NCIS Los Angeles s01e13 Episode Script
Missing
WOMAN [ON RADIO.]
: That's our programme.
Thanks for tuning into Jazz on Starry Night.
[STATIC ON RADIO.]
MAN [ON RADIO.]
: Sigalert from earlier this evening [STATIC ON RADIO.]
[FLAMENCO MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO.]
[MAN SHOUTING IN SPANISH.]
[MEN SHOUTING AND GRUNTING.]
Rafael! [STATIC ON RADIO.]
[SOUL MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO.]
- You can't sing both parts of a duet.
- Says who? Not in a competition.
That sounds like second place talking.
I was clearly the better performer last night.
You can ask Kensi, Hetty, Nate, Eric.
Come on, man.
They saw it with their own ears.
Well, a table of impartial observers would beg to differ.
Those women were seriously hammered.
And you let them vote.
"To All the Girls I've Loved Before" is a karaoke classic.
I just made it my own.
And my fans clearly appreciated the effort.
You held your nose during Willie Nelson's parts.
[IN NASAL VOICE.]
That was very original.
"My Funny Valentine?" What, are you kidding me? No.
I hear that's in heavy rotation at the senior's centre.
It's a jazz standard.
Huh.
Just be glad you're not Nate.
Julio, Willie.
Valentine.
- Hetty here yet? SAM: No.
But Backstreet's back.
Ha! - Ha.
- Ha-ha-ha.
- Is there any coffee? - Yeah.
Nate, friends do not let friends sing boy bands.
Mm.
Who has an extra pencil? Are you sure you're not still drunk? Maybe.
Anyone know how long this, uh, seminar thing is supposed to go? Last year was six and a half hours before the first bathroom break.
Oh, my God.
KENSl: Has anyone seen Dom? No, but that's one way to avoid a hangover.
- Don't show up for karaoke.
- Yeah.
Don't show up for work.
Thirty seconds, he's gonna be rookie meat.
Your watch is slow, Mr.
Callen.
NATE: Bravo.
KENSl: Hetty, all right.
ERIC: Wow.
The crowd goes wild.
- Oh.
"Wanted Dead or Alive.
" An inspired choice, Hetty.
Well, there's no magic quite like the quixotic combination of the Messrs.
, cognac and Bon Jovi.
[LAUGHS.]
But given our various states of post inebriation, I will waste no time in welcoming each and almost every one of you to our mandated annual workplace safety evaluation.
Where is Mr.
Vail? I just called him and it went straight to voicemail.
Huh.
He didn't get the memo? Maybe we should postpone this until we're all here.
Oh, no.
I'll prepare a make-up session especially for Dom.
Have no fear.
It will consume his entire weekend.
Number two pencils.
The tools of ignorance.
Let's open our books to page one.
And begin.
[PHONE BEEPS.]
- Sorry.
Off.
- Mm-hm.
"A safe work environment is not just a goal" [PHONE RINGS.]
That's me.
Sorry.
Phaser's on stun.
Does the word "vibrate" mean anything to you people? [PHONE RINGS.]
If you're behind this, Mr.
Beale What? Ugh.
It wasn't me.
Pinky promise.
[PHONE RINGS.]
Oh, lord.
It's an Agent Needs Assistance alert.
It's coming from Dom's phone.
Let's find him.
Broadcast for 15 seconds and then it stopped.
NATE: Maybe he pocket-dialled it? - There's almost no chance that Dom's specific four-digit sequence got entered accidentally.
Had to happen twice.
Sender has to enter the same code to turn it off.
Straight to voicemail first ring.
So the alert got turned off and so did his phone.
Turn it back on.
Mm-mm, it's not responding.
Battery is either dead or taken out.
What about a GPS log? Wasn't broadcast long enough.
I can't get a position.
Dom's home phone is not answering either.
What about the GPS in his car? ERIC: All right, I got it.
Just south of downtown.
An alley off 18th and Santa Fe.
OFFICER: No, it's their jurisdiction, okay? KENSl: What the heck was Dom doing down here? It's his usual shortcut.
He takes the alley to avoid the long light at Santa Fe.
Ugh.
Oh, my God.
OFFICER: Hang on a second, I'll be right there.
ERIC [OVER PHONE.]
: Hit me up, G.
- Eric, check for traffic cameras in the alley, this parking lot, anywhere nearby, okay? See if there was anyone tailing Dom.
Looking now.
This is just how we found it about 45 minutes ago.
No body.
IPod, cash, house keys, laptop still here.
This wasn't a robbery.
Did anybody see anything? No witnesses at all.
That's not surprising, though.
This part of town's no man's land till rush hour kicks in around 7.
A guy stopped at a light on 18th, called it in.
Bullet holes have a raised edge from the outside.
Shots came from inside the car.
There's a lot of blood and a lot of glass.
Okay.
So Dom comes through here, he stops for some reason.
Somebody sneaks up, smashes the driver's window.
Second assailant smashes the passenger-side window, forces his way in, throws it in park, they struggle.
Bang, bang, bang.
SAM: He's been here a few months? [PHONE RINGS.]
What does he know about shortcuts? - Yeah? - There are traffic cams at every intersection downtown.
Near your alley and in the parking lot, no video at all.
Cameras everywhere on Dom's route, but this spot.
Is he taking the short cut to and from work? - The car is pointed east.
- That means he was headed home.
Well, in that case, this happened last night.
Then why did we get an assistance call this morning? Dom must've gotten his phone this morning, even for a second.
Something went wrong when they took him Bad guys got sidetracked somehow.
Guys, onboard camera was activated.
Hard drive has a bullet hole in it, though.
Techs might still be able to pull some footage off it.
KENSl: You know what? No one bleeds this much and survives.
Ty, could you look at this? Oh.
Poor little fella.
Who'd wanna shoot you? You talk to your computer parts? Do you talk to your plants when you water them? Just my orchids, but they can be tricky.
Look, hard drives are like people, okay? Take one to the casing and it's like getting shot in the butt.
Hurts, but probably not gonna kill you.
But take one to the platter, like It's like getting shot through the heart.
Wait.
Is this from Dom's car? Yeah.
He's supposed to bring in a cooling fan from an old G4 tower today.
We're building a PC together.
Rule is spare parts only.
He's a pretty good geek, you know, for an agent.
Just see what you can get off it.
NATE: As far as Dom's demeanour is concerned, I noticed nothing unusual in the past few days.
And what about his laptop? From what we can tell, untouched.
That's not surprising.
Dom's a stickler for security.
- What about witnesses? - There's no witnesses, Hetty.
Why did this happen? I mean, why Dom? Right now, we have no idea.
Okay, FBI, DEA and ICE they've all called to offer their help.
Work them.
Cross-reference threats to their agents.
See if there have been any similar abductions.
Do whatever you have to do to find him.
By whatever means necessary.
- You ever been here before? - No.
Me neither.
Hey, it's not unusual to wait a considerable period of time before visiting the residence of a colleague, okay? Okay.
Dom went straight from college at MIT to training at FLETC to us.
A guy in a hurry to get his life started.
You know, he told me he was so excited to come to L.
A.
That he didn't even stop at his folk's place to pick up his stuff.
We really never got to know him.
Nate.
Don't go there.
Sorry.
I didn't mean it like that.
So who calls to tell them that he's missing? Maybe the director.
Maybe Hetty.
I've never had to make one of those calls before.
He didn't come home last night.
Why two monitors? Uh Internet? Game console.
KENSl: Dom tapped into the parking garage security system.
Building's got cameras.
All his e-mails ran through the secure server at NCIS.
Nothing suspicious here.
No indication that he thought anyone was targeting him.
What about his personal stuff? His browser.
Go through his history.
You wanna do this? No.
It's gadget blogs, news sites, tech reviews and Doesn't even clear his cache.
We don't all need private browsing.
He hasn't been around long enough to make enemies, Sam.
So, what are you saying? - It was random? - Maybe.
I mean, bad things happen in this town.
Wrong place? Wrong time? Come on, G.
Well, he's a kid.
Driving down an alley in a bad part of town.
- It's as good as anything we've got.
- Which is a lot of nothing.
You know as well as I do no one gets snatched up for nothing.
We got something.
So we've got three cameras in the parking garage, all Internet enabled.
Four-digit password, eminently hackable.
Well, how far can you go back? Uh, well, the DVR they're connected to records continuously for five days and then resets.
So we've got one, two, three angles.
And here's Dom's car.
Coming and going lots of times.
- When's this from? - Um, last week.
And that one? Yesterday.
Why? Put them both on the screen for me, side by side.
New camera.
And it's mounted right above Dom's parking spot.
Where's the footage from that camera? There isn't any.
It's not connected to the building's system.
But if that is new, the other should have footage of who put it up.
KENSl: That's not Dom.
- It's from two days ago.
Shoulders are hunched, tense.
His body language definitely suggests he's conscious of being watched.
The installer knew other cameras were there.
His face is hidden intentionally.
Why not disable other cameras if you're worried about being seen? Shut down three video feeds, someone from the office is gonna check.
Okay, see that antenna? The new camera's wireless.
It's designed to be monitored from a laptop nearby.
KENSl: The image isn't clear.
Is this good enough to run through facial recognition? - Doubt it.
- Do it anyway.
You and me set up on a target to run surveillance.
How long? Two to three weeks to chart a guy's habits, patterns.
Minimum.
Dom gets snatched up two days after that camera gets installed? All right.
It all came together quickly.
What is your point? Pros are deliberate.
Whoever did this was obviously professional.
Why would they break operational security? Well, maybe they paid a premium to get this done quickly.
Why Dom? He's a rookie.
He's never been with any agency other than NCIS.
You said it.
He wasn't on the job long enough to make any enemies.
Maybe it's not about Dom.
Maybe it's about us.
Huh.
We've got enemies.
Lots of them.
So maybe somebody wants to send us a message.
Dom's the easiest one to grab.
I told him.
"Change your routes.
Vary your time table.
Stay alert for tails.
" Sam, what were you gonna do? You gonna pick him up in the morning? Drop him off at the end of the night? He was new.
We were supposed to watch out for him, G.
Dom's phone just came back on.
Audio and video from Dom's phone, waiting on the GPS lock.
What is that? Looks like a hand.
Come on, Eric.
Where is he? ERIC: Triangulating.
It's north.
Maybe in the valley.
No.
Still north.
Santa Clarita? - Private residence.
Valencia.
- Tell Kensi to meet us in the car.
- Clear.
- Clear.
Clear.
Clear.
Clear.
KENSl: Clear.
SAM: No Dom.
We're too late.
Like a makeshift hospital in here.
I hate hospitals.
- No ID.
- Huh.
Shocking.
Whoever put this in hit the vein on the first try.
He's a pro.
A doctor? A nurse? Yeah.
Whoever it was, they tried pretty damn hard to save him.
Not hard enough.
This is Dom's phone.
Why leave the phone behind? SAM: Why not? Took the battery out so we couldn't track it.
Okay.
So this guy comes to, sees the phone, drags himself across the carpet.
Make one last call.
Incomplete.
Yeah.
But he activated the GPS for us.
This IV's got a serial number on it.
Here.
Eric, it's coming to you.
Run it through facial recognition.
Every available database.
These guys try to take Dom, he fights back, one of them gets shot.
Buddies brought him out here to fix him up, but lost too much blood.
IV, bandages, morphine.
Leaving a phone behind.
They didn't leave him here to die.
Wait.
If Dom wounded him before being abducted, it could mean that the blood we found in the car wasn't Dom's.
I like the sound of that.
Let's get it tested.
Keep hope alive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- News, Eric? - Bad and good.
No luck on facial recognition for Mr.
Valencia and Ty couldn't pull any video off the hard drive from Dom's car.
Too much damage to the platter.
That's bad and bad.
Well, there's no video, but I managed to salvage the audio.
Here goes.
[MEN SPEAKING IN SPANISH.]
It's in Spanish.
Grab his arm.
Grab his arm.
Help.
He's getting loose.
I can't hold him.
My gun.
Rafael, wait.
I'm coming in.
[GUNSHOTS ON COMPUTER.]
That's it.
I should've called him.
Made him come with us.
And you know, he never wanted to drive with me.
He said I took too long to get ready.
You listen.
Guilt is the strongest emotion, the most powerful emotion we exhibit.
It's so easy to feel and it's impossible to dismiss.
It's also a strong motivator, but it tends to cloud our judgement.
I'm talking from experience.
Agent Sullivan.
Oh, God.
I don't know how many days I second-guessed myself after we lost him.
Remember that you are a strong woman.
Sometimes it just gets to be too much, you know? Yeah.
Sometimes.
But don't think for a minute that they can do it without us.
It's time to follow this through.
ERIC: Guys, we got a hit.
We got a match on the dead Latino dude.
CALLEN: Frederico Gomez.
Colombian national.
Here come his vitals.
Crap.
They're all in Spanish.
Wanted on multiple charges, kidnapping for hire, prueba de vida, proof of life abduction from Bogotá to Medellin.
Cross-reference for any known associates named Rafael.
The name screamed in Dom's car.
KENSl: Rafael Taro.
Has a brother, Jose.
Let me guess, the Taro brothers make a power trio.
Bigtime.
Looks like the Taro brothers and Frederico were involved in a number of abductions in South America, mostly businessmen snatched for ransom.
This says hermana.
They have a sister.
Yup.
Emigrated to the U.
S.
Seven years ago.
She's a nurse at Valencia Hospital.
Closest hospital to where you found - Frederico Gomez's body.
- I hate hospitals.
Serial numbers from the IV bag trace back to a shipment made to Valencia Hospital.
I hacked into the hospital personnel database.
Their firewall might as well be made of cheese from the hospital cafeteria.
Please tell me Claudia lives nearby.
Better.
She's a critical care nurse.
Works today.
Let's go.
WOMAN: Oh, yeah.
If she doesn't show up for her shift, where the hell is she? Maybe she never left home.
- Eric'll have the address.
CALLEN: I'll call him.
Claudia Taro? You're running.
That means you have something to hide.
That right, Claudia? Where's our friend? I don't know.
I want a lawyer.
You don't need a lawyer.
You need a magician.
It's the only chance of making your prints disappear from the vials of morphine we found at the scene.
Frederico was hurt bad.
He needed to go to the hospital.
But your brothers wouldn't allow that, would they? I knew he wasn't going to make it.
But I thought if I just helped them this one time Well, maybe that'd be it.
That you'd never have to see them again.
I never had anything to do with their business.
I came to L.
A.
To get away from them.
But they don't care.
I'm still the little sister.
They want me back home.
What did they say? Nothing.
Only about a package they had to deliver.
That package is an NCIS agent.
A package that has a family and a name, Claudia.
Who, unlike your brothers, has something to contribute to this world.
- Are you okay? - Fine.
You saw him.
Didn't you? Claudia? What did they do with our friend? You had a choice what to become when you came here.
And you became a nurse.
Now, I'm guessing that's because you wanted to help people.
Wanted to make up for things, things that maybe your brothers did that you had nothing to do with.
Our friend helps people too.
People like you and those that you take care of.
To keep them safe from people like your brothers.
They brought him in with Frederico.
He'd been shot, but it was a minor flesh wound.
I patched him up.
When they left, they took him with them.
That's all I know.
How did they contact you? On my cell.
What time? Around 10 p.
m.
KENSl: Eric? - Give me the love.
- Okay.
Running it now.
Oh, so not feeling the love.
It's a burn phone and no GPS.
Best I can do is get you the nearest cell site.
All right, the call came from the Alameda Corridor near the L.
A.
River.
That's a lot of ground to cover.
Too much ground.
If I had only ridden him harder.
If you'd ridden him any harder, he may have washed out.
SAM: Either way, this wouldn't have happened.
CALLEN: Maybe, maybe not.
SAM: I don't know how you keep a lid on your feelings.
I just focus on the case.
It's not natural, G.
Neither is that.
Heh.
Why you choose to live in this area is yet another Callen mystery.
- The atmosphere stimulates my brain.
- Yeah? Mine's about to explode.
L.
A.
P.
D.
Sent the description of Dom and Taros to all the units in this area.
- Nothing yet.
- No.
With all the gangs and street crime they're dealing with, I wouldn't hold your breath.
The informants won't be of any use.
Taros came up for this job special.
They're not gonna have connections locally.
- At least not on the street level.
- Even if we find where they're keeping him, chances are we have to shoot our way in.
You know the odds of a hostage surviving in a raid like that? - Let's call them.
- And say what? Tell us where you are and give us our friend back alive? Something like that.
[CHUCKLES.]
A swap.
Family ties are strong.
They might just take the risk.
Just gotta get Claudia onboard.
Hmm.
Yeah.
You're asking me to betray my family.
We're asking you to do a good thing.
We're asking you to help us save our friend.
Claudia, if someone was at your hospital, someone hurt really bad who witnessed a crime committed by your brothers, would you help them? Or would you let them die to save your brothers from jail? Please.
MAN [IN SPANISH.]
: Frederico's dead.
Your sister is alive.
For now.
Who is this? Doesn't matter.
[IN SPANISH.]
What do you want? A trade.
Let me talk to her.
Raffie? [IN SPANISH.]
Claudia.
Claudita.
[SPEAKING IN SPANISH.]
Here's the deal, Raffie.
If you wanna see your sister back home safe and sound, you meet me in two hours at the No.
We do this my way or we don't do this at all.
I'm waiting, Raffie.
There's an abandoned hospital on Soto, south of 9th.
There's a boiler room in the southeast corner.
Be there in one hour.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It was a community hospital that shut down five years ago.
It's been vacant ever since.
Boiler room is in the basement.
It's 50 feet across, ceiling is 25 high.
Accessibility? One door on the ground floor, which is where you will enter.
And there's a staircase that leads you to the boiler room floor below.
To the north, there's a hallway that leads to the basement.
Now, the building is six storeys high and three storeys below ground.
A warren of corridors and rooms.
Lots of places to hide.
Lots.
- Visibility? - DWP indicate minimal activity.
My guess would be few low-wattage maintenance fixtures.
- Windows? - Ten-foot high industrials, east side.
There might be enough illumination from the moonlight to make out figures, but not much else.
Their turf, their staging, their lighting in a little over 30 minutes.
- Not good.
- Very not good.
What we need is a satellite.
With high resolution optical stabilizers and infrared.
I'll make a phone call.
Is there anything else? Uh, luck.
A little luck.
I'll see what I can do.
CALLEN: Kensi, we're gonna need Claudia.
In position, Eric.
Which way in? All right, satellite's online.
I have one heat signature inside the boiler room.
Only one? It's a huge complex.
Three subterranean layers, lots of concrete, protective shields in X-ray rooms.
Dom could be anywhere.
And so could the other Taro brother.
I'm going in.
Raffie? I'm here.
Come down.
Steps.
Where's my friend? RAFAEL [OVER RADIO.]
: Some place safe.
Keep coming.
- Where are you? - Move to the far end of the room.
Stop.
I delivered my part.
Where's my friend? Someplace safe.
Let her go.
Or he's not gonna be safe much longer.
Sam, I have another heat signature west of the boiler room.
It's weak.
Possibly hostile, probably subterranean.
SAM: Okay.
Which way in? The courtyard.
There's a bathroom window.
It's the fifth window in.
- He's not gonna get to Jose in time.
- He'll make it.
Come on now.
Sam, he just turned east.
There's no way east.
There's only a stairway down.
ERIC: Heat signatures don't show elevation.
He could've gone down to go east.
Take it.
Eric, where is he? He should be right there.
He's ten feet away.
I got nothing.
Must be on a different level.
Wherever.
He's headed for the boiler room.
Take the hallway to your right.
Go fast.
He's on the move, Sam.
Headed north.
You're not getting anything till I see my buddy.
Why is that heat signature stronger than the other one? Not stronger by much, but it could be closer to the satellite.
Which means he could be Sam, he's right above Callen.
Put the gun down! Put it down! ERIC: Go! Go! Take off the hood.
SAM: Buy me a little time, G.
I didn't think you'd be bringing Claudia.
What are you? FBI? You're L.
A.
P.
D.
NCIS.
I just wanna know what name to put on the tombstone.
Diversion in three, two, one.
Cover me.
[GRUNTING.]
Where is he, Raffie? Where is he? I want a deal.
What do you want, Raffie? Not for me.
For Claudia.
You don't take her in.
You don't put nothing on her record.
You never even met her.
You have my word.
She walks.
Your friend is in San Bernardino.
Hook Creek Road.
There's a blue van.
We took the money.
We left him inside.
Why did they want him? I don't know.
I never saw them.
L I never met them.
Sam, Kensi.
Go.
At the end of the day, we all deal with things in our own way, don't we? Good night, Mr.
Callen.
: That's our programme.
Thanks for tuning into Jazz on Starry Night.
[STATIC ON RADIO.]
MAN [ON RADIO.]
: Sigalert from earlier this evening [STATIC ON RADIO.]
[FLAMENCO MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO.]
[MAN SHOUTING IN SPANISH.]
[MEN SHOUTING AND GRUNTING.]
Rafael! [STATIC ON RADIO.]
[SOUL MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO.]
- You can't sing both parts of a duet.
- Says who? Not in a competition.
That sounds like second place talking.
I was clearly the better performer last night.
You can ask Kensi, Hetty, Nate, Eric.
Come on, man.
They saw it with their own ears.
Well, a table of impartial observers would beg to differ.
Those women were seriously hammered.
And you let them vote.
"To All the Girls I've Loved Before" is a karaoke classic.
I just made it my own.
And my fans clearly appreciated the effort.
You held your nose during Willie Nelson's parts.
[IN NASAL VOICE.]
That was very original.
"My Funny Valentine?" What, are you kidding me? No.
I hear that's in heavy rotation at the senior's centre.
It's a jazz standard.
Huh.
Just be glad you're not Nate.
Julio, Willie.
Valentine.
- Hetty here yet? SAM: No.
But Backstreet's back.
Ha! - Ha.
- Ha-ha-ha.
- Is there any coffee? - Yeah.
Nate, friends do not let friends sing boy bands.
Mm.
Who has an extra pencil? Are you sure you're not still drunk? Maybe.
Anyone know how long this, uh, seminar thing is supposed to go? Last year was six and a half hours before the first bathroom break.
Oh, my God.
KENSl: Has anyone seen Dom? No, but that's one way to avoid a hangover.
- Don't show up for karaoke.
- Yeah.
Don't show up for work.
Thirty seconds, he's gonna be rookie meat.
Your watch is slow, Mr.
Callen.
NATE: Bravo.
KENSl: Hetty, all right.
ERIC: Wow.
The crowd goes wild.
- Oh.
"Wanted Dead or Alive.
" An inspired choice, Hetty.
Well, there's no magic quite like the quixotic combination of the Messrs.
, cognac and Bon Jovi.
[LAUGHS.]
But given our various states of post inebriation, I will waste no time in welcoming each and almost every one of you to our mandated annual workplace safety evaluation.
Where is Mr.
Vail? I just called him and it went straight to voicemail.
Huh.
He didn't get the memo? Maybe we should postpone this until we're all here.
Oh, no.
I'll prepare a make-up session especially for Dom.
Have no fear.
It will consume his entire weekend.
Number two pencils.
The tools of ignorance.
Let's open our books to page one.
And begin.
[PHONE BEEPS.]
- Sorry.
Off.
- Mm-hm.
"A safe work environment is not just a goal" [PHONE RINGS.]
That's me.
Sorry.
Phaser's on stun.
Does the word "vibrate" mean anything to you people? [PHONE RINGS.]
If you're behind this, Mr.
Beale What? Ugh.
It wasn't me.
Pinky promise.
[PHONE RINGS.]
Oh, lord.
It's an Agent Needs Assistance alert.
It's coming from Dom's phone.
Let's find him.
Broadcast for 15 seconds and then it stopped.
NATE: Maybe he pocket-dialled it? - There's almost no chance that Dom's specific four-digit sequence got entered accidentally.
Had to happen twice.
Sender has to enter the same code to turn it off.
Straight to voicemail first ring.
So the alert got turned off and so did his phone.
Turn it back on.
Mm-mm, it's not responding.
Battery is either dead or taken out.
What about a GPS log? Wasn't broadcast long enough.
I can't get a position.
Dom's home phone is not answering either.
What about the GPS in his car? ERIC: All right, I got it.
Just south of downtown.
An alley off 18th and Santa Fe.
OFFICER: No, it's their jurisdiction, okay? KENSl: What the heck was Dom doing down here? It's his usual shortcut.
He takes the alley to avoid the long light at Santa Fe.
Ugh.
Oh, my God.
OFFICER: Hang on a second, I'll be right there.
ERIC [OVER PHONE.]
: Hit me up, G.
- Eric, check for traffic cameras in the alley, this parking lot, anywhere nearby, okay? See if there was anyone tailing Dom.
Looking now.
This is just how we found it about 45 minutes ago.
No body.
IPod, cash, house keys, laptop still here.
This wasn't a robbery.
Did anybody see anything? No witnesses at all.
That's not surprising, though.
This part of town's no man's land till rush hour kicks in around 7.
A guy stopped at a light on 18th, called it in.
Bullet holes have a raised edge from the outside.
Shots came from inside the car.
There's a lot of blood and a lot of glass.
Okay.
So Dom comes through here, he stops for some reason.
Somebody sneaks up, smashes the driver's window.
Second assailant smashes the passenger-side window, forces his way in, throws it in park, they struggle.
Bang, bang, bang.
SAM: He's been here a few months? [PHONE RINGS.]
What does he know about shortcuts? - Yeah? - There are traffic cams at every intersection downtown.
Near your alley and in the parking lot, no video at all.
Cameras everywhere on Dom's route, but this spot.
Is he taking the short cut to and from work? - The car is pointed east.
- That means he was headed home.
Well, in that case, this happened last night.
Then why did we get an assistance call this morning? Dom must've gotten his phone this morning, even for a second.
Something went wrong when they took him Bad guys got sidetracked somehow.
Guys, onboard camera was activated.
Hard drive has a bullet hole in it, though.
Techs might still be able to pull some footage off it.
KENSl: You know what? No one bleeds this much and survives.
Ty, could you look at this? Oh.
Poor little fella.
Who'd wanna shoot you? You talk to your computer parts? Do you talk to your plants when you water them? Just my orchids, but they can be tricky.
Look, hard drives are like people, okay? Take one to the casing and it's like getting shot in the butt.
Hurts, but probably not gonna kill you.
But take one to the platter, like It's like getting shot through the heart.
Wait.
Is this from Dom's car? Yeah.
He's supposed to bring in a cooling fan from an old G4 tower today.
We're building a PC together.
Rule is spare parts only.
He's a pretty good geek, you know, for an agent.
Just see what you can get off it.
NATE: As far as Dom's demeanour is concerned, I noticed nothing unusual in the past few days.
And what about his laptop? From what we can tell, untouched.
That's not surprising.
Dom's a stickler for security.
- What about witnesses? - There's no witnesses, Hetty.
Why did this happen? I mean, why Dom? Right now, we have no idea.
Okay, FBI, DEA and ICE they've all called to offer their help.
Work them.
Cross-reference threats to their agents.
See if there have been any similar abductions.
Do whatever you have to do to find him.
By whatever means necessary.
- You ever been here before? - No.
Me neither.
Hey, it's not unusual to wait a considerable period of time before visiting the residence of a colleague, okay? Okay.
Dom went straight from college at MIT to training at FLETC to us.
A guy in a hurry to get his life started.
You know, he told me he was so excited to come to L.
A.
That he didn't even stop at his folk's place to pick up his stuff.
We really never got to know him.
Nate.
Don't go there.
Sorry.
I didn't mean it like that.
So who calls to tell them that he's missing? Maybe the director.
Maybe Hetty.
I've never had to make one of those calls before.
He didn't come home last night.
Why two monitors? Uh Internet? Game console.
KENSl: Dom tapped into the parking garage security system.
Building's got cameras.
All his e-mails ran through the secure server at NCIS.
Nothing suspicious here.
No indication that he thought anyone was targeting him.
What about his personal stuff? His browser.
Go through his history.
You wanna do this? No.
It's gadget blogs, news sites, tech reviews and Doesn't even clear his cache.
We don't all need private browsing.
He hasn't been around long enough to make enemies, Sam.
So, what are you saying? - It was random? - Maybe.
I mean, bad things happen in this town.
Wrong place? Wrong time? Come on, G.
Well, he's a kid.
Driving down an alley in a bad part of town.
- It's as good as anything we've got.
- Which is a lot of nothing.
You know as well as I do no one gets snatched up for nothing.
We got something.
So we've got three cameras in the parking garage, all Internet enabled.
Four-digit password, eminently hackable.
Well, how far can you go back? Uh, well, the DVR they're connected to records continuously for five days and then resets.
So we've got one, two, three angles.
And here's Dom's car.
Coming and going lots of times.
- When's this from? - Um, last week.
And that one? Yesterday.
Why? Put them both on the screen for me, side by side.
New camera.
And it's mounted right above Dom's parking spot.
Where's the footage from that camera? There isn't any.
It's not connected to the building's system.
But if that is new, the other should have footage of who put it up.
KENSl: That's not Dom.
- It's from two days ago.
Shoulders are hunched, tense.
His body language definitely suggests he's conscious of being watched.
The installer knew other cameras were there.
His face is hidden intentionally.
Why not disable other cameras if you're worried about being seen? Shut down three video feeds, someone from the office is gonna check.
Okay, see that antenna? The new camera's wireless.
It's designed to be monitored from a laptop nearby.
KENSl: The image isn't clear.
Is this good enough to run through facial recognition? - Doubt it.
- Do it anyway.
You and me set up on a target to run surveillance.
How long? Two to three weeks to chart a guy's habits, patterns.
Minimum.
Dom gets snatched up two days after that camera gets installed? All right.
It all came together quickly.
What is your point? Pros are deliberate.
Whoever did this was obviously professional.
Why would they break operational security? Well, maybe they paid a premium to get this done quickly.
Why Dom? He's a rookie.
He's never been with any agency other than NCIS.
You said it.
He wasn't on the job long enough to make any enemies.
Maybe it's not about Dom.
Maybe it's about us.
Huh.
We've got enemies.
Lots of them.
So maybe somebody wants to send us a message.
Dom's the easiest one to grab.
I told him.
"Change your routes.
Vary your time table.
Stay alert for tails.
" Sam, what were you gonna do? You gonna pick him up in the morning? Drop him off at the end of the night? He was new.
We were supposed to watch out for him, G.
Dom's phone just came back on.
Audio and video from Dom's phone, waiting on the GPS lock.
What is that? Looks like a hand.
Come on, Eric.
Where is he? ERIC: Triangulating.
It's north.
Maybe in the valley.
No.
Still north.
Santa Clarita? - Private residence.
Valencia.
- Tell Kensi to meet us in the car.
- Clear.
- Clear.
Clear.
Clear.
Clear.
KENSl: Clear.
SAM: No Dom.
We're too late.
Like a makeshift hospital in here.
I hate hospitals.
- No ID.
- Huh.
Shocking.
Whoever put this in hit the vein on the first try.
He's a pro.
A doctor? A nurse? Yeah.
Whoever it was, they tried pretty damn hard to save him.
Not hard enough.
This is Dom's phone.
Why leave the phone behind? SAM: Why not? Took the battery out so we couldn't track it.
Okay.
So this guy comes to, sees the phone, drags himself across the carpet.
Make one last call.
Incomplete.
Yeah.
But he activated the GPS for us.
This IV's got a serial number on it.
Here.
Eric, it's coming to you.
Run it through facial recognition.
Every available database.
These guys try to take Dom, he fights back, one of them gets shot.
Buddies brought him out here to fix him up, but lost too much blood.
IV, bandages, morphine.
Leaving a phone behind.
They didn't leave him here to die.
Wait.
If Dom wounded him before being abducted, it could mean that the blood we found in the car wasn't Dom's.
I like the sound of that.
Let's get it tested.
Keep hope alive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- News, Eric? - Bad and good.
No luck on facial recognition for Mr.
Valencia and Ty couldn't pull any video off the hard drive from Dom's car.
Too much damage to the platter.
That's bad and bad.
Well, there's no video, but I managed to salvage the audio.
Here goes.
[MEN SPEAKING IN SPANISH.]
It's in Spanish.
Grab his arm.
Grab his arm.
Help.
He's getting loose.
I can't hold him.
My gun.
Rafael, wait.
I'm coming in.
[GUNSHOTS ON COMPUTER.]
That's it.
I should've called him.
Made him come with us.
And you know, he never wanted to drive with me.
He said I took too long to get ready.
You listen.
Guilt is the strongest emotion, the most powerful emotion we exhibit.
It's so easy to feel and it's impossible to dismiss.
It's also a strong motivator, but it tends to cloud our judgement.
I'm talking from experience.
Agent Sullivan.
Oh, God.
I don't know how many days I second-guessed myself after we lost him.
Remember that you are a strong woman.
Sometimes it just gets to be too much, you know? Yeah.
Sometimes.
But don't think for a minute that they can do it without us.
It's time to follow this through.
ERIC: Guys, we got a hit.
We got a match on the dead Latino dude.
CALLEN: Frederico Gomez.
Colombian national.
Here come his vitals.
Crap.
They're all in Spanish.
Wanted on multiple charges, kidnapping for hire, prueba de vida, proof of life abduction from Bogotá to Medellin.
Cross-reference for any known associates named Rafael.
The name screamed in Dom's car.
KENSl: Rafael Taro.
Has a brother, Jose.
Let me guess, the Taro brothers make a power trio.
Bigtime.
Looks like the Taro brothers and Frederico were involved in a number of abductions in South America, mostly businessmen snatched for ransom.
This says hermana.
They have a sister.
Yup.
Emigrated to the U.
S.
Seven years ago.
She's a nurse at Valencia Hospital.
Closest hospital to where you found - Frederico Gomez's body.
- I hate hospitals.
Serial numbers from the IV bag trace back to a shipment made to Valencia Hospital.
I hacked into the hospital personnel database.
Their firewall might as well be made of cheese from the hospital cafeteria.
Please tell me Claudia lives nearby.
Better.
She's a critical care nurse.
Works today.
Let's go.
WOMAN: Oh, yeah.
If she doesn't show up for her shift, where the hell is she? Maybe she never left home.
- Eric'll have the address.
CALLEN: I'll call him.
Claudia Taro? You're running.
That means you have something to hide.
That right, Claudia? Where's our friend? I don't know.
I want a lawyer.
You don't need a lawyer.
You need a magician.
It's the only chance of making your prints disappear from the vials of morphine we found at the scene.
Frederico was hurt bad.
He needed to go to the hospital.
But your brothers wouldn't allow that, would they? I knew he wasn't going to make it.
But I thought if I just helped them this one time Well, maybe that'd be it.
That you'd never have to see them again.
I never had anything to do with their business.
I came to L.
A.
To get away from them.
But they don't care.
I'm still the little sister.
They want me back home.
What did they say? Nothing.
Only about a package they had to deliver.
That package is an NCIS agent.
A package that has a family and a name, Claudia.
Who, unlike your brothers, has something to contribute to this world.
- Are you okay? - Fine.
You saw him.
Didn't you? Claudia? What did they do with our friend? You had a choice what to become when you came here.
And you became a nurse.
Now, I'm guessing that's because you wanted to help people.
Wanted to make up for things, things that maybe your brothers did that you had nothing to do with.
Our friend helps people too.
People like you and those that you take care of.
To keep them safe from people like your brothers.
They brought him in with Frederico.
He'd been shot, but it was a minor flesh wound.
I patched him up.
When they left, they took him with them.
That's all I know.
How did they contact you? On my cell.
What time? Around 10 p.
m.
KENSl: Eric? - Give me the love.
- Okay.
Running it now.
Oh, so not feeling the love.
It's a burn phone and no GPS.
Best I can do is get you the nearest cell site.
All right, the call came from the Alameda Corridor near the L.
A.
River.
That's a lot of ground to cover.
Too much ground.
If I had only ridden him harder.
If you'd ridden him any harder, he may have washed out.
SAM: Either way, this wouldn't have happened.
CALLEN: Maybe, maybe not.
SAM: I don't know how you keep a lid on your feelings.
I just focus on the case.
It's not natural, G.
Neither is that.
Heh.
Why you choose to live in this area is yet another Callen mystery.
- The atmosphere stimulates my brain.
- Yeah? Mine's about to explode.
L.
A.
P.
D.
Sent the description of Dom and Taros to all the units in this area.
- Nothing yet.
- No.
With all the gangs and street crime they're dealing with, I wouldn't hold your breath.
The informants won't be of any use.
Taros came up for this job special.
They're not gonna have connections locally.
- At least not on the street level.
- Even if we find where they're keeping him, chances are we have to shoot our way in.
You know the odds of a hostage surviving in a raid like that? - Let's call them.
- And say what? Tell us where you are and give us our friend back alive? Something like that.
[CHUCKLES.]
A swap.
Family ties are strong.
They might just take the risk.
Just gotta get Claudia onboard.
Hmm.
Yeah.
You're asking me to betray my family.
We're asking you to do a good thing.
We're asking you to help us save our friend.
Claudia, if someone was at your hospital, someone hurt really bad who witnessed a crime committed by your brothers, would you help them? Or would you let them die to save your brothers from jail? Please.
MAN [IN SPANISH.]
: Frederico's dead.
Your sister is alive.
For now.
Who is this? Doesn't matter.
[IN SPANISH.]
What do you want? A trade.
Let me talk to her.
Raffie? [IN SPANISH.]
Claudia.
Claudita.
[SPEAKING IN SPANISH.]
Here's the deal, Raffie.
If you wanna see your sister back home safe and sound, you meet me in two hours at the No.
We do this my way or we don't do this at all.
I'm waiting, Raffie.
There's an abandoned hospital on Soto, south of 9th.
There's a boiler room in the southeast corner.
Be there in one hour.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It was a community hospital that shut down five years ago.
It's been vacant ever since.
Boiler room is in the basement.
It's 50 feet across, ceiling is 25 high.
Accessibility? One door on the ground floor, which is where you will enter.
And there's a staircase that leads you to the boiler room floor below.
To the north, there's a hallway that leads to the basement.
Now, the building is six storeys high and three storeys below ground.
A warren of corridors and rooms.
Lots of places to hide.
Lots.
- Visibility? - DWP indicate minimal activity.
My guess would be few low-wattage maintenance fixtures.
- Windows? - Ten-foot high industrials, east side.
There might be enough illumination from the moonlight to make out figures, but not much else.
Their turf, their staging, their lighting in a little over 30 minutes.
- Not good.
- Very not good.
What we need is a satellite.
With high resolution optical stabilizers and infrared.
I'll make a phone call.
Is there anything else? Uh, luck.
A little luck.
I'll see what I can do.
CALLEN: Kensi, we're gonna need Claudia.
In position, Eric.
Which way in? All right, satellite's online.
I have one heat signature inside the boiler room.
Only one? It's a huge complex.
Three subterranean layers, lots of concrete, protective shields in X-ray rooms.
Dom could be anywhere.
And so could the other Taro brother.
I'm going in.
Raffie? I'm here.
Come down.
Steps.
Where's my friend? RAFAEL [OVER RADIO.]
: Some place safe.
Keep coming.
- Where are you? - Move to the far end of the room.
Stop.
I delivered my part.
Where's my friend? Someplace safe.
Let her go.
Or he's not gonna be safe much longer.
Sam, I have another heat signature west of the boiler room.
It's weak.
Possibly hostile, probably subterranean.
SAM: Okay.
Which way in? The courtyard.
There's a bathroom window.
It's the fifth window in.
- He's not gonna get to Jose in time.
- He'll make it.
Come on now.
Sam, he just turned east.
There's no way east.
There's only a stairway down.
ERIC: Heat signatures don't show elevation.
He could've gone down to go east.
Take it.
Eric, where is he? He should be right there.
He's ten feet away.
I got nothing.
Must be on a different level.
Wherever.
He's headed for the boiler room.
Take the hallway to your right.
Go fast.
He's on the move, Sam.
Headed north.
You're not getting anything till I see my buddy.
Why is that heat signature stronger than the other one? Not stronger by much, but it could be closer to the satellite.
Which means he could be Sam, he's right above Callen.
Put the gun down! Put it down! ERIC: Go! Go! Take off the hood.
SAM: Buy me a little time, G.
I didn't think you'd be bringing Claudia.
What are you? FBI? You're L.
A.
P.
D.
NCIS.
I just wanna know what name to put on the tombstone.
Diversion in three, two, one.
Cover me.
[GRUNTING.]
Where is he, Raffie? Where is he? I want a deal.
What do you want, Raffie? Not for me.
For Claudia.
You don't take her in.
You don't put nothing on her record.
You never even met her.
You have my word.
She walks.
Your friend is in San Bernardino.
Hook Creek Road.
There's a blue van.
We took the money.
We left him inside.
Why did they want him? I don't know.
I never saw them.
L I never met them.
Sam, Kensi.
Go.
At the end of the day, we all deal with things in our own way, don't we? Good night, Mr.
Callen.