Chapter 41
Sam and Callen pulled up behind Kensi's SRX where she and Deeks stood gearing up to breach the empty warehouse in front of them. Sam opened up the back of the Challenger and the two men geared up as well, thigh holsters, NCIS Kevlar vests and rifles being the ensemble of the day. Sam closed the trunk and moved up to the other two.
"Any movement?" he asked.
Deeks answered. "Nothing. All of the buildings around here are empty. There's no one to canvas. It's starting to get dark out, we should get going. Front or back?"
Together, as they always did, both men answered "Front." Deeks frowned this time, feeling off and not making his usual snarky comment about the fact that the two of them answering in unison was adorable.
"What's up Deeks?" their team leader asked.
"This is the third anonymous tip about military weapons being sold to terrorists in the last two weeks, all in abandoned warehouses. The other two times turned out to be hoaxes. I just have a bad feeling about this. Like we're being tested or something. You guys always say it's bad tradecraft to follow the same routine all the time. I'm thinking maybe we should change it up and you guys go in the back, if we go in at all."
Callen sighed. "Deeks, that's meant for our personal time. When we're out here as federal agents, heavily armed agents I might add, routine is what we need. We need to be able to predict what each of us will do at any given moment without words. We can't take a chance on this one being another hoax; you know that as well as I do. We go in the front; you go in the back, just like always. "
Callen turned and eyed Kensi who hesitated, her partner's uneasiness infecting her. Eventually she nodded her acquiescence. Deeks sighed and fell into place as his team moved in. He still felt like something was wrong. He and Kensi waited outside the back door for Sam and Callen to get into position. They looked at each other and executed the ritual that had started not too long ago. He mouthed "I love you" to her and she mouthed "I love you too" back at him. Together they mouthed "Be careful", both nodding that they would be.
When Callen came over the comms giving the green light, the two of them opened the door and swung their rifles in front of them. Moving like the well-oiled machine the team was, they moved through the warehouse that, while abandoned, was still full of crates, carefully going around each corner, making sure no one got the drop on them. When they came to a point where they needed to split up, Kensi went left as always and Deeks went right. As hyper-vigilant as he was, he never saw the front of the very large crate he had just passed swing open silently and a dark figure emerge. When he finally sensed the movement behind him, it was too late and a hand forced a cloth over his nose and mouth. He wasn't prepared and had to take a breath, pulling the chemical on the cloth into his lungs, not recognizing the smell of what he was breathing. He had just enough time to elbow his attacker in the ribs but it wasn't enough. His last thoughts were of Kensi, hoping she was okay as he sank into darkness.
The man holding him up reached into Deeks's right ear and pulled out the earwig. He pitched it down between a row of crates where the space between them was too narrow for a person to fit. He laughed silently, thinking of the other cops trying to follow the GPS on it. He picked the unconscious man up in a fireman's carry, not wanting to leave drag marks behind that could lead the others to his hiding place, and went back to the crate. Entering, he dumped the cop in the corner and then pulled the front of the crate quietly closed behind him, latching it tightly so that no one could tell that this crate was any different from any of the hundreds surrounding it.
Turning back, he activated his cell phone for lighting. There was a large lock box waiting in the other corner and he quickly removed the thigh holster, vest and rifle from the downed man. Patting him down, he found a knife in his boot and another gun in his waistband. This guy was seriously armed. Once these had been placed in the lock box, he turned back and patted down the man's pockets. Pulling out the cop's cell phone, he turned it off and took out the battery, throwing both in the box. He then pulled out the guy's badge and wallet. Opening the badge he read: Martin A. Deeks, LAPD Detective. Smiling, he threw these last items in and then closed and padlocked the box.
He typed on his cell quickly.
Got him. We're concealed. Turning off phone as planned. Will wait 30 minutes to check in on phase 2.
Understood. 30 minutes to phase 2. Eyes and ears on the building.
He turned off his phone and removed the battery, sticking both in his jacket pocket and leaned back to wait, getting up only once to put the cloth over the detective's mouth again when it looked like he was coming to.
Out in the warehouse, the rest of the NCIS team finished their sweep, finding nothing, just like the last two times. Over the comms, Ops heard
"Clear" Sam.
"Clear" Callen.
"Clear" Kensi.
They all waited for the last check in that didn't come.
"Deeks, check in now!" Callen said.
"Deeks?" Kensi called, starting to freak out. Still no response.
"Eric, can you tell if his earwig is working?"
"Yes, it's up and working!"
"Can you locate it?"
"Yes, I'm tracking the built in GPS right now. It says he's on the north side of the warehouse. Callen, you're in the south, Sam west and Kensi east. You need to make your way over to the north side." The three agents converged while Eric talked them in. When they were finally together, the tech navigated them to where the GPS said Deeks was.
"Eric, there's no one here, are you sure this is where the GPS says he is?"
"Yes, he should be right there, about five feet in front of you to the east."
"There's nothing here to the east but crates Eric."
"I don't know what to tell you! I'm working blind here, there're no cameras I can access to get you any closer. The only thing I have to work on is the GPS in his earwig. Wait! I'll see if I can track his phone. Maybe he lost his earwig and is in another area of the warehouse." Eric looked over at Nell, the look on her face mirroring his as they worried about what had happened to their friend. Clicking away on his computer, he executed a command and waited to see what would happen. When nothing did, he tried several others. Looking over at Nell he mouthed "Get Hetty!" She quickly nodded and ran out of Ops.
"Um, guys? I can't find Deeks's phone. It's been turned off."
The man in the box grinned as he listened to the faint voices that made their way into where he and the man they were looking for were. He had hated the idea of this James Bond crap when it had been suggested but, after a week of following the detective, they knew they wouldn't be able to grab him from one of his usual places. The man was never alone, always with the brunette or the rest of his team. They never followed the same route home, hell; they never went to the same home! Never went to the same store twice, never went anywhere in the same pattern, it was beyond frustrating.
When his boss had suggested luring the team into trap and surgically removing the detective from the rest, he hadn't bought it but had gone along. This warehouse was always the end game. They had spent time tricking out the crate he was currently sitting in, as well as wiring the building with closed circuit cameras that neither LAPD nor NCIS would be able to access, but gave his man on the outside a complete view of all activity. The other two phony tips had been to watch the team work, to see out if they could figure out a pattern to the team dynamics during a raid. Color him surprised that the team followed the same rigid pattern each time. Their target and the brunette always went in the back. If split up, the brunette would always go left, the target right. Once they knew the pattern, they had created a split and positioned the crate on the target's path. Now he was sitting here, mission successful and with a plan to get both of them out. He was feeling pretty confident at this point. He listened in to the scene playing out right outside his hiding spot.
"Can you turn it back on?" asked Sam.
"I already tried. The battery's been removed."
While Eric and Sam were talking, Callen and Kensi continued to scour the area. It was Callen who noticed the semi shiny object sitting just beyond his reach between two rows of crates. Pulling out his phone, he turned on the light and shone it down the narrow space. When it landed on what was obviously Deeks's earwig, the senior agent sucked in his breath. It was enough to alert Kensi and Sam that he'd found something. They both converged on his position and stood staring at the abandoned piece of equipment that they had hoped would lead to their friend's whereabouts.
Clicking on his own earwig, Callen said quietly "We found it."
Not noticing his choice of words, Eric sagged in relief "Is he okay?"
"No, Eric, we found the earwig, still no sign of Deeks."
"He has to be there, right? I've had eyes and ears on the outside of the building through traffic cams since you guys went in. No one has gone in or come out! You've only been in there about 15 minutes. Where could he be?"
"Damn good question!" Callen looked over at Kensi who was struggling to contain her fear about what had happened to the most important person in her life. "Kens, we'll find him even if we have to tear this building apart brick by brick." He reached out and patted her on the arm, awkwardly trying to comfort his junior agent.
"He knew something was wrong, Callen. He knew it and we all just ignored him. We should have listened to him!"
"I know Kens, but there's nothing we can do about it now. You need to stay strong and help us look for him, okay?"
She nodded and pulled herself up straight. She would never stop looking. Splitting up, they began searching the warehouse, Sam starting from the spot Deeks had last been seen, Kensi and Callen starting at the spot where they found the earwig. Moving in an ever expanding circle, they moved through the building as they searched everywhere they could think of and still no sign of him. Twenty minutes later they converged and Callen was just about to call in reinforcements with crowbars, to open every single crate in the building if necessary, when Nell's voice came over the comms.
Excitedly she said "Guys! LAPD just got four separate phone calls about a tall blonde man in a vest with NCIS on it, heavily armed and staggering down Culver Blvd. It sounds like he's pretty beat up. It has to be Deeks, right?"
Kensi and Sam had converged on Callen when Nell had come online. The three agents stared at each other. "How the hell did he get all the way down there?" was the first thing Callen said.
"I don't know G, but we need to go get to him now before LAPD does something stupid and shoots him! Nell, you and Eric try to get eyes on him! Let LAPD know he's one of theirs and ours!" responded Sam. Nell answered in the affirmative, as Eric combed through traffic cams and open circuit security cameras, desperately trying to find Deeks's location on Culver, she put in a call to the LAPD switchboard. Neither tech paying attention to Hetty and Granger standing behind them, anxiously watching the footage with Eric for a sign of the shaggy man they had come to care about.
The three agents raced for the back exit and climbed into their cars to find the quickest way to Culver Blvd. Inside the warehouse, the man looked at his watch. Just over 45 minutes! He would have to start paying attention to those spy movies he had so despised before this. He put the battery back in his phone and turned it on to find he had a message.
Phase 2 complete. Cameras show all vacated. Awaiting instructions.
Meet at front entrance as planned.
Turning off his phone again and removing the battery, he held the cloth with the myoflurane over the cop's mouth again to make sure he didn't wake up while being carried out of the building. Picking him up in another fireman's carry, the man quietly unlatched the crate door and peered out, not wanting to take a chance that they had left someone behind that the cameras hadn't caught. The coast was clear and he stepped out, carefully pushing the crate door closed. He couldn't latch it from outside but they had made sure the hinges would hold the door closed and not swing open. When his team realized that the sightings of the cop on Culver were phony, they would be back here in a heartbeat and he wanted to have the best head start on them that he could.
He headed to the front where a black van had just pulled up. Opening the back door, he threw the cop in and climbed over him to the passenger seat. He grinned at his partner who put the van in gear and drove away.
~,~,~,~
A/N - the original version of this chapter had the bad guys use chloroform on Deeks, but a review long after the story was completed, let me know that it would take five minutes or more for it to work, more than enough time for him to put a fight. I never thought to research it as I've seen it used like that in tv shows and movies (this review also mentioned that). So, I took to google to find an alternative and couldn't find anything that would work, so I made up myoflurane.