I appreciate everyone who stuck with this story. Somewhere in the middle it sort of came apart on me. I'm sure it was easy to spot. If I write another one, I'll finish it before I publish. You deserve a complete, well thought out story.
Still, please leave comments. I certainly need inspiration and constructive criticism.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA
To Sam it seemed like it took hours for the containment group to arrive, but in reality it was only about forty minutes. Not bad considering the location and the fact that such a large number of people and equipment had to arrive covertly so as not to spook the target.
With the death of Captain Wright, Lieutenant Commander Marcus Nelson had taken over the task force. He was the one to approach the team. He nodded at each of them in turn before addressing Callen.
"What do we know?"
"About as much as we knew when we hit the last place, except this time there are no chemical weapons involved. That's about the only upside." Callen handed Nelson a pair of binoculars. "It's been quiet since we arrived. We were going to do recon, but didn't want to spook them. That and we were almost assuredly out gunned."
Nelson surveyed the area carefully. "If this was anywhere else besides the United States, I would call in artillery and we would go down to count the pieces when it was all over. Unfortunately, that's not an option here. We are going to have to go force on force."
"Move in ten?" Callen asked.
"Sounds good." Nelson responded.
"Might want to wait on that guys." Everyone turned to Deeks, who was looking through his own set of binoculars. "There is an SUV pulling up in front of the house. And a large group of very bad looking bad guys. With guns."
"These guys are really starting to piss me off." Sam growled.
"More terrorist? How the hell did this many get into the country?" Kensi wondered aloud.
"We let them." Nelson responded. "Vouched for them even. This is completely on us."
"They are mounting up. If we don't get moving, we are going to lose them." Deeks stood up and started heading for the car.
"Relax agent." Nelson said pulling out his phone. "This is Magic Man. Is Dark Star on station?" Nelson nodded his head when he received the answer and ended the call. "We now have a UAV on station and tracking. Now we can follow from a discreet distance. Allows us not to be seen but we can catch up quick if they pull that stunt at the airport."
It didn't take long for everyone to get mobile. By the time the team was back on the road, the feed from the drone had been wired back to OPS.
Everyone in the room was glued to the high resolution feed on the screen.
"They certainly seem to be in a hurry." Ashley commented. "I wonder if this is an escape or an attack?"
"We will have you thinking like an analyst in no time." Granger commented. "This looks a lot like a bug out. They are going around downtown and are moving at a high rate of speed. If they were up to something they wouldn't do anything to draw attention to themselves."
Callen voice filled OPS. "Where are they and how far behind are we?"
Nell answered the question. "They are still on the interstate moving at a high rate of speed. You are about two miles behind. We will keep you updated on any changes."
Hetty took a step toward the screen, putting her hands behind her back as she watched the fleeing terrorist. "Where are you going?"
"They're getting off." Eric said and began typing away on his computer. "I'm already looking for locations that they could possibly be going to. We are still assuming they are running, right?"
"Yes." Granger responded.
"There isn't much out there. Warehouses. Business parks. A switching yard for the rail road. Ah-ha. And a two runway airport."
"If they are trying to bug out, that's where they are headed." Nell stated.
"Send it to the team, Mr. Beale." Hetty said never turning from the screen.
"Right, got it." Callen hung up his phone. "They are moving toward a small airport. OPS is pretty sure that's where our bad guys are headed. It's the only thing out here that makes sense. They are about four miles from it and we are a mile behind that. Eric and Ashley are going through records and flight plans now, but they haven't found anything yet." Callen pulled the radio out of the console and relayed the information to Nelson's team.
Callen had barely put down the radio before his phone sounded again. "Go Ash." He was quiet as he listened. "Thanks." Callen put down the phone. "There is a charter flight set to leave in 10 minutes headed for Mexico."
"We are going to need some air support in case they get airborne." Kensi responded.
"DHS and the Air Force have already been alerted. They are pulling assets but they won't be here for at least 20 minutes. We've got to do our best to keep this plane on the ground."
Sam floored the car and everyone was thrown back in their seats.
"Planes moving." Deeks said as the car slid into the turn for the small airfield.
"No kidding." Sam responded as he turned the car toward the runway.
"Sam you cannot ram a Lear jet." Callen said after looking at Sam and then at the plane.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Yeah." Deeks yelled. "Not ramming it."
"A better idea that keeps the plane on the ground." Sam retorted.
"No." Deeks said bracing himself in the backseat. "Not an idea that does that."
Sam skidded the car out onto the runway as the Lear started its takeoff roll.
"Only going to get one shot at this." Callen said. "Make it count."
Sam never took his foot off the gas as he gained on the accelerating jet. He knew from this angle that the car couldn't be seen so he didn't have to worry about being spotted. His only worry was that it would get airborne before his could reach it. His plan was to collapse one of the rear landing gear. If he hit it while still on the ground, not doing take off speed, damage would be minimal. If he it while lifting into the air, it would crash onto the car and kill everyone.
The plane was getting larger and larger in the window and he lined up on the right rear landing gear. "Everyone, hang on!" He screamed.
From the backseat he heard Deeks yell. "This is going to hurt!"
At that moment, the front of the car hit the landing gear, causing the gear to buckle and send the plane into a spin and slide, pulling the car along with it, having been caught under the wing when the gear collapsed.
The plane and car came to a stop several hundred feet off the side of the runway.
"Oh my god!" Ashley exclaimed as everyone in OPS watched the car impact the plane. It seemed like it took the plane and car forever to stop sliding.
"I hope all the sparking doesn't ignite the fuel tanks." Eric's eyes were glued to the screen, so he did not see the hand coming that caught him squarely in the back of the head.
"Shut up." Nell growled as she nodded her head toward Ashley, who was quickly going from deathly pale to a sickening green.
"Sorry." Eric looked so sad with the puppy dog eyes, Nell had to resist the urge to rub the spot on his head that she had just nailed.
Granger hit the button on his ear piece. "Agent Callen? Agent Hanna?"
Everyone was getting their bearings when Deeks spoke. "Oww!" Deeks kicked open his door.
"Stop whining." Kensi said as she opened her own door.
"I will admit, this probably wasn't my best idea, but it did work." Sam pulled himself from the driver seat.
"We are all little dinged up, but no worse for wear." G answered the call he heard from Granger over the comms. He was hoping that his voice would reassure Ashley as well. He couldn't imagine that she had taken seeing the crash well. G didn't say anything as he climbed from the car, but start laughing softly.
"What's so funny G?" Sam was a little irritated.
"You have to explain this wreck." G answered.
Sam groaned. This was the third car this mission had consumed and this one he had done deliberately. Hetty was not going to be pleased.
"Guys? Terrorist." Kensi said shaking her head.
"Right." G pulled his rifle from the car. They team was on the opposite side from the aircraft's door and none of the emergency exits had been used.
"Everyone be careful." Sam said has be brought his rifle to his shoulder.
As the team moved around to the opposite side of the aircraft, the response team vehicles arrived on scene. Nelson was the first to clear a Humvee. "Everyone alright?"
"So far." Sam answered. "They are still bottled up inside the plane."
Nelson motioned for two of his men to run up the wing of the plane that was on the ground to look in the windows. The two SEALs slowly made their way up the wing, weapons pointed at the windows they were approaching. They made it without incident and peered into the plane.
"Everyone is out on the floor. I've got no movement." The lead SEAL said.
"Stay there." Nelson said. "If anything moves, shoot it through the window."
"Roger that."
The team, having just survived a car-plane crash, let the military pull the door open and enter the plane. Surprisingly after the events of the following days, the jet entry was easy. Everyone, including the pilots were the worse for wear from the impact. They got thrown around the cabin pretty bad not having benefit of airbags. The terrorist, true to form, hadn't been wearing seat belts.
Nelson stuck his head in the cabin after the terrorist and pilots were removed. He turned to Sam. "I'm glad you rammed the plane. They are armed for bear. Had we shown up any earlier the shootout that would have occurred would have made the incident at the house look like airsoft."
"What about the guys back at the hangar? This isn't all the people that were at the house." Callen pointed out.
"The rest of the team has them. They were so busy watching you guys and trying to get to the cars to flee, they didn't grab the heavy weapons. The team cut them off before they could double back to them." Nelson walked over to the Humvee, setting his rifle inside, then pulling out a bottle of water. "This mess is finally over. We lost good men, friends, but we stopped the deaths of millions."
"Doesn't seem right to chalk it up as a win." Sam said.
"I'm just happy not to have to chalk it up as a total loss." Nelson responded.
"Well, looks like you have it under control, we will leave you to it." Callen held out his hand.
Nelson shook hands all around. Callen turned to leave and stopped dead in his tracks. He turned back to Nelson. "Anyway you guys can give us a ride?"
Sam cringed a little at the statement.
The team got dropped off at the boat house. From there they took one of the cars in the lot back to the mission. As they entered the Mission Hetty, Granger, Nell, Eric, and Ashley were all waiting at the bottom of the stairs for them.
Callen could see Ashley take a slight step forward, in what appeared to be a first step toward rushing toward him, but stopped herself at the last moment. He smiled. He wasn't sure whether it was because she was so worried about him and he finally had someone like that, or because she was so torn between being the worried girlfriend and the professional. He strode over directly to her and pulled her to him, ending her indecision.
"I hate close calls." Ashley said as she held him.
"It wasn't that close." Callen tried to deflect her concerns.
"That's not what the drone showed." Nell answered.
Kensi looked at Nell. "So you saw the wreck from the drone? Did it look as bad as it felt?" Nell handed over her tablet to show her a replay.
"Ouch!" Deeks exclaimed from over Kensi's shoulder. "No wonder I'm so sore."
Granger finally spoke. "Good work agents. Just like always."
"Yes, very good work." Hetty added. "However we are going to have a talk about transportation and destruction of property."