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Beta Love goes out the PalmettoBlue!
Hi Everyone! Isn't life wonderful? It's been so good to me lately that I haven't needed my escape of writing. I haven't forgotten you all or this story but so many fun and exciting things have been happening…anyway…I am still working on my stories and I refuse to abandon them or you. Thank you so much for your patience. I do have to tell you that having so many characters doing so many different things is HARD to write. Currently over 20 active characters in this story still. But I'm going to do this. It will not scare me…much…
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Hetty emerged from the secure video room with a look on her face that defied reason. It was simultaneously angry, worried and puzzled. She wasn't sure if she trusted the information she received from Tompkins. She wasn't sure if she should trust Tompkins at all. Logic said that he was a consummate liar and therefore should not be trusted. But if the information he passed on was true, there was a potentially disastrous problem to solve. And with her team in the thick of it, it was going to fall on them to solve it. If anything went wrong she knew Tompkins would blame her and her team so he had no reason to give her false information so she could trust what he said but what about what he didn't say? Did he give her all the information?
Hetty stood outside the secure video room for several seconds before addressing Nell and Eric. "Ms. Jones, status?"
"Callen and Sam have finished questioning Jacoby using their aliases. The only discernable information is that he doesn't care about an investigation from the gaming commission but was interested when an 'international incident' was mentioned. Why the interest wasn't apparent. Now they're discussing the next step. We still haven't been able to identify three of the men and the Chinese men are claiming not to speak English or Russian. We've sent for an interpreter, but it's going to be a couple of hours before one is available."
"Where is Ms. Blye?"
"She and Deeks are headed to LAPD HQ with a suspect who attempted to gain access to the Chinese national while at the hospital. LAPD Officers Lazarcek and Taylor are bringing the man they were protecting to LAPD HQ."
"And how is this Chinese national?" Hetty enquired.
"He only has a badly bruised kidney. According the doctor it'll be sore for a couple of weeks."
Hettie raised her eyebrows, silently encouraging him to continue.
"The LAPD took Polson's statement and released him along with the other bystanders. That leaves Jacoby and two of his men, Bolat Niyazov and his men from the Kazakhstan Embassy in D.C., the Chinese men from the Consul General's office here in L.A. and the three men we haven't been able to identify still in custody."
Hetty nodded, "And Mr. Deeks is with Ms. Blye?"
"Um...yea, there was that guy trying to get to the Chinese..." He stuttered to a stop when he saw the hard look she was giving him.
"mmmm. Please inform all teams to await my arrival before they continue with their work." Hetty said then turned and left ops.
Nell and Eric looked at each other. "I wouldn't want to be either of those two when Hetty gets there." Eric said.
Nell nodded vigorously and returned to her work station.
LAPD HQ
When Deeks and Kensi walked into the room they were directed to, it was to a scene for a B-horror movie. Sitting there was Callen, still dressed as Deeks; Sam dressed as Williams and the most frightening of all was the 4'11" woman in glasses staring them down. Deeks gulped, bracing himself for trouble. Kensi, following behind him, winced at the scene in front of her. No way she was going to escape the wrath of Hetty.
Hetty's look promised retribution but her voice was a calm and pleasant as a summer's day. "We've been waiting Ms. Blye, Mr. Deeks. Please join us." She waved her hand at the empty chairs. Her politeness made the four agents in the room and the two operatives watching from the relative safety of ops nervous.
"Tha..Than...thanks Hetty. What brings you here?" Deeks stuttered.
"Answers Mr. Deeks, answers. Mr. Callen, update please?"
Callen brought everyone up to date on what he and Sam had learned. At Callen's prompt, Kensi brought them up to date on the hospital adventure.
Hetty sat motionless and absorbed it all before adding the intelligence she had gathered. "I have spoken with Directors Vance and Tompkins. I have more information to add, but the truth remains unclear. Let's see what we can determine is truth and what is not. Mr. Callen would you accompany me to the interrogation room? Bolat Niyazov is awaiting us there. I'd like to speak with him first."
Both of them rose and left the room as the remaining agents' eyes turned to the computer monitor displaying LAPD's normally closed circuit system. The image on the screen show Bolat Niyazov sitting at a table until Hetty entered the room with Callen behind her.
Bolat stood up as she entered the room. Callen to tensed at the movement, prepared to protect Hetty. However, she smiled at Bolat. "You always were a gentleman Bolat. Thank you." She signaled Callen to relax and his posture did, slightly. He was still on high alert, ready to protect his boss if the Russian made an offensive move.
Hetty and Bolat sat and studied each other. "Tell me," she said.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
Bolat stared at her trying to figure how to play this game; he was at a complete loss. Did he trust her with all the information? Some of it? Keep his mouth shut?
Finally Hetty helped him decide. "I have spoken with...others about what is going on here. I have some pieces of the puzzle but they don't all fit together quite yet. Tell me what you know."
Bolat drew in a deep breath and let it out before answering. "I have many pieces, but I have not been able to fit together. Perhaps together we make whole picture, yes?" Hetty smiled in encouragement.
"Not with..." he waved at the cameras in the corners of the room.
Hetty understood and turned to Callen. "Please have these cameras," she pointed at those in the corners of the room, "shut off."
Callen hesitated until she straightened the buttons on her jacket. He realized then that she was wearing one of her own button cameras. He nodded once and left the room. "Eric, can you turn off all cameras in that room that are part of the LAPD system?"
"Yep, Vance got us access." He punch a couple of buttons on his computer, "Done." Eric replied.
Callen stepped back into the room and nodded at Hetty. "Bolat?" She prompted.
The Kasakhstanian paused, took a deep breath, and decided to trust this small woman with the information he had. "I know there is a...оппортунистическим (opportunist)... somewhere. I know is someone close to me but enough away to not bring attention."
Hetty nodded her head. "Do you know what they were doing?"
"They sign travel papers. Let people come and go through country." Bolat said in careful English with a strong Kazakhstanian accent.
Hetty sighed, already tired of the show, "Bolat, please drop the act. I know you speak English better than most Americans. You needn't keep up the pretense for Mr. Callen's sake; he's well aware of who you are."
He glared at Callen, "He threatened to send me to your county jail and said I'd be lucky to get a phone call by Christmas. I have diplomatic immunity!"
Callen smirked and Hetty laughed. "And yet you sit here; not in the county jail where you would be lucky to make a phone call by Christmas. It was nothing you wouldn't have done yourself a few years ago." She verbally smoothed his ruffled feathers. "So...someone in your department is letting people come and go. Do you know who this person is or who they are letting through?"
"I didn't know who it was but I believe since Nuro Ivanov ran, it's him or he knows who it is."
Nell, who had been watching the interview on Hetty's button camera, immediately got to work on finding everything she could about one Nuro Ivanov.
"Perhaps it would be best if you started at the beginning." Hetty folded her hands on the table in front of her and studied him unblinkingly.
He took a deep breath, "About 7 months ago I noticed some...peculiar visas being approved."
"Peculiar, how?" Hetty needed to know. "What made you think they were different?"
Thirty minutes later, Hetty and Callen left the interview room. Callen looking a little worse for wear and Hetty looking, to a lesser observer, to be unphased by what she had been told. Callen, Nell and the rest of the team were not lesser observers. There was a tightness about her mouth and shoulders that belied her calm facade. When she heard the guard officer close the door behind them she turned to Callen. No words were spoken during the conversation they held before they returned to the secure room where the other agents awaited them.
They entered the room to a still and stiff silence broken only by Deeks' fingers picking away at the foam of his coffee cup.. Hetty broke the silence, "Nell? Nuro Ivanov?"
"Thanks to the access Mr. Niyazov gave us, we've been able to access everything the Kazakhstan government has on him. He's a native Kazakhstani with family ties to Uzbekistan. He has been working at the Kaz embassy in D.C. for over 5 years. He speaks reasonable English, is Russian Orthodox, andhas a solid work record. Eric is working on unraveling his finances. They are convoluted to say the least which in itself suggests something." Nell paused in her recitation to take a breath. "But it could also just be the Kazakhstan banking system."
"What's his job?" Callen asked.
Nell sighed before slotting another piece of the puzzle into place. "He's an assistant to the Undersecretary for Travel into and out of Kazakhstan."
"So he may have been moving people in and out of not just Kazakhstan but the United States as well." Sam voiced the enormity of the threat they were facing.
"Ms. Jones, keep digging into Nuro Ivanov and any visas he approved. We need to know everything, especially who has come into our country and where they are now. Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna I think you should have a conversation with our Chinese friends. Try and find out what they are doing here. What is their connection? Ms. Blye I would suggest you take Mr. Deeks home but I can see that won't happen. Fear not Mr. Deeks, you and I will have a conversation about that later." She glared at her detective who paled slightly as the others smirked in anticipation of that conversation. "Until then I might as well make use of you. Why don't you go talk to Mr. Crew; see if he can add any useful information. Then corroborate his story with his manager's. Ms. Blye, find out who exaclty that was you brought back from the hospital."
Nell broke in before anyone moved, "Hetty, it might be better to have Kensi talk to Crew's manager. He has something of a reputation as a player."
Hetty raised her brows in Kensi's direction. Kensi just sighed and dropped her chin to her chest. "Of course he is. Fine I'll go talk with...what's his name, Nell?"
"Masters. Jonathan Masters."
"What do you have on him?" Kensi asked.
"I've sent it all to your phone." Nell replied.
Kensi started shifting through Masters' information as Deeks headed to Crew's interview room. Using the 'there's no other place available so you have to double up' routine that had been so successful earlier, Deeks was escorted into the room and placed in the seat opposite Crew. The fighters eyed each other as the officer left; as soon as the door was closed, Deeks got up and started pacing not saying a word.
It only took a couple of minutes before the pacing got to Crew, "Stop,." he demanded. Deeks just looked at him and kept pacing. "Stop it! Just sit down."
Deeks looked at him again. "No. I don't know what the hell is going on! I'm talking to people after the fight, this guy comes up to me wanting an autograph and the next thing I know I'm here. I have no idea what's going on! So I'm allowed to pace if I damn well feel like it. Why don't you shut the hell up?"
"Look man, I don't know what's going on anymore than you do but you don't see me pacing. So sit down and shut up."
"Or what? You going to try and stop me? How? Didn't work so well for you the last time. This time wouldn't be any different."
Crew scoffed, "I had you so many times…I could have ended that fight..." He clammed up when he realized he was about to say something he shouldn't.
Deeks registered the slip up and worked it. "Yea right...keep telling yourself that. I was ready for you and you know you were beat."
Crew stood up and approached Deeks, "don't flatter yourself. There is no way an amateur like you would make it three rounds with a pro like me unless it I let it happen."
"HA! If that were the case you wouldn't have let that happen, Mr. Pro. If you could've you would've but you couldn't! You couldn't beat me! I won!"
Crew got right into Deeks face; the tension escalating from a simmer to rolling boiling in a second, "Wyler, you're a chump. I let that fight go on as long as it did. I shouldn't have even had to fight crap like you. If my manager hadn't insisted on it, I wouldn't have even considered it. So back off or I'll show you exactly what I can do and how quickly I can do it!"
Crew was really angry now and Deeks had him just where he wanted him. Deeks stared at him for several moments before smirking, "I still won and you lost. If you could've ended that fight whenever you wanted, why didn't you? Huh? Why? You were beat by this chump. What does that make you?"
Crew was ready to explode, "It wasn't my idea! I wanted to end it fast but I was told to keep it going! I could have ended it in the first round!"
The tension in the room was reaching a breaking point when the door opened and an officer walked in; his hand was relaxed but near his weapon. "Both of you sit down. Now."
Crew glared at Deeks; Deeks smirked but maintained eye contact as both men sat down.
Kensi watched Deeks' 'interview' with Crew and decided how she was going to play it with the manager, Masters. She knew that if he was a CIA agent this wasn't going to work but if he was an asset as they suspected, he was ripe for picking.
Kensi undid two buttons on her shirt and looked down. She decided one extra button being undone on her shirt was enough and re-buttoned the second one before she grabbed a file off the table and stopped at the coffee machine for a cup of coffee. As she was entering the interview room she 'bobbled' her cup of coffee and some spilled on the front of her shirt.
"Crap! Ow! That's hot." She rushed to the table and put the file folder & what remained of her coffee on the table. She pulled her shirt away from her skin which drew Masters' eyes to her chest. "Damn! There goes another shirt. God I hate being a klutz."
His chuckle at her statement and spectacle brought her attention back to him. She narrowed her eyes at him but sat down at the table, still plucking at her shirt; effectively keeping Masters' eyes and concentration on her made a show of fixing her shirt as neatly as possible and turned to the waiting man, all business.
"I'm Special Agent Kensi Blye, NCIS and you are in a lot of trouble." She rifled through the file she brought with her.
"Not from where I'm sitting." Masters' replied, never taking his eyes off where her shirt had attached itself to her, outlining her curves. .
"Hey! My eyes are up here!" Kensi snapped.
When Masters' attention was temporarily redirected at her face, he was surprised. " Hey - I know you. You're Wyler's piece. Tracy something."
"Yes. And you have landed in the middle of a long undercover op. And I don't see you getting out of it anytime soon. We've got you for the sale and distribution of drugs."
"What?! No Way!"
She plucked at the wet material again bringing Masters' eyes back to her chest and hopefully deflecting his attention. "I have witnesses telling me that you are the distributor of several different drugs and that tonight's fight was a cover to make a major buy. So unless you can provide me with...an alternate explanation...I really don't see you getting out of jail for a long long time."
"This is crazy. I didn't do anything like that! I wouldn't! You can't…"
Kensi stepped on his outburst, "Your financial records for the last several years are showing some strange activity. You agreed to this fight, You put your professional fighter against an amateur, and You agreed to the date change. Why do all that if you weren't going to get something big out of it?
"It's...I...was only supposed to make the fight last. That's all they said. 'Agree to the fight and make the fight last a while.' I didn't do anything!" He looked up and realized he had been talking out loud.
"Who? Who told you to extend the fight?" Kensi prompted.
"I'm not...what's in it for me?" Kensi raised her eyebrows. He continued, "I mean you want to put me away for something I didn't know about and had nothing to do with. Maybe I don't know who or what you are talking about? Maybe I just did as I was told? Maybe you want information that I may or may not have, so I ask again: what's in it for me to tell you anything else?" He sat back, draped his arm over the back of his chair, and smirked at her.
Eric's voice in her earpiece interrupted the interview, "Kensi, he's lying. He knows it was the CIA. The emails confirm it. He also knows that you don't have anything on him for drugs. He's trying to play you."
Kensi nodded her head acknowledging that she got the message; she knew Eric or Nell was watching. She focused her intense gaze on Masters, "Ok. Now you listen. I know that you know who they are but there's something you need to understand: They aren't coming to help you. You're expendable to them. Both you and Crew are useless to them. They have no reason to help you, but I want them, and I want to know why."
"If you know so much, ask'em yourself. I want a lawyer."
Kensi closed her file and walked out of the room having gotten the information she needed. She closed the door behind her, "Eric? You got something?"
"Yep, I finished decrypting all the emails. They say he'll receive the rest of his payment when the fight is over if it goes 3 rounds. They never mention why they want the fight to go long and apparently they didn't care who won. It's never mentioned."
"The sender?"
"Yea, the server is from a-"
"Short answer Eric, please." Kensi countered before he could get into a long explanation.
"Yes. They're from the CIA."
"Does Hetty know?" Kensi asked.
"I do, Ms. Blye." Hetty's voice came over the earwig. "Please collect Mr. Deeks and join me."
Inside the interview room where Deeks and Crew were sitting.
Thirty minutes later, the door opening broke the silence, admitting a familiar face. Officer Lazarcek spoke to the attending officer, "Crew's free to go. I'm here to take the other one, Wyler, to lock up."
The other officer addressed the two men, "Mr. Crew, you're free to leave. The LAPD thanks you for your cooperation and wishes you a nice day."
Crew stood to leave; glaring at Deeks the entire time, "Better luck next time, chump." He turned to the officer that would escort him, "What about my stuff?" Crew asked.
"You can collect your belongs at the front desk." The officer informed him. "Let's go."
Crew strutted out of the interview room, and the door closed behind him. Deeks waited a couple of beats and turned to the young officer. "Am I really going to lock up?"
Lazarcek barked a laugh. "No. I was just told to release Crew and give a good reason why you're staying behind. Who're you anyway?"
Deeks stood and they walked out into the hallway. "You're a good kid and from what I can see a good officer. If you ever need help, call here to LAPDHQ and ask for Marty Deeks."
Deeks stuck his hand out for a handshake which the other officer accepted. "You're Marty Deeks? Didn't you used to be a lawyer?"
Deeks was a little surprised. He had always tried to keep those two lives separate. "Why do you ask?" He obfuscated.
"There was a Marty Deeks who helped my Dad and I about 10 years ago. He helped get us off the street after Dad lost his job and we lost the house. Mom had already left and it was just us. CPS tried to take me away but Marty helped; kept us together and got us off the streets. He even helped Dad find a new job. I became a cop because I wanted to help people they way he helped us." He looked at the man before him. "It couldn't have been you. This guy seemed older but he did always like to crack jokes."
Deeks didn't say anything except to reiterate his earlier statement, "If you ever get yourself in trouble, call here and ask for Marty Deeks."
Deeks was unaware but Kensi had heard part of the conversation. She smiled, not surprised that Deeks would do his best to keep a father and son together. She addressed both men. "Thank you, Officer Lazarcek, you've done really well tonight." She looked Deeks in the eyes, "We're needed." They both left the young officer and returned to their boss.
They arrived only a few minutes later in what the team had started to term 'their room' even though it was located in the middle of LAPDHQ. Deeks and Kensi opened the door to find the rest of the team including Hetty who was on the phone with the Director of NCIS. "Yes Leon, I understand…. No, I don't suppose that's an option either. We'll make it as quick as we can. Thank you Director." Hetty ended her call and turned her attention to the team. , "Mr. Callen? The Chinese gentlemen?"
"They just keep repeating two words: diplomatic immunity" Callen answered her.
Hetty nodded in understanding, "We'll be releasing them shortly as the State Department is about to get involved. Mr. Deeks, Mr. Crew?"
"He was told to the extend the fight. His manager got him into this fight and then told him to make the fight go long. He feels slighted that he had to fight me; called me a chump I'm rather wounded about that." The smile on his face didn't lend any believability to his last statement.
Hetty turned her attention to Kensi, "Ms. Blye?"
"Eric finished decrypting the emails; Masters knows it was the CIA. But he wouldn't confirm who it was or why. Honestly I don't think he knows why. According to Eric, he'd get the rest of his money when the fight was over if it went 3 rounds. The sleeze just wanted his money." Sam smirked and Callen raised his eyebrows at her choice of words. "He kept trying to look down my shirt." She explained.
"Well, you can't blame a guy for that, Princess." Deeks smiled at her.
"Mr. Deeks." Hetty's cold tone told him to refrain from further comments as he was already in hot water with her. "Director Vance has been in contact with Director Tompkins again. There is a CIA representative on his way to meet with us, here in about an hour. Hopefully he can fill in the last pieces for this puzzle. Until then, I think we need to talk with Nuro Ivanov."
"Hetty, before you do that, I have information." Eric sounded excited, rarely a good sign.
"Go ahead Mr. Beale."
"Nuro Ivanov has been working in the US for 5 years. He's been sending money home to his family in Kazakhstan every six months for the last 4 years. But the amount he sends home is almost triple what his salary is during that same period. Then half of the amount he sends to Kazakhstan is redirected and sent to a family in Uzbekistan. That family is related to Nuro's wife. The bigger problem is all the addresses of the visas he has approved have either starting addresses at a family member's in Kazakhstan and ending at different locations across the United States or they are starting in the States and ending at a family member's home in Uzbekistan. Hetty I'm not sure who they are trafficking but they are definitely trafficking in people."