Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one. I'm just writing them as I want to see them.
Reviews are a writer's coffee, they keep us going. Thank you all for the reviews. It really does help writers.
This chapter, at least, is dedicated to Jclimactic for the invaluable information. This chapter took longer to put together than I thought it would but here it is. Thank you! I hope I get the way the a UFC/MMA fight is run written correctly. If I don't, don't kill me, just go with it. :-D
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"Head over to the arena. Nell is already there and she said to have Kensi meet her in the in the ladies room on the High roller floor. She can upload the footage to me. She'll be waiting there in about 25 minutes."
"Perfect Eric. Good job."
Eric cut his conversation with Callen and re-connected with Sam to relay the information.
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The 20 minute drive for Callen and Kensi gave Eric some time to search through Jacoby's emails. He was completely focused when his eagle eye caught a small file that Jacoby had in his delete file. Well, it would have been considered 'deleted' if just about anyone else had been shifting through the information. "That can't be it, can it?" Eric said to himself. He worked to bring up the file and run it on one of the emails. "JACKPOT! God I love computer illiterate people." He quickly de-encrypted all the e-mails and started to scan them for information.
Callen and Kensi pulled into a parking space outside the arena. "Eric, let Sam know we're here."
"Copy that Callen."
While Kensi and Callen walked to the building, Eric was communicating with Nell. He informed her that he had found the decryption key and that Kensi was almost in the building. "Kensi, Nell is on her way; third floor ladies room. As you enter the building take the elevator on the left. Callen, Sam said he and Deeks were preparing to go into the ring. He said to make your way to ringside but don't come back to the locker room. And…I've found the decryption key and I'm scanning the emails now. I'll let you know if and when I have something."
"Excellent job Eric. We are on our way." Callen replied as they entered the lobby of the arena. Kensi headed to the elevators to make her rendezvous with Nell and Callen, after being checked by security, was let into the main arena area.
Callen found himself wandering the outside of the arena, slowly circling his way toward the ring. He was looking for anything that caught his attention as unusual.
Kensi met up with Nell and handed off the thumb drive. Nell quickly loaded the footage. "Eric?" Nell queried.
"Go, Nell."
"I have the footage and it is uploaded. I've started the facial rec search but I don't think it's going to do much. It's very dark and not that high quality. Anything else I can do before I head back?"
"The facial rec was the big thing. I'm currently going through the decrypted emails for…" Eric paused.
"Eric?" No answer. "Eric? Are you there?" Nell was starting to get worried.
Quiet as a whisper, "I've found it." Then louder, "Well, maybe. Here, look for yourself." He sent the e-mail to Nell. She and Kensi, who was still there, turned to scan it.
While Nell and Kensi where reading and email, Eric was scanning the security footage from the medical building. He put everybody, except Sam, on the coms at the same time, "Callen, the security footage is useless for seeing whoever it was, but I had Nelson scan through the traffic cams and we found a car that might be a match for who we are looking for. It's a couple of blocks away but the times match up. We've run the license plate and it came back as non-existent."
"What does that mean Eric?" Hetty inquired.
"It means that whoever this person is, they work for someone else who has access to remove vehicle information from the DMV database."
A sigh could be heard coming from Hetty's com. "It seems we were correct in thinking the CIA has a lot to do with this."
"Eric? Kensi and I both agree, you found something in this e-mail. But we aren't sure how it will help." Nell let him know.
"What did you find Eric?" Callen wanted to know.
"The email is from a spoofed IP address but it says that Crew has to make this match last for all three rounds; no matter what he has to do to make that happen. This email went to his manager, not to Crew. We still don't know for sure if Crew is in on this whatever this is or not."
"Let Sam know. Maybe we can throw a monkey wrench into their business if Deeks can drop this guy early." Callen said.
"Copy that Callen." Eric cut his feed to the rest of the team and clicked over to Sam's com. "Sam?"
"Go Eric." Was the response.
"We've decrypted the emails. They state that Crew is to make sure the fight goes the full three rounds. We don't know if Crew is in on this or if it's just his manager. Callen wants Deeks to 'drop this guy early' so we can change their plans."
Sam smirked, "Got it. Anything else?"
"Everyone is here and getting into place."
"Thanks Eric." Sam turned to face Deeks. Deeks was pacing like a caged animal and just raised his eyebrows in question. "We need to KO this guy early. His manager has been told to make sure the fight goes to all three rounds." He paused here seeing the look of concern on his fighter's face. "Look Deeks, you got this. You are ready. Either you knock this guy out early or get knocked out early." Deeks gave him as scathing a look as he could muster. Sam continued, "You can knock this guy out. I've never seen a fighter more ready." Sam knew how nervous Deeks was when the detective didn't say anything but kept pacing.
Ten minutes later they got the signal to make their way to ringside. "Everybody ready because here we go." Sam let the team know. He didn't wait for the affirmatives from his team before he led Wyler out toward the ring.
Sam and Wyler cleared the entrance to the arena and headed to the ring. On the way, Sam found Polson and gave him a slight nod. Polson shook his head slightly to let Sam know that he hadn't seen anything odd yet.
Wyler stepped into the ring and felt a calmness steal over him. He realized that this was no different than any other undercover op he had done over his career. Focus and drop this chump, he thought to himself.
The two fighters stared at each other in the center of the ring as they received their last minute instructions from the ref. They were sent back to their corners to await the start of the fight.
Sam was off standing off to the side, he wanted Wyler to see Crew. "Remember, you know this fighter. You have seen the way he fights and you have worked hard to get ready for this. You are ready for this and you will win this fight." Sam encouraged him.
Sam stepped out of the ring and shut the door. A few seconds later, the bell rang to start the first round.