Guns And Lab Coats

The Workings Of A Genius

At 9:13am, the NCIS: Office Special Projects team, stationed in LA, sat in the bullpen in their offices, doing paperwork at their desks. "Why are we stuck here, doing paperwork?" LAPD liaison, Detective Marty Deeks asked, exasperated, "We should be out there, catching bad guys!"

"Well, we're not." his partner, Special Agent Kensi Blye said.

"So shut up about it." Special Agent Sam Hanna was getting more annoyed by Deeks than the paperwork.

Special Agent G Callen, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the work, "Make the most of it, Deeks. You never know how long the next case is gonna last."

"Mr Callen is right, Mr Deeks," their Operations Manager, Hetty Lange, said, walking over, "As your presence is now required in Ops. We have a case."

"Happy now?" Kensi asked him, as they walked up to the Operations Centre on the next floor.

But Deeks only shrugged, "Depends what the case is."

As they arrived in Ops, they were met by Hetty, as well as their Technical Operator, Eric Beale, and Intelligence Analyst, Nell Jones. "Last night," Hetty started, "7 Naval Intelligence Officers were found dead at a Research Facility near Camp Pendleton. Their project is highly classified, and has been compromised. For that reason, Miss Blye and Mr Deeks, their Commanding Officer will meet you in the Boatshed to fill you in. Mr Callen and Mr Hanna, because of the sensitive nature of this case, I have called in a favour with a Crime Scene Investigator I trust with my life. She will meet you at the crime scene. Be nice to her, it's her day off."

Callen and Sam chuckled, "Aren't we always?"

"Address is on your cell phones." Eric announced. And, with that, the team went their separate ways.

****************

Sam and Callen drove to the crime scene, in Sam's Dodge Challenger. "D'you reckon Hetty has favours to call in with everyone?" Callen asked, randomly.

"Probably," Sam answered, "Why?"

"Just everyone who we meet because of Hetty, we meet because she called in a favour."

****************

Once they pulled up outside the facility, they showed their IDs to the LEOs on the perimeter, and walked in, pulling on their latex crime scene gloves.

They were met by a young woman, of about 28, with startling blue eyes, large framed glasses, and a mass of tight, frizzy, dark blonde curls, "Hey. You're NCIS, right? Agents Callen and Hanna? Dr Laurie Exler. Hetty called, told me you were coming."

"What have you got for us, Dr Exler?" Sam asked her.

"2 things;" she started, "First, it's Laurie, not Dr Exler. Second, the better question is 'what have I not got?' to which the answer is forensic evidence. Seriously, these guys were freakin' careful!"

"So basically, we got nothing." Callen said, clearly not impressed.

"Basical--" but Laurie cut herself off, "Damn! How the hell did I miss that?!" But she saw their confused looks, "They were here working on a missile defense unit, but one of the components is highly radioactive. You need two swipe cards to start any of the systems. The swipe cards have a GPS transmitter!"

"I thought the project was highly classified." Sam said, confused.

"It is," she started, "I was read in, as per Hetty's request. Kinda helps if I know what I'm walking into."

"So you can find them?" Callen asked.

"Oh, you watch me." Laurie took her MacBook Pro from her satchel and opened a specially designed tracking program. She typed, at lightning speed, and soon found some answers, "Oh, great... 7 separate locations... All we needed." she added, sarcastically. "Tell ya what, can I speak to your technical operator for a second?"

Callen nodded, and called Ops, "Eric, Dr Exler's got something for you to run."

"Okay," he started, "What do you need?"

"I'm about to send you 7 locations," she told him, "Can you run thermal imaging on them, find out how many people are at each location? Cars, stuff like that, as well?"

"Indeed, I can."

"Thank you," Laurie smiled, "I'll start running CCTV when I get back to my lab."

But, Hetty spoke up, on the other end of the line, "You will not be returning to your lab, Miss Exler. Mr Callen and Mr Hanna, would you be so kind as to bring Miss Exler back here with you? I feel she will be of far more use here, than at the Boat Shed or in her lab."

"Sure thing, Hetty." Sam said.

"My car's out front," Laurie told them, "So I'll follow you."

Callen and Sam nodded, "Alright. We'll make our way back." Callen told them, before the call was ended, "Are you done, Dr Exler?"

"Yep," she smiled, "I'm good." she packed her computer back into her satchel, and reset her glasses on her nose, "And it's Laurie. Cut the 'Dr Exler' crap."

Chuckling, the three of them left the building, Laurie hauling all her equipment behind her. She popped the trunk of her Nissan Juke, and placed all her stuff inside, "Damn, I love your car..." she smiled, seeing Sam's Challenger, "I'm tryna restore my dad's old Charger, but it's not working out too good."

"Why's that?" Sam asked.

"3 reasons;" she started, "Can't get half the parts I need. I work way too much. And I have a paper due for me next PhD, so that takes up craploads of my time."

"Next PhD?" Callen repeated, astonished, "How many do you have?"

"3," she casually answered, "And 3 Bachelors Degrees. Working on my 4th PhD. Engineering."

"What are you?" Callen joked, "A genius?"

But Laurie shrugged slightly, "My IQ is 211, I have an eidetic memory, and I can read 20,000 words per minute. So, pretty much. Am I still following you?"

"Yeah, if you're still good with that." Sam told her.

"Mais bien sûr, mon ami." she smiled, in a near perfect, eloquent French accent.

As Sam and Callen buckled themselves into Sam's car, and Laurie headed for her own, Callen chuckled, "Well, she's different."

"Yes, she is."