Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone for the reviews/comments. They're very much appreciated! This story has taken on a life of its own (lol) and seems to be taking me with it instead of the other way around. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Up in Ops, Eric and Nell were busy with tagging and organizing surveillance videos and digital material recovered from a recent operation when Sam entered, followed closely by Kensi and Deeks. Both were surprised by the arrival of the agents since there was no current case and, as far as they knew, no one had summoned them to Ops.

"What can I do you for, Sam?" Eric asked as he stopped working on his tablet and faced the agents.

"Have you heard from Callen?"

Eric and Nell looked at one another before Eric answered, "Not this morning, no."

"He didn't send you a text or an email?"

Eric quickly checked the accounts Callen would have contacted and shook his head. "The only emails and texts I've received are related to cases, mainly the one involving the Intrepid. I'm thinking those aren't the kinds of messages you're looking for."

These were definitely not the kinds of messages Sam was looking for. "Where's his phone?"

Eric focused on his tablet again and in a moment had the answer. "It's at his apartment."

"Call him. Put it on speaker."

Eric and Nell both raised their eyebrows. They were seldom ordered to call any agent by anyone other than Hetty, especially when there was no case and especially not asked to put the call on speaker, but something was clearly bothering Sam and Callen was his partner, so Eric obliged. His call, like Sam's, immediately went to voicemail. Eric cast a sidelong glance at Nell whose own expression was beginning to show concern.

"Maybe he doesn't want to be disturbed," Eric suggested.

"Or maybe he can't be disturbed," Sam replied, deadly serious. "Turn on the phone's camera." In Sam's mind, the inability to contact his partner set off the same alarms he'd felt when Callen had been abducted to Belarus, but since Nikita was now dead, if something had happened to Callen, could it still be connected to Nikita, to someone else in his personal life, to a previous case, or could it be related to something or someone completely unknown? Anyone in this business made a lot of enemies when they'd been in it as long as Callen had been.

Suddenly the big screen was filled with the image of Callen's apartment. He had purchased a cheap dollar stand for his phone, and judging from the angle of the camera, that's where it was—on the crate next to his bed. There seemed to be no visible sign of a struggle—nothing looked broken—not that there was much that would be broken if anything had been one. Still, the apartment looked undisturbed. That was a good sign. The corner of Callen's bed was just visible, and from this view there was no sign of anyone in it.

"Where's his car?"

Eric checked his tablet again. "It's parked on the street across from his apartment."

"Check his phone for any incoming or outgoing calls or texts within the past 48 hours."

Eric's lips drew into a straight, tight line, and Sam could see that this order made both Eric and Nell uncomfortable.

"Eric, you probably won't find anything that isn't work related. After all, it's Callen. But if you do find something out of the ordinary—a call or a text from an unknown person or number, it might help explain why he isn't at work and if he's in some kind of trouble."

"Right," Eric nodded and began accessing Callen's phone logs. Sam turned to Nell.

"Nell, check the traffic cams in the area of Callen's apartment over the past 24 hours and see if you see him or anything or anyone who might be suspicious, out of the ordinary."

"Absolutely," Nell said and took her seat next to Eric.

As the three agents headed back to the bullpen, Sam knew that Eric and Nell would find anyone who had come near Callen's apartment or contacted him. He would go over now and check things out in person.

He turned to Kensi and Deeks, "Tell Hetty I've gone to check on Callen when she comes in."

"Of course," Kensi replied. "I'm sure he's fine, Sam."

Sam was in the tunnel and almost out the door when Eric and Nell came down with their results, so he came back to the bullpen to hear what they had to say.

"There has been no activity—calls or texts—on Callen's phone for the past 48 hours other than normal work-related calls."

Sam nodded, "Okay." He turned to Nell, "And did you find anything, Nell?"

"I did," Nell said. She put the video from a neighborhood camera up on the screen in the bullpen. The time stamp showed 2:41 am that morning as Callen exited his apartment building and jogged out of view.

"Who goes jogging at 2:41 in the morning?" Deeks asked to know one in particular.

Nell turned to Sam and continued, "I don't have video of him returning."

"Why not?" Sam asked as he turned to her.

"It appears," she said with notable concern, "that the camera is no longer operational."

There was silence in the bullpen for several seconds. "Thanks, you two," Sam said as Eric and Nell headed back up to Ops certain that there would be more tasks heading their way.

"Why," Deeks turned to Sam, "would Callen be out jogging at 2:41 in the morning?"

"He probably couldn't sleep. But," he continued, "the real question is, why was the camera not operational when—if—he returned?" He made a decision in a heartbeat. "Kensi, Deeks, I want you to check local hospitals to see if anyone matching Callen's description has been admitted in the last eight hours. If he was injured or in an accident, he may not have had ID on him, and his fingerprints wouldn't get a hit. Also, check with the police, especially the precincts near his apartment. Maybe there's a report. And find out what when that camera stopped functioning."

"On it," Deeks said as he and Kensi went to their desks and started calling, Kensi the hospitals and Deeks the LAPD.

Sam looked over at Hetty's desk. She hadn't come in yet this morning, either, and he couldn't help but wonder if she and Callen were working together "off the books." It wouldn't be the first time both of them had kept the rest of the team in the dark, and while Callen had become less of a "lone wolf" during the past few years, Sam knew that Callen would never shake that habit completely, and the past months might have resurrected his tendency to do things on his own. He hoped that wasn't true, but even if it was, Sam knew that the team would be ready to help him when he needed them.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was almost midnight when Eugene Weston walked through the deplaning tunnel and entered Terminal 2 of the Jose Marti International Airport. If his connecting flight hadn't been delayed in Miami, he would have arrived before 9:00 pm, but the delay was a minor inconvenience. It didn't affect his plans; it just made him tired. He waited in the customs line with his small carry-on and watched the activity around him. It was a busy airport even at this hour. When he reached the customs official, he handed her his passport.

"What brings you to Cuba, Senor Weston?" she asked with a practiced smile.

"Continuing research on the levels of pollution in the Caribbean, unfortunately."

"Why unfortunately?"

"I'd prefer it," he said as she handed him back his passport, "if there was no need for a study of pollution in the beautiful Caribbean –or any of our waters."

"Si," she said as she nodded in agreement. "We should treat our oceans with greater respect. Have a pleasant stay, and I hope your study finds that we are taking care of our island waters."

"Thank you. I hope I find that to be true," he said with a weary smile and then walked toward the exit to find a taxi to take him into the heart of Havana. But, as he passed the various food counters, he realized how hungry he was and after two flights that combined were more than 12 hours, it was time to eat. He walked up to a counter a little further down the concourse. A few minutes later, he got into a taxi with a medianoche and a paper bag of fried plantain chips. When he reached his hotel room a little before 1:00 am, Callen was ready to finally sleep and start his search for Anna later that day.

XXXXXXXXXX

In Callen's apartment, Sam hadn't found much, but he had found his overnight bag missing. Once he saw that, he went to the wall safe Callen had installed and opened it, glad that as partners they shared vital information that might be needed should either of them get compromised or in serious trouble. The first thing Sam saw in the safe was Callen's NCIS badge. He immediately thought back to the only other time Callen had left his badge behind, and it didn't ease his mind. Next, Sam saw that Callen's firearm was still in the safe, so wherever Callen had gone, he wasn't armed. That could be a bigger problem. As he looked further through the safe's contents, he noticed that there was an empty space in the organizer that held his alias passports. He knew that Callen kept a few that were not "on record" with NCIS, but he hoped that the one that appeared to be missing wasn't one of those. Sam pulled all the passports out and spread them out on the bed.

"Nell, can you read off the list of alias passports Callen's been assigned? Just the countries will do right now."

In Ops, Nell shot Eric a quizzical look as she spoke into her com, "Sure, Sam." Her fingers flew over her keyboard and a list appeared. She began reading, "Iran, United Kingdom, Libya, Russia, …."

Sam pulled the passports to one side as she read through the list. When she finished, all the passports on the list were accounted for. "Damn," was all he said. Neither Nell nor Eric wanted to interject a question, so they waited for Sam to continue. "Nell, Callen might have left the country using one of his non-NCIS aliases."

Eric was the first to speak, "That's not good."

"No," Sam agreed, "it's not. And wherever he went, he didn't take his firearm or his badge."

"That's definitely not good," Nell said as her expression mirrored her words.

"Nell, have Kensi or Deeks found anything?

"Not yet."

"Pass this information on to them and tell them they can stop. It looks like Callen's left L.A., willingly or unwillingly."

"Will do, Sam."

Sam then gathered up the passports, put them back in the organizer, closed the safe, and locked his partner's apartment. Out on the street, he checked the camera that was no longer operational; the lens had been shot out. Now very concerned, he headed back to OSP.

XXXXXXXXXX

About thirty minutes later, Sam entered OSP and saw Hetty standing at one corner of the raised platform that designated her "office" space. She motioned for him to come join her. He walked over to their diminutive operations manager and glanced back at the bullpen as he did. Kensi and Deeks sat at their desk in silence and watched him while they pretended to be busy with paperwork. Sam towered over Hetty as he stepped into her office and stopped in front of her.

"Mr. Hanna, I understand the team's been looking for Mr. Callen."

" Yes, Hetty, we have been."

"There's no need. I informed Ms. Jones and Mr. Beale and Ms. Blye and Mr. Deeks to stop looking, and I'm telling you to do the same."

"And why's that?"

"It's because I received an encrypted message from Mr. Callen early this morning informing me that he has resigned from NCIS effective immediately."