone was standing around the table waiting. With a nod from Hetty, Nell began the briefing.
"This video was sent to command at Dougway Proving Grounds ten minutes ago. It's not pleasant." Nell tapped her data pad twice and a video appeared on the wall. The head terrorist stood, staring straight at the camera. "You may have stopped this attack but you have not stopped us." He motioned to someone off camera. As two men were dragged on screen, curses could be heard throughout OPS. There, on screen, were Captain Wright and Dr. Saks. "We will first take revenge on those who got in our way and then we will continue our mission." At that moment he pushed both men to the ground, pulled their heads back by their hair, and slit their throats. After that the screen went blank.
"Son of a bitch!" Sam screamed. He picked up a data pad, hurling it against the wall. It shattered into a million pieces upon impact.
Granger turned to look at Eric, Nell, and Ashley. "Find anything you can off of that video." Granger asked, almost too nicely, trying to control his voice. "Anything that will help us find that location."
"How did they get to them?" Callen asked.
Nell answered the question. "They disappeared when they went to the hospital to visit the injured members of the team. The search was just getting underway when this showed up at the proving grounds."
Hetty turned when she heard Ashley on the phone.
"Hey Marcus, its Sam. I need a favor." Ashley looked up as Hetty approached her. "Yes, you do owe me. I need the last location of the secure devices in use by a Navy Captain Wright and USAMRID Dr. Saks. They were last known to be somewhere in LA." Ashely was silent a moment. "If I wasn't cleared, would I be calling on a secure line asking about classified information? Exactly. Sure. Just send them to me at the normal address. Thanks." Ashley hung up the phone.
"Aren't you full of surprises?" Hetty commented.
Ashley did her best not to be embarrassed. "Well even though the NSA can't crack secure military comms, I have a friend in DIA. He in part of the secure communication system used by all the armed forces. They monitor the location of the devices. He will send the information as soon as he has it."
"Good work Miss Walters."
"Ok, here it comes." Ashley turned to Eric. "Eric, I'm about to send you some coordinates. It's the last location that the secure phones that Captain Wright and Dr. Saks transmitted from."
Eric to the coordinates and punched them into the system. "Coming up on the screen now."
Sam watched the screen scroll to a location just outside of downtown. He pointed at the location. "Is that it?"
Eric nodded his head.
"Let's move." At Callen's order everyone headed for the door.
Sam hit the first landing and stopped. "Everybody gear up before leaving. We don't want to get caught flatfooted. These guys know our tactics. This could be a trap."
Callen just looked at Sam in disbelief. "You think?"
"Just for that, I'm driving." Sam turned and headed for the armory
As the Porsche swerved onto the street, Callen grabbed the dashboard. "Why are you driving?"
Sam didn't take his eyes off the road. "Because you got my car shot up."
"So now you are going to wreck my car?" Callen asked as Sam swerved around slower traffic.
"Maybe."
Following behind, Kensi was chasing after the Porsche trying to keep up.
Deeks was holding onto the handle on the roof of the car. "You think Sam is trying to wreck the Porsche on purpose because of the Challenger?"
Kensi swerved around more traffic to keep up. "The thought crossed my mind."
It only took minutes to get to the location of the last signal from Captain Wright's phone. Sam and Kensi both pulled over to the curb and stopped. Everyone jumped out of the cars.
Callen pulled out his phone and contacted OPS. Ashely picked up.
"This is the spot?" Callen asked without introduction.
"Yes. That is the last location the phones gave. We are back tracking through footage of the area now to see if anything pops out."
Callen cut the connection and turned to the team. "This is it. They are going through the footage from cameras now.
"Fan out!" Sam yelled.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Deeks asked as he began looking around the area.
Sam just shook his head in frustration. "I don't know. It's time to get lucky."
Deeks turned around and began looking around the street and sidewalk. "Luck hasn't exactly been in our favor as of late." He hadn't heard Kensi walk up behind him.
"I don't know, we did stop a chemical attack without being exposed ourselves. I would call that pretty lucky."
"You have a point, but do you really think lighting will strike twice." Deeks turned to look at her and noticed she was wandering off the side walk and toward the street. As she reached the curb she bent down and pulled out her rubber gloves.
"Yes." Kensi picked up what appeared to be a destroyed cell phone. "Yes, I think it will." Kensi pulled her phone out of her back pocket. "Ash, I've got a destroyed phone here. It has government property markings on it. It's on the south side of the street about 20 yards from the east end."
Back at OPS Ash and Eric were both pounding away at their keyboards.
"Got it." Eric yelled as he pointed at his screen. "This van right here. Watch the passenger window."
As the van moved down the street a small object came flying out the window, hit the ground and skidded to the curb. "The phone." Ashley said as she watched the video.
"Yep. Now we just do the Kaleidoscope search for this van. It may take some time, but at least it's something."
"Better tell the team." Ash said.
Eric tapped in Callen's number. "Callen. We have a van ditching the phone a couple of hours ago. We are doing a search for it now. It may take some time, but at least it's something.
"Thanks Eric." Callen put his phone back in his pocket and made a motion for everyone to gather round. "That was Eric. They have a van on video throwing that phone out the window a couple hours ago. They are doing a search for where the van went now."
"So we wait?" Sam asked. He didn't mean for the question to come out so confrontational but to say he wasn't happy was a severe understatement.
"Yes. We wait." Callen answered evenly. "Running around aimless doesn't help anything and we are at least close to where they were. If we go running aimlessly around the city we could be miles away from them when Eric and Ash find the van."
Sam just nodded his head. "Right. Right. Sorry G."
"Not a problem. We are going to get these guys Sam. We are."
"I just hate waiting around."
The team searched the area for the next twenty minutes but didn't find anything else. That's when Eric and Ashley called back. Callen picked up on the first ring.
"What have you got?" He put it on speaker so everyone could hear.
"The van is about forty minutes away. We are sending you the coordinates. It's another neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. It's a tiny neighborhood so they are going to notice extra people showing up, so be careful."
Even though he knew she was concerned about the whole team, Callen couldn't help but feel that those last words were meant specifically for him.
"Aren't we always?" He looked around at the grimaces from the rest of the team and amended his statement. "Right. Careful." With that he ended the call. "First we are going to make sure there is something there. After we have a positive ID we call in the military."
Everyone shook their heads in agreement.
"How do you want to approach?" Kensi had pulled out her phone and was looking at an overhead of the area. "Ashley wasn't joking when she said the area is sparse. We are going to stick out like a sore thumb.
Deeks was standing shoulder to shoulder with Kensi looking at the overhead. "What about right here?" He pointed to a place a little to the north of the neighborhood. "That looks like a hill. We can come up behind that and then watch the house from there."
Kensi nodded her head in agreement as she zoomed in on the hill. "Yep. That sounds like a good idea. Take the high ground, limit our exposure, and observe from a distance."
"Let's go." Sam immediately headed for the driver's seat of the Mercedes.
"Great. Looks like I'm still playing passenger." Callen walked over and got in the car with Sam.
Kensi turned to Deeks. "Come on Shaggy."
Forty-five minutes later the team were squatted down in brush on a hill several hundred yards from the neighborhood containing the house they were looking for.
Deeks lowered his binoculars. "Well the vans still there. They can't possibly have killed both men here and stayed."
Callen lowered his monocular. "This is just the last location that the van was found. It's possible that the murders were done elsewhere and then they came here."
"We don't know how many people are in there? That didn't work so well for us last time." Kensi added.
"Well, we've got to go in. We won't get anywhere sitting up here." Sam pulled out his phone. "Time to call in the containment group."