Guns And Lab Coats

Blast From The Past

As the three of them pulled up outside the offices, and stepped out of their cars, Laurie looked around, at her surroundings, "Nice place, I guess." She took her things from the trunk of her car, and followed Callen and Sam inside.

As they walked into the office, Hetty walked over to them, from behind her desk, "Miss Exler, it's been far too long."

"Yes, it has, Hetty." And the smaller woman pulled her into a hug, "5 years, 3 months and 4 days, if memory serves."

"Which, naturally, yours does."

"Yup!" she beamed, "Where d'you want me to set up?"

"In Ops will be just fine."

"You got it." And Laurie bounded up the stairs, to Ops, laptop in hand.

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

When she walked through the sliding doors, into Ops, she was met by Eric and Nell, "Hi." she smiled, "Mind if I set up in here?" Then, she looked around, "Damn, this place is so freakin' cool! Sorry, I'm Laurie. Laurie Exler. You're Eric, right? The guy I spoke to on the phone?"

"That's me."

"Sorry," Laurie started, looking at Nell, "I'm being rude. I didn't catch your name?"

"It's fine. Nell Jones," she smiled, "I've read some of your papers, Dr Exler. They're fascinating."

"Why, thank you, Nell Jones," Laurie beamed, "I'm never sure if they're good or utter incomprehensible crap. So, thank you. And, it's Laurie. Not 'Dr Exler'."

"Do you need our computers, Dr E--" But Nell stopped herself, "Laurie?"

"I think I'm good," she smiled, "I have my laptop, which has the majority of stuff I need. My main issue is I only have two hands, and I'm usually tryna work at warp speed. This is why I am eternally grateful to have you two!" she was positively beaming by now, "Sorry... I'm coming across as really weird, aren't I? It happens quite a lot... I calm down after a few hours, it's just initially my ADHD kinda goes into overdrive.  I'll have my Adderall tablets and I'll be fine. And I'm rambling... Oh, I'm sorry..." She sighed, as she sat by the wall, and took out her laptop, along with her iPod. She plugged her headphones into the music player, and hit play, as she opened up the necessary programs on her computer. She took a bag of Skittles from her satchel, and started absent-mindedly nibbling at them, before she took the headphones off and called Nell over, "Hey, Nell, can you patch me into the NCIS servers?"

"Sure."

"Thank ya!"

"Er, Laurie," Eric started, very cautiously, "You know Hetty has a rule against eating in Ops, right?"

"Indeed, I do," she answered, "Skittles, however, are my brain food. They help me think. But, thanks."

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

About half an hour later, as the rest of the team walked in, Laurie squealed, happily, as she tore her headphones off, "I think I got something!"

"I'm sorry," Deeks started, "Who are you?"

But, instead of Laurie, Hetty answered, "Miss Blye, Mr Deeks, this is Dr Laurie Exler, who prefers to be referred to by only her first name. Miss Exler, this is Special Agent Kensi Blye, and our LAPD liaison, Detective Marty Deeks." They exchanged silent greetings, but Hetty stopped them from saying anything, "What do you have, Miss Exler?"

"The only way to keep the radioactive component of the unit stable is to keep it at sub-0 temperatures." she explained.

But Nell cut her off, "We already cross-checked any form of freezers sold to any of the addresses, and we didn't get any hits."

"I know, which is when I had a thought-" Laurie started, "What if they didn't just freeze the unit? What if they used liquid nitrogen?"

"Surely that would show up when Eric did the thermal imaging." Callen, rightly, said.

"Indeed it would. Which is why you would need one hell of an iron container and craploads of insulation." Laurie had to try to suppress her contented smirk, "Cross-check those with our 7 locations, and we have our primary location."

"And that, Dr Laurie Exler, is why you're a genius."

"Thank you, Agent G Callen," she smiled.

"What do we know about our shooters?" Hetty asked.

"Not much..." Kensi answered.

And Eric put photos of the dead Officers on the screen.

"Low calibre shots. One to the heart, one to the head." Sam explained.

"Joey Marinzano..." Laurie muttered, barely audibly.

Everyone looked at her, eyebrows raised, "Who's Joey Marinzano?" Deeks asked.

"Someone I'm not proud of knowing..." But seeing that that cryptic answer was going to get her nowhere, she sighed, and explained, "5 years ago, when I worked for Vegas PD, I went undercover in a few casinos owned by Frank Marinzano, to get to his son, Joey. Since Frank died, Joey's taken over the casinos, and his sidelines  - Drugs and arms deals. Frank had class, but Joey's just an animal."

"Miss Exler," Hetty started, darkly, "I think it's time to revive your alias."

"Oh, joy..." she muttered, sarcastically, "Isabella Adams-Smith. One person I did not miss..."

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

"So," Callen started, "Tell me about Isabella Adams-Smith." He and Laurie were stood, waiting for Hetty to pick out their outfits for their undercover assignment in Vegas. Kensi, Deeks and Sam were going, too - Kensi as a waitress, Deeks as a bartender and Sam as security - but only they were going to be playing the tables.

"27, born in Miami, rich parents died when she was 4. Con artist, dominatrix, loves power play, hates to lose. Left Vegas for 5 years, to let the dust settle after coming a little too close to prison." she answered, without emotion, "You any good at poker, then, Callen?"

He shrugged slightly, "Not bad. You?"

"Banned from Atlantic City." she smirked, "Being what is essentially a genius lends itself to card counting."

"Okay, so you're very good..." he said, making Laurie laugh.

"I guess you could say that."

Just then, Hetty came back, holding a suit, shirt and black tie for Callen, and an expensive-looking black Diamante dress for Laurie, "Try these on." she directed them to the curtained dressing rooms, "Then, put them in the clothes carriers. You leave in an hour."