A/ T : My friends I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Many thanks once again to Callen37. I wish you luck and hope you'll be back soon.
As always feel free to leave your comments.
The 15 hour flight to Afghanistan seemed endless and awfully quiet. Awkward silence surrounded the aircraft as no one dared to utter a single word. Callen and Sam exchanged meaningful looks and Deeks was too lost in his own thoughts.
He has to remain calm and optimistic. Kensi can still be alive. She is not dead! She can't be dead!
He keeps telling that to himself trying to convince his mind to listen to his heart. If she is dead then life is meaningless. NCIS is pointless. He only stayed in NCIS because it always felt like family and Kensi was the most important member of it. No...not was. IS!
She is out there, somewhere.
The moment they set foot on Afghan ground they immediately jumped on the Humvee that was waiting for them and drove to the base.
Deeks expected the worse. Dead bodies lying around and stains of blood on the ground. But to his surprise the only evidence that a huge fight took place right there, was the bullets still left on the dirt.
"Even if Hetty hadn't warned me about your arrival, I figure you'd all come," a distinct deep voice is heard and all three of them turn around.
"Granger!" Deeks exclaims in surprise. "You are alive!"
"Hold back your enthusiasm detective," he ironically responds.
"I am sorry. I didn't mean to sound like that. It's just that last time I talked to Kensi she didn't know if you were still alive."
Granger looks at him surprised. "You've talked to Blye?"
"Yes, she called me while you are being ambushed," his voice cracks. "Where is she?"
"Not here!"
Deeks mouth falls open. "What do you mean she is not here?"
"I mean exactly what I am saying detective, she is not here. We've identified all the bodies but she is not among the dead nor the living," Granger bluntly responds.
Deeks feels his heart stop. This wasn't what he expected at all. There were two options in his mind. She would either be alive or dead. Missing never crossed his mind. He runs his hand through his hair trying to process this new unexpected information. Callen senses his frustration and decides to take charge.
"What exactly happened here?" he asks.
"We can't talk about it out here in the open. Let's take this inside." Granger leads them to the trailer.
The trailer! That's where Kensi said she was hiding. Deeks swallows hard and walks in through the small door. Unfortunately they didn't have time to clean it like they did outside, and the pools of blood are still evident on the floor. Soon dark thoughts start creeping into his mind.
Is any of this Kensi's blood? Was she injured? Where was she hiding when she called? Was it the bunk-room?
He goes into detective mode and desperately tries to find anything that would hint Kensi was in that room but it's almost impossible. The night she left she didn't even have time to pack anything other than the clothes she was wearing at that time. One more reason to add on the list. One more reason to be angry at Hetty and Granger.
"We are alone now, so talk," Callen firmly says.
"This was supposed to be a top secret operation agents. You do realize that you are not authorized to this kind of information. I could lose my head over this."
Deeks walks towards him and stops just an inch away from his face. "If you don't start talking I will cut your head myself."
"Are you threatening me Detective?" Granger smirks.
"I never threaten! I warn!"
"Ok, that's enough," Sam tries to pull Deeks away from Granger. "I know it's hard man, but try to stay focused and calm."
"I am calm," Deeks calmly responds but his eyes tell otherwise.
"You might want to put a leash on your detective Agent Callen."
"You might want to start talking otherwise I am going to leave you alone with him and lock the door on my way out."
Granger shakes his head and sits on a chair. "Agent Blye's mission was to kill the man responsible for countless attacks on our units."
"And who would that be?" Callen asks.
"We don't know yet."
"What do you mean you don't know yet?" Deeks raises his voice.
"Do you have a problem comprehending the answers Detective?" Granger starts to lose his patience. "I mean we don't know who he is. We suspect he is American - probably an ex private contractor - working for the Taliban, familiarizing them with advanced combat tactics."
Callen frowns trying to put all the pieces together. "And what about the mole?"
"You 'd better ask Hetty about that," Granger smirks.
Deeks is starting to lose what's left of his patience and raises his voice once again. "Ok, that's enough with the whole back and forth bullshit. What the hell is wrong with you people? You brought her here to kill a terrorist, but you don't know who it is. You asked her to find the mole, but you are not sure he even exists. You are keeping secrets from Hetty, Hetty is keeping secrets from you and you are both keeping secrets from Kensi. You are both alive and well but she has gone missing because you two can't communicate. "
Granger just sits and listens to his outburst expecting Callen or Sam to calm him down but to his surprise they just stand back and let Deeks do the talking. He has been keeping all this anger inside him for much too long and it's time to unleash it.
"Don't look at them," he snaps at Granger. "They are not going to save you. During all these months I've been patient, quiet, trustful...but enough is enough. You took her away from me without any warning."
"I didn't know you owned her Detective. Since when was Agent Blye your possession?" Granger cockily smirks.
Oh, the fury is boiling up inside him and he can no longer keep him composure. "She IS mine," he yells back. "She is mine to protect. She is my partner and I am supposed to keep her safe. You had no right splitting us up. You had no right to bring her here without any backup. You sentenced her to death and you are not even sorry about that."
Granger's face stiffens for the first time since they know him. "It was my job to keep her safe too Detective. I vowed to her father a long time ago. I never wanted her anywhere near this place; Hetty insisted to use her sniper skills."
Deeks stares at him, eyes wide open. "Then why did you authorize her re-assignment?" his voice softens.
"Because Hetty always knows best. I trusted her judgment, but above all I trusted Blye. I trusted her tenacity to get the job done so that she can come back to you."
The awkward silence that surrounds the trailer is soon disrupted by a corporal. "Sir, former Gunnery Sergeant Reilly has arrived."
"We'll be right there." Granger responds.
"Do you think you can hold on to your wrath a little more? We've lost most of our men and Reilly is here to help us. He is a Private Contractor in the area and has agreed to lend us some of his men."
"For what?" Sam asks?
"Clean up this mess and help us to get our agent back."
"You said the Ghost could be a private contractor. Are you sure we can trust this guy; or anyone at this point?" Callen tries to be cautious.
"Hetty trusts him and so do I. If he can help us find Blye, I am willing to co-operate with the devil himself."
Deeks can't help but smile a bit. Maybe he was wrong about Granger after all. Wait. Let's rephrase that. Not entirely wrong.
They follow him outside the trailer where they meet with a tall muscular man, with dark brown hair and a beard.
"Nice to meet you assistant Director," he shakes Granger's hand. "Wish it were under different circumstances."
"Us too. These are Agents Callen and Hanna accompanied by detective Deeks," he points to the three of them.
Reilly shakes hand with each one and looks puzzled at Deeks. "Detective? Well you are a long way from the police department."
Any other day he would have responded with a cheesy comment, but right now he doesn't even have the energy to joke about it. "I am here for my partner."
Reilly frowns his eyebrows even more confused. "Another Detective in Afghanistan? Do you guys have a conversion or something?"
Deeks lets out a deep breath clearly not in the mood to joke around. Every minute that passes by is another minute in the darkness. Another minute not knowing where Kensi is.
Sensing his tension Sam jumps in to avoid a potential fight. "She is a NCIS Agent. Detective Deeks is our liaison. She's been missing since the attack."
"Oh, I see. I am sorry Detective. I didn't mean to be disrespectful."
"That's ok," Deeks shakes his head.
"Do you think the Afghans' took her?"
"No, It was the White Ghost. "
Reilly freezes at the sound of that name. "You think he is the one behind the attack?"
"We don't think, we are sure. Let's take this somewhere more private though," Granger points towards an empty tent - the only one still standing.
Once they enter the tent they all sit on the two beds lying inside. All except from Deeks. He is too nervous to sit down. He just sits near the entrance trying to keep his trembling hands and feet still.
"We are alone so, I am listening," Reilly motions to Granger to start talking.
"Yeah, we all are," Deeks adds.
"Wait, you guys don't know what happened either?" Reilly looks at them surprised.
"No," Callen confirms his suspicions. "we probably know as much as you do, so Granger enlighten us all."
"Agent Blye was assigned to kill the White Ghost."
Reilly frowns for a moment at the sound of Kensi's last name and swallows hard but mentions nothing. Instead he tries to keep his face emotionless and listens to Granger with even more interest.
"The task force was supposed to find him, and Blye would be the one to pull the trigger. But for the pas few months the Ghost was always one step ahead of us. He knew were our task forces were positioned, classified missions, ambushes...everything. So, as expected Hetty suspected there was a mole in this base and assigned Blye to smoke him out."
"So, you agent had to kill one the most wanted men and find a traitor in the meantime. Busy lady," Reilly ironically comments and Deeks can't help but smile a bit.
Suddenly he feels kind of fond of this man and his wit but Granger doesn't share the same enthusiasm. On the contrary he just glares at Reilly and moves on.
"As I was saying, she was assigned to bring the both down. A few weeks ago she came up with a different theory. That our security system had been hacked so the Ghost was surveilling not only our communications, but our classified files and encrypted messages as well. That's why he knew everything we knew. So, she told Booker to quietly run a thorough check on our security system. You know, find traces of someone who was not supposed to be there. And he did! Blye was right! We had been hacked. So, we came up with a plan. We uploaded false information for the Ghost to see. "
"What kind of information?" Deeks takes a step forward.
"We sent an encrypted message to DC with the co-ordinates of our new secret storage. We figures the Ghost might be interested in retrieving a whole bunch of weapons, missiles, ammo...We stayed hidden in that storage for four days. But not even a bird flew by. The Ghost obviously called our bluff and as soon as we got back here we stepped into a fight and within minutes almost everyone was dead." Granger's voice cracks and for a moment they all feel sympathetic towards him. It made them wonder how many men he has watched die before his eyes throughout his career. Surely, he didn't make it to Assistant Director by solely wearing suits. He must have had his share of near death experiences.
"How many of you were part of that mission?" Reilly breaks the sudden silence.
"Just Blye, Sabatino, myself and ten more soldiers. Sabatino is in the hospital along with three of the soldiers. The rest of them are all dead. "
"Why do you think he took your agent? What use could he have of her?"
"Her head!" Sabatino's voice is suddenly heard as he enters the tent and walks past Deeks with the help of crutches.
Everyone stares at him debating whether to help him or hurt him, but he clearly reads their minds. "Oh don't look at me like that. It's not like it hasn't crossed your minds. You'd be lying to yourselves if you never considered the fact that she is already dead."
Deeks breathing becomes heavy, his jaw clenches and his hands are tied into fists. Thankfully, Sam picks up his warning signals and quickly gets up and positions himself in front of him. "Relax man, he's not worth it," he whispers to Deeks in an attempt to calm him down, but Sabatino's rumbling isn't nearly over yet.
"Even if she isn't dead, she 'll wish she were. I wouldn't want to be in her shoes right now. Just pray that they'll have the decency to leave her head behind this time."
That's it!
Deeks lets out a deafening scream of rage and lunches forward like a caged animal to get his hands on Sabatino.
It takes three pair of hands to hold him back. Callen, Sam and Reilly, they all use their whole strength trying to restrain him but it is vain. Deeks vigor feeds from his increasing rage.
He wants to kill Sabatino. He wants to tear him apart just for daring to say it out loud.
"How dare you say that? He yells at him trying to free himself from the strong grips surrounding him. "You don't know her. She is a fighter. Where were you during the ambush huh?"
"I was keeping myself alive," Sabatino bluntly responds.
Suddenly the realization hits Granger. "Wait, weren't you in the trailer with Blye? I ordered you to stay with her."
"She had a death wish. I didn't! Everyone looks at him astonished as he throws away the crutches and walk forward without limping. "I told her to follow my lead but she didn't listen to me. There is no such thing as honorable death. Death is death. Period!"
"What did you do?" Deeks growls.
Sabatino smiles, the irony written all over his face. "I played dead."
"You did what?" Deeks makes another attempt to attack him. "You were here the entire time? You saw her fight for her life and you did nothing to help her? You saw them take her away and you did nothing to stop them?"
"What good would it do? We would probably both end up dead," he tries to justify his actions, but as expected he is not convincing at all. "She was your partner Deeks, not mine. My number one priority is to always keep myself safe. Not her. If you wanted to protect your lover girl, you should had been here."
That's it!
They know it is impossible but they can swear, red heated, smoke is steaming out of Deeks. They've never witnessed him in this situation before and it scares them down to the core. He is like a lion lurking to attack to its pray. If he gets his hands on Sabatino he will surely kill him. There is no doubt about that.
"Let me go!" He yells trying to escape the fortress the three men have built around him.
Even Granger joins in.
Deep down they all want to hit Sabatino but finally it is Reilly the one who gets the much desired strike. A single hit on Sabtino's throat is more than enough to bring him down on his knees gasping for air. Suddenly, the commotion is over and everyone is left staring at Reilly.
"What?" he looks at them puzzled.
"Nothing," Callen smiles at him and turns his attention back to Deeks. "Are you good?"
"Yeah," he shakes their hands off of him. "I'm good. I'm calm now."
He moves close to Reilly and looks at him quite impressed and frankly, a bit satisfied as Sabatino is still on the ground fighting to breath. "Thank you. I would have killed him."
"I know! I still can kill him you know," Reilly grins as he walks past Sabatino ostentatiously refusing to aid him.
Finally, Granger approaches him and taps his back. "Just relax. Don't force it and you'll be able to catch a breath."
Within seconds Sabatino is able to breath again and stand on his feet but all five men pierce him with their eyes.
"If you come anywhere near me again, I WILL kill you. No one will save you." Deeks warns him.
Sabatino stares the floor a bit remorseful, prying the consequences of his actions. "I know that the truth hurts, but you have to realistic and face the facts. I am not proud of what I did, but this is war and self preservation is my second nature," he moves towards the exit but stops for a second before walking out. "I really do hope you find her alive and unharmed. "
Soon. all five men are left alone again trying to pull themselves together and force their brains to come up with answers they know they don't have.