Bolthole

Bolthole is an NCIS: Los Angeles novel written by Jeff Mariotte.
==Synopsis==
In a division of NCIS that is charged with apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals that pose a threat to the nation's security, this team of highly trained agents put their lives on the line in the field to bring down their targets. When a Navy counsellor paying a home visit to a former Navy SEAL finds him inside his house, tortured and murdered, NCIS is called in to investigate. Meanwhile, a bank hold-up goes bad downtown and an LAPD officer is shot. The cop is a friend of Deeks's, but a trace on the getaway vehicle shows no connection between the crimes-until NCIS digs deeper.
==Plot==
In February 2007, in Ramadi, Iraq, Lieutenant Kelly Martin and Leading Petty Officer Bobby Sanchez are part of a team searching for an Al-Qeada sniper who's been targeting American troops as well as the Iraqi Army troops. 
Raiding the house, they find the sniper in question along with his two brothers and a distant cousin and in the resulting gunfight, all the inhabitants are killed with Martin and Sanchez shooting them dead.
As soon as that's done, a search begins with IEDs, cellphones rigged to set off IEDs, guns, ammo and a laptop being uncovered in the process.
After setting a charge in the house that will not destroy the house but the entire building in the process, Martin and Sanchez then leave the house, arriving a mile away, near the edge of the Ma'Laab where one of them sets the charge off. They hear the explosion and watch as fire reaches the night sky.
Upon hearing gunfire elsewhere, the two SEALs race across Easy Street and soon arrive at a building that has ties with Ramadi's University of Anbar.
They soon come across four Americans who are private security contractors, the group surrounded by the bodies of seven dead Iraqis with two bodies wearing khaki uniforms.
As the two approach, one man raises his weapon but quickly lowers it upon seeing who it is. 
Martin feels uncomfortable with the man's presence as his green eyes which spark with an inner fire give Martin the impression the man in question is someone who's just killed several people and wishes there were more.
When Martin asks what's happened, the contractor tells him they were driving in from OP Virginia and they delivered some supplies out there. They came around the corner and were ambushed before stating the group were waiting for the contractors to come around the corner before they began shooting.
However, the man's story is thrown into question when Martin notes the truck which is neatly parked twenty yards from the bodies appears to have no damage on it whatsoever.
Despite Martin offering the help, the contractor dismisses it.
Returning to his quarters some time later, Martin then falls asleep, wondering what might be learnt from the laptop they retrieved from the sniper's house.
Years later, on June 9, NCIS Special Agents G. Callen and Sam Hanna are heading towards a crime scene with the two discussing stuff. 
After some bantering, they arrive at a modest California bungalow which has an LAPD cruiser in the driveway and an unmarked unit in the yard.
Upon exiting the Dodge Challenger, the two approach the house, meeting an unnamed LAPD uniformed officer who's at the top of the three stairs and is also keeping a list of personnel being let into the crime scene.
After some confusion about Callen and Sam's arrival, the cop, discovering they're assigned to the NCIS Office of Special Projects, the officer grants them access, writing them down as "OSP", something Sam appreciates on a more personal level as he is a former Navy SEAL.
Heading into the house, the two agents take a quick glimpse at the inside of the house before they meet LAPD Detectives Sabrina Melloy and Mikey Jackson.
Even though Melloy is pleased to see them, Jackson isn't.
Despite this, Callen and Sam examine the body of Bobby Sanchez who's lying on the floor, dead, his body also showing signs of torture as all his fingers are broken, his two thumbs have been cut off, his jaw is shattered and his left eye has been gouged from its socket with his skin also displaying various cuts with his arms and legs also bound by nylon rope.
As they leave to head outside to talk to the detectives who have moved outside, Sam silently thinks he's not glad not to be looking at Sanchez's body anymore although he knows the image will stay with him forever.
Outside the house, Callen and Sam talk with Melloy and Jackson, learning that Sanchez's Jim Hawthorne was the one who found the body as Hawthorne who had an early appointment with Sanchez noted that no-one answered when he arrived, prompting Hawthorne to walk around the back and the kitchen door was ajar so he went in.
Callen wants to talk Hawthorne as this is NCIS's investigation, something that pisses off Jackson as he begins telling them that the feds come in and step all over the locals...
Melloy stops Jackson's ranting by vouching for Callen and Sam, informing her partner they're not the Bureau and having worked with them before, she knows they're OK.
Furthermore, Callen tells the two LAPD detectives they'll be involved and their personnel can process the scene but NCIS is to get the full data- not just the conclusion, something Jackson agrees with
Melloy grumpily adds they're all on the same side and they should try to act like it with Jackson grumpily noting he will, if Callen and Sam do with Callen giving Jackson his word.
A while later, Callen and Sam at the Boatshed, interviewing Hawthorne who insists he's already told the LAPD everything he knows and about ten times, Callen noting Hawthorne's glasses remind him of John Lennon, the Beatle who'd been shot and that Hawthorne is fifty-two years old.
Hawthorne reveals he has an appointment for Sanchez at seven-thirty and tries to keep the reasons for seeing him confidential although Sam reminds him a Navy SEAL was tortured and murdered.
Eventually, Hawthorne relents and informs the two he was treating Sanchez for PTSD due to the fact that Sanchez saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, amongst other places and that during his appointments, Sanchez was on edge, barely sleeping and was even on edge, startled by sudden, loud noises as well as being borderline paranoid. Sanchez also liked to sit with his back to the wall and checked out the windows a lot before Hawthorne reveals the details that led him to arriving at the house and finding Sanchez's body. 
As the interview with Hawthorne, Callen has an easy feeling that tells him Sanchez's death is the beginning of something, not the end and that anything that started bad was only going to get worse.
At OSP, NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye and LAPD Detective Marty Deeks who is also the liaison between LAPD and NCIS are discussing superheroes when they're interrupted by Operations Manager Henrietta Lange who wants the two to join her upstairs.
Arriving into the Operations Centre of OSP, the talk ends when a video appears on the screens in the room showing an incident occurring at the Certified National Bank in Malibu that shows a bank robbery taking place as three women and two men enter the bank and proceed to rob the bank before fleeing with presumably bags of money.
Continuing to watch the footage, the group flee the bank and target two pair officers hiding behind their squad car with one of the officers being shot before the video ends.
Deeks reveals the man who got shot is Officer Anthony Scarletti whose father, Tony Senior was one of Deeks's training officers and that Tony Senior died after a drunk driver plowed into him while Tony Senior was returning to his car after giving a motorist a verbal warning with Hetty revealing Tony Junior is in surgery.
As Kensi tells Deeks she's sorry, Hetty informs the two the vehicle the group used to escape is registered to a man named Mitchell Bostic who's from El Paso, Texas. She also states that the investigation is in the hands of both the LAPD and the FBI before telling them that one doesn't shoot a police officer in LA and expect to get away with it.
Some time later, after Hetty has ordered the footage to be released to the public, Deeks receives a phone call from fellow LAPD Detective Chris Gilpin who asks him to meet with a possible witness with Deeks agreeing to do so before he hangs up and tells Kensi to accompany her to the Boatshed with Kensi agreeing to do so, on the condition that Deeks later buys her a good dinner.
At the Boatshed, Deeks and Kensi meet Gilpin who in Deeks's opinion has changed or grayed since the two last met. He introduces them to a young woman named Julianne Mercer who informs them that the name Mitch Bostic doesn't exist with Mercer revealing Bostic's real name is Kelly Martin.
Following the meeting, Deeks calls Sam to inform him of what's going on despite Sam revealing he's on his way home to see his family with Sam relenting and telling Deeks he'll contact Callen and the two will meet them at the Boatshed in twenty minutes.
A further interview with Mercer has Kensi noting the other woman looks terrified and that whatever her boyfriend, Kelly is mixed up in is not good.
Thanks to digging from Eric Beale and Nell Jones, Martin's vehicle is discovered at Hollywood and Western but when they bring Mercer to see Martin, Eric informs them via their earwigs, Mercer is a hostile just as Mercer attempts to kill Martin with a gun, forcing Callen to shoot her dead.
With Mercer down, Callen and the team take Martin into custody, Callen even going so far as to show Martin his NCIS badge after Martin demands proof.
In Ops, Eric and Nell are still digging and learn that Mercer was an alias and that she's had numerous false identities over the years although she's never been charged due to her escaping the charges thanks to her having an affair with the older district attorney tasked with prosecuting her. 
As the investigation progresses, the team find their leads drying up as all the suspects have disappeared with their respective flats being so cleaned there's no trace of anyone living there and one lead has Callen and Sam discovering their suspect's belongings are being sent to China.
With no other options, Callen goes undercover, befriending Russian national Slava Belyakov in hopes of gaining information on a tablet that four men along with Mercer/Susan Peabody had smuggled out of the country and were planning on selling to the highest bidder. 
Meanwhile, Owen Granger is bringing some horses to safety, the horses belonging to a woman named Stacy Quan whose father had saved Granger's life in Da Nang back in 1978 as Granger had been in the process of extricating Nguyen Bao, a South Vietnamese scientist who'd been helpful to the Americans during the war along with Quan Huong who'd been an agent of South Vietnam's intelligence service who'd left the country along with his wife but Huong had volunteered to go back for Bao and his presence had made a difference between freeing the scientist who had been suffering from beriberi and was a shadow of his former self and the mission itself failing with the three escaping the country together, resulting in Granger's debt to Quan being a lifelong thing.
Upon arriving in the States, Quan had become Huong Quan instead of Quan Huong and had three children: Stacey, Jack and James. With Stacy and her elderly father in Vietnam, Granger has been tasked with removing her horses who are in Coldwater Canyon.
After learning that the route he planned to take has been blocked off, Granger goes a different route, noting he still has a long way to go.
The undercover operation then begins at Top & Tails, a gentleman's club in Los Angeles County with Sam posing as a bouncer, Callen a businessman and Kensi and Deeks as a couple.
Thanks to a fight Deeks starts, Sam manages to get Belyakov and his men to the managers where one of Belyakov's bodyguards is arrested for having a concealed gun which gives Callen an opportunity to personally talk to Belyakov. 
Once the party has ended, the group along with Callen head to Belyakov's house while Sam heads back to the Boatshed to keep an eye on Martin and get some sleep.
The next morning, as the operation continues, Sam who's keeping an eye finds himself nearly in trouble when two LAPD officers arrive to check on him although they get the message to back off and spare Sam as well as Kensi and Deeks who are nearby from any trouble that would expose them and put Callen's life in danger.
During the stakeout, Kensi receives a phone call from Betsy Peabody who informs her that there's a cabin belonging in the Shogren family in the hills with Kensi telling her to meet herself and Deeks at the intersection of Sunset and Barrington where there's a Subway and an Itlian restaurant with the meeting due to occur in forty minutes.
In the hills, Granger is working on getting Stacey's horses to safety.
The meeting ends badly, though due to Yegor outing Callen, resulting in a gunfight that leaves Belyakov and his men either dead or injured while Shogren escapes.
Worse still, Shogren has taken Betsy Peabody as a hostage, leaving her husband, Hugh behind.
After Sam has paid Martin another visit at the boatshed, he and Callen arrive at Merill & Sons where Calvin Meadows gives them an insight into Shogren's personality with it also being revealed that Meadows is working on two shows called "Bionics" and "Homeward Bound" with Bionics having earned him a possible Emmy nomination.
Kensi and Deeks soon get into a helicopter and begin searching for a sign as to where Shogren has taken Betsy Peabody although the search is hampered by the raging fires, forcing the pilot to call off the search altogether.
Granger soon approaches the area where Kensi throws something and discovers it contains a satellite phone along with the message, "You never call". He contacts Hetty and informs her about the horses with Hetty informing him about the developments about the case and asking him to keep an eye for Shogren and Betsy Peabody before they both hang up.
As Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks begin searching for Shogren, Martin, wanting to avenge Sanchez's murder escapes the Boatshed and sets off to find Shogren himself.
Eventually, Betsy Peabody decides to flee by sending hot grease at Shogren and when he's distracted, she escapes with Martin taking care of her. 
Leaving Betsy Peabody in the custody of Martin who Sam orders to bring Betsy back to the truck and stay there, Callen and Sam head towards the house, ready to take down Shogren with Granger arriving to help arrest Shogren who he also shoots to prevent the disgraced ex-Army Ranger from escaping.
With Shogren injured, Sam takes him into custody.
At Ops, with the group reunited, Martin and Hetty meet each other in person although he ran her people ragged. She also tells Martin she had a conversation with the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command at Coronado who'd be delighted to welcome Martin back at his parting rank and failing to do that, the Commander would like Martin as a new training officer although Sam notes he was going to keelhaul Martin, presumably for disobeying him. 
Once the talk's over, Hetty tells Kensi and Deeks to go home and stay here before she tells the group, "Thank you all for your service. Your co-workers appreciate it, your nation appreciates it and I appreciate it" while adding that they all know Hetty's own praise is what's most important.
==Trivia==
*The events in this novel presumably take place some time after the NCIS: Los Angeles Season 7 episode, Matryoshka Part 2 (episode) as it's revealed that Callen has only just recently discovered his real name.
*Through the novel, everyone mistakenly calls Deeks an agent although it's clearly revealed that he's still a Detective with the LAPD and a liaison between LAPD and NCIS.
Category:NCIS: Los Angeles Novels