Safe
By: I Feel Possessed
The team’s most recent case had proven to be tough on all of them, including those behind the scenes in the Operations Centre. Marine Intelligence Officer Southerly was suspected of feeding misinformation to his superiors about terrorist activities in Iraq and the case had been assigned to NCIS after the suspicious death of Southerly’s co-worker the previous day. Their first task had been to locate and arrest Southerly, which had proven to be easier said than done. Information on his whereabouts was secured by Nell and Eric, who had advised the team to go tactical at zero seven hundred hours that morning. The raid had yielded no results; there had been no sign of Southerly and no evidence he had ever been present in the leafy suburban house by the beach. Nell had subsequently found a small office space in the name of O’Kiefe, which was his mother’s maiden name, and she directed the team to an address twenty miles west of their current location. Again the raid was fruitless.
Meanwhile, Eric had managed to hack into Southerly’s personnel records and realised that he had been deliberately falsifying evidence of property ownership. Backtracking through a twenty year history, Eric had uncovered a third, previously hidden address. With more confidence than he felt, Eric had instructed the team to raid their third address of the day; a three storey house in an unassuming neighbourhood in Van Nuys.
The team had assumed their usual pairing positions, with Sam and Callen taking the front of the house; Kensi and Deeks the rear. Up on a count of three, the doors had been knocked off the hinges and each floor was quickly and methodically cleared. All four finally converged in front of the locked door to the converted attic.
Callen signalled to his team, and on the hand signal for three, Deeks rammed the door open and stood swiftly to one side, allowing Callen, Sam and Kensi to enter and sweep the room. It was empty. Again, no Southerly. Callen lowered his weapon.
“Eric,” he growled in frustration. “Southerly is not here. We’ve run out of places to search.”
“Sorry Callen,” Eric’s response came through the team’s earwigs. “That’s all I have.”
“Don’t worry Eric, we know he lives here. There’s plenty of evidence and we’ve found several laptops,” Kensi assured him.
Deeks wandered around the attic room, which was sparsely furnished with a wooden wardrobe and a grotty single bed.
“Looks like this room has more furniture than your entire house, G.” Sam stated with a smile as he moved back towards the door.
“Whoa,” Deeks exclaimed as he opened the wardrobe doors. “Unless he’s kept all of these from his own childhood, I would say Southerly has a kid.”
“There is nothing in his files to suggest that,” Nell said through the earwig. “But I’ll check further.”
Callen looked around him and hesitated. “The door was locked,” He said slowly. He clenched his jaw as he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The clothes in the wardrobe looked dirty, and the bed covers were filthy and smelt musty, with a faint hint of urine. He held his finger up to his lips motioning his team to be quiet and pointed to the bed. Crouching down, gun in hand just in case, Callen squinted as he looked in to the dark cavernous space beneath. A small pair of wide eyes stared back at him.
“Hey, it’s Ok, you can come out now,” Callen said quietly.
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