Paranoia or Reality

Paranoia or Reality Chapter 17

Los Angeles

It was like the past couple of years never happened, when Sam entered the old water treatment plant without his partner again. This time, Gibbs, McGee, Bishop, and Torres, echoed his footsteps alongside Detective Marty Deeks.

"Oh, man, it's so good to be back." Deeks slid in behind his old desk and swivelled the chair.

"It's good to see you there too. Where you belong." Sam slid in behind his desk and watched Gibbs and his team settle into the bullpen. Eric had been busy organising extra desks for the additional agents for this case. Even without Callen and Kensi, they still required two more desks. He wasn't surprised to see Gibbs settle in behind Callen's and open his laptop.

"I better make an appearance at the station." Deeks dialled his cell and vanished through the back way towards the carpool.

"Shouldn't he have backup?" Torres looked towards the empty water fountain. "This place is awesome. I wish we had digs like this."

"We can permanently arrange it." Gibbs quipped, searching for something on his laptop.

"You'd get rid of me that easily?" Torres looked offended. He was impressed with the West Coast lair, which he'd heard McGee refer to it as. Something to do with Tony Dinozzo's last visit to L.A.

Gibbs glared at him.

"Okay! Maybe not that easily." Torres looked up towards the Ops Centre. Eric appeared and virtually bounced down the stairs.

"You're back." Eric looked for his favourite detective. "Where's Deeks?"

He's gone back to LAPD," Sam told him.

"Right. Well, I have been digging and I've found something." He pulled up the information onto a portable screen as they have in D.C.

"CIA officers, James Dasper and Peter O'Conner, have gone off-grid since you were in Paris."

"Why does this appear that they're linked to this case in more than just the missing Fabergé egg?"

"Because," Eric dragged out, "the Fabergé egg was never missing. It was taken to the location your friend in Paris told you about. Another NCIS team with SEAL team 2 entered the buildings where this Syrian terrorist group was hiding out. It's been found safe and it's being transported back to Moscow as we speak. Vance is hoping this gesture of goodwill, will help improve our inter-country relations."

"Let's hope it works, it's not looking good having the Russians after Callen and his father," Sam stated.

Eric gulped. "About that."

"About what?"

Eric looked nervous. "I've received a secured phone call from Hetty. Callen's gone missing."

"What do you mean by missing?" Sam rose from his seat, Gibbs followed and Eric swallowed hard the lump that threatened to choke him.

"Hetty had him fly to various checkpoints along the route to his final destination. His last stop was Fargo." Eric pulled up a map. "She's sent John Callen, a cousin of Clara Callen's, to find him."

"Hetty had no other options. She needs you here to deal with the case. He's not answering any of Hetty's calls. She's managed to keep this information away from Nell," Eric continued.

"Crap!" Gibbs looked to his team. "You work on this case. Find any traces of anyone who may be looking at the Campbell's family home, and entered the country recently. Do background checks on everyone until you can be certain they're not linked to this case. I want updates."