“I was going to keelhaul him,” Sam said.
“You don’t have my generous spirit,” Hetty said.
“I don’t have your pull with Navy brass, that’s for sure.”
“Very few do.” She turned back to Martin, who had a kind of stunned smile pasted on his face. “Take a few days to think about it,” she said. “There’s no rush, and no pressure. If you’d rather not re-up, that’s fine. I just wanted you to know that the option is there, should you choose to exercise it.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“‘Thank you’ would suffice.”
“Thank you, Ms. Lange. Thank you all.”
“Oh,” Deeks said. “She gets an individual thank you, and the rest of us have to share tiny thank-you shards? Collectively we only merit the equivalent of one personal thanks?”
“Thank you, Deeks,” Martin said.
“No, it’s okay. It’s just good to know where we stand.”
“Ignore him,” Sam said.
“We do,” Callen added.
Kensi took Deeks’s hand and squeezed. “Deeks,” she said, “you’re an idiot.” She leaned closer, and stage-whispered the next four words. “And I love you.”
“Sorry?” Deeks asked. “What was that? Couldn’t quite hear you, Kensileena. A little louder, please?”
“Later,” she said, flashing him a grin. “At home, we’ll work on our non-verbal communication.”
“That’s my favorite kind,” Deeks said.
Hetty’s voice cut through the laughter. “Mr. Deeks,” she said. “Ms. Blye. The entire bullpen does not need to be subjected to the sordid details of your personal lives.”
Kensi’s smile faded. “Sorry—” she began.
But Hetty’s grew at the same time. “Go home, you two. And stay there tomorrow. We’ll try to keep the national security crises to a minimum for twenty-four hours, while you get whatever is in your systems out of them.”
She started up the stairs, then stopped and turned to face the bullpen again. “And I know I don’t say this often enough. In fact, you might never hear it again, so listen closely, everyone. Thank you all for your service. Your coworkers appreciate it, your nation appreciates it. And I appreciate it.”
She paused for a beat, then added, “And as we all know, that is what’s most important.”
Acknowledgments
Great thanks to the folks at Titan Books, my good friends at CBS TV, Howard Morhaim and his fantastic team, and of course to Shane Brennan and the entire cast and crew of NCIS: Los Angeles for bringing us one of the most consistently entertaining shows on television. Additional thanks to Jason Zibart, Steve Mertz, Chuck Sellner, Lisa and the Tech Pubs gang, Vicki and Dia, and especially to Marcy, for pulling me through.
About the Author
Jeff Mariotte is the award-winning author of more than fifty novels, including thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil’s Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet, and many others. With partner (and wife) Marsheila Rockwell, he wrote the science fiction/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS, and numerous shorter works. He also writes comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Zombie Cop and Fade to Black. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, and is currently the editor-in-chief of Visionary Comics and division chief of Visionary Books.
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